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If done right, e-mail communication can be an excellent, inexpensive way to reach people with special offers, news about your business and more. The problem is that we’re all constantly bombarded with spam and useless junk e-mail. But if you can effectively reach customers who’ve already used your products or services, you’re speaking to an audience that’s predisposed to read your message and respond.

“That list of current customers is the highest-quality, lowest-cost list you can get,” says Debbie Weil, President of online marketing firm WordBiz.com, Inc., and author of The Corporate Blogging Book. “It can take as much as seven times the money to acquire a new customer as it does to get business from those you have. As opposed to a list that you can rent or buy, this is a database of people who have opted into your message; and you can use it over and over again. Your in-house database is based on the personal connection you’ve made with customers, so make the most of it.”

Your website is the place to lead the charge. Weil advises offering a free download of packaged information that doesn’t push your products or services, but offers content related to how they’re used. For example, a real estate agent might want to offer a downloadable pdf tip sheet about the “10 Things You Need to Know Before Selling Your Home.”

“This is not a sales pitch,” Weil observes. “This is objective content that offers something of real value in exchange for that e-mail address. It can be as short as a single page, but it has to be of use to your customers.”

But don’t deliver the free download until your prospects give you their e-mail address. Once you post the free download on your site, make sure that the person who clicks on it goes onto a separate, opt-in registration page so that you can collect their data. “Don’t ask for a ton of information—maybe just the name and the e-mail address,” Weil says. “You want to make sure the process is as easy as possible. You also need to ensure that the e-mail you’ve been given is a valid one, so don’t send the information immediately. Send your customers an e-mail that leads them back to registration page to complete the process.”

She recommends creating a dedicated page for your download sign up. That way you can include the URL in all your marketing materials. Weil offers a few additional tips designed to help you make the most of your data-gathering activity:

• In your offer, put the emphasis on the content and value of the download, not on opting in to your list. “The value—the information about what people are getting and the fact that it’s free—has to come first in your message,” she says. “It’s part of the WIIFM philosophy, or ‘what’s in it for me.’ People will react to real value.” Check out Weil’s “Top 7 Tips to Write an Effective Business Blog” at www.wordbiz.com/signup.php. It’s a good example of a dedicated newsletter sign-up page where the offer—the tips guide—is more prominent than the request for the e-mail.
• Make sure your “from” and “subject” lines clearly let the customer know that this message comes from you. We all tend to trash e-mails from those we don’t know almost out of hand. When you only have a split-second of peoples’ time to view what you send, you need to make sure people recognize it’s from you—someone they’ve already done business with.
• Make the offer prominent. “Put it on every page of your site and make sure you include it in your e-mail signature, giving people a hotlink to it,” adds Weil.
• Make sure you give people the chance to unsubscribe or opt out of your e-mail messages, which adds to your overall trustworthiness and credibility.

“Not every communication should be about what you sell,” Weil says. “But if you can offer your customers something that truly helps them, it makes them more amenable to future e-mail offers.”