Keys to Successful Marketing

Transcription

1 Marketing Best Practices Guide Overview Contrary to the belief of some marketers, marketing hasn t been killed off by social media or SPAM filters as an effective way to grow, retain, and acquire new business. In fact, for every $1 spent on marketing in 2011, the estimated return on investment was $ However, marketing strategies and best practices have changed, requiring marketers to adopt some new tactics for success. Of course, the main advantage of marketing has always been its relatively cheap cost to deliver your message to an unlimited number of prospects and customers. In this document, Independent Stationers presents some of the latest in effective marketing best practices for you to consider for your business and market. Definitions of terms used in this guide: CTR Click Through Rate - The number of recipients that click and respond to your message. CAN-SPAM Act 2 Law passed in 2003 by the FTC to stop abusive ing practices. You can view the entire act here. Opt-In When a user registers from your website or agrees to receive , he/she has opted in. There are various levels of opt-in (which are discussed later) but the goal is to gather as many opt-in s as possible. Opt-Out A mechanism for a user to unsubscribe from your marketing list. Spam Trap Internet Service Providers (ISP s) hide accounts on the web that are not used for any other reason than to trap spammers. Reputation Your ability to get past ISP spam blockers depends on the reputation you have developed as an sender. If negative or non-existent, you will have a much higher bounce rate (undelivered ) than if positive. Conversion A successful, predetermined outcome of an message you have sent out. For example, if your goal is to sell a particular item, a conversion would be a successful sale. Introduction The days of spray and pray marketing are over! Successful marketing requires careful thought, specific message crafting, list segmentation, and post analysis and reporting. The introduction of the CAN-SPAM Act, sophisticated routing systems, and consumer fatigue from years of unchecked abuse by unscrupulous marketers have made the need to follow best practices more necessary than ever for success. On the upside, the sweeping trend of users going to mobile devices means consumers are more connected to their computers and than ever before! Keys to Successful Marketing 1. Define your objectives Before beginning any marketing campaign, you need to identify your goals. Are you looking to generate leads, educate your current customers of new products/services, introduce yourself to new customers, or promote a sales offer? Your objective will greatly influence the type and style of campaign you want to develop. Below are a few examples of some of the types of campaigns that match these objectives (although they might not be exclusive to one category) 3 : 1 Internet 2011 in Numbers, Pingdom Tech Blog, January 17 th, CAN-SPAM = Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of Steps to Jump-Start Your Marketing Strategy, Hubspot,

2 Growth Retention Acquisition Sales offers New product information Volume discounts enewsletters White papers Surveys Event invitations Testimonials Introductions 2. Determine what constitutes a conversion Before you craft your message, you need to determine what a successful outcome will be. Is it a sale, a Like on your Facebook page, agreeing to attend a webinar, or completion of a survey? Whatever your intended conversion, it needs to be incorporated into a call to action in your message. Knowing your conversion goal for each is crucial to both being successful and tracking the effectiveness of your efforts. 3. Compile a quality address list Ultimately, the success of your marketing efforts is dependent on the quality of your address list and your ability to manipulate it. In order to comply with CAN-SPAM, you need to gain permission from people who opt-in to receive your s. Therefore, you need to gather as many addresses with opt-ins as you can and collect them in as many different places as possible (more on this later). Understanding the types of opt-ins that are commonly used is an important component this process. Levels of Permission (from strongest to weakest) 4 : Double Opt-in = Initial permission + Additional permission request with action required Confirmed Opt-in = Initial permission + Confirmation of sign up Single Opt-in = Initial permission only Opt Out/Assumed Opt-in = Address collected without permission to send s A double opt-in requires your customer to give their address with permission and also respond to a follow up confirming that permission by completing a task, be it re-typing their or completing a CAPTCHA (the weird letters/words challenge-response test used in computing as an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a person). A confirmed opt-in simply asks the target to click on a confirmation link in a follow up , after they ve given their initial permission. This confirms the address is valid and the user did indeed give permission to receive your mail. A single opt-in can be as simple as a sign up for our newsletter box or clicking a button on your website while logged in with no additional measures required. The opt-out/assumed opt-in is the practice of taking an address you have gathered legitimately for business use and adding it without explicit permission to your mailing list. While technically legal, this practice is discouraged as it will lead to higher opt-out rates and your messages being potentially flagged as spam. It is up to you to determine what level of permission you wish to gather. The stronger the opt-in permission, the more likely your will reach that recipient every time and that they actually want to receive it. The most common levels are confirmed opt-in and single opt-in. Strategies for building your list There are several keys to building an effective marketing list, including providing multiple points of contact to opt-in, offering incentives for users to opt-in, and setting the content and frequency expectations upon opt-in for the user. Use multiple points of contact to solicit 4 The Elements of Success PowerPoint Presentation, Keith Ruehl, Dianne Lucca, Nate Romance, United Stationers,

3 opt-ins: on your website, through your social media outlets, in your retail stores (if applicable), and in electronic messages such as billing statements or invoices. Secondly, consider using an incentive such as a sign up for our enewsletter today and receive a $10 off coupon for your next order to gather opt-ins from users. This has proven to be a highly effective strategy for quickly building up your mailing list. Finally, take the opportunity on the sign up page to inform your potential target of what he/she will receive and how often it will be delivered. This will help eliminate your target being surprised or confused regarding your marketing efforts. Take a look at the following example: The opt-in/opt-out box for additional offers and the CAPTCHA box is shown in the circle above. This is an enewsletter opt-in page from PC World magazine. This form gives the user the chance to select from a variety of specifically themed communications, details the frequency of each newsletter, allows the user to choose the format they want to receive (important for mobile users who want to minimize their bandwith usage), uses a CAPTCHA to ensure a real human is registering, and offers an opt-out checkbox for other types of offers and messages. A subscriber who completes this form has clear expectations of what will be sent to his/her inbox! Get in their address book! The final step to building an extremely strong marketing list is to encourage all your subscribers to add your address to their address book. Doing so virtually guarantees that your will reach their inbox, as long as you are not blocked by an ISP (more on this below). 3

4 If your subscribers truly want to receive your content, they will add your address so do not be afraid to request that they do! 5 4. Segment your lists Your campaigns have a much better chance of success if you can segment your target lists and craft specific messages or offers for each audience. For example, an campaign to a group of medical industry contacts is much more likely to succeed if you highlight products specific to their needs. One of the biggest reasons subscribers opt-out of lists is that they receive too many offers or content that is not relevant to their interests. Sending a promotion for an enterprise level copier to a small family owned business will not only be ineffective, but can cause a negative reaction. In addition, your message should be distinct and tailored to the segment of your list that you are targeting. For example, an to your core existing customers should be different than the one you send to customers who have not ordered in some time. In many cases, slightly customizing your message copy while using the same core ad can result in great returns on your time and investment. Other segmentation strategies include sorting your list by size of business, location, market, type of purchaser, and even gender. The more you can tailor your message, offer, or promotion to the receiver s needs, interests, and capabilities the more successful you will become! 5. Make sure you have an appropriate landing page Even the best crafted, segmented campaign will fail if your prompts the target to go to an ineffective webpage. This destination is known as a landing page and you need to ensure that there is a clear and simple flow on that page that results in the conversion you desire. Simply linking to your general homepage and hoping your visitors will find their way to a sale is a recipe to fail. Following best practices, your landing page should have the same look/feel/tone as the they clicked to get there and provide easy access to the product/service/etc. that the promotes. It is challenging enough to get the target to click on the ad in the first place; you don t want to stumble at this crucial point by confusing and frustrating your audience! SPAM Once you have defined your objective, built a strong, segmented list, and have your landing page, it is now crucial to work on getting your message into your targets inboxes. Pursuant to the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act, there are now specific guidelines you need to follow as an e-marketer. Failure to follow these best practices in setting up your can result in many servers and ISP s blocking your messages, despite the fact your target has opted-in to receive them. In order to avoid this, follow these accepted guidelines. 1. Comply with CAN-SPAM The rules of this act include the following: avoid misleading content in the From, To, and Subject lines, reveal your physical location, use valid opt-in measures to gain permission, and provide an easy opt-out procedure for users to unsubscribe. If you are using an service provider, they can provide mechanisms to help manage your opt-ins/opt-outs and ensure your s are CAN-SPAM compliant Marketing Best Practices and Trends: 2011 Edition, Benchmark ,

5 2. Protect your reputation When evaluating s, ISP s look at the sender s reputation when deciding if an should be blacklisted as spam or let it pass to the end user. In fact, many ISP s base that decision solely on a reputation score, which is calculated through a complex formula that includes past spam complaints, hits on spam traps (more on these below), delivery-vs.-bounce percentages, authentication settings, and third party blacklistings (such as using a poor software service as discussed in point #5 below). 7 Therefore, it is crucial that if you intend to send campaigns from your own servers that you only message properly opted-in users with correctly formatted s. 3. Do not buy lists! ISP s and network administrators control what goes through to a recipient s inbox and what is blocked as spam. Your reputation as a sender is almost exclusively the overriding factor and it only takes a few users flagging your as spam to give you a negative rating (even 1 out of a 1,000 can be a problem!). If you are sending s to people you bought on a list, they won t recognize your company and are much more likely to flag you as a spammer. service providers such as Constant Contact will ban you if they suspect you are using purchased lists, since the s go through their system and your bad list is negatively affecting their reputation. Additionally, ISP s create spam traps to catch marketers who are not using proper opt-in procedures. In essence, these are addresses that are never used or entered into any website, but reside on the internet. The web spiders that are used to harvest addresses for these cheap lists often pick them up and add them to their databases. If you send an to one of these addresses, the ISP knows you have not obtained that address by proper means and are not a trustworthy source for Subject line optimization to avoid spam filters Your subject line is the first thing your target sees and greatly influences whether or not they open your . In addition, certain aspects of a subject line can trip spam filters as well. Avoid using punctuation, don t use all capital letters, keep it under 50 characters, and include your company name if possible. In addition, don t use words that trip spam filters such as free, offer, save, clearance, and now Don t use cheap software/websites There are many cheap software packages and websites that offer to send mass s for you. These are known to ISP s, the makers of SPAM blockers, and IT personnel and will usually result in a high bounce rate for your messages. 6. Forgo sending attachments Attachments cause red flags to be raised on an due to the risk of spreading viruses from PC to PC. Avoid using these and instead point users to downloadable content from a link instead. In addition, don t embed videos into your s, instead provide an image thumbnail that when clicked takes the user to your video content 9. 6 Do Your Marketing Activities Comply With the Law?, Caron Beesley, August The Elements of Success PowerPoint Presentation, Keith Ruehl, Dianne Lucca, Nate Romance, United Stationers, What Are Some Best Practices for Writing Subject Lines, MailChimp, October Design Best Practices Infographic, Mail Monks,

6 Designing your s 1. Use HTML The standard design protocol for a successful campaign message is HTML. It allows for concise design, solid functionality, and broad compatibility with most business systems. Avoid getting too fancy and adding Flash, AJAX, or Ruby on Rails content as it may not display properly and frustrate your audience. It is also possible to attach a link at the top of the to view the message in a text format if using one of the many service providers. 2. Include compelling content Be careful not to fall into the trap of sending a slightly modified sales offer every time you run a campaign. Your target s time is valuable and if they see the same old thing all the time, they are quick to tune out your message and opt-out or worse, delete your message without opening it and ignoring you. Leverage reports, newsletters, articles, white papers, and outside content sources to give your audience a variety of interesting, useful information. Ensure that you have the rights to publish and distribute that content! Don t forget to attribute any content you borrow to the correct sources as directed by their terms of use if necessary. Additionally, remember to adhere to what your targets have opted-in for. If you gained permission to send them an enewsletter, do not send sales offer promotions without gaining additional permission. By doing so, you run the risk of the user opting-out of all communications from your company! 3. Optimize your subject line In 2013, service provider MailChimp analyzed open rates from over 200 million s. Their findings on subject line optimization are listed below: While it has been long accepted that words such as free, offer, and discount tend to trip filters designed to weed out spam, MailChimp found 3 additional words that negatively affect open rates. Avoid using help, percent off, and reminder. Personalizing the subject line with the recipient s name can actually lower open rates, but adding local personalization such as the city name does help. Newsletters start with high open rates, but decline as the subject line is repeated over and over. Focusing the subject line on the content that is in each edition will bring higher open rates 10. Consider splitting your segmented audience in half and trying two different subject lines. Based on the results, you can adjust your future campaigns to capitalize on what you have learned and which subject line terms are being rejected. When it comes to marketing, the best subject lines tell what s inside and the worst subject lines sell what s inside Include a call to action (CTA) You need to tell your audience exactly what to do in order to get the conversion you have defined for that campaign. Be sure not to misrepresent or mislead the recipient as to the nature of your landing page, as this is a violation of the SPAM-CAN Act. For best results, forgo the standard click here CTA and use words such as get or receive. A more descriptive CTA such as Get Your Free Order of Cookies by Ordering Now is preferred What Are Some Best Practices for Writing Subject Lines, MailChimp, October Marketing Subject Line Comparison, MailChimp Research 12 Killing Them Softly: Writing Copy that Works, Donna Krizik, Crestwood Associates, February

7 5. Test your before launch! You need to ensure the links, photos, and content are all working correctly before you send it to your targeted audience. This includes not only testing on a single PC, but trying it on a mobile phone device as well to ensure your message is presented the way you intended it. Keep in mind that 42% of s are now opened on a mobile device. 13 Frequency, best day to send, and timing for your s Determining when and how often to send your messages is a tricky proposition that requires a bit of trial and error, historical data tracking, and experimentation. There are no tried and true formulas for success, as the high number of variables involved makes that impossible. However, the following chart provided from an Eloqua research project provides some interesting insights 14. From this data, it is pretty simple to see that ing more leads to a drop in click through rates, but the less you the fewer responses you will get. The only undisputed rule of marketing related to frequency is that as long as your targets feel your is of value and pertains to their interests there is no maximum, but if they feel your s have no value then there is no minimum send rate that will work. When determining which day of the week is best to send marketing messages, again there is no clear consensus. However, MailChimp analyzed data based on 9.5 billion sent s and found that the open rates were predictably highest during the work week 15. As before, the best recommended practice is to experiment sending your messages at different times, splitting up mail groups for side-by-side comparison, and recording your historical data to determine what works best for you. 13 Design Best Practices Infographic, Mail Monks, Frequency When is More Better Than Less?, Angela Cheong, May When is the Best Time to Send s, MailChimp, December

8 Finally, what time of day is best to launch your latest campaign? Common wisdom has always been that early morning and late afternoon are your best times, as most business people tend to check first and last thing in a day. MailChimp s research revealed that subscribers were most likely to open between 2:00-5:00 pm. 16 However, with the rise of smartphones and tablets, people are more connected to their inboxes than ever before. Therefore, the results this study found may shift substantially in future years as more people become connected virtually 24 hours a day. As with the previous two parameters, experimentation and historical data recording on your specific results will help you fine-tune your marketing efforts. Using an service provider necessary or not? There are many service providers that can assist in the creation, management, reporting, administration (particularly in the opt-in/opt-out processes), and delivery of your marketing campaigns. Constant Contact, icontact, Hubspot, MailChimp, ExactTarget, and Benchmark are just a few of the more well-known providers. Many of these sites can also interface with common CRM systems to make list generation and segmentation an easier process to accomplish. 16 When is the Best Time to Send s, MailChimp, December

9 There are several advantages to using an service provider, but there are a few aspects that are especially appealing. First, s sent through a service provider use their reputation score initially when being evaluated by an ISP (followed by the address in the From section) leading to more s being accepted. Second, these services will work with your website and social media pages to collect opt-ins and opt-outs and add/delete them from your current lists automatically. Finally, they provide extensive reporting on CTR s, bounce backs (undeliverable s), spam reports, views, and in some cases even conversions made. The image below shows a Constant Contact report from a past Independent Stationers campaign. The bottom line on these services is they provide a host of templates, support resources, campaign tracking, administrative functions, list scrubbing, and archival benefits. s sent through your own Outlook systems cannot be tracked efficiently and you likely will have no idea how your reputation score is being affected or how many s are being viewed. It is up to you to determine if the benefits of these marketing services justify the financial costs. 9

10 Cross Marketing Efforts Savvy marketers are using the many social media tools and content sources today to create successful cross marketing efforts. Imagine for example that you post an offer on your Facebook page and it generates more than average traffic to your landing page. Likely, this offer would be a great candidate for inclusion in an campaign. A white paper that receives a high CTR in an message might translate very successfully into a webinar. An enewsletter topic that is highly downloaded might be attractive to offer to an industry publication or news site for publication. A subject line header that gets a great response could be used as an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keyword for your website. The key point is to look for successes in your keywords, content submissions, subject lines, and s and capitalize on them in as many marketing mediums as you have available. Conclusion marketing is still a very cost effective way to communicate with your prospects and current customers to facilitate growth, retention, and acquisition strategies. Given the right planning, approach, and execution, marketing can provide an exceptional ROI, as well as strengthen your relationships with prospective, current, and past customers. Independent Stationers has relationships with Constant Contact and BombBomb, both professional service providers, who can assist you with setting up and distributing your campaigns. Information about these programs can be found in the member section of our website. Whether you use an provider or choose to go it alone, implementing the best practices above will help your s stand out from the crowd and provide more conversions! References: Frequency When is More Better Than Less?, Angela Cheong, May 2013, What Are Some Best Practices for Writing Subject Lines, MailChimp, October 2013, Design Best Practices, Mail Monks Infographic, 2013, When is the Best Time to Send s?, MailChimp Research, December 2013, Do Your Marketing Activities Comply with the Law?, Caron Beesley, August 2012, 7 Reasons Why Newsletter Marketing Still Works, Marco Marini, ClickMail Marketing, April 2012, Internet 2011 in Numbers, Pingdom Tech Blog, January 17th, 2012, The Elements of Success PowerPoint Presentation, Keith Ruehl, Dianne Lucca, Nate Romance, United Stationers,

11 Marketing Subject Line Comparison, MailChimp Research, 11