Many people ask, what is email marketing? They know what an email is and how it works but may be unsure how this powerful medium can be used to benefit a business.

We define email marketing as the mass sending of emails to existing customers, potential customers or contacts. These people are targeted using lists. These lists can be generated from existing customer records, sign-up forms on websites & affiliated media, general contacts that have built up overtime or they can be purchased.

This data is then used to target the most relevant message to the recipient. For example if they are existing customers you may be trying to offer them a discount for another purchase or for a new customer you may be trying to promote the product or service rather than something more specific.

So email marketing is simply a way of turning a list of contacts into a cost effective promotional tool. Whatever you offer can be promoted with an e-mail. Smart Messenger gives you the tools to be able to design, manage and monitor your promotion so you can get the most out of it. Emails are the only fully measurable marketing medium because of the amount of data you can get from monitoring systems like ours.

Visit us on Wednesday at the 2012 Two Counties Business Exhibition at the Newmarket racecourse from 11am until 4pm.

Ask us about Email Marketing and SMS marketing and find out how it can save your business a small fortune and get you some new customers too.

We are also looking for email marketing resellers so if you are a design agency, marketing company etc please drop by and ask us for our email marketing reseller information pack.

We will also be on hand to discuss our Web Design and Development services and answer and questions you have about getting listed in Google or how best to promote your business using social media. So why not drop by and say Hi?

The event is free to attend and you can source new suppliers giving you the chance to reduce your business costs as well as pick up lots of new ideas to help your business become more successful

We'll have full details of all we offer for you take away with you and some tasty little treats too. We hope to see you there.

We recently launched new functionality within Smart Messenger to allow you to create sign up forms for your Facebook pages.

This feature makes it easy for people to sign up to your campaigns and for you to send highly targeted email communications as a result.

The form is easy to create and you can do this within the contacts area of your Smart Messenger account. The form on your facebook page will pre-fill the standard information about the person wanting to sign up, including their name, date of birth, location, gender and email address and you can also add additional bespoke fields for them to collect even more details from them.

After the person has clicked 'register' their details are automatically added into your Smart Messenger account ready for your next email campaign.

How to get your email opened and read
Sending an email to your recipients is one thing, getting them to open and read it is another.

Competition is high, not only are you competing with other companies within your industry but with every other industry and his dog for your recipients inbox attention. Here are some handy tips to help you stand out from the crowd.

The basics - get that email opened!
A meaningful sender name, a click provoking subject line and a powerful pre-header. Use these to your advantage and they will work hard to grab your recipients attention and get them to open your message.

Keep a close eye on your email marketing reports to see how effective each email campaign you send has been.

Get it read and some ROI
Establish your goals right at the beginning, before you start writing that email. Now write those goals down and make sure your email meets them.

Look consistent, your emails need to be in line with all of your other types of communication, especially your website as this is where they will go next. Consistency helps to build trust. If your emails look totally different your recipients will wonder if your links have taken them to the right place.

Test, Test and Test again
Before you send your message out, make sure you test your message properly. If one of your links doesn't take your recipient to the right page this not only means that you may not get their business, but your email will lose integrity with the recipient. See our Email Marketing Checklist.

Free Advice and Support
All Smart Messenger customers receive free advice and support on a 'Just Call Us' basis. If you want to find out more contact us

Send your customers an email Christmas Message.

Smart Messenger has Free Christmas Email Templates for you to customise and send to your clients.

Smart Messenger is easy to use and costs just £10 per month which includes 1000 emails, additional emails are half a penny or less each. We have some general free email templates you are welcome to use or of course you may use you own, or we can design a bespoke one for you for just £99.

Our Email Reporting is very comprehensive, you can see who has opened your email, what device they used to open it, who clicked on your links and so much more.

We fully support and provide excellent email marketing advice for all of our customers as part of the service.

To find out more and see a full list of features request our free email marketing info pack or call Julia on 01603 858250.

Now this is a tough question usually, as all you can really do is look at the standard statistics and take a guess as to how these apply to your target audience - right?

Wrong! When you send an email campaign out through Smart Messenger you can tell exactly who is using a desktop email client, a web based email system or their smart phone to read their email. You can even see which browsers and phones are used the most.

With this information at your disposal you can decide all sorts of things - do you need a mobile friendly website developed? Should you develop an iPhone app, iPad app, Android app etc. Perhaps you just want to target the people you know who own an iPhone and send them a text?

Smart Messenger tells you exactly who uses these devices and provides you with a downloadable list to use as you please - perhaps it's another email , follow up call, SMS text message or maybe even your brochure in the post. As you can download the personal data for each contact you instantly have a list ready to go.

This is just another one of our standard features which you can use within our standard account for just £10 per month. If you want to find out more please contact us.

Wouldn't it be nice if you knew who was genuinely interested in the services you offer?

With email marketing it's easy to find out who these people are via reporting.

You can see in your reports:

• how many people have opened your email newsletter
• who has clicked on your links
• when people interacted with your message
• who has unsubscribed
• which emails have bounce

You can download a full list from each report. What's more if you upload a name, contact number and any other personal data with your list this information will come back to you in the download. This makes it really easy to follow up with a phone call, sms text message or even who to target with a brochure in the post.

Take a look at our full Email Marketing Feature List to see what else we have to offer.

We also provide unlimited 'Just Call Us' advice and support to all of our customers, as well as a blog with handy email marketing tips

With more people using their mobile phones to check their emails you want to make sure that they can see your message.

It's very straightfoward to add a link to your email marketing messages so your recipient can see the message in full. Common terms for this link are:

'View in a browser'
'Can't see our lovely images click here'
'Email not displaying properly'

This functionality is included free within Smart Messenger. If you have an account with us and would like to know how to put it on to your messages - you receive free unlimited advice and support so 'Just Call Us'!

This is just one of the many features Smart Messenger offers, take a look at our Email Marketing Feature List

You can get into your recipients pockets in an instant!

SMS marketing is the perfect way to send alerts, reminders and notifications - those things triggered by real world events.

Examples:

"A 3 bed property in the area you are interested in has just come on to the market [link]"

"The office will be closed this afternoon"

"Your car has been serviced and is ready for collection"

In addition to this you can use SMS text marketing to send offers and promotions.

Examples:

On a slow day a restaurant owner may text his regulars to offer a free drink with every main meal purchased.

An event organiser may text registered visitors to entitle them to a freebie when showing the text upon entry.

A shop may text a discount code to all contacts who clicked on a particular item within their latest email campaign.

You will notice that the last example above demonstrates that you don't need to blanket all of your recipients with a text message but you can be selective and really use the media to your advantage to get the best results.

Request our SMS info pack for more information.

Don't be deceived by our low price tag. Smart Messenger is UK based and bursting with features to help you make your email marketing campaigns a success. We are always adding new features to ensure our system remains competitive in functional terms so if there is a feature you need, just tell us and we will probably add it!

Email List Management

• Store unlimited contacts and unlimited lists
• Automatic Unsubsribe facility
• Automatic bounce handling
• Export bounces and unsubscribes to update your offline database
• Import and suppress previous unsubscribes and bounces
• Automatic removal of duplicatesRemoval of invalid email addresses.
• 20 personal data fields per contact
• Filter Facility to segment and target your contacts

List Building

• Upload your own list
• Create forms within Smart Messenger to collect data on your website
• Single or Double opt in options
• Send automated welcome/thank you messages

Email Campaign Creation

Lots of creation options are available and don't forget you can always use our helpline if you need assistance or advice on how best to structure your message.

• Bespoke Templates just £99 each
• Choose one of our free email templates
• Upload your own HTML
• Create your own template with our easy to use visual editor
• Personalise your message to improve open and response rates
• Add your own text, images, links and files
• Add a web version of your message for smart phones
• Add social share links to facebook, twitter and the like
• Create multipart, html only or text only messages

Testing & Deliverability

Helping you to ensure your message is perfect and reaches as many inboxes as possible.

• Preview facility
• Format error checker
• Spam checker
• Free unlimited test sends
• Inbox Preview - see how your message will look in around 30 email clients

Sending your Email Campaign

Send your message when you want to or when your recipients want to receive it.

• Send to multiple lists
• Automatic duplicate removal - no one will get your message twice
• One to One facility - send to a single person
• Choose a date and time - up to a year in advance
• Resend to people who don't open your message
• Limit delivery speed facility - choose how many emails are sent per hour
• Intelligent Timed Sending - send at a time that suits individual recipients
• Recurring campaign facility

Email Reporting

More statistics than you can shake a stick at - and all at an individual level too, helping you follow up the hot leads first!

• Graphs and charts of your response rates
• Open up's - see which individuals have opened your emails
• Click-thru's - see which individuals have clicked on your links
• Bounces, unsubscribes and other data provided with individuals details
• Download reports and include personal data to make follow up easy
• Create new lists from reports to send a targeted follow up message
• Integrates with Google Analytics - track campaign activity on your website

Help, Advice and Support

• Everyone has questions - we are a friendly team, just call us and ask!
• Free unlimited 'Just Call Us' support
• Free advice how to best structure your message
• Ideas and Advice on how to improve your response rates
• Online help facility

For more information request our Email Marketing Info Pack