Email is the most popular form of communication online today and when used correctly email marketing can be a very effective strategy for driving sales for your home based business. Once you’ve built an email list of potential customers and current clients you can use it in many different ways to your advantage.
One very important point to always keep in mind is to never, ever send a commercial email to someone who hasn’t agreed to receive product offers and advertisements from your home business. People must sign up via a squeeze page or landing page by providing their name and email address or at the very least their email address only.
Sending unsolicited email is called spamming and this action can get your website and business shut down and destroy your reputation online. However, building a responsive list of people who have decided to opt-in to your product offers can be a very lucrative way to earn a full time living on the web from the comfort of your own home. This Internet marketing strategy offers many other advantages including these five benefits:
1. You can persuade potential customers to become paying clients. When a visitor to your website has decided to opt-in to receive your email offers you can then follow up with your sales letters to try to convince them to take advantage of your offer. How often you should follow up is a matter open for debate but most Internet marketers agree that at least three times per week is acceptable.
2. You can up sell your current clients. When a potential customer finally agrees to become a paying client you then have the opportunity to promote your more expensive merchandise to that patron. Once again the questions of when you should begin sending these offers after the initial sale and how often become very important points.
Before you begin the process make sure your customer is happy with their initial purchase and everything is working well for them. This is where the emphasis on providing excellent customer service comes into play. By following up after the first buy and by creating a solid relationship with your new client you can pave the way for your up selling strategy. The best approach is to use your better judgment as to when you think the customer is ready for new product offers and two or three email messages per week should be tolerable.
3. Email marketing allows you to reach a vast number of people with your product offer with one click of your mouse. For example, if you have a responsive opt-in list of 3000 people and your new product is selling for $20.00 per item and with 4% of your list responding favorably you can quickly earn $2400.00. So as you can see the Internet marketing adage “the money is in the list” is right on the mark.
4. You can cross-sell to your existing customers. Cross-selling is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the action or practice of selling among or between established clients, markets, traders, etc.” or “that of selling an additional product or service to an existing customer”. Simply put email marketing provides the opportunity for you to sell additional products to your current clients often based on their past purchases.
5. Email marketing allows you to segment your list and tailor your offers toward each particular segment. For example, you wouldn’t send the same email message to a potential customer as you would to an existing client. Also you can partition your list based on past purchases and which products different segments may be most interested in purchasing. This strategy can increase your positive response rate exponentially.
Email marketing can be a powerful tool for any home business owner online and when employed properly can provide a tremendous opportunity for financial success for your enterprise.