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Increasing Sales Through Email Marketing |
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Who wouldn’t want to deliver more qualified sales leads?
 One B2B marketing tactic that is often under utilized or improperly executed is email marketing. Responding to people that have clicked on an online ad or other marketing initiative with a single email may not do much to move a prospect closer to a sale. Blasting out to a list of prospects occasionally may support another short term effort but is also unlikely to be a reliable method, by itself, of increasing your sales and customer base.
The good news is that a consistent effort done right and coupled to other marketing initiatives can be a significant part of your plan in reaching those goals. AAI does consistently achieve an open rate of over 30% where the average in industrial markets is 12 to 15% and six to seven times average click rate in publication email blast (eBlast) initiatives.
The mantra of real estate professionals is value and salability. They like to sum it up with these words– location, location, location. As far as email marketing is concerned, the mantra should be content, content, content. It makes sense that your customer’s time is as scarce as yours and if you don’t deliver information that is insightful and valuable to them, they won’t continue to spend some of it on your communications.
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Eight other factors that drive email marketing success
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The right message is one that is current and strikes a chord with your audience. Obviously you have to weave your company or its products into it too.. |
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Reaching the right person goes right to results and ROI. Your message may go to someone that isn’t currently in the market for your products and have a neighbor in the next cubicle who is, yet doesn’t receive your emails. Fixing this can be as easy as including something people want to share in your email or a request to forward it. |
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If timing is everything, frequency is it’s close cousin. What do I mean? Your industry has cycles and people are very busy so your message has to reach them at the right time to be read. Getting the frequency of contact right solves both the problem of timing as far as being read is concerned as well as being there at the point in the buying cycle where your product is needed. |
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For manufacturers there’s a better way than buying a list and sending eBlasts to it unless you’re starting up with a very low budget. Taking more time to build a list of opt-in subscribers is always better than risking being labeled a spammer. And when I say opt-in, I don’t mean buying into someone else’s opt-in list for your one time exclusive email use. Still spam. I mean developing an email list for your company that subscribers opt into and value your email communications enough to let you send more. |
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 Keep brand in mind. Your products or services are far more valuable in prospects minds if there is a valued brand behind them. If you have a strong one, including a logo and tag line may do it. If not, it may be time to talk to an agency about strengthening or building yours. |
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Make email marketing part of an overall marketing program, not a solo cure-all tactic. Even the email marketing tool companies like Constant Contact don’t rely on their own SAAS application alone – they perform other marketing activities like advertising too. |
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As far as content goes there’s some common threads that have stood the test of time. Several prominent historical figures from Blaise Pascal to Thomas Jefferson to Mark Twain have written letters that closed with a phrase like, “sorry this is so long, I didn’t have time to shorten it”. Good content takes time to write and longer to write it concisely. Gathering facts, think time and more go into good content. Taking your customers perspective isn’t always easy but it is the right path from start to finish too. |
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Other important factors like landing pages, offer, subject testing and more need to be addressed in the right way. That’s where an agency like AAI comes in. We’re effective at writing content wrapped in an appealing package that gets results. We can put a custom program together for your business to maximize sales leads. For digital, trade event and print marketing contact us when you’re ready for more sales. |
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That’s where an agency like AAI comes in. We’re effective at writing content, wrapped in an appealing package, that gets results. We apply our 30-step email marketing process to put together a custom program for your business to maximize sales leads. Click here to download AAI's free Executive Report on Best Email Marketing Practices with the essentials of what B2B marketers need to know. For content creation and content-based marketing contact AAI. |
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p: 877-866-8500 x204 • w: maiagency.com • e: mark
AAI div. Marketing Assistance, Inc
AAI News
Content-Based Solutions For B2B Marketers
Vol. 1, Issue 1 • Fall 2014: Increasing Sales Through Email Marketing
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