Combat Email List Fatigue with Seven Common Sense Measures

July 15, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

When the number of customers who open your emails starts dropping over time, it’s likely a case of email list fatigue. Your customer’s don’t bother to opt out, but they aren’t opening your emails either. You need to face facts. You have become boring and predictable.

While it’s nice to have a consistent format for branding purposes, too much consistency can work against you. It’s time to rethink and refresh your campaign. Here are five suggestions I have found that have worked wonders for me.

1) Review your subject lines.

Are your subject lines all similar? Since many people decide to open an email based on the subject line content, make sure that yours is geared toward the widest audience possible. Are you offering a clear benefit? Mix it up and do something in your subject line that says “this email is different.”

2) Add a name to your “from line.”

Research shows higher open rates when the name of someone they know is included in the “from line.” If your personnel are well recognized in the field, use it to your advantage. To be safe, include your company name as well.

3) Review when emails are opened.

If you haven’t yet identified the best time of day to send your emails, review your historical records to find out. By avoiding those times when you know your email is likely to get pushed to the bottom of the list (Most studies show Monday is the worst day), you can improve your open rates.

4) Try a re-engagement campaign.

Pull a list of customers and prospects that haven’t opened your emails during a pre-determined time frame – let’s say 12 months. Send them a special offer to try and re-engage them. This might be a coupon or a special report. Send them a second mailing announcing that their subscription will expire and send them a link to confirm they want to stay. Lastly, send a final notice giving them one more chance to stay on the list, and why they should re-subscribe.

While you may feel a resistance to removing contacts, your campaign results will be more accurate and you will lower costs if you are paying a cost per subscriber to reach them. People’s preferences and needs do change over time and it’s OK to let them go.

5) Evaluate the frequency.

How often are you sending emails? Are you sending the same offers over and over again or delivering fresh content each time? Consider reducing the frequency, while improving the content to boost your open rates.

6) Freshen your content.

Are your emails all sales promotions or are they informative or interesting? It’s OK to promote sales, but it is equally important to build a relationship with customers. If you don’t have a content strategy for your email campaigns, it’s time to work on it. For a fresh perspective consider hiring a content strategist. Cut back on the amount of information included in your emails. Re-work the design and focus on clear calls to action.

7) Keep growing your list.

Adding new subscribers who are interested and actively engaged in your products and services is one of the best ways to combat list fatigue. Evaluate how and where you are promoting your email subscriptions and take steps to improve. Promote your newsletter content on Facebook, Twitter and your blog, to draw new visitors to your website. Offer an immediate reward for signing up.

With these seven tips, I am confident you can keep email list fatigue at bay. What has worked for you?

Use “3D” Content to Position Your B2B Brand and Attract the Customers You Desire

July 14, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

When words, pictures, sound and video work together, your B2B brand’s personality will shine through, attracting the customers you desire.

Even Small Mistakes Can Cause Problems for Local Search Rankings

July 7, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

I recently completed a Google search on a client’s business name and noticed that several listings on sites such as Merchant Circle, Yellow Pages and MacCrae’s Business Directory included an incorrect address. Still other listings were incomplete, providing little if any information about the client’s commercial real estate business.

It’s important that content on external sites is both accurate, informative and consistent. Mismatched name, address and phone data can cause confusion for search engines as well as humans. The end result will be lower rankings in local searches.

You can identify outdated information on pages throughout the web by searching for the old address or phone number on Google. Check through the results and and note the pages that need to be updated. Keep a record of sites where you are listed, so that if you do have a change, you know what sites need to be updated. Input your address and phone the exact same way in every listing. For example, if you spell out Avenue on one listing, don’t list it as “Ave.” on another listing. Make sure that the information is communicated to anyone who may be involved in securing links or listings for your company.

To avoid confusing the search engines, avoid using the same phone number with two Google places. A local phone number will help connect the business to a local market better than an 800 number. And finally, be sure to include a physical address somewhere on your website.

Local search is of increasing importance to many B2B marketers, but most companies have a lot of questions. We’re here to help you find the answers and increase your success in Internet marketing.

Improve Response to Your Facebook Posts

July 1, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

A 2010 study from Vitrue, a social relationship management platform provider, offers some insight into what it calls “ The Anatomy of a
Facebook Post.”

The research is based on more than 32,000 Facebook posts representing a wide range of clients and 42.6 million Facebook fans over about a four-month period.

Engagement is measured by comments, likes and shares/divided by the number of fans for a particular stream or page. Data was also analyzed for two subsets: consumer package goods and quick serve restaurants.

Here are the key take-aways:

1. Use an Image

Image posts scored highest. They scored 22% higher than video posts and 55% higher than text posts. Image posts received 54% more engagement than text posts.

2. Don’t Miss Fridays

Overall, fans engage more on Fridays than any other day, and least on Sundays. Friday posts were just 7% more effective than Mondays, but 67% higher than Sunday. The most effective post day varies by industry. Wednesday proved best for quick service restaurants, while Thursday was highest among consumer package goods companies.

3. Consider a Morning Post

Posts made before noon achieved 65% higher engagement among fans. This same true for consumer products goods, but for quick service restaurants, the opposite was true.

Thanks to Vitrue for providing information to help better engage fans on Facebook. You can download the full report here. Give these strategies a try and let us know how they work for you.

If you like this, you might also like:” How to Measure Social Media Using Benchmarks.”

Useful Resources for Creating Social Media Guidelines

June 29, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission revised its Endorsement Guidelines to include social media. What is said on blogs and social networking sites now is not just a matter of ethics, it is the law. The revised guidelines focus on three areas:

1) Endorsements must be truthful and not misleading

2) If the advertiser doesn’t have proof that the endorser’s experience represents what consumers will achieve by using the product, the ad must clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results in the depicted circumstances; and

3) If there’s a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.

As a marketing manager it is your responsibility to protect your company from all of the legal implications of social media. This is best done by establishing a social media policy and by ensuring that all internal departments involved in social media as well as external agencies, consultants and contractors are aware of the policies.

Fortunately, there are a number of resources available to help.

SocialMedia.org recently updated its Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit, which includes a series of checklists to help marketers formulate a social media policy.

In addition to publishing the Endorsement Guidelines, the FTC also published a document which covers commonly asked questions about the guidelines.

View the video for a quick overview.

Do you have a question concerning disclosure or developing a social media policy? Submit your questions to jcostin@contentforbiz.com.

« Prev 13 14 151617 18 19 Next »