"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper." -Edmund Burke
|
|
|
|
Improve Your Online Small Business Profits
|
I’m always on the hunt for ideas and strategies that will improve my email marketing results. Today I have 4 great techniques to share with you that will increase your email marketing profits.
You’ll find as I go through these tips they have an over-riding theme. You’ll get a much better return if you treat your emails like a phone calls.
1) It’s all about the “From” line!
I expect that your email in-box looks like mine. It is filled! As a result of the large quantities of email, we’re all receiving, we are very selective as to which email we’ll read and which we’ll junk.
How do we make the decision?
According to email studies, it is the “From” line that is critical. In the past, the subject line has been the greatest point of interest. This is no longer the case. Studies show half of all users open emails when they recognize the sender.
If you think of email like the phone, the “From” line is your caller ID. If it looks like a sales call – i.e. “Unknown Name” you’re not going to pick up the phone. Well if your email looks like a sales pitch – they’ve never seen your name before it too will be ignored.
As email marketers, your “Brand” is critical. The subscribers you send to have to recognize who you are. As an email marketer your job is to send series of emails that make your subscribers actually anticipate hearing from you.
When your email is anticipated, just like when you are expecting a phone call, you pay attention and listen to what the message says.
What should your “From” line say?
Your “From” should be your brand name and it should be consistent. Thus you want to show your company name not your email address and not your name (unless your name is what you’re branding).
For example, the “From” line of the DEMC E-Magazine publication is always listed as – DEMC. DEMC is our company name and it has been our brand for the last 10 years. You’ll notice the “From” line is not my name - Abbie Drew - nor is it our email address DEMC@lyris.demc.com.
Make your “From” name recognizable as being from you and you’ll find your email return rates increase.
2) Timing is everything!
Send emails only when it counts and skip the unnecessary fluff. If you don’t have anything new and interesting to say don’t send out an email.
An immediate email after a purchase or subscription has perfect timing, as the user is looking for confirmation of their action. An immediate email in response to a request for a report or in answer to a question, again is perfectly timed as the user is looking for the information.
Regular newsletters on the other hand can become stale if there’s no news to report. Rather than tying yourself to regular publication dates, consider only publishing when you have an interesting story. Many newsletters are trying out this strategy and finding better readership. Your subscribers then know they’ll only see email from you when you have important findings to share.
If you also regularly send out sales promotion emails, you need to be very cautious of how frequently you send them or you’ll quickly burn out your subscribers. When subscribers burn out your lists responsiveness plummets.
To avoid email list fatigue, examine when and how often you contact your customers and subscribers by email. Think of each email you send as if you were calling a person on the phone. You typically, don’t pick up the phone to call someone unless you have a question to ask or breaking news to report. You save phone calls for the big promotions and the really necessary communications.
Email should be treated similarly. If you appreciate your subscribers time, only contacting them when needed, they’ll pay attention to your emails. So the next time you go to email your list, just think of the little boy who cried wolf. Ask yourself, is the email worthy?
Of course, don’t become so cautious that you never send emails, either. You should recognize that sending too rarely is problematic as well. Subscribers can forget why you’re sending them email, or that they even gave you permission to send them emails, if months go by between messages. You should be sure to send at least once every four-to-six weeks at a minimum.
3) Focus on your message.
The typical user spends less than 15 to 20 seconds reviewing an email they’ve actually opened. If you want your email to get results your message has to be a brief sound bite. Think of a 30 second TV commercial. You don’t have much time, but you can be effective and capture your viewer’s attention if done well.
To make your message work it needs to follow these 3 rules.
* Be short and to the point.
Again think of the phone call. Typically when you contact a business your calls are focused and on point. If a longer call is needed you schedule it. Your emails should be short as well. If you have more to say than what can be reviewed in 30 seconds, send the user to a web page that they can review at their leisure.
* Offer something of value.
Your emails should be a resource for your subscribers. You want your messages to contain interesting news, provide savings and/or deliver convenience. And be certain the information is relevant to your readers' interests. Avoid sending a sales pitch for shoes if your list is on online marketing!
* Be conversational.
Don’t get caught having your email look like a bill board. Remember to think of email as you would the telephone. If someone calls you up and blares a sales message in your ear you hang up or want to hang up (depending on how polite you are). Work on developing a dialogue in your email. Allow your readers to give feedback. Listen to what they say and respond accordingly.
4) Word-of-Mouth is king!
90% of Americans cite word of mouth as one of the best sources of ideas and information. 75% of consumers feel most comfortable when purchasing a product if it’s a recommendation of a friend.
The online marketplace is built around communication. Forums, email, blogs, instant messaging all allow users to share their opinions. Internet users like giving word-of-mouth recommendations or warnings - About Everything!
Your email marketing should capitalize on this phenomena. All of your email communication should encourage users to “Tell-a-Friend” about the email. Either by forwarding the email on or directing them to a web page where they can drop a note to their friends.
Your web site pages should all have links to “Email-a-Friend” the information. When a friend emails a friend your information you are handed a hot lead without any effort. You have an incredible opportunity to easily convert the friend and make a sale.
Don’t skip the “Tell-a-Friend” links! They work.
P.S. want an easy way to add “Tell-a-Friend” link to your site and emails? Check out SendFree. You’ll find web forms, email broadcasting and autoresponders that all have Tell-a-Friend links built in.
###
Abbie Drew
DEMC
Check out other articles on this topic:
Print this article
Have articles like this sent to you weekly for free:
|
|
|
|
|