MindComet

Building a Better List

Who wouldn’t want a bigger mailing list for their opt-in marketing campaign?  Surprisingly many marketers have not covered off on the basic steps necessary to grow their lists.

Make Sign-up Available Everywhere

Make your invitation to join easy and available on every page on your site.  You don’t want your future subscribers to become frustrated by searching for a place to sign up and give up before they find what they are looking for.

Make Sign-up Simple

The less information your subscribers to be have to fill out, the more likely they will be to do so.  Catch the urge with a single box for the email address and an opt-in button.  Once your subscribers have double opted-in, send them a survey to collect additional data, if necessary.

Request Sign-up at Check Out

If your site is an ecommerce site, include an opt-in box at checkout.  If people are interested in buying your products, they are probably interested in receiving more information.

Request Sign-up in Automated Messages

If you are using automated emails to confirm purchases, include an invitation to opt-in as a part of that message.  Perhaps your future subscriber keeps meaning to sign up for your list and never seems to remember, what a perfect opportunity to remind them again.

Use Traditional Media to Request Sign-up

Have your broadcast print and other efforts work for you to help your email list grow. 

Tout Your Email in Non-Competing Email

Explore non-competing email marketing campaigns that reach your target audience.  Incorporate an ad for your company and include a link to your sign-up page.

Use Search to Promote Your Email

Use Search Engine Marketing to promote not just your site but the substance you provide in your email as well.

Forward to a Friend

Include a forward to a friend option in your message.  You current subscribers may know someone you don’t, have them help you spread the word.

Make Your Email Campaign Worthy

True success is creating an email your subscribers will continue to and look forward to reading.  By focusing on your customer needs first and your marketing goal second, your program will work for itself to draw customers to you and will gain recommendations.

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Posted by MindComet on Mar. 06, 2006

Use Your Subject Line to Increase Your Open Rates

As your business turns to email marketing campaigns to get the most out of your advertising budget, it is important to ensure your campaigns are defined and targeted to your audience.  You are striving to send the right message to the right people and as a consequence, have your message opened and read.

With the ever-increasing clutter of your customer’s inbox, you may struggle to get your message noticed and read.  Getting your message opened is half the battle.  Because your subject line is the customer’s first interaction with your message, it needs to be interesting and legitimate. 

So how can you make the most of your success, and create a wonderful first-impression with your email subject line?

Emphasize user benefits:

• Be direct and speak to your audience on a one-on-one basis
• Specify immediate benefits or rewards such as coupons, discounts or free shipping when you are offering them.
• Don’t sell your product with company or brand-specific features.  Highlight the easily understood benefits.

Keep the subject line concise:

• Maintain a succinct subject line
• Beware of hard sell and sensationalism; Avoid unwarranted capitalization and exclamation points.  These are the first messages filtered to the junk folder by anti-spam filters, or simply ignored by busy consumers.
• Stick with the facts, use simple, descriptive words.

Brand your Message:

• Customers tend to be more open to messages from brands they know and trust.
• If your company is recognized, include your name in the subject line and the from: line too.

Test your Campaign:

• Once your objectives are defined, measure the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.
• Use dynamic content to customize your message and test them in real-time to discover the power and ROI of email communications.
• Continually test your email marketing campaign.  Test and re-test should be the mantra in email marketing, and it is an aspect that is often overlooked.

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Posted by MindComet on Feb. 27, 2006

What Are You Doing on Friday?

As we know, email open rates have dropped over the past several quarters.  This is in part to blame on image blocking in Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook 2003 and several other email clients. Yet the question remains, how can I improve my overall open rates for my email marketing campaign?

A new study conducted by eROI suggests sending your message on Friday.  Email volume may have some correlation to open and click rates.  During the work week, fewer emails are sent on Fridays than any other day.  With less volume in their inboxes, your subscribers may be more likely to see what you have to offer.

Data collected over the past two quarters show higher open rates and click-through rates on Friday.  Tuesday comes in second place for open rates and Thursday grabs the second spot for click-through rates.  As you plan your email campaign strategies for 2006 consider testing delivery days to see what day your subscribers are more likely to open your message.

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Posted by MindComet on Feb. 20, 2006

Driving a Response

As consumers deal with an increase in the amount of mail they receive, you want to be certain that your email marketing campaign catches their eye.  Recent research sheds some light on what compels consumers to open their email.

Research shows the “from” line is the most compelling reason consumers open permission-based email, cited by 65% of survey respondents, consistent with 2004 (64%).  This high percentage shows the importance of sender recognition and the brawn of brand names.

Free shipping offers in the subject line had the largest impact, up from 31% in 2004 to 42% in 2005.  It is important to note that discount offers continue to be compelling with 65% of consumers.  Even if you’re not offering discounts a call to action in your subject line will generate a greater response.

Determine, by testing, how your subscribers react to your from line.  It could make a difference in your open rates and your overall email marketing campaign.

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Posted by MindComet on Feb. 13, 2006

Are Open Rates Really Declining?

According to the Marketing Sherpa Email Marketing Benchmark survey, October 2005, in 2004, the most common B2B open percentage range, according to 24% of those surveyed, 30% – 39%.  In 2005 the most common open percentage range, with 21% reporting a range of 20% - 29%.

To guard email users from Spam and questionable content, technology has been developed to block images by default.  Filtering has tightened which leads to more mail being delivered to bulk mail folders.  Because a one pixel image must be rendered in an email to measure an open, image blocking has had an impact on declining open rates.

Because 52% of business people always use the preview pane, 33% of business people read all of the email in the preview pane and nearly 80% of business people use Outlook as their email client (EmailLabs, Preview Pane Study, November 2005) it important to note that Outlook 2003 and Outlook Express with Service Pack 2 block images by default.  Your message actually may be reaching more people than the open rate percentage leads you to believe. 

Something to consider is that while there has been a decline in opens, there has not been a similar drop in click-through percentages.  This indicates an issue of measurement.  Without the display of the HTML, there isn’t an “open”.  However, the click-through percentages tell us otherwise.  When reviewing your email marketing campaign results, be sure to look at click-throughs and conversions as well.  There is more to the story than simply open rates.

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Posted by MindComet on Feb. 06, 2006

Headers and Footers:  More Than You Think

While headers and footers may seem like a legally required part of you email marketing campaign, make full use of this space to achieve your email marketing goals.

Many email marketers forget to pay attention to their anchor real estate.  The header and footer have the power to capture the user’s attention, influence the brand, teach and create a foundation of trust through consistency.

During the brief time an email is viewed, it must be evident that it is being sent by someone trustworthy enough to have been given permission to get into the inbox.  The email must show who it is from, offer options to change preferences, opt-out and emphasize CAN-SPAM compliance.  Other overlooked aspects of the headers and footers include being consistent in its branding to build on the trust the recipient has in the sender.  It also must be forthcoming with information to maintain the ongoing message.

Meanwhile, IT departments and web-based email providers are continually tightening their policies in effort to protect their users and maintain members.  This makes it that much more difficult to reach your email subscribers. 

Use your headers to educate recipients.  Ask to be whitelisted, and post instructions on how to do so.  Provide other options such as a hosted HTML version of your message. 

Because inboxes are becoming more and more difficult to crack, headers and footers should be considered the critical finishing touches that will help your email be received and help you fight list erosion.

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Posted by MindComet on Jan. 30, 2006

Target Your Audience

A fundamental principle of marketing has always been breaking up your audience into smaller, manageable groups that are likely to behave in a similar way.  Email allows awesome segmentation ability as well as the opportunity to make the most of small audience segments that otherwise might be financially difficult to communicate with.

You should be using every bit of information you have on person to the fullest.  Aside from the nuts and bolts; first name, state and other basic data, there are other opportunities to be unearthed by focusing on demographic segmentation.

By tracking click stream activity you have the ability to segment based on what a person does after they click on a link.  Web site activity offers an excellent chance for segmentation.

In the course of your email marketing campaign, build strategies for gathering additional data about your email recipients.  After gaining trustworthiness, try asking for small pieces of information within your email message.  Another option is to create online surveys.  This is an excellent way for your recipients to interact with you and allow you to gather more information about the people taking the surveys

Another way to segment is by using email activity.  Consider segmenting by email opens, click-throughs or repeated behaviors. Another thought is to include conversion data into your segmentation processes

Once the list has been segmented, you will then have the ability to provide uniquely segmented groups with different content.  Variable content will provide greater relevancy and stronger actionable matter to your audience.

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Posted by MindComet on Jan. 23, 2006