Cliff Tillery– Digital Marketing Consultant

Blab a bit about email marketing◦ Some basic ideas, tips and tricks

Look at Mailchimp and Constant Contact and how to use it

Do some networking

Today’s Plan

A lot of business owners collect email addresses all the while thinking, “I’ll get around to doing something with those someday”

Here’s why that’s a mistake (Like we all didn’t already know why…)

It’s easier to sell to people that already know you (and quite possibly still like you) than it is to sell to strangers.

Email Marketing…..WHY?

Who doesn’t have an email account- almost 3 billion in the US alone- major traffic

It’s a very personal medium It gets minutes of attention (which on the

internet is like dog years) Your target market expects to get offers this

way It’s a direct conversation with your buyers

Why Email Marketing Is Relevant

Data On Email Conversion

Some “experts” say a 1-5% conversion rate is good

It depends on the industry and what you’re trying to accomplish

Measure the conversion rate by the price per sale to get actual ROI (a 2.5% conversion rate of $50/per sale isn’t as good as a 1% conversion rate for a $300/per sale.)

Conversion-Let’s Be Realistic

DON’T SPAM Many business owners think it’s ok to grab

email addresses and just spam, spam, spam Do you really want your business reputation

to be connected with spam? Email marketing is all about:

◦ Top of mind awareness◦ Staying in touch with your target market◦ Letting them know what’s going on in the industry

and with you

That Being Said…

Write your emails to one person rather than as if you’re talking to a stadium. People like the personal touch

Don’t waste my time. Don’t just email because you should. Email because you have something important to say.

Give me something- give me a tip, a resource or inspiration. Oh, and how about a discount or freebie?

Make me a part of the secret club or inner circle.

Email Marketing Tips

Use a real name in the “from” section. Feel their pain- identify the pain points of

your target market and be the solution in what you email them.

It’s ok to use their name, but don’t be creepy. Using my name too much makes me feel icky

Be trustworthy. That should just go without saying

Every email is another shot at proving your value

More Tips

We’re all busy. Wading through our email isn’t the bright spot of our day, but we are looking for nuggets

Gmail tabs make it harder to get noticed. They’re sorting the mail for you which works against you (First the spam filter now this!)

A lot of your emails will go ignored. Many will get no clicks. Don’t take it personally.

The Harsh Truth

Mailchimp- my favorite (and not just because it has a monkey. Who doesn’t like a monkey, though, right?)

Constant Contact- just as good, but sadly, no monkey involvement.

Both give you great analytics Both give you flexibility to develop

templates and experiment (and you definitely should!)

Tools For Email Marketing

Open rate: the number or percentage of people that open your email (helps you measure the attention that email got)

What’s a good open rate? As close to 100% as possible. People keep telling me 14% is good

Click through rate: the number or percentage of people that opened your email and clicked on the link. The higher the better. 5% is great.

Where should you send them when they click? Ah, glad you asked!

Analytics: The Basics

In all your marketing, have a call to action. Seriously, ALL your marketing. Emails are no different. What do you want

the reader to do? Ideas:

◦ Go to your website (increase traffic, sign up, buy stuff)

◦ Call you (and pay you lots of money to do what you do)

◦ Go to your social media sites (like you, follow you, etc.)

◦ Attend stuff (Hmm, that’s a good one!)

Marketing 101 Thingy

The need to be attention grabbing but relevant. Short descriptive beats cheesy lures

Succinct is always better with notification emails

Promise something good, solve a problem, ease some pain, etc.

Humor- it’s a mixed bag. We’re big fans (or…try to be!). Know your audience first

Controversial subject lines- again, tricky territory. “Your sales skills suck” got trashed.

Your Email Subject Line

One word subject lines can come off as spammy “Panic”, “Followers”, “Renewal”

Numbers & Lists- Blog post titles can make good subject lines such as “Top 3 Mistakes Email Marketers Make”, “47 Reasons Your Digital Marketing Needs Help”

Punctuation or unicodes- small figures that help lead eyeballs through the clutter. Exclamation points have been so used that they get ignored.

Subject Lines

Need to be under 50 characters Alliteration is good- “Email Marketing Makes

You Money!” All caps= NOT GOOD! (No one wants to be

yelled at!) Use you/your to help personalize Do A/B testing as much as possible. Urgency can work- “Two Days To Decide” Localization Can help as well- “Award

Winning Marketing Firm In Gwinnett”

Subject Lines (Last One!)

Looked at more than 260 million delivered emails and 540 campaigns. (Yeesh!)

Subject lines with 6-10 words performed best

Roughly 35% of emails are opened on phones

Using the recipient’s first name bumped open rates by 2.6%

Movie titles or song lyrics in the subject line were opened 26% of the time

One Study

Your test results are in :( Sorry about your job Most of the car is fine DID YOU MEAN TO ‘REPLY ALL’??? Your Son, and His Future at Our University B4 u open, promise not to get mad Your IRS Tax Lien Your Match.com profile has been suspended

due to low interest RE: The car and the dog. The car is fine. Re: paternity test results

Top 10 Worst Email Subject Lines

Think of emails you open & read vs the ones you don’t

Brevity is good Bullet points are good Avoid long text Maintain consistency in your branding- use

your logo/colors/usual voice Include a link for the reader to click to (send

them somewhere) Include your social media icons

The Design Of The Email

Beware the email clutter- too many choices send the reader into analysis paralysis

Make sure it looks good on all devices Use relevant images. Pictures have higher

engagement rates, tell your story and support your text

The Email

Naturally, if your email looks awful If your subject line is boring When was your email sent? Test this-are

mornings or afternoons best for your business?

Is your list valid? Lists you buy can often be a risk for less active emails

Factors Effecting Open Rates

• We’ve developed a free tool that you can use to help you measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing.

• Go to: digital.makeitloud.net

• Take the free assessment.

• We’re beta testing this, so help us work out the kinks!

Digital Marketing Diagnosis

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