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Sunday
October 26, 2008

10 Steps to Creating Successful Email Campaigns

Filed under: Marketing

Love it or hate it, email is now one of the most prolific and accepted forms of business communication. It is also a great way to drive prospects, looking to buy to your LogoMall site.

If you’ve been debating on sending emails to your customers that are beyond simple messages from Outlook or Entourage, but are wondering how to get started, you’re not alone! Based on a class I have been teaching at ASI Show events, here are my 10 first steps to creating a successful email campaign.

Step 1 – Visit www.campaigner.com or www.constantcontact.com and set up free trials of these easy to learn programs. Spend 30 minutes playing with the program and familiarizing yourself with the tools. They are great for design, analytics, managing lists and SPAM.

Step 2 – Update and fill out your contact database. Be sure you have all first name, company name, and email address fields filled out correctly! Export your database as a .CSV file.

Step 3 – Follow the instructions on the site to upload your list to the email company of your choice (see Step 1)

Step 4 – Develop three compelling reasons to email your customers that will drive leads. For example, you could make a special offer on golf products and link to the Golf Gear niche catalog on your LogoMall site.

Step 5 – Pick the best of the three reasons in Step 4 and develop two different subject lines for your email. Make sure the subject line is personalized by first name.

Step 6 – Draft the copy for your email using these rules:
a). Make sure the copy of your email is compelling - giving the recipient a great reason to click through to your LogoMall site. Make sure the reader clearly gets ‘what’s in it for me’ when they do.
b). Put all of the important information in the first couple of paragraphs that will be ‘above the fold’ – this will ensure your reader doesn’t have to scroll to find vital information or links to click on.
c). When possible, personalize your copy with first names and/or company names. The email software will do that for you – check with their support if you have any trouble.

Step 7 – Using the email company software, or an HTML Web professional, design an email using the following rules:
a). Brand it with the colors and style from your LogoMall site
b). Use relevant photos and place clickable offers on and around the images.
c). When possible send the recipient to a featured products page on your LogoMall site that is relevant to the email vs. your LogoMall home page.
d). Check with your LogoMall Internet coordinator if you have questions about your colors and photos etc…

Step 8 – Upload your email, set a distribution date and time, split your list in half by the subject lines, take a deep breath and blast them out

Step 9 – Track your results. Note click throughs that called or requested information from your LogoMall site. These are your ‘hard leads’. Those that clicked through but did not request more information are solid ’soft leads’ that you may want to follow-up with in the coming days.

Step 10 – Evaluate, learn, and repeat!

If you have any questions or feedback on my top 10 list please let me know. You can reach me at dmennig@asicentral.com.

Warm regards,
Don Mennig
Executive Director of Marketing, ASI

Don Mennig, is a 15 year marketing communications veteran and the Executive Director of Marketing at ASI. Before joining ASI, Don ran his own advertising agency and directed the marketing functions for several high technology firms. He has produced branding and advertising campaigns for companies such as Agilent, McDonalds and Unisys and has helped over 50 small businesses gain traction and find success in both B2B and B2C endeavors.

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Tuesday
September 25, 2007

Email Marketing Tips

Filed under: Email

Email marketing is a smart way to entice visitors to come back to shop on your LogoMall web site. The cost of an email campaign is appealing; however, it takes work to get it right. The trick is to effectively deliver a creative, sales inspiring email with a successful open and click-thru rate while complying with CAN-SPAM laws.

A few things to keep in mind when creating your next email campaign…

Get to the Subject
Getting your recipient to even open your email instead of hitting the delete button is a challenge within itself. You want a clear, persuasive, personalized and short subject line. You need to give them a reason to open such as free gift offers, specials, discounts or new products. The other day this email subject grabbed my attention, “Last chance for a free gift w/ purchase at Godiva.com”. For your customers, you could use “Karyn, Save 10% off your holiday order”.

Keep it Simple
Focus on one compelling message to your targeted audience that includes a call to action. For example, during the holiday season, you may want to feature a few holiday gift ideas to spark their interest. Tell them they can save 10% if they order by October 30th.

Watch your load time
Recipients won’t wait long for images to load especially for an advertising email. We suggest that emails are no larger than 100kb and keep the email at around 600 pixels wide so users don’t have to scroll right or left to see the entire ad.

And for the love of email, please don’t send attachments. Your content should be within the email or linked to a web page with the additional info. Savvy recipients will not open email attachments from marketing emails fearing that it may have a virus. Or, virus software programs will block the attachment and the recipient will never see it.

Proof and Test
Nothing makes me click delete faster than a typo in an email. Before you hit send, have a fresh set of eyes review your email. You’ll also want to check how your html email looks on the top email programs such as Outlook, AOL and Yahoo!. It may look great on your desktop but other programs interpret the code differently and your recipient may not be able to view your ad as you have intended.

Abide by CAN-SPAM laws
Not complying with CAN-SPAM could result in you being reported as a “spammer” to an ISP. You could be placed on a spam blocking list jeopardizing the delivery of your email campaign and open your internet business to risk.

All emails must have an unsubscribe option. The standard is to have an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email along with a physical address for your business, where recipients will look for it. If you get a request to unsubscribe from an email, you must remove them from your list within 10 business days.

All recipients must Opt-In to your email list meaning that they need to willingly subscribe to your advertising emails. To build your list, request your customer’s permission through direct marketing, your web site and invoices.

The content and subject of your email can not be misleading or deceptive. Your message should accurately represent your business and what it offers. The “from” address in your email should clearly state who you are. Your customers will be more likely to open your emails if they know who they are from.

To read further on CAN-SPAM, list building and how to implement an effective email campaign, visit www.emaillabs.com/best_practices.