Email marketing success - how to improve your response rates!
Email marketing is one of the subjects that is continually in the marketing spotlight. Done well it can reap huge rewards, done poorly and you can end up being labelled as a spammer. I’ve previously written about 8 top tips for improving your response rates, but when scanning the internet for more interesting hints and tips, I found a great post by an internet marketer called Gobala Krishnan. (Hi Gobala).
Reading Gobala’s post he suggests the two main components of successful email marketing are:
1) the list,
2) the content.
The List
I like his thinking about the importance of your ‘relationship’ with the list. The better you know your list the greater the response you are likely to achieve.
But how do you improve your relationship?
The key is segmentation, as with any other marketing campaign. Try to identify groups of people with similar traits, whether that’s geography, age group, sex, needs and wants, or other. Use whatever you can interpret from your list data and start to group people, or segment them. Once you have your specific segments you’ll be able to better tailor your message to that specific group.
Gobala goes on to talk about frequency and recommends getting in touch every 4-8 weeks. This really depends on your product, list segments and your objectives. If you have customers that make frequent repeat purchases, then you could try to increase the frequency of purchase by emailing every 3 weeks rather than 4.
The Content
The content is king approach is also important. I’ve written before about the need to add value to increase your list, but also keep people interested. But some simple sales and advertising techniques would also be useful. Try reading Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy for some great ideas.
Also, consider Gobala’s suggestions:
1. Create short, appealing headlines and personalise your emails.
It’s a no brainer in direct marketing, if you address your letter to your recipient it’s more likely to get opened.
2. Add one link only.
I’ve worked with plenty of clients that send emails selling pretty much their whole catalogue. The result, very few click throughs. By using only one or two links to your products there are fewer options and therefore it’s an easier decision to make.
3. Create good copy.
Again, I suggest you read David Ogilvy’s writing on this subject, a well known and respected copy writer. Two tips I have taken from Mr Ogilvy are:
* to write an attention grabbing headline - “every headline should appeal to the reader’s self interest…It should promise her a benefit”.*
* body copy should be written as if you are talking to the woman next to you at a dinner party. You should write as if she has asked you a question and you are trying to answer it.
Think again about whether you are adding value. Ideally you want to get repeat customers.
So there you have it, some ideas to improve your email marketing response rates. I’ll say it again, read Gobala Krishnan’s blog entry and also David Ogilvy’s writing - one of the most successful advertisers and copy writers of all time. One final point is to think about testing. Try split testing every campaign you run on a small sample of your list. Change the headline, or the copy, when you send your emails and work out which has better conversion rates. This way you can work out which will perform better on your full list.
I will write more about testing soon, but it’s such a good concept that it merits it’s own post.
* Confession of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy, 2004, Southbank Publishing
Tag:EMarketing
How to improve your email marketing response rates!
It’s amazing how many companies there are providing marketing advice to SMBs - like us for instance. Many of them publish free articles and post newsletters that can be of incredible value, or sometimes a huge waste of time. I know because I read them all trying to find great material for my readers.
This one’s very useful. It’s all about improving the response rates from your email campaigns. Let’s face it, just sending out emails to your customers, clients, prospects and anyone whose address you have, doesn’t always provide the greatest return. The main problem is the sheer volume of email we receive. Apparently “Recent statistics show that over 50% of the tens of billions of e-mails sent daily are spam”. It’s no wonder our messages are not received.
So what can you do to improve your email marketing?
Well, for a start, read the article on BusinessKnowHow.com. It lists 8 top tips for you to think about (see below) and you can read the article by clicking on this link - http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/email-response.htm.
1. Get permission
2. Focus on your Subject Line
3. Front-load your message
4. Pay attention to the spam triggers
5. Tighten up the body of your message
6. What’s on the screen?
7. Select appropriate font colours
8. List Maintenance - Keep your lists up-to-date
For me, you should also consider that:
- keeping it simple will create a bigger impact - too many “special offers” or options will reduce your conversion rates.
- providing two versions, plain text and html, will hit a wider audience.
- making sure any links to your website are correct will reduce instant deletions.
And finally. ADD VALUE! If you provide something of use in your emails, people are much more likely to read what you’ve got to say. They will also be more receptive to your promotional material.
Good luck!
Tag:Online payments
I’m a big fan of buying online. The ease of surfing the web, finding what you want, getting reviews and actually making a purchase is fantastic. I don’t even have to leave my desk. Great for lazy shoppers like me. At this time of the year it’s also perfect for beating the Christmas crowds.
However, for e-tailers, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to compete with the high street. The shops are becoming smarter at competing on price, for example PCs and electronics seem to be almost on a par these days. The little extra you pay at the shops more than makes up for the extra service.
So what can e-tailers do to ensure they remain competitive. Well for me, one of the biggest hang-ups with buying online is the checkout process. How frustrating is it when you decide on a product you want to buy, but the website makes it difficult to buy. Either you have to register all of your details, or you have to go to a different site, or there are hidden charges for delivery, or the delivery options are complex. One of the worst offenders for me here is Midland Main Line the UK train operator. Each time you find the tickets you want you need to login, however, I travel so infrequently I can never remember my login details - after all, I have login details for so many sites it gets a little confusing.
But today I came across an excellent example which I have to share. I’ve just booked some tickets to see Casino Royale, the new James Bond film, at my local Cineworld. I booked online and the process was so easy I actually felt compelled to write this blog. The process was smooth, simple, no login required, the product choice was stunningly easy and I received a confirmation email within seconds. Now that’s what I call great service - check it out for yourselves - www.cineworld.co.uk. This is without doubt a best practice example.
Have a look at your checkout process. Can you make it easier? Actually make a purchase as a customer and examine your experience. Was it positive or can it be improved? Are your delivery options inline with the competition, can they be simplified and so on. At this time of the year you can’t afford to get it wrong.
Tag:Update on blog experiment
I also want to add that my blog experiment has already provided one potential new business avenue. That’s around two weeks into the test which is very interesting. However, it has taken a good amount of time to write the posts and also to keep reading and contributing to the blogosphere. Much like any other marketing activity it takes time, money and effort.
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