ABC - email marketing

It is perfectly possible to use email marketing without appearing spammy and annoying your users. But you can’t phone it in. Put some thought into your message. Content needs to be fresh, engaging and relevant to your subscribers.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing to the end user that relies on email as its communication channel. This is unlike blog posts, banner ads or online articles, which require the person to first visit your website.Email marketing is one of the most effective (and overlooked) marketing channels on the Internet. 

Software tools

Many email marketing platforms are available on the Internet today. You will be able to use these platforms to collect email addresses, design email newsletters and send messages on a regular basis, as well as cross-promote and link up to your website and your social media profiles and get statistics/track your results. The most popular solutions are “hosted,” meaning the company will host the software for you, and you’ll just need to log in to its website to manage your email lists.

Popular, user-friendly platforms include Emma, Constant Contact, Vertical Response and MailChimp. 

Which to chose?

Consider deliverability rate (percentage of emails sent that reach the end user), available features and price. Take note of the platform’s compliance with anti-spam laws and opt-in mechanisms. Many plans start at $15 a month and are on a tiered pricing plan. The more email addresses you collect and emails you send, the more you will generally pay. For larger businesses, enterprise-level systems such as Exact Target are available. These are more costly with their robust analytics and cross-channel and interactive marketing campaigns, and Fortune 500 companies typically favor them.

Some platforms let you create templates and newsletters to share with franchisees, independent sales representatives or others. This will permit you to control company messaging while allowing your sales team to leverage their email databases.

Getting subscribers

After choosing a platform, it’s a matter of logging in, adding emails to your list(s) and creating your email newsletter form. They offer simple templates you can use by dragging and dropping fields. You can even customize your form from scratch. In either case, you can add images and company logos.

You should consider displaying your subscription form in multiple spots. It should be noted that businesses must explicitly ask permission to collect the email address and send future messages, and this is typically accomplished via an opt-in process (a form is completed with name and email address, often followed by a click on a confirmation link sent via email).

On your company website, encourage folks to opt in to your email list near the top of the home page and at the bottom of every blog post (if you have a company blog). These two spots are very visible, and usually they have high conversion rates.

Install an email collection application on your Facebook page. Many email marketing platforms (like Constant Contact) make it very easy to install apps that collect email addresses and “dump” them into your master email list.

Lists can be sorted and organized according to your specific business needs. Perhaps you want to send emails targeted to a certain subsection of your master list. This is possible, not to mention a good use of the tool. Be creative about your email collection process as well. Allow consumers to opt in to your email database when they enter a giveaway or sweepstakes promotion or when they request a free product sample. These incentives can be a simple way to build your list.

Content is king

An email piece should NOT be thought of exclusively as a sales circular. People will unsubscribe faster than you can hit “send” a second time. As with social media, trust and value are paramount to success. Provide solid content, earn trust, and then sell. It’s OK to send an email with a more “sales-y” tone, but don’t make that the norm. And think long and hard about your subject line — it can make or break your email open rate.

Have a editorial calendar in place

This makes it possible for all marketing platforms to march in the same direction at the same time and for messaging to be uniform and consistent. For example, the email piece might highlight the most recent blog post, which in turn gets promoted on Facebook and Twitter. All platforms have a place for readers to opt in and receive emails.

Frequency

There is no magic formula. Most platforms provide some analytics that will allow you to gauge the success of your emails by reviewing your open rate, click-through rate and more. Keep an eye on these metrics, and adjust your email strategy accordingly.

Social Sharing

Take advantage of the social media sharing icons included in most popular email marketing platforms. These are great calls to action for readers, encouraging them to share your email with others via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This is an easy way to expand the reach of your messaging.

No one loves Valentine’s Day more than email marketing people

I found this analysis from Elite Email and thought it would be a good reminder to send out those Valentine emails. According to Elite Email, as Valentine’s Day approaches, email marketers in all industries are sending out themed email marketing campaigns. An email trend analysis done by the company shows that a huge number of small businesses and non for profit organizations sends out themed campaigns to their mailing list. Not hard to agree with as we know customer engagement increases when the timing is right and the topic is relevant. 

Also, specific sectors such as retailers selling flowers or chocolates and many businesses in the hospitality industry such as hotels and restaurants have increased email sending volume leading up to the holiday. 

Examples of other themes they identified in the report are:

December:    Holiday and celebrations

January:       Super Bowl

February:     Valentine’s Day.

The spike in themed email marketing sending volume comes also from sellers of chocolates and flowers, which is a consistent trend year-over-year as those merchants can truly capitalize on the holiday. 

Other organizations in just about every vertical market are sending out themed emails as well. The hospitality industry uses email technology to really push their Valentine’s Day marketing initiatives in an effort to drive consumers into their establishment. Many hotels offered exclusive promotions to the contacts on their mailing list to increase occupancy during the holiday. While restaurants and bars found emails to be an effective way to spread the news about their holiday menu or offer coupons to be redeemed on Valentine’s Day only.

Non for profit organizations are also among those who use cupid, hearts and other Valentine's Day related imagery to remind people not only about giving to their loved ones, but other people in need as well.

With Email marketing software, organizations of all sizes are empowered to send out timely and relevant emails. Unlike tradition print media that has large lead times, expensive design fees, a business can launch a Valentine’s Day email marketing campaign with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Timely and Relevant

An analysis of the response metrics to Valentine’s Day themed emails shows a slightly higher than average engagement rates (open and click rates) as consumers are quicker to open more relevant messages. This higher email marketing engagement leads to even greater ROI for the business as more consumers interact with their brands content.

The analysis by Elite Email concludes that many organizations are hoping to capitalize on the “last minute” before Valentine’s Day, sending out final campaigns on February 13th and 14th. These emails are crafted so that if all previous emails were ignored, once Valentine’s Day has arrived and is all over the media, the email sitting in their inbox is even more relevant.

There is still time for that last email...

4 Ideas on Howto do Business Marketing on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has more than 134 million members. It has changed how we connect, even though most users are not as active as on Facebook and Twitter, there are some great opportunities worth exploring.

I have compiled ideas on how to do your business marketing on LinkedIn through starting a groups,posting events, engage in Q&A and straight up advertising.

Groups
This is the favorite activity on LinkedIn, by creating a group you will be on your way to generate leads and promote your business to other professionals. When starting s group, keep the following in mind:

• Find a niche topic in your industry that creates pain which correlates with what your business offer
• Name the group in a way that describe the topic, not the name of your business
• Promote the group in your other marketing channels and invite your brand champions in to comment and promote discussions
• Have a content and activity plan, what messages, how often and how will you moderate group discussions
• And as a bonus, use the best discussions and questions in blog post or to develop new products and services to you customers.

Events
Post your events with a short description and link to a registration page. Here is a few tips:

• Link the event to your company LinkedIn page
• Direct potential attendees to click on “I’m attending” this will make you show up on their timeline and for their friends to find out about your event
• Set up the event early in the planning process to give everyone (sponsors, speakers, volunteers…) an opportunity to “attend”

Questions and Answers
This is the largest professional Q&A site there is. Here you have an opportunity to connect, position yourself as an expert within your field and build credibility. A few tips though:

• Interact regularly, daily or weekly
• Pick the subjects and be a heavy hitter on these specific topics Be helpful and point to resources
• Be careful not to push your products constantly
• Look for opportunities to reuse your answers in blog posts

Advertising
You are addressing a specific audience of professionals and similar to Google Adwords you bid as to how often your text ad will appear at the top, right under LinkedIn navigation menu or the sidebar with your logo next to it. Here is a few tips on how to manage your advertising in LinkedIn:

• The headline is 25 caracters and the body 75, so be short, compelling and direct
• Test – use A/B testing to test performance of different messages. Your minimum spent per day is $10.00 so it is affordable to test
• Pay attention to fatigue, you may have to change content weekly to keep up performance

According to LinkedIn their audience is more affluent than the leading business magazines, there is a huge value in this network. Leverage these techniques and test it out for yourself.