As we said before, the relationships between customers and companies are changing. More and more, Internet has became the code to develope commerce (B2B, B2C, C2C...). This is modifying the original concept of buying and selling.

If you want to survive in the new global market you need make changes to increase sales. You must win customers' trust in the new economic system.The best way to count on users' loyalty  is the permanent communication.

The on-line support makes possible a direct contact with customers. It is a help system that get in touch the user with Customer Service or Technical Service. A good on-line support site must solve the issues easily. It usually gives email notifications about issues' progress and let you search the interaction history you have.

Although on-line support accessibility is fundamental, response to customers is more important. If we promise a 24x7 service we have to keep it without exception, because they trust in us. It is hard win the loyalty of  our customers, so we have to use some tools, such as on-line support, to achieve it and keep it.

Customer Segmentation is the subdivision of a market into discrete customer groups that share similar characteristics. It helps developing customized marketing programs, as you can better adapt your product and service to particular customers’ needs. Say that you like to target University students. Logically freshers won´t have the same needs that those students who are finishing their degree. While the first ones will be looking for residence, flats, academies, funding, etc., the second ones will be looking for work placements, travelling abroad, junior jobs, Research or PhD studies,… Then it would be essential to gather what year they are on in your database.  

Therefore Customer segmentation should be a fundamental step in your Email marketing strategy.  The much information you gather from your customer, the better. Name, surname, telephone and email address are not enough. Try to get your customers´ gender, age, profession, job´s title, location, language, industrial sector, likes and dislikes, shopping pattern, annual budget… so next time you send an email campaign, you can personalize further and filter your database, creating different messages for different public, sending the right product to the right person. Improve your effectiveness improving your database, divide and conquer!

These are the main steps to develop an e-marketing campaign:

I posted yesterday about how important is looking after our database. Being providers of Email Marketing services, we received many call asking us whether we will sell commercial databases, too. Krasis promotes permission-based Email Marketing, and therefore, we don’t provide customers databases. Besides, when our customers sign the contract, they confirm that will not be using MAILCast to send Spam.

There are two different approaches that apply to Email Marketing: Opt-in and Opt-out

Opt-in is an email that is explicitly requested by the recipient. I.e. Sign in to receive a newsletter.  In order to quickly gain opt-in recipients, the easiest way, among others, will be including a sing-in form in your webpages (managed by a automated subscription manager, if possible). Countries such as UK, Denmark, Austria, Finland, Germany or Italy have already adopted the Opt-in policy in the name of the persons’ privacy.

 Opt-out is based on tacit consent, so it assumes a general permission to send emails to customers who has not explicitly stated that they don´t want to receive such information. This is closer to the traditional mailing approach, and to the Spammers philosophy.

Now, one and other approach have generated an extensive debate. Mainly because stats are saying that only 18% of your potential customers would accept to receive your information by email. . However this 20% people are really interested in your services and products… Should we apply the Pareto 20/80 principle?

It is your decision.

One of the most influent factors in your email marketing campaigns’ success is your database. Your subscribers’ list is your treasure. Your mailing´s effectiveness and sales conversion depends on your database, and not only that…as well your reputation.

What I mean is that if you don’t care about your database, then it may be a big number of your emails bouncing-back, and therefore the email service providers will include your IP in their “suspicious” lists of spammers, affecting to our reputation…and if this practice goes on and on, then we´ll end up in the serious black list. What means that our mailing campaigns will be never accepted by some email providers, even if our subscribers have given us permission and accepted to receive our communications.  How many people do you know who is checking their “Junk folder” daily, given that they actually receive hundreds of spam emails in their inbox? Hmm…great! So what can you do?

You should check, clean and update your database. How many times? As much as you can! This will depend on how often you send email campaigns. After every mailing, you should delete duplicated emails addresses, spelling mistakes in the domains, and don´t forget to analyze your soft and hard bouncing.

Check the reasons of your soft bounced-back emails.  Your subscribers may have changed their email account for many reasons. Try to get in touch with them and confirm their details and their interest on receiving your newsletters.

Delete your hard bounced-back emails. No fear let them go!! Because they will ruin your IP reputation and the effectiveness of your future email campaigns, let them go, no pain.

A well-done newsletter becomes a fundamental ingredient to achieve the company on-line success, because it works like a direct communication channel to  your customers and it gives you the opportunity of informing them about products and services with credibility, easiness and  effectiveness.

By means of this kind of periodic sendings we can reach our audience, fitting the pattern of clients we like. Besides, newsletters allow us keeping a permanent contact with our suscribers and increasing their loyalty to our firm. It gives real information about the company, the global market, the sector, the products, some news... among others.

Nowadays ther are many specialized computer tools that make easy the edition and design of newsletters. These sort of software aplications allow you make attractive and characteristic presentations to become an online marketing star, with options such as personalization, scheduling mailings, reading statistics, cliks statistics, RSS... And all with a very low cost.

If you still haven't one, get a complete software to create newsletters. No doubt. Try one fully functional so it will give you a good image and prestige over the competitors.

As an alternative channel for you marketing strategies to build your customers and providers’ loyalty, RSS can play an important role.

It is an easy tool, and a direct mean by which our messages avoid the anti-spam filters and where our readers keep their privacy: no email addresses involved whatsoever. These below are some examples of what you can do through RSS feeds:

-                     Marketing and Internet information feeding. Surprise your customer publishing content as they come.

-                     Advertise your products, new books, publications, your software updates, etc

-                     Offer special discount, give vouchers for your most loyal customers.

-                     Publish audio and video files, mp3, podcasts, interviews, content from your mobile.

-                     Publish pictures, photos from your shows and events.

-                     Publish academic studies, tutorial, white papers, etc

-                     Publish your company’s news in the corporative intranet.

Not having any experience in writing a newsletter should not stop you. Nowadays, MAILCast href="http://www.mailcastserver.com/" target=_blank>Email marketing software is generally intuitive tools that make possible to design a professional-looking newsletter with not much effort.

However there are some things to plan about before your start your business’ email communication strategy:

And remember…once you start, you´ll get better.

The current market is driven by a globalized environment. As a result, Customer Service has become one of the aspects that more value add to your products and your business, especially if we talk about online sales and the Internet environment.

In this sense, it is completely indispensable to establish an excellent service and  support available to reinforce the customers’ feeling of security and confidence in having someone ‘real’ on the other side to solve their queries, doubts and suggestions, for whoever likes to interact with the company.

The channels that allow this reliable link with customers are basically:

• Email
• F.A.Q´s (Frequent Asked Questions)
• Enough documentation in the website
• Contact telephone number
• Chat
• VoIP services
• Remote assistance service

We should not overlook any of these communication channels, mostly when the dialog is on real time (i.e. chat).  We must be ready at any time to listen what our customers have to say, and do so to give them a proximity feeling.