Email marketing in Sri Lanka is not that popular, which is surprising since it is one of the best ways to capture leads and follow up on your current customer and potential future customers. I'm not talking about companies with huge lists that spam there subscribers until they are blocked and ignored, but about having a newsletter for your company to keep contact with existing and find potential customers. It is important to note that once someone buy something from you, then you have a better chance of making a repeat sales, provided that you have a good product and you treated your customer with respect. In one of my previous posts I showed how e-biznessworld is doing e-mail marketing in an unethical way. Spamming and abusing your list want make you much money and only thing you are doing is wasting your time and money on something that wouldn't give you much return for your investment. So if you are thinking of doing email marketing in Sri Lanka it is important to follow the best practices, which will in turn help you to build a responsive customer base. There is a saying in Internet marketing that "Money is in the list", but that holds true only if the subscribers in your list trust you. So before you start on your e-mail marketing campaign make sure to have a good product or service with you.

Capturing leads and e-mail addresses

If you are thinking of doing e-mail marketing the first thing you need is a mailing list. You need to remember that e-mail marketing is a long term investment that can make you sales and profit time and time again. The hard part is building a responsive mail list and to collect e-mail addresses in an ethical way. First of all you need an e-mail marketing software. A hugely popular and one of the most recognized e-mail marketing software is Aweber, The great thing about the service is that they have plans according to your subscriber numbers. So if you have less than 500 subscribers then you can use there service of only 19$. That is around Rs.2000, which you should be able to cover easily once you grow your list to around 50. You can test drive service with full functionality for one month for only 1$.

After you get the software in place it is now time to get those subscribers. In most cases people are visiting your website looking for information or to buy something. They really have no need to subscribe to your newsletter, so you must give them an incentive to subscribe to the newsletter. If its a website about FOREX trading it could be a free E-book about FOREX strategies. If its a website about flower delivery then it could be a coupon code for a discount. Something that makes the user give out there e-mail address to you. Make sure to highlight this in your websites, it could be a highly visible place like the top of the sidebar or even a pop-up that the user want miss.

Email marketing in Sri Lanka

Building trust and the list

When someone new sign up for your newsletter, you need to pay special attention to them. Your long term subscriber know you and trust your products and services. They know that the newsletter provide them with valuable information. Since your new subscriber doesn't know this you should send an e-mail or two giving information about what you offer. If you are using a software like Aweber this could be done automatically, so You don't have to write one each and every time. Don't try to sell something in this introductory e-mail, instead provide him with something he values and find useful. If you have promised an e-book for the subscriber, then provide him with the download link. You can give out some useful information about the product he just bought or something similar according to your website and service.

Huge Potential for Email Marketing in Sri Lanka

Since not many companies are using Email marketing in Sri Lanka, the companies that takes the lead can get a significant advantage. Because most things are automated this will save you a lot of time and you can exponentially increase your customer base. Although it is possible to use E-mail marketing with any company it is most effective if you are providing something that is needed time and time again. Cosmetics, pharmaceutical items, fast food are some markets with huge potential.

If you need help setting up the software, setting up auto responders etc feel free to contact me via the contact form at the top. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments section.