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Email is getting a bad reputation on several fronts, but remains a powerful communication tool for companies. Check out these tips to getting your emails read. Response Times First, the bad news – Anybody Out There? was the subject of a recent Customer Response Group study, which measured how long it took to get an email reply from the 100 largest US companies. The survey found the following shocking facts about customer service:
Recent Legislation Then there’s more bad news, as the amount of spam (or unwanted emails) is reaching epidemic proportions. California recently passed a tough anti-spam law that went into effect January 1, 2004. The Federal law is not as strict, so we’ll have to wait and see who prevails. Meanwhile, companies should be aware of the California law, which prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial email (UCE) unless the recipient has requested it (opted-in). But there’s a huge exclusion. The law allows the sending of an email if the recipient has made an inquiry, provided their email address, made an application, or purchased something from the advertiser. The law then requires only that the sender provide a valid opt-out or unsubscribe method, so they can stop future mailings. The Good News For the legitimate business, email remains a powerful tool for quickly and inexpensively distributing company information and staying in touch with customers and prospects. Email Campaign Basics For the basics of a good email campaign, check out the tips below. 1. Determine your target market and make sure you are providing information that is valuable to that audience. Make sure it’s useful, not just an advertisement about your company. When a clothing company began sending separate emails to boys and girls, their response rate jumped 40%. 2. Determine the call to action – What do you want readers to do? Download a white paper, buy a promotional item, or register on your site? Make it obvious in your email and state the action early in the email so people understand and can react before losing interest. 3. Prominently publish your privacy policy, and plan for unsubscribes and bouncebacks. That way, recipients will know where you stand. Handling unsubscribes, bouncebacks, and even subscription requests can be time-consuming, so use an automated software capability that is provided by a reputable software vendor who knows the legal environment for emails. 4. Hosting the equipment needed for an email marketing campaign is complicated in today’s legislative and spam-ridden environment—so have an outside service actually send out the emails and measure the results for you. nxtConcepts, for example, partners with the technology company Selectus, to provide a comprehensive eMarketing program that we use for sending and monitoring our clients’ email campaigns. If you follow these basic guidelines, you’ll get significant results. Even spammers get a 7% response rate—and our clients report responses in the 15-20% range. Best of all, in today’s budget-crunching times, email delivers results at a very economical price. nxtConcepts.com 888-215-0820 Need help implementing a new sales or marketing program? We've got two suggestions:
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