Before I get into the nitty gritty of email marketing, the do’s and the don’ts and the technical aspects of running a successful email campaign I wanted to give a simple demonstration of how effective email marketing can be.

How email marketing can work for you

My wife runs her own fitness company, she is a personal trainer. She has a list of clients that have previously had either personal training session, attended a fitness class or made a general enquiry. She had previously sent emails on a rather ad-hoc basis.

We decided to re activate this list and ask if people still wanted to receive health and fitness advice by email.

I created a simple email campaign, it explained why they were receiving the email, and gave them the option to unsubscribe from further communication at the beginning.

I then explained that we’d be sending the newsletter on a weekly basis, what to expect and when to expect it.

As a ‘thank you’ for staying with us, we offered a free download (a workout) which has proven to be popular.

The real gem however, is that the email went to someone who had previously enquired about personal training and for one reason or another had decided to proceed at that time. The email prompted another enquiry, which has  now turned into a paying client.

The beauty of this is that to write the email, build and schedule the campaign and broadcast it took about an hour and a half and has already paid for itself.

Rather than spending time chasing new clients or customers, it can be beneficial to look at those who have already either bought from you or enquired about your product or service. They obviously liked your company enough to make a purchase from you previously so why not again?

Getting Permission to Email

If you don’t have your customers permission (or aren’t sure you do) it’s important that you get it. Email them and ask them if it’s ok to start emailing them, give them the option to opt out of receiving further communication from you and offer them an incentive to stay with you. You may be pleasantly surprised by the results.