Email Marketing in Difficult Times
by Ken Hall

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• Make it personal. The best emails are personal. Send them to just one client at a time. Think in terms of going to the mailbox: What do you open first - the letter addressed to “Resident,” or the one with your name on it? Your clients aren’t interested in something sent to 5,000 people on me anonymous list - they want something sent to them personally.
  
  
• Make it a subject of interest to your client. If your client likes adventure travel, mention in the subject line that the email is about Patagonia or whitewater rafting. Being too broad, making the subject “Vacation ideas for 2009” or something that general will have the email relegated to the "I’ll-read-it-later" category, which means it probably won’t be read at all.
  
  
• Keep it brief and focused. Look on the email as a long postcard. You want to grab their attention, peak their interest, and get them to contact you. Show them you value their time - be brief.
  
  
• Have a call to action. End with directions on what you want the recipient to do. "Julie, call me now so we can reserve your cabin. These prices are a rare bargain and may not be available tomorrow." No one takes offense to an action request if it is reasonable and not overblown.
  
  
• Put in a picture! People "see" themselves in pictures, and attractive images spark dreams. Contact the representative of the product you are selling and get an electronic image to put in your email. (If you find this difficult to do, contact me at Ken.Hall@HomeBasedPros.com.) But, don’t overdue it. One picture is good, two small ones can be great, but three might make the file too large and slow in downloading. As we said, it’s a postcard, not a travelogue!
  
  
• Be regular and infrequent. Emails on specific subjects can be sent as frequently as every seven to 10 days, as long as they are different, tell your client something new, and keep interests alive. As an example, if your client is interested in going to Hawaii, different emails can touch on the individual islands and their unique attractions, or Hawaiian culture, a special promotion that is being offered, etc. By keeping the messages simple, brief and exciting, you keep their interests up and "nudge" them along to making a buying decision.
  
  
• Make it timely! One of e-mail’s greatest assets is its quickness. You don’t have to dream up a complicated message, write it, edit it, take it to the printer, get it back, put a stamp on it and mail it. Write your message succinctly and send it while the news is still news. No one wants to hear of an offer that has a deadline that has already passed.

Staying in touch with your clients using emails is really good business. They are low cost, high touch, they keep you in the forefront of your clients' minds, and by following these guidelines they send clear messages of personalized service, attention to detail and good follow through. And isn’t that what makes your service better than what the clients get from impersonal websites?

Ken Hall, CTC, is president of www.HomeBasedPros.com. He studies the best practices of home based agents as well as the latest reports on consumer behavior, and provides marketing and sales ideas for the home-based travel agent, condensed into weekly e-letters. The Strong May Survive But the Smart Will Succeed!

(Credit: Ken Hall; stock photo)