Email Marketing Blog

I was recently reading a case study which was available through MarketingSherpa, regarding a financial management company targeting retirement-focused baby boomers. As you can imagine, this is a very competitive market.

The results of the study showed a 44% email open rate, which is pretty amazing.

I’ll review the steps below. Be thinking about how you can apply them to your target market.

Step 1: Conduct niche research. Who makes up your market? What do they read? Where do they live? What forums or websites do they frequent online? Do they participate in social networking sites?

Step 2: Create a visual experience. In the case study, the company had a contest with participants answering questions about how they envisioned their retirement. The winner was chosen by a random drawing.

This same concept can be used whether dreaming of firing your boss or dreaming of the perfect kitchen (or husband!) Whatever you choose, create it so that people will use their visualization skills.

Let me point out that in the case study I read, the first prize was $25,000 and a free session with an investment expert. My guess is that your winner won’t be awarded as much.

It doesn’t matter. Through your research, find out what your target market value or would like to own, but do not have the time or money to possess.

Step 3: Promote the contest. Marketing consisted of online ads with a link to a landing page with an online entry form. If you’ve done your homework in #1, you’ll have a good idea of where your market hangs out and thus, where to advertise through pay-per-click advertising, blog posts, or even forum posting signature files (if allowed). Also include the link in all emails you send.

Step 4: Qualify the leads. In addition to name, phone, and email and physical addresses, add any additional qualifying questions that are relevant to your product or service. For instance, your target customer may be a homeowner, so you would ask if they owned or rented.

Step 5: Offer a bonus for opting in. Your entry should offer a promotional offer or a free report, newsletter or consultation.

Step 6: Don’t require a purchase in order to participate in the contest.

Step 7: We’ve talked before about segmenting lists. By completing Step 4, you’ve built the foundation for doing just that. For example, if a travel agent ran a contest asking people to describe their dream vacation, they could segment a list by type of travel (cruise / all inclusive resort), location (Florida vs. Maine), activity (skiing vs. scuba diving), etc. Then they can send the reader information tailored to those specific interests.

Step 8: Provide relevant content. Now that you know people’s interests and dreams, you can address those items in your newsletter. If a contest about anti-aging finds people dreaming of an eyebrow lift but not another procedure, you know what to cover in your newsletter.

Step 9: Your content should include a call to action. In addition, each newsletter should include your email, support desk, and phone number. Determine your goal for everything you send and tie that to your intended call to action.

Step 10: Include links to other information. Not everyone likes to read. If possible, provide podcasts, videos, blogs and other ways for your reader to get more information.

If you’ve found this useful, please be sure to share this link with others!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Tags

marketing, list building

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 2:09 am and is filed under marketing, list building. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.