I‘ll come clean first:
- My customer list isn’t as good as it should be
- My communication isn’t nearly as often as it should be
- My messages are good, but not optimised or split tested
Having said all that, every time I communicate, something comes out. My last e-mail to 485 contacts was about the office being closed on a specific day.
Still, I got responses:
- 2 3 requests for a price list
- 1 order
- 1 technical issue to solve
- 1 personal e-mail
Not bad for an e-mail that was only intended to inform – not to sell.
The lesson here is that people want to hear from you. And not just when you’re “selling”. Plus, it doesn’t have to be a lot of work if you have the tools in place to do it.
For e-mail that means:
- a list with contact details integrated into your e-mail program, if that’s how you’re communicating
- a program that’ll handle your e-mail (I use interspire’s e-mail marketer for that)
If that’s the case, a message doesn’t take a lot of time to write and send.
Just do it regularly – plan if at all possible and you’ll reap the results.
Otto