Today I’m sending out an email marketing campaign targeting lawyers in need of graphic design. I wanted to document this process to show how easy it can be to generate business (I hope). Here it is online.
Why an email blast?
Honestly, I have almost an identical campaign ready to go as a direct mail campaign. It costs hundreds to send it out. I spend days stuffing envelopes or having my designer stuff envelopes. I end up generating a lot of trash. Let’s face it, sometimes our graphic design is the art of making junk mail.
On the other hand, my email campaign will cost me pennies to send out, was easy to create with HTML/CSS, and creates no trash. Also, an email campaign is trackable…I’ll see who opened it and who clicked on the links. The receiver is a click away from contacting me or visiting my website. With printed materials, the receiver will need to type a URL to learn more.
What’s wrong with email?
Email marketing isn’t perfect. You can be viewed as a “spammer” for sending marketing that is not asked for. Many potential clients will block the message, have spam filters, and are behind a firewall.
My approach is to accept this limitations and move on.
- Make it easy for the customers to unsubscibe from your emails. They don’t want spam and you want a clean database.
- I don’t send our too many emails and harass potential business. I look at campaign as a matter of timing…If the client need something right now, they will call.
- Have a large enough database that you can deal with the blocked and bounced emails. If you are getting only a small percent of responders, just send out a larger database of potential clients.
Here’s how I did it.
I decided to target the legal industry. I’ve worked for more than a few firms, but I don’t have a ton of work. If you look at my email, you will see brochures and envelopes for the same clients. I also have the same brochure up there twice (inside and outside). I did have to stretch the samples, but with good layout, I think it feels like I’ve done a ton of legal marketing.
I built a database of lawyers in Chicago. It would be better is I had more email addresses, but I feel that I have an OK start. My database is managed online and I can easily add to it as I go.
I set up the HTML file as pretty solid, basic layout. Email browsers and sites like Yahoo! and gmail don’t do a great job of displaying complicated HTML. I sized the file to 600 pixles so that it will fit into the gmail window.
However, you don’t have to know HTML to send out fancy emails. Services like Constant Contact and Campaign Manager have professional templates that you can build your campaigns from. I’ve set up lots of customized templates for clients on Constant Contact.
Speaking of Constant Contact, the next step was to upload my layout and database to a service that can send out bulk email Blasts. I use Quebert.net just because they are cheap, but it’s not quite as user-friendly as a site like Constant Contact. Anyway, I scheduled the blast to go out in an hour or so, and that’s it.
What now?
Well, we’ll see…Perhaps the phone will ring. Perhaps I will get some emails. Perhaps nothing (my database isn’t that big). I’ll be able to view reports instantly to monitor the results of the email.
I will have to follow-up in some way. I will send other emails in the future. I may call the recipients. I may send the direct mail piece out at well.
Whatever happens, I will post it to this blog. I’m always suggesting clients do this, so I’m taking my own advice. I’m excited to do this simple process that I’m supposed to be an expert in.
