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In a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow examines mistaken assumptions that can seriously damage the long-term success of an email program. Our basic beliefs about how our emails work aren’t as self-evident as we’d like to believe, Brownlow notes; in some ways, we operate in the dark. “And all the while revenues are melting away silently, like sand in an egg timer.”
Brownlow offers examples of beliefs that might be holding you back. Among them:
You read more into the customer relationship than actually exists. “Unfortunately,” Brownlow says, “the word ‘relationship’ conjures up images of long-term loyalty and selflessness. It seduces us into assuming a level of devotion that simply doesn’t exist among email subscribers.” If you need proof, he argues, compare the open/response rates of the last 10 emails sent to customers with those sent to your family and friends.
You believe subscribers use email just like you do. “The email marketing ‘community’ is, in general, a high-tech community with busy email accounts,” says Brownlow. “So it’s easy to imagine our subscribers are the same. But they are not.” A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that a third of US email users don’t check their email on a daily basis, he notes.
You forget that subscribers also receive messages from your competitors. That 20% holiday discount sounds spectacular when you compare it to your previous offers—but it won’t stand out in a subscriber’s inbox if everyone else has the same idea. “[T]he value of what you send depends on the absolute quality of your content/offer AND on its quality relative to what others might be sending,” he notes.
Step back and shine a light. Take the time to consider how unfounded assumptions can drive bad decisions in the whirlwind of ongoing email campaigns.
Source: Email Marketing Reports.
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“People use LinkedIn to connect with coworkers and industry peers, get business advice, and even find new jobs,” writes Diana Freedman at HubSpot. “It’s a great place for businesses to make relevant LinkedIn users aware of their brand.” But, she cautions, those positive outcomes won’t happen if you make mistakes like these:
Failing to answer questions. When you respond to business-related questions at LinkedIn’s “Answer” section, you establish yourself as an expert—and it might even generate new customers. “Take a few minutes each day to look at the new questions in your industry,” she suggests, “and see if there’s one you can provide a helpful answer to.” Be careful, though, to reply without blatant promotion of your product or service. “If you were in a bind and reached out to a community of peers for help,” she explains, “would you want the only response to be ‘Give me your money’?”
Failing to complete your personal profile. If you want to build trust, you have to let others know who you are. “Describe your role at your current and previous companies,” she advises, “and provide links to your website and any relevant profiles,” such as Twitter.
Failing to post status updates. Don’t worry about the apparent redundancy of posting updates at LinkedIn when you’re already active on Twitter and Facebook. There’s a good chance your LinkedIn network has business connections who wouldn’t see your updates in other venues. “It’s ok to re-purpose content across all of the social channels, as long as you’re not duplicating the content,” she notes.
Active, transparent participation at LinkedIn will deliver the best networking results.
Source: HubSpot.
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“Just a few years ago, I could count on receiving a mailbox-full of direct mail nearly every day, including the crown jewel of direct marketing, the BIG direct mail piece,” writes Dean Rieck at Direct Creative. “Thick #10’s, fat 6×9’s, and beefy 9×12’s once stood atop the mountain of attention-grabbing communication.”
Although the recession and a shift to online marketing channels made direct mail seem expensive and outdated, it hasn’t gone away—for one simple reason: “What people are discovering is that traditional media, including direct mail, still work. That includes the big direct mail piece,” according to Rieck.
Here are a few of his reasons why big direct mail pieces might be just what you need:
- They face little competition in a recipient’s mailbox. “A mail stream full of dinky formats makes larger formats stand out,” he notes.
- They provide extra space for marketing copy. “[This is] the driver in any direct mail campaign.”
- They encourage recipients to focus on your message. People will give a bulky direct mail piece more consideration than the second or two they spend on an email’s subject line.
- They give your company an innovative image. “[T]hose big packages seem novel now,” he says. “They let you zig while everyone else zags.”
This might be the time to test a large direct mail piece—an old media stalwart might just deliver new media results.
Source: Direct Creative.
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The forward to Harvey Mackay’s bestselling Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive featured 15 solid pages of praise from VIPs like President Gerald Ford and the Reverend Billy Graham. “The kicker?” writes Hal Licino at MarketingProfs. “By the time the reader read those 15 pages, they were so convinced that the book would change their lives that what followed practically didn’t matter.”
Don’t underestimate the power of the testimonial. Such endorsements can be up to seven times as effective as paid advertisements. So go ahead and energize your email campaigns with testimonials by using pointers like these:
Ask open-ended questions in surveys. If you give customers a yes/no question, there’s a chance that they might respond without elaboration. Encourage in-depth responses—and increase the chance of positive feedback—by asking questions that facilitate lengthier answers.
Don’t limit your testimonial-gathering efforts to survey feedback and notes from customers. You may, for instance, invite customers to submit video reviews of your product or service. Or: “If you are recording your customers’ telephone conversations,” suggests Licino, “you will likely discover a treasure trove of kudos and props. Simply contact those customers again and ask for permission to use their comments as testimonials while offering them a thank-you gift or discount.” He notes that incentives should be substantial enough to warrant customer participation, but not so large that it looks like compensation.
Learn to edit for length. “There are no hard-and-fast rules,” Licino says, “but if you can edit … down to 35 or fewer strongly indicative words, you should fall within the limit of the average attention span.”
Above all, use testimonials to highlight a unique experience—something prospective customers can’t or won’t get elsewhere.
Don’t be shy. Find ways to encourage fans to offer unique praise; you could boost the power and reach of your testimonials.
Source: MarketingProfs.
Contact Shadowbend Studios and learn more about our video testimonial techniques
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Not long ago, Gap sparked a social-media firestorm when it quietly unveiled a redesigned logo. People not only disliked the bargain-basement aesthetic—they hated it. And, writes Umair Haque at Harvard Business Review, for good reason: “The new logo reeks of something designed not just by committee,” he says, “but by a committee of bean counters who don’t have a creative bone in their body, a suite full of suits who just might be missing the empathic, intuitive right hemisphere of the brain entirely.”
It’s a harsh appraisal, certainly, but any business may be similarly judged if it lets the importance of good design slip off its radar. “Most companies see design as a superficial afterthought on which a few pennies are spent if there are a few bucks left in the budget,” he explains. “For most boardrooms, design’s never counted less, but the truth, I’d venture to guess, is that design’s never counted more.”
So how can you achieve a cost-effective balance between right- and left-brained priorities? Haque suggests asking questions like these:
- How frequently does your company’s leadership solicit input from its designers?
- Are designers invited to help shape business decisions and future plans?
Finally, Haque poses this question: “How much weight does senior management give to right-brained ideas, like delight, amazement, intuition, and joy? Just a little, a lot—or, as for most companies, almost none?”
It might be difficult to quantify the ROI on good design, but the public’s reaction to the Gap logo tells you it matters. “In the 21st century,” argues Haque, “creating enduring advantage is going to require organizations that have a whole brain—not just half of one.”
Source: Harvard Business Review.
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For years, writes Stephanie Miller at the Deliverability blog, marketers have enjoyed the linear nature of the email inbox—your newsletters and offers sitting cheek-by-jowl with personal correspondence from a subscriber’s friends. But you shouldn’t get too comfortable with this privileged arrangement.
“The world is changing,” Miller says. “A new set of inbox management tools are emerging from the global mailbox providers like Yahoo!, Hotmail/MSN and Gmail. These tools make it easier for subscribers to avoid whatever is not interesting to them.”
In essence, tools like these will create what Miller terms the Ultra Managed Inbox, where marketing messages are sent to secondary folders that might—or might not—be checked before automatic deletion.
“We can no longer ‘ride along’ for attention by cozying up to personal messages,” she notes. “We must re-earn our way into the inbox, or at least into a folder that subscribers check frequently.”
Miller has some recommendations for doing so. Here are a few:
- Segment your “from” addresses. The actual email experience must be unique and tied to the “from” address, Miller advises. That’s because services like Hotmail Sweep now filter an entire “from” address—not simply the domain. “We as marketers know the nuance between marketing@ and transactional@,” she explains, “but subscribers may not.”
- Impress new subscribers with the quality of your messages. Remember that your initial messages will likely make it straight to their inbox. “This is the chance to be relevant, and earn the right to stay in the inbox,” she says. “Give considerable thought to the first 3-5 messages a new subscriber receives.”
Times are changing—again. The Ultra Managed Inbox has plenty of potential for email marketers, argues Miller, “but only if we get ready now and start testing what it really means to engage and compete with the clutter surrounding our messages.”
Source: Deliverability.
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You’ve no doubt noticed it: Products from the past are making a comeback. Coke and Pepsi have recently introduced throwback versions of their soft drinks. Mrs. Butterworth, Strawberry Shortcake, Atari (the list goes on) have all returned. And advertisers like Bumble Bee Tuna are reviving their old jingles.
Marketers of products such as these are pushing nostalgia in the hope that “in times of anxiety (such as economic recessions), reviving feelings about the past will soothe consumers’ nerves,” say the authors of a new research report.
How might a retro product soothe a frazzled buyer? The researchers set out to find the answer. Particularly, they focused on a human emotion relevant to the age of social media: the need to belong.
In a series of five experiments, they explored whether subjects feeling socially “excluded” demonstrated a preference for nostalgic products. They divided shoppers up to experience an “exclusion condition” (where they were ignored during a group activity), an “inclusion condition” and a “neutral condition.” Following the group activity, participants were offered choices of contemporary or retro products.
Across all five experiments, the authors found that “activating the goal to belong in a variety of ways consistently increases one’s interest in consuming nostalgic products, such as television shows, food, automobiles—even shower gel.”
Based on their findings, the authors offer these suggestions for marketers:
- Sell retro products through channels in which consumers socialize, such as stores within restaurants, bars or coffee shops.
- Create online brand communities in which consumers can interact and bond over the brand they have in common.
- Link those communities to an online retro-product store.
Nostalgia has a social side. Consider marketing retro-themed products through social hot spots and online communities: Your customers might enjoy the connection.
Source: “Still Preoccupied with 1995: The Need to Belong and Preference for Nostalgic Products” by Katherine E. Loveland, Dirk Smeesters and Naomi Mandel.
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“Many business owners have dutifully written their vision and mission statements, working hard to craft statements with impact and importance,” writes Marla Tabaka at Inc. “But what happens to those statements?”
All too often, they’re shuffled out of sight—and out of mind. In Tabaka’s experience, many clients can’t articulate a mission statement; often, they’ve simply forgotten what they wrote in the first place.
So how can you regain—and maintain—a laser-sharp focus on your company’s raison d’être? Tabaka recommends this three-step process:
Define your true and full vision. Almost everyone starts a business with the purpose of turning a profit, but you might have additional humanitarian or environmental goals. “Certainly this isn’t true for everyone,” she notes, “but don’t negate the importance of your higher purpose if you have one.”
Use imagery to communicate the big picture. Sometimes a written statement isn’t enough. Tabaka suggests the creation of a poster board that keeps your mission front-and-center with drawings, photos or collages. “Too often the rewards connected to our goals get lost in the passion and dream of carrying out our mission,” she notes. “Give yourself permission to include meaningful symbols of the rewards you seek; money, travel, fame, respect, or whatever is important to you.”
Make your vision a daily reality. Take a few minutes each morning to ponder your visual mission statement. “Still your mind and gaze at your images, allowing your body and mind to feel and live your success,” she advises.
Focus. To achieve your goals—especially in tumultuous economic times—stay true to your purpose by keeping it at the front of your mind.
Source: Inc.
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When you’re ready to position yourself as a media resource, says blogger Nettie Hartsock, you can hire publicists who pitch your expertise to journalists—or you can start making news at your blog. “The media is constantly sourcing blogs and the experts who write them to feature in both online and offline news stories,” she writes. “Almost every single cable news show incorporates experts who are identified only by their blog or website.” Further, she notes, the AP has announced it will now credit bloggers in news stories.
According to Hartsock, media outlets and bloggers enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship. “Offline and online publications will assume that if you’re quoted in a story, you will also link to that story on your blog, Twitter, Facebook etc. and that will help drive more readers to the media publication itself,” she notes. “It’s a win-win.”
So how do you become a newsmaker? Hartsock has this advice:
- “Be ahead of the stories of the day and offer your expert opinion via your blog before you’re asked to,” she suggests. Make an interesting argument, offer an unusual angle and demonstrate your expertise. Don’t forget to write clean, quotable copy that’s snark-free.
- Give your posts titles with a newsy hook. “Look at the headlines on major media sites,” she says, “and use the same form for some of your blog posts.” A title should communicate the post’s basic premise and whet a reader’s appetite for what she will find once she clicks on the link.
You’ve been pitching the media all this time—now let the media come to you.
Source: Nettie Hartsock’s blog.
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The hit TV sitcom The Office has extended its brand reach and consumer appeal through clever uses of social media. “Although there are only around 23 episodes [per year] … the show has become far more than just 30 minutes of weekly airtime,” Case Ernsting writes in a recent post at the SEO & Marketing blog. “In fact, these half-hour installments have proven to be the axis for a very extensive and enthusiastic leap into new media.”
Among the show’s social-media efforts that have reaped a huge fan following are these:
- Character blogs at the show’s website, and character Flickr accounts and Twitter handles.
- Interactivity—such as a recent Fanisode that allowed fans to upload their own remakes of scenes from a previous episode.
- Multichannel integration: The show’s new-media devices act as magnets that draw fans to the website again and again.
Such uses of new media is an example that businesses of all types can follow, Ernsting says. He offers tips based on the show’s success. Among the ideas he presents:
Model your social-media campaigns around your people. Make your customers fans by “providing insight into the things that make your company tick,” Ernsting suggests. Let your staff’s individual personalities shine through.
Build brand loyalty based on emotional connections. What about your brand resonates with customers? Think of ways to translate that appeal to social interactivity.
Match the medium to your message. Consider, up front, which social-media outlets best match your outreach, Ernsting advises. A call-to-action message? Consider Twitter. An image-based campaign? Use Facebook.
Find your audience appeal. Consider using social media in clever ways to illuminate the uniqueness of your product, service—or staff. You could have a hit on your hands!
Source: SEO & Marketing.
In a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow examines mistaken assumptions that can seriously damage the long-term success of an email program. Our basic beliefs about how our emails work aren’t as self-evident as we’d like to believe, Brownlow notes; in some ways, we operate in the dark. “And all the while revenues are melting away silently, like sand in an egg timer.”
