Email Marketing 101
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Don't be afraid of email marketing! It will turn your business into a mean green marketing machine!
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Email Marketing 101
- 1. 3 Grow with Constant Contact Get results fast, with affordable, easy-to-use engagement marketing tools and free coaching. Events & Registrations Offers & Promotions Newsletters & Announcements Feedback & Surveys
- 2. pull response 7 Campaigns & Newsletters What is a campaign? push content
- 3. 9 Campaigns & Newsletters Different types of newsletters Newsletters Keep your audience in- the-know Card or announcement WOW! Custom code email 101001 Business letter Press release
- 4. 11 What you know that they don’t What you have access to that they don’t “Original” isn’t required… just be interesting and relevant Email What do I write about?
- 5. 12 Email How much is enough? Focus. Less is more. ? 51% November 2013
- 6. 14 Email A picture is worth... Pictures get 47% more click-through activity than content without images, but… …don’t over-rely on images! Be sure to use text labels in case images aren’t displayed by the recipient’s mail program. Don’t use images of your content. Remember: your content is viewed on mobile devices… A picture is worth...
- 7. Campaign exercise… 1 Select 1 or 2 campaign types you might want to try 2 What might you write about? 3 Which channels make sense for you and your campaign and your message?
- 8. Who is it “from?” What’s the “subject?” When do you send your communication? Email Now, later or never Three little words that rule your world
- 9. Email Subject line Winning the battle of priorities SECONDS WORDS TODAY
- 10. 25 Monthly is most common Ask yourself: “When are my readers likely to take the action I want?” Email When to send
- 11. 26 Email Find your best day Send your e-mail, watch for best response Select 3 days in the week to test Divide your list into 3 groups of people 1 2 3
- 12. 27 Email Find your best time Select 3 times on the day with the best results Use same 3 groups of people Send email at 3 different times of day, note time with best results 1 2 3
- 13. 28 Email When to send or post Do not be romanced by a high open rate – measure actions!
- 14. 29 67% don’t see images by default Text links get more clicks than buttons Place your logo left or center in email Include company name in text Email Practical advice
- 15. 30 Key action must be above scroll line Do not give too many choices Make all images clickable (and with text labels) Email Practical advice (and on your mobile device)Test it on yourself!
- 16. Constant Contact Authorized Local Expert Sandra Flores sandra@wecoachthepros.com 832-289-4465
Editor's Notes
- Intro/Welcome/What we’re doing today At the core of marketing is the idea that it’s intended to elicit a physical, measurable response…you don’t create and send newsletters, or post updates, or solicit feedback or plan events without some objective in mind, some goal in mind that your campaign is intended to achieve. We often refer to the “call to action” as part of your communications…the request for someone to join your mailing list, to visit your store, to sign up for your annual fundraising gala…because at the end of the day that’s what marketing is all about. It’s about getting someone with whom you, your business or your organization has a relationship to take an action that will help your organization to succeed. DN Note: this isn’t intended to educate about goals/objectives…we have other sessions for that. We’re not going to talk about marketing principles, or goals and objectives today. No, today we’re here to talk about marketing campaigns: those collections of marketing activities that make up an effort intended to drive an action that leads to achieving a specific goal. Specifically we’ll be focusing on newsletters and announcements, and their close cousin, social engagement. Simply put, these activities are primarily about communication, and about connecting with your readers. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t also a great way to drive action. And today we’re going to talk about how you can deliver the most effective newsletters possible.
- Presenter should introduce themselves. RDDs should mention Constant Contact ALEs would mention their own company and clarify their relationship to Constant Contact. (Ask people in the room if any of them have ever attended a previous seminar. If there are a lot, Clarify that this is new content but that some of the same strategies we have taught in the past still apply So they might see a few familiar strategies or tips along the way. (Then mention the workbook – explain what it is, briefly, and let them know that you will refer to it Throughout the session with short exercises for them to complete. Next ask …) How many people in the room are small businesses or work for a small business? How many are nonprofits ….on purpose (they will laugh) relate to the room that you know it’s been a tough year for some and that the information Covered in the session should help them start to move the needle.
- This slide should give you a chance to quickly introduce the Constant Contact suite of products to your audience. Many will not know we have all of these, so it’s a great and short commercial.
- Here’s what we’re going to do today… [click to build] we’ll review what exactly a campaign is, and we’ll make sure we’re all on the same page in understanding what we mean when we say “newsletter.” [click to build] next we’ll talk about Email and provide you with some tried-and-true tips for more effective email marketing. [click to build] then we’ll make the connection between Email and Social media…because they really have become inseparable. [click to build] we’ll then talk at length about social media, specifically what you should be thinking about if you’re starting to build your social media presence, including some insight into the “Big 5” networks and how to think about what to say on social media. [click to build] finally, we’ll talk about some next steps you can take. I also want to make a quick not about “for” and “non” profits, and industry verticals…I’m often asked how the things I’m talking about should be adjusted or changed for a nonprofit or a services (B2B firm) or someone in a different industry vertical. I hear “I’m not a brick-and-mortar business, so how does this apply to me. The good news is that the principles that will be discussed are largely universal…they can benefit a non-profit just as much as they can a for-profit, a B2B business can follow these just as readily as a B2C, that a restaurant can succeed with these ideas just as readily as a yoga studio, a church or a book store. Yes, you may have different considerations to make for your select audiences, but in large part what we’re teaching are best practices, and they’re best practices across the board.
- I want to give you a simple definition, or a framework, for what marketing really is. You already know, generally, what it is – but when I say the word marketing, I mean something very specific and it’s important that we are on the same page. My definition of marketing has three simple parts – you define an audience: a group of people that you want to target. You reach out to them with a message that is specific to that audience. And you seek to elicit a physical and measurable response. A click, a reply, a call, a purchase, a referral – these are all actions that represent a decision made by a human to react to your message. Keep this in mind as we discuss marketing and marketing campaigns and the ways to deliver the most effective campaigns. You’re doing these things because you want people – your customers, your clients, your donors or supporters – to DO SOMETHING. [click to next slide]
- First, let’s talk about “campaigns” - -what does that word really mean? Very simply there are two parts to a campaign… First, you [click to build] push out some sort of content (and we’ll talk more about “what content” in a bit) to your followers, supporters, etc. Second, you hope to [click to build] “pull” some sort of response from them – you want them to read, forward or share what you sent, show up, call, attend – you want them to take an action of some sort Think about a campaign in terms of push/pull and more importantly do not think about it as just putting an offer out there and making the sale… in this new marketing world, it’s more like a conversation – which lends itself to that advantage we talked about that you have over big business. As a small company, you can engage in a conversation that feels and in fact IS much less like a sales gimmick and more like nurturing a relationship. If you’re doing it right, it will seem like that from both sides of that conversation.
- Simply put, a newsletter is a communication you send (usually through email) to your customers, supporters, clients, volunteers sharing information and relevant insights that they want to read. Simple! [click to next slide]
- [NOTE: these reflect the different types of newsletters available to customers in the Toolkit product flow…all of these should make sense except for perhaps the “Custom code email,” which could simple be presented as a form of communication where you go the extra step to customer colors, the template and the in-message presentation using custom HTML code instead of a stock template.] There are lots of different types of communications, loosely referred to as newsletters, that you might send. These [click to build…all will build automatically] are just a few examples…from sending a quick update just to keep your audience informed, to a simple card or announcement, all the way to what we call a custom-code email…where you or a designer you work with create your own email in our platform using your own custom code. [Speaker note: this isn’t a bad place to pause and ask what other types of communications the audience might lump in under the “newsletter” heading…and to note if/how there are differences along industry or vertical lines.] [click to next slide]
- So what do you write about in your newsletter? This is one of the biggest hurdles that most people have to jump. Luckily, the answer can be very simple. [click to build] First, and above all else, you write about what you know that they don’t know. You share your knowledge and raise your profile as an expert in your field. Next [click to build] write about what you have access to that they don’t have access to – and you have more access than you might think. This can mean that you let them download a special report, give them backstage passes, early registration, reserved or special seating, an extra hour of your time when they pay for two… and give it away when you can. What you are trying to do is build what is called a resource relationship, Where when their need for what you do comes up, YOU are the person that comes to mind. Give it away – your knowledge and your access, when you can. [click to build] and you don’t have to be prolific, writing original material every time. You just need to be the hub or the point of access. So send links to other sources, know your stuff and they will see you as their resource (If you have a longer session, this is a great time to ask people in the audience what they do for a living and give them some ideas for content so that you get the room thinking in these terms) (Also if you have a longer session, you can give an example of a business that “gives away the farm” and drives business doing so) [click to next slide]
- (Ask if anyone in the class wants to get a long email from anyone else in the class. No one will raise their hand.) No one has ever raised their hand. If you are a church, a chamber of commerce or a school, you probably have long emails and we are all okay with getting those. Our children and our businesses rely on you and we want to see activity – we are willing to get a long email from you. (right? Ask the crowd) …we don’t read them, but it’s okay that we see them. So take the pressure to create or write off of yourself. [click to build] Less is more. Always. There is no rule that says your newsletter needs to have three articles, three pictures and three links. One thing is plenty. There is a Constant Contact customer whose newsletter is called One Thing – he did it to make it easy on himself and it works really well – people can absorb it and he’s not under the gun to come up with a bunch of content to fill it. [click to build] and don’t forget that over 50% are reading it on a mobile device…who is going to scroll through 14 articles? {additional talking points if you have time] Your emails and their social media activities are NOT for telling people everything that they do. That is part of the hole people dig for themselves when they start writing their emails, they try to say everything. That is not what your emails and social media posts are for. That’s what your website is for. Your emails and your social media is about offering one thing at a time and tracking whether or not it moved the needle. Plain and simple. Mobile stat from: research from: email open by platform: https://litmus.com/blog/mobile-opens-hit-51-percent-android-claims-number-3-spot?utm_campaign=nov2013news&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
- Here are some examples of what others are doing. These are examples from Constant Contact customers with great looking campaigns with simple, easy to absorb content and obvious actions to take. (speaker, you can go one by one but it’s more likely that you’ll just click quickly through these …) non-profit, sharing information about themselves that’s in the press restaurant sharing their current specials looks like a non-profit, sharing an event notice B2B, showcasing the services they have another event notice… [click to next slide]
- Build through eack point…these are key points and tips about image use Source: 47% stat from the Curata “Curation Habits Report 2012” http://www.curata.com/resources/surveys/curation-habits-report-2012/?LDT=Survey&LD=Habits&LST=Email-Newsletter&LS=Where2Share_Newsletter_080713&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRokuKzMZKXonjHpfsX56%2BgsW6Kg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIHTcF0aPyQAgobGp5I5FELSrTYVLZut60NUw%3D%3D
- use images carefully Images are a great way to convey a message, tell a story…create a connection. But if you don’t carefully consider how you’re going to use images, you may end up with some unintended consequences that lead, at best, to someone not reading your email. At worst they’ll unsubscribe from your list and you won’t be able to communicate with them at all. Here are some common challenges to consider: [click to build] notice the red “X” here? That’s there because some mobile email clients may not display images by default…so be sure that you’re using what is called “Alt Text,” or text that appears if the image doesn’t, to at least let people know what’s there. [click to build] in this example, there’s a great picture – the promotional poster used for a fundraiser, and when viewed on a desktop email client it may look great…but the problem is that on a mobile device, in order to see it, or the rest of the message, the reader will have to scroll the message. The image has pushed the call to action all the way to the bottom of the message, making it less likely that the reader will actually click through. [click to build] finally, be aware of where or how an image may appear. You may need to resize images as you build your email (a lot of email marketing tools have simple, built in image-editing capabilities). Before you send any message out to your customers or supporters, TEST THE EMAIL BY SENDING IT TO YOURSELF!! And then view it with your readers in mind…and make changes accordingly. A few extra minutes of testing can save a lot of headache later. [click to next slide]
- Images are great because they can help tell your story across multiple channels. Pictures have become more and more relevant in social and email marketing – so many of us are walking around with a camera in our pockets – this doesn’t have to mean high end production anymore. If you have highly visual content or great photos of products or your events or whatever you are marketing, you will want to check out opportunities to share those images you have through different channels. Some of those channels include [click to build] Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Facebook – many consumers are beginning to shop and play on these channels so it may be worth a look to test whether or not what you are marketing would work well on these channels. Keep in mind that we haven’t left email out here – email is becoming more and more of a “visual medium” as well (including video!). One key here is - KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE – if you own a business that can show off product visually, you can do more with a headline and a photo than the most carefully crafted copy. And if you’re a consultant or service provider? Share your know how. Write a blog post about what you know how to do, pick an image that reinforces it, and pin it, post it, tweet it. Constant Contact did a test with Facebook promotions of webinars and found that when they used an image rather than just s text, they saw a 127% lift in engagement with those posts. It’s worth a try. We’ll talk a bit about social media later, but I want to say this now – if you are going to be using a picture in your newsletter and then again on social channels, BE SURE TO LINK THE PICTURE ON THE SOCIAL CHANNEL BACK TO WHEREVER YOU WANT THEM TO KEEP ENGAGING WITH YOU…like back to your web page (where you might include a sign-up for your newsletter).
- We’ll talk briefly about social media a bit later…what I want you to keep in mind at this point, as we’ve been talking about content and what to write or images to think about, is that you should be thinking about those things with more than one delivery medium in mind. That means that you can reuse and repurpose everything – one article can be used many times, on various channels. You might send a newsletter with 5 tips for cleaning out your closet…and each tip could be Tweeted, once a day for a week You could show before and after pics in a press release about the benefits of your service, and then you could post those pictures on Pinterest. If you’ve sent an announcement about something of interest to your readers via email, you can get some mileage with that announcement across your social channels as well.
- [SPEAKERS: this slide is hidden, but could be unhidden and used as a stopping point for doing an exercise with the audience.]
- Now that you have a general idea of what you’re going to try, I want to give you some insight into what works, how to get more people to stop and consider your offer and how to get more physical, measurable response. This is my favorite part of this class. [click to build] Look at these three words. These three words rule your world as a marketer and as a consumer or business person. Every email or social media post that you get and every one that you send or post falls into one of these three categories. Now. Later. Or Never. Think about this morning when you checked your email. Whether you were aware of it or not, you were sorting your messages into these three categories automatically. Now, later, never. And I apologize now for bringing this to your attention and making it a conscious experience for you now. For the next 2 or 3 days, when you go through your email, you will find yourself saying it out loud, “now, later, later, never, never, never” and you’ll want to curse me for making something that was seamless now very obvious to you. It will go away. But it’s important that you know that – you need to know this both as a recipient and as a sender or poster. How do you make sure that you are a now? You don’t want to be never – obviously. And a later, let’s face it, is a well-intentioned never. Right? You flag it or tell yourself, “oh, I’ll come back to that” but 9 times out of 10…do you? (they will usually laugh and say no) There are three fundamental things that factor into whether someone notices and reacts to your campaigns [click to build] Who sent it [click to build] The subject line, or the headline [click to build] And your timing – meaning when you sent it or posted it
- [CANADIAN PRESENTERS: HIDE this slide and use the next one, so that the permission legislation referenced is CASL] So how do you win the battle of priorities and get more people to stop and open your email or to stop and read your Facebook post or your tweet or to share your pin on Pinterest? Turns out, who the message or offer is from is extremely important. Think about how you sort your email – or if you’re on Facebook, think about the newsfeed. Typically when you open up your email – think about it this morning – you start at the top of the list and you go down, sorting by who it’s from. WHO the email or the social media post came from turns out to be the most important part of winning the battle of priorities. You do it based on WHO, so it’s important for you to [click to build] be recognizable… [click to build] – and to be recognized across the channels you’re using. If you send your emails using your name, but your Facebook page shows up in people’s newsfeeds as your business name, people might not make the connection. We do know that with email, and very often with social media sites, more people will react to a person’s name than to a business name. Just be sure that you’re consistent with the name you use – and ensure that it’s the one that you’ll be recognized by, so that ultimately your readers and followers will stop and open your email, read your posts – because they know they’re going to get something of value and relevance from you. This is another place where your advantage as a small company kicks in – you can be the face or the name of the company. Now, there are some important considerations that shouldn’t be overlooked, and they relate to something called the [click to build] “CAN-SPAM” act…which is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations. The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. That means all email – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law. One provision of CAN-SPAM is that the “from,” “to,” and “reply to,” names “must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.” Therefore if I signed up for an email from Joe Pizza the from address should be “Joe Pizza” and not “Joe Smith.” That said, using a combination of your name and your company name will solve this issue in many cases. Use your name in the from name on your emails, and include a comma with your company name there as well.
- [CANADIAN PRESENTERS: use this slide so that the permission legislation referenced is CASL] So how do you win the battle of priorities and get more people to stop and open your email or to stop and read your Facebook post or your tweet or to share your pin on Pinterest? Turns out, who the message or offer is from is extremely important. Think about how you sort your email – or if you’re on Facebook, think about the newsfeed. Typically when you open up your email – think about it this morning – you start at the top of the list and you go down, sorting by who it’s from. WHO the email or the social media post came from turns out to be the most important part of winning the battle of priorities. You do it based on WHO, so it’s important for you to [click to build] be recognizable… [click to build] – and whether you’re recognized across the channels you’re using. If you send your emails using your name, but your Facebook page shows up in people’s newsfeeds as your business name, people might not make the connection. We do know that with email, and very often with other social media sites, more people will react to a person’s name than to a business name. Just be sure that you’re consistent with the name you use – and ensure that it’s the one that you’ll be recognized by, so that ultimately your readers and followers will stop and open your email, read your posts – because they know they’re going to get something of value and relevance from you. This is another place where your advantage as a small company kicks in – you can be the face or the name of the company. Now, there are some important considerations that shouldn’t be overlooked, and they relate to something called the [click to build] CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Law), a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations. Check out the link listed here to learn more about the law and how it may impact you. [Speaker note: Or, you could attend one of our upcoming sessions in which we’ll dive deeper into a discussion about CASL, permission and your marketing efforts.]
- Templates make the process of sending emails much easier…while still allowing you to preserve the look and feel of your brand. These are some examples of templates from Constant Contact – because, obviously that’s what I have access to – but whatever system you’re using, make sure they have mobile-friendly templates that are easy to edit, to match colors Be sure to make them “your own” with your own logos and photos and links. It doesn’t have to be hard to look professional and sharp! Now, you may have noticed the images in the first two…and because we talked about images earlier, I’ll just remind you to make sure the images will work in both a desktop and a mobile email. In the first template, it looks great…but the creator should be testing on a mobile device to see just how much the image pushes the text “below the fold.” It may look great on a desktop, but not work on a mobile device. The second one is a little bit better, because there’s a message located right next to the image – and the message IS the call to action…”Come in for lunch!” Nevertheless, make sure it’s tested on a mobile device and looks the way you want it to and that the reader will have a positive experience with it.
- When you’re up against the Now, Later or Never game, your subject line on an email – or the headline of your social media post, can make a big difference in the response. Here is a simple method for writing more powerful subject and headlines. It’s called the 2-2-2 principle. [click three times to show all three 2’s] Let’s walk through it quickly. [click to build] The first 2 is for the 2 seconds you typically have to compel them to pay attention. [click to build] The second 2 if for the first 2 words of your subject line or headline. That’s really all they read before making a decision. And not a decision about whether to read your message, but as to whether or not they will bother to read the rest of the subject line. [click to build] The third 2is for “why does this email or message matter today” Today – that’s the third 2. If you can answer that question in your subject line or headline, as close to the first two words as possible, more people will stop and at least open your message. So – how do you do it? How do you write one of these? Is anyone here on my email list? Do any of you get my class invitations? (some will raise their hands) …have you ever noticed that my subject lines sometimes begin with something like “12 seats left for tomorrow” Or “ten seats open tomorrow”? (insert your own tactic here if you don’t use this one) … first, let me tell you that it’s always true. And you should always be honest in your messages as well. But the reason I start with that is because it expresses very quickly why the message matters today. Seats are running out for an upcoming session. Some of the emails I send you start with “some seats left”… ever notice those? That’s when I have a lot of seats left and I don’t want to lie to you, But I want it to be more compelling than saying “57 seats still open for tomorrow”… that’s not compelling. It’s important to point out that you don’t need to go to the “urgency well” all the time, meaning you don’t always have to put a time stamp on it or Say things like “today only” or “by close of business” or like that. It’s more about making it very clear to people that your message is relevant and timely in order to win that now, later or never battle.
- Here are some examples of subject lines – {speaker, if you have time, go thru these but if you’re short on time, just tell them that you included this slide for them to refer to for help in building their own subject lines later. NOTE: the text inside the brackets IS NOT part of the subject line.} List of customers, in order: Boloco Blue Penguin Tee Fury Fish and Bone Jill Singer Graphics
- The last piece in winning the battle of priorities is timing - When to send is another very common question. Both for how often to send and also when in terms of the time of day and the day of the week. [click to build] For newsletter or email marketing frequency, monthly is the most common but it’s also a good idea to add unexpected messages every once in a while, especially if they relate to an exciting announcement about your organization. [click to build] As you start trying to determine when is the best time to send your newsletter or announcement, the question you want to answer is “When will my readers be most likely to take the action I want?” When will they be most likely to click through to the article I’ve posted, come into my store after reading, register for an event, etc.? Use that as a starting point. But now I want to describe some simple steps you can take to really zero in on the best day and time to send your newsletter. [click to build through the steps for testing]
- Before I go any further, I have a quick suggestion for those of you in the audience who are pretty new to the email newsletter and sending out to a list of your customers, clients or donors. What I’m going to describe might seem advanced, so don’t worry about trying to do exactly these steps. Until you get more comfortable with your efforts, you could simply focus on the open rates of your newsletter when you send them, and try different days for right now. If one month you send on a Tuesday, the next month you could try Wednesday, then Thursday, and so on…and monitor how many people open the email. You’ll start to get a sense of when might be best for you. For those of you who have been doing this a while, and who feel comfortable with creating different lists of your contacts, here’s a two-part test that you can use to determine the best day of the week and time of day for you to send your emails We call this an ABC test. It’s a simple method to narrow down when you get the best response and then you can adjust accordingly. [click to build] First, take your list of contacts and divide it into three equal lists. So just take the whole list and break it into thirds. [click to build] Next, choose three days of the week that you want to test. So – mon, wed, fri? or maybe tues, thurs, sat. (if you’re a B2B you’ll likely want to send during “regular” business hours, but know your audience in case that doesn’t hold true. For all others, it’s all up for testing) So you have three lists, and you want to test on three different days of the week. So you send your email – the same email – to each of your lists. The first group on Monday, the second group gets it Wednesday, And the 3rd group gets it on Friday. And then you measure your results. You can do this as long as you are Using an email marketing service. They tell you who opened, who clicked, what they clicked on, how many times and when. So you look at the stats and you will know which day was best of the three you tested. Now you’re ready for the second part of the process. [click to next slide]
- [click to build] Use the same three groups of people and now you will choose three different times of day you want to test. So, a morning, midday and afternoon or evening. The next time you are ready to send out an email, [click to build] Send it on your best performing day from the last test. Send the first group their email in the morning, The second group gets it midday and the third group gets it in the afternoon or evening. [click to build] And look at your stats. You will know which time of day did the best. So now you will know the best day and the best time of that day to send your emails for the best response. Please make sure you are not romanced by a high open rate. Just measuring the open rate will not Give you a clear picture of success. You might have a lot of people open it but very few take the Action you want them to take. Measure the physical, measurable responses
- So now you have the best day on which to send and the best time at which to send. Excellent!! (And again, for those who are brand new to sending out newsletters, don't worry…for now you could start with simply testing different days and noting the response rate, then trying different times on that day…don’t worry about splitting your lists, comparing results, etc.) For everyone, let me add a caution… [click to build] DO NOT BE ROMANCED BY A HIGH OPEN RATE – MEASURE ACTIONS! You can get a huge open rate but without actions, it’s not help to your business.
- [these all build automatically after first click…speaker can choose to highlight one or two, or all, or different ones if wanted] Source for 67%: Jeanne Jennings, Marketing Sherpa: “Preview Panes, Image Blocking and My Pitch to Have Microsoft Outlook Turn Images on by Default,” June 2010 This slide is a great one to refer back to after you’ve left the class today, almost like a checklist for your email marketing – it’s just some simple, practical advice for getting better response in your emails. I’ll go through them quickly. Many people do not see pictures in their emails, and text links get more clicks than a beautiful button -- probably because of that 67% stat. Make sure your logo is left or center, not right – because people often see email in small windows that eclipse the right side, and make sure your company name is in text near the top. If your name is only in a graphic of your logo, all those people with no pictures will not realize the message is from you at first glance. The action you want people to take should be above the scroll line – most people do not scroll, and do not give too many choices, one or two at most. People do not have time to window shop and make decisions in your email. If you want them to take action, reduce the number of choices. Make sure all of your pictures are clickable, this is easy to do with our tools and test your message on yourself, send it to yourself and if you can, test it on your cell phone or iPad too, just to know it looks good for everyone. I’ve said it a few times already…be sure to test your newsletters on yourself. Tools like Constant Contact make it easy to send a test email to yourself or someone else so you can view it on a desktop, on your mobile phone… [Speaker: you could pause here and ask the audience for other tried-and-true tips that they follow. If you hear something new or creative, share it with your fellow speakers and the folks building the content!]
- [these all build automatically after first click…speaker can choose to highlight one or two, or all, or different ones if wanted] Source for 67%: Jeanne Jennings, Marketing Sherpa: “Preview Panes, Image Blocking and My Pitch to Have Microsoft Outlook Turn Images on by Default,” June 2010 This slide is a great one to refer back to after you’ve left the class today, almost like a checklist for your email marketing – it’s just some simple, practical advice for getting better response in your emails. I’ll go through them quickly. Many people do not see pictures in their emails, and text links get more clicks than a beautiful button -- probably because of that 67% stat. Make sure your logo is left or center, not right – because people often see email in small windows that eclipse the right side, and make sure your company name is in text near the top. If your name is only in a graphic of your logo, all those people with no pictures will not realize the message is from you at first glance. The action you want people to take should be above the scroll line – most people do not scroll, and do not give too many choices, one or two at most. People do not have time to window shop and make decisions in your email. If you want them to take action, reduce the number of choices. Make sure all of your pictures are clickable, this is easy to do with our tools and test your message on yourself, send it to yourself and if you can, test it on your cell phone or iPad too, just to know it looks good for everyone. I’ve said it a few times already…be sure to test your newsletters on yourself. Tools like Constant Contact make it easy to send a test email to yourself or someone else so you can view it on a desktop, on your mobile phone… [Speaker: you could pause here and ask the audience for other tried-and-true tips that they follow. If you hear something new or creative, share it with your fellow speakers and the folks building the content!]
- So, we’ve talked through a number of different ways you can think about making your newsletters, whatever the type and goal, more effective. And earlier we mentioned in a couple of different places that you should be thinking about how you might repurpose content or images for social media. That’s because social media has become an important component of the marketing toolkit. We’re not going to go into depth about which social channels might be best for you, or the specifics of each channel or what to say on each channel. I just want to spend a few minutes addressing the importance of social media as a marketing tool, and why it’s so important that you start to think about email and social media at the same time, as connected pieces of the same communications effort.
- You may have wondered if you need to be focused on both social media and email marketing. Or you may have asked “Why is social media important for your business or nonprofit?” The answer to the first question is, “yes!” you do need to do both. That’s because of the answer to the second – social media has impacted businesses and nonprofits in a big way. It’s how many new customers or clients or donors are finding organizations, and it’s how many organizations are staying top of mind for their current customers, clients or donors, as well as helping to make them loyal, repeat contributors. Just how big has the shift to include social media in the marketing mix been? We’ve done some research… Five years ago, in 2008, we asked small businesses what kinds of tools they were using for marketing. [click to next slide] Only 10% were using social media marketing. Compare that to just 5 years later, when [click to next slide]
- that has gone up to 87%. Why? Because social media works. You’re small businesses – you don’t do things that don’t work. That’s quite a statistic, and shows just how integral social media has become as a marketing tool for all organizations. But when we say “it works,” what do we mean? If small businesses, nonprofits, independent consultants and others don’t do things that don’t work, then what is it about social media that “works?” [click to next slide]
- It works because it influences decisions. It works because it has become a primary driver of behavior. [click to build] It influences purchasing – 74% of shoppers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions [click to build] It influences word of mouth. Your customers tell their friends about you – 55% of people share information about their purchases on social media. [click to build] It influences people’s connections to nonprofits – 68% of people will go online and learn more about the charities and causes that their friends support when their friends post about it on social media. Purchasing stats: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-commerce_b46141 68% take the time to learn more about a charity if they see a friend posting about it http://mashable.com/2012/12/12/non-profits-social-media-infographic/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29 Consider adding… Those referrals are very important to your organization: 71% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product based on social media referrals. Every day, people are going online to review or recommend the businesses and nonprofits that they support, and people in their networks trust those referrals because they know the people who write them, or – if they don’t – they trust unbiased reviews from people just like them. Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30239/71-More-Likely-to-Purchase-Based-on-Social-Media-Referrals-Infographic.aspx
- That’s why it’s so important to shift your thinking When you combine email with social media, [click to build] the combination will both increase the reach of your email campaigns that enjoy 97% deliverability (it’s actually a even higher with Constant Contact but on average that is a standard rate). [click to build] Sharing your email on social media will get it in front of more people, with the potential to grow your list. And if you’re doing it right, keeping it short, making the action or response obvious and simple and providing access, information and real value then you will grow your business. Let’s look at just a few businesses that have taken this to heart…
- [click to build] Here’s an example of one business, Boloco (a small chain of fast-casual burrito restaurants), and how they are leveraging both email and social media together. They use a lot of the best practices we covered – they have brand consistency across platforms, great images, and good subject lines.
- [click to build] Here’s an example of one non-profit, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, and how they are leveraging both email and social media together. They – like Boloco – have carried their branding across platforms. They use images in their channels and they have a lot of great original content. Girlscouts of NE Texas: Site Owner UID: 1098469864099(dv7p5a44)
- [click to build] Here’s an example of a services business and a franchise, Liberty Tax, and how they are leveraging both email and social media together. Again, you see brand consistency, great design, lots of helpful tips and links.
- Sharing tools expand your reach… this is an example of Constant Contact’s simple share tool Makes it easy to push your email campaigns, events, surveys and offers out on multiple channels with a few clicks. [click to next slide]
- Another way to share – a “Social Share bar” at the top of your emails will make it as easy for your readers to share your message with others, part of that referral engine we talked about earlier. They also make it easy to follow you on the various social networks in a single click. Our emails include a social share bar at the top and we’ve made it very easy to add social icons with links anywhere in your campaign. [click to next slide]
- Don’t forget to make it easy for people to join your list…there are three simple tools to help with that. First, in person you can invite people to join your list with a sign up card, a notice on receipts, you can just Ask at the register -- [click to next slide]
- Use a web sign-up tool – links and buttons for this can be added to your website or your Facebook page. And include it in the signature or your regular emails, on any website, in pdf documents – almost anywhere And consider naming the publication or marketing the list with a brand like “the CEO Forum” or “the going green club” [click to next slide]
- You’ll also find that there are a lot of apps out there that can help you build your lists. Two of them are from Constant Contact, which allow you to collect email addresses and other information through a QR code “scan” or a text message. NOTE: Canadian and UK presenters should hide this slide if the tools aren’t available
- We also have an extensive collection of apps that have been created specifically to extend the capabilities of our products…here are just a few that help with the collection of email addresses
- After this presentation you’re going to be thinking about what you want to write…and you may use some of the ideas you already wrote down. Part of the challenge is thinking about when to push all of this stuff out. We talked about how you can test to find the best day of the week and time of day to send your emails. What I’m talking about now is putting all of your planning into one calendar. This is just one example of what I mean – notice that it includes the regular newsletter you might send (on the 30th), a blog post (on the 2nd), and some more irregular or “just in time” announcements (11th and 29th). Also included here are some social media posts…we didn’t go into depth on social media planning today, but if you’re interested in learning more you can join me for _____________________ The real benefit of a calendar like this is in taking a look at the month ahead – there are some things you know are coming up. What kind of content would you create for that? Each day make a note of what’s happening and then list the channels you want to share it on. This will help you plan ahead and give you some things you can talk about and create multimedia for, and reach your audience through all of your regular channels. If you combine this with the tips we’ve shared with you today, you’ll be well on your way to improving the effectiveness of your newsletters and announcements.
- Before I log in, just with a quick show of hands, how many of you use Constant Contact already? I’m going to log in to a live account, for the purposes of this demonstration, and when I do you may not see a screen that looks exactly like what you see when you log in to your account. I have special access to the newest updates and even some test tools, and I tell you that because what is on my screen may not look exactly like what you have on your screen when you log in. CLICK Some of you see a screen that looks like this [CLICK] when you first log in and others may see a screen that looks like this [CLICK] Two different front doors, depending on how you found us and which version of our tools you are using, But both lead to the same basic functionality – (if you have time, you may decide to go deeper and explain this) The version on the top shows the home page for people that use our “stand alone” products and the one below shows the Constant Contact “toolkit” which bundles all of the tools together. I can answer questions about the difference between the two at the end of the session as needed, but again – both of these home pages are just different front doors to get to the same room full of great tools. So I’m going to open up my account now and we will get started with the demonstration.
- At the end, post this slide while you take questions. MAKE SURE YOU ADD YOUR Call To Action!!!!! Note – pricing slides are next in case the question comes up!!!
- This slide is provided for your quick reference if pricing questions come up. CLICK ONCE for a more detailed view of what’s what…
- Introduce yourself and give them a clear understanding that you are there on behalf of Constant Contact.