Page 32 - MetalForming March 2010

Michael Bleau has served manufacturing and consumer- related industries since 1986. Prior to forming Industry Scope, a strategic b2b and b2c sales and marketing consultancy, in 2002, he held executive positions for several automation and press manufacturers. Michael regularly consults with manufacturing companies on strategic planning, sales and marketing, brand and product development, PR and sales-channel development. Industry Scope
tel. 810/397-1429
mbleau@industry-scope.com
www.industry-scope.com
Keeping in touch with your cus- tomers can take many forms, the best being face-to-face. When cus- tomers are geographically spread out, keeping in touch can be a challenge for your account managers who must bal- ance a frequency of visits that maintain strong ties to current customers while having time to build new relationships. Therefore, maintaining contact in between personal engagements is important. One way to do so is though micro-bursts or larger newsletters issued via direct e-mail. Personally, I favor the micro-burst as it’s much easier for the recipient to consume and, being concise, it is more likely to be shared. Outside of the obvious use to reach customers, targeted e-mail can be an excellent com- munication tool for reaching out to employees, supply partners, investors and others.
When starting out, research your delivery options. There are dozens of e- mail contact solutions; some web-enabled subscriptions, others server-based solu- tions and stand-alone software packages. For the most part, all offer a simple graphical interface for creating html- based e-mail, list management, launch scheduling, opt-in and opt-out list man- agement and reporting capabilities.
With smaller lists (numbering less than 10,000 addresses) a web-based solutions is a good candidate. Webware offerings tend to be very easy to use, inexpensive and platform independent (Mac or PC friendly)—an especially good choice if you’re an e-mail novice with limited IT staff. The proliferation of online service providers, the com- petitiveness of their subscription mod- els and depth of features offers a quick and simple starting point. For example,
web-based solutions such as Constant- Contact.com offers extensive tool sets that enable you to reach thousands of contacts for less than $50 per month.
The immediacy and feedback of e- mail marketing are two of its key strengths as you can disseminate time- sensitive information in minutes and you can measure some of the results of your efforts almost instantly.
Factors that influence success or fail- ure can be summarized into a few key points:
• First and foremost, have permis- sion—Sound e-mail marketing is based on recipient permission. List rental through a legitimate provider such as your trade association, as a part of a trade event, is fine, but always avoid the use of bulk, purchased e- mail addresses. Companies offering the opportunity to purchase bulk lists may tempt you, and while bulk is cheap, consider why you would want to send e-mail to untargeted, unsuspect- ing, and most likely uninterested par- ties? Moreover, by taking a shotgun approach you risk legal repercussions, as well as jeopardize your organiza- tion’s reputation. Your most reliable means of building an e-mail list is from existing customer contacts, where you have active relationships. If you’re not using a customer relationship man- agement tool, then pooling your sales, service, executive and other internal assembled contacts may be tedious but it is a good start.
• Keep your messaging relevant— With micro-bursts your primary objec- tive is to make the recipient aware, interested, and offered a convenient means to link to your website, download details or contact you to learn more. So
THE BUSINESS OF METALFORMING MICHAEL BLEAU
E-mail Marketing: New Media Primer
30 METALFORMING / MARCH 2010
www.metalformingmagazine.com