Dear Business Builder

Did you know Australians are currently the 5th most optimistic consumers in the world? Neilsen’s Global Consumer Confidence Report for May 2010 tells the story.

And yet, in a recent private discussion with a leading Barista from Brisbane, the number of businesses filing for bankruptcy is at an all time high. You won’t read about that one in the news though. The government doesn’t want the spending public to know.

So if consumers in Australia are spending, but SME’s are going bust, where is the money being spent, and how can you get them to spend with you?

It’s got to be cheap, easy, fast, and measurable. And what about something you already know the basics of?

The Big Problem with getting customers through the door is, it’s expensive. You need the customers to get the money to do the advertising to get the customers in the door.

What a pain in the butt that is!

But there is a goldmine out there that way too many businesses ignore. It’s their past customers. Not getting your customers details should be a punishable offence. Because it now costs nothing to get back in touch to reel them back in, where in the past it still took some heavy dollars. Though much less than finding new customers.

Email is free! And nearly everyone now has an email address they check regularly.

Warning: Email can be the quickest way to lose people if you don’t treat it and your customers with respect.

Here’s what email gives you as a powerful marketing tool with a fantastic ROI.

• You can reach thousands of people with one cleverly crafted click
• Build a relationship with many, in a conversation with one
• No printing, no envelopes, no designer needed and no glue licking
• Communicate directly with people who you know want your products and service because they’ve been in before
• Respond immediately to events effecting your market with timely insider information, letting them know you’ve got their back
• Send scheduled automatic emails to give great value while you lie on the beach waiting for their call
• And with the right email marketing software you can measure the results to see, in reality, how effective you really are at communicating (Warning: some business owners don’t like reality)

There are some problems with email marketing. You can turn people off real fast by pestering them with pushy sales messages and you can very easily be labeled a spammer by the recipeints email software (and then the entire internet) if you don’t be careful with your words and your email structure. But all of that can be easily solved with a bit of training and the right ‘keep-it-simple-stupid’ software tools.

It’s understandable the ‘powers that be’ are keeping the record bankruptcies quiet. The Australian people are spending confidently. And that’s good for you and me. Ours is to find simple cost effective ways to bring em back in through our doors.

If you need some advice or assistance with getting started, or even some more advanced email marketing techniques, let us hear about it at Top Results Online. We’ve got your back.

To Your Prosperity.