Crumbs from the Scone
“A good opt-in procedure lays the foundation for a strong email program,” writes Loren McDonald in an article at MarketingProfs, “but a well-thought-out series of welcome emails will help turn your newcomer into a long-term subscriber.” A proper welcome program speeds up engagement, notes McDonald, and reduces list churn “because you reach out to your new subscribers and establish inbox recognition while the opt-in is still fresh in their minds.” He recommends a program with these elements:
A transparent opt-in process. Begin at your subscription page with a clear explanation of the topics, frequency and formats your subscribers can expect. “The double opt-in confirmation email is not a welcome message,” he says, “but it can explain that a special message welcoming the new subscriber will come next.”
A multipurpose welcome message. In addition to general pleasantries, use this for purposes like affirming your company’s value proposition and inviting the recipient to visit your site for a purchase or to complete a profile.
A series of follow-up messages. Ease new subscribers into the relationship with “drip” emails that minimize inattention and attrition.
“[I]f new subscribers don’t act on any of the emails in your welcome series,” says McDonald, “that inactivity can trigger a new track of emails that offer help, advice or surveys to uncover problems.”
Source: MarketingProfs.
Crumbs from the Scone
You’ve been considering starting a B2B blog. But you’re afraid that once you start it up, you won’t be able to maintain it. How much do you really have to say in a given week, to keep your copy fresh, and meet the needs of the Big Bad Blog Clock? Good news: In a blog at the MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix, Mack Collier offers all the tips you need to keep a corporate blog humming. Among them:
Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Develop a “dedicated group” of bloggers, he says. And make sure these writers are committed: “If each blogger needs to write 2 posts a week, they have to be willing to give you 2 posts a week.”
Develop a posting clock. “Ideally, a company blog should have at least 2 new posts a week, and up to 5. Less than 2 is too little, and over 5 is usually too much.”
Stick to it. “Set up your posts to run in the middle of the week, and then move outward,” Collier advises. “Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are usually the best days for traffic, so schedule posts to run these days, usually around 10am-noon.”
Post pictures and bios of each blogger. “Remember that ultimately, people don’t want to connect with companies, we want to connect with people,” Collier says.
Source: MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix.
Crumbs from the Scone
It’s that time of year when even for-profit companies focus on non-profit giving. For instance, some merchants add an option for charitable giving to their Web sites, or set aside a percentage of holiday sales for a cause. So, what’s the best way to get customers to give to a public service such as the Red Cross this time of year? Recent research has a rather surprising answer: nix the feel-good approach.
Researchers studied reams of data from a public television station seeking member support over the course of two years. They found that the most effective fundraising appeals combined two rather unflattering messages:
It’s not about benefiting you—it’s about helping everybody else (other-benefit appeals).
Something bad will happen if you don’t contribute (negative-emotion appeals).
The appeal that said: contribute to the betterment of the community, or else bad things will ensue and you will feel guilt and shame, actually got the most positive response in terms of call-in donations.
Why? With a service like PBS or the Red Cross, donors know they’ll receive its benefits whether they give or not. Therefore, giving based on benefits becomes nothing more than a transaction. When the focus shifts to helping others, however, it brings back the concept of giving. Add a pinch of guilt/shame for motivation, and voila!
Source: An Empathy-Helping Perspective on Consumers’ Responses to Fund-Raising Appeals. Robert J. Fisher, Mark Vandenbosch, Kersi D. Antia.
Crumbs from the Scone
In a post at MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix blog, Lewis Green ponders an age-old quandary facing marketers: How to prove value to a company’s top leadership. “Let’s begin by ending the argument regarding ROI,” he says. “When we say we can’t measure it, we sound like whiners. Our bosses don’t want to hear it and we will never convince them that marketing efforts can’t be measured in terms of a return on investment as measured in dollars.” Here’s his solution:
Stop measuring ROI against tools like social media, public relations and advertising. Instead, he argues, marketers should present ROI based on the success of quarterly and annual results. “The objective might be something about getting the right people to notice the new product and to get that product in the right places,” he says. “[B]y working with sales and customer service and retail in this example, the marketing effort can take credit for creating most of the initial sales of the product.” In other words, he continues, you can “create a formula that represents each functional area’s cost as compared to revenues.”
Develop case studies for each and every campaign, project and objective in which marketing plays a role. With realistic metrics, you can gather quantifiable data that bolsters anecdotal evidence, and demonstrate to key decision makers how marketing contributes to the bottom line. “I bet that soon marketing will not be seen as discretionary spending,” says Green.
Stop using jargon, acronyms and generalities to frame marketing success. “When we do so,” he argues, “the others around the table hear blah, blah, blah. Be specific. What did we do and how did it work?”
Source: MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix.
Crumbs from the Scone
“Contrary to popular belief among marketers,” says a ReturnPath whitepaper, “an unsubscribe request is not necessarily the end of a customer relationship. By executing a well-thought-out, positive unsubscribe experience, a company can extend their brand equity and keep the customer for years to come, even if that customer is no longer an email subscriber.”
To see how well corporations currently manage the opt-out process, ReturnPath unsubscribed from 45 email lists it had previously joined for another study. While most included links to unsubscribe or preference pages in their messages, a few still required recipients to send unsubscribe requests by email. The majority of the companies provided immediate confirmation that an address would be removed from the list. Some even offered the exact date this would take effect.
However, surprisingly few offered anything but a total opt-out: only 2 companies out of the 45 studied offered options for subscribers to change the frequency they received email, or to opt out of just some of the marketers’ emails. And only 11% of companies allowed subscribers to change their email address on the unsubscribe landing page.
“While the basics were well-executed in most cases,” concludes ReturnPath, “most companies did not realize maximum benefit from the opt-out process.” Their mistake? Treating the process as a technical transaction instead of an opportunity to continue a conversation with the customer. It pays to make that goodbye a long one.
Source: MarketingProfs enewsletter
Crumbs from the Scone
In a post at GrokDotCom, Jeff Sexton puts the winter-holiday quandary in blunt terms: “[Y]ou won’t keep profit margins healthy unless you actively take business away from someone—either from direct competitors, or from businesses outside your market/category. If the pumpkin pie gets smaller, you’ll have to cut a fatter slice in order to get the same amount of holiday pie.”
According to Sexton, one way to achieve this goal is by giving your online customers a point-of-action assurance that returns and exchanges will be extremely convenient and easy. Sexton points to this quick primer on the topic by Bryan Eisenberg.
“Point-of-action [assurances] help us overcome that one last moment of doubt,” says Eisenberg, as in, “I think she hinted at this one, but can I exchange it if she wants that other digital camera instead?”
He praises Lands’ End, for instance, which uses the headline Guaranteed. Period. when outlining this policy right next to the order form: “If you’re not satisfied with any item, return it at any time for an exchange or refund of its purchase price.”
Says Eisenberg, “[A]dapting these techniques to your own checkout process can help close the sale and keep them coming back—not just to return things, but to buy from you year-round.” And that’s Marketing Inspiration.
Source: MarketingProfs enewsletter
Crumbs from the Scone
The informality and low cost of email has changed the way we communicate—but not always for the better. In a post at her Marketing Interactions blog, Ardath Albee reminds us that we should craft personalized, thoughtful messages when making initial contact with prospects and journalists. Too often, she says, we don’t. And here are a few sure signs you’ve gotten lazy in the email department:
Talking only about yourself, not your recipient.
Using clichéd buzzwords to rave about your product or service.
Asking intrusive questions that presume you already have an established relationship.
Placing yourself on the recipient’s calendar—without permission—by promising to follow up with a phone call.
“By being lazy,” she notes, “you’re telling your [recipients] they’re not worth … your undivided attention. Although you’re expecting them to give you theirs.”
But that’s not all. A narcissistic approach to email composition sends a clear signal that you’re just as self-centered in your day-to-day work life. “Oh, yes,” says Albee, “every interaction you have with them speaks to your credibility and is an example of what they’ll come to expect. Why blow it so early in the game?”
Source: Marketing Interactions.
Crumbs from the Scone
“Online behavior is not limited to purchasing activity alone,” says Sheldon Gilbert in an article at MarketingProfs. “To truly understand someone’s buying potential, you need to see more than that. You need to know what they are looking at, what they are searching for and what they have recommended to friends.”
This level of info, Gilbert says, will help you conduct great CRM. Some of his favorite tactics:
Track products that shoppers place in their carts, but don’t buy. “Marketers should send monthly emails featuring these … [abandoned] products in targeted email campaigns … especially … if and when these items go on sale,” Gilbert says.
Create trend-based offers. If you know that 75 percent of customers who buy a cashmere sweater also buy denim jeans, create an offer. “A great way to do this without bombarding customers with emails is to include these cross-selling offers in ‘thank you for your order’ notes,” he advises.
Identify top spenders for customized offers that drive sales and increase loyalty.
“[Marketers] have an opportunity to send out intelligent, high-performance email campaigns based on true consumer desires,” says Gilbert. “All they have to do is take advantage of information that is readily available to them.”
Source: MarketingProfs.
Crumbs from the Scone
In a recent post at eMagine’s B2B Web Strategy blog, Matt Roche warns about the dangers of outsourcing your PPC campaigns—and then washing your hands of them. Oftentimes, when B2B marketers choose to turn things over to outsiders, he says, “they feel they never need to worry about [PPC] ever again.”
The danger, Roche says, is that no outside expert can “ever understand your business as well as you do.” He offers examples of what consultants might miss. “It could be a … search phrase that’s active, but … not … on target for your market,” or “it could be a sentence in your ad copy concerning a product feature … that’s not really accurate.”
Roche cites a PPC blog post, by Todd Miechiels at SOWGRO, that offered “a couple of things you should feel comfortable asking for and reviewing with your agency”:
A report that contains all of your ad creatives. “Just scan through them, and make sure they’re accurate,” Miechiels advises.
A report that contains all of your search phrases, the money spent on each, and either the conversion rate and/or the time [spent] on your site.
“The moral here is that the right model is more of a partnership,” Roche says. While your consulting firm contributes their technical PPC know-how, you offer your in-depth understanding of the “nuances” of your business.
Source: eMagine’s B2B Web Strategy and SOWGRO: B2B Internet Marketing. Read the full posts here and here.
Crumbs from the Scone
As the economy sags, consumers are tightening their purse strings. And that’s not good for business. This holiday season, the average customer is looking more and more like Scrooge. What’s a marketer to do? Recent research says, it’s time to get folks to look to the future.
In a recent study, researchers tested two different levels of advertising for a luxury product on consumers who happened to exhibit “hyperopic behavior”—or a marked aversion to indulgence (“I can’t possibly justify spending money on that!”).
These consumers were randomly shown one of two ads for a luxury product. The first ad focused on specific features of the product, offering practical descriptions of its immediate benefits. The second ad focused on more abstract benefits of the product, using terms such as “make the investment worthwhile,” and speaking of its “immeasurable” value, while focusing on its long-term benefits.
The consumers who viewed the second ad were far more willing to reconsider their aversion to the luxury purchase. The researchers concluded that Scrooge-like consumers’ refusal to buy high-end products might be overcome by promoting luxury goods in terms of their more lasting charms.
Words to market by: Rethink your pricier products’ value for consumers over time, then focus your sales pitch on the future, not just on immediate indulgence this holiday season.
Source: Seize the Day! Encouraging Indulgence for the Hyperopic Consumer. Kelly L. Haws, Cait Poynor. Journal of Consumer Research.
