LEADING LADIES & THE SISTA CODE PROGRAM Week 6 campaigns with MailChimp and other programs

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1 LEADING LADIES & THE SISTA CODE PROGRAM Week 6 campaigns with MailChimp and other programs Two weeks ago we looked at creating Tribes for a range of purposes, including the purpose of growing your business. One of the key elements of building and nurturing a tribe is effective communication, of which there is a range of means and channels to do just that. A tribe effectively communicates with all of its members if messages within the tribe: 1. effectively reach the intended audience 2. the messages and meanings are well received and understood. This week we are focussing on using programs and campaigns as a communication channel for you and your business. campaigns are one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to communicate with your clients and potential clients. As opposed to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay Per Click advertising, campaigns don t sit around and wait for people to find them, they reach out to touch and connect with people. WHO ARE YOUR BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP WITH? Before you start designing, writing, and sending campaigns, you should define your audience. Once you get a grasp on the people who will be reading your s, it will be much easier to decide what to say to them. If you already have subscribers on your list, their signup method can be used to help identify them.

2 Your subscribers may be interested in your written articles. If you're a retailer, subscribers will want to know about your new products or how they can better use what they've already purchased from you. If you're somewhere in between, your audience is likely made up of enthusiasts of your work or your brand. WHAT CONTENT WILL YOU INCLUDE? What would you like to get out of your marketing? Are you looking to direct readers to your website? Help promote sales? Increase traffic at events? Set goals like these for your campaigns, then keep track of your progress over time. Once you have worked out whom your audience is, it s time to figure out what you are going to say to them. Think about why this audience signed up for your s in the first place, then focus on delivering that to them. For example you may include: Upcoming events Recaps/photos from past events Popular posts on Facebook, Twitter, blog News coverage People/project/work profiles Tips for creating and gathering content Your content is the most important part of your newsletters. These tips will help as you start to create and gather compelling content that will speak to your readers. 1. Treat your readers like VIPs. Let your readers be the first to know about new products or sales. Give them access to special benefits as subscribers. 2. Keep it useful. You don't open an that doesn't benefit you in some way. Make sure your newsletters are giving your subscribers something they don't already have. Delight your readers. 3. Show some personality. 4. Keep it short. Most people are bombarded with s every day. Keep yours to the point. If you'd like to share a large piece of content, feature one element an excerpt or key quote and link away to the rest. Make it easy for your readers to scan quickly, if they want or need to. 5. Determine your sending frequency and goals It s up to you to decide what works best for you and your subscribers. We recommend that you at least once a month, but don't feel the need to commit to that immediately. Remember, content first. 6. Make a schedule Not everyone is going to send on a regular schedule, but for a lot of senders, having a timeline is helpful.

3 TESTING TESTING 1,2,3 Once you've designed and coded your first HTML template, you may be tempted to write your content and start sending. But let's take it slow. First, make sure your template will work in as many different clients as possible. Once you've found and fixed the inevitable bugs and typos, then it's time to send. 1. Test in different clients and ISPs (internet service providers) All accounts are created differently and can display your HTML in different ways. Some accounts will strip your BODY or HEAD tags, or all content below a certain line. Flash doesn't work with some, while others will block images by default. These inconsistencies make it very important to test your campaign in as many different scenarios as possible. 2. Send tests to friends and colleagues By keeping your designs simple and sending test s to a few friends or colleagues, you can be sure to catch broken images, typos, and other bugs. 3. Inbox Inspector (for Mailchimp users) If you use MailChimp, the Inbox Inspector is an option that will automatically select the 10 mostused clients from your subscriber list, then show you screenshots of your as it will appear in each. It also gives you a spam analysis based on words and phrases that trigger filters. HOW ARE YOUR S PERFORMING? You've designed, coded, written, tested, and sent your first marketing campaign, how can you measure your performance? Figure out what's working and what could use some work? There's data you should observe and questions you should ask to make these decisions: 1. Clicks Your click rate can help you determine the success of your campaign and reveal general trends in the behaviour of your subscribers. How many people clicked links in your ? Which links did they click the most? Did they click on product links, or research links? Did you see a rise in purchases? How long after you sent the campaign do links keep getting clicked? 2. Unsubscribe rate What s your unsubscribe rate after each campaign? Less than one percent is average for lists that are contacted regularly, and well-maintained. If you send very infrequently or if it s your very first send, your unsubscribe rate may be much higher. Check your rate after each campaign. 3. Bounces Watch your bounce rate after each campaign. MailChimp will break down your bounces into hard vs. soft, and clean your list accordingly. Soft bounces are s that exist, but for some reason, they couldn t be delivered. Hard bounces are undeliverable perhaps the account doesn t exist anymore, or there was a typo in the address.

4 4. Website traffic Check your website traffic logs after each campaign. Does traffic pick up? Do orders increase? Was the spike in traffic immediate, or did it come gradually? MailChimp integrates with Google Analytics to further illustrate how your s affect website traffic and drive revenue. 5. Signups since last campaign After each campaign, do you get lots of new subscribers? That could mean your loyal readers are forwarding your s to friends. CAMPAIGN PROVIDERS Mailchimp Campaign Monitor Aweber InfusionSoft Constant Contact Brain Or like Heidi has a custom service built into the back end of her website. WORDS OF WISDOM Make sure you get permission In Australia, commercial electronic messages sent to you must be sent with your consent. The Spam Act provides for two types of consent - express and inferred. Express consent means you have deliberately and intentionally opted-in to receiving electronic messages from the message sender. Some examples include: ticking the box next to a statement seeking permission to send you marketing messages entering your mobile telephone number on a website to opt-in to receive regular ringtones and games on your phone, then replying to a subsequent SMS to complete the opt-in process entering your address on a competition entry form and ticking a box next to a statement that says you wish to receive regular updates on the activities of the business contacting a business directly, in writing or on the phone to ask for information to be sent to you on an ongoing basis. All of these examples demonstrate that you have been informed that providing your consent means you will receive electronic messages and have had the opportunity not to receive commercial electronic messages. Inferred consent relies on a relationship you have with the message sender. The Spam Act provides that consent can be inferred from your conduct or the relationship that a message sender has with you.

5 Opt-ins There are many ways you can do this of course. Some prefer to give something away for free while others simply offer a newsletter or product updates. The MailChimp (and other campaign providers) double opt-in process is a two-step process, where a subscriber fills out your signup form and receives an with a link to confirm their subscription. MailChimp also includes some additional thank you and confirmation pages you can customize with your brand and messaging. Customise all your sign-up forms Most campaign providers will have default sign-up forms that are very bland and so will not showcase your brand personality. When people opt-in or subscribe to your list, make sure that you customise all the sign-up forms with your branding and text. Forms include: 1. Sign-up form 2. Thank you 3. Confirmation 4. Final welcome Don t ask me to marry you on the first date. The best way to build a relationship with your audience and encourage to join your list is to offer something of value with each communication, without demanding much (if anything at all) from them. This can include: free tips, an informative whitepaper, an invitation to an upcoming workshop or seminar, etc. Update Lists (New Issue Notifications, Product Updates, New Releases) Unsubscribe option All commercial electronic messages must contain an unsubscribe facility. This means there must be instructions on how you can opt-out of receiving messages on all your campaigns.