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Welcome to the new Tria Design & Marketing E-mail. Tria is a new firm which comprises the founder of Paradise Graphic Design, Ann Siegle, and the founders of Abbi Creative, Tina Block and Linda Brennan. By now, if you're on our email list, you know about Tria Design & Marketing. To get off to a great start, we're rolling out a whole new group of marketing tips and ideas designed to help you build your business—this is the first of these e-mails under the Tria brand. We're talking this month about improving your e-mail marketing. E-mail is the single most effective marketing vehicle—it's inexpensive and it has higher response rates (if done well) than direct mail. But, testing is the key, as some methods are more effective than others. Growing your list is another area where people trip up—it's not how many, it's who is signing up on your list that counts. Many of our clients use e-mail marketing very effectively. The very first rule of thumb is use your own opt-in list. Do NOT rent, buy or otherwise add prospects to your list who have not specifically requested to be on it. It's OK to ask your clients to drop their card in a bin, or to sign up on a sheet of paper, as long as they have given you their email. You can send your clients e-mails if they're a paying client (considered tacit approval if they have done business with you) but by no means should you purchase a prospect list and e-mail to it. All this being said, your 'house list' as it is known, can be a gold mine for marketing. Renting and e-mailing to lists is considered spam, and your firm can be blacklisted at ISPs for doing so. We recommend using a service that partcipates in no-spam policies; we like Microsoft's B-Central and Roving Software's Constant Contact. Both support custom designed e-mail templates as well as offer canned templates to get you started. One of our clients, Cayman Islands based Cathy Church's Underwater Photo Centre and Gallery uses it well. In fact, Cathy's customers reply with personal messages and comments regarding her e-mails. Cathy has a unique, personally-engaging writing style that reflects her down-to-earth personality and terrific teaching skills—and that style permeates all of her marketing materials. Her customers really do have a personal relationship with her, and she reflects that fact in what she says in her e-mail. Each e-mail includes a tip, links to their company website (www.cathychurch.com), and information about their world-wide photo vacations. Cathy builds her list by having people who are in her gallery sign up on a list, and she has a sign-in box on her website. In the near future, we’ll be working with Cathy to optimize her e-mail marketing 'house list,’ and track her results—which just happen to be the very subjects of the following e-mails: Testing your e-mail campaign: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/1578821 Or, use a survey instead of testing: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/1581601 How to optimize your house e-mail list's growth http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/1578301 Cathy and Herb also utilize a well-rounded group of offline marketing activities, too. They advertise in every local publication, including the major airline magazines that people read while coming to Cayman. They send postcards to their North American customer base - which announce new trips and courses—the cards are sent two-to four-times annually. And they maintain a hybrid-commerce site to facilitate the purchase of their beautifully affordable gallery photography and gifts. We're currently revamping the online gallery for them, so they can prevent unauthorized stealing of images, and we are enhancing the user interface significantly. Ann will be out of the office March 4 -10, 2003. She will be in the Cayman Islands visiting long-time clients and friends Herb Rafael and Cathy Church at Cathy Church's Underwater Photo Centre and Gallery (see above), as well as visiting with David and Vicki Legge of Pinnacle Publishing and Marketing. Of course she'll be scuba diving, taking photographs (to use in our marketing later in the year), and enjoying the beautiful weather.
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