The Power of Permission in Using Email Marketing

Emarketer reports that:

“Interactive marketing is becoming a larger part of the marketing mix, and Forrester estimates that by 2016, online advertising spend will be equivalent to television spend today. Marketers will spend $77 billion on interactive marketing by 2016.”

According to StrongMail’s annual marketing trends survey, conducted by Zoomerang, the majority (68%) of business executives worldwide said they plan to integrate their social media marketing efforts with email in 2012.

I remember back in 2007-8, when I first launched my business, I was running several workshops dedicated to email marketing and integrating it with social media, especially Facebook. I had a cross section of attendees from lawyers, consultants, non-profits, MLN’s and blog hobbyists.  They thought it was a good idea, but most looked at me like a deer in the headlights. Fast forward to 2012, the cycle has moved to a different place with regard to adoption and the effective usage of it now.

The benefits of professional email marketing have been very strong and clear from the beginning. It was the very first platform I used to build my business database. It has experienced quite a resurgence, as we all can attest to the massive email marketing we get daily, many of which we did not subscribe to. (Ugh, it’s spam people.)

Benefits of Permission
When someone voluntarily signs up to become a part of your email marketing database, they are committing to you as a professional and are giving you “permission” to send them timely, helpful and relevant resources and information. This is the greatest way to grow and build trust . It is also a very targeted and effective way to ‘ask people  for their business’. There is great power and responsibility in permission based marketing, as long as you are using it appropriately and respecting your community.

Here are 5 ways to grow and build trust using email marketing:

1) Create a monthly Newsletter with specific themes and content that is thoughtful and highly targeted to what your followers need and want from you. Get to know who is on your list and why they joined it in the first place.

2) Be consistent with sending your message and campaign out monthly and find the best frequency and timing. Do not over kill your list with too many daily emails. More and more people are tuning out and unsubscribing  to those that over email, regardless of how popular they are.

3) Offer content especially for this community that other people do not have access too that are NOT on the list. Let your community know how exclusive they are to you and how much you want to serve their specific needs.

4) Integrate your email marketing campaign into all your other platforms. Unify the message across your social media, blog, websites, podcasting, video and mobile. Make sure your visual logo, look and feel are consistent over all your platforms.

5) “Serving is the New Selling’ should be your approach and mantra. Giving lots of FREE WHY, then SELLING the HOW is a perfect formula. We are in it to make money right? Yes, but earning the business by building strong relationships and using the trust to sell your products and services is why they choose you and ensures more longevity in customer retention.

Make a commitment to one of the professional email marketing systems like Constant Contact, which has been mine since 2007, or several other great choices like IConnect, Aweber and Mail Chimp.

Email marketing has been one of the top platforms that I will continue to use. My list grew over 30% last year nationally and internationally. It has allowed me a more personal, direct and exclusive way to communicate to and with “my tribe” and serve them.

Email Marketing Photo via Shutterstock

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