What are You Doing With Customer Email Addresses?

You get email addresses from your clients, right? It's time to start USING them.

Facebook marketing has become spotty at best. To put it bluntly, it simply sucks. They've tweaked things so much that half the people who like your page never see the things you post on it.

I went back to what worked for me before; direct mail and email.

Up until this month, I was using another email service for my marketing emails, but realized they were one of the more expensive ones out there and I wasn't really getting a good value. I switched to a company called MailChimp which offers some pretty cool options, even on their free plan.

In addition to their paid plans, they have a free plan. Up to 2000 names and 12,000 emails per month. After reviewing the options, I have decided to cut the cord with my old service when my paid subscription runs out at the end of the month. Currently, I'm in the process of migrating over to MailChimp. It's easy to use . . I've already done a couple of things with it. I also like the way their lists and groups are set up, which makes it easy to email a smaller subset of a larger group.

Why use a direct email service like MailChimp?

I like to use it just to "keep in touch" with people. If I don't keep my name in front of the faces of my clients, they don't have any reason to think about me. If they're not thinking about me, I run the risk of them being distracted by another photographer or their friend with a camera and a Facebook page who "wants to be professional".

Not everything I send out is direct advertising. Like a blog post, some of it is purely informational, like a newsletter. You can include seasonal items, recipes, tips for taking photographs at certain types of events, etc.

If you do mini-sessions, this is a great place to let clients know about them. I run a gift card sale on Black Friday, so this is how people get notified.

After an event such as a Bridal Fair, I will drop a couple of emails to those names/email addresses I collected inviting them into the studio or letting them know of a "special offer to show attendees."

You can create a signup form to put on your website or Facebook page so people can "opt-in" to receive it. They can also "opt-out" if they no longer wish to hear from you.

And . . . you have to be consistent, but not overbearing. Once a month with a newsletter . . . maybe once more a month to select groups with a targeted offer. Don't turn it into something where the reader just wants to delete you because you're in their mailbox every day like some companies' ads that just won't go away.

If you've not set anything up yet for email marketing and management of email addresses, give them a try. Click the Monkey above, or go to www.MailChimp.com

- David Grupa