Email Marketing Blog

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

Awhile back, I wrote an article entitled “How to Increase Email Open Rates”. The second item it touched upon was related to subject lines and how a good subject line impacts your open rates.

While surfing the Net the other day, I came across a list a company had composed of the best and worst open rates, based solely on the subject line. While the highest rates were in the 60-87% range, the worst were an embarrassing 1-14%.

Their study proved me out. The highest open rates were for subject lines that didn’t leave much to the imagination. They oozed, “You’re about to get some good information” rather than “Have I got a deal for you!”.

Almost 100% of the high open rates included the company name in the subject line. Although not tested, I would think your name would work also IF you have branded yourself and your name would be recognizable to the majority of your readers. This may also pertain to the website or product name as part of the subject line.

A key ingredient to getting your email opened - and NOT having your reader unsubscribe - is to be honest with them. Do not use a subject line meant to get the click in a less-than-honest fashion. If you’re sending a newsletter, say so. Include the name of your ezine and the publication date or main subject.  If it’s a report series, include the name of the report and “Part 8″. If it’s promotional, you can say, “Before You Buy: My XYZ Review.” (Of course, make sure it IS your review and not a cut-and-paste job from the merchant!)

What are some of the best - and worst - subject lines you’ve seen? Share them here!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
Get Response

In Part 1, we talked about how to use an initial opt-in form to segment your list.

For this series, we are using an 55+ active adult center as the example. Today, we’ll cover a few more techniques to segment your email list.

Choice of Reports from One Web Page

Another idea you can use on your main page is to offer several reports from a drop-down box. Each report would speak to a group as outlined above. Or perhaps your reports would be driven from the activities you offer, so readers could sign up for the newsletters from the golf pro, activities director, etc.

While segmenting your list by ages is one example, you may wish to further segment that list’s interests. Let’s assume that you developed a list of people 55+ who are looking for an active adult community. Here are some things they could be interested in:

Golfing
Fishing
Activity Center and Daily Activities
Maintenance Free Living
City vs. Small Town

Can you see how effective it is to have an email list of readers who are 55+, are interested in retireing to an active adult community now and whose primary interest is golf? Your emails can go into detail about who designed the course, the features, tournament activities, etc. Perhaps you can allow them to opt-in to the golf newsletter if one is available.

Can you also see how NON-EFFECTIVE that would be for someone who was primarily interested in fishing during their golden years and had no interest in golf?

That’s why we want to segment!

Creating Segmented Landing Pages

In the above examples, we’ve talked about driving traffic to one web page and then separating it into segmented lists.

A segmented list can also be developed using various opt-in pages, each related to a different area of interest or segmented group. You’ll see this done quite often with those using pay-per-click advertising.

I’ve entered “active adult community” into a search box and found these pay-per-click listings. Let’s discuss these in relation to landing pages:

Locations: Rhode Island, Florida, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Tennessee

Amenities: Luxury, Country Club, Golf, Boating

Lifestyle: Acreage, Escape the City, Mountains

Let’s assume my property is in Orlando, is situated on a ski-able lake, 20 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean, with an award-winning golf course on the property.

How about an ad that read…

Orlando Lakefront Retirement
Fresh and Saltwater Fishing In a
Resort 55+ Atmosphere
www.yourdomain.com

Someone who opts into this list is interested in hearing about the retirement lifestyle where (s)he can fish all day! Your email series will concentrate on fishing.

Retire on the Golf Course
Orlando 55+ Community
Unlimited Golf Fees Included!
www.yourdomain.com

In this case, you’ll feature the villas available on the golf course, tidbits on the par, golf course designer, matches held there and so forth.

The important thing is to have specific landing pages for each ad. If I click on “Orlando Lakefront Retirement”, I shoud see a guy at the community lake holding up his prize bass. Likewise, the email series they opt into should concentrate on fishing, although you’ll obviously mention all the other features and amenities.

In my next post, I’ll explore how to use an offline technique to build your online opt-in list.

Questions or comments? Post below and I’ll be sure to answer them for you.

In Email Segmentation: How to Talk to Your Reader, we defined email segmentation and discussed why you might want to incorporate it in your email marketing.

Over the next few posts, I’ll share some simple ways to segment your lists and cover common segmentation categories to consider.

To quickly review, the reason for segmenting lists in the first place is to be able to speak more specifically to a particular reader - whether a prospect or customer. This generally increases response to and conversion of the products and services you promote to this list.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Initial Opt-In Form.

If there is an important qualifier for potential customers, you should include it in your opt-in form.

As an example, I live in Florida which is a huge retirement state. There are a number of “active adult” living centers being built here. If I were developing an opt-in list for a center, an important qualifier would be whether or not my readers were 55+; if not, they couldn’t live on my property.

Now, there may be others who are interested in my housing. There may be people who are 50-54 and are beginning to research properties. There may be the children of seniors, who are researching properties to present to their parents.

But the people who are going to put money in my pocket quickly are those who are 55+.

In my general opt-in box, I could have a drop-down box with age ranges or a check box that would be checked if someone was 55 years of age or older. Then I could broadcast a message only to this group offering them an additional product or a coupon for a free weekend at the property. They would get it by opting into a different list - one that is only available for those 55 or older.

Note: You’d want to set up your offer (such as the free weekend) to verify that they are 55+ when they redeem their coupon. For this reason it would make little sense for someone younger than 55 to opt-in.

Another way you can segment your list is from the initial information you gather at sign-up. Keep in mind that the number of opt-ins is inversely proportional to the amount of information you require from those opting in. Also, your potential subscribers don’t know you well yet, so this is not the time to ask for a lot of personal information.

Personally, I like to include zip codes (or other area designations in my forms. This is a pretty non-invasive request to which most people will comply.

On Friday, I’ll give you a few more ways to develop a segmented list. In the meantime, post your questions or comments below…we always love to hear from you!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Recently, someone wrote our support staff asking if it was safe to import free or purchased leads into their autoresponder system.

It is our policy (and the policy of most - if not all - companies such as GetResponse) not to allow these types of leads to be imported. Your subscribers must have requested information from you specifically. This is entirely different from them clicking on a link, filling out a generic opt-in form, and having their name sold to tens or hundreds of people.

While there are a number of ways to build a list, GetResponse provides an easy alternative with their service at GetSubscribers. This service can add targeted subscribers to your list each and every day without the need for them to confirm.

If you are looking for a simple way to build your list, you may want to check it out!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse