Preferred Retail Systems

Email Marketing Basics

(This article assumes you have a website, it also assumes you have a few customers or a mailing list from which you can hope to derive customers.)

Have you ever compared the cost of sending an email vs. sending a letter by USPS? The advantage seems pretty obvious. So why is it that you are not regularly sending out email newsletters, announcements, and coupons to your customers?

My guess is that the task of assembling the email distribution list, creating a decent looking email piece, and then getting past the built in barriers that your ISP puts in place to prevent those who send out SPAM, is just too much. Many of you have taken a stab at it, but this should be a process that you do very consistently and at least monthly.

This article will suggest ways that you can begin to do a consistent email advertising/marketing/customer retention program using your Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System or Point of Sale System.

First things first, get your customer’s email address! Those of you who have been in business for more than a few months should have this down. If not, you MUST change your behavior. Getting your customer’s email address is the single most important piece of contact information obtained from them in the sales cycle!

So let’s start with these assumptions and set forth the process so you can get started.

Step One: Export your email list from RMS/POS into an Excel Spreadsheet

There is a custom report that will export just the email list. If you don’t have it, look for a link at the end of this article. (RMS Only)

Step Two: Create your email marketing piece

This can be as simple as a Word document, or as complex as a fully programmed html document. It can be self created, created with a template on a website, or created professionally. If you need guidance on how to create it, ask.

Step Three: Choose a distribution list mechanism or provider

This is where most of you will stop, because you know that services like Constant Contact cost money, and doing it on your own website is too difficult. Depending upon where you host your website (you do have a website, right?), and how your site is designed, you may already have tools in place to provide this service.

Step Four: Populate your distribution list with results from step one

How you do this depends entirely upon the choice you make in step three. If you use Constant Contact, their interface will guide you through it. If you have your own program inside your website, it will also have an import feature. Once the list is imported, it will need to be maintained. This is a consideration as you decide upon the method of distribution.

Step Five: Attach your marketing piece to the distribution list and send

Like step four, this can be easy or hard depending upon the service you use.

Summary

You’re probably thinking that this article is a bit too general, and you are probably right. So let me be real specific about how I would recommend approaching this project.

I would create my website with a hosting company that allows you to plug in features on your website as part of the hosting package, and design your site using the right tools. My recommendation is to use Joomla, a free web design program, to build your site.

Joomla has a really simple user interface which allows you to add, remove, and modify content on your site using Internet Explorer. Then, I would add one of the many free newsletter programs to the Joomla site and use it for sending the email marketing pieces.

That is exactly what I have done in announcing this article. And it costs me nothing more than the annual hosting fee for my website – less than $10.00/mo.

And finally, a couple of important notes. Do not use your email program to send out an email marketing piece with everyone’s email address in the To; or CC: fields. This is a Big No-No and you will anger your customers. When you do this, you compromise everyone’s email address and unwittingly cause your customers to end up on unwanted email lists.

Remember that some states require you to provide an "opt out" process if you are sending unsolicited commercial email. Your program must have an automated process to unsubscribe users who don’t want you to contact them in this manner.

Good luck. Keep your marketing pieces short and simple, ensure your graphics are email friendly, and do a spell check before you hit send.