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Posted on
2011-11-15
24 Key tips to Freshen up your Email Marketing: Part 2
Message Frequency and Timing
This area always seems to be tricky, every Email Marketer will tell you differently some say that no day or time is better than any other but a few will always specify a day and time. When increasing frequency you should always test first, even over the heavy holiday shopping seasons, if your subscribers think you are harassing them be prepared to see an increase in unsubscribes and spam complaints.
17. Regular sending time vs. Time most often opened: Always try and hit your subscribers when they are ready to deal with the emails - always remember that open clicks do not always tell the whole story, if a subscriber opens your email with images disabled or on their mobile then the open will not be recorded.
18. Regular sending day vs. Highest-open day: This is the same principle as shifting the time of send, with the implication of open rates.
19. Trigger-based email vs. Broadcast: Creating special offers for people who didn’t open or click through on your last email may intrigue them to see what you have to offer, in contrast to this always send customers that regularly open your emails more generic offers or newsletters.
20. Add a less-frequent daughter list: This list is used to bundle all the content your company sends out daily or multiple times a week into a single package.
21. Add a mid-cycle message on lists that mail biweekly or less frequently: Proceed carefully here to avoid the higher-frequency risks, and make sure the message maintains the focus of your regular list.
Promotion
This area goes outside the message itself and brings in more motivated subscribers and ways to better engage them once they have signed up.
22. New/redesigned welcome messages vs. No message: Sending a beefed-up welcome message to half your new subscribers and either the same message you send before or nothing if you don’t want to use a welcome message.
23. Features/benefits-based opt-in invitation vs. Action-only invitation: This covers the language you use to promote your email program. "Sign up for email offers here" is action based. "Get email-only special offers and news here" is feature or benefit-based.
24. Add a new delivery channel: Adding an RSS channel to deliver your email messages will allow you to now include links that allow users to post messages to their profiles in several social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.
CAUTION: Always test again and again - None of these tests should involve major time or money, but you should never try them all at once as you will never see which factor made your campaign a success or a flop. Never take short cuts or apply changed to your list until you have tested every factor repeatedly.
To see Part 1 of this article, please check out:
24 Key tips to Freshen up your Email Marketing: Part 1
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish, and let me know what you think.
Posted on
2011-11-15
How to Avoid Social Media Suicide: Part 2
Only promote your own Content
Although many people take the opinion that "Selfishness is a virtue" it is not always wise to follow that advice when it comes to Social Media sites. If you are commenting on another companies blog, then don’t just try and promote your own company, though if you have written a comment that carries out a conversation then it is acceptable to drop your link within your comment, but using this technique over and over again will ensure that you will be ignored and regarded as a spammer.
Similarly if you are using social news and bookmark sites, then don’t only promote your own content. ;Not only does it make you look selfish to other social news users but also the sites will generally have algorithms in place against this and other companies may choose not to promote you company, leading to a lack of word of mouth. The best thing you can do is find other good websites and promote any content that you find interesting, there are high chances that people who have the same interest will also find it interesting. I guarantee you that if you want to break into social news and bookmark sites, this is the only way to go.
Always link to posts or websites that interest you, by doing this you may attract the attention of your peers and make new friends that will begin to promote your information. Whichever way you look at it we can always learn from other people and your readers ill always appreciate reading useful posts that can help them.
Remember DONT BE SELFISH - Try and improve your KARMA
Having too many ads
One thing that is a pet peeve of mine within Social Media sites is annoying adds such as pop-ups or in-text advertising. Your readers will never be happy if you trick them into thinking that a Google ad is disguised as a regular link, this really isn’t worth it in the long hall. Do not underestimate many Social Media users they are very web savvy and ad aware, they will be able to spot this technique a mile off. One thing you never do is abandon all of you ads completely, just keep the number of ads you have on your landing page to a minimum or else the task of reaching front pages of your social media site will be much harder to achieve.
Irrelevant Spam
One of the worst things you can do within Social Media Marketing is sending out your content to the wrong target audience. Sending every piece of your content to everyone on your friends list is a definite way to see which content works and what content doesn’t for a short period of time but in the long run you could be classed as a spammer, which can discredit your Social Media reputation. The best way to avoid this type of situation is to know who you have added as a friend and find out exactly what they are interested in. Most companies set up spreadsheets with a list of their friends and their interests, this allows them to share relevant links and content that they would like to receive. Always remember that you will not only become popular within social news, bookmark or video sites with just your friends alone, but they will give your content a little nudge in the right direction to get your name out their more.
Using Images in your Written Content
Many companies use Images to break up the texts and make the content easier to digest, though this can be seen more in larger posts. If your readers are anything like me then they will simply scan your content, so when an image catches their eye they will read the whole section. If this is a trick that you are deciding to use, always use images that a relevant to your content and be sure to check for copyright and give credit where credit is due. Some of the social news and bookmark sites also allow you to add images at the side of your content, if you choose relevant interesting pictures then you may get a few social news users look through your content. The one thing you always need to remember when using pictures within your website, make sure that they are not too large or you website will take longer to load which is a pet peeve for many social network users.
Having a Slow Loading Website
A slow site is an unvisited site... Most internet users will allow a website around 10 seconds to load before they move on to the next, although this is good for other sites that may be receiving a ton of traffic, you cannot afford to lose it. If your website starts running slow then you need to be able to decipher exactly which points are affecting the speed, it could be your web host and package or it could be the website itself. You should always approach the website first; there are many different tools that you can download from the internet that analyse your website for errors and fatal page sizes. Once this tool has done its job you can go about correcting everything that it has highlighted to see if this makes an improvement to your speed.
After this if your website is still going as slow as a snail, then try removing all ads and plug-ins, some scripts and ads can slow down your site dramatically, so by taking them off one at a time should lead you to see a vast improvement. If after that your website is still slow, then it is more than likely you webhost that is the problem, it is hard to decipher which webhost is the best for which type of company but don’t be afraid to swap and change if need be.
To see Part 1 of this article, please check out:
How to Avoid Social Media Suicide: Part 1
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish and let me know what you think.
Posted on
2011-11-15
The Social Media Alphabet: N - Z
N stands for Name: As with remembering names in day to day life, Social Media is no different, the more names you remember the higher the chance of your "Friends" or "Followers" will remember your name. Always try and talk to people personally, the more communication you have the better your company will become.
O stands for Open: Always try and be an open book when it comes to Social Media, always share your views respectfully and consider the views of others, even if you wish to discard them. Respecting other people’s views will gain your company more respect within the Social Media world.
P stands for Passion: When you have a passion for something you should show it, if people don’t see the passion and desire you have for your own products they will never understand why they need to buy your products.
Q stands for Question: Questions drive Social Media, for one reason only, and that is because everyone wants the answer. Having the answer to the most important questions within Social Media pretty much gives you all the power, once you have made it obvious that you have the answer people will soon start to share it with their friends meaning your name will be seen by thousands upon thousands of people.
R stands for Reveal: Within Social Media everyone knows at least one thing about half the people they are either "Friends" with or "Follow." Open yourself up a little and share things about your company but only to the point where you feel comfortable to do so.
S stands for Share: As with giving, sharing means doing things that don’t just benefit yourself. Always give credit where it is due and share the rewards you receive. For example if you get a reward for something your mentor may have shared with you it is always nice to say you couldn’t have done it without them.
T stands for Teach: Always show people what you know and we all benefit.
U stands for Understand: Understanding what people are saying within Social Media is critical, if you do not understand then there is no communication. As with everything it is always very easy to misinterpret something written by someone else, especially if it can hit an emotional hot button. Make sure your reactions are tempered by understanding so that you know what was really meant within the communication.
V stands for Vigour: Always show that you are the life and sole of the party, no one wants a dead weight on their Social Media page.
W stands for World: Whilst the world continues to grow, so does the world of Social Media. Just through Social Media you can find out about different things and places you didn’t even know existed. Again communication is the most important part of this.
X stands for X-Ray: For everything to run smoothly with Social Media you need to have a real story, you have to make sure that you are not fooled by exteriors and pretences. For your Social Media campaigns to work you need show your customers that you are being truthful and respectful.
Y stands for Yearn: Always fulfil your cravings, through Social Media participation, but always stay hungry as there is always more to eat. The worst thing you can do is get bored of Social Media a few weeks or months into starting your campaigns, if need be take a step back for a few days or only spend a few hours a day participating in the Social World.
Z stands for Zen: You may not become a spiritual master, but practicing, being mindful and learning constantly, can still lead to fulfilment within Social Media.
To see A – M, please check out:
The Social Media Alphabet: A – M
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish, and let me know what you think.
Posted on
2011-11-09
24 Key tips to Freshen up your Email Marketing: Part 1
Within the world of Email Marketing there are always things that can be swapped and changed without launching a major overhaul. Certain Email Marketers will tell you that there is really only one way to keep your subscribers interested and subscribed to you mailing list, but I am sure that they will all tell you a different way. I have pulled together a list of 24 different tips that can be applied simply to any Email Marketing campaigns (though I would advise not all at the same time.) These tips can be broken down into, message design, content and format, the way you promote your mailing list, sending frequency and new channels to distribute messages. Most of these tips can be tested by simply using A/B split tests, but others will need you to monitor your email interactions with your website.
Message Content
This all-important area has four key categories:
Category 1: Design
1. Button vs. Text link: With this you need to ask yourself which draws more attention? With around more than half your subscribers reading your messages with images off they may end up missing your call to action or link to your offer. This is where A/B split testing comes into action, you can test this by sending one half of your list a message with a button image with an action tied to the offer and then send another message to the rest of your list with a text link. After a few days you should be able to use the results to compare the campaigns and to see which one worked better. Always try to not to use generic messages like "Click Here" on either campaign, try a specific call to action like "Buy Now" or "Save 20% Now."
2. HTML button vs. Image button: Many marketers call this "The Bullet Proof Button" I call it a requirement. Here you can use simple HTML tactics, such as background colours, text and small images, which will allow you to create a very close-to-image-based button. However there is a massive difference, even with images turned off your subscribers will still be able to see the button and know exactly where to click.
3. "Yes" and "No" buttons on reactivation emails: Reactivation emails are sent to your subscribers that are classed as inactive (for example the ones who haven’t responded to your messages in a year or so,) these emails allow you to provide your subscribers with a clear choice which may inspire them into action. Whichever choice they make it is better than them sitting in a black hole or becoming a potential spam complainer.
4. Call to action or offer in snippet text vs. Standard administrative text: This action allows all the key information within the first line of your text. This snippet of text appears in certain inbox’s if there is enough room after the subject line.
5. Text vs. HTML: Throughout the past 10 years this has always been an ongoing debate, these debate has taken centre stage more than ever since Smart Phones became more and more popular. There are still a select few Smart Phones that only mingle with HTML making text versions more and more important. Try sending a text only message to a small group of your contacts or reformat an existing template message to appeal to mobile users to see which works better for you.
5. Administrative copy on the side vs. At the bottom: Now days most companies add Administrative details, like contact information and unsubscribe links, into a box at the bottom of the email. To capture more attention try moving this box either to the left or right hand side of your message, this works well especially for unsubscribe information.
7. Multiple vs. Single Images: For this test, do the complete opposite of your current design. If you are currently using a single large product image try using 3 or 4 smaller ones and vice-versa. These can all be used in side view, close up or in use. By swapping out a larger image for a few smaller ones, you can reduce your image to text-ratio, which can lead to better deliverability as a higher image ratio can trigger spam filters.
Category 2: Link usage and placement
8. Unsubscribe at top and bottom vs. Bottom only: By entering more than one Unsubscribe link to your emails you reduce the risk of spam complaints. Although you are not encouraging your subscribers to Opt-out of your list you do want to make it as easy as possible for them if they do want to leave. In some cases when the unsubscribe link has been at the bottom many subscribers have used the spam complaint button as it’s deemed more convenient.
9. Web version at bottom, mid copy or side vs. Top only: The top part of your email is what draws in your subscribers, meaning that the information that you deem to be important needs to be within the top section, though this is take up by the web version. Try moving the web version link around your message to see if you can make better use of the top portion of your message.
10. More links vs. Fewer links: Any marketer will tell you that when they first started they assumed more links were better because they gives the reader more access to the website and more chance to find something to buy. However this can back fire when sending emails to mobile users, especially when you put links within your headlines, body copy and calls to action in one short paragraph. The best tip I can give you is to reduce the amount of links within your emails so that you can make the most of the call to action.
Category 3: Content
11. Specific vs. General subject line: Always head for a specific Subject line, like one that highlights the call to action, lead promotion or main newsletter topic. The more general you subject line the less chance you have of catching your subscriber’s eye.
12. Longer vs. Shorter subject line: Research shows that the longer the subject line the more shoppers are likely to buy. Try adding one more feature to the subject line, making sure that the most important words still appear first. For example "20% off Outlet deals plus free shipping" vs. "20% off Outlet deals."
13. Longer vs. Shorter copy: The war will always rage on between ad copywriters, but you need to decide which appeals more to your subscribers? Create two different emails, one with a longer or shorter product description, and sending it to you subscribers by splitting the list 50/50.
14. Actionable alt text vs. No alt text or simple descriptions: Alt text appears when images are blocked and consists of words that describe an HTML image. Add descriptive copy or calls to action here instead of a placeholder copy like "product_image_one," this is deemed better by many subscribers.
Category 4: Offer
15. Cash offer vs. Percentage-off offer: If you always offer a certain percentage off the product price, why not try and offer a certain amount of money off the product price. Split testing will allow you to see specifically which type of offer works best.
16. More/fewer offers vs. More/fewer offers per message: Most companies only ever send out one offer at a time to its customers, but sometimes certain customers have no reason to want the primary offer, by adding a secondary offer in reserve your subscribers will feel like you are trying to adapt to their every need. On the other hand you can offer around 3 or more offers per email, this will then sharpen the focus on you trying to please your customers. Be sure that your subject lines reflect this change.
Part 2 to follow...
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish, and let me know what you think.
Posted on
2011-11-09
How to Avoid Social Media Suicide: Part 1
Over the past few years the buzz of Social Media has got louder and louder, with more and more companies branching out into Social Media Marketing there are a few mistakes that are quite a common occurrence. No one ever plans to set themselves up for Social Media suicide, but even the greatest content can fail on many Social Media sites. This article should help you back away from the ledge and prevent your Social Media Marketing die a slow and painful death.
Have No Social Media Plan
As with any type of marketing careful thought, research and planning must be carried out before even deciding which marketing strategy is right for your company. Each Social Media community is different and doesn't necessarily respond in the same way, meaning that you may have to tailor your content to accommodate for certain network changes. Unlike other types of marketing like Email Marketing for example, the ROI is difficult to monitor, but you should always have certain goals in mind that you can research on a day to day basis until you are happy that your goal has been completed.
Every campaign that has been successful would not have been as successful if there was not a clear set of goals that needed to be completed. You should always ask yourself what do you want to achieve with your social media content? Are you able to identify what type of impact that you want to have? What are the reasons for wanting to use social media sites? Do you want to:
1. Increase your RSS or Newsletter Subscribers? If you have a clear plan that you want to increase your RSS or Newsletter subscribers then you need to focus your sights on Social Networks that accommodate users that are web savvy enough to use RSS readers. Try focusing on networking sites like Digg and Reddit which focus themselves on being more social news site, meaning they have a clientele that are more inclined to subscribe to RSS feeds rather than the clientele of MySpace or Facebook.
2. Sell a product or service? Using social news sites can sometimes be influential but sometimes it is difficult to determine if these users are really in the frame of mind to buy something when they reach your site or do they just want to be entertained? If you are trying to sell a specific type of product then the best sites for your company would be social shopping sites and then contacting relevant bloggers that have an interest in your type of products.
3. Increase the recognition of your site/brand? Getting people to instantly recognise your website or brand name couldn't be easier, try using social news and video sites to help spread the word about your company. Although this is one of the easier things to do within Social Media Marketing, you will need to have a clear set of goals which will help you achieve from this type of brand recognition.
4. Create a community? Creating a community is a little complicated but completely doable with the right research. Asking yourself the key question of "Do you want more comments to your blog or for your audience to create content?" If you want more comments, then just simply ask your readers for their opinion, however if you want your audience to create content within your site you need to provide them with the tools to do so.
If you want visitors to your site for more than one of the reasons above, you must define your goals before you create the content, which will then allow you to place your content within the relevant Social Media sites. If you cannot define set goals for your marketing strategy how do you expect your new visitors or subscribers to know exactly what they need to do once on your website, whatever your goals make sure that your "call to action" is clear and precise.
Ignoring Criticism about your Website
As with everything within the world of Internet Marketing it is inevitable that all companies receive both positive and negative comments about different aspects of their strategy, the worst thing you could possibly do here is to ignore or dismiss your visitor's criticisms. Although it can be frustrating hearing negative comments about something you have put so much time and effort into, the criticism can also be rather beneficial. The most important thing to remember here is that not all of the things that people have commented on need or have to be changed, but you do need to reply politely and respectfully to any criticism you may receive. Never and I repeat never respond to criticism while you are upset, take the time to think what your visitors have said and decide carefully how you should challenge it. There is no way you can please everyone so try to be diplomatic, nothing damages your brand and website more than ignoring criticism or fighting fire with fire.
Using Misleading Images, Headlines and Tags
Coming up with great headlines and introductions within your written content is highly important to any successful Social Media campaign, but the worst thing you could do here is lie to your visitors. If your headlines are deemed misleading then your visitors will not stick around long enough to find out what your content is actually about. Along with this you should never use misleading images or tags if you post anything on online video sites, such as YouTube. Although there are certain images that may get you initial clicks, but a very high number of your visitors may never return to your website if it appears that you are deliberately trying to deceive them.
Not Including the Option to Share
The best way to make sure that no one in the Social Media world knows who you are is to not allow your visitors the chance to share your content within different Social Media sites. This will get your name known by thousands and thousands of people at a time, so make it as easy as possible for your visitors to do. Most blogging platforms have plug-ins and extensions that will allow your readers to submit your content to most major sites.
Target only one Social Network
With different Social Media sites, focusing themselves around certain niche's, there is no point in only targeting one network like Facebook or Twitter. Successful marketing strategies target as many different social networks as possible, even if you only focus on one network to begin with there is still a change that your content may spill over into different sites gaining you more and more exposure, the moment you know that this is what is happening embrace it by adding more and more content to the different sites.
Part 2 to follow...
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish, and let me know what you think.
Posted on
2011-11-09
The Social Media Alphabet: A - M
A stands for Ask/Acquire: With Social Media taking the world by storm, it is the newest and fastest way to keep up to date with all current affairs. This allows you to ask questions and acquire knowledge; this shows you what different types of campaigns that companies have tried previously, allowing you to see what works and what doesn't.
B stands for Bold: If you are not bold and daring then Social Media isn't the place for you. People want to be wowed by what they see especially if you are using Twitter as you only have 140 characters available. Trying things that may have scared you in the past can possibly lead to new customers but how do you know if you never try?
C stands for Communicate: Conversations with your customers are so important, without communicating with your customers how do you expect them to know about your products and offers.
D stands for Demonstrate: Show your customers what you know, if they feel like you don't know your products or about any of your offers they are more than likely going to take their business somewhere else. Whatever you do try not to come across as arrogant and self-centred this can annoy your customers more.
E stands for Evaluate: Once you have asked your customers for feedback on your Social Media pages be prepared for some people to give very generic answers. When you have received all the feedback you need to evaluate it all with a very critical eye, don't just change everything that your customers have said just to keep them happy, think everything over and make up your own mind before you make any drastic decisions.
F stands for Friends/Followers: Without "Friends" or "Followers" on your Social Media pages, your whole marketing strategy is a little pointless. By having "Friends" or "Followers" you have either given or have received permission to share information with other people, one thing you must never do is abuse this privilege, keep your customers happy.
G stands for Give: When you start out in Social Media you need to research every aspect of what has worked and what hasn't, this wouldn't be possible if everyone kept their tips and tricks to themselves. Get yourself out there share with other companies tips and tricks that have worked for you, it's never going to be valuable to keep everything to yourself.
H stands for Help: As with give, if you help others then others will help you. If people ask you questions answer them truthfully and provide examples where necessary, you will eventually gain things back from this, even if it doesn't happen immediately.
I stands for Ideas: With everyone taking part in the Social Media world, ideas are easy to plant within people's heads. Once an idea is planted you can then gather feedback from "Friends" or "Followers" and then continue to adapt them until you are completely happy with them.
J stands for Join: If you want to get your company name known within differing Social Media groups, then you will need to either join groups that interest you or groups that are similar or connected to your company. It is all about relationships.
K and L stand for Knowledge and Learn: Knowledge and Learn go together like Fish and Chips, whichever way you look at it you need to learn about certain things to increase your knowledge.
M stands for Mentor: There is always going to be someone out there that is struggling to grasp certain concepts within Social Media, always try and offer a little help. Offering help could lead to a friend for life, the more hands you have in different pots can lead to more and more business in the future for both parties.
N - Z to follow...
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish, and let me know what you think.
Posted on
2011-10-26
Everything you need to know about SMS Marketing
With mobile phones becoming more and more popular across the world, studies have shown that some countries have more mobile users than internet users, which include a range of different ages. Current trends show that more mobile users text rather than speak on their mobile phones, this trend is higher if you only focus on teenagers and young adults. So what is an advantage of SMS Marketing? It increases your response rate, as people are most likely to read your SMS message within 4 minutes of receiving it, by incorporating short codes into your SMS messages your customers will know exactly what you want you want them to do with information provided, meaning that there is a larger call to action. SMS is one of the most versatile ways of direct marketing as you can use it for customer acquisition and branding. Due to its user friendliness SMS Marketing has become a very effective tool, with research showing that around 90% of SMS messages a company sends out are read by their customers, allowing them to be satisfied with the high response rate and high deliverability rate.
Within SMS not only can you send messages to your whole list but you can specifically target one type of audience within your list, let's take the stock market as an example, when the stock market changes people who have invested are going to want to know about it quickly, this allows you to acquire their mobile numbers to send them SMS which can influence their decision on whether to sell their shares or hope that things will turn around.
And if the information above doesn't make your company want to try SMS Marketing here are a few more plus points:
1. Mobile text messaging software allows you to send an unlimited number of messages from your personal computer to mobile phones with one simple click.
2. Send quick and targeted messages to your customers in the most easy and economically.
3. You can send targeted SMS, event notification, promotional or marketing campaign, job notifications and more.
Follow me on twitter @247_Cherrish and let me know what you think
Posted on
2011-10-26
Connect your Email and Social Media Marketing in the most Effective Way
Over the past few years more and more companies have decided to integrate Social Media and Email Marketing, which has lead to many different and effective tips and tricks, but every companies marketing strategy is slightly different. Whichever you decide to go with your marketing strategy, it always pays off to know where to start. All Email Marketing Ninjas and Social Media enthusiasts are always asked “What is the number one way to connect Email and Social Media Marketing?” To which I always use a simple answer, “Use Email Marketing to invite connections on Social Media.” This process is the most simple and effective way to build your client base with the possibility of thousands of people seeing any message you send to your clients. There are three main reasons why you should use this as a starting point and a few ideas how.
Use Connections in Highly Rated Online Channels to Build Connections in New Channels
Even in today’s society there are still higher levels of your client base using emails rather than Social Media to keep up to date with certain offers or new products that your company may have announced. This means that you have to invite these clients to engage more with Social Media Channels, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, however do not push your clients to hard, if they haven’t joined Social Media sites it may be for a reason - the most likely scenario is that they are just simply more comfortable with opening your emails to hear what you have to say.
Key Tip: Try using leverage Email Marketing messages to entice, invite and remind subscribers that you are present and interested in engaging with them on Social Media. There are a number of different ways this can be carried out:
1. Through dedicated email invites and announcements to visit and “like” you on Social Media Sites
2. Through Facebook-based contests (where a visit and “like” of the page is required for entry)
3. By embedding in email messages social media connection icons that link to your corresponding pages on those networks>
Use Social Media to stay Connected with Inactive Clients
Every Email Marketer hate losing their clients whether they are inactive or they unsubscribe, but by offering them an alternative within Social Media. This works as a hedge, once your customers have “liked” you on Social Media sites there is a rather high chance that they will not delete you, but if they feel you are clogging up their Inbox then they may unsubscribe. If this happens you can still engage with them largely via Social Media, as if your clients are anything like me then the first thing they do when they load their computer is check their Social Media sites.
Key Tip: Always recognise that marketing channels develop on mass offering your clients more and more choice. Some email subscribers may leave your list as they would prefer to engage with you via Social Media, but on the other hand, the Social Media fans you acquire may never subscribe to your mailing list. Never anger your clients by forcing them into things that they do not wish to be a part of, always honour their preferences.
Multiple Channels = More Valuable Customers
Over the past few years research shows that customers, who engage in more than one channel, purchase more often and spend more overall, then customers who only interact in a single channel. While on one hand Email Marketing is an ideal broadcast and targeted messaging channel, Social Media is highly interactive and more conversational then email. Both Email Marketing and Social Media on their own are ideal for different types of messages, but used together can create powerful, deeper engagement with customers that translates into more sales and higher lifetime customer value.
Key Tip: One thing you must never do is overlook email’s potential to initiate a conversation or process which you can then continue on Social Media. It is likely you will receive more customer ideas, suggestions, feedback, reviews and ratings through your social media points of presence. Since email is your online broadcast channel, use it to launch a request for feedback, then transfer that conversation, discussion or interactivity to the context its best suited for, the social network.
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish and let me know what you think.
Posted on
2011-10-11
4 Key Advantages of SMS Marketing
SMS Marketing seems to be the new and most logical type of marketing for the society we live in many marketers do not seem to appreciate the rewards that I will be outlining within this article.
Advantage One: You can send one message to many people
Just think that at the touch of one button you can send a message to thousands of contacts instantly, whether it's a day offer or an urgent change in a meeting. Unlike sending Emails that take up to a week to read, a simple message sent by SMS can be read within 4 minutes of receipt. This type of marketing allows you to contact those customers that could be in a busy seminar, stuck in traffic or having a drink after work in a noisy bar.
Advantage Two: Response Rates are higher
As with any marketing the minute someone Opt-in to receive SMS messages from your company they are red-hot prospects, they are ready to buy the as soon as they receive the message, with open rates hitting 98% overall.
Advantage Three: SMS is a very personal form of communication
All the customers who have Opted-in for your SMS messages will use their personal number to which they receive messages from friends and family meaning that your messages will get the same time and attention. On the other hand your customers will soon become irritated by irrelevant or nagging messages as they would with their friends and family. You need to test and study the results so you can avoid violating the trust of your customers.
Advantage Four: SMS is very effective for local marketing
SMS marketing offers an amazing low cost way of contacting local residents for launch offers, sales or community news. For simple local business SMS is more effective the newspaper or radio adverts as it hits a wider audience faster especially if it is linked with Google Maps. Even if you are not a business you can make SMS marketing work just to promote garage sale.
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish and let me know what you think
Posted on
2011-10-11
Integrate Email Marketing with Social Media in 5 Easy Steps
Evolution plays such an important role in everyone's day to day life, and when it comes to Digital Marketing there is no change. Over the past few years this concept has evolved rapidly that it has been hard to keep up, but the best advice I could give to anyone is to take a more integrated approach to their marketing strategies. Although concepts like SMS Marketing, Social Media and Email Marketing are all separate by joining them together your company can easily become unstoppable with millions and millions of people seeing your messages every day. Although you can use all three concepts in unison I will only be talking about integrating Email Marketing and Social Media in 5 Easy Steps within this article.
Step One: Socialise you Email Audience
As you already know adding links to certain pages within email templates is simple, this is no different when it comes adding links that your subscribers can follow to join your Social Media pages. Once you have got your subscribers linked to your Social Media pages it is so important to keep them engaged - there is nothing more annoying the Liking (Facebook) or Following (Twitter) a company who then doesn't use their profile. Once you see that added the links into certain emails you can begin to test specific campaigns that promote your Social Media pages to gather more followers.
Step Two: Virally share Email Campaigns
Word of mouth has the biggest way to get your business known, the same goes for sharing your emails on Social Media pages – this is easily done by added either an ‘Post on Facebook' or ‘Tweet' button into your emails. By adding this feature you are giving your subscribers the option to share either the whole email or related information from the website, with either their friends or family allowing more exposure for your company and its products. As you would expect your subscribers are more likely to share information about exclusive offers or product launches, so you need to make sure that you are sending content that you actually want to be shared by your subscribers.
Step Three: Acquire Social Users into Email
While many Email Marketers are looking to socialise their mailing list, but there is also value in doing the reverse, you should always try to encourage your social audience to sign up to your mailing lists. As with Email Marketing you need to test what engages your Social Media audience, once you know the relevant ways to communicate with them you can tailor the content you share on the right channel at the right time. Simple ways to drive a social audience to also engage via emails include adding email sign up forms to Facebook and using Twitter to direct users to a sign up page.
Step Four: Look at social data to inform your marketing efforts
By using analytic tools or simple Twitter searches, leading to marketers being able to simply gather a significant amount of insight from Social Networks. Once this information is gathered marketers can begin to focus on which topics engage your target audience allowing them to use the knowledge to boost their Social Media status.
Step Five: Combine your email and social audience to drive acquisition
For most marketers ‘Member Get Member' isn't a new concept as it has been used within Email Marketing to encourage subscribers to recommend their friends to join also. This viral concept is built into the ethos of Social Networks, and marketers can take advantage of this by producing interesting campaigns that encourage the existing member base to involve their friends, and introducing them to a new and upcoming brand.
Follow me on Twitter @247_Cherrish and let me know what you think
