 |
 |
|
Posts Tagged ‘email marketing’
Thursday, April 19th, 2012
 Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientist with HubSpot, recently gave a webinar entitled The Science of Email Marketing. He analyzed over 9.5 billion emails provided by MailChimp and came up with some unexpected results. Here is a brief summary of key findings based on the data, focus groups and an online survey.
- People are people. 88% do not have separate work and personal email accounts. So B2B and B2C emails all land in the same inbox. Treat business contacts as consumers. However, 58% have a junk email account (hotmail, etc.). Make your content relevant and valuable to increase the liklihood that recipients will sign up with their real (non junk) email address.
- People are creatures of habit. Most people treat their email as “homework” or tasks to do and read it primarily in the morning. Although they will continue to read emails throughout the day and evening, having your email in their inbox first thing in the morning increases the liklihood it will get reviewed as part of that morning email routine.
- People don’t hibernate on weekends. Surprisingly, the highest clickthrough rates (CTRs) and lowest unsubscribe rates were on Saturdays and Sundays. Most unsubscribes are on Tuesdays which is not surprising given that so many marketing emails are sent on that day. Experiment with your own list to see how weekend emails pan out for you. At KickStart, we started sending our monthly newsletter, KickStart Accelerator, on weekends several months ago. Our highest CTR was indeed on a Saturday.
- People are mobile. Over 80% of people read emails on mobile devices. Test your emails not only on traditional email clients (Outlook, Gmail, Entourage, etc.) but also on smartphones. For tips on optimizing for mobile, see this blog post by Adrienne Rhodes.
- People like links. The more links in an email the higher the CTR, even if it’s the same link presented multiple times and ways. More links means more ways to persuade the recipient to take action. Be sure to link to landing pages to help you gather metrics on conversions and especially if you are trying to generate new leads.
- People filter and archive their emails. To increase the liklihood that your email will land in the inbox or appropriate folder, use a consistent sender and subject line. If it’s a newsletter, digest, summary, etc. say so in the subject line. Pack the email with valuable information (data, statistics, how-tos) so it will be archived for future reference. You can send multiple emails per month to the same list without impacting unsubscribes or CTR as long as the content is valuable to the recipient.
- People like to feel special. Offer exclusive deals to your subscribers and remind them how important they are. They’ll look forward to receiving the emails and builds loyalty.
- People seldom forward emails. Nor do they Tweet about them. It’s okay to include Forward to a Friend and social share options, but more importantly include “Follow Us” links to build your social media audience. Post your newsletter or other content on your website so it’s Tweetable.
View the presentation.
Tags: dan zarrella, email marketing, hubspot, mailchimp
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Share-to-social (S2S) or Share With Your Network (SWYN) is the process of incorporating widgets into emails or other online content so that viewers can easily share the information with their social network friends and colleagues. According to a study conducted by Silverpop, email social sharing achieves click-through rates several times higher than forward-to-a-friend (which is typically under 0.1%) and adds an additional 1% to open rates. Most people on social networking sites have between 150 and 200 friends. Adding share-to-social widgets into your emails can increase average reach by 24%. Additional source: MarketingSherpa
So, how do you go about incorporating S2S in your email campaigns or newsletters? There are currently two options:
1) Check with your email service provider (ESP) if you use one. Silverpop, for instance, has developed a S2S tool which inserts links to Facebook and MySpace into HTML emails. I imagine more and more ESPs will make S2S a standard feature offering in the coming year.
2) Generate the code yourself. The blog site business.com has a post with code generators for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN and delicious. This code is then customized and pasted into the HTML email.
I tried this myself using the Facebook Share feature – located under the Facebook Advertising section.
I entered the URL for the December 2009 issue of our KickStart Accelerator newsletter and it generated the following code:
<a name=”fb_share” type=”icon_link” share_url=”http://www.kickstartall.com/documents/KSAdec2009.html” href=”http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php”>Share</a><script src=”http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share” type=”text/javascript”></script>
I pasted the code into Dreamweaver and viewed the result in a browser:
Clicking on “Share” took me to the Facebook login page and after logging in, I saw the following “Post to Profile” screen.
Just like “Follow us on Twitter” or “Become a Facebook Fan” is commonplace today, you’ll be seeing more Share-to-Social (S2S) in B2B emails in the coming year.
Tags: B2B email, email marketing, S2S, share-to-social, Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
 It has been six years since Congress enacted legislation controlling the way businesses can use emails to send commercial messages. And yet, hardly a day goes by that I don’t receive unsolicited email with no Unsubscribe link, in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act. According to that legislation, senders of commercial messages via email must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you.
California’s SB186, enacted in 2003, goes further. It requires that recipients of email advertising must have opted-in, that is, explicitly chosen to receive it. Businesses must either obtain written permission from the recipient or there must be an existing business relationship between recipient and sender.
Maybe there are new marketers who have’t been taught the rules. Or maybe people ascribe to the “ask forgiveness later” rule. Whatever the cause, it simply doesn’t create good will with prospects to send them unwanted emails. When you rent email lists, you’re trusting that the list vendor is following both the letter and the spirit of the law. But even then, you’re probably sending to some people who simply are not interested in your communications.
A more effective way to use email for marketing is to grow your own list organically. Start with existing customers who have given you their email addresses. Then use interesting content and SEO (search engine optimization) to get people to your website, where they may fill out a form to receive something useful and worthwhile — a newsletter or White Paper, for example. Contributing their information on your site establishes them as having contacted you, so add them to your list. Yes, it’s a slower process, but the people you contact will not be irritated when you email them, and they probably have some interest in what you will say. Rather than a scatter-shot approach, use a targeted approach, and use your email marketing resources to reach the prospects that really matter.
And always include:
- An unsubscribe or opt-out link
- A physical postal address for your business.
Tags: demand generation, email marketing
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
I recently attended a BMA breakfast meeting hosted by Laurie Beasley of Beasley Direct Marketing. Laurie shared key trends in email marketing and current response rates from sources such as MarketingSherpa, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Caslon & Co. which I’ll recap for you.
According to MarketingSherpa’s “2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide“, which reported the results of a survey to over 1,700 marketers, marketing budgets are expected to be reduced by 20-25% this year. Keep in mind that the study was conducted in August 2008 before the economic crisis really kicked in. Therefore, these numbers are likely very conservative. Here are some key findings:
- Email reigns as the number 1 marketing tactic – due to its low cost and ability to be targeted to both prospects and customers. Email receives on average 16% of the online marketing budget in medium-sized companies and 27% in small companies.
- The top techniques for gaining B2B opt-ins are eNewsletter subscriptions, sales alerts and opt-ins at trade shows. With trade show attendance down (for vendors and prospects), 29% of B2B marketers plan on increasing spend on rented (3rd-party) email lists for lead generation. In exchange for opting-in, subscribers want marketers to not share their email address and to receive special offers/pricing.
- Challenges to successful B2B email programs include deliverability issues, competition at the inbox, and the ability of marketers to consistently provide relevant content. Email needs to be designed with the anticipation that many readers will view it with images off and only through their email client preview pane or PDA.
- The two primary reasons why people unsubscribe are a lack of relevant content and receiving emails too often.
- Opportunities exist for international email programs (on the radar for 33% of large companies) and for optimization of emails for mobile rendering (73% of marketers are not currently doing this).
Average Response Rates
- Click-through rates (CTRs) for eNewsletters are staying high, with 26% of survey respondents reporting CTRs between 5.1%-10%; another 24% report CTRs between 2.1%-5%.
- CTRs for sales-related email blasts are similar, with 26% of survey respondents reporting CTRs between 5.1%-10%; and 26% reporting CTRs between 2.1%-5%.
- According to Caslon & Co., personalizing email and direct mail can improve response rates by 50-100%. The average response rate for lead generation campaigns is 3.2% according to the DMA. With personalization, Caslon reports a jump to 5%.
- Caslon also reports that personalizing registration landing pages can improve response rates by 100% to 130%.
For best success with your email marketing programs, focus on providing relevant, personalized content to your prospects and customers at a reasonable frequency. Be sure to design the email for maximum deliverability so that content and offers are easily viewable in preview panes and on mobile devices. And as always, integrate your email programs with other marketing mix elements (web, videos, social media, blogs, sales development calls) to increase the chance that your message will be heard. Visit the marketing campaign development blog for tips on optimizing your marcom mix.
Tags: email marketing, marketing trends, response rates
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »
|
