Email marketing tips given at seminar

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Updated: February 29, 2012 8:05AM

CROWN POINT — Relevant content can make the difference between a successful email marketing campaign and the delete button.

Matt Hanson, visiting professor in communication and marketing at Purdue University Calumet and co-owner of Digital Marketing, “V” as in Victor, shared some tips on making the most out of email marketing to a record crowd gathered Friday for the Morning Business Hour session at First Financial Bank in Crown Point.

More than 50 people from a wide range of local businesses filled the bank lobby to learn how to maximize email marketing strategies.

“Be relevant,” Hanson said.

Businesses must be proactive and consistent in how they gather information for their email lists and use that information to tailor messages to recipients’ needs. For example, florists could send out birthday and anniversary reminder emails while limousine companies can send out wedding or party planning tips.

Be cautious about using email to inundate subscribers with sales and promotions. Constant use of sales trains clients to only shop sales and can devalue email as a tool for marketing.

Hanson suggested businesses not be afraid to give away at no charge a little information on their websites or in their emails that will be useful to the recipients. If recipients learn they can expect helpful tips, they will be more inclined to open emails — the most difficult aspect of email marketing.

Only 18 percent of all emails are opened. Only 6 percent of those who open will click through to download a picture email. Only another 6 percent of those who open the email’s visuals will click over to the website. That equates to about 1 email in 100 being successfully opened.

Direct mail marketing — a mass mailing to strangers who have not even signed up for information — has a 2 percent success rate.

Steven Ogrentz, sales manager for Schepel Buick-GMC Inc. in Merrillville, said the dealership already uses some of the tips highlighted by Hanson including sending out relevant emails such as oil change reminders.

Ogrentz said the dealership, which was No. 1 in Buick-GMC sales in Northwest Indiana in 2011, is always looking for ways to tap into the power of the Internet.

“Seventy percent of our business is online,” Ogrentz said. Even loyal customers use the Internet to research vehicles before coming into the dealership.

Making the most of that online contact is critical as auto sales evolve.

“I did learn a few things. It makes you realize what you are doing right and wrong,” Ogrentz said.