Posts tagged ‘Email marketing’

April 16th, 2010

Create a Victorious Email Campaign

From BKV Interactive

Email marketing campaigns is a power horse of marketing techniques. Cheap, fast, and relatively time-efficient, email campaigns reach just the right audience at just the right time. But they need to be managed to be victorious.

BKV Interactive has a new white paper. Click 10 Easy Ways to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Next Email Campaign to download the whole paper, and get a preview of two of our favorites below.

  1. Ensure that your email addresses are opted-in – This will save you a lot of trouble. Why?
  • This improve your numbers such as click-through and open rates.
  • It will also keep you from getting the false impression that you have built a sufficient email list.
  • You want to be communicating with customers who wanted to receive your communications. It is up to you, the email marketer, to improve that relationship from there.
  1. Automate from the beginning of your campaign – Daily chores will take up an increasing amount of your time as your email campaign grows. You want to be prepared for your campaign’s success and growth, so invest some money in your campaign up front by automating it. You will have more time to grow other parts of your business or test new ideas and products.

Have any other email campaign tips? Let us hear from you.

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January 18th, 2010

Subscribers STILL Rule: Why Permission Matters More Than Ever

The following comes from a white paper supplied by ExactTarget.com:

As online consumer savvy increases with each new communication channel, permission marketing becomes more important than ever. Consumers understand that they have choices, and expect marketers to deliver meaningful information, tailored to their individual needs, with appropriate frequency, and through desired channels.

In other words, never kiss your date without permission—consumers don’t want to hear from marketers whom they have NOT invited to contact them. Period.

1. Unsolicited messages, sent under the guise of a “pre-existing relationship,” are now considered unacceptable by 50% of consumers compared to only 26% last year.

Other things you should know about permission?

2. Direct mail is the only channel where permission is not a prerequisite. Although 78% of online consumers have provided their address to a company in order to receive direct mail, it is the only channel through which consumers are still receptive to unsolicited offers.

3. Finally, becoming a “fan” is not the same as granting permission. As marketers grapple with the new challenges of marketing via social networks, many attempt to build their fan base. 70% of consumers who visit Facebook at least once a month and say they are a “fan” of at least one company/brand claim they have never given a company permission to send them information through a social network.

This illustrates a significant disconnect between marketers and consumers—being a fan doesn’t mean the same thing to a marketer as it does a consumer.

Marketers, take note—consumers view becoming your fan as a mode of self-expression, not one of permission.

But you can still use this to your marketing advantage, without infringing upon the consumer’s personal space. Try viewing your Facebook fans as advocates, capable of informing and extending your brand. If you can avoid treating your fans as members of yet another direct marketing list, you will find success in this new and evolving channel of social media.

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© ExactTarget All rights reserved; Channel Preference Study from ExactTarget.com; research@exacttarget.com ; reprinted with permission

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January 5th, 2010

Email Is the Consumer Preference for Communications

Still Going and Going…Like a famous bunny we know, email keeps on going. It remains the consumer preference for marketing communications, preferred more than 3-to-1.

You can build programs to support the preferences of the majority of subscribers. Prioritize your programs by keeping the following in mind:

• 90% or more of consumers prefer to receive either email or direct mail for marketing communications. Note the two exceptions to this rule: specific customer service issues and alerts are preferred in other channels.

• Email is replacing direct mail as the channel for “official” communications. Fifteen years after people were making arguments for why email was superior to direct mail, consumers prefer it more than 3-to-1 for marketing communications, with the notable exception of spam.

© ExactTarget All rights reserved; Channel Preference Study from ExactTarget.com;
research@exacttarget.com ; reprinted with permission

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May 8th, 2009

Cut Through the Email Clutter

Constant Contact has a variety of helpful tools for email marketers on their website. In one of their white papers, they talk about four things marketers can do to improve or preserve their open rates.emailicon

Here are the four tips, as outlined by Constant Contact:

  1. Ensure that the name in your “from” line is recognizable; include the name of your business or organization.
  2. Use a compelling subject line. Lead with a benefit and try to pique the reader’s curiosity. You want your readers to feel compelled to find out more. For example, “7 Ways to Eat Healthier.”
  3. Send targeted emails to specific audiences with content that appeals directly to their needs.
  4. Evaluate how frequently you are sending emails. Resist the urge to over-communicate.

Are there any other suggestions that you’d like to add to the list? If so, fire away — our readers would love to hear your suggestions.

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February 9th, 2009

The Top 18 Things to Measure in Your Next Email Marketing Campaign.

Email marketing continues to be one of the most cost-effective tools for marketers. A good email marketing program keeps you connected with your customers and prospects. It also provides a great source of incremental revenue, assuming prospects can purchase your products or services online.

One of the key questions we get asked at the 60 Second Marketer is “What metrics should I measure in my email marketing campaign?”

With that in mind, here are the top 18 things you should measure in your next email marketing campaign. These are pulled from an excellent white paper put out by Lyris|HQ called “Guru’s Guide to Email Marketing Success”:

  1. Open rate
  2. Click-through rate
  3. Click to open rate (number of unique clicks/number of unique opens)
  4. Bounce rate
  5. Delivery rate (emails sent – bounces)
  6. Unsubscribe rate
  7. Referral rate
  8. Number of or percent spam complaints
  9. Net subscribers
  10. Subscriber retention
  11. Web site actions (number of visits to a specific web page or pages)
  12. Percent unique clicks on a specific recurring link(s)
  13. Number of orders, transactions, downloads or actions
  14. Percent orders, transactions, downloads or actions of emails sent or delivered
  15. Total revenue
  16. Average order size
  17. Conversion rate
  18. Average dollars per email sent or delivered

For the full report, be sure to download the “Guru’s Guide to Email Marketing Success.” It’s an excellent white paper with tons of great information.

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August 16th, 2008

Email Usage Continues to Rise

AOL Mail has completed its fourth annual study of email usage. If you check your email while you’re driving or in the middle of the night, you’re not alone.

Last year, 15% of the respondents said they were hooked on email. This year, that figure has jumped to 46%. 51% check their email four or more times each day, which is up from 45% in 2007. 20% said they check their email more than 10 times each day.

It’s a terrific study and well-worth checking out. You can find out more about it here: http://www.CrazyForEmail.com.

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The 60 Second Marketer is a free online magazine brought to you by BKV Interactive and Direct Response. We try to provide quick updates on the newest tools, tips and techniques in marketing. We also try to accomplish that with a dose of humor or levity. As it turns out, we're pretty good at providing tools, tips and techniques, but we're not actually all that funny. Which would explain why people don't call us "funny" as much as they call us "laughable." Bummer. Our offices, for those of you who are interested, are located in Atlanta (404-233-0332) and Kansas City (913-648-8333). We also have offices on Bora Bora, but they don't have the phones installed yet.

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