Using Email Marketing To Grow Your Business MSBDC - March 19, 2014 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Using Email Marketing To Grow Your Business MSBDC - March 19, 2014 tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Overview Introductions Why Email Marketing? Best Practices How To Send Questions tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Who Am I? derek allard, Tunnel 7 Website design / internet marketing / optimization Maximize return on investment Work regularly with clients on email marketing tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Who Are You? Do you currently use email marketing? What has your experience been? What other internet marketing have you used / tried? tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Why Email Marketing?

A Better Way No postage required / no high cost ad placements Can target specific audiences with your lists Track results of email AND on your website tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Services Make It Simple Management of lists / unsubscribes, etc. automated Prebuilt templates are decent to get started Most all provide data about results tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Despite What You’ve HearD … Email marketing is an excellent channel for my clients You’re really only limited by the quality of your lists Done smartly, it’s one of the best tools at your disposal Smartly = have a plan, build quality list, follow said plan tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Best Practices: List Building

Build Quality Lists Hitting your target market is key If lists are bad, email marketing efforts will suffer A good list is the foundation all else is built on tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

How To Build Lists Export from your contacts database Collect email addresses from website Run contest / giveaway for email address Partner with related organizations (that have lists) Buy email lists (cautiously) tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Ask For Email Only Common mistake is asking for extra information Decreases likelihood of person giving information Keep signup process one simple step If brick and mortar, ask at checkout / paper list tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Keep Signup Simple Say thank you (concisely) Clearly indicate that any promises made are kept Ideally, don’t send them off to another website tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

List Segmentation Keep to a minimum Unless you’re targeting unique emails, not needed Don’t overthink creating multiple lists tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Write down how you will build (or improve) your mailing list

Best Practices: Content

What Is Your Message? What do you want to tell the world about? What makes you, your service, your product unique? What benefits do you offer your customers / clients? What action do you want users to take (goal)? Best to think in planned campaigns (seasonal, etc.) tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Grab Attention Write attention grabbing subject lines Make offers in your messages Make things sound simple (even if they aren’t) Put deadlines on offers, offer timed discounts tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Plan For The Year Allows for a more cohesive email marketing strategy Start with a monthly basis and topic to discuss Write concise text, gather professional images Tweak the plan from year to year tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Content is the most important piece of any internet marketing effort

Think Big, Write Small Keep each message to one main message Don’t write a full newsletter with multiple articles (that’s what your website is for) Email is a quick pull to get users to website / action Avoid walls of text … think compressed sentences tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

VS.

Keep Recipients Focused By keeping yourself focused One clear message One clear call to action Remove clutter and extraneous content tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

For Most Clients Content is published on website Email directs to the website for action tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

List 3 topics you’d like to tell the world about (and that would benefit your business)

Best Practices: Design

Think Simplicity Mirror the content suggestions (brevity) Best to share look and feel of website Services offer decent starter templates Link to website / have one clear call to action tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Should Include … Link to view in browser Clear unsubscribe messaging Your contact information (CAN-SPAM) tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Use Landing Pages To get specific actions from users Tie landing pages closely to content of email Tactic leads to higher conversion rates tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Do … Consider responsive, mobile friendly designs Design in a clear headline / call to action Keep header area as small as possible Make sure your message is coherent without images tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Don’t … Design a width > 550 pixels (unless responsive) Use images as text (email clients often block) Use web-based HTML for email templates tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

How To Send

Do Not Use Email Client Not built for email marketing Managing unsubscribes / lists Clients are built around one to one / few messages tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Third Party Services The best way to send and manage email marketing Campaign Monitor MailChimp Constant Contact tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Don’t Be A Spammer Don’t buy suspect lists Respect users unsubscribe requests tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

“From” Field Use same address each time (avoid spam filters) Use an easily identifiable person / company name tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Smart Timing Never send on a weekend Monday and Friday tend not to be good 10 am - 1 pm midweek = prime time Start with once a month, increase if manageable tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

A/B Testing Can test subject lines Can test email content Keep tests very focused (change only 1 or two things) tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Track Results Services offer robust open rate and clickthrough data Most allow you to tag for Google Analytics Definitely use this data to see what resonates! tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Data will help you make better decisions about all your marketing efforts

Important Metrics Open rate Click through rate Quality of traffic on website Goal completion on website tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Write down how often you will send your messages & how you will track results

Takeaways Build a quality email list Be smart about your messaging with email marketing Plan for the long term (annual basis) Keep content brief / get users to take action Data is your best friend - use it to make smart decisions tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Tips & Tricks Don’t try to be perfect / fail faster Run a survey to see what people want to hear about Be sure Google Analtyics is connected to efforts Cut content in half and in half again Better to put more messages out than perfect messages tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Additional Resources Effective E-Mail Marketing: The Complete Guide to Creating Successful Campaigns by Herschell Gordon Lewis Web Design for ROI by Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization

Thank You.

Ask Me Questions derek allard / Tunnel 7 derek@tunnel7.com / 413.282.9957 twitter.com/derekallard facebook.com/tunnel7 linkedin.com/in/derekallard tunnel 7 Design Marketing Optimization