Copyright 2006 Quick Turn Marketing International, Ltd.

If you want to create a dynamic e-mail campaign, you have to offer your clients more than a simple announcement.

Far too often people fall into the trap of believing an announcement is enough to entice their customer.

Unfortunately, an announcement does little to help compel or encourage your clients to buy from you.

If you want customers to buy from you, you're far better off offering 'special deals' or a 'special offer' than simply offering an announcement.

Why?

An announcement says, 'Hey, I have a new product!'

Wow, that's terrific!

But what's in it for the customer?

You have to think about what your customer's needs are and how you are filling them with every contact you make.

An announcement doesn't take these needs into consideration, and that's why far too often announcements fail to produce results.

An announcement also lacks a call to action or an incentive for customers to contact you.

It doesn't make sense to contact someone unless you are going to offer him or her an incentive to buy your product.

Keep this in mind when creating your next e-mail campaign.

Types of Promotions

So now you know you have to offer incentives. Now, what kind of incentive do you offer in your e-mail campaign?

There are many different incentives to offer. Most people rely on the special discount offer.

You don't always have to offer a discount however, to get people to buy from you. You can for example, offer a new product to your customers.

Say for example, you offer them a free publication, like a subscription to your newsletter if they buy your product now. Or, you can offer them 20% off your latest publication when they order.

You can also offer special deals by recognizing some special event in your personal life. Most customers appreciate e-mails that include some personal information about you. For example, let's say you have an upcoming birthday or anniversary to celebrate. In your e-mail, mention this.

Say, 'Because it's my birthday today I'm offering you a special discount.' This will help your e-mails appear more personal in nature.

You have to share personal information if you want to build trust with your clients. Let them know something about you.

Say for example you are sharing your 10th anniversary with your partner. Let your customer's know you are offering a one-time deal because of this.

Another promotion you can offer your clients is the 'special sale.' I like to call this the 'Oops, I forgot!' or 'Oops, I screwed up!' offer.

In this special bonus offer, e-mail your clients a day or two after you send out an announcement.

Then let them know you forgot to tell them something in the previous 'announcement', so if they order now, they can take advantage of your mistake.

Then offer them something. Then after a couple of days send them a last minute reminder. You can phrase it similar to, 'We almost sold out, and we only have a few hours left, so act now so you don't miss out. Remember, you'll be reaping A, B, C benefits.'

Special offers are great during holidays, like Christmas, Halloween or even Valentines Day. Speaking of Valentines Day, remember your offers don't have to be discounts. They can be something unusual, crazy or fun. Like on Valentines Day, offer your clients a rose or chocolate for ordering that day.

Your goal should be to keep things exciting and fun. Keep all your promotions an event.

Another way to produce more feedback from your e-mails is to send customers FAQ e-mails. Let's say for example, you send an e-mail that creates some questions you'd like to respond to.

You can send an FAQ offer or follow up e-mail that answers all their questions and presents a new offer or special deal for your customers.

How Often You Should E-mail Clients?

How often should you e-mail your clients? If a customer consistently buys your products and services, you should send frequent e-mails.

If however, you are sending a special promotional offer to someone that has never ordered from you, don't waste too much time on it.

My experience suggests customer's who buy something once or twice are much more likely to buy again.

When Should You Send Your E-Mail Offers?

When should you e-mail your clients? The answer is 'It depends.' My experience shows Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days to e-mail people.

Why? Who knows?

It may be people don't want to check their e-mail on the weekends. It may be they are thinking of the weekend and not their e-mail on Friday.

They may have too much work to catch up on Mondays. For me, Tuesdays and Thursdays have always produced the best responses. Then again, I am focusing on B2B customers. Your experience of the B2C industry may be different.

These are just a few things you can do to spice up your e-mail campaign. The bottom line is this' whenever you send an e-mail, you have to create much more than a simple announcement.

An announcement isn't going to call people to action. You have to carefully craft your e-mails, to encourage your customers to act. You want to offer your customers some incentive so they act on your e-mail immediately.

And one last point... Don't reveal your price in the e-mail.

Your job is to entice, compel and motivate your customers to buy.

That's the bottom line.