Marketing Trend News

The Client Freak-Out
I get a 10:00 pm call from a client freaking out. His holiday sales are down and he needs some kind of help. I ask how much email marketing he’s been doing. His response? “Huh?”  Long pause. Silence. More pause. I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or just drive over to his house and bonk him on the head like a Three Stooges movie. When I gain my composure, I say the gentlest thing I can. “Bro, seriously, that was soooo not the right answer.” We have a little talk with some weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and I finally tell him to take two bulk emails, get some sleep, and call me in the morning.

Email Solution
As some of you might have guessed, just about noon the next day, his phone starts to ring with new customers. But why? The answer is very simple; email marketing works. For online marketing, it brings some of the fastest possible ROI. The big boys of retail know this. Of major national retailers, 55% will be focusing on email marketing during the holidays this years. Even more amazing, 75% of small businesses will be increasing their spending on email marketing for 2010.

Things to Remember
You’re still dealing with sheer numbers as well as a lot of other marketing factors, so don’t send out a lame email, and don’t send 3 to your favorite cousin and his dog Sparky, and expect to get sales. You have to be sensible. Send out a fair amount,  make sure they have a clear and compelling message, and make sure your site supports the message of the email. If you can do all of this, then most people can expect to see some decent, and fast, ROI.

Time to Get Busy
There’s still time to shoot out a few emails before Christmas if you haven’t done this yet. Don’t forget, there are After Christmas Sales, New Year’s Sales, January Blow Out Sales, and all kinds of good excuses to send out a lot more seasonal email.

If you haven’t done it yet, get that email flying, there’s still time. For more details about putting the email and the landing page together, I’ll have an upcoming article.