Email Marketing Service for Restaurants With Benchmark Email
Posted by Michael Hartzell
If you are a business owner, you know that an email marketing service company is a top of the list priority. For an offline business, the ability to import email database is important along with customer service and simplicity. To that end, here is Andy Shore from Benchmark Email. You will find Bencmark Email on the "Best Email Marketing Services List on the Planet".
A conversation about Email Marketing Services with Andy Shore at Benchmark Email.
Q - About Costs: Let’s start with the question everyone always asks, how much does it cost to just get started with a basic email account?
Andy: Those brand new to email marketing can sign up for a free 30-day trial, or for Benchmark Email’s free email marketing program
Q - About Beginning a Campaign: How can you help us get started?
Andy: …not only take you through the simple steps for email marketing with Benchmark, but will also give you some tips on email marketing best practices.
Q- About Lists: How can a restaurant business owner create an email marketing list in Benchmark?
Andy: Benchmark Email offers three options to create a list.
- Import a list
- Copy and paste from another document
- Add individual contacts.
- If you choose to add contacts individually, it’s easy to fill in the fields with all the information you could want for each individual person.
Q - About List Segmentation: Once a list is created, can a business owner segment it to do target email marketing to specific groups of people?
Andy: Benchmark Email's List Segments is a powerful, easy to use feature that lets you zero in and directly connect with your desired audience. Segmenting your lists allows you to extract a group of contacts based on any field in your Contact list (sign-up date, zip code, customer type, etc.). This will also help you to improve response rates with relevant messages and offers. With list segmentation you can test offers, subject lines and messages to see which gets the best results before sending to your entire list.
Q - About Subject Lines: So we have uploaded a list and want to create a campaign, what are important points to remember?
Andy: The Subject line is your email's electronic business card, store front, and identity all wrapped up into a handful of characters. Concentrate on writing the best Subject lines you can possibly manage and you will reap the benefits in increased response rates.
Q - About Templates: What should a business owner do if they have someone on their team do the work who does not know much about programming or graphics?
Andy: At Benchmark, we do not believe in staying idle. Constantly creating, improving and adding to our already vast range of HTML Email Templates is our mission. A visually stimulating email will keep your customer interested and your email campaigns fresh.
Q - About Email Editor: Again, there are people in operations who will need to have simple tools which can be learned quickly. Is this possible?
Andy: The email editor itself is quite user friendly. It’s easy to navigate through all the features. By clicking edit on each individual section, you can enter all the information. Even play around with the layout a bit. Adding pictures and video is simple and will also increase the visual appeal of your campaign. Creating polls or surveys is an excellent way to engage your recipients.
Q - Email Editor Tips: Do you have any tips for making sure there are no mistakes?
Andy: Be sure to utilize the preview feature once satisfied with your email. From there, send out some test emails. An email that looks good in one client, may not work as well in enough client. Make any necessary adjustments and send your email campaign immediately or schedule a time for it to be sent.
Q - About Reports: How can a business owner know if the email marketing is working?
Andy: Use our reports to see the percentages of opened versus unopened emails, as it’s happening. View how many times the links were clicked in the email and whether anybody forwarded the email. The service allows you to see if anybody unsubscribed to the list after receiving the email. With this information, it is easier to design the emails to be more successful.
Q - What types of services do you provide? What else can a restaurant owner do with Benchmark Email? Newsletters? Surveys?
Andy: Whatever your email marketing needs, Benchmark Email has a solution for you. Our support team is always friendly and knowledgeable. Benchmark Email delivers powerful, user-friendly and affordable tools to create, send and track high-performance email and newsletter campaigns. Get started today!
Andy Shore is the Social Networking Specialist for Benchmark Email. Be sure to connect with us on Facebook or Twitter for email marketing news, tips and promotions from Benchmark Email.
Thank you Andy. I think it is great that you took a few moments to answer questions. Here are some important notes I took away which I believe every offline entrepreneur needs to look for:
- An offline business can import an email list.
- Targeted emails are possible with list segmentation.
- Easy templates are available for emails and newsletters and surveys.
- Start for free so no one can say “too expensive”.
- Newsletters and surveys are an option. (and I see video as an option as well)
- 1-800 telephone support for customer service
Did I miss anything? How does this look for your business?
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