Crumbs from the Scone
In a post at the Email Experience blog, Spencer Kollas argues that marketers shouldn’t spend their time worrying about the rates other companies achieve with their email programs. The reason, he says, is that those numbers could have little bearing on your activities. “If the industry is getting an 88% delivery rate, but you are getting a 90% delivery rate,” he asks rhetorically, “does that mean that you should stop trying to improve it?”
And, notes Kollas, you might be comparing apples to oranges. If, for instance, an industry-specific survey reports an average delivery rate of 85% and an average open rate of 5%, it creates as many questions as it answers. “Without standardized metrics,” he reasons, “how do we know if all of the companies that were surveyed actually determine their numbers the same way?”
So, while industry averages can be instructive, it doesn’t really matter if you’re ahead of the curve or behind it—your goal should be the continual improvement of your own performance, and the increased ROI it brings.
“When marketers focus on what others in the industry are achieving,” says Kollas, “they are spending less time focusing on their own programs. To me, it shouldn’t matter what others are achieving; it matters what you’re achieving.”
Source: Email Experience.
Crumbs from the Scone
Imagine that a typically obnoxious B2B-marketing email has come to life—and he wants to talk to you even though you can’t remember where you met or why he has your address. In a highly entertaining video, Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports adopts the off-putting persona, and shows us why we never want to be “that guy.”
“Hang on! Hang on! Hang on!” he says as the video begins. “Don’t press the spam button. This is not spam. This is me. Remember? Remember Me? Recognize me? Face. Look at the face. Good, it’s coming back to you? Excellent. We met at a trade show about eight months ago … I think. You were maybe expecting me to come around a little earlier. Yeah. We had other priorities.”
Brownlow, as our personified email, then proceeds to break every single rule in the book:
He acknowledges that Tuesday morning between 9 and 10 might not be the best time for the recipient—but he’s not going to argue with statistics that say it is.
He explains why the salutation “Hello, First Name” should suffice for the purposes of this conversation.
He then segues seamlessly into the purpose of the email: “Let’s talk about the important thing, which is … us.”
It continues in this vein until he begins to wrap up with the telling statement, “It’s been fantastic talking at you.”
Brownlow puts a compelling spin on “don’t do this” recommendations—and delivers plenty of Marketing Inspiration—by imagining every bad email cliché as a living, breathing, smarmy human. And it isn’t pretty
Crumbs from the Scone
“We all like the comfort of the crowd,” says Mark Brownlow in a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog. “The knowledge that others went here before us tells us we’re on the right path.” Because of this tendency to trust the wisdom of crowds, he argues, you can encourage opt-ins to your email list by demonstrating how popular you are. Some suggestions:
Highlight testimonials. If a subscriber sends unsolicited praise, ask if she’ll allow the use of her name and comment; if she will, display the comment at your sign-up page.
Use indicative text. While Brownlow notes he has yet to do A/B testing on the following tantalizing line, he has noticed an increase in sign-ups since its addition: “Over 3,000 marketers, agencies and businesses already benefit from their email subscription…join them:”
Add dynamic social proof-indicators. Icons that display real-time subscriber numbers; widgets that proclaim the number of recent subscriptions; scrolling displays that update whenever someone new signs up: all might play an influential role in someone’s decision to join.
Brownlow does offer a few caveats. If you’ve positioned yourself as an exclusive club with limited membership, or haven’t yet reached the point where subscribers join on a regular basis, this approach might not work. “[Y]ou might actually discourage opt-ins when your widget says you have 23 subscribers and the last one signed up in 2007,” he says. And remember: test every new addition.
It’s OK to crow a little. By adding testimonials or positive stats to your sign-up page, you could boost your opt-in rates.
Source: Email Marketing Reports.
Crumbs from the Scone
You’ve undoubtedly developed a great elevator pitch for your company, product or service—that informative-yet-concise summation designed for delivery in the time it takes to travel from the lobby to the 17th floor. But what about visitors to your Web site—do you have a punchy way of telling them, in two minutes or less, what you do?
In a post at the American Express Open Forum blog, Guy Kawasaki extols the virtues of short videos that successfully communicate complex ideas in a streamlined, comprehensible way.
To make his point, Kawasaki uses a video he made for the Web site Start Cooking. In under a minute, the demonstration succinctly shows viewers how to prepare his recipe for chicken teriyaki. “[The site’s] method of showing how to prepare food blew me away in terms of effectiveness, speed, and simplicity,” he notes.
The same principles apply to just about any business topic, and Kawasaki highlights a video from Email Center Pro. “Email services can be hard to explain to people as everyone thinks of ’email management’ as different things,” Sabrina Parsons, the company’s CEO, told him. “We were challenged in making the tutorial to clearly explain what our email management solution was, and why people need it.”
There’s more to this Marketing Inspiration than simply making videos. “The explanation has to be fast, interesting, and compelling,” notes Kawasaki. “I don’t know of a better way to do this than this type of video.”
Crumbs from the Scone
When writing copy for email messages, landing pages and a host of product descriptions, marketers need to be more than clear and concise; they must also persuade readers to click through and take action. To help you achieve this goal of engaging—and gently goading—readers, Brian Clark of Copyblogger offers tips like these:
Say it again and again. If people are going to agree with you, they need to be clear on your position. According to Clark, successful repetition requires finesse. “To stay on the good side,” he says, “make your point in several different ways, such as directly, using an example, in a story, via a quote … and once more in your summary.”
Feel their pain. “You want the reader to know unequivocally that you understand his problem because you’ve dealt with it and/or are experienced at eliminating it,” explains Clark. Set the stage with a challenge that would create stress for your prospects—then put their minds at ease by proposing a solid solution.
Gaze into the future. Prognostication can be a dangerous game if you don’t know what you’re talking about. “But if you can back up your claims with your credentials or your obvious grasp of the subject matter,” Clark says, “this is an extremely persuasive technique.”
Do what it takes to draw them in. A technically flawless marketing message will only succeed if it also makes a convincing, believable case for your product or service.
Source: Copyblogger.
Crumbs from the Scone
We all know the cliché: you have 1.5 milliseconds to grab a prospect’s attention at your home page and convince him to stay. So why, then, are so many B2B Web sites still not that “sticky”? According to a recent post at eMagine’s B2B Web Strategy blog, it’s because too many businesses assume that site visitors already know what their company offers. Big mistake.
“Even if a user has sought you out in a search engine, or visited your site as a result of a marketing promotion, they still need a reminder upon impact that they have arrived at a site that might solve their business problem,” eMagine insists.
So, how do you show them they came to the right place? According to eMagine, it’s by presenting key “tiers” of information:
Tier One: Tagline. A memorable tagline sets a “tone” for your site. But beware: “A common mistake is using this brief catchy type of message alone,” eMagine cautions.
Tier Two: Descriptive/Value Proposition. This is your condensed elevator pitch. “This can be the most difficult sentence to write on your entire website, but also the most important, hands-down,” eMagine says.
Tier Three: Specific Solutions. A bulleted list of solutions, your vertical markets served, etc. “If done effectively, this is where each of your prospect types can quickly identify their problem or their industry,” eMagine says.
Don’t assume they know you. Apply the “tier” test to your home page to help ensure you’re getting your corporate message out there loud and clear.
Source: B2B Web Strategy.
In a post at the Email Experience blog, Spencer Kollas argues that marketers shouldn’t spend their time worrying about the rates other companies achieve with their email programs. The reason, he says, is that those numbers could have little bearing on your activities. “If the industry is getting an 88% delivery rate, but you are getting a 90% delivery rate,” he asks rhetorically, “does that mean that you should stop trying to improve it?”
