Improve your email strategy by finding out what content to send, how segmentation can benefit you and what type of response to expect and how to interpret it. Presented by Matt Kalish, Small Business CRM Manager and Jo Ann Anderson, Marketing Communications Manager
Businesses engage in email marketing because it works. DMA predicts that in 2012, for every $1 a company invests in email marketing, they’ll get back $39.40Email is one of the most cost effective channels to grow and retain customers.Acquire: Introduce yourself, build awareness, consider you, tell your storyUse promotions/offersTalk about a cool new product or service you offerInvite them to an event Ask them to download a white paper or article about something that you know they will be interested inRetention: Goal is to develop a long-term impact on readers. Provide readers with value – more than just sales messages. Deliver content that informs, entertains or benefits the readers. Polls: Likes/dislikes – improve your product/service – Ask them what they expect from you, what features of products/service they like or could improve, how likely to recommend your product/service? – use multiple questions for simple surveys (radio buttons, check boxes, free form)Get referrals: people forward emails to their network – word of mouth
References: DMA/Epsilon study, iContact, Constant Contact and BtoB MagazineGrow:Email lets you deliver your message to the people vs a website where the people have to come to your messageMake sure you manage it as a valuable channelTriggers: Emails that are prompted by the action of a subscriber-Customer makes a purchase – thank themCustomer abandons a shopping cart – remind themSocial: Including chicklets in emails will help you grow your social network following. Capture email addresses on FB. Let them share your offers with their networks.Repurpose content to use across different channels to drive engagementMobile:Nielsen study showed email is the number-one mobile phone functionBetween April and Sept of last year, mobile email consumption was up 34%During that same period, email views on Apple’s iPad increased 73%More and more people check email on mobile devices numerous times throughout the dayMake sure newsletters are readable on iPhoneRelevant:Email marketing is all about delivering value to your subscribers. It’s all about tailoring your message and offers to match your audience or you will wind up in the junk folder.
What ever happened to thinking about the person that they are trying to establish a relationship with? I am tired of fitting into their marketing needs instead of the other way around. They should realize that I am a new customer. Proceed more slowly to educate me about what their product can do for me and try to build a relationship based upon my understanding of their product instead of their need to reach lots of people in order to sell a little more.What level of New customer need to educate more Current customer – assume intimate knowledge of products
So we know that email marketing can work, but we need to get the basics right.
Engage: Reader has 3 seconds or less to decide if they want to open the emailKeep it short: SL with 50 characters have open rates that are 12.5 % higher than 50+ characters and 75 % higher CRTsVP uses 35 characters or less and includes offerReason to open:Inform: Important, timely, unique and relevant informationCreate a need: Open now or you could be missing out on something, make situation worse, opportunity to improve situationCreate curiosity: Tease, intrigue, entice, questions are much more engaging than statements. Wouldn’t you agree? Personalize: Include “you” words for warmer messaging, “We need your help”. VP uses Fname but you don’t have toSPAM – free is not an absolute No No, but use wisely and sparingly with retention customers only, not acquisition. Don’t make free the first word. People respond to freeTest: keep watch of your open rates and the response from your readers to see which ones are most effective
Audience: Subscribers won’t mind getting emails from you if the messages are relevantCustomer types – new customer, long time customer, prospect from a tradeshow, purchased listCustomer behaviors – recently purchased in store, opted in on site, signed up on your blog, visited site but abandoned cartConsolidate multiple alerts to avoid subscriber fatigue or break up and deliver information in separate messages to make it easierConsider your business and review the frequency that makes sense for you. Seasonal spikes. Focus: What do you want them to do? Click to go to a landing page to purchase now, read more about your product, register for an eventBenefits:Copy aligns with why customer “needs” or “wants” product/service - “What’s in it for me?” Focus on why what you have to offer is important to the customer, because that’s what they care aboutimprove your situation, make life easierNever exceed 100kb file size, 550 px wide for partners, 600 px wide is industry standards
(300px down from the top)If I don’t know what you want me to do, I won’t take the action you want me to take.
Format so people recognize your email and companyMake it stand out and is attractive.Product is the hero Bold, engaging elementsDesign leads the eye throughHierchary of informationStrong call-to-actionEasy to download100kb or less