News:

The Marketing Coach is proud to be a sponsor of the Family Business Australia Family Expo at the National Zoo & Aquarium on Sunday 9 November 2008. If you are interested in a great family outing in Canberra or are looking for an affordable way to promote your business visit www.fbafamilyexpo.com.au.

Tool:  Take Advantage of your email preview pane

If you're like many email users, you use the email preview pane as a way to weed out those emails you want to read, the ones you need to action and the ones to simply delete. This is especially useful if you are selling to other businesses. Here are a few suggestions for making the most of this valuable screen real estate:

• Use a highlighted subject line that provides a brief description of what your email is about. Phrase it in such a way that it clearly states the benefit to the email recipient.
• Put your most compelling text in the first 3 or 4 centimetres as users can control the size and orientation of the pane. Think of the preview campaign as a teaser for your marketing message.
• Choose your from/To and subject fields carefully. People are more inclined to open an email from someone they know and trust.
• You may choose to list the contents up front with a hyperlink to your website or to text further in the document. This allows your email recipient to see at a glance the subjects that interest them.

Tip: 3 things to keep in mind when planning your marketing

Do your internal marketing first. Your staff and existing customers should be your priority before you try to attract new customers. 

Don't be overly ambitious. Rather do fewer things, but do them well. You not only need the resources to put together a successful marketing campaign, but also the time to do the follow-ups and the evaluation afterwards. It's definitely a case of less is more, especially if it's you as the business owner doing everything.

Use a variety of marketing tools. Everyone has their favourites, whether it's PR, advertising, networking or direct mail. Research has shown that a variety of delivery mechanisms are more effective in getting your message across.

Technique: Suggestions for when to use the different types of direct marketing

Direct marketing attempts to send messages directly to the consumer using a variety of media. It also typically includes some kind of "call-to-action" that will prompt the recipient to act in some way. This allows the sender to track the success of the campaign through the responses.