Marketing Strategy

Email Marketing

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Using Email to Market to Top Level Executives
and Decision Makers

Want to augment your calling program with email? It sounds good, doesn’t it? After all, it’s free and easier than calling. Just send out 50 or 100 emails a day and the sales will start rolling in right? Maybe not. In fact, it’s easier to lose a prospect with email than it is on the phone. But there are huge rewards for those who can do it right. Let me explain:

Avoid Using Email for Prospecting
Top level executives and decision-makers are typically not heavy email users. Most of the people using email are staffers and managers, or owners of smaller companies. So, unless your email is from a source that they willingly agreed to get, you're going to be immediately deleted as spam. If they perceive you to be a spammer, they will many times avoid further communication (of any kind) from you.

  

To successfully email these top level executives and decision-makers, first you have to build your own opt-in (permission) list. How do you get that permission? The old fashioned way is still the best--- direct mail (postcards can be used as well) to a high quality mailing list directing them to a page on your web site. Keep the URL as short and simple as possible. (Business reply cards are not as effective as they once were. They’re too slow!) Top level executives and decision-makers are more than willing to go online to reply via a form than ever before.

Don't make prospects already on your house list fill out contact information each time they respond to one of your offers. Since you already know who they are, don't force them to enter a user name or password to enter your landing page. It's ridiculous to ask top level executives and decision-makers to leap through hoops to respond to your marketing campaign.

Do Use Email to Continue a Relationship
Resist asking for their email address online without clearly noting what it will be used for. In this case it is best to advise them you will use it only for contact on an irregular basis only for special offers that they would find valuable. Always advise that their email address will not under any circumstances be shared with anyone else for any purpose. Once you've gotten a top level executive and decision-maker to join your list, forget about sending a regular email newsletter or other sales information. Instead, here are some direct marketingstrategies:

• A breakfast roundtable with some of their peers or a well-known speaker
• A poll for their opinions on business trends in their industry
• A short webcast or webinar they would extremely helpful
• A thank you for attending such an event with a link to a recap of it
• A one or two page PDF file containing information that is of high perceived value to them, but not in any way sales oriented.

Once top level executives and decision-makers allow you the privilege of emailing them, always give them the option to easily unsubscribe to your messages at the bottom of each email!
     
Strartegy