In this market, if there is one thing I think virtually every company should do in terms of marketing at this moment, it is to build email lists of clients and prospective clients.

Now when I say this to people, they mostly come back to me and say, “oh we’ve done that”. But when I get a bit closer (if they let me get a bit closer that is), it then turns out everything is not quite as I think it should be.

Here’s what I feel is the perfect scenario…

First, all enquirers’ and purchasers’ email addresses are added to a database showing their postal and email address. These people are then emailed each week or two with an informative item – not just pure sales but also giving some interesting background. Something that they will want to read, because of their area of interest.

If you are interested in seeing examples of such emails, give me a call and I will forward you a few samples.

Second, email lists of potential customers have to be built up. Of course you might be lucky and find you can buy these readymade, but most of us don’t have this luck.

To give an example, let’s assume you sell software to businesses. You can go out and buy a list of most businesses selected by what they sell – but those lists are likely to be just addresses to the MD or an administrator. They can work, and I would not knock them, but it can also be incredibly beneficial to build a list of the email addresses of the actual people who will decide to buy your product.

Doing this it not nearly as complex or expensive as people think. True, an email address researched in this way might cost you £2 – but the fact is that once you have that address, it is yours, and you can use it quite a few times. (Also if you need to get two or three people’s addresses per company the price remains much the same, but the volume of addresses increases).

Next you load these addresses into a database attach to a specialist email marketing program, write your interesting copy, and send it out. Of course you have to have an unsubscribe button on the email – but how many unsubs you get depends on how good your copy is. If it is really exciting and lively you will get more people asking to sign up, than you get people leaving.

Obviously this is a quick summary – but having this list of potential customers which you mail every few weeks with interesting copy, and having your list of people who have shown their interest or actually bought, is a major step towards having a business that really makes use of digital technology.

And it really does work.

As always, if you want to know more email Tony@hamilton-house.com or call 01536 399 013