How to persuade them NOT to unsubscribe

Have your ever thought that the link that everybody, and not only you, hates, more exactly the unsubscription link, can turn into your best friend?  This is how we get to another element in the email, which you can tap and use to your benefit…

Start with your problem: why do they unsubscribe?

The most frequent unsubscription reasons (according to a MarketingSherpa study) are the too high delivery rates (44%), irrelevance of content (58%), failure to match the expectation of recipients (20%), lifestyle change (13%), use other sources of information, such as socializing networks (3%) or they don’t know or have forgotten that they are subscribers.  But you can right your mistakes quite easily and become relevant again, if you take account of the reasons for dissatisfaction and new requests of your users.  You should post a questionnaire on the unsubscription page, so that users can pick up their own delivery rates and update their preferences.  If they still choose to unsubscribe, then you can remedy your mistake and never repeat your mistake to the other subscribers.

It looks like there are several persons, who do not know or do not remember having subscribed to your newsletter, or you may not turn out a constant delivery rate or… they simply don’t remember.  And there are solutions for all of the reasons above. Read the rest of this entry »

Solutions to integrate video content in emails

Well, yes, now there is a solution to integrate video content in emails!

You may have been tempted to insert videos in your emails on countless occasions, taking into account that the new generation is a consumer of online videos. The Nielsen research company reported a growth of 41% in the consumption of the video content, in 2009, as compared to the previous year. Generally speaking, video content was seen by 139,176 million unique viewers and a total number of 11.363.819 billion views.

Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? Especially if you have a very good relationship with your subscribers, thanks to your newsletter, you can use the video content to talk them even more into becoming your clients and into recommending you to friends too.

Until not long ago, the actual use of video support in emails was impossible, given the negative consequences it had when trying to play them in email clients, which affected the deliverability of emails (that were blocked by the ISP’s) and not lastly the reputation of the sender. The main problem is that most email clients block the embedded html code that displays the video, since a flash file included in an email poses a security threat for the ISP’s. Read the rest of this entry »

HTML5 – the next big thing

HTML5 is already expected as “the next big thing” for both web and email marketing. HTML5 will take HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML to the next level.

The purpose of HTML5 is to reduce the need to install plugins that can usually support the functionality of files written in Flash, Silverlight, SunJava etc. Practically, HTML5 will not need any plugin for any of these types of files. The implications on emails stem from the fact that a great deal of the ISP’s, such as Yahoo!, but especially Gmail, already support HTML5. Only the new browser versions accept this standard, such as Firefox 3.6, Chrome, Safari 3 & 4 and iPhone.

When it comes to emails, Flash poses a security risk, but HTML5 is a safe alternative from the point of view ISP.

Video files are invoked with just one simple <video> tag, just like images are invoked with an <img> tag.

Indeed, IE is expected to be one of the browsers that will adopt the HTML5 rather later than sooner, because Microsoft is still promoting Silverlight quite aggressively.

The power of call-to-action! – Make them click!

Whatever you do or whatever you use in your email to win new clients or subscribers, don’t forget about how you urge them, you encourage them and motivate them to do something. The way you use that button that brings them where you want, matters a lot. That button that gives you the conversion rates you want has to be powerful enough so as to make them click.

Do you have to study the art of persuasion for that? Do you actually need an intensive training on the psychology of persuasion? The answer is: not necessarily. What does matter in the first phase is to analyse the product and the benefits that they offer to the consumer in order to make the most of the essentials of the product whenever you want to talk the reader into taking some action. Do not ignore the call-to-action button, because this is a key element for the optimisation of the conversion rates.

The call-to-action elements are prerequisites for the success of any email. You need them in order to: Read the rest of this entry »

How to optimize the transactional emails

When you start an email marketing campaign, think that any email has a certain value. It can be a welcome message, a confirmation of subscription, an anniversary message or simply an operational/transactional email.

Do you know how many emails are sent every month? Do you know which is the percentage of the transactional emails? You should know that the number of the transacted emails is much higher than the those having a sales/promotional purpose.

You should make the most of your email at any time and turn it into an efficient sales instrument. We actually talked about that when we spoke of how you can optimize your holiday message.

Transactional emails are used to facilitate any interaction between your company and the consumer, whenever financial documents are involved, etc. It represents a way of keeping a constant contact with your clients. Follow-up messages are used for the following purposes: Read the rest of this entry »

ROI in social media

Many people consider that social media are a free communication channel, because some free tools are used and because those who first started to use social media tools did so because they liked to share and to be cool.
Nevertheless, social media is not free, since any organization needs some resources in order to be efficient in terms of social media:
- talented people, who should be spontaneous and skillful enough in order to represent an organization in the social media;
- technology, in order to generate diversified content (e.g. video), and not lastly to analyze and measure the impact of this communication channel;
- time.

How and what should we measure?
Most of the time, most people measure social media with social media indicators, probably because the word “media” exists in the name… so it comes to evaluation most people speak about:
- followers
- number of comments
- retweets
- referrals
etc
… which are very okay to look at, but they are NOT business indicators.
Okay, these indicators will help you measure how much your audience is involved, you can see whether you are popular or not… but what is happening with the money?
Generally speaking, the flow of an investment would look like that:
1. Investment
2. Action
3. Reactions of clients, followers, etc.
4. Non-financial impact;
5. Financial impact.
The non-financial impact can be measured by calculating how many times your organization’s name has been mentioned, and it can be mentioned in contexts that are associated to feelings: positive, negative or neutral.
But in order to get closer to how the ROI of social media should be evaluated, we should take the “F.R.Y.” factor into account, i.e.:
Frequency – how often your organization interacts with clients and how often your clients will interact with your organization, which is ultimately quantified based on the number of transactions;
Reach – the number of persons your social media reach to, which is ultimately quantified according to the number of persons from whom those transactions were generated.
Yield – the average value per transaction.

Measuring and analyzing data are again activities that generate costs, and these actions are critical in order to evaluate or success or failure of your presence in the social media. And this is where a very interesting issue occurs: what would happen whether you did not actually do it, whether you were not present in the social media?

This issue is almost impossible to asses. One option is that – for a limited amount of time – the proportion of the sums that are allocated to the various communication channels should change and that FRY indicators should be monitored, in order to see what happens when you appropriate to the social media budgets that are higher than those which you set aside in another period when the funds were lower.

The 10 email marketing commandments applicable (in 2010) … for ever

1. Never pick the easiest way

The easier the way you pick up, the more chances you’ve got to lose your clients.  Do you really believe that if you send out a generalized newsletter, then you’re saving time and money?  Perhaps it will buy you time, but it won’t save your money.  And that’s because in the email marketing business, success relies on the relevance which you can offer to your potential clients.  And “relevant” is about offering them exactly what they are looking for.  So, segment, personalize, target: that is successful email marketing.

2.  Listen to your interlocutor

People want to be shown what they look for. You should permanently ask them what they would like to see in their newsletter, offer them a chance to tell you what they are looking for, and make that possible from the very moment when they subscribe.  The profit will come too, if you know how to listen to your interlocutors.

3. Ask for permission

The first step in email marketing is the most important too: ask for the permission of the one to whom you want to send your messages.  Show them respect, show them that you do not want to send them messages which they did not approve in the first place, show them from the very start that you want to communicate with them correctly.

4. Make them talk about you

Word of mouth is the most important tool in all marketing areas. If you give them relevance, messages that are attractive and adapted to their own interests, then you’ve got every chance to get them talk about you, more specifically they should use the “tell a friend button” in the newsletter or “talk about you” in social networks where they have an account.

5. Keep the dialogue open

The essence of one-to-one communication is to keep a live dialogue, to address your subscribers in a direct and customized way, so that you can create them the impression that they are at the centre, that you are only talking to them, and that the offers that you present are tailored only to them and them alone.

6. Be one step ahead

Try to be a step ahead of your subscribers.  You should have some sort of a vision of what subscribers may want from you.  You should send them, before they ask, whatever you think would be of interest to him, based on the information that you have about them.

7. Stand out

Everybody is into email marketing now.  So you need to stand out, to stay connected with international email marketing trends, to document yourself, to analyze and to have a different vision for every client separately.  They will appreciate you and they will see that you’re 100% dedicated to them.

8. Be responsible

Every message that you send should be treated responsibly.  It is essential to include the unsubscribe link, it is essential to delete from your database the subscribers who wanted to unsubscribe, and it essential that you should also take the spam complaints into consideration.

9. Be creative

Do you believe that everything depends on how bog your discount is?  The form is important too, just as the way in which you send your message across and all other elements of your newsletter. It is not sufficient to insert the word “discount” in the subject line in order to have the click rates that you want. Make it exciting. Use a different preheader, call-to-action buttons that should make them do what you’re interested in the most: place an order.

10. Fight spam

Make them stop associating the word “spam” with “email”.  Build yourself a good reputation, both in front of those to whom you send messages, as well as in front of the “grand jury”: the ISP’s.  For that matter, you need to send messages to those who have granted you their permission, they should be relevant and you should adjust your communication according to the complaints you get.

How spam world has evolved, via Project Honey Pot

Our friends for Project Honey Pot has launched today a very interesting report, some of there data are:

- Monday is the busiest day of the week for email spam, Saturday is the  quietest
- 12:00 (GMT) is the busiest hour of the day for spam, 23:00 (GMT) is the   quietest
- Malicious bots have increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of   378% since Project Honey Pot started
- Over the last five years, you’d have been 9 times more likely to get a  phishing message for Chase Bank than Bank of America, however Facebook is   rapidly becoming the most phished organization online
- Finland has some of the best computer security in the world, China some   of the worst
- It takes the average spammer 2 and a half weeks from when they first   harvest your email address to when they send you your first spam message,   but that’s twice as fast as they were five years ago
- Every time your email address is harvested from a website, you can expect   to receive more than 850 spam messages
- Spammers take holidays too: spam volumes drop nearly 21% on Christmas Day   and 32% on New Year’s Day

For the full report click here

Make your holiday email unique!

Any email which you send can turn into a genuine sales tool.  So, make the most of it and optimize your emails in any circumstance.

We’re now on the home run to the winter holidays.  All of the companies that respect themselves, your own company inter alia too, will think of some season’s greetings to send to customers.  Everyone wants to be different, but what can you actually do to leave the crowd and the commonplace “Please accept our warmest…” behind, or perhaps make the most of it?  Keep in mind that your prospective recipient is most probably a client of other firms or companies that will most probably send their warmest regards to your recipients too.

Bottom line: your client will have an inbox full of best wishes and warmest regards.  But you can make your message stand out and scream “pick me, pick me…” out loud.

All of the marketers will ask their designers to draw the most spectacular layouts, which will have to match the season.  Copywriters will use their best creative weapons to come up with most touching or funniest messages.  And all of that just to draw the attention of those who get the message.

You will definitely want your season’s greetings to stand out. And you can do that by adding new components to this simple message; these components can bring conversion rates that will eventually materialize in more sales.

 How

Never let one sales opportunity get away. Apart from the text, you should add a discount, bonus or special offer.  The purchasing decision can be made any time. Seize that opportunity!

The subject field. Make your recipient open that message at first sight.  Your recipient will only see subject lines like “The X company wishes you A Happy New Year!”, etc.  With such a subject, the chances that your email should be open are quite small.  If you want to stand out, you can personalize that message and you can also launch a special offer, etc. “Florin, Santa has just brought you a 10% discount for…”.

Promote your offers! Well, why shouldn’t you use your space efficiently?  Those who get the message would like to see something more too. But, when you write your season’s greetings, they should match what you plan to promote.  More specifically, if you import cars, you shouldn’t just show a car and write “Merry Christmas to you and your family!”, etc.  You can rephrase it into “You will definitely find all of your wishes come true under the Christmas tree.  And if one of your wishes was to buy a new card, we took care of that. We’ve got a mega-offer for… Just pick up what you need.”

Set a reminder! Add a reminder like “Do you want to have the car you wish under the Christmas tree?  Seize that opportunity before December the 23rd” in order to stimulate the recipient even more into placing that order.

The order button. Not lastly, don’t forget about the signup form that recipients have to fill out before enjoying your offer. Just insert a strong call-to-action – Get yourself a Christmas gift – that should direct subscribers to a page where they can fill out their personal data, so that your sales rep can contact them later.

The recommend button. Use that too. Maybe your recipient has friends who are interested in a certain model that you promote, but they are not newsletter subscribers. Just give your subscriber an opportunity to recommend your offer to others. You can expand your database with a new subscriber, who can turn into a client.

Social Media. Since we have been speaking about the integration of email marketing with social media, also add the Twitter/Facebook buttons, which enable subscribers to share your offer through their personal social media accounts.

Personalize. If you have sent out your email marketing campaigns properly over the year, and if you have been careful about relevance, segmentation and targeting, then you should have enough data to make your season’s message different from all others. Personalize it! Speak to your recipient in such ways so as to believe that the message is specifically directed to him or her alone. Make it clear that you’ve got a special offer for him or her alone. Make them feel special.

Making a difference is key in every publicity, marketing, and communication project. One-to-one communication comes with a lot of perks, regardless of when you run your campaign, and that can help you make a difference and persuade your interlocutors.

7w – the first tool that integrates email marketing with social media

Out team at White Image has recenlty launched a new tool that integrates email marketing with social media. It’s called 7w and:

- Helps users run multiple strategies to integrate emailing with social media;
- Enables users to share email content in their main social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg);
- Measures in detail in the impact of the shared content.

7w means who, what, why, when, where, whom, whose and there are three incorporated services that respond to these questions:

- 7w social media integration enables subscribers to share the information they get in their newsletters, with just one click of the mouse, with their social networkers, and providers marketers with all of the statistics they need in order to create a strategy based on social media.

- 7w social content puts White Image’s experience at the disposal of users who will be able to manage – on an either automatic or individually customized basis, for every social network – the content that every person wants to share directly, with just one click of the mouse, in any of Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

- 7w social follow-up provides an opportunity to target, also with just one click, the most active subscribers in online communities or only those connections in just one certain online community.

Please visit http://7w.ro/ to get more details.

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