Better Marketing: Making Sure Your Messages Get Read & Acted On

Transcription

1 Better Marketing: Making Sure Your Messages Get Read & Acted On

2 Better Marketing What to Know Where to Start What to Watch Out For Information You Need to Gather About Your Audience How to Choose the Right Vendor Obtaining Lists Landing Page Optimization Mobile Tips

3 What to Know

4 5 Things You Should Check BEFORE Sending an 1. Does it match your overall marketing plan? 2. Are you delivering quality content? 3. Do you look like spam? 4. Is it easy for your customer to see the point or the call to action? 5. Are you making yourself accessible beyond the ?

5 Where to Start

6 Having a Plan marketing should be part of your businesses overall marketing plan Schedule around other marketing efforts that go along with the goals of your business Schedule as you re planning your quarterly marketing plan Add in other supplemental s that might include special offers or upcoming events

7 What new developments will affect your marketing program in the next 12 months?

8 Which marketing channels does your organization integrate with your program?

9 When You Have a Plan You are able to assess the frequency of your s, the topics you will cover, and the information you will need to gather ahead of time. If your campaigns don t work alongside your overall marketing plan, social media plan, website content plan, etc. you will be sending non-sensical, sporadic s that won t make sense to your customers.

10 What to Watch Out For

11 Delivering Quality Content The first step - a subject line that makes sense and compels them to read. Give the bottom line up front Leave out unnecessary words Tell what s inside, don t Sell what s inside Keep it short: 50 characters or less works best. You can use all CAPS, the word FREE and exclamation points - Just don t over do it

12 Delivering Quality Content Symbols and Special Characters They might get people opening them out of curiosity, but they make you look juvenile and unprofessional. Cheating Don t use FW: in your subject to imply it s come from a trusted source. Scams People have become wary of requests for help. (We need your help!) Numbers Details of your special offers (50% off etc.) can be useful, but don t overuse them or you ll establish yourself as a sales merchant.

13 Delivering Quality Content The body of your s should always have a clear call to action Include links to your website and specific pages that will be useful and relevant to your audience Include social media links Make it interesting with images, video and other interactive media

14 Do You Look Like Spam? Send s from a recognizable address (info@sitelogic) Provide a way for customers to opt-out with an unsubscribe at the bottom of the . Follow laws and regulations for sending out s (CAN-SPAM act).

15 The Point or Call to Action If you are just randomly sending out s without a plan, chances are your open rates will not be so good. People don t care about every single blog post you write, every company milestone, or new product you ve just put on the shelves. Be strategic about what you are showing people, and give them something to do with the information you provide.

16 Are You Accessible? Give people a way to contact you, find your brand, and engage with you socially. Provide social links, direct people to your website, highlight team members in a newsletter and give some contact information in the bottom of your . Let people know there is someone on the other end of the computer screen - Not spam.

17 Design Keep it simple. Use an software program to create great design quickly and easily. Make sure all images have alt text since images don t always show up in browsers until the user clicks see all images. Use images sparingly. Avoid background images that take away from the text. Use your logo somewhere at the top, incorporate company colors, fonts, etc.

18 Subject: Amazing Markdowns on Dewormers and Vaccines! What NOT to do! Too many images and starbursts. Bad design. Too many promotions in one .

19 What NOT to do! Subject: being overweight & pregnant (important) No links or calls to action above the fold, no images for interest/design, too much copy and typos in the only link.

20 Good Examples Subject: Buy Now To Celebrate Earth Day! Promotion and promotion code easily found in the . Forms of payment listed. Nice imagery.

21 Good Examples Subject: Splash-worthy Sandals! One main point. Sandals. Cross selling opportunities at the bottom from past purchases or searches.

22 Information You Need to Gather

23 Info You Need to Gather One of the best ways to figure out what your customers want to read is through your analytics. Where do people go the most on your site? What are they reading? What is their buying behavior? Through analytics, you can tailor s specifically targeting what people are doing on your site.

24 Info You Need to Gather Talk to your sales staff about what customers are saying about products, services, etc. Check social media to see what people are saying about you and what they seem to be interested in when it comes to your brand. Ask your clients what they would like to know more about - Do this on a contact form on your website, or through a social media post. Going directly to the source can be one of the most helpful ways to learn what campaigns might work the best.

25 Info You Need to Gather If you don t sell anything on your website, you can still send s delivering content that your audience wants to see. Part of building an campaign is showing that you are relatable, human and you care about what your customers are thinking. Even if you aren t e-commerce, you still provide helpful information and services on your website that people need to know about.

26 How to Choose the Right Vendor?

27 100 s of Options

28 How to Choose the Right Vendor 1. Future considerations Do you have a major change planned in the company, like introducing a CRM system? Are you expecting rapid growth? Do you have the staff to handle your marketing needs? Will you want to be able to easily re-market to website visitors? Make sure the ESP has a clean integration with your Web analytics platform.

29 How to Choose the Right Vendor 2. Make a list of features that you want your vendor to provide Automation (Drip and Triggered) Usability Integration Segmentation and Targeting Reporting and Analysis

30 Automation Drip and Triggered

31 Automation (Drip & Triggered) Means being more relevant to your audience without requiring a lot of extra hands-on management. More relevance leads to more opens, click throughs and conversions. It also leads to increased efficiency because your sending reputation improves and that s what the ISPs are looking for when delivering the . You will then get a higher percentage of s to the inbox. This capability also allows you as the marketer to send more timely messages based on behavior and/or where a subscriber is in the sales cycle.

32 Usability

33 Usability If your staff finds it difficult to use, they won t use it effectively. If it s easy to use, that decreases errors and therefore increases efficiency. Consider how well it works on an individual level and how it works for your organization. Does it allow people across the company to collaborate? How much training is required? Consider ease of navigation, the testing environment, reporting, account configurations and profile settings. Is the workflow intuitive? Are there preloaded templates? Is there a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor? Are there optional interfaces for different user types? For example, can you turn on/off more complex (and therefore more difficult to use) features for some users? Above all, make sure you can take the user interface for a test drive.

34 Integration

35 Integration Integration means getting information in and out of the application, so your ESP can work with programs like Web analytics, CRM, CMS and custom reporting dashboards. Your subscribers don t want generic batch and blast content. has to be more timely, relevant and personalized. And that often means must be driven by data from outside the marketing application via integration. Does the ESP have pre-configured integrations with the platforms you want to integrate to? Is the ESP platform Web services compliant?

36 Segmentation and Targeting

37 Segmentation and Targeting We all know smaller, more targeted lists consistently perform better in terms of opens, click throughs and conversions. Being able to send the right message, at the right time, to the right audience. Can you search and select based on date ranges, values and value ranges? How easily can you determine past recipient behavior? Does the platform offer support for data tables (relational data)? Can you do complex filtering, combining logical and/or statements without knowing SQL (Structured Query Language)? Also ask about frequency and timing filtering factors so you can make sure subscribers are not ed too frequently.

38 Reporting and Analysis

39 Reporting and Analysis We all know the Standard measurements: sends, deliveries, opens, click throughs and forwards. What s Critical for measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns and making adjustments to optimize ROI over time. Make sure you re clear on the metrics that matter for your business and review how well the reporting capabilities of the ESP match those needs. What level of detailed reporting is available for bounce messages (i.e. why did a message bounce)? Does the ESP offer downloadable, programmable (i.e. set and forget), post-click through reporting? Do you have flexibility to customize the reports? How easy is it to export results so they can be used with other tools or data? Look for the ability to tag links for analysis in Web analytics tools, as well as the ability to share information between Web analytics, CRM and applications.

40 How to Choose the Right Vendor 3. What to look for What is their deliverability rate? Is deliverability consistently monitored? Is the ESP rated by analysts like Forrester, Jupiter, emarketer, Clickz or MarketingSherpa? Can you have you own dedicated IP mail server address? Is there an extra cost? Can you elect to be in a shared or distributed IP mail server pool? Does the ESP have a team of postmasters to interact with ISPs?

41 How to Choose the Right Vendor 4. Talk to others that have experience working with vendors LinkedIn Groups Other Marketing Professionals 5. Narrow down your choices to two or three Request a Free Trial

42 Obtaining Lists

43 How to Build Your List 1. Your Website Make sure you have opt-in forms in the right places: Left or right bars, top and bottom (varying sizes) Blog Double check that s are put into your CRM/ESP.

44 How to Build Your List 2. Sales Work with Sales to make sure the contacts they add to the CRM include addresses and important things like titles and sales cycle. 3. Tradeshows Use the Pre-Show/Post Show/Lead Retrieval opportunities that tradeshows/conferences provide.

45 How to Build Your List 4. List Firm Buy lists with caution. Your deliverability and IP reputation can be harmed. 5. Forward From Friend Ask people to forward your s if they like the content or think others would be interested in your promotion/information.

46 How to Build Your List 6. Post Purchase Ask for an after a purchase. 7. Events Network at local chamber events. 8. Partnership Consider a partnership. Co-Sponsor a webinar or other marketing event.

47 Landing Page Optimization

48 Landing Pages Headline A clear and concise headline is critical. Sum up your offer as clearly as possible. Hidden Navigation Hide any top and side navigation bars from that page. Don t try to send them to another page on your site, simply provide them with a seamless way to retrieve the information.

49 Landing Pages Context Below your main headline, consider using a subheader to provide a little bit of information about the benefits of your offer. Every piece of your page is a possible conversion point. Nurture leads with social media.

50 Landing Pages Value Use the rest of the text on your landing page to clearly and simply explain the value of your offer. Use bullet points to demonstrate concrete takeaways, break up large blocks of text, and keep your copy brief and to-the-point. Specifically, what will a person take away?

51 Landing Pages Image Include a relevant image on your landing page. Try to match the image with the offer. Lead-Capture Form What converts those visitors into precious sales leads? Only ask for information you need from your leads in order to effectively follow up with and/or qualify them.

52 Which form data do you collect in the registration process for your program?

53 Offer Good Example Form Social Short Bulleted Copy

54 Bad Example

55 Take the Quiz Source: HubSpot - How to Optimize Landing Pages for Conversions

56 Mobile Tips

57 Are you designing your s to render differently on mobile devices?

58 Mobile 1. Check analytics to see what platform people are coming to your site from to create effective campaigns.

59 Mobile 2. Consider how people are using their mobile devices

60 Mobile 3. Set clear metrics for success 4. Focus on the post click experience

61 Mobile 5. Drive your objectives 6. Test, test and optimize

62 Thank You! or