Technology Marketing by Tatum MarketingJust another WordPress weblog

Email marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing tactics globally – and in the US – in terms of the number of companies who use it. Not surprising since it’s pretty low cost compared to other tactics and major parts of it can be automated.

But email has its share of challenges. Chief among them is getting through ISP and corporate spam filters and the recipients’ own “why should I care” filter. Over the past few years, response rates were heading downhill like an out of control shopping cart (the offline kind).

Some of that seems to be changing.

According to a recent report from the Direct Marketing Association, email campaigns return an average of $45.06 for every dollar spent. That alone is enough to make you pay attention.

But there’s more. The newly released Epsilon Q1 2009 US Email Trends and Benchmark Study shows an increase in open rates for the 3rd quarter in a row. Business Products and Services in general had opened rates of 29.1% in Q1 — up from 22.9% a year ago.

Click rates increased from 5.4% 6.4% (again in the business-to-business markets) and deliverability was up a little – up to 94.1% from 93.4%

What’s causing the increase in open and click rates? Are recipients becoming more willing to spend more time on email? Are they more willing to weed through the junk to find messages that are interesting to them?

Not likely.

I think email response rates are going up because marketers are getting better at sending relevant messages with a frequency that matches with the customers’ needs. Online marketers are also getting much better at testing to learn which headlines, offers and subject lines work best, and then optimizing messages accordingly.

Unfortunately, what I read of the Epsilon study doesn’t differentiate between prospecting email (messages sent to people who don’t know you) versus lead nurturing type email (messages sent to people who have already had some interchange with your company). I’m sure if we looked at lead generation email alone, the numbers would be much lower.

We’ve found that email is a great way for our clients to stay in touch with and continue to develop prospects and leads. We’re less excited about email sent to a cold list as a lead generation tool. But I’m willing to listen.

If you’d had success with lead generation email, share it with us here.

Technorati Tags: email marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing

“Free” isn’t a selling point. If you want people to give up an hour of their time to come to your webinar, you need to give them real value in return.

I realize you probably think I’m stating the obvious, but I’m doing it for a very good reason. You see, I help businesses by writing e-mail promotions for their online events. I consider it a personal challenge to write content that drives interest and demand for their webinars, and after doing it for more than four years I think I know a thing or two about what works, and what doesn’t. Yet every once in a while, I encounter a webinar presenter who forgets the basic rule of value.

If you really want to kill attendance at your next webinar, here are three tips to do just that

Attendance-Killing Promotional Tactic #1: Emphasize how great you are

Forget about webinar content. Instead promote your vast experience, boast about big-name clients, and talk about how you’ve become independently wealthy with the products and services you sell.

Attendance-Killing Promotional Tactic #2: Reveal nothing.

If you decide to address webinar content, keep the reader in the dark, using vague descriptions, common, everyday language, and meaningless buzzwords to describe what you’ll talk about at the event.

Attendance-Killing Promotional Tactic #3: Throw in some unsubstantiated claims for good measure.

Finally, sprinkle that promotional material with unsubstantiated claims like “breakthrough sales” without providing any meat to back up your claims.

All kidding aside, your experience does have its place in promotions, and an element of mystery does sometimes work.

Don’t give away the farm in your promotion, but do provide enough teaser information to pique your readers’ interest in your event, and do sell them on the webinar content before you start to sell them on the value of YOU.

Then to make your webinar really convincing, offer up tangible proof that what you’ll be talking about works. Tease them with one, two, or three success stories that you’ll cover in-depth during the event, or share statistics that demonstrate success at your own firm.

One company that I think does a fantastic job with webinars is Citrix. Citrix sells a webinar service, but their strategy isn’t to invite people to an online event where they can learn about their product.

Instead, Citrix invites outside experts in to teach attendees webinar best practices, sales techniques, business strategies, etc. This approach is far more helpful, and as a subtle side benefit, attendees get to see how the Citrix webinar product works in practice.

Of course there will always be the odd case where a vague, boastful webinar promotion actually works, but if you want to improve your chances of a great turnout at your next event, strive to deliver great content, and sell the value of your content in the promotion.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc. 

If you’re a B2B marketer who is still sending out graphics-heavy e-mails, here’s something to consider: nearly two-thirds of the high-level decision makers in corporate America –- you know, the people that you’re trying to reach — probably can’t read your e-mails!

You see way back in 2007, 64% of these decision makers were already telling MarketingSherpa that they “regularly view e-mails using a mobile device,” and given that more than 269 million mobile devices were sold to users during 1Q09 alone, I’d be willing to bet that mobile e-mail readership today is pushing 70%.

When it comes down to it, mobile devices (not lack of interest) might be the real reason behind your recent drop off in open or click-thru rates. The only way you’ll really know is to start catering to the mobile crowd with messages that render properly on their mobile devices.

Here are 5 mobile-friendly e-mail tips, a few which I lifted straight from MailerMailer’s 2009 E-Mail Marketing Metrics Report.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #1: During signup, give people the option to receive a mobile version of your e-newsletters and promotions.
If you give subscribers a mobile box they can check on your signup page, you’ll know right away what percentage of your audience plans to use their mobile device to read your messages.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #2: Ditch the images.
Images have been known to turn an otherwise great e-mail message into a horrible mess. To be safe, save the flashy graphics for your brochures. Focus on solid content for your mobile readers.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #3: Shorten your subject lines.
MailerMailer’s research suggests that succinct subject lines can pull nearly 4% more opens. How short is short? Thirty-five characters or less.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #4: Ditto for your e-mail content.
For as long as I’ve been writing e-mails, there’s been a long-standing debate between long copy versus short copy. I myself have always tended towards long, because personal experience taught me long outsells short. The trend towards mobile, however, is making me rethink my position.

If you have a mobile audience, MailerMailer suggests that you give readers an abbreviated version of your message with link they can use to get the full story.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #5: Test your messages on a mobile device.
Fine advice if you have a smartphone, but what about us traditionalists who still believe a phone is just for talking?

Fortunately, there are free simulators on the web. A quick search turned up these simulators:

• iPhone: http://www.testiphone.com/ or http://iphonetester.com/
• Blackberry: http://www.blackberry.com/developers/downloads/simulators/index.shtml
• Windows Mobile: http://www.g-site.com/ppc/

Let’s get a discussion going. If you’re already a savvy mobile e-mail marketer, what tips, tricks, and best practices do you use when creating content for your mobile crowd?

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Here’s the final 3 “How to Invoke Response” tips from the blog entry I started on April 21st.

How to Invoke Response Tip #7: Don’t expect miracles with one message.
Say it in different ways, and say it multiple times.

As kids we knew this well. When we were really little, we’d break our parents down by continually asking them for that candy in the store. As we grew older, our techniques became more clever. If, for example, we needed their permission to go out Saturday night, we waited until the “right” moment when we thought our parents would be most receptive to our request.

Bear in mind, I’m not suggesting that we try to “break” our readers by bombarding them with messages. Quite the opposite, this is a sure way to lose subscribers!

What I am suggesting however, is that prospects, like parents, will have moments when they’ll be more receptive to your message. If your message happens to arrive on an especially chaotic day in the office, they’ll probably ignore you, but if you send the exact same message on a less-stressful day, say three or five days later, they might actually “hear” you.

Some marketers already do this (I see this all the time with webinar announcements), but if you really want to boost response, don’t just parrot the same message. Mix it up a bit, using different arguments, analogies, and language to convince and compel readers to action. The different messages will catch a different group of prospects each time around.

How to Invoke Response Tip #8: Give them a reason to act NOW.
I’m amazed at the number of promotions I receive that don’t have a clear call to action. Maybe there are a lot of marketers sitting on a big wad of cash to burn, but if that’s not you, then I recommend you make it very clear in your promotions what action you want readers to take.

Setting a deadline works to move procrastinators and fence-sitters, but be careful not to set the limit too far out into the future because their enthusiasm for your product or offer will wane over time. I like to set deadlines that are at most one or two weeks out. When I give prospects more time (e.g. 30 days), I lose a portion of the initially-interested audience.

How to Invoke Response Tip #9: Give them something for free.
Last but not least, take a cue from all those infomercials that promote freebies with their offer. What do they know that we don’t? People love getting something for free. If you don’t believe me, watch how people behave at a trade show. Grown men go absolutely crazy for light-up toys, whirly-gigs, and stress-release balls.

Again I’m not suggesting you give away Ginsu knifes or a toy to boost response. Give instead, an e-book, one-page excerpt from a research report, or handy checklist that will whet the prospect’s appetite, while at the same time helping to establish you as a credible resource.

Tangible items (things the prospect can feel and touch) work best, and never forget to assign an actual dollar value to your bonus item. The value will reinforce in the reader’s mind that what they’re getting for free is something other people will pay for.

If you decide to test out one or more of these tips in your next campaign, I’d love to hear back from you how they worked. You can reach me at: sanderson@evoicecommunications.com. 

Have a great Memorial Day!

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Sometimes it helps to look beyond our own industries to discover what marketing tactics others are using successfully. According to an OMMA research brief, a recently published Forrester report, called Retailing Online 2009: Marketing Report, provides a good opportunity to do that. 

Amidst all of the data included in the report, two things have real significance for non-retail marketers.  Online retailers are using: 

1. Search engine marketing (SEM) for customer acquisition and 
2. Email for customer retention.

If you’re interested in the numbers, SEM is the marketing tactic most often mentioned as an effective acquisition tactic (83%). Search engine optimization is the second most frequently mentioned tactic (51%). And affiliate programs come in third (41%). Email is the most frequently mentioned successful overall marketing tactic (89%).

This is not terribly different from what we find successful in the non-retail world. While search engine marketing alone is rarely – if ever – the only tactic needed to acquire a new customer, it is by far the most effective and efficient way to start the process. Unless of course no one is looking for your product or solution, which is a different challenge altogether.

Business-to-business company owners and marketers often come to us torn between conventional lead generation programs – direct mail, email, or telemarketing – and online search or advertising programs. Our advice is nearly always the same: 

Start with search.

The reason is really simple. When people are actively searching for a product or solution like yours, you are relevant. You do not have to fight a bunch of noise for their attention. They are looking for you. Your only competition is the other marketers taking advantage of the search situation.

There is also a simple reason online retailers don’t find email marketing to be among the most effective customer acquisition tactics. When email is used for initial engagement, it faces a big list of obstacles. At the top of that list are delivery issues and competition from everything else in the prospects inbox. In the business-to-business world, this can literally be hundreds of other email messages. 

This is not to say that email isn’t useful. In fact, it often plays a major role in successful non-retail marketing campaigns. Not only can we use it for customer retention – as the online retailers do – we also need it for lead development. 

In the non-retail world, most purchases are multi-stage. You are not, for example, going to be able to use a search marketing campaign alone to sell an expensive software application or consulting relationship. We know that a high percentage of prospects (75% to 80% or more) are not going to be ready to buy when they first make contact with your company. Email is a great way to build and maintain an on-going relationship and turns those semi-interested visitors into real leads.

 So, you need both – search marketing and email – for an effective new customer marketing program. You also need a great website and consistent conversion optimization, but those are subjects for a different article.

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, conversion, customer acquisition, lead generation

Continuing with the blog entry I started on April 21st, here are  3 more “How to Invoke Response” tips.

How to Invoke Response Tip #4: Include a P.S.
Believe it or not, studies have shown that the P.S. portion of a message is the most read and recalled.

I understand this can be an especially hard concept to grasp, but here’s a case where I suggest you abandon what you “think you know,” relying instead on the marketing experts who have proven out this theory time and again.

To maximize response, use the P.S. in your promotional copy to reiterate the primary action you want the reader to take.

How to Invoke Response Tip #5: One call to action, please.
We all like options because it allows us to pick what’s “just right” for our situation, but sometimes when we give the reader too many choices, they don’t know which way to turn.
 
When we try to promote too many items within one single message, each item essentially competes for mindshare with the audience. As they dive deeper into their choices, they tend to forget earlier options.

Of course that’s not to say you should never promote more than one item in a message, but in these cases, make sure the list of items share a common thread, e.g. a holiday theme, special discounts for sales/marketing CDs, membership drive, etc.

A second, less obvious problem, can occur even when you’re promoting a single item. In this particular case, we give the reader too many choices (e.g. download this brochure, view this video, try our ROI calculator) that we distract the reader from the real action we want them to take.

Before creating promotional material, ask yourself, ‘What single goal do I want the reader to take?’ If the goal is to get them to “buy now,” everything in your promotional message should drive the reader to that one specific action.

How to Invoke Response Tip #6: Eliminate distractions.
This advice is a slight twist to tip #5.

Let’s say, for example, you’re tasked with promoting a webinar with a featured guest presenter. Your ultimate goal is to get the person to sign up for your event, but in order to do so, you need to sell the reader on the worth of this speaker. Redirecting readers to the presenter’s website might be easy, but what you’re doing is leading people away from your message.

Not the best idea. I prefer to use the copy within my own promotional message to sell the value of the speaker, highlighting what makes this person “the one expert” readers should listen to, and backing up my claims with a list of prior clients and/or a few testimonials. Sometimes I’ll link to a website page which lists testimonials, but more often than not I prefer to embed the testimonials in my own copy.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Getting people to respond to online and offline promotional campaigns can be an exercise in frustration. With prospects constantly bombarded with marketing material, it’s tough to craft a unique message that captures attention and nudges prospects off the fence.

Effective messages are clearly written from the reader’s perspective, but there are a few proven techniques one can employ to help boost response.

Here are  a handful of techniques I personally use to keep the reader engaged and focused on what I want them to do. I’ll cover the first three tips this week. The remaining tips will be covered in upcoming blog entries.

How to Invoke Response Tip #1: Keep it conversational friendly.
This is a hard one for many people because it seems they’re afraid to loosen the reins on their corporate image.

In no way am I suggesting that you let go of common sense, but it wouldn’t hurt to undo the first button on your white shirt.

Try to establish a rapport with your reader with a personal message from you to them. Start with a personalized salutation (Dear <firstname>), use lots of “you” in the body, and finish with electronic signature.

If you’re unsure whether this will work for your audience, use an A/B test to measure results.

How to Invoke Response Tip #2: Draw parallels to your readers’ peers.
Like group counseling, sometimes it helps to know you’re not the only one with a particular problem or need.

When you shine the spotlight on the reader’s peers, it makes them stop and think whether they have the same problem and don’t even realize it.

Here are just a few ways to get your reader to reflect:

• “when I speak with business owners like yourself, they tell me…”
• “80% admit…”
• “ISVs like you secretly wish”

But please, don’t go crazy sprinkling this technique throughout your copy. One mention in the introductory portion of your message is all that’s necessary.

How to Invoke Response Tip #3: Don’t preach.
People don’t respond well to unsolicited advice. Promotional copy that sounds like you’re preaching, or telling them what they should do, is a huge turn-off.

Instead, lead them towards the answer by focusing on their immediate pains, talk about the long-term repercussions of status quo, oroffer up alternate points of view.

All three help your readers draw their own conclusions and drive them to want to take action.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Early on in my writing career, I thought my proofreading was meticulous. I’d read and re-read my material over and over again, because I myself judged others by their writing skills.

The problem was, I relied on my eyes which are super-sensitive to the tiniest of errors in other peoples’ work. However, I quickly learned these same eyes are extremely forgiving when it comes to my own errors, auto-correcting flagrant issues, subtleties the average person would miss, and clumsy sentences that break the natural rhythm in the piece.

A writer whom I have great respect for once recommended that I invest in a software that would read the text back to me, but since my employer was on a very tight budget, I didn’t pursue the idea at first.

Instead, I relied on old-fashioned, unreliable tactics like setting the piece aside for a day before final proofreading, asking others to review my work, re-reading the piece backwards, and the worst of all methods, relying on Microsoft Word’s spell checker.

After several months of doing things the hard way, I decided to see how much a text-to-speech software would put me back. A quick online search turned up an incredibly inexpensive yet powerful software called TextAloud by NextUp.com.

For less than thirty bucks, this nifty software will read e-mail, web pages, reports, and more, aloud on your PC.  You can even save your daily reading to an mp3 or Windows media file for playback on an iPod, PocketPC, or TV using Tivo’s Home Media Option.

Being the cheapskate that I am, I took advantage of their free 15-day trial, using it to review online promotions and articles that were already in their “finished” state.

Needless to say, TextAloud caught at least one error in every single piece. With eyes wide open, I shelled out the money, saving me tons of time and my good reputation.

The default voices that come with the software sound robotic, but if you find that annoying you can download other free voices or upgrade to natural-sounding voices like I did.

Nowadays, every piece I create undergoes the scrutiny of TextAloud and my ears.

If you’re responsible for writing web content or other marketing material, I dare you to try it. If you’re like me, you’ll be humbled by the errors you find.

Let me know if it helps!

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Following up on the blog entry I started on January 6th, today I’d like to wrap up my e-mail marketing tips with six ideas to help build a loyal e-mail following.

Build a loyal e-mail following tip #1: Be practical.
How many times have you read an article in an e-newsletter and thought “OK, now what do I do with this information?” Too many people stay at the 50,000 foot level with their content, which presents an opportunity for the rest of us.

Anybody can say, for example, that it takes great talent to make a great company. Very few actually show us how to find, hire, and retain them. It takes more effort to do, but figuring out how to solve problems and sharing your tips with others via e-mail will make readers clamor for your content… and your business.

Build a loyal e-mail following tip #2: Demonstrate leadership.
Another way to build a loyal e-mail following and gain respect is to demonstrate thought leadership through your e-marketing messages.

Provide context around current events. Offer up a different perspective. Or analyze recent trends. Then take your observations one step further and really help your readers with practical tips and advice they can put into practice.

Build a loyal e-mail following tip #3: Respect your audience.
Don’t pollute their Inbox with a never-ending supply of gimmicky material. I’ll tolerate one marketing message per week from any given source, but when I start receiving the same (or similar) messages three or four times each week I begin to tune out.

Figure out what’s tolerable for your audience and stick with it. In many cases I would suggest two e-mails per month is sufficient to build a relationship without getting in your reader’s face.

Build a loyal e-mail following tip #4: Don’t push your agenda.
Or to be perfectly blunt, don’t sell.

In most cases I believe it’s  unrealistic to think you can convert a B2B prospect into a customer through a series of e-messages.

That’s not to say e-mail doesn’t work to stimulate sign-ups for a webinar, or to promote an upcoming conference or special offer. They work, but I recommend you use them sparingly, and in conjunction with other non-sales messages.

The key is to nurture prospects through e-mail with educational literature, perspective, and practical advice. If they like what they see, they’ll approach you when they’re ready to buy.

Build a loyal e-mail following tip #5: Be different.
Even though marketers are taught to differentiate, somehow we all seem to get trapped in messages that are indistinguishable.

Part of this, I think, has to do with how we communicate. One easy way to show you’re different is to reveal some personality in the messages you send.

I’ve seen some e-mail marketers take this to the extreme, sharing their CEO’s weight loss challenges, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.

Instead, I suggest you think about your audience as a single person when you’re creating content. By keeping your focus on the person (not the crowd), you’re bound to end up with messages that reveal the real you.

Build a loyal e-mail following tip #6: Test.
I read somewhere (sorry but I can’t recall where) that very few e-mail marketers actually take the time to test. That’s a shame. Yes, testing takes time, but it provides valuable insight into the psyche of your reader.

And if my January 6th assertion rings true this year — e-mail marketing is going to get a whole lot harder during 2009 — testing will be the best way to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Marketers: Brace yourself for stiffer competition this year in the e-mail marketing world.

The December 8, 2008 issue of BtoB Magazine confirmed (not surprisingly, I might add) that marketers plan to beef up their e-mail marketing efforts during 2009.

Of the folks surveyed, nearly half (43.5%) say they’re keeping budgets intact, but they’re shifting dollars away from more traditional tactics like print, direct mail, and events. Almost 75% say they’ll increase online spending, and more specifically, 68.3% say they’ll put more money towards e-mail marketing this coming year.

What this means for the average person is a more cluttered Inbox, and as their Inbox grows, they’ll naturally become more aggressive at cleaning out the clutter.

Marketers who want to avoid the trash heap (and who doesn’t have this for a goal?!) will need to step up their efforts to capture the recipient’s attention.

If you’re still sending out e-newsletters with the same bland subject line (e.g. “XYZ Widgets Newsletter: 2009-01-05”), stop! You’re providing zero information that helps your readers make an educated decision on whether to keep your e-mail or toss it.

Here’s four quick tips to help you build attention-grabbing subject lines that will make your readers want to open your e-mail.

Grab your reader’s attention tip #1: Front load your subject lines with powerful words.

While active sentences are easier to absorb, they often times push your most important words to the tail end of the sentence.

When it comes to subject lines, passive sentences  are not tabu. Flip the subject and object around so that key words and phrases are the very first words your reader will see.

Grab your reader’s attention tip #2: Focus on their pains and problems.

Stop talking about you: your newsletter, your weekly summary, your upcoming release, etc., and start demonstrating how you can help your readers with their problems.

And I do mean problems… not opportunities for improvement.

People want to do a lot of things, but they’re more likely to act upon the issues that are hurting them, or causing them great discomfort.

Grab your reader’s attention tip #3: Ask a question.

One way to accomplish this is to ask a question that gets the reader thinking about their pain, e.g.:

• Feel powerless against your larger competitors?
• Are you leaving money on the table?
• How much is your IP worth?
• Confused about…?

You get the idea.

Grab your reader’s attention tip #4: Be specific.

Watered down, vague subject lines will catch nobody.

“7 tips to find profitable partners,” “4-step plan to land enterprise deals,” or “11 common online marketing missteps that waste money” tells the reader exactly what they can expect to find when they open your e-mail.

Note that all three examples use concrete numbers. That’s because people respond to them! One word of caution, though: Don’t try to force your numbers to be nice round numbers like 10. If you have six great tips to help your reader stop wasting money on VAR partners that don’t deliver, don’t pollute the list with another four tips that are marginal at best.

In my next post on January 20th, I’ll share 5 additional e-mail marketing tips.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.