Because email marketing builds short, medium and long term relationships, if done right, in a non-pushy way, it improves donations, when the funds are there. The golden rule:  manage your email marketing database with care. Use the Professionals choice, Zoomailer.

Top 6 reasons why a charity should use email marketing:

• Email is unique in its ability to put marketing message in front of thousands of potential donor’s at a cost significantly lower when compared to Direct Mail.  This can mean that virtually 100% of revenue generated from charity email campaigns will be pure profit.

• Email solves one of the greatest challenges for Charities, retaining and upgrading the donor base.  By clarifying to the donor in a monthly or quarterly newsletter the real life value of their generous donations, the charity will foster loyalty and simultaneously encourage the donor to dig deeper when needed.

• Email is personal.  Most email marketing solutions allows for automatically customised email messages with personal data such as the subscriber’s name.  By simply using basic personal details charities can boost retention and increase subscription levels.

• Valuable demographic data can be collected. When a lead subscribes to a mailing list for a Charity, they can collect valuable data about potential donors. This data allows for better targeting of marketing messages to their list.

• Rapid response time. A ‘donate now appeal’ campaign can begin to generate a response almost immediately. Customers don’t have to leave their home and can make a suggested donation with the click of a button.

• Email is the ultimate “word of mouth” marketing vehicle. If your email message is “viral” in nature, your donor base can quickly and easily forward it to friends and family, spreading your message to new potential sponsors/donors.

Zoomailer -Charity Email Marketing – The Professional’s Choice

Even though E-Mail Marketing has played a key role in Digital Marketing Mix for many years, occasionally I’m asked by business owners is ‘email marketing “spamming”?

Let’s begin by clarifying what spam is? Defined as “the flooding of Internet with many copies of the same electronic message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it”

So, if you happen to ‘find’ a list of e-mails somewhere of people you don’t know, who don’t know you and decide to e-mail them – via Outlook or indeed any E-Marketing Software then yes, that is pure spam.

Email Marketing on the other hand is permission based engagement between two parties who have a business relationship, the communication s emanates from a mailing list that the recipient has ‘opted in’ and ‘subscribed’ to. Good practice states that at this point a secondary step is taken to reconfirm the subscriber is who they say they are and that they are still interested in signing up. That eliminates error or malice from a third party.

All recipients receive an option to unsubscribe or opt-out from every mailing received. This is best practice and will ensure compliance with legislation. To avoid the label of a ‘spammer’ – it’s recommend you use dedicated e-mail marketing software.

So what are the Top 5 important tips for an email marketer?

• Send emails only to those who have requested to get them

• Send only relevant content – never anything the person has not requested.

• Send monthly if that is what the person signed up for initially, don’t start altering the frequency. Ask for permission to change the frequency always.

• To improve deliver-ability, always add a message at the top of your emails that says something like: “To ensure receipt of our emails, please add something@yourcompany.com to your Address Book.”

• Build your list at every opportunity you have. If you’re a retailer and have walk-in premises add a point-of-sale sign-up form or to enter our competition please sign up to our newsletter.

Good food for thought – If you wish to discuss e-mail strategy and best practice, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01 6706122.

Zoomailer – The Professionals Choice.

I wasn’t overly surprised at the statement as for the last couple of years a number of large companies here and in the U.K have given Email Marketing a bad name. The vast majority of companies here understand that blanket bombing their existing database with newsletters, offers and adverts on an over frequent basis is a sure fire way to alienate their subscribers.

The 2012 Irish Digital Marketing Sentiment Survey tracks digital marketing trends and how Irish marketers treat e-mail marketing in their overall marketing mix. The study, the most extensive of its kind undertaken among Irish marketing professionals, was conducted by online consultancy AMAS in partnership with the Marketing Institute of Ireland.

Some of the top findings include:

• One in five marketers (19.6%) now spend more than half their marketing budgets online
• Top reasons for using online marketing are customer engagement (74%), value for money (63%) and optimising reach (57%)
• Email continues to be a popular format, used by two out of three marketers (67%)
• The other most popular formats are social networking / blogs (63%) and search engine optimisation (57%)
• But social media can be hard work, with 70% saying that it has added to their workload

There is no doubt that the gloss of email marketing has been removed somewhat by the Social Media crowd, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and more recently Pinterest are routinely considered before email marketing when companies are putting together their online marketing plans. I see this time and time again with my own prospective clients and who can blame them as they seem the quickest way to get the word out there and get some new clients in.

So who is right and who is wrong? Social media creates excellent brand awareness, that is a given but Email marketing still provides a higher return on investment in terms of customer retention and loyalty, new product and service offerings etc., Equally significant is that people rarely switch personal email addresses but they do migrate to other social media.

There’s room in the mix for both – but planning and strategy is key.

Zoomailer -Email Marketing – The Professional’s Choice