Dont Work Rudderless - Develop An Email Marketing Plan

Without an email marketing plan, you could well end up waiting for the prospective customer to find your site by accident. Or you could send out so many untargeted emails that you are simple classified as a spammer and all your mails end up in the trash can of cyberspace. An effective email marketing plan is the first step in your path to entrepreneurial success.

Think Like Your Customers

To develop an email marketing plan, think from the point of view of the prospective customer. If you were a subscriber on your own list, what information would you like to see? How much of that information can you give away to your customers at no cost? How often would you contact your contacts? How do you establish your credibility? These are just some of the essential features of an email marketing plan.

The low start up costs of an Internet business are often more than compensated by the long time it takes you to build credibility with a customer who you cant interact with personally and who may be living across the globe in a culture where the value system is very different from yours. Many customers are still very reluctant to part with their money for something they cant touch and see. It is also a fact that there is no shortage of frauds on the net that are simply waiting to make a fast buck. In this context, building credibility becomes an essential part of an email marketing plan.

Use Automation Sensibly

Using automated tools is essential to an email marketing plan because any good business soon collects so many email IDs that keeping track of your contacts becomes a database management task of such magnitude that you can either do that or run your business. Most auto-responders handle the initial contact emails well. Routine orders can also be handled by software. You only need to intervene for exceptions. But remember that it is in the exceptions that your greatest opportunities lie. Suddenly out of the blue, you may get a mail from another country where someone opens a totally new line of activity for you. You had better be having an email marketing plan to capitalize on that opportunity.

Analyze Your Data

Many Internet entrepreneurs underestimate the importance of weekdays in developing an email marketing plan. Many people simply dont respond to promotional email during weekdays. If your business is sports related, for example, you will get better responses nearer the weekend as compared to on Mondays or Tuesdays. If you dealing with office related goods and services, obviously your mails will tend to be ignored on weekends.

Nothing great was ever achieved without planning. An effective email marketing plan is a must if you want to help your business grow.

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