By Steve Anderson
We all get too much e-mail. It consumes hours and hours every day. And how much of it is relevant to our needs? Truth be told, a significant amount of e-mail remains unopened or is immediately deleted. So can using e-mail be an effective marketing tool for your agency? The answer is yes, but only if you take steps to make sure it contains information that will be helpful to your clients. While it's getting harder to use e-mail without annoying people, the good news is that a few simple adjustments can improve the results you get.
Here are a few tips and tactics that you can use to ensure that your marketing e-mail gets read:
1. Be sparing with fancy graphics. Although HTML newsletters look much better than just plain text, firewalls, virus stoppers, and/or slow dial-up lines (used by 80% of all users), make it difficult if not impossible for many of your recipients, especially personal consumers, to read them or even receive them. You can remedy those problems by using plain, old, boring text e-mails with links back to the more graphically rich content on your Web site. Graphics embedded in an e-mail are downloaded when the e-mail is opened, so if your primary recipients are commercial prospects they may not be connected to the Internet when they read their e-mails and thus any graphics will not display.
2. Personalize the sender. The number one way people decide if they'll open an e-mail is if that e-mail comes from a person (Steve Anderson) rather than "ABC Agency" or "Sales Dept." You want to capitalize on a people-to-people connection. Your e-mail is more likely to be opened if it comes from a person.
3. Provide a concise subject line. The second most important factor in getting your e-mail read is what you say in the subject line. Don't say "March Newsletter" which is b-o-o-o-ring. Instead, say something like: "Sorry for short notice" or: "Thought you'd find this helpful." Pique the recipient's interest.
4. Use links for extensive content. Reduce the volume of words in your newsletter. If you're going to provide an article, provide a synopsis or include the first paragraph i n the newsletter and then provide a link to the balance of the article on your Web site. Bonus: By measuring the clicks on the link, over time you'll be able to determine what kinds of articles generate the most interest.
5. Build in interactivity. Make an offer that stimulates a response. The goal here is to "up the involvement" of your reader and cause him or her to value and appreciate your company.
6. Adjust the delivery schedule. The day and time of e-mail transmission can impact its effectiveness. Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are the best days to send your e-mail. Response is depressed 20% to 30% on big news days. Avoid e-mailing on any day right before or after a three-day weekend. And avoid sending on Monday because your recipients will be sifting through all the spam they received over the weekend.
7. Give recipients a reason to pass it along. The agency with the biggest list wins! You want to build the total size of your list. Include a suggestion that the readers forward the newsletter to their coworkers, friends, neighbors or family.
8. Provide an easy way for the recipient to unsubscribe. Think of your own e-mail use. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to get off an e-mail list. It doesn't matter what the reason is, if someone wants off, take that person's name off.
9. Create a private section on your Web site. Each time your newsletter goes out, post some "insider" content at your Web site that's available to the recipients of your newsletter only. No need to password protect ... we're not talking about national secrets ... just make sure browsers can't get there from the home page ... only the link you send to newsletter recipients should get them there.
You can use a number of software programs to send larger numbers of customized and personalized e-mails. After experimenting with several different packages, we are currently using a program called Gammadyne Mailer (www.gammadyne.com).
This program is a powerful e-mail automation utility that sends personalized messages to a list of recipients and automatically processes incoming e-mail such as opt-outs, sign-ups, and bounce-backs. Some of the features include: existing database merge, the ability to create HTML messages with embedded images, full mail-merge from a database in the subject line as well as the body of the e-mail, multi-tasking, auto-responding, auto-forwarding, exclusion lists, unlimited mailing list size, message preview, duplicate elimination, and much more. Advanced list management features make it easy to add, change, verify, and remove recipients from the mailing list. For complex jobs, the text and HTML bodies can be personalized with "G-Merge," a powerful scripting language that supports "IF" statements, variables, loops, mathematical expressions, and full database access.
With a few "tweaks" your e-mail newsletter can become an effective way to keep in touch with your current clients and prospects. *
The author
Steve Anderson has been a licensed insurance agent for more than 25 years and is executive editor of The Automated Agency Report. He helps agents maximize productivity and profits using practical technology. He can be reached at (615) 599-0085; e-mails are welcome at Steve@SteveAnderson.com; or visit his Web site at www.SteveAnderson.com.