February 2005 - Make Every Contact Count

At our February meeting Natalie Thomas of Interzign Web Design talked about the role of e-mail marketing in making every contact count.

Natalie explained that e-mail marketing is not about being a spammer but that it is a valid and very effective lost cost marketing tool for small companies. She explained the role it can play in maintaining customer relationships and talked about the various options such as newsletters, special offers, invitations, surveys and free downloads.

Natalie then went on to talk about the role of a database in e-mail marketing; the simple tools that could be used to maintain it and the various techniques that can be used to collect names.

She then discussed the new legislation coverying spam and privacy and the what you have to do to conform to the legislation; emphasising and explaining the key points of Consent, Identitify, and Unsubscribe.

Finally she discussed the impact of spam and spam filters and how to avoid these with your legitimate e-mails. Throughout there was a steady stream of questions and afterwards there was a discussion of the experiences of various members of the audience and widespread suggestions and comments from those who had tried e-mail marketing in the past.