eLearning Series
While the media loves to focus on the latest and greatest newfangled technology (i.e. Twitter), the reality is that the newest flavor-of-the-month technology doesn’t always perform as well as many of the tried and true methods.
Tip #5 – Email Messaging – is a great way to get past customers and prospects to come back to your site.
If done correctly, it’s one of the best returns on marketing investments you can make. Like a retail store that’s located in a hard-to-find area of town, people must have a reason to visit your site. People will visit your site from an online search, from your URL that’s printed on an advertisement or a business card. But the best way to get people to come back is to send them an email. It costs seven times as much money and effort to get a new client than it does to sell an existing customer additional services. Email is not a great acquisition method; it works best as a retention marketing tool to get past customers to re-engage with you.
Why Email? Email is an elastic medium. Done right, it snaps people back to your site and organization. In the business world, email is the first and last thing they check each day when they get into the office. Email still remains one of the top applications people use to communicate. Done incorrectly, however, people will tune out your messages, unsubscribe, or complain to your ISP. (So make sure people aren’t surprised when you send them messages.) 
Best Ways to Use Email Messaging: Keep in touch with your clients. Don’t feel like you have to publish a newsletter with information about new products and press releases. Use it instead to automate staying in touch by using personalization properly.
Let past customers know about upcoming events. If you’re going to be going to a trade show, email can be a great, cost-effective way to reach out and let people know you’ll be in their area. New Products or Services. Email is an ideal way to let people know what else you can do for them. Give relevant links to your site.
Make sure that your emails allow people to visit relevant areas of your website, so that they can drill-down for more information. (For example, visit here to read our past eLearning Series articles >>.) 
Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid: I’ve written about this extensively in another eLearning series (visit here for the full contents of the series), but here are some key mistakes to avoid when it comes to email marketing Non-permissioned list. One of the fastest ways to kill your reputation and/or get your mail server shut down is to send messages to people that you don’t have an existing business relationship with. Make sure people expect messages from you, and that if people sign up on your site, that you have a time, date and IP address record of their request. Messages that are too long. Know your audience. Make sure that your messages are tailored to the people who read them.
A message that is too long won’t be read. Often a shorter message can outperform a longer one. Use your website for more detailed drilldown information. From Line. Make sure that your full name and company name is in the From display line. I get a lot of messages that I’m likely to discard from people that just have their first name in the email FROM line. Subject Line. Make sure that you have a subject line that gets people to open the message and pay attention. Make sure it’s relevant. This is one area to personalize for best results. Make sure your contact information is in the email. Often people forget to put their phone number or other contact information into an email message… this makes it unlikely that someone will be able to respond other than via email.
Summary: Done correctly, Email Messaging can drive past customers and prospects back to your website. It’s a reason we’re in business today. Without our email newsletters and eLearning series, it would be difficult to stay in touch with the thousands of individuals we’ve worked with in the past.