Newsletters For Lead Nurturing. CallidusCloud Marketing Automation Best Practices

Transcription

1 Newsletters For Lead Nurturing CallidusCloud Marketing Automation Best Practices

2 1 Introduction newsletters are no longer optional when it comes to B2B marketing. With a wide range of lead generation and lead nurturing bene ts, e-newsletters can reap signi cant revenue bene ts when they are appropriately timed, and when they contain content that can in uence and impact a subscriber s purchasing decision. When a newsletter is able to drive website visits or generate responses for o ers and subscriptions, it means prospects are interested in the content that is being shared with them. Sharing on social circles is also a good indication of a subscriber s belief and trust in what you o er. So, what is it that converts a newsletter subscriber into a prospect? Let s look at some e-newsletter vitals that will enable marketers to generate leads, nurture them, and build long-lasting relationships with prospects. Best Practices for Newsletters Newsletter design and structuring should be in line with the organization s brand standards. Every component of the newsletter requires detailed working in order to entice and convince a subscriber to open and read its content. Some of the best practices for each component are listed below. NEWSLETTER ESSENTIALS Value the recipient s time Provide ease of readability O er high-value content Benchmark your results 2013 CallidusCloud - Proprietary & Con dential

3 2 1. KEEP DESIGN & STRUCTURING SIMPLE From Line & Subject Line Include the sender name and company name. Example: Include the highest bene t your product is o ering in the subject line. Avoid sales words that may put o the reader from opening the newsletter. Layout Maintain a portrait orientation for the newsletter. Feature the company logo on top. List the main content in a tabular form or in short paragraphs. Consistently align content and images in all issues. Include images as a visual representation of the content CallidusCloud - Proprietary & Con dential

4 3 Provide URLs to read newsletters online. Provide a related reading reference link where the reader can download or view a research report/ebook related to the topic covered. Provide social media sharing options such as Tweet, Forward to Friend, etc. Provide a valid physical postal address, copyright information, privacy policy, and a subscription/permission reminder in your (usually found in the footer). According to the CAN-SPAM Act, Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity...you may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam lter doesn t block these opt-out requests. Aesthetics Follow a theme for each newsletter; it helps readers to relate to the content. Images must not be lurid or too colourful. Ensure the newsletter is pixel-perfect in di erent screen resolutions. Present the newsletter in easily distinguishable sections for readability. 2. USE ENGAGING CONTENT To create engaging, crisp and relevant content, in order to sustain interest in reading, the following points need to be adhered to. Display content as bullet points or in short paragraphs. Add hyperlinks and buttons to stories to allow recipient to continue reading from the website. Links to external research reports, survey results, etc., can also be included. Add relevant graphs, analytics and images to summarize the content in individual articles or reports CallidusCloud - Proprietary & Con dential

5 4 SEO optimize content for keywords and phrases. Include engagement tactics such as polling, voting, games, videos, forum replies, etc. to engage reader for some time. 3. CREATE PERMISSION BASED LIST With minimal attention spans and being mobile becoming the order of the day, it becomes necessary to send newsletters only to those who would prefer to receive it, in order to ensure that the marketing content and promotion strategy will work. Since people are more selective about the information they receive and use, creating permission- based lists is the best solution. Ask for permission It helps readers distinguish between legitimate s and spam. Keep asking - At regular intervals, reminding readers that they have a chance to opt out. It proves that you are a credible and trustworthy company that respects and places customer/ prospect interest before anything else. Don t share - Once you are have been given the permission to send the newsletter, don t share the contacts with third party vendors.

6 5 All you have to do is create a web-page form for the user to enter his address, or ask him to reply to your subscription address and register for the newsletter. 4. COMMUNICATE EXPECTATIONS Once a reader has subscribed to your newsletter, you should let him know what to expect from the newsletter. This is to ensure that he does not receive irrelevant content even by accident. By communicating newsletter expectations, you only ensure continued support from him. Include the following in your first to the subscriber.

7 6 Frequency of newsletter delivery (Monthly or Weekly, Bi-weekly, Quarterly). Content he can expect every month (news updates, articles, quiz, puzzles, etc). Privacy policy which talks about confidentiality of addresses used. - Provide links to your privacy protection documents or display privacy protection certifications near sign-up forms. Send a welcome and display a confirmation message to acknowledge the subscription request. 5. PROVIDE OPTIONS TO UNSUBSCRIBE Make the process of unsubscribing easy and simple for your newsletter subscribers. Provide an unsubscribe or opt-out message at the end of every newsletter you send. Send out a thank you message for previous subscribers and process the unsubscribe request ASAP. This is to ensure that your next newsletter release does not end up in the spam folder. Ask subscribers if they want to take a break from receiving s. This is called the SNOOZE option. This will allow you retain them as prospects and deliver newsletters again once the snooze period is over. Provide manual unsubscribe options in the for those who face technical difficulty while trying to use automated unsubscribe options.

8 7 6. CALCULATE DELIVERY BENCHMARKS Newsletter performances can be an eye-opener in knowing the intent of the reader. Calculating the below mentioned delivery metrics help to customize future newsletter campaigns. Deliverability rate Measure of deliverability to valid addresses. Open rate Measure of the number of times a newsletter was read or viewed.

9 8 Click through rate Measure of the number of times or number of links clicked on the newsletter. Conversion Rate Measure of new subscriptions, registrations, downloads etc. 7. TEST & TROUBLESHOOT Now that your newsletter is ready to go, do a live test. This helps to ensure deliverability and weed out technical difficulties which the reader may face during download or viewing the newsletter online.

10 9 The total newsletter content should less than 50k in size. Test run s to different clients. Test teams will then be able to predict speed of deliverability and prevent them from being blocked by spam filters. Do not use special characters in the content since they may show up differently in different clients. Provide a classic or basic version of the newsletter in case there is a deliverability issue arising out of Internet speed. 8. OFFER SOCIAL SHARING OPTIONS Social media sharing is the best way to let non-members view/ready our newsletter. By posting newsletter URLs on Twitter, Facebook, PR sites, etc., marketers can enable readers to share with peers, groups and connections. Add Call-to-Action buttons like Subscribe, Join, Add on home page and landing pages. Share newsletter links on blog and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Provide list of archived newsletters along with their themes, so that they may read content that interests them. Engage readers through social media about upcoming articles/reports in the newsletter. Add newsletter sign-up links in marketing collateral provided for download or viewing. Entice them with free ebook or report downloads for newsletter subscriptions.

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