What Do Email Lists Have in Common With Bank Vaults?

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

The door to the walk-in vault in the Winona Sa...

Image via Wikipedia

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously replied, ‘That’s where the money is.”

Direct marketers have been saying essentially the same thing for years. “The money is in the list.” For a while, many on the internet (including me, I’m embarrassed to say) got caught up in RSS feeds and subscriber numbers. Wrong.

The money is in the list

Turns out that your email list is more profitable than your RSS feed. And, since Google shut down its RSS reader, and WordPress updates broke RSS plugins, it’s getting harder to even retrieve an RSS feed.

People who are willing to let you into their mailbox trust you more than those who check your RSS feed. And that trust will eventually translate regular readers, followers. and subscribers into buyers.

Email has the best ROI

Campaign Monitor reports that email earns $38 for every dollar spent. It’s far more effective than Facebook or Twitter too. Not to mention that you can target your audience more effectively, break it up into segments, and even split test headlines or other message components to see what’s most effective.

Talk to the right people

You can run ads on TV on all day about your pig chow, but if the ads are only seen by people who live in large cities, your sales will be dismal. The same thing will happen if you try to convince a web developer to buy heavy duty shipping supplies and packaging. Wrong audience=lousy results.

Know your tribe

Who are your fish? What kind of people need what you offer? What drives them nuts? Are you solving a problem they have? Or is your product a solution without a problem? Market to those people (and only those people). Farmers whose pigs have poor appetites (is there such a thing?).

Choose wisely

If you run an ad, rent a list, post on Facebook, or use Google – choose wisely. The cheapest option isn’t the best option. The best option is the one with people who most closely fit your tribe, your ideal customer, and the people (or businesses) with a problem that your product or service solves.

Just don’t rob any banks. They don’t like it.

What Email Response Rate Will You Get?

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

If I ever write a book on email marketing and email response rates (oh, wait I did, ahem, another book) it might be called “It depends.”

What’s a good email response rate?

It depends.

How many people will click?

It depends.

How many people will open it?

It depends.

Same for pop-up conversion, signups to newsletters, direct mail, AdWords….

It depends.

There are many variables that can affect your email response rate: the list quality, the offer, the bounce rate, deliverability, copy, call to action, time of day, day of the week, how often you email, your industry, and many other factors.

Out of these, the three with the biggest impact are:

Your email marketing list

The quality of the list you use is the single biggest factor, whether you are using email, snail mail, advertising on TV, or putting an ad in a magazine. There are several factors to consider when choosing an outside list, or sending an email using your own in-house list.

First, how clean is it? Have you updated the list regularly? That means removing addresses that regularly bounce, people who have unsubscribed, or people who simply haven’t open your emails in a while (say six months to a year).

Second, how well do the names on that list fit your ideal customer profile? Are they the right demographic? Does everyone on your list have an interest in this particular offer? Or, would it be better to send it to only a portion of your list?

Third, is it your own list? Or a list you rented elsewhere? Your own list should get better results.

The offer

Is your offer any good? An offer doesn’t necessarily have to be a “sale” or a discount. It can be a free ebook, a paid consultation, or an app. It’s simply whatever the person responding gets in return for a response.

How well does your offer fit your target audience? Does it solve a big problem that they have?

Is the offer free free? Or is it paid? How expensive is it? Free offers will generally get a higher response rate, than something that costs money. And, the more expensive, the lower the response rate (but possibly the higher the revenue).

Is the offer exclusive or new? Or is it something that is common everywhere? New, limited edition, or exclusive products will attract more people, more interest, and get higher response rates.

The creative

By creative, I mean everything the person reading your email sees. That includes the words, the typeface, the layout, the subject line, any photos or illustrations, buttons, button text, and the call to action. Changing the colors, altering the text on the buttons, testing subject lines, or from lines, and switching your calls to action can all have an effect on your response rates. Which will work best will also depend on your audience and your particular products and industries.

A few general rules for improving the response rate from your creative:

Make the call to action buttons a different color than the rest of the website. This will help them stand out.
Use ‘you” and “your” more frequently than “me”, “my” or “our”
The “from” line should come from a real person
Send any questions or replies to a monitored email box (and answer them)

Every time you send an email, track it, monitor the results, and analyze what happened. Did emails sent on Tuesday do better than those sent on Monday? Did you get more replies when you changed your offer to $5 off instead of 10% off? How many bounces did you get? If your audience is big enough, test your copy and offers on a small portion of your list to see which does better. Once you have results, send the winning option to the rest of your list.

Carts, Horses, and Building an Email Marketing List

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by emilio labrador via Flickr

Anthony on LinkedIn needed some email marketing tips.

He wanted to use email lists to figure out his target market. Anthony figured that whoever responded would be a good prospect for his product. Once he got some those answers, he could then see some patterns (get demographics) and figure out how to market to this audience.

Is this the right way to build an email list?

Anthony has some good ideas. He’s right that demographics are important. However, he has his email marketing plan in the wrong order.

He wants to figure out demographics and build a strategy based on who responds to his offer. That’s backwards. He’s putting the cart first. The first thing he needs to do isn’t to start marketing.

Audience comes first

The first step in building an email list is to choose your audience. The audience comes first. Then the marketing strategy.

For instance, if your target market is Spanish-speaking adults who like music, then you know to make deals, buy advertising, etc. with Sabado Gigante (a Spanish-language music and variety show) and similar outlets.

If English-speaking teens are also showing interest, then research the teenage market. Figure out where they hang out, what they like, and go after them. If you get signups, it’s right. If not, it’s no good and you adjust.

Strategy is second

Once you’ve chosen your audience, you then have to figure out where to reach them.

If your market is on Facebook, hang out on Facebook. If they are on Tumblr, post there.

Interact, ask questions and follow other people too.

Try posting a survey and asking questions about what people want from the sort of product you sell. Find out what’s lacking in your competitors’ offerings. Is there something there you can take advantage of? Or, try running a contest (make sure the prize is something they want). Use the contest or the survey to get signups for your your own email list.

Once you have enough signups, you can get more demographic data and adjust your marketing accordingly.

Horse. Then cart. Then driver.

You can’t talk to your audience if you don’t know who it is. Heck, if you’re marketing in Spanish to people who only speak English, you’re literally not speaking the right language!

Essential Email Marketing Tips: The Right Way to Use Email Marketing

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

A responsive (that means they buy stuff) email list is, of course, critical to making money with your newsletter.

But nobody wants to be pushy and obnoxious. And, if you are, the chances anyone will buy from you get smaller.

Here are some ways to build trust with your email marketing campaign, create a bond, and build a relationship that leads to purchases.

Grow your own qualified email marketing list

It will be your best source of income. You’ll need to nurture it and grow it. Here are some tips on how to build your own qualified email list. RSS subscribers are good, but it turns out that email is better (ha! the direct marketers were right all along – the money is in the list).

Set up outposts on social media

Put up free books or reports on your site, on Facebook, Google Plus, or scribd. Include links back to your site and an invitation to sign up for your newsletter (and get your big bribe report).

Measure it

Check how you’re doing. Track open rates and click throughs (how many people click on your link). If your list is big enough (over 2,500 names), “split test” it (break it in two and see which half gets better results), Try different subject lines or different calls to action. Only change one thing at a time.

Be relevant

Different groups may be buying different things from you. Segment the email list (break it up by type of purchase, or profession, or location or whatever is most appropriate) and send them offers that are the most relevant.

Be friendly

Talk to your subscribers (not at them). Invite them to contact you if they have questions or feedback. Send a welcome message when they sign up.

The same tip goes for social media. Don’t just post and leave, and don’t focus solely on selling.

Use those social media outposts to be helpful. If your followers ask questions, answer them. Post answers to questions you see elsewhere, or from your own customers. Don’t be pushy! Nobody is on Facebook to see your marketing offers (there are enough ads there already). Then, invite people to sign up for your list to get more answers, and more information they need.

Share your thoughts

Got questions about email marketing? Wonder what the difference is between a email newsletter and an auto-responder? Ask here.

Five Simple Tips for Better Email Marketing

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image thanks to nickobec

Want better email marketing? Email can be a disaster (spam), or it can be a great marketing tool.

Use it correctly, and you can get great results, at a relatively low cost.

Use it poorly, and your name is mud. Here are five tips to improve your email marketing campaigns.

None of them are hard and none of them take a lot of time to set up. You can start using them today.

Include a forward to a friend link

Encourage the subscribers you have to pass your newsletter on to their friends and colleagues. Since it comes from a friend, the email is more likely to be opened. Links are OK, but avoid forms, as there’s a potential for spamming.

Add a personal touch to your newsletters

For instance, John Jantsch always includes a book and an album (is that still the right word when everything is digital?) he likes.

Multiple subscription options

If you have more than one newsletter, offer readers the option of selecting which newsletters they get. Have a separate list for special discounts (and first notice of new products).

Don’t overdo the promotion

Your readers signed up to get information. Keep everything in balance. If your newsletter is about photography, have two or three articles about photography, and then a link to your new “better portrait photography” ebook.

Link to articles or posts on your blog

Your email newsletter readers may not see your blog. Send them a link to a relevant post. Or, offer the option to get a weekly blog digest by email.