Build Your Business With Personalized Email

Saatchi & Saatchi the world's leading advertising agency
have a magic system for generating new business which they
have been using for the past 20 years.

It's a simple system ... they make sure they contact each
of their customers at least once every three months.

They have found that contact on a three monthly basis
builds lasting relationships whereas more than three months
exposes customers to competitors.

Building lasting relationships means much more than just
sending a bland "Hello Everyone" type email message.

What are you more likely to read ... an email which says
"Special Offer" or one containing your name from someone you
know? We give special attention to personal emails and
invariable read them.

Let's say you regularly shop at a clothing store in your
town and you get to know and enjoy the service provided
by the owners. If you receive a personalized email from
the store advising you that they have a special sale on
a brand of business shirt that you regularly buy are you
likely to read it? Absolutely ... and you'll probably
respond to the offer as well.

If you plan to make a special offer to your clients then
the message should definitely be personalized. Seth Godin,
Vice President of Direct Marketing, for Yahoo calls this
"Permission Marketing".

We all get flooded with "Interruption Marketing" via the
television and radio. Advertisements via broadcast media
are not personalized and the advertisers are joyful if they
get a 0.01% hit rate.

Spam email is the Internet version of "Interruption Marketing".
If everyone marketed in this way then the Internet would cease
to exist.

Your website and your marketing strategy should be 100%
focused on signing up strangers to give you permission to
market to them. I've signed up 20,000 people in this way by
offering free information.

Once you have permission then you need to:

1. Contact them at least once every three months, and
2. Personalize the messages that you send to them.

Personalization becomes very difficult if you have to
individually compose each message. Fortunately technology and
the Internet makes it possible to do "mail-merge". This is
where you type one message and it is then merged with a
database that adds the name of the recipient plus any other
relevant information. Each recipient receives a message that
looks like it has just be written for them.

You can purchase software that does this but my preference
has always been to use a browser-enabled system that enables me
to send personalized messages to my customers, contacts and
friends from any Internet connection in the world.

If you have not tried personalized email in your marketing
then you're in for a pleasant surprise.

As Seth Godin says: "The Internet is the greatest direct
marketing medium ever invented" ... and I would add ...
especially when the messages are personalized.