Let's face it, if you're in marketing and sales
support you have to deal with lists. I know that there have been many times I silently cursed at the thought of creating yet
another marketing list. I have some tips however that I would like to share in order to make list building a little more pleasant and less cumbersome - and to ensure success.
Create smaller and more targeted lists
You can expect to increase your response rates drastically when you segment your list into smaller and more targeted lists. Prospects want information that is relevant to what their business is doing and needs. They want to also know about industry trends and what their competitors (peers) might be up to...
Don't use old lists
You want to take the time to verify a list before you blast an email campaign or direct mail. When your sales reps tell you they want clean data it's not because they are being difficult - it really is because it's a waste of their time to go through and have half of their list be junk. Use an intern if you have to but make sure that list is a clean as possible...
Measure your success
A great way to find what works for your company is to try new things. Well you have to measure the success of each of your efforts. You work hard to figure out what marketing
communication strategies to use, you want to know what is working and what's not. You could be surprised by your results. Keep an open mind as testing will sure prove you wrong eventually...
There are of course many other ways to ensure success with marketing lists but these are the basics and what I think every marketer should live by. To learn more about
The Allied Group and our marketing strategy services, click
here.
It's no secret that e-mail marketing has made its way to the forefront of marketing managers' daily to-do's. Well with that it has to be said that being proactive when it comes to email marketing will bring you far better results than being reactive. You may be asking 'What do you mean proactive?' You have to put yourself in the shoes of your prospect? What do they want to be looking at in their in-boxes? What are they talking to their coworkers about? Look at the big picture and maybe not so much at where to put text, using intriguing subject lines, and other tactics; while valuable and important having a solid grasp of the larger issue will get your email campaign farther than before. So before you hit send, it’s important to think about the big picture.
Is your email relevant?
Most experts agree that relevance is the most important aspect of email marketing (some argue of marketing in general). Your prospects are only going to act on your email if it has meaning to them at the specific time it comes into their in-box. You want to make sure that your lists are highly targeted and that the message means something to the recipient. You don't want to send retirement information to a recent high school grad (who should have been receiving
marketing for higher education material) and a marketing manager doesn't care about what's new in HR software.
Does your campaign have activity driven rules?
You most likely have business rules in place, well each email campaign should have a set of rules in place as well. It's imperative that the rules are defined prior to launch. Make sure that if someone clicks or doesn't click your email they are placed into a specific path etc. Ask yourself what you want each prospect to do and what you think your customer will want from you.
Content, content, content...
You want your prospect to want to take the next step. Well you have to give them a reason to actually take action. It's not just about offering a nice creative design marketing piece, it's about giving them something that gets them excited. It might be a case study and coupon for cord blood banking services to expectant parents or free oil change service to someone who just bought a car. Whatever it is, make it compelling and relevant.
Following these basic rules should take your email marketing campaign to the next level. Just shifting your focus back to big picture can help. Let
The Allied Group know if there is any
marketing communication strategies you need help with.
If you added to your search budget for 2011 you were on the right track. According to a new survey published by Econsultancy search marketing is expected to grow 16% in 2011. The State of Search Marketing Report states that the industry will grow from over $16 billion to just over $19 billion this year alone.
Search is important for any company with a website - and what company doesn't have a website now a days anyways?
Another interesting fact that the report shows is that there is significant outsourcing of search engine optimization, paid search and social media. Only 44 percent of survey respondents’ SEO work is done in-house as opposed to the 51 percent of last year. Another 38 percent of respondents are handling paid search in-house compared to 47 percent last year; and 55 percent are doing social media marketing in-house versus 62 percent in 2010.
While many companies are bringing their inside sales in house, just as many are taking their marketing communication strategies to a third party. The Allied Group can assist organizations with their marketing and sales support efforts. Click here to learn more. And click here to read a version of the report mentioned in this post.
Oh how I wish I had a magic 'easy' button for creating content as needed - but reality is far from my magical imagination. It's also no secret how important content is so I am always on the lookout for ways to make content creation easier - or at least the collaboration to actually get that content made.
I was pretty happy when I stumbled upon a content creating checklist today. The checklist is pretty basic - its not like its giving me anything that I didn't already know but the fact that it's in a pretty checklist format makes it, I don't know, just better and almost - eh fun?
The five basics to creating content are:
- Findable - you want to make sure that users can find your content
- Readable - can the user easily read your content?
- Understandable - it has to be understandable for your users
- Actionable - is there something for the user to do once they read the content?
- Shareable - you have to evoke enough emotion for a user to want to share
Devloping the most effective
marketing communication strategies takes time and the right people. While this checklist will help you actually create - you still need the resources in place that will do the work. Having trouble creating? Realizing that you are short on resources is the first step.
The right creative design marketing and marketing strategy services company can be hard to come by - to learn more visit Allied's
site.
To download your checklist click
here.
You may have seen my recent post or you may have been a part of the recent data and security breeches at some major organizations over the past few weeks. My husband and I are
still getting "We are sorry" emails...too little too late if you ask me but that's besides the point now.
I don't know about you but I consider my email address to be personal and private information that belongs to me and only me. While you may not feel the same way, chances are your customers do. So what does this mean for you? It means that guarding someones email address should be as important as guarding their date of birth and home address. Not only should you feel that way but your customers should know that about you as well.
You need their personal information for
one to one communication and to make the most of your
marketing communication strategies but you don't need anyone being weary of giving you their email address. The fact is that hackers want email addresses more because they can easily send fake emails that look just like the real thing. They will ask and get (all it takes is one) someones personal info and there you have it. It's more efficient for hackers now - no need to get all the personal info if the client is likely to hand it over themselves.
Bottom line: Developing a certain level of trust is key. Ensure that your privacy policy states that you respect even the basics. Let them know what you will be doing with their private info. You want your customers to feel that you value their information as much as you value yours.
I bet that most of us can relate to the feeling of panic when we realize our private and personal information has been compromised. This morning my husband expressed his concern to me when he forwarded an email he received from Best Buy about how his email address was accessed by hackers. Obviously annoyed and worried - he asked me if I could put my techie-ness to use and find out if it really was just his email.
While it does seem like it was just his email address that was viewed by hackers, the damage has been done. This isn't the type of top direct marketing strategy Best Buy had in mind or the kind of email campaign they wanted to start their week off with, but what's done is done.
The reality is that many organizations use third party email agencies to manage and send their email campaigns but it's becoming ever clear that companies need to be even more stringent with their privacy policies and what they will and will not do. While this breach doesn't seem too critical, what would a breach for your company look like? What kind of damage would something like this do to your brand? It can happen and it is better to be prepared than sit there like a deer in headlights.
My hat goes off to how fast Best Buy responded to this. We are still waiting an email from a few of the other companies affected.
My bottom line: this kind of thing makes people wary of giving their email addresses out. Be ready for a rise in
direct marketing postcards instead and more personalized direct mail. This is just another reason why direct mail should not be ignored. Email marketing is still extremely important but there is still a need for direct mail.
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full service fulfillment please visit our site.
Source: LA Times
Most of us have been on both ends of spam'a'lot. We have missed important messages that our got stuck in our filter and our important messages have been missed by others. This can lead to big problems - hard feelings, lost business and even derailed job searches.
Most spam filters use a scoring system and each violation has a value. The higher the sum of a message’s offenses, the more likely a spam filter will derail the message (or not delivered at all). Just one offense usually isn’t enough to flag a message as spam - it takes a combination of violations. But alas the system isn’t perfect - what computerized system is? And sometimes legitimate messages are wrongly marked as spam. Keeping in mind some do's and dont's should help and assist in furthering your marketing communication strategies.
DO: use plain text - whenever possible. The truth is HTML messages are prettier and many spam filters are regarding them as less spammy but a text email will always score less against spam filters. If you do want to use HTML make sure your code is clean and simple - sloppy code will sure be picked up.
DONT: be super duper awesomely excited! Certain words and phrases will surely be picked up by filters. Talking about money and breakthroughs and using exclamation points are red flags so avoid them.
DO: avoid sending attachments unless you know you are a trusted sender in your recipients filter. Links are better to use.
DO: avoid using colored fonts. I know black can be boring and colors are fun but it might flag your message.
DONT: be afraid to call in an expert. Bringing in a
top direct marketing agency to help write your messages and assist with current projects is not something to be afraid about. Having an
expert help you is a great way to increase your lead generation efforts and improve marketing and sales support.
Bottom line: use your best judgment and keep your emails sounding professional and you should be all set.
It seems like all we can talk about these days is Google and social media - well it's somewhat true. When it comes to
integrated marketing communication strategies, you can't really put one together without thinking about Google and social media. It just can't be done, period.
But are we coming to a point where the importance of social media is dying? I mean look at Burger King which has been experiencing over a year of declining sales despite its very popular Facebook and viral video campaigns. And Pepsi has fallen third to Diet Coke - I said
DIET Coke...
hello?
Something is happening here, but what? Ford and its CMO won
marketer of the year award in 2010 with help from its Fiesta campaign. The economy is junk and Ford developed a vehicle that most people can afford bringing herds of people through their doors. They also reinvented the Explorer bringing old customers back. Their numbers are rising and its proof that they are doing something right.
Don't like Old Spice - well you may be the only one as their sales
spiked 107% thanks to that guy riding a horse backwards wearing next to nothing. Bet you know exactly what I was going to say before I even said it...
That is proof that marketing integration works. I think what's happening is that social media is not just Facebook and Twitter anymore - it's YouTube and blogs. Social media is not dead, but it is not an infant anymore...creative minds will soar through the crowds and set themselves apart. Personalized direct mail,
one to one communication, tweets, and status updates will all still work - we just need to adjust how...
Source
In the fast-paced, digitally connected world in which we live, many things change rapidly. There has been much recent hoopla over search engine optimization practices that caught Google off guard and embarrassed some companies (which we will leave unmentioned) - not to mention Google being so embarrased that the black-hatting went on for so long. This news should serve as a reminder that grounded marketing communication strategies and well thought out vendor selection really does matter.
That was last week's news however, this week - Google has changed their algorithms yet again. It's known that their algorithms are ever changing but this time it was a revamp. The goal was to the weed out the content farms and spammy-content producers who have been having an field day on Google over the last couple of years - especially this past holiday season. And while no one in particular is being called out, well, again they will remain nameless here.
I have noticed that Google could do some work on improving their search results for my particular searches and I guess that was a pretty popular complaint as I am seeing this week. This is an atempt to get rid of low quality content from search results so you should expect an improvement over the next couple of weeks.
What does this mean for your company? Well if your SEO practices are clean and you can stand by them, nothing. You will probably only improve your rankings. But if you are unsure of your content producing partner, you may want to rethink your approach. SEO is great marketing and sales support but not if your being targeted as a spammer. Find a marketing services company that can help you with SEO or at least with getting you to the right partner.
Relax though - if you can sleep at night, Google isn't mad at ya.
Ever wonder what is going to work best in that email campaign you're about to launch? Will that short subject line attract more opens? Will this banner perform better? These all are valid concerns and it's hard to figure out - I mean everyone has a difference of opinion and we all want solid marketing communication strategies. Stats are stats however and the results on studies performed can sometimes outweigh someone's bias.
I stumbled upon a great site today called Which Test Won. A weekly poll is put up for people to vote on which email (for example) performed better in a group. After your vote is complete the real stats are shown. You might be surprised by the answer and how well certain items performed over their competition.
If you have a website you are using it as one of your lead generation methods. There are so many factors that go into choosing the 'best' thing for your company to do. While this isn't and definitely shouldn't be your end all-be all of information, it's a great place to start doing some research for that next project.
The Allied Group is a top direct marketing agency and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out.
I was going through the 20 some odd daily/weekly emails I get and searching for relevant content to fill my brain with when I stumbled upon a very strategic email subject line: "Facebook's 3 Fatal Flaws". Anyone that knows me knows I spend a good amount of time on Facebook both professionally as one of our marketing communication strategies, and to share my happenings with family and friends so I was eager to hear about it's flaws - I could have named a few without blinking!
Let's face it, many of us share huge details about our lives and about our businesses on Facebook - I was kind of scared to read on but I had to. Douglas Karr writes about a recent experience and how Facebook disabled an account that he was an admin of - leaving his personal account disabled including all of his pages and applications. He realized a few major flaws with a website so many have invested so much in...
1. Facebook lacks customer support: There is no phone number to call and Karr mentions that "After a few days of wondering what happened to my account, it was re-enabled just as mysteriously".
2. Think only you have access to your content?: Think again. This was news to me and I consider myself pretty Facebook savvy. Facebook says: "You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use ANY IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it." I'm sorry, what?! I've barely seen this page and now I find out they own everything I put on there too! Passwords mean nothing huh? All it takes is some disgruntled Facebook employee and...
"Wow. When your company spends thousands of hours on a new campaign that goes viral, it’s nice to know that Facebook can use that content however it likes. Kind of scary" says Karr.
3. Don't look to Facebook for any help: If you want help getting your account re-enabled you better hope that you have a friend that has a 'friend' at Facebook.
Karr, like many other people, has dedicated a lot of time and money to promoting his business on Facebook and it was all gone in the blink of an eye.
The point: Facebook is here to stay - we get it and it can be one of many useful lead generation methods, just try and diversify your social media investments - more people follow companies on Twitter than Facebook anyways.
And email subject lines really are THAT important.
eM+C offers some great reads and this was the first for me by Douglas Karr.
I came across a blog by a favorite of mine - Chris Brogan. He talks about how to write three blog posts a day. While that may seem like a hugely daunting task, he explains how to make it easier or at least get one out a day.
I am guilty here too. I don't write two a week let alone one a day but I know that it is very important to at least try. The first thing that Chris mentions is breaking through the "I can only write at a certain time of day" argument. He is right and I am an example of that. While some of my best work has been at 11:30 at night while the Late Show is on I know that I can easily 'get into it' at 11:30 am. It was a matter of pushing myself.
Chris also mentions tools that can help you blog. He keeps a notepad in his back pocket at all times to jot down ideas as they come to him so that he always has a topic should he hit a wall and he uses his phone to capture great pictures.
So you might be thinking "I don't even have time to eat three meals a day let alone blog" but chances are you really do. Hey, I admit I have used that argument time and time again but the reality is that you have 15-30 minutes to write a single blog a day (if not more). Instead of watching three shows on the DVR, watch two and take that last show time and write. I hope you aren't playing Farmville on your lunch break and if you are, harvest one less round of crops and do yourself (and your company) a favor - BLOG.
Your company will eventually reap the benefits of this corporate marketing communications strategy and you will too.
To learn more about a marketing services company click here.
This may come as a surprise. Facebook was the top searched term in 2010, and 2009 too! This just goes on to prove how important it is to be out there in social media as a business. Four variations of the term 'facebook' were among the top 10 terms and made up 3.48% of the overall searches.
Further analysis showed that social networking-related search terms dominated the results. Over 4% of all searches were social networking related. Facebook was also the top website visited in 2010 - for the first time.
Getting on Facebook can definitely be overwhelming but there is no doubt it that having a great Facebook presence can increase brand awareness and eventually - revenue.
It used to be that people would notice you if you did not have a website, now people notice if you don't have a Facebook page. It's like a 24/7 luncheon. Being on Facebook may not have been one of your marketing communication strategies prior to 2010 - it should be now. There are three million business fan pages; are you one of them?
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Source: Experian Hitwise
It has often been debated - when will your prospect most likely be sitting at their PC? Now the debate is often about when prospects are most likely using their Smartphones and not their desktops. A well defined integrated marketing communications program is not just about desktop emails anymore, it includes mobile emails as well.
According to a recent study released by eRoi 12% of email subscribers, on average, read emails on their mobile devices during the standard workday, but that number increases to about 19% in early morning, late afternoon, and the weekend hours.
eRoi also states that optimizing messages for mobile is most critical for email campaigns delivered on days right before and after the weekend, because mobile's peak use is between 4 pm Thursday and 9 am Monday.
There were a few more pieces of interesting information that were released in this study. Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email client with 31% and Yahoo came in at second with 15%. Internet Explorer is the most popular agent with a whopping 49% of people using IE and Safari and/or Chrome has 26% of users.
Email marketing is just a small component of corporate marketing services. Please visit our site to learn more.
Photo courtesy of Gregory Szarkiewicz.
Personalization in email is great - when it works, and when it doesn't it can be pretty embarrassing for you and your organization. Nowadays people just expect there to be personalization in their emails so no one is really jumping out of their seats at this.
First things first - get the name right of the person you are emailing. This may sound like a no brainer but it's almost shocking how many automated emails I have gotten in which my name is spelled incorrectly, they call me Mathew, or the worst, 'Name'.
Activity driven content is a great way to personalize an email but be very careful with how personalized you have become. Heidi Tolliver-Nigro of the Digital Nirvana said it best with a recent post on their site. Heidi had signed up for a daily email. She received a welcome email from the potential client (lucky for them they were not marketing her). She received her daily email the next day which apparently she did not read. That lead to her next daily email reading:
Dear, Heidi.
You haven’t read your last lesson so this is a reminder to login and read your latest lesson below...
Eek! That is bad. Very, very bad! It's basically saying to your readers 'I am tracking your every move.' or as Heidi stated "I am tracking you—watching you from afar—so I know you haven’t opened the email yet. You signed up to read these, Heidi, and since I’m monitoring you, I’ve noticed that you are slacking. Get on the stick, girl!"
The same can be said here for a sales rep following up on a hot lead "Hi there I see that you have been on our website 20 times within the last week..." It's a BIG don't.
So remember: personalization is great (even though it doesn't do much to add revenue) just don't go overboard and keep it to a minimum because it can have the opposite effect you are looking for.
Source: Digital Nirvana
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I remember the day my dad took me to buy my first computer. What a beast it was but I remember the anticipation and excitement to get home and sign up for AOL. After dialing up (yep I said dial up!) for about 13 minutes, I was finally connected!
AOL was the one and only way to connect when the Internet was first available to the masses. Now I only have one friend who still uses AOL and only as their email provider. While I can admit I still have my AOL Instant Messenger screen name, I do not know the last time I logged on to check my AOL email; six, eight years maybe? Well that is the general consensus when it comes to AOL and their execs are noticing.
AOL now has about 30.8 million email users compared to industry giant Microsoft coming in with 361 million global users, Yahoo with 273 million, and Google with 193 million. But just like the legendary bird, AOL wants to rise from the ashes and become the e-mail leader once again with their ‘Project Phoenix,’ a web-based client. Project Phoenix features a number of other upgrades that make it more of a central hub for communicating online.
This is just proof that email is becoming the top resource for communication available for both organizations and people alike. As companies work to revamp their marketing communication strategies, they will definitely be thinking about the impact that email truly has and how they will adjust accordingly.
Source: Print CEO
I cannot remember the first time I heard the name Michael Ian Black but I can tell you that he does make me laugh and a recent article he wrote for TheNest.com led me to follow his blog which...has led me here.
Recently Michael Ian Black was asked to take a survey about his recent stay at a Doubletree hotel. When he ignored the email that he got, he definitely didn't expect a reminder email from Rob Palleschi, the Global Head of the hotel chain. "We noticed that you did not have time to complete the survey. We are concerned that you may not have responded because we have somehow failed to live up to your expectations." noted Palleschi in his email.
Black responded to the email with an open letter stating "The reason I did not fill out the survey is not because I did not have the time, but because I did not want to." Being the comedian that he is, Black also stated that "I actually have a lot of free time, which lately I have been filling by playing Rock Band 2 on the Wii." and later blasted Palleschi's 'passive aggressive' attempt to get a response by informing him that he was staying at the "... Marriott ... which is AMAZING!!!"
Black also says that his previous rating of his stay at Doubletree would have been "very good" and after the presumptuous email reminder is now only "satisfactory". Black made me laugh and he for sure got his point across and he also made me think big picture.
The big picture: ask your prospects or clients, don't pester and annoy them or their opinion could go from OK to really bad in a single click. Be careful with your email marketing communication strategies and hopefully you won't come across a situation like this. If you need help -
contact us.
Source: Michael Ian Black
Let’s face it; acquiring new customers is becoming more tedious and painful during the current economic crisis and it's not like it rains revenue. While it is essential to market to new prospects, it is even more crucial to up-sell to current clients. The relationship has already been built, they already see the value in your products and/or services so they are more apt to listen to a proposition rather than a CFO you’ve never talked to who is watching his new budget like a hawk.
Assuming you have a marketing automation platform and a CRM in place, consider building an active customer list through your CRM and creating an up-sell email campaign. Chances are your customers aren’t using your full suite of products and services. There is a good chunk of money left on the table there and what’s sweeter than a prospect you already have a solid relationship with? Take advantage of the fact that you already have email addresses for these contacts and start emailing them as soon as possible.
Just a few steps: build your list, develop your emails and any supporting content, build your program/campaign, and press ‘send’. It is more work than it sounds, I know, but put that CRM (and any other software programs) to good use! Its a great way to become the marketing and sales support hero your company is looking for - well, it's worth a shot anyways.
Photo inspiration from Jaki Gaudet and all her drawings!
Jaki Gaudet, a coworker here at Allied touched on this in one of her recent posts and I thought it was the perfect time to dive deeper into this great debate.
I am not sure if I have made up my mind on this topic but I can say that some of the best performing email campaigns are text versions. That being said, there are pros and cons to each that must be considered with all marketing communication strategies.
One of the biggest challenges that marketers face is that emails are viewed on many different browsers, computer systems, and networks. That makes configuring and formatting an HTML email even more difficult. I know that when I create an HTML email on my PC it looks entirely different than on my coworkers MAC - clearly an HTML con. Another con to using HTML is that the message may be much slower to load than it's simple counterpart. Even after loading is complete, certain images may still appear broken leaving the reader with a negative feel towards your message.
These cons may not outweigh the benefits of HTML however. HTML is highly customizable for marketers and important links can be included. Forms, images, and company logos can be included increasing branding recognition and familiarity with your prospects.
Text emails come through looking the same on every computer and deliver the same message but can lack the 'wow' factor that HTML emails can have. Text emails are easy to produce and are easily viewable on mobile devices but as mentioned before, there is no customization and often times you cannot track open rates with text emails.
The big picture is that email campaigns play a huge role in marketing and sales support and what's key is figuring out what works best for your organization. While text emails seem to add more of a personal touch, HTML emails add branding power to your label.
The bottom line: Why not test what works best?
Try and create a highly targeted list and split it in half. Send out a text version and an HTML version and measure your results.
Hint: If you are using a marketing automation tool, you can send text like emails that contain the same tracking capabilities as HTML emails.
Jenny Vance of LeadJen wrote in
BtoB online recently about how email can affect your lead generation campaigns. She brought up some great tips on how email can help marketing and sales support efforts. She focuses on how an organization's marketing communication strategies should not be solely focused on print and phone.
Jenny touches on how email can be a conversation starter and provide important reference after an initial phone call. To read her full article, click
here.
Jenny Vance is president of LeadJen (www.leadjen.com), a b2b lead generation company.
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