This is an introduction to marketing by e-mail. Exporters are discovering that the internet can be a fast, cost-effective, and efficient way to market and sell their products to buyers around the world.
The Internet - Where the Customers Are
E-mail can be a very effective tool for marketing your products to buyers around the world IF you know what you are doing and follow certain rules. The important word here is - IF -. Those who do not know what they are doing or do not follow the rules quickly get a bad reputation and rarely have successful campaigns.
A Dedicated E-Mail Address
The first thing you are going to need is a dedicated e-mail address. That is an e-mail address that has your department name, followed by the “@” symbol, followed by the web site address (URL) of your company. For example, sales@reallygoodfood.com, or export@thebestcomputers.com.
Having a free (hotmail, gmail, yahoo, vsnl, sina, etc) e-mail address is one of the worst things you can do in business. You do NOT want to use a free e-mail address. It’s fine for your personal messages to friends. But free e-mail accounts used for business purposes are very, very bad for your business.
“Opt-in” e-mail marketing
There is a right way and a very wrong way to market your products by e-mail. First let's discuss the right way. You should always have the person’s permission before you send them a sales e-mail message. NEVER send spam. The common question is "How can I ask them if I can contact them until I contact them?" Good question. Here's the answer.
Firstly, go through all the e-mails of prospective buyers that have contacted you in the past. Send each of them an e-mail asking if they would like to be on your "mailing list". Those who say yes are then put on your new opt-in e-mail list.
Secondly, there are e-mail address lists that you can buy. These are e-mail addresses of companies that might be interested in your product. But you should contact them first and ask for permission to send them a sales message.
The third way to get permission to send prospective buyers an e-mail is have them "opt-in" for your list. On your web site you will announce that you have periodic announcements of your products and if the viewer wants to get on (opt in) the mailing list that they should contact you. Also add to the list the e-mail addresses of people you meet at trade fairs and got letters from. Over time, you will have a very nice list of the e-mail addresses of prospective buyers who want to hear from you.
If you have a new product that you think the buyers might be interested in you can send a message to everyone on your list. Do not send too many messages however. One message every two or three months is enough. Less than this and they forget you. More than that and they thin you are sending too many. Make the messages you send as interesting as possible. In addition to introducing your new product you should also include some interesting information. Buyers will read it if they think they will learn something. They may or may not read it if it is only a sales message.
Write your messages just like you would a sales letter. Use upper and lower case letters (not all capitals) and complete words (no abbreviations). More detailed information on opt-in e-mail market is on the CD: Database List of US Importers.
