Email Marketing Tips Blog

If you thought email was dead, here is just one more indication that it is alive, thriving, and possibly SURPASSING other methods of advertising!

TravelWeekly recently released research conducted by Response One that suggests email marketing to be the most effective way to get past customers to visit a website.

Email beat TV and newspaper advertising, as well as pay-per-click and bill inserts.

Response One suggests a marketing mix of email, TV advertising, online, and direct mail to keep in touch with customers.

An interesting note was that social media sites did little to reach the majority of consumers, and were on a par with unsolicited email. Although they found it to be more effective in the 18-24 age range, “today’s budgets cannot be weighted towards social networks.”

Some important points you can take from the above:

1. Test, test, test. Determine the most cost effective marketing mix for your company. It may not be the same. (In fact, in this example, they tested past customers. The figures may be quite different for prospects who have not yet purchased.)

2. Understand the demographics of your audience. In this example, social networking was only found more effective with 18-24 year-olds. If your web site has a different age range, you might lose your shirt if you expended most of your resources in this area.

3. If you don’t already, think about incorporating offline opt-in techniques with your list. There may be certain situations where an offline marketing method will work best within your total marketing mix.

(In my next post, I’ll give you one idea on how to get easily get those physical addresses.)

A study recently released from Merkle found that 88% of consumers felt that they were in control of their inboxes. This was an increase of 9% since the previous study four years ago.

Even more interesting was that 58% felt that email was a wonderful way for businesses to keep in touch with consumers.

This study was based on merchant / consumer emails. Based on your niche, your results could vary, but I think it behooves us to study the frequency and content of this type of advertising and test-market it against your current control.

What is especially encouraging is that about half of the survey respondents made an online purchase as a direct result of a permission-based email. This is an increase of 5% from the year before, and may indicate that consumers are getting more comfortable with making those online purchases.

Another important result for all email marketers is that 73% opted out if the email content was not relevant. 73% is a huge number! And the more nichified your web site, the more this holds true.

To me, this demonstrates the critical need to proivde content-driven, value-based information to your readers. That doesn’t mean you can’t monetize your list; after all, we’re not running charities! It DOES mean that we present that information within the context of providing value to the end user.

So, what do YOU think? Share your thoughts below!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

I run the “Email Marketing Tips” Forum within the GetResponse member area. Since some of you may not visit there, I wanted to post about one of the frustrations a member was having. It’s one I hear time and again.

You have just wracked your brain and come up with the PERFECT campaign name for your autoresponder series.

Except it’s taken.

Before you decide that this is an omen that you should shut down your online business and get a job at the local fast food restaurant, let me share a few ideas to help you select a great campaign name. (These ideas will also work if your domain name is gone as well.)

1. Add “the”, “a”, “an” to the beginning. I found a great niche and a great domain a few years ago. The domain was already taken. I simply added “the” to the domain I had originally chosen. (That site is ranked #1 in Google out of 35,800,000 sites for that keyword…so I don’t think adding “the” on the front had any effect!)
2. Add “Tips”, “Guide”, “News”, “Ideas”, “Resource” or “Hints” to your campaign name. If you were sending a campaign on Rose Gardening, you could use:
   • RoseGardeningTips
   • RoseGardeningNews
   • RoseGardeningIdeas
   • RoseGardeningHints
   • RoseGardeningReport
   • RoseGardeningAdvice
   • YourRoseGardeningResource
   • RoseGardeningBlueprint
   • RoseGardeningProjects
   • RoseGardeningPlans
   • RoseGardeningChronicle

   These add-ons will work with almost any subject matter.

3. Brainstorm derivatives of your main keywords: Rose Gardening. Use separately or in combination with the list above. For example:
   • RoseGardeners
   • TipsForRoseGardeners
   • RoseLandscapingTips
   • RoseGardenDesign
   • RoseGardenBlueprint
   • GardeningWithRoses
   • TheRoseGardeningNews
4. Add “Best” at the beginning of your preferred campaign name. There were two domains I really wanted for directory sites, but the names I wanted were gone. I simply added “Best” to the front. (Then challenged myself to MAKE them the best!)
   • BestRoseGardenTips
   • BestRoseGardenDesigns
   • BestRoseGardenIdeas
5. Include hyphens or underscores in your name. To limit confusion, I wouldn’t do this if the campaign sand hyphens was well known.
   • Rose-Gardening
   • Gardening_With_Roses
6. Be prepared so you don’t get frustrated! Before selecting your campaign (or domain name), print this article or prepare your own brainstorming sheet. In that way, all these suggestions will be in front of you in case your first choice is gone. You’ll never be affected by writers block again!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
Get Response

I was chatting with a friend the other day and he announced that he was finally going to start mailing to the list he had built up over the past few years (but had never mailed).

This is not a good idea. If someone signed up for your list 3 years ago, the possibility of them remembering who the heck you are and why they subscribed to your list in the first place probably ranges somewhere between slim and none.

The first thing they’ll think when reading your message is, “Where’s the SPAM button?”

First of all, in 3 years’ time, a good percentage of these people have moved from homes or jobs and their email address has moved with them. So, your emails are going to bounce. And bounce. And bounce again.

The ISP’s take notice when they see too many bounces. In fact, I’ve heard that some ISPs actually keep those old email addresses around and use them to trap spammers. After all, if Jane Doe wanted to continue to receive email (family, friends, etc.), she would have told people by now.

The fact that you’re still emailing Jane tells the ISP’s that you are either buying those CD’s with 5 trillion email addresses for $4.95 (remember those??) OR you’re too lazy to keep your list clean.

Unfortunately, when in doubt….blacklist.

It takes no time (and sometimes no reason) to have your email blacklisted. Sorry to say, most small merchants don’t even know that it’s happened. And if it does happen, they don’t have a clue what to do to reverse it.  It’s much better to keep it from happening in the first place.

Be proactive. If you have lists which are that old, take a deep breath and start over again. Or (if you are determined to make contact) at least include as much information as possible so your readers remember you. Things like: from, to, name of the report or publication they originally signed up to receive, the website they enrolled from, the IP address they used, etc. In this way, they may unsubscribe but, hopefully, they will know that you didn’t make it up!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse