Okay…so you want to know more about the email marketing campaign that took FOREVER. Brace yourself. Here’s the nitty-gritty…
Yes, I did my research. I looked into Contant Contact and iContact and a few other online services that produce email marketing campaigns with beautiful html messages with all the bells and whistles. They are also FREAKIN’ EXPENSIVE.
If I had a smaller list, then maybe, just maybe I would consider one of these services. But I already knew that I had a list of 50,000+ emails for real estate professionals in Arizona alone. With that amount, I’d be looking at a few hundred dollars a month for a service. No thanks.
So instead, I used a software. It’s called Atomic Mail Sender and the site looks so much cooler than the interface of the actual program. But it was easy enough to set up, import the email addresses and then get the message typed up and all that.
What I went with is bare bones, people. And depending on your business, this may or may not work for you. HTML messages are pretty. They have color and graphics and snappy taglines. Me likey.
But I don’t need all the bells and whistles. I’m a writer. And really, my writing needs to speak for itself. No amount of html prettiness can clean up sloppy grammar and piss-poor writing.
So we’re talking a text message. Yep…a plain ol’ text email with a little about me and what I can do.
And I didn’t track the emails. You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.
I really don’t care about conversion rates and who opened what and how long they looked at it and all that crap. What it boils down to is that some people will look at my email and come up with one (or several conclusions:
- What the hell is this crap? And why did I get it? (hitting delete button)
- I don’t even work in real estate anymore. The market sucks! (hitting delete button)
- Well, this is one ugly piece o’ crap email. Boring! (hitting delete button)
- I don’t need this. My marketing ROCKS! (hitting delete button)
- Well, that’s a good idea…providing informational products and establishing my expertise in my niche…but I 1) don’t want to spend money on that, 2) don’t have any money to spend on that, 3) can do it myself (setting the email aside to think about it)
- Holy crap! You know, that could really work for my business. I should look more into this… (hitting the reply button and asking for more information)
Obviously, I am most interested in those Holy Crappers. I can help them. I can help grow their business. I can make them authors and experts. Yes, it can be done!
But I also want to get to know those Good Ideaers…because at some point, if they truly realize how great providing detailed information to prospects and establishing one’s self as an authority can be for their business, well, they’re probably going to want my help at some point because they will come to the realization that 1) they need to spend some money on marketing materials and they want that money spent WISELY, 2) they are going to realize that in order to build their business they MUST spend money on marketing and 3) they are going to realize that even if they do have an innate writing ability, they won’t have the time.
So, no, I didn’t track emails and such…but again, I don’t need all those stats and junk. I just want to my peeps – my future clients!!
Wanna know what my email said?? Check in tomorrow!