Email marketing is still a low-cost and effective method of promotion.  Growing your email list organically is always the best way to go.  But if you don’t have time or you’re entering a new market where you have no contacts, it is possible to buy an email list from a reputable list broker.  Just before you do that though, make sure you are Spam Act compliant.

The Spam Act states that in Australia, commercial electronic messages sent to you must be sent with your consent. There are two types of consent. These are express consent and inferred consent.   Also known as direct or implied consent.

Express consent means that you have intentionally opted to receive messages from the sender.  Examples include:

• Entering your details into a website, such as a phone number, email or address
• Ticking the box next to a statement seeking permission to send you marketing messages
• Entering your email address on an entry form or ticking a box saying you are happy to receive updates from the business
• Contacting a business to ask for information to be sent to you on an ongoing basis.

Inferred consent is when there is a connection with the person being sent the message.  An example of inferred consent is if you subscribe to a certain service, it is inferred that you are open to other services provided by that company.

If you are planning to purchase an email list, they can be bought through companies online, such as list brokers.  BUT, check with them first if there is any consent in place.  For example data can be sold with implied consent already in place providing the content you are sending is of direct relevance to the person you are sending it to.

Just before you click ‘send’ remember:

• All commercial electronic messages must contain clear and accurate identification of the sender of the message and information on how you can contact the sender.
• Your emails MUST have an unsubscribe option. This means there must be instructions on how the receiver can opt-out of receiving messages.

If you need any help with email marketing, let me know!

Your customer data is one of the most valuable assets your company has.  But from my experience of working with clients, data is often the biggest marketing headache they have too.  

Being able to mail, email or phone people to announce a sale, share information or announce a new product is key to keeping in touch and doing business.  But just how good is your data (or your CRM tool, if you’re using one)? When was the last time you checked your information for accuracy? If you don’t have correct phone numbers or email/mailing addresses for your clients and business contacts, your messages may not be getting through. You may be paying to mail brochures or email sales announcements to the wrong people – or to no one at all.

The bottom line: Without the right contact information, you’re wasting time and money on your marketing efforts.  I’ve seen this too many times.

If your primary contact method is email and you’re using a program like MailChimp to send marketing eshots, you’ll get updates when email addresses are determined to be invalid (and MailChimp works really well with a CRM like Salesforce). MailChimp will automatically remove invalid addresses from their system, but if you have a separate in-house database – for instance, a CRM that doesn’t automatically sync with MailChimp – you need to make sure it gets updated, too.

Obviously you can check phone numbers and other data through outbound manual telephone calls to each business.  But who’s got the time to do that?  Especially if you have thousands to contact.

The good news is that there are companies and online programs you can use to help clean up, verify and improve your data easily, even if you have thousands or millions of records.

Here are some solutions you may want to check out:

• Experian Australia offers a range of software products for better data management including address validation software and email address validation. You can do a free ‘test drive’ of the email program on their site to see how it works.
• The Data Cleansing Group provides services including merging of multiple data files from the same or different programs, verifying data, eliminating duplicate records, standardising formatting and, where possible, finding missing information for you.
• Sensis Data Solutions can assist you with data validation and data cleansing, as well as verify mobile phone numbers and email addresses in real-time so that you can determine whether they’re active.

Need help getting your data sorted to maximise your marketing dollars? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

To be effective in marketing you must tailor your efforts to customers’ wants and needs as much as possible in order to build loyalty and increase the number of purchases from existing customers.

For instance, let’s say a particular customer always orders pizza with anchovies – instead of, say, sausage or pepperoni.  Wouldn’t it be great to offer them vouchers specifically for anchovy pizza since that’s what they want? But how do you track this kind of customer behaviour and act on it?

There are numerous software programs, including online email service tools, which help you do just that. For instance, the email provider MailChimp* offers features including:

• The option to send automatic welcome messages to new email list subscribers
• Personalised emails based on past customer purchases and behaviour
• Automatic follow-ups based on customers’ actions within emails.

Get them on board

Let’s say you’re working on building your email list. You might offer a special discount on your website to any customer who signs up for your list online. You can set up a pre-designed email message beforehand in your MailChimp account – including your discount coupon or code – that automatically goes out when someone joins your list.

You can also send out an automatic follow-up message a week or two following your welcome message that provides tips on using your products or services, special offers coming up, or information about an upcoming event.
Give them what they want

If you have an email you send out to all customers – say, a newsletter or sales promotion – you can use MailChimp to track who clicks on what and then automatically act on it. For instance, let’s say you’re sending an email to everyone on your list which gives them 20% off any one full-price item on your website during a two-week period. You include a link to your site and a code for the offer.

With MailChimp automation, you can track who clicked on your link, went to your website and used the code to make a purchase. For the customers who don’t act – or for those who click through to the site and look around but don’t buy anything – you can send an automatic follow-up message a week later to remind them that time is running out.

MailChimp can also help you keep track of those people who spend the most on your site or regularly take advantage of sales. Ultimately, you might want to group these loyal followers into a special list that gets VIP treatment, such as additional discounts or advance sale notifications.

(Note: MailChimp also plays well with major CRM and payment software such as Magento, PayPal, Shopify and SalesForce to help you achieve and keep track of all these nifty things.)

The sky’s the limit

These are just a few of the things you can do with automated emails. Based on your business, list size and desired level of interaction, you can create campaigns and customised promotions that will keep your customers coming back for more.

Ready to get personal with your email marketing? Need help? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

* Note: Other email providers offer similar features – I just use MailChimp most often for clients because it’s really user-friendly, and offers free membership and reports for email lists of less than 2,000. The automated features described here are part of a paid package.

On that note, it’s astonishing to look at how much has changed in the industry, just in the past two decades. Major tools and ‘mainstays’ of today’s marketing weren’t even around when I started my career.

Here’s a brief look at some of the biggest changes in marketing over the past 20 years:

• The Internet – Twenty years ago, no one had even heard of the Internet, let alone used it in business marketing. It’s hard to remember now, but businesses didn’t have websites or worry about their ‘online presence’. The idea of ‘e-commerce’ didn’t exist; no one had an online store where shoppers could get information or buy products 24/7.
• Email marketing – Email was just starting to gain ground in businesses and schools in the 90s but nobody was using it for marketing campaigns. There was definitely no MailChimp, no one had an email list of clients and the only box we were worried about getting SPAM in was a lunch box.
• Social media – Remember the days before Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? The word ‘tweet’ had nothing to do with communication (except between birds) and ‘posting’ was something you did on a horse, in a newspaper or on a bulletin board. Having your customers ‘like’ you was great, but it didn’t mean they were sharing their views about your products and services with the online world.
• Devices – Marketing for the iPhone, Android and tablet? Not a concern in the 1990s! ‘Mobile marketing’ had nothing to do with a handheld device – it just meant putting a sign on the side of your truck, or using billboards. If someone wanted to order something from you by phone, they called you from a landline during business hours.
• Turnaround time – It used to take a lot longer to create an advertising campaign that would reach your customers. Putting an ad in the newspaper required reserving space in advance, creating a layout (which sometimes took days) and sending it off to print. A direct mail postcard campaign often took weeks or even months to design, print and mail, especially if you didn’t have the addresses you needed. Now, with an opt-in email list of your customers, you can get a message out almost immediately. You can set up online advertising with Pay Per Click in 10 minutes!

Need help with all the changes? All of these changes are challenging enough when you’re in the marketing field, but if you’re struggling to keep up (let alone plan for the future), I’m here to help. Contact Breathe Marketing today to discuss how to keep your marketing in line with the times.