By Carlee Driscoll

Email newsletters are a popular marketing tool, particularly with small to medium business because they are so cost effective! Whilst they are not the perfect marketing tool they should absolutely be included in most businesses’ arsenal of marketing weaponry.

The biggest fundamental mistake we see people making (other than sending Edition 1 of “our monthly newsletter” and never sending Edition 2!) is that people are mistaking Microsoft Outlook for an Email Marketing System. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not disparaging Outlook. It is a great system for managing your one-on-one or small group emails. It is NOT, however, a bulk email distribution system. In fact, bulk emails via Outlook are a surefire way to get your business on the spam list!

There are plenty of cost effective web-based email systems out there that will manage your bulk emails much more efficiently, and more importantly, in line with legislation. So here is a quick rundown of what an Email Marketing System (such as Constant Contact or MailChimp) should do for you that Outlook just doesn’t do…

• Manages the sending of your bulk emails to avoid spam filters. You hit send one once but it cleverly batches them up and sends them for you.
• Forces you to include unsubscribe options, therefore ensuring you are legally compliant.
• Handles your unsubscribes for you automatically, taking those ‘Do not mail’ recipients off your list and observing their wishes.
• Looks the part by using designed html templates to catch the eye and display your brand more than a standard text email. 
• Helps you with your measurement and tracking, allowing you to report on opens, bounces, forwards, click throughs and all that powerful data that will help you make the right marketing decisions in the future. 
• Allows you to maintain your database in a series of segmented lists for specific marketing campaigns and activities.

Pretty impressive hey? And the beauty is that these systems are not expensive with ongoing costs of anything as low as $15 a month depending on your newsletter frequency or database size. It is absolutely worth setting up a robust email marketing system as your first step! Next step you just need to work out what to write, when to send it, who to send it to and how often, but that is a whole new column for another time ☺

Carlee is the Strategic Marketing Planner for Chilli. If you’d like to see how Carlee and the Chilli team can help you grow your business call 07 5437 7788.