| By: Brennan Heyde | Published On: 11/20/2007 |
I have preached many times in the past, that if you own an e-commerce website you must be using email marketing as a regular form of advertising. Not only does it bring in increased sales, but the monthly email you are sending to your existing customers constantly keeps your store and your products in the back of their minds. This simple customer communication is very important for customer retention and longevity.
One program which I constantly refer all my clients to use is called IContact. It is an online email marketing tool. I have been using IContact for a few years, and I can honestly say that is some of the best software out there for e-mail marketing. It works great and it is very simple to use. The monthly prices start from just $9.99.
If you are serious about email marketing, this software is a must. You can get a special free trial here.
If you have not already done so, I would recommend reading my “5 Important Aspects to a Successful Email Campaign” before you continue. It will give you a good understanding of the basics of email marketing.
Email marketing does not have to be hard. However you do have to put some thought into it. If you are just starting out, I would suggest sitting down and plan out a 3 month test email marketing campaign. Having a plan makes the visibly daunting task of email marketing simple and easy. Choose a topic for each month. For example, your first month, you might focus your campaign on a new product you just starting selling. Then, your second month you can offer your customers a 10% off coupon. And finally the third month, do a seasonal promotion – since Thanksgiving is coming up it might be a good time to wish your customers a Happy Thanksgiving and offer them some kind of 4 day only sale. These types of promotions are very effective.
Now that you have your plan, it is time to create and build your first email campaign using IContact. For demonstration purposes, I am going to use an actual email campaign I sent out for the launch of this website. I am going to assume you already have signed up with IContact, and you have an active account.
Each email campaign you send you can be broken down into 4 steps.
- The List
- The Message
- Sending
- Tracking
- The List – Before we can send an e-mail message we must first upload a list of email addresses to I-Contact. This can be a simple Excel Spreadsheet with all the email addresses in one column.
In IContact click on the “My Contacts” tab at the top of the page. Then click on “Create a new list”
Give your list a name and a description. You can customize your message settings to fit your needs. Then click “Save & Add Contacts”
Now it will bring you to a screen where you choose how you would like to add your contacts. Because we are going to upload an Excel spreadsheet, click on the “import contacts from file”
Select the list you just created from the dropdown menu, and then select the excel spreadsheet of email address from your computer and click “Upload Contacts”
This will parse your file and ask you to identify the columns. Because we are only uploading email addresses, select the “email” field from the dropdown menu and hit next.
To comply with anti-spam law, you will be asked to initial stating that you are not sending out spam. Insert your initials and hit, “Upload Contacts”
That’s it. You now have an email list ready to send out your message to. Next we need to create the message.
- Message – The most effective message is one which looks nice, but is also functional. Always remember when creating the message to “Design for the Inbox”. Here is the message I am going to send out. It is very simple with a header and a background gradient. Make sure your message can be read even with images turned off.
Once you have your message created, you simply have to copy and paste your HTML code into IContact.
In IContact, click on the “Create” tab at the top of the page. Then click on “Create New Message”
Because we already have our message created in Dreamweaver, click on the “Copy and Paste a Message”
This will bring up the create message section. Here you give your message a subject, and copy in your HTML code into the section provided. Also make sure you include a text only version of your message. This is required for people who have HTML turned off.
Once you are happy with how your message looks, you should always send yourself a test message to see how it is going to show up in the inbox and also to make sure it will pass Spam filters.
- Sending – Now that we have our email list uploaded and our message complete it is time to send it out. Click “Send” in the bottom right.
Choose the list you just created to send your message to. Uncheck Community Newsletter Archive, unless you would like to use this feature.
Then click “Proceed to Send”
Here you are given the choice to send your message immediately, or set up a date and time to send it out. Select the method you would like to use. Your message will be queued and sent out whenever you specify.
4. Tracking – Now you have successfully sent your first email campaign using IContact tracking your message is just as important. You need to know the stats behind your email campaign in order to fine tune others in the future.
Tracking your campaign with IContact couldn’t be simpler. After you message has been sent, the software will provide you with detailed tracking stats including, message open, and click-through rates. Always monitor these stats and fine tune your email campaigns as you go.
IContact makes e-mail marketing simple and easy. Simply follow the steps above and you will be sending you own e-mail marketing campaigns in no time.
About the Author: Brennan Heyde is an e-commerce consultant working in San Diego, Ca. He specializes in online marketing and SEO for e-commerce. Have a struggling e-commerce website? – Contact Brennan today for a site analysis.