Two E-mails Are Better Than One
As the small business owners we work with look for new ways to drive repeat traffic to their website and convert prospects to clients we often suggest a “drip campaign.” What is a drip campaign? Drip campaigns, are targeted email campaigns which are delivered or “dripped” to prospects at regular intervals.
The daily, weekly, or monthly campaigns deliver relevant content to a select group of individuals who have “opted in” to the program. Requiring that your receive permission to send the email insures your audience will be receptive to the messages when they arrive. Then each email in the campaign has links which bring the reader back to your website again and again.
At Roundpeg we have been experimenting with a number of different campaigns, but the most effective has been our series on How to improve your website. Prospects can enroll in the campaign through a link in our website, or we often add individuals after we have talked to them about updating their website. In both cases, once we enroll them in the campaign, they will receive a new tip via e-mail every seven days. This allows us to stay top of mind with potential customers, without the headaches associated with remembering to send each an e-mail each week. And the results? Our web design business is up 25% over the same period last year. The campaign has played a significant role in that change.
While there are a number of tools which will allow you to manage a Drip Campaign, we have selected AddressTwo. Created by Nick Carter, the program offers a robust combination of email, direct mail, project management and CRM functions. With it, managing multiple drip campaigns has been a snap. For us, adding drip campaigns has had a positive effect on our marketing efforts, keeping us top-of -mind and establishing a consistent dialogue with both current customers and prospects.
If you would like to learn more about Drip Campaigns, I would love to talk to you!
Keeping Email Relevant
With all the emphasis on social media, it is easy to assume we have moved well past email, but that is not the case. For certain types of communication to your customers and prospects, email is still an incredibly effective tool!
If you are sending “company newsletters” with long articles, and multiple offers so there is something for everyone, you are probably missing the mark. On the other hand if you are segmenting your lists and delivering simple focused messages email can still be a valuable way to stay connected. Here are just a few examples:
- An optometrist we work with sends monthly emails to remind patients to change their contacts
- An HVAC contractor uses an automated tool to set up a two part campaign. The first email is sent right after the project is completed. The second automatically goes out 11 months later to remind them to have him back for an annual check up .
- We offer many training programs in which the lessons are delivered via email with links to additional content on the our blog.
- A DJ who sends a link to the song of the week and a link to download it from iTunes.
As you are thinking about your email program take a look at this list of suggestions from Karen Banan
Don’t Torture Your Prospects
About a month ago, I wrote this blog post for the Marketing Technology Blog. I had a number of interesting comments about the article, so I thought I would republish it here.
Don’t Let Your Drip Campaign Become Chinese Water Torture
An effective technique to move Random Strangers to Raving Fans is to use a “drip campaign”. To begin your campaign, identify a select group of people who fit a particular demographic, or better yet, share a common interest and send them messages. Email, voice mail, direct mail, or face to face are all viable methods to send the message..
To be effective be sure your campaign provides information relevant to your target customer, comes in regular, but not annoying intervals, and moves the prospect toward a purchase decision.
As you plan your campaign, be sure to avoid this mistake:
Over eager business owners or marketers try to accelerate the process by sending too much information, too soon, or too often. The result? Instead of being impressed your prospect is annoyed. Not only do they fail to buy, they tell you to go away, permanently!
As an email marketer, I am usually pretty patient with other marketing programs, but recently, Ratepoint wore out their welcome. How? Well it started innocently enough, with a postcard, an email and an offer for a free trial. Then there was the phone call during which I asked a few questions. Before the conversation ended I told them I was unlikely to use their product because I was a reseller for Constant Contact and AddressTwo, so there was no compelling reason for me to change.
Instead of taking the polite no, they moved me into an entirely different group and I became a prospect. There were more postcards, more email and more phone calls. As their sales people became increasingly annoying, demanding to know why I hadn’t activated my trial, I found it harder and harder to remain polite. (Lets face it, I am from NY and on a good day it is hard for me to remain polite)
If I would have ever considered trying their product, I am unlikely to now. The lesson? Too much marketing is not a good thing. If someone indicates they are not a prospect, let them opt out, and move on. Water may erode mountains, one drip at a time, but it won’t move someone to buy.
Want to learn more about effective drip campaigns as a way of moving prospects from random strangers to raving fans? Join Matt Nettleton and I on May 6
May 6 – Random Strangers to Raving Fans
We had so much fun team teaching together last month that my sales coach, Matt Nettleton of Sandler Training Trustpointe and I will be conducing another session of our class ”From Random Strangers to Raving Fans” In this lively 3 hour session, we show you how to use a system to create the right messages for the right people at the right time.
We’re going to talk about how important it is that your sales and marketing support each other. After all, the best marketing plan in the world won’t help you if you can’t seal the deal, and the best sales strategy won’t help you if you don’t have leads in the first place!
Check out the details below. Hope to see you there!
Thursday, May 6, 8:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Sandler Training Trustpointe Offices, 6666 East 75th Street, Indianapolis
Fee: $29.99 Seating is limited, so be sure to register soon. Click here
Making Lemonade – Or How to Transform an eMail Mistake Into a Win!
Last week I sent an email to remind 17 people they had registered for a seminar. Due to a glitch in the email system, the note was actually sent to 1100 people. ( And this time I know for sure it was not user error)
The result, was good and bad… More than 350 people responded. Many were confused because they didn’t remember signing up, some were apologetic, and some like my son and Father-in-Law were simply amused. ( My son is in the Navy, on his way to Thailand, and my Father-in-Law lives in Dallas)
So the bad … I needed to send 350 notes of explanation to friends, clients, colleagues, and prospects. This took up most of the day on Wednesday, even with the help of my staff.
The good … I had a chance to make personal connections with more than 350 people with lots of good conversations as a result. I have quite a few laughs, lots of sympathy, and made plans for a lunch date with an old friend who will be here in Indy for just one day later this month.
And best of all, five people showed up for the Seminar on Thursday who had not registered. They came because of the email! Now I am not going to suggest that this was a good marketing strategy, but it made me wonder what was it about that email that generated such a high response. (A 31% Response Rate for email is extremely high )
I found some answers in a post on Groundswell – In it the author talks about how to get people you don’t know to respond to your email. He suggests you keep the message short, to the point, personal and real. When I reread my email, I realized I had done just that, and the results were, overwhelming.
I lost a whole day answering email, so I won’t be doing that on purpose anytime soon, but I am going to apply some of the lessons, and make my mass emails more personal, and see if it changes the results!
And if you missed the seminar – I will be teaching Intro to Business Planning ( How to Avoid the Ten Mistakes Business Owners Make) again on Feb. 11. Hope you can make it!
Where Email Fits in a Social Media World
Contrary to popular belief, email is not dead. It still works if you use it well. The problem, so few people use it well. I stumbled across an old post by Seth Godin in which he compares good vs bad email strategy. Read the article, then tell me which is closer to your email model?
Do you treat people as individuals, sending relevant content to small groups of people who have expressed an interest in hearing from you. Or are you still using a one-size-fits all appraoch where you send the same generic email to everyone you meet, and hope someone will buy from you?
For small business owners, especially in a slow economy, email is tempting. It is relatively simple to create and inexpensive to deliver. So what is the harm of sending one more email? The harm can be seen in the increases in your opt out rate, and the decreases in your open rate. I started using email, six years ago. At the time, my open rates were routinely around 50% – 65%, and sometimes as high as 70% . Today, my lists are larger, but I am reaching fewer and fewer people with my mass emails. Why? Over time people unsubscribe, opt-out, or simply stop opening the email I send.
While my general email’s are experiencing a falling open rate, there is an exceptoin. My 10 Week Biz plan emails typically run around 70% open rate? How is this possible? This group is much smaller, only 150 people, but each of them has specifically requested they be added to the list. The key is permission!! These subcribers have all joined the list as a result of a post on my blog. That is the second piece of the puzzle. Your email needs to be tied to your website, and your website to your email to create a perfect loop for prospects.
Social Media will not replace email, but it does challenge us to be more creative and more interesting in our communications.
eNewsletters Still a Powerful Tool for Small Business Owners
Seven years ago I discovered Constant Contact. This powerful eMail tool has been an integral part of my marketing activities for years. I have long been an advocate of the tool because if done well, newsletters are a great way to touch your customers and potential customers. Over time, it can help build credibility and a sense of familiarity with your organization.
It is more challenging now, because so many companies are using email newsletters as part of their marketing mix. But, if done right, they still add value.
The following tips apply equally well to printed or electronic newsletters.
Customer Focused Communication
Think about your customer’s issues, questions and interests. Focus on information that is interesting or relevant to them!
This may not always be about you. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can provide potential customers is general information which demonstrates your overall knowledge or position as a business resource.
Special Offers
Include special offers or coupons in your newsletters. Make this a regular sections, so interested consumers know where to look for your latest offer.
Short-term offers or coupons with an expiration date are more likely to make the phone ring, today.
If you do include offers, be sure to track the results. Over time you will be able to modify your offer to maximize the number of calls you receive from serious, potential customers.
Introduce Your Company
Newsletters are an ideal venue to help potential clients get to know the people behind the brand. Consider a short feature on one of your employees each issue.
Make your stories personal so customers learn what separates you from your competitors. Do you sponsor the local soccer team? Are your employees involved in the community? What are the values that really drive your business?
Getting Started
Your newsletters don’t have to be long. Limit it to 2-4 articles for a printed document, 350 words for an electronic one. Remember this is not a one shot program. You will tell your story over a series of issues.
Would you like help outing together your newsletter? Contact roundpeg today!
Email is Back!
Or maybe it never went away? There are some social media experts who say email as a marketing tool is dead, replaced by RSS feeds, but I don’t agree. I think social media has changed the nature of internet marketing just as cable TV changed TV advertising.
In both instances, the target has more choices. If you want your ad to be watched or email promotion to be opened it needs to be bundled with good content, relevant to a smaller, but more concentrated market.
Pro Blogger Darren Rowse argues that the most successful bloggers use both! If used properly, email will drive traffic and build community. He says:
I’m arguing is that bloggers take a 2nd look at email. My personal approach is to have multiple points of connection with readers which reinforces what I’m doing on my sites and maximise the impression that I’m able to make upon them.
At Roundpeg, we have been using email marketing, with Constant Contact for almost seven years for our business and our clients. We have seen open rates decline from a high of 60% to 15% for good programs. Recently, we added more targeted emails and have seen a reversal of that trend.
For example, we work with an optometrist who sends email reminders to patients to come in for their annual eye exam. These small lists perform significantly better. Patients who ignore his monthly newsletter, open an email with a subject line which says schedule your annual eye exam. His open rate was over 30% on the targeted email, and more than 15% clicked through to the scheduling form on his website. We have seen the same type of performance on our Business Plan list. Small (100 business owners) in comparison to my primary list (3,600 business professionals and owners) the open rate for email to this group is around 60%, with strong click through as well.
So mass email may be dead, but focused, relevant, PERMISSSION BASED email is alive, productive and powerful!
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Looking for help with your emal marketing program? Contact Roundpeg, we can help you get started today!
5 Quesions for Email Marketers
Written by Ellie Flores
In today’s day and age, emailing is sometimes the key that gets everything done. Here at Roundpeg, we are accustomed to this way of working, and understand a good email newsletter is a center point to your ongoing customer communication As email marketers, it is important to self-evaluate your work and progress in order to achieve success.
Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact, shared 5 questions you should ask yourself as evaluate your email marketing program:.
1. How did your results measure up to your goals?
2. Did your bank of email addresses grow? Is it organized?
3. Did you stay connected to your contacts as well/as often as you wanted?
4. Winner? Losers? Were your campaigns improved to achieve success every time?
5. Are you striving to become a better marketer? i.e. Taking all opportunities to improve yourself.
How did you measure up? Do you think you are where you want to be? For more measuring questions check out Goodman’s article! Don’t be afraid to find your flaws and fix them for future success!
Need some help with your next campaign? Roundpeg can help
You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover… But You Can Judge Mail By Its Subject Line
Written by Christine Maley
Early this week I wrote a post on email marketing so I thought it would be interesting to follow up with a look at how to get people to actually read the mail you send them.
We all receive so much mail and email, that we rarely read the majority of what we receive. Many items are automatically trashed because their heading or format fails to capture the interest of the receiver. So how do we get people to actually read what we have to say?
Half of the battle is simply getting the consumer to open your piece of mail. There was a post in Marigold’s Technologies Direct Marketing Blog that I think is very relevant to this:
“Far too often I have seen email creative efforts focus 99% of their time on the body of the email, that is, the copy, layout and graphic design and only 1% on the subject line. This is a huge mistake. Sometimes the subject line is a mere afterthought. In our experience conducting B2B email marketing campaigns, sometimes we receive the creative with beautiful images, HTML design, good copywriting and no subject line at all. We then ask for the subject line only to have one thrown back at us with minimal consideration. It is my opinion that 50% of the creative effort should go into development of the subject line itself and I will tell you why.
It does not matter how good the content of the email is if it does not get opened.”
To read more of this article and for some tips on good subject lines, click here
The difference between direct marketing mail and directly-to-trash-marketing- for me- is making them short, sweet, and any of these three things:
- Personalized
- Interesting
- Relevant
Your business is all of these things to the customer. The heading of your mail needs to demonstrate that.
