// white paper. Best. generate sales, foster loyalty & nurture prospects. silvercreativegroup.com 1

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1 // white paper Best Practices for 2011 generate sales, foster loyalty & nurture prospects silvercreativegroup.com 1

2 What s one of the most significant things you can do to contribute to revenue growth? Give your program a tune-up. Below are the must-do steps to get your program up to speed, with an ROI that will make you smile. Quite simply, is one of the most effective tools in the marketer s arsenal. It is easier to update than a web page, more personal than an ad, less demanding than social networking and as targeted, customizable and cost-effective as anything out there. If your program could use a boost, now s the perfect time to take a look under the hood and consider some of the latest advancements that can help drive your bottom line in If you haven t been paying attention, has evolved over the past few years. Consumers and business professionals are opting into lists and joining e-newsletters that provide content that they find valuable. They are expecting more from business related s, and this is GREAT news for businesses. Web-savvy companies are taking advantage of the renewed legitimacy of . They are finding that is a great way to nurture prospects through long sales cycles. It allows them to engage prospects in a meaningful dialogue to help educate them, earn their trust and move them forward through the buying process. They are also finding is a great tool to stay in touch with current and former customers, keep their brand top of mind and stimulate repeat sales. silvercreativegroup.com 2

3 Does your current program accomplish all four of the objectives below? Inform & Educate Use to turn? s into $ s by providing relevant information. Not only about your products & services, but also about the challenges your prospects & customers are facing and how you are working on solutions to help overcome them. By vesting yourself in your customer s success, you become a trusted resource and ultimately part of their chosen solution. Build consumer trust People buy products & services from brands they trust. And trust can only be earned through successful interaction with your brand over time. is simply the most cost-effective means of interacting with customers & prospects on a regular basis. A well-planned program will provide valuable, relevant information in addition to promotional material, and ultimately make your customers feel comfortable and confident that you are the kind of company that they want to be aligned with. Encourage brand loyalty No matter what business you are in, holding onto current customers is always more costeffective than trying to lure in new ones. With , you can interact with your customers in between sales, ensure their satisfaction and continue to build and strengthen your relationship with them. It is also a great tool for encouraging cross sales of products as well as upgrades and other options, ultimately increasing the average lifetime value of each customer. Generate sales Your database is a targeted list of the people most likely to buy your product or services. In fact, you probably can t buy a list anywhere near the quality of the list you build yourself. And there s something to be said for being in the right place at the right time when one of those people decides they have a need and are ready to buy. Even soft sell, information based s can act as a gentle reminder and trigger sales. As well, can nuture prospects through the sales cycle more efficiently, educating them and encouraging trial, which will lead to new customers and a healthier bottom line. The take away: A good program includes a mix of messaging. Build a campaign that includes specific s to help you to achieve each of these goals. Objectives marketing acheives most efficiently silvercreativegroup.com 3

4 Industry benchmarks Open rates: 20-40% CTR: (click thru rate): 4-15% CTOR*: 25-45% * (clicks to opens rate) A quality score for the internal content of your s, measuring customer engagement and giving you an indication of how relevant the information is to the reader. Best times to send: To some degree it can vary by company, so be sure to test different times with your list. But as a general rule, business s fair better Tues-Thurs between 10am-2pm. Consumer s Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Frequency: This is a completely subjective question dependent on your list and the value of the information you are providing. We usually advise no more than 2 s a month for most of our clients, unless there is something special going on. But there are companies like Crate & Barrel for instance, who seem to send s nearly every day, and somehow their entire list has not rebelled and opted out. I m not even sure why I personally haven t opted out myself as I complain about the frequency every time I see one. But for me, I guess it all comes down to the value I perceive. I love the brand and I am just waiting & hoping for some huge sale I can take advantage of. Because while I love their merchandise, their prices are just too exorbitant for my pockets on a regular basis. Other Crate & Barrel customers probably have their own reasons for staying opted in. And that is the gist of it. There isn t an easy, one-size fits all answer to the frequency question. It all depends on how your list reacts. The value subscribers perceive may be the lure of a fantastic deal, or it may be information that keeps them in the loop on something that is important to them. The only way to know for sure is to watch your analytics and see how your list reacts. So start with a couple of s per month. If your list reacts well and you have additional content of value to provide, try increasing frequency. When you see your unsubscribe rate begin to rise, you ll know you are starting to test their patience, so dial it back a bit and rest assured that your frequency rate has been optimized. Key: B2B Consumer Sun Mon Tue March Wed Thu Fri Sat silvercreativegroup.com 4

5 Hot tips to make your program sizzle Be upfront and honest Why do you want my address? What am I joining? A newsletter? Promotional campaign? What is it and why? Explain and define your communication program so people know what to expect (and you know what to deliver). Be upfront with how often you plan to people. Make sure you are very clear about this, especially on the page where they sign up. It may even help your opt-in rate. Who are you and why are you ing me? When trying to optimize your open rates, your subject line and the from field are just as important as what s showing in the preview pane. Be as direct, transparent and easily recognizable as you can. Keep subject lines to 35 characters or less. If you have a branded newsletter, put the name and issue date (subject: Running Today December 2010) or leading headline (subject: Running Today Top 10 sports drinks rated) in the subject line, and try to avoid using sales terms that trip SPAM filters, like sale, discount and free. Also avoid using ALL CAPS or excessive punctuation!!!! The from field is just as important. Make it personal by using a real name such as Paul or Sandra, or at least something that sounds human like hypergurl or techguy if you have a branded moniker. Another option is to call it a team or club, if that is what they joined (Taylor Swift Fan Club). Do not use generic addresses like info@yourcompany.com or even worse sales@yourcompany.com People do not want to be treated like another number in your database. Nor do they want to talk to sales people, even when they are buying! If people feel like they are communicating with a real person and can tell quickly who you are and what you are about, they will be more apt to think twice about hitting that delete button, or even worse, the dreaded junk button. Take it easy with the sales pitch You wouldn t walk up to someone on the street and yell BUY NOW! BUY NOW! BUY NOW! in their face. So don t do it in your . On the other hand, sometimes the best way to get the sale is to ask for it. So what is the correct balance? If all of your s are sales related, chances are people will tune out after a while, and your unsubscribe rates and acquisition costs will be on the high side. So it is a good idea to temper your sales pitch with real, If people feel like they are communicating with a real person and can tell quickly who you are and what you are about, they will be more apt to think twice about hitting that delete button, or even worse, the dreaded junk button. valuable information. Most experts will suggest 2 to 1 mix between information and sales related content or something close to that. One client of ours sends an information-based at the beginning of every month. At the bottom of this is a small area mentioning the Promotion of the month. A few weeks later, they send a second, salesoriented noting that there is Only 1 week left for this month s promotion. This sort of soft sell/hard sell approach has worked well for them, generating incremental revenue while also keeping subscribers interested and their opt-out rates low. You shouldn t have to agonize over what to write When looking for content ideas, focus on the challenges your customers are facing. Chances are you have a solid knowledge base within your company just from developing your products and/or services. Answering common questions people have (The difference between protein and amino acids in sports drinks) and educating people on the latest fads (5 Myths about the latest SPAM filters) are good places to start. Also, think about your business partners and how you might be able to tap into their knowledge base for fresh ideas, even going so far as to highlight them in an . Keep it casual. Be professional for certain, but if your s sound like corporate ad speak, people will tune out just as they do other advertisements, and you will not accomplish that one-onone dialogue necessary to create a personal connection with your customers. Web 2.0 is the current trend making the internet a much more personal and interactive experience and the sooner you adopt it, the quicker you ll see the results you were expecting when you first started marketing online. Finally, don t try to do more than you can handle. Trying to come up with good strong content from month to month can become hopelessly time consuming. Make an honest assessment of your resources and design a campaign based around exactly what you are able to accomplish. And get help where you need it. Too many companies start off thinking too big and their programs become impossible to execute on a monthly basis. A short and sweet campaign is better than an inconsistent one, or no campaign at all. silvercreativegroup.com 5

6 Clean and lean keeps the reader keen Seriously, when it comes to design, keep your layout clean and uncluttered. Being quick to the point will encourage people to read more, which is helpful when you have more than one item to talk about. If you do have a very long topic, consider writing a brief teaser a good headline with a paragraph synopsis and then ask them to click on a link to read the whole article on your website. The click-thru rates will give you a good idea of how relevant the topic was to your subscribers, encourage engagement through interactivity and most importantly, give your website some good keyword rich content to help with your SEO. Another thing to consider when creating your s is the preview pane, which may be just as important as the subject and from lines for some subscribers when determining whether or not they are interested enough to open your . Be sure that your headline and first few lines of text are visible in the preview pane and provide a strong enticement to open. Most people use the horizontal preview pane, but it is good practice to optimize your for both. Also, be sure to take advantage of alt image text, so that enticing words will appear in place of images that have not downloaded yet. information but, people get frustrated quickly if they can t find where to click. Visual cues like buttons and obvious text links take out the guess work and keep your readers engaged and interested. Make it easy to opt-out Yes we re serious. Make sure you have a clear opt-out message in the footer of every . Not only is it the law, but you will appear more trustworthy if you are upfront about it. When someone clicks on the link to opt-out, don t just delete them from the database, but bring them to a landing page that gives them the option to adjust frequency as well as opt-out. It is also advisable to have a comment box on the page as well so you can learn what it is that has been turning people off. If your list is part of a customer registration process, give subscribers the opportunity to manage the frequency of the s they receive in the Account Management section of your website. Send an once or twice a year reminding them that they have the option to manage their subscription. By being transparent, you make people feel more comfortable about doing business with you and your program will benefit in the long run. You may even see opt-out rates decline. If you want them to click, make it obvious It may sound simple, but if you want someone to click on something, give them a button to click on. It is so often assumed that people will click on an image to find more silvercreativegroup.com 6

7 The must-do list for 2011 Refine your acquisition strategy In order to optimize growth, you need to have a steady stream of well-targeted new subscribers. Be sure that you are collecting addresses from the right people in all the right places, and maximize your opt-in rate with a strong offer. Optimize your system & database management If your still using Constant Contact, or heaven forbid something worse, it s time to upgrade. In fact, there are a number of great free services that provide more features like advanced HTML editors, automation, database management, reporting and more. For those who need more advanced features and wish to integrate their program with other online marketing initiatives, there are a bunch of good mid-tier services that are very economical for mid- to large-size companies. Bottom line: If your program feels like a bear to manage, you may have outgrown your current system. Take the time to see if it might be time for an upgrade. Automate your campaigns If you haven t started using auto-responders yet, you are probably working too hard at . Learn about the advantages of automating simple response systems and see how well planned drip campaigns can move prospects through the sales cycle more quickly. Remarket yourself Remarketing is more than just the latest banner ad craze, it s proven to increase conversion rates and it can be done with too. If you re letting shoppers just abandon their carts and walk away, you re giving up way too easy. For more information on how to maximize the potential of your marketing program, or for help in developing, managing and tracking well executed online campaigns, call silver at and speak to Paul x114 or Bill x 117, or visit silvercreativegroup.com 7