11 Email Marketing Tips to Attract More Buyers by Mike Kavka Online Marketing Manager
www.chainstoreguide.com Comprehensive and definitive 800.778.9794 retail and webmaster@chainstoreguide.com foodservice intelligence Hello. Many of our customers are challenged with the best way to attract their target audience. What we know is that whether it s through Direct Mail, Email, Telemarketing or Social Media, one thing remains the same: Content is Key. At Chain Store Guide, we understand this concept. We know that relationships are built on a foundation of trust and relevance. Therefore we put together this paper to assist you in bridging the gap between prospect and customer. We hope you enjoy Chain Store Guide s 11 Email Marketing Tips to Attract More Buyers.
1 Tip # 1: Develop Customer Personas for your audience. Before you fire up the keyboard to blast emails and increase your ROI, think of exactly what audience you want to target. This can be done through developing Personas, looking at customer history, or by segmenting your audience. This is by far the best way to start on the path of relevance and your prospects will thank you for it. www.chainstoreguide.com 800.778.9794 webmaster@chainstoreguide.com
Comprehensive and definitive retail and foodservice intelligence 2 Tip # 2: Honor the Buyer s time. No matter how you obtain the list, make sure that your message is one that the customer is most likely to find interesting. If you are selling products, make sure that the benefits outline the features of your product or service. Make sure that your vaulable content far outweighs your sales aspect in emails, as your building a relationship with the prospect through excellent results in advance of how you can benefit their company.
3 Tip # 3: The From Line Make sure your From line is either your company name, or an explanation of the sender. Creative From lines can often be misconstrued and are a leading cause of Spam complaints. www.chainstoreguide.com 800.778.9794 webmaster@chainstoreguide.com
Comprehensive and definitive retail and foodservice intelligence 4 Tip # 4: Subject Line: Use an interesting, but accurate subject line. Your subject line is the most important thing you will write. It is you selling the reader on why they should open your email. You may have the best product but unless they open the email, it will go unnoticed. Demonstrate the accurate and interesting value the sender will get by opening the email, without using ALL CAPS. Think about the message in your email, and use that to influence a subject line that compels someone to open the email.
5 Tip # 5: The scope of the Buyer s intent. What does the Buyer want to accomplish by opening your email? Will they gain vaulable insight and possible find a solution to a problem at hand? Don t assume that the reader will automatically associate your solution with their problem. Bridge the gap, and your bottom line will thank you. www.chainstoreguide.com 800.778.9794 webmaster@chainstoreguide.com
Comprehensive and definitive retail and foodservice intelligence 6 Tip # 6: Using valuable content to attract more Buyers. What is the most useful content you can provide, that your audience can benefit from? If you can provide tips that will enable your audience to be more productive, they are more likely to be interested in the other offerings that you you have. This is a point of pain for many organizations, but it s far less painful than Spam complaints. Look at Trade Shows, Buyer Guides, and the Trade Magazines that Buyers use to better themselves, and provide the type of content that they find valuable.
7 Tip # 7: Frequency matters. If your audience can expect an email each week at the same time with helpful insights and a Call to Action, you are more likely to establish credibility, versus sending emails at various times of day, and day of the week. Mention in your emails what day your emails are to be received, and watch the interest in your emails increase over time. Keep in mind that too many emails in a short period of time can easily upset a prospect, and result in complaints. Count Auto-Responders, Canned Responses, and other Automatic Marketing when considering the frequency of your message to the customer. www.chainstoreguide.com 800.778.9794 webmaster@chainstoreguide.com
Comprehensive and definitive retail and foodservice intelligence 8 Tip # 8: Reply-to email Is your reply-to email something like no-reply@domain.com, you are telling your audience that you are making it difficult to contact you, even though your asking for your audience to somehow contact you in your email to take action. This often stems from the ability to manage the influx of emails that come into a reply email address. Make a point of making it easy on the audience, and find the best way to execute that management of emails that come in.
9 Tip # 9: Test. Test. Test. Sure, your emails show up perfectly in Outlook 2010. What about 2007? 2003? AOL? Gmail? Hotmail? The spectrum of people that use different email clients is astounding, and making sure that your message is consistent across all platforms is key. There are several email inbox inspectors that can test this for you, see what one works best for you. www.chainstoreguide.com 800.778.9794 webmaster@chainstoreguide.com
Comprehensive and definitive retail and foodservice intelligence 10 Tip # 10: Brand Synergy Yes, that orange and purple template looks amazing, but does it match the Brand it s promoting? Make sure that you are sending a consistent message to your audience in terms of verbiage, color scheme, and deliverables. Your email campaigns are an extension of your digital brand, so each touch point with potential customers needs to have a similar look and feel of Brand Strategy.
11 Tip # 11: Measuring Success: Is Open Rate the Answer? An Open Rate may not be all that it seems. You should look at the trends occurring in reports, versus that actual numbers themselves. This is due to various ways that email clients count an email as opened and what you consider a successful email campaign. Did the email result in various visits to the website? What did the prospect do after visiting the website? If the goal is to get the prospect to take action on the web, analyze the campaign on the ability to achieve the end goal of your efforts, such as revenue gained or pages viewed on the website after the prospect clicks a link inside the email. www.chainstoreguide.com 800.778.9794 webmaster@chainstoreguide.com
Comprehensive and definitive retail and foodservice intelligence About Chain Store Guide For over 80 years, Chain Store Guide (CSG) has been the leading provider of comprehensive and definitive retail and foodservice intelligence to businesses around the world. Chain Store Guide details all major retailers, restaurants, distributors and wholesalers in the United States and Canada with contact information on over 700,000 establishments. Chain Store Guide data is compiled by our staff of editors and research professionals. While some companies simply compile data from sources such as the Yellow Pages, Chain Store Guide researches every company profiled. Our staff contacts these companies by phone, fax, mail or email to verify information and ensure that data is accurate and current. Chain Store Guide provides data in print directory, online web application and customized database formats. Chain Store Guide data is used by manufacturers, suppliers, service providers, brokers, real estate professionals, retailers, analysts, consultants and other professionals seeking to gain insight into retail and foodservice markets in the U.S. and Canada. Since 1934, Chain Store Guide has been the leading data source for in-depth information on retailers, restaurants, and foodservice operations. ChainStoreGuide.com 800.778.9794