We all know that you need to have a steady flow of new leads to grow a business. Marketers and advertising professionals have a variety of options for generating leads, some of which include:
- Google AdWords / Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Outbound telemarketing
- Display advertising
- Trade shows and events
- Direct mail / postal (coming to Marketfish soon!)
However at Marketfish, our passion lies in email marketing; and we aren’t biased either!
- The vast majority of responding companies (72%) rate email as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ for return on investment. – eConsultancy “Email Marketing Census 2011″
- Email is the preferred method of commercial communication by 74% of all online adults. – Merkle “View From the Digital Inbox 2011″
- 63% of mobile email users check the account a minimum of once per day. – Merkle “View From the Digital Inbox 2011″
- 56% of US Internet users interact with brands only via marketing emails, compared to 1.3% who interact only via twitter and 0.7% by Facebook. – ExactTarget “Subscribers, Fans, and Followers: The Social Profile” (2010)
At its core, email marketing is all about getting the right message, to the right audience, at the right time. The objective of most campaigns is to generate a new leads, called conversions, to help grow your business. A typical lead generation email marketing campaign will have the following components:
- Email Creative: this is composed of both an HTML and text version of your email. A well designed email will have clear and concise content that speaks the language of your ideal customer. To get the conversion however, the email must also have a call to action. ‘Sign Up Now’, ‘Click Here to Learn More’, ‘Download Today’ and ‘Request a Trial’ are all examples of powerful calls to action.
- Landing Page: recipients who engage with your email and click your call to action will end up on a landing page. Most landing pages will have a form or some other mechanism to collect information about the recipient. Although the tendency is to create a form with a large number of fields (First Name, Last Name, Phone, Business Phone, Cell Phone, Address 1, Address 2, etc.), studies have shown that the shorter you form – the better chances are that you’ll get a conversion. Recipients are prone to abandon long forms because they appear daunting and require more time to complete.
- Thank You Page: once a recipient submits the form on a landing page, they should be taken to a confirmation page that reinforces your offer, and lets the individual know what to expect next. This may include a link to download an article, or a simple statement, “Thank you! Someone from our company will contact you within 24 hours.”
- And most importantly, a Distribution List: now that you have all of your campaign materials, who are you going to send the email to? Utilizing the state-of-the-art Marketfish platform, you can identify your ideal target populations in a matter of minutes, a process that historically could take weeks to complete.
Building high-impact email marketing campaigns with Marketfish is a snap, and as you can see – a high-ROI marketing strategy that will help you support and grow your business. Take a tour of the Marketfish platform today, or sign-up for a free account and see for yourself how simple and easy email marketing can be.