The Beginner s Guide to Marketing. Your Top Marketing Questions Answered

Transcription

1 The Beginner s Guide to Marketing Your Top Marketing Questions Answered

2 Table of Contents Getting Started 4 36 Lifecycle Marketing Types 6 40 Preference Centers Measuring Success 8 42 Drip Marketing Interview with Chris Penn Segmentation List Growth Google Analytics Deliverability A/B Testing Creative Monetization Interview with DJ Waldow Marketing ROI Mobile Design ESP Selection Checklist Social Media Conclusion 2

3 Introduction Why should you read the Beginner s Guide to Marketing? According to the Direct Marketing Association, marketing has a Return on Investment (ROI) of $40.56 for every dollar spent. Are you getting that type of return? If not, you may be leaving money on the table. In this guide, you ll learn everything from how to get started quickly to some more advanced topics like segmentation and how to set up a lifecycle marketing strategy. If you ever need more help, feel free to reach out to us! If you want to know whether you have great , you can simply ask yourself the following question; is it relevant, timely, and personalized? If you don t get a kick out of your own , why would you assume that your readers enjoy it? Let s get started! 3

4 Getting Started So let s say you re just getting started and don t know where to start... 1 Diagnose 2 Set Goals Diagnose the current health of your marketing program. How large and active are your lists, and have all of your subscribers opted in? Do you know the ROI of your marketing efforts? Do you know the value of a subscriber? Are your templates consistent in branding and is your copy reflective of your brand? How many people in your marketing department are dedicated to and what can you actually handle? Take a look at your goals and see what you re trying to achieve through . Are you just trying to keep in touch with your customers with a monthly newsletter, send a promotional , or is your ultimate goal to make your program a lead generation engine for your sales team? Either way, map out your business goals using your tool of choice and you will start to see a picture forming of where you want to be. Then, work backwards from there to determine what type of program you should be creating. 4

5 Getting Started 3 Create Structure 4 Create a Workflow 5 Start Small Put your programs into buckets and create a structure to keep it all clear. Establish a workflow and approval process internally. If we were to give you only one tip, it would be to start small. Whether you create a promotional or drip campaign, it really helps to have clear goals and plans in place well before you get to the design phase. If you need more help, that is what we are here for! If you re a one-man or one-woman shop, it still helps to have a second pair of eyes. Regardless of your size, you should attempt to develop an approval process. Any good service provider will also have workflow features that will help you do this. Don t blast a newsletter to your entire list without seeing what works and trying to be more targeted in your approach. Also, don t overpromise, if you tell your readers to expect an from you each week but you don t deliver, this will affect your reputation and credibility. 5

6 Types Confirmation s Confirmation s communicate that the provider has received their request. address verification, updates to subscription preferences, and unsubscribe requests are all examples of this type of . Informational s Informational s aim to educate subscribers on topics relative to their preference settings with the provider. Examples of this are a publishing entity sending alerts, a travel company mailing member points status, or a financial institution communicating new mortgage rates.

7 Types Lifecycle s Lifecycle s are those that support acquisition, conversion, growth, retention, and reactivation of subscribers. There are numerous types of lifecycle campaigns. Common examples are: Opt-in Series (acquire) Abandon Cart (convert) Welcome Series (grow) Birthday (retention) Win-back (reactivate) Transactional s Transactional s are triggered events that acknowledge a business deal has been completed. Receipts for purchases are the most common type of transactional message. Promotional s Promotional s focus on delivering a particular offer, or set of offers that are relevant to a subscriber s preference settings. Examples of this are a travel company s partnership effort with a hotel, or a retail organization s seasonal sale announcement.

8 Measuring Success 8

9 Measuring Success To effectively measure success, you need clearly defined goals and access to the right metrics. Before you launch a new program, decide which metrics you ll use. Are you looking to increase opens or to affect your overall marketing ROI? CALCULATE BENCHMARKS FOR ALL PROGRAMS & SEGMENTS An important way to measure success is to compare results against benchmarks. Your best benchmark will be your own past performance. channel averages and industry-specific statistics can be directionally helpful. They can tell you if you re performing in the general ballpark of your peers. However, you ll learn more by mining your own trend data and looking at results by campaign type. For example, you may benchmark your results for promotional campaigns, news-letters, lifecycle programs, and transactional . Just be sure to include enough data to account for seasonality, by using at least a 12-month time frame. DEFINE YOUR SUCCESS MEASURES BEFORE LAUNCHING Whether you re trying to simply create better content to increase reader engagement or increase your lead generation efforts via , you ll need to come up with your success measures prior to launching any campaigns. This way, you ll keep these objectives in mind when designing your and be more primed for success! 9

10 Interview with Chris Penn TechCocktail interviewed Chris Penn, former Director of Inbound Marketing at WhatCounts to discuss their top 5 questions on marketing. TechCocktail: What s the biggest mistake made in marketing? Chris Penn: I d say the biggest mistake in marketing is not testing. I m constantly amazed by the number of people who assume they ve got a best practice in place and they don t test. In this day and age, it s all about testing. Making sure you re doing all of the things that are experimental, that you re finding new and different ways to provide value to your community, new information to your audience, and serving them well. There s all kind of new innovations. There are ad server innovations, there are ways to pull RSS feeds and blog posts in, there s multi-variate testing in . There are many ways that people should be testing and they re not. TC: For boot-strapping tech startups who have limited manpower, where do you rank marketing compared to social media and blogging in terms of importance? CP: When it comes to the importance of , social and content creation, it s not a linear scale of importance. It s more like the legs of a tripod. You have content, the meat and potatoes the value you can provide. The distribution, which is and to some degree social. And there s conversation, which is really social s main domain of expertise. These three things work in a virtual circle. You have good content, you distribute to people, and then you have conversations which creates more awareness which gets more people back to the content, which gives you greater distribution, which creates more conversation. These things happen in what I like to call a virtual circle. If you do it right, it builds on itself and makes you a more powerful marketer. With few exceptions, these can be relatively low cost to do. They re a lot of work, a lot of effort you have to build a lot of expertise. They re not going to be bank breakers like PPC is going to be or direct mail. 10

11 Interview with Chris Penn TC: What s the number one piece of advice for optimizing open rates? CP: The number one piece of advice for optimizing open rates is this: provide really good content. People will look for your they will spread word-ofmouth about it. I like to hold up the gold standard of this, Peter Shankman s Help A Reporter Out (HARO), his list which has 200,000 people or something like that he sends out three times a day. In the world of marketing, that is totally nuts, but he has a ridiculously high open rate. Every single version of his newsletter there s an opportunity for you or a colleague or someone in a related industry to get some free press. There s tremendous value in that. 11

12 Interview with Chris Penn Every single issue of HARO people spring to open it, trying to beat their competitors to replying to the journalists for the opportunity to get some free earned media. So, provide really good value and people will want to open your s. If you provide value that s only so-so, then all the little tricks like pre-headers and subject lines won t matter as much. TC: How import a role does design play in a newsletter? Do you have any general tips for improving one s layout? CP: The role of design in a newsletter is reasonably important. It s not as good as the quality of the content, but it s still important to direct people to where you want them to go, what you want them to do. That s pretty typical of any kind of design. If it s not channeling people to do what you want them to do, it s not going to perform as well for you. That said, you don t need to be creating masterpieces of art. You can if you want to and in some cases you have to if you re a design firm, but it s not mandatory. In terms of improving your layout, design with a multitude of devices in mind. Some people are going to read on their desktop, some people are going to read on their mobile device their ipad. All of these things have different form factors. It goes back to the first question you asked the biggest mistake made in marketing testing. Test your stuff out on different devices, and see what s going to render best. Something that is going to look great on a HDTV-sized retina display MacBook is going to look real different on a tiny iphone or Blackberry. A good proxy for this is to go to look at your Google Analytics data. Go under the Visitors tab, and look at the operating system and display sizes that people are using. If you ve got a significant minority of people on a phone sized display, you need to be adjusting your s to fit what your web analytics are telling you that your folks are visiting your website already. 12

13 Interview with Chris Penn TC: What s the most important question marketers are not asking in regards to marketing? CP: I m going to be a bit biased on this one because of the company I work for WhatCounts. Our tagline is find and grow your marketing ROI. People are asking that question, but I think they re asking it in the wrong context. What s the ROI of ? no the question should be what s the ROI of your ? I get this a lot people love industry averages. They say, What s the industry average open? Click-through? ROI? It s hard to say this but, that s the wrong question and here s why. Even in niches there s such dramatic differences between businesses that industry averages are pretty much worthless. Think about it if you have Golden Slacks Hedge Fund and Small Little Credit Union they re both financial services but with supremely different audiences. Golden Slacks is catering to the Fortune 50 crowd and the credit union is trying to get grandma to take the quarters out of the jar on the kitchen counter. These are really, really different audiences, still financial services though. Their open rates are going to be different, their response rates are going to be different, the services they offer and the value of these services are going to be different. You re going to see different performances. The best advice I can give is to not worry about an industry standard. Worry about making sure your metrics are improving with each . Every time you send an your open rate, conversion rate, clickthrough, conversion should be a little bit higher. Tony Robbins calls it continuing and never ending improvement. The Japanese call it Kaizen. If you focus on this Kaizen, you will get a better newsletter. You won t really care what the industry average is. You ll know that your performance and the results you drive are going to be much better over time. So that s the one thing that marketers aren t asking and should be: how can we get better over time? Click here to watch the entire interview. 13

14 List Growth What about my list? Well, if your list is outdated or you don t have one at all, you have a few options. You can create a re-engagement campaign to have your current subscribers opt-in again to your programs. This way, you can remove those people who are no longer interested in receiving communications from you and help to increase your deliverability. The other option is to actively add more people to your list by creating a newsletter signup form on your website or including a signup form with other marketing content as long as it clearly states that the person will be added to your mailing list to follow best practices. Finally, you can rent a list, but we don t recommend this due to the negative consequences it can have for your reputation. A good way to get around this is by doing a dedicated send through a partner or by purchasing a paid advertising slot for your syndicated content. If you choose to go this route, you will still need to ensure that the partner follows best practices by requiring opt-ins and honoring unsubscribes from their list. Here are four quick tips to help you grow your list. 1 Social Sharing Include Share With Your Network (SWYN) or Share-to-Social functionality in your , allowing subscribers to share your s with their social networks. Most service providers offer some form of social SWYN functionality in their platforms. Place them prominently above the fold for maximum effect. 14

15 List Growth 2 Facebook Page Opt-In 4 An Obvious Subscribe Form Include an opt-in form on your Facebook fan page using Facebook Apps. Put an obvious subscription form on your website above the fold. By offering unique content through each marketing channel, you ll encourage your audience to want to connect with you in multiple places. Ideally, make it a part of your website s design and template so that you never have to remember to add the form to each page. 3 Ask at Online Checkout For online transactions, ask customers if they want to receive future s from you at checkout. Learn More Check out our ebook 57 Tips to Grow Your List! This is a relatively obvious tip that should be part of your checkout process online. 15

16 Deliverability You can write all the great content you want and design the most amazing s, but if they don t get into the inbox, all your efforts could be in vain. deliverability is definitely a science, so we d recommend you reach out to an expert like our Delivery Team, but here are some tips to get you started. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Yahoo! recently admitted that engagement plays a major factor in how they assess delivery for bulk ers; marketers must pivot their approach in order to keep up with ISP requirements. Monitor Engagement These are engagement metrics to monitor: Open rate If most of your messages are deleted by the recipient instantaneously (or even worse, marked as spam), chances are your list won t be receiving many of your s in the future. Click-through rate (CTR) A higher CTR is another way of signaling to ISPs that you are a trusted, highly regarded source not only do recipients want the information you send, they further seek out other content you ve provided. Built-in platform features Chances are if you re using a content-rich platform and avoid embedding spam codes, viruses, or buttons, you re probably a legitimate marketer. ISPs can identify this right off the bat by how your s look : Do you avoid attachments? Are your messages substantive? Do you avoid using copious hot-button spam words like FREE? These are ways that ISPs can instantly flag your according to how they think readers will respond to receiving it. 16

17 Deliverability Prevent Poor Deliverability These are actions you can take to prevent poor deliverability: Simple to unsubscribe Make it very easy to unsubscribe from your s to avoid being marked as spam. We recommend placing an unsubscribe link at the top as well as the bottom of your template. This way, it makes it easier for people to unsubscribe and saves your reputation in the process. Proper authentication ISPs like Gmail look to see if you are properly authenticated using SPF. (Sender Policy Framework verifies the sender s IP address to prevent spam by detecting spoofing.) Some folks have reported increased deliverability with properly configured DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail lets an organization take responsibility for a message that is in transit) as well, so make sure you have both configured and set up properly. Return Path Sender Score Certification If you re a high volume sender, Microsoft recommends that you be enrolled (for a fee) in the Return Path Sender Score Certified program. If you re a WhatCounts customer, talk to your dedicated account manager if you d like to enroll, as we have a partnership with Return Path that makes signing up simple. WhatCounts customers perform this during their on-boarding process. 17

18 Creative Creative is quite simply about engagement and compelling the user to take the next step in clicking through your campaign. With users getting more and more s everyday, their attention spans have dramatically decreased. This has increased the importance of having great creative that is built upon proven best practices. The Basics Like all design projects, there are a few best practices and rules that you should establish within your template before you even start designing: Your width should not exceed 600 pixels. Staying within this width helps to ensure that your message will render correctly on desktop and mobile ESPs. Design with an ESP s 500x500 pixels (320x480 pixels for mobile) preview pane in mind. Use this as the safe zone for all branding, main messaging and important links and/or calls-to-action. Once your template file is setup, it is important to layout the goals of your , and understand exactly what your creative needs to accomplish. There are four questions that you should always keep in mind when starting to design an communication: 1. What do you want to tell the user? 2. Why should they care? 3. What do you want the user to do? 4. Where are you going to take them next? 18

19 Creative Content Now that your goals are clearly established and you have a clear idea of the format in which you are designing in, it s now time to think about the content of the , the proper hierarchy and how it can be represented in a compelling and engaging way that resonates with the consumer. Examine your content and start laying out what content is the most important, and should be represented within the first 500x500 pixels of the creative. Then determine what the call-to-action should look like and which design elements can be used in conjunction with the messaging to garner the most attention from the user on immediate impact. All other content should fall in line after the main message this becomes a balancing act of what content you focus on first, second, third, etc. and what content visually competes with other messaging on the page. If you are having some difficulty identifying if your consumers are seeing the content in the same light as you are, try this trick. Close your eyes. When you reopen them, take note of the elements within your that your eyes are immediately drawn to now where do they go next? Did they immediately go to the most important content within the or was it something else? Keep reworking and tweaking each element until your immediate, secondary and tertiary focus is homing in on the content you want it to. It s not only important to ensure that your content is well-balanced visually, but to also give yourself a gut-check on whether the as a whole looks compelling and engaging to the user on open. The bottom line is- does the feel enticing and does it make you want to engage with it? If not try these: 1. Incorporate imagery that directly relates to the content of the Use varying font sizes and thicknesses, background colors, and design elements to attract your users eye to the places you want them to focus on, making the easy to scan. 3. Design with the Z-Curve in mind. 4. Borrow design elements from your overall brand and brand website. 19

20 Creative Best Practices Gut-Check Once you have a strong grasp of your creative, content and layout, it is helpful to always keep a checklist of design best practices in mind when refining and finalizing your creative. As these are general best practices, use these as a basis for developing your brand s own best practices based on information that you continually learn about how your audience interacts with your after all not all audiences are the same or react to an in the same way. 1 Overall Design Keep the width of your template under 600 pixels. Create a consistent experience, look & feel between your and the subsequent landing page or website. Design your main content for the preview pane and keep main calls-toactions, branding and navigation elements within the first 300 pixels of the . 20

21 Creative Ensure your looks good and is informational with images turned on and images turned off. Keep it short and simple. Don t overload your with content. Think of your as a device to drive traffic to your website if you give them all the information upfront, why click-through? Include a preheader that summarizes the content of the and gives the user a quick click-through opportunity at the top of the to get to the meat of your message even with images turned off. 21

22 Creative 2 Brand Presence 3 Strong Calls-to-Action Is it clear who sent the message? It is important to have your logo placed at the top of the to set the tone and to draw on the immediate connection that your brand has with the user. Do the design elements of the reinforce your brand? Are they consistent with your brand website and/or landing page? By staying true to your brand and really examining all the design elements of your against the overall look & feel of your brand, you will be ensuring that your truly stands out, resonates with your consumer and makes your send unique. Ensure that your main call-to-action is visible above the fold within the preview pane for desktop s and within the first screen (without scrolling) on mobile devices. The increased presence of your main call-to-action will attract users and garner more clicks. When designing calls-to-action, make sure that they are obvious, stand out and immediately noticeable when a user quickly scans your s content. The most successful calls-to-actions are buttons that are designed to actually look like a tangible button, with a strong short action item for the user such as: SHOP THE COLLECTION, READ MORE, etc. Being as explicit as possible with what you want the user to click on while giving them information about what they should expect next always show strong results. When thinking about the actual appearance of your calls-to-action, think about ways to render them without the use of images this will ensure that your calls-to-action will be visible, even with images turned off. 22

23 Creative 4 Design for Mobile Keep text sizes larger than normal to compensate for the compressing of s on mobile devices. Body copy should be no smaller than 14px with headlines and larger text above 21px. Design larger than normal calls-toaction, and links that are easy to interact with using fingers and thumbs. 5 Creative Testing Test, test, test and then test some more. Find the right creative solution for your brand and your audience. When thinking about implementing new layouts, dramatically new designs or concepts, always test into new concepts before deploying them to your whole list and making them part of your marketing toolbox. Learn More For more information, check out our Top 10 Best Practices ebook! Use simple layouts and designs when thinking about mobile. Different mobile devices render s differently than desktop ESPs. Try avoiding multiple column layouts and focus on simple, single-column layouts that get your message across effectively. Without testing new concepts and designs, you can easily fall into the trap of implementing something that underperforms and not know it. 23

24 About DJ Waldow DJ Waldow is an marketing consultant, writer, blogger, speaker, and co-author of The Rebel s Guide to Marketing. He is the founder and CEO of Waldow Social, a company that creates opportunities for social engagement and community development through a fresh approach to marketing. DJ has spent nearly 8 years in the , social, and community-building world, advising clients on how to optimize their marketing campaigns and--on occasion--break some of the best practice rules.

25 Interview with DJ Waldow In an interview between two WhatCounts alumni, Chris Penn talks to DJ Waldow about marketing best practices and which rules are safe or even good to break. Chris Penn: Okay, who are you and what do you do? DJ Waldow: My name is DJ Waldow and I m the founder and CEO of Waldow Social, a committee that helps take your marketing campaigns from so-so to out of this world. CP: I have got to ask you then, what makes an campaign out of this world? DJW: I think in a lot of ways, it is like any other marketing piece of collateral or Tweet or anything that you send out. It has to be something that when you open it, you say, Wow! or Holy cow! or some version of that where it stands out in the inbox or it forces you -- I mean, it literally forces you to take some kind of action. CP: What makes that out of this world? What are the tactical pieces or the nuts and bolts of making it out of this world? DJW: To me, it all starts with -- there are two things that cause somebody to open an . There is the from line, you know, who it is from, literally. And there is the subject line. 25

26 Interview with DJ Waldow I think first of all you have to have that trust. I will give you an example. When I get an from you, I know Chris Penn. If I get an from WhatCounts, I know WhatCounts. I trust the brand. I trust the person. I know there is going to be some value in this. So that s the first piece. And then, second piece is the subject line. Is it compelling enough for me to open? And putting those two things together then gets me -- you can t have anything until you actually open the . Now, I m not saying that you have to have a subject line that is out of this world, eye-catching, wow because let s be honest, the s that you send, your subject lines are pretty generic. But I open every one of your s because you have built that trust and credibility with your name and your brand that it does not matter what the subject line is. You could say, DJ is an idiot. I d open it. Of course, I would want to know why you would say it, right? So I think that s the first step. But then once you get there, what is that -- I mean, something has to pop off the screen. I mean, something within that has to just jump off the page to me to force me -- and I do say force. I don t mean compel me, force me to take some action. And that could be if you are in the B2C world, it could be an offer that is free or super discount. It could be some kind of headline or article that is just so targeted towards me and is so on point for me that I m forced to open it. I m forced to do something with it. CP: I d like to play devil s advocate. What was the last , other than one that you ve sent out, what was the least you received that was really awesome? And what made it awesome? DJW: I will give you a perfect example from my inbox today. I got an from Bleacher Report. Basically what they do is they write some original content. For the most part, they curate sports news. And so I ve signed up to be very targeted towards -- I m a Michigan Alumni, huge Michigan fan, as you know. I signed up for the Michigan football alert. The from-name for this is Bleacher Report. So again, it s recognizable, something I trust and I know there s value. And the subject line says, UM Steals PSU 4 Star. And so when I see that, immediately it triggers a couple of things to me. 26

27 Interview with DJ Waldow I see that Michigan has stolen has a player from Penn State. I know obviously there are a lot of stuff going on at Penn State right now. And so I can t wait to open that because I want to see 4-star -- you know, in football recruiting 5-star is the best. I want to see what 4-Star athlete they stole from Penn State. The other part of the subject line actually says, Another Wolverine Suspended. So, I m trying to figure out also who on the Michigan team has been suspended. Another guy got arrested from a DUI recently. And then I opened the , and it s a bunch of headlines, it s got an image on the left and a link to the article on the right. It s simple, straightforward, and again, I want to open that , click on the link, and go back to their website. CP: I m going to play devil s advocate on something else: curation versus creation. It seems like content curation via and things like that is the hot new trend. It s what all the cool kids are doing. But it seems somewhat lazy by comparison to the creation. What is your take on it? DJW: Well, funny you should say because of course my newsletter recently has moved to mostly curation. I think there is a fine line. It depends on what you re signing up for that for, sort of like we talked about with Twitter streams. I mean, if all your Twitter stream is just pushing out other people s content and sharing information, a lot of the purists would say, Well, that s crap. I mean, you re not interacting and engaging. But people consume content for a lot of different reasons. I look at curation in some ways as if I can be the go-to resource for people for all things marketing; I m doing some of the work that you might not want to do. What I add to curation and frankly, I professionally stole this from you and from some others is I take that curation but I also add a little blurb before it or after it that has my take on it. So it s not just strictly repurposing of somebody else s content or linking out to it. It s giving my take then the link to read more. So you can form your own opinions, but I m going to give you my 140-character, so to speak, take on that particular article and then let you analyze it and take it, dissect it for yourself. Click here to listen to the entire interview. 27

28 Mobile Design If you re not designing for mobile, you may be missing a huge opportunity. From 2011 to 2012, opens on mobile devices grew 83.4%. (Source: in Motion: Mobile is Leading the Revolution, Return Path Inc., 2011) Start by finding what percentage of your list is opening their on a mobile device. If it s more than 5%, you should consider creating a mobile strategy. By creating a separate mobile design, you ensure that your readers have a great user experience on any device, leading to better click-through and conversion rates. If you re still new to mobile and don t use CSS3@ media queries let the presentation CSS3@ media queries, you can still build of content be tailored to a specific range of mobile-friendly s by following these output devices without having to change the guidelines: content itself. Single column design Once you re ready to incorporate CSS3@ No view on mobile link needed if media queries, you can use them to: designed well to accommodate small Display content differently based on screen viewing screen size width that adapts to both desktop and mobile screens: Enlarge text size for easier reading Hide or display images or text Use percentages for widths Display buttons sized for thumbs scales well, rather than requiring Realign content and template elements media queries for easy scanning Learn More For more information, watch our + Mobile = Now webinar. 28

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30 Social Media The online marketing landscape has shifted with the recent explosion in social media usage. Data shows individuals who use Facebook or Twitter at least once a week are 38% more likely to open promotions. Social media makes people consume more, not less, . and social media naturally complement each other by empowering customers to tailor commercial relationships to their preferences. Social media has nicely allowed more opportunities for companies to continue the conversation with their customers and enhance the overall relationship. Allow your recipients to immediately broadcast content to your social community with the click of a strategically placed button inside every you send. That way, the moment they receive helpful, usable content through your campaign, the sender can show off how great your content is by posting it socially. By adding a simple button, your subscribers will be more inclined to share because you have made the process that much easier. Give your subscribers a reason to want to share your content by providing reliable, novel, or helpful information inside each and every campaign. Send newsletters, advice, best practices, or other types of quality information that all of your recipients can put to good use. After all, not every you send needs to be promotional or trying to sell a product. Your subscribers will appreciate the enlightenment and will be more receptive to promotional sends down the road. A key opportunity with social media is to include SWYN (Share With Your Network) within footers and navigation links. Not only will you build credibility within your industry, but this is a crucial way to expand the size of your list. 30

31 Social Media What makes content shareable? 99 Trustworthiness 99 Tribal interests 99 Reward/Incentives 99 Content 99 Simple and obvious 99 Ease of sharing 99 Creates value 99 Social acumen and adoption among subscribers LET YOUR FOLLOWING BE YOUR EVANGELISTS One of the best perks of being involved with social media is having the opportunity to get feedback from your clients and customers. For better or for worse, you will learn more about how your business performs when it comes to customer service via this critical line of communication. Because of this, be sure to always monitor your social networks and be receptive to any feedback that you receive. A great way to showcase your brand and a quick fix for referrals is to track any positive mentions on social media. If someone is acting as an evangelist for your brand, thank them! Then promote their kind words on your website, newsletter, or blog. It s a win-win for both parties you get to highlight client recommendations, they get free ad space for their brand. INTERACT AND INFLUENCE Get the most out of all of the resources you have available to you, from to social. Combining these two very powerful tools, you ll have the ability to generate a following, maximize engagement, and strengthen communication across all channels. Not only will you begin to see your reach increase, but the loyalty to your brand, as well. However, the only way you will be able to take full advantage of the power of and social combined is to actually use them. 31

32 Social Media Include Share With Your Network (SWYN) buttons in every , send useful content, cross-promote your subscription form, and frequently update your social networks to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts. With impactful, awe-inspiring campaigns and the influence of social media, there will be no stopping the growth of your ROI. Learn More For more information, check out our 18 Ways to Integrate Social Media and Marketing ebook! 32

33 Facebook Facebook Across the board, Facebook sees the most user logins on a daily basis, making it the most popular social media website by far. With millions of people roaming the world of Facebook every day, are you taking advantage of this prime location for list building real estate? The developers over at Facebook realized the promotional capabilities behind Facebook and have allowed users to create their own apps and buttons within the platform. Get the most out of this opportunity by building an sign-up button or app directly into your brand s Facebook page, making opt-ins quick and easy. Even if Facebook followers don t choose to like your page, they will still have the ability to subscribe to your newsletter. This feature also lets your most devoted Facebook fans take their relationship with your brand to the next level by signing up. Once you get your button up and running on your page, be sure to actually update your Facebook page consistently with updates, news, and conversations with your followers an inactive Facebook page won t be of any help when it comes to promoting your list! Also feel free to plug your newsletter or featured campaigns via posts on Facebook. This is a sure-fire way to garner attention to your list and motivate followers to sign up on your page. Don t know how to install a button on your Facebook page? No problem! We ll walk you through the process in our free ebook on Facebook Page Subscriptions! 33

34 Twitter Twitter While Facebook may be the most popular social network these days, don t underestimate the power of Twitter. Home to well over 500 million active users, Twitter is the place to be when it comes to engaging in conversation, developing brand recognition, and yes, growing your list. It s easier to come across new people, brands, topics, and discussions on Twitter than it is on Facebook. Because of this, you can use Twitter to your advantage when it comes to increasing your number of subscribers. The method will depend on your product or service, as well as the demographic you are trying to market to. Here are a few things to keep in mind when strategizing how to promote your list on Twitter: 1 Who are you targeting? 2 Is it obvious who you are? Much like with your campaigns, it s important to tailor the content you tweet according to who you are trying to recruit to your list. Does your Twitter page have a profile picture and profile complete with a link to your company s website? If not, Twitter users have no idea who you are and therefore have no reason to follow you. Make sure the information you tweet is relevant to their interests and what they would like to know. This goes hand-in-hand with building recognition and establishing value for those who could develop a relationship with you and Giving them a sample or juicy tidbit that you d usually have in your newsletter will entice them to want to read more. Don t use Twitter to promote your products or try to sell. Instead, use it to broadcast your brand s culture, beliefs, and value to your brand. Also, make sure that your content is relevant to who you are or what you do. If your a company sells tires and all you do is tweet about baseball, no one will know whether you re an expert in your industry. the consumer. If you build it, they will come. 34

35 Twitter 3 Are your opt-ins simple? Would people want to hear about baseball? Sure. But if you re trying to sell tires, you want tires to be the first thing that pops into their head when people think about you (not baseball) -- if people sign up for your newsletter through Twitter with a false idea of what your newsletters will be about, they re more likely to unsubscribe and disregard your brand as disingenuous or spam. Feel free to tweet about topics outside your industry to break up the monotony, but make sure it s not to the extent that your focus pales in comparison. If you re going to use Twitter to build your list, then you most certainly better make your opt-in readily available: either include a link to your subscription form or website opt-in in your profile or in a daily tweet. If your followers don t even know that you offer an list, how will they know whether they should sign-up for it? Make sure to plug your newsletter or upcoming campaign every so often via Twitter to plant the idea in your followers heads that Hey, we offer killer subject matter that can be delivered directly to your inbox., the more they begin to know your brand and crave your content, the more inclined they will be to want to open that line of communication with you. Just make sure that your link to subscribe is visible, short, and easy to access. After all, the only way you can build your list of subscribers through Twitter is by giving them a quick, direct method to opt-in. Implementing these techniques may take a bit of time, especially if you re still trying to ramp up your Twitter following. Give it time and test different methods of including your opt-in on Twitter, such as using Google Analytics or tracking links to see what works and what doesn t. Also, make sure that you re consistently updating Twitter and posting regularly. After a while, you ll begin to notice your Twitter following and list start growing exponentially. 35

36 Lifecycle Marketing Lifecycle marketing is changing the way companies interact with prospects and customers through the channel. Best-of-breed marketers are shifting from product-focused to customer-focused programs. Traditionally, marketers spent the majority of their time producing and sending one-off campaigns. By adopting a lifecycle approach, marketers are not only generating more timely relevant messaging, but they re also using automation to free themselves up to focus on planning and optimization. This approach has a strong emphasis on program orientation and customer-driven timing. Did you know? Online travel agency Hotwire reports that their remarketing s are up to 16 times as effective in generating conversions as their mass distribution mailings. Source: Jupiter Research Why Switch to Lifecycle Marketing? Traditional methods of batch-and-blast, or sending the same generic message to all of your subscribers no matter where they fall on the customer lifecycle, are becoming ineffective in converting today s consumer. Estimates by The Radicati Group, Inc show that worldwide traffic will be over 192 billion s/day by Given this prediction, it is becoming increasingly difficult to gain access to and maintain inbox placement. The companies who invest now in producing relevant, timely, customer driven messages will see higher ROI, better customer retention, and lower costs. In order to create a highly effective lifecycle marketing program, there are five core requirements to fulfill: 36

37 Lifecycle Marketing 1 Clear program goals 2 Comprehensive business rules You should clearly determine why you are contacting the customer and what call-toaction you want them to take. Each campaign should have a clear business There are five main message streams in the customer lifecycle: Acquire, Convert, Grow, Retain, and Reactivate. purpose and also a strong value proposition for the recipient. Traditional marketing is short-sighted, focusing primarily on product conversion. Common goals for lifecycle Lifecycle marketing is customer driven and marketing focuses on maintaining a relationship that Increase conversions starts and extends beyond a purchase. Increase revenue Increase share-of-wallet Consider program timing and cadence in Increase customer engagement light of other automated and scheduled Increase brand buzz campaigns. To do this you ll need to map Increase referral rate out your communications to various segments at different points in the lifecycle. Decrease attrition Decrease customer servicing costs Identify the behavioral triggers that will cause a customer to enter and exit each messaging stream, along with necessary suppressions. The right message at the right time is what differentiates lifecycle marketing from traditional marketing. 37

38 Lifecycle Marketing 3 Thoughtful segmentation 4 Compelling and relevant 5 creative designed for content Effective list segmentation is essential to improve the relevancy of content delivered. Consider classic segmentation models such as RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) or start with something simple like prospects versus inactive customers versus active customers. The right message at the right time is what differentiates lifecycle marketing from promotional marketing. personalization is essential to building a trusted relationship. Best practice-compliant creative is an integral part of your messaging. Most readers spend three to five seconds scanning an before deciding whether to read or ignore it. It is critical to do everything possible to make sure that they open and engage with your message. 38

39 Lifecycle Marketing Learn More For more information, check out our Lifecycle Marketing ebook! 39

40 Preference Centers Are your subscribers getting what they want? How do you even know? To keep up with consumer expectations, you need to be sending personal messages to your subscribers at just the right time. To do this, you need to know about them first. There are many benefits that make creating a Preference Center worth it: Your subscribers feel in control of communications and their data. They: Choose what information to provide Determine what and how often you send to them You learn about your subscribers: Personalize and target them Collect additional updated information Keep these key things in mind: 1. Make it easy to use Keep it short and keep their attention - most marketers ask for between 1 and 5 fields (Source: 2011 MarketingSherpa Marketing Benchmark Survey). Allow them to unsubscribe from everything with a single click. 2. Be honest If you can t use the information to send relevant s, don t clutter the process by asking for extra information. 3. Spread the word Include links to your preference center in every and your website footer, and remind subscribers that they have control. 40

41 Preference Centers What do you ask for? Start with the basics address (add a second field to confirm this) Desired subscriptions, for example: Newsletter Special offers Events and contests Frequency Then get to know them Name City/Zip Gender Go to the next level* Categories of interest Activities of interest Birthday * If your ESP can support it 41

42 Drip Marketing A drip campaign is an effective and efficient way to consistently stay top of mind with your subscribers through an automated series of messages. Applying drip marketing will make you a better marketer because clients and prospects will receive communications from you on a regular basis and since you set the series up once and let the application do the work, it saves you time to focus on other aspects of your marketing strategy. The phrase drip marketing comes from drip irrigation, an agriculture technique that involves feeding small amounts of water to plants over a long period of time to produce a consistent crop over time. Similarly, with a drip campaign, subscribers receive a pre-set series of messages that are automatically sent out over a period of time to ensure the marketer has a thriving pool of engaged subscribers or prospects. Much like an automated welcome or multi-part welcome series that can be set up to go to new subscribers, with a drip campaign prospects or subscribers at various points in the customer lifecycle can receive a set of pre-determined messages. Marketers use drip campaigns for ongoing nurturing of prospects or to stay in touch with existing customers or constituents. Whether it s a habitual campaign where subscribers come to expect weekly, monthly, or less frequent reminders related to an upcoming event or re-purchasing of a product, a drip campaign is set to send s to subscribers in a succession. Setting up a drip campaign involves a few simple steps. First, you need to determine the overall goal for the series and then develop content and creative for each message. From there you will need to determine the proper cadence and timing for when each message should be sent. 42

43 Drip Marketing Once those are determined you will set up segmentations with logical conditions to identify subscribers at the proper time. Finally, you will set up an automated timebased series that will ensure deployment of the proper campaigns to the proper segmentations at the determined time intervals. For more information visit our blog post Re-engagement through Drip Campaigns. 43

44 Segmentation 44

45 Segmentation Segmentation is a powerful technique for increasing the effectiveness of your campaigns. Segment your list, using subscriber s selfreported preferences, different subscriber characteristics and actions to form smaller, more targeted lists out of your larger database. Segmentation is proven to help reduce the number of opt-outs and complaints, as well as generate higher open rates, clickthrough rates and conversions from . Just like all forms of marketing, the more targeted and relevant your marketing efforts are, the better the response will be. At the start of 2012, 32% of marketers noted that segmenting their database was one of their organization s top objectives in the next 12 months (Source: MarketingSherpa Marketing Benchmark Report). You can segment your list many different ways, namely by: 1. Using self-reported subscriber data that you collect during opt-in or through a Subscriber Preferences Form 2. Segmenting on behaviors like open, clicked, shared, converted 3. Segment by where a given subscriber is in your lifecycle With this appealing potential to elevate performance, it s no wonder segmenting was a major focus for