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01.26.09 Providing Viewers With A Call To Action  By Danny Brown How many times have you received a batch of emails waiting for you on a Monday morning, and you either skim quickly through them or delete them without even opening them? Don't worry - you're not alone. Figures show that Mondays and Fridays are the two least popular days of the week for people opening emails - hardly surprising when you consider both days are either side of the weekend. So why do many businesses still send out so many of their most important emails on these days? Email IS Marketing For example, if you wanted to promote your great new summer gardening tool, why would you send an email to your customers saying that you have a new gardening tool if they "want to check it out"? Your marketing team wouldn't be best pleased, for one thing - inviting someone to look at something is a lot different from providing them with a call to action to look at it instead. • "Our new sit-down lawnmower is now available at our online showroom." Hardly enticing, yet so many businesses send this exact type of email out. • "Take the hard work out of gardening - sit down and enjoy the view as our Rotovator Mobile Mower does the work for you. Special introductory offer here." It's a far more persuasive message, and offering a clickable link where it says "here" will entice people even more, particularly if you include an image of the mower in the email. Yet both these examples will lose any effectiveness they may have if the email is sent without taking any notice of the time it's sent. This is true for both days of the week and time of the year that your email is sent.
Time is Money The whole point of you having a dedicated marketing team - or, at the very least, a marketing plan - is that you want to maximize your Return on Investment as well as sales opportunities at key points of your business calendar. So why would you send out a Christmas flyer at Easter? Surprisingly, many companies fall into this trap all too easily. Yes, it's good to get a head start on the competition, but not at the expense that everyone has forgotten about you when it comes to your busy sales period. You need to ensure that your email marketing strategy is combined with the marketing team, and research that shows the best time for you to reach your customers. Event - Summer Sale - Begins June 1st - Email Marketing Begins March 1st - Follow Up Emails Commence May 1st This is just a basic example of an effective timetable. However, what it does show clearly is that the most effective times to start a direct marketing email campaign is between 8-12 weeks before the actual event itself begins. This ensures that both your existing and potential new customers are aware that you have something big planned, and they will then be primed to expect follow-up information as the event draws closer. This is the same for anything - a Christmas promotion should be advertised mid-September to mid-October, with follow-ups in November. Or an Easter promotion can begin in early January. You know you have the product that will sell - you just need to make sure you have the timing. Continue reading this article. About the Author: Danny Brown is the owner of Press Release PR, a boutique agency specializing in search engine optimized press releases and social media PR. He offers consultancy advice on social media and PR to both individuals and corporations He has guest authored at leading web and search marketing site Web Analytics World and is a blog partner of the WebProNews and iEntry business networks. He is also a regular contributor to the Dad-o-Matic project. To read more of Danny's articles or interact with him, please visit danny BROWN - social media PR. |
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