Local Online Marketing Local Online Marketing Giving Your Customers A Reason to Come Back
Marketing is a Marketing is a Competition You are not alone in your quest to provide services or products to your customers You cannot compete unless you re in the game There are strategies for achieving an advantage
Marketing Strategies Your strengths are your main competitive advantage Skills, expertise, proficiency, talents Develop a target market profile Know where your customers are, what they want and what motivates them to buy You have a choice of many marketing channels Local Newspapers, Radio, TV, Flyers etc Email marketing is powerful because it is inexpensive and effective in reaching your target markets
Does Email Still Work? With all the buzz about Social Media, email is often neglected More people read email every day than use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube combined Email is still one of the most powerful and personal ways to connect with your customer Your customers already expect to get offers by email and to buy things via email or your website Email should be foundational to your marketing strategy
What You Will Learn Tonight you will learn what you need to get started in email marketing How to build lists What and when to send emails How to get results out of those emails
Building Your List Email marketing is a good tool to maintain a relationship and find new customers It starts with collecting client and prospect email addresses Collect only the information necessary for your email communication First name and email address is usually sufficient and easiest to collect The more you collect the more privacy issues for which you may be accountable
What You Should Know Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation CASL In Canada email marketing is based on a consumer opt-in approach, which stipulates that businesses must get consent prior to sending commercial email or have a pre-existing business relationship with a consumer Some basic guidelines (www.fightspam.gc.ca) Obtain consent or have a business relationship Opt-in is required, double-opt-in is not required. Double-opt-in builds a better list Email clearly identifies the sender (contact info with address) Allows the recipient to withdraw consent in every email you send opt-out or unsubscribe
Where to Get Emails There are many opportunities to ask your customers for their email address On your website as a sign up for a newsletter, how-to tips or an entry into a giveaway etc. At the cash register when people are paying for a purchase Include a link to your sign-up page in your regular email signature Offer an incentive in exchange for their email, coupon for a discount or a prize etc. Collect business cards at B2B functions, like this seminar, and them invite them to join your list
What to Send Come up with some new ideas Watch, read or listen to industry trends Talk to people about problems they need resolved Experiment with better ways of doing things Ask questions of other industry experts Get out of the office
Avoid Spam Filters Use a Free SPAM Checker site www.emailspamtest.com. This site will give you a good idea if your email will be tagged as SPAM Set up test accounts at commonly used email sites such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo to see if your email comes through the inbox or the spam box
How Many Emails to Send There is a fine line between being persistent and becoming a nuisance Typically, it takes between 8 to 10 contacts before you connect with a prospect The key is to consider spreading your message out over multiple contacts. This way, you can keep it shorter and more interesting
When to Send Email Different strokes for different folks Day of week Tuesday is good for at work Business delivery Sunday is best for at home Personal delivery Depending on your type of business you may have multiple lists Time of day 3PM = 20% better than other times There is no one size fits all
Frequency How often depends largely on customer s decision cycle Shorter decision cycle emails more often are more acceptable If your customer makes the decision in a snap then mail more often If your customer takes weeks or months to make a decision, then mail less often Tests show that increased frequency does not impact open rate if the promotion or usefulness is relevant (eg: Groupon, Walmart, NG Chamber)
Frequency-Based Product Nature of the product Emotionally negative Health, aging, mortality Lower frequency Emotionally positive Hobbies, leisure, self-improvement, travel Higher frequency
What Do You Say? Promotional vs Useful content Promotional call-to-action for immediate sale Direct offers Deals and Sales Coupons Useful warms up for future purchase Newsletters Announcements Customer Service
Surviving the Delete Key Would you delete this email? 7 Easy Ways to Lower Your Air Conditioning Costs Once you get to the inbox, you are not competing with other companies, you are now competing with other emails To win your message has to be relevant to what people are looking for or need eg: seasonal promotion You can survive the delete finger if you are relevant to the readers interests eg: useful knowledge
An Effective Email If the subject line appeals to your audience s current interests, needs and challenges, your emails will get opened It s all about knowing your market So how do you put that into practice? News Tell your recipients what s new, something that is happening or just happened that they will want to know about Tips How to is a great way to get your email opened, providing you connect your solution to the recipients needs Offer Make a compelling offer that the recipient will want to take up Question Ask a question that the reader will answer yes to, or maybe put the subject in the form of a mystery or puzzle where the they will feel compelled to find out the answer
Content Flow Flow is important. Each section has a purpose in an email. From address: should be your recognizable brand Headline: goal is to get people to read the sub header Sub header: goal is to get people to read the opening paragraph (preview pane) Opening paragraph: goal is to get people to click on the call-to-action Call-to-action: click through to the website landing page
An Effective Email
Landing Page Don t send email clicks to the Home page of your website. Make them feel special by sending them to a landing page Is the landing page live and have the answers promised? Is the content and the design on the landing page consistent with the email? Keep the landing page copy short and relevant Are links to product pages and more information clear and working? If you are collecting basic information, ask for only what you need. Long forms have a higher exit rate
Competitive Analysis Get on your competitor s email or newsletter list Use a non-specific email address (eg: gmail) as some companies blacklist known competitors Assess the content Do they seem to be professionally written or designed? It is specific to you, or generic? Strengths What s great about their email? Did their content have impact? Weaknesses What have they done badly and think about how you might do it better.
Email Marketing Services MailChimp Free if 500 or fewer names and sending less 3,000 emails per month, has a SPAM assessment and Delivery Doctor built in Constant Contact The largest of the ESPs aimed at small business. Starts $15/month Websites with built in email managers free or low cost if you are using a Content Management System (CMS) that supports this process Aweber A low-cost option best known for the autoresonder type of email, taking you through a series of sequential emails following a process or training etc Thunderbird A computer-based email manager similar to Outlook, with plugins allowing for free email merging from your compute
Questions Please hold your questions until the end of the presentations. We will have a panel to answer them at that time. Thank you for listening Greg@BizSmith.ca
Local Business Story Louise & Company Ken Arsenault spent his childhood in beautiful Prince Edward Island before graduating from the Nova Scotia s Land Survey Institute. For the next 35 years Ken s life was about mapping and cartography at Natural Resources Canada. Ken now maps marketing and administration for the business he and his wife Louise own in Kemptville. Louise & Company is a specialty store with a twist. They Celebrate the Big and the Small Events of Family Life. Here with his comments on how he uses digital marketing in their local business is Ken Arsenault.
Louise and Company
Break Business Networking Tip Rather than trying to meet 50 people in one event, make one to three meaningful contacts that can change your business! We will be back in 15 minutes. See you all then.
Local Business Story the Branch Restaurant and Texas Grill Chef Bruce Enloe was born and raised in Bryan, Texas into a family of food lovers and entrepreneurs. After a few attempts at a liberal arts degree and a short-lived attempt at being a rock star; Bruce realized the one career that wraps all that up into one package and went into the family business to become a chef. He has lived and cooked in Bryan and Austin, Texas and in San Francisco, California before marrying a Canadian and moving to Kemptville to open the Branch Restaurant and Texas Grill, a Texas-themed local foods restaurant and live music venue. He has also co-authored and published a cookbook and released an album of original music. Bruce is active online, writes a blog and a weekly newsletter, and considers social media the best advertising resource available to a modern business and is here to tell you why.