E-marketing is quick and immediate…from business to business marketing applications to consumer packaged goods the point of your E-marketing is to move your customer from Point A to Point B with the goal of making a sale. The most important step of preparing a strategic market plan is to aggressively define who your target is and what are their target cues that will cause them to buy. Print analysts will remember an average print advertisement had three to five seconds of attention. Today’s E-marketing messaging has been reduced to seconds so the obvious need to say what’s essential has increased exponentially.

In our market development business we use tools such as affinity testing, sentiment marketing, and related focused tools that crystallizes the Who, What, Where, When, Why issues that make up a target market. From this data we have the ability to provide some foundational building blocks that you can use to build your E-Marketing program regardless of your particular market concentration.

#1 Focus Your Message

Clutter is a top reason why E-Marketing messaging is moved to the trash. Too much content is the enemy of focused E-Marketing…everything and the kitchen sink says to the reader “I don’t have a plan and as you can see I have included our entire catalog of products and services. Hope you find something you like!”

#2 Use Drip Asking

Drip asking goes hand in hand with focusing your message. The drip concept is just how it sounds. You provide your reader with a set of planned “mini-communications” that provide rich content that answers his/her questions that you have anticipated they would want to know. Slow but sure is faster than all at once messaging.

#3 Timing is Everything

Know your potential customer’s preferences and match your E-Marketing to relevant aspects of their business or particular situation. Of course a key here is to know their preferences before you start but by considering things such as time zone, season of the year, consumer versus commercial business, you can construct what the best time of day your E-Marketing should arrive and related.

#4 Yell and Sell Rarely Works

Don’t scream at your intended reader. No one likes that in person and the same holds true for E-Marketing. By having three solid points to make and making them with solid logic and facts will do much more than pushing messages using pop-ups, animations starting without their permission. These gimmicks usually produce the opposite positive impact that was intended.

#5 Use Bold Headings

Grab your reader’s attention with a strong first statement and follow through with three to five main supporting points to create a cohesive experience. A subject heading that is relevant to a prospect’s specific needs will do much more than a long list of products and services.

#6 Use a Strong Close

By the time someone has spent reading your E-Marketing you need to tell him or her what to do next. This relates to your micro-messaging that you have mapped out. What do you want them to do next? Call? Email? Click? Offering too many options provides the same set of confusion that too many offers produces.

#7 Know Where the Gold Is

You should spend an equal amount of time analyzing the results of your E-Marketing that you do in preparing it. Look at the stats your Internet Provider can provide you, or whatever service you use. Aspects such as number of opens, time spent reading, etc. will tell you what is being read and what is being trashed. Very useful when preparing your next E-Marketing program.

The primary purpose of most E-Marketing programs is to generate a qualified list of leads or to develop them. Knowing what your most important objective can guide all of the necessary steps for launching your next program. Do you want to build a strong brand image or grow immediate sales? Knowing your true objective and focusing your efforts in this regard will produce greatly improved results.