Web Marketing: Demystifying Email Marketing

If you attended Quick Printing's panel discussion at Graph Expo, "Success Strategies for Quick Printers," you probably walked away, as I did, with some great ideas.

You may have also left there somewhat surprised about the amount of technology, especially e-marketing, questions that arose. As a panelist at this event, I was so impressed and excited to confirm these issues are truly at the forefront of most printers' worlds—that you printers care so much about what's best for your business and understand the importance of an online presence as well as marketing. Even in some not so great economic times, you're asking these questions to help grow your business and understand marketing is more important now that it has ever been before. And I'm sure those of you who weren't able to attend the panel discussion have the same concerns and questions ringing in your ears.

One topic that kept coming up at the panel was email marketing. How does it work for printers? What's the best way to use it? How do we get started? And just what the heck is it, anyway? Good questions, each and every one, and definitely questions that deserve a bit more discussion than an hour and a half panel can provide. So let's take some more time to tackle the most important "need to know's" of email marketing one by one.

So Much More Than E-Newsletters

It's amazing how many times you begin to talk email marketing with someone and they immediately jump to e-newsletters—those online news tidbits that can creep into your inbox from a huge number of different industries. They can cover any topic from cooking to cars, travel, or sports. You probably receive at least one or two from your vendors and industry experts, maybe even from some of your customers or competitors.

So it's no wonder this buzzword is the first thing that comes to mind when someone says email marketing, but newsletters are only a small part of the equation. E-marketing can be used for a slew of communications such as promotions, special offers, or surveys. You can use it as a follow up to another marketing piece or send invitations to events. Once you start to brainstorm the possibilities, you'll realize how much potential email marketing really has.

E-newsletters can be a wonderful tool in the hands of the right owner. But they require time, content and consistency to be the most effective. If someone signs up for an e-newsletter they expect to get it when you promised and how you promised. E-marketing is fast, efficient, and cost-effective, but it is also a much easier way for your customers or prospects to just say no to your marketing efforts. They don't have to call to be taken off a mailing list, they don't have to say no to a human, they simply have to opt out of your email, hit delete, or the worst of the worst, flag your message as junk mail. So keep your promises and make sure every communication is a valuable one.

If you do decide to try the e-newsletter route, make sure you can keep it running on time and with great value before you begin. And then consider one more thing—email marketing is an excellent way to reinforce your brand, but printed marketing (such as direct mail or printed newsletters) gives your business credibility. You need to show off your printing ability to your prospects and the best way to do that is with printed marketing pieces.

What Do You Suggest?

So glad you asked. In an ideal world, I would recommend we all send printed newsletters to our customers and then follow up with promotional emails tied directly to that printed piece. Here's an example: Joe's Print Shop mails out a printed monthly newsletter. In that newsletter, he always has a "Did You Know" article touting a product or service he thinks his customers might not be aware of. His January edition's "Did You Know" article is all about direct mail—Joe's Print Shop has the ability to not only print direct mail, they can design it too.