The power of an EDM

In the digital world we are constantly bombarded with advertising and companies wanting to sell themselves and their products to us. It's often a tough world to get heard, with the 'noise' of social media and search engines leaving little space for genuine information and communication. For 543, the solution to breaking through that noise has been getting better and better results through the use of electronic digital marketing, or EDM. Below are our pointers on how to make the most of a mailout, make it look incredible and importantly, keep your users engaged.

THE WHY
The first step you need to understand before pushing on with an electronic mailout is why you are going to do it. What are your motivations for sending out an EDM? Is it purely sales? Do you just think you should be doing it? Can you offer your readers something?

For us, a good EDM starts at giving the people you are emailing something that they'll find interesting and worth reading. There is no point bombarding people with sales emails that don't really serve the recipient. Rather, it's important to be sending information that they will read, engage with and possibly enjoy. In a digital world, marketing is more about creating a familiarity with the sender/reader than hardcore sales. Send information that will make your readers go 'ah yes...blah blah is an expert in that' next time they need to make a purchase in your area of specialty. WHY - BE HELPFUL.

THE WHO
You can't just scatterbomb everyone with an email address - first off it's against anti spam legislation, and secondly it's an extremely inefficient way to make a sale. You want an engaged audience, people that want to hear what you have to say. A starting point is obviously your email contact list, but thought needs to be put into how you expand that list. Add every new client, or every new contact you come across, but also aim to increase your database beyond those you already know.

We recommend using something like a pop up on your site that allows you to store the emails and details straight to your email campaign software. Our top tip is offering a discount or something free in a pop-up in exchange for being included in a mailing list. You may sacrifice on the final sale price, but you will inevitably pick up more sales by being able to talk directly to interested parties. WHO - POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS.

THE WHAT
Regular content is what often stops small businesses from sending out EDM's. It takes time and discipline to sit down and right an email. The trick is definitely writing about something you know alot about, and if possible something current. Think about giving away small bits of free advice to hook the bigger bit of work. Try to send something at least once a month, but don't send it if it feels forced - content is king. And don't be afraid to search through the net to find topics that you can write on. When all else fails - contact 543 and we can help with the content! WHAT - BRIEF, INTERESTING, REGULAR.

THE HOW
Lastly, once you know who you are sending an EDM to and what you are going to write about, you need to make sure you have a great tool that will get the email into all their inboxes. The tool that seems to be the most popular globally is MailChimp - but for us, the winner is definitely CampaignMonitor. Both those tools provide ready made templates and a level of testing that can have you fairly certain your email won't get stopped by spam filters. They both let you know who is reading your message, and who is clicking what links within it. Both are affordable, and if you do go for CampaignMonitor we can set it up, monitor it and generally help out remotely.DO IT YOURSELF? OR GET HELP?At 543 we are pretty big on empowering our clients to be able to do all these marketing things themselves, however sometimes it's just not the smart play. Ultimately, with any marketing, you need to decide if the money/time you spend trying to do something yourself, would be better spent getting a pro to do it quicker, better and without you ever having to worry. For some it will be DIY, for others it might be worth sending Jamie an email at [email protected] to chat about helping out with all aspects of your marketing for as low as $150.