Email Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales
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You can do so much with email marketing - inform, advise, educate, engage. But when it comes to selling, make sure you're using these strategies!
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Email Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales
- 1. EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT INCREASE SALES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR EMAIL MARKETING SUCCESS NOW Inspiration University Women’s Business Expo November 6, 2010
- 3. Email Is Not Dead!
- 4. The Times They Are-a-Changin’
- 7. Why Now?
- 8. Implications
- 9. In Case You Didn’t Realize . . .
- 10. We Can’t Do Email Like Before
- 11. So, How Do We Do It? The ART OF CONVERSATION and RELATIONSHIP BUILDING In order to be successful in driving SALES via email, we need to be excellent at …
- 12. Invite 1
- 13. Ask for vs. Assume Permission
- 19. Profile Centers Offer Choice, Control
- 21. Welcome & Warm Up 2
- 23. #2: Start with a Warm Welcome
- 24. #3: Show Appreciation At Pacific Sunwear, joining the email list triggers an immediate 15% off welcome coupon
- 37. Make Relevant, Irresistible Offers 4
- 49. Expand, Connect & Leverage 5
- 50. Digital Savvy Crosses Channels
- 56. Email More Central Than Ever
- 57. Integrate with Offline Channels Too |
- 59. How to Get More . . .
- 63. THANK YOU, QUESTIONS? Email: [email_address] Web: www.synchronicitymarketing.com Facebook or Karen Talavera, Synchronicity LinkedIn: Marketing Twitter: @SyncMarketing Phone: 561.967.9665
Editor's Notes
- The old marketing model relied on a funnel approach which was mostly one-way from advertiser to audience. Advertisers were more interested in broadcasting a message to a large, like-minded audience. Audiences usually had little mechanism for feedback – other than to buy or not buy. The market determined the effectiveness of advertising messages, which were designed basically to generate demand for products and sell them rather than communicate the value of such products.
- The new model is quite different. Internet marketing channels like social media sites, blogs, and email make it possible for advertisers and audiences to have two-way conversations. In fact, audiences have shown they are eager to provide vocal and frequent feedback when given the mechanisms to do so. Therefore, the marketers who will succeed in the new world are required to engage in conversations rather than simply broadcast a message to the masses. The goal has shifted from simply selling product (of course, that’s still what needs to happen to stay in business) to developing long-term, loyal customer relationships. Any good direct marketer knows it costs more to generate new customers than keep the ones you already have, so if we continually demonstrate value through information, education, entertainment and by way of serving communities, customers will stick around. The new model has evolved into selling by way of serving rather than selling by way of promoting.
- We’ve been hearing about integrated marketing for years now, but it’s only recently become a reality, a reality that goes beyond making connections. What’s really happening is a fusion of both intentional and unintentional impressions, communications, and information. That fusion is taking place as the result of greater transparency between companies and customers, more holistic ways of having customer conversations, the rise of Web 2.0 as it’s called (dominated by User Generated Content and everyone seemingly talking to everyone else about anything and everything they can) which of course carries into social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flicker, and more. Because this is evolving in real time, there’s never been a better time to leverage email. In fact, the great news is how far it’s come in less than a decade, from out of the silo into the very heart of the mix.
- So, as advertising channels increasingly grow both more fragmented and more targeted, we see less consumer time and attention given to any one. However, with channel proliferation each channel becomes part of a holistic whole that frames brand and customer perceptions, so the idea is they need to work together, in concert. You can’t afford disconnects between online and offline marketing, nor between the different components within each context.
- Another macro-level trend that has accelerated to maturity with the rise of the Internet is that the customer is in control like never before. The traditional gatekeepers aren’t in charge anymore. Gone are the days when editors controlled the ads people saw and the editorial they read. With YouTube, blogs, peer review sites, social networking and the viral nature of pass-along email, your customer is exposed to many more impressions of your company and brand than you can possibly control or influence. So the new challenge for marketers is to stay tuned in to that customer conversation – not just conversations with our customers, but the conversations our customers have with other customers about us. We need to be in a position of service, poised to address problems, needs, and desires. (highlight outer circle points).
- Okay, let’s get into the top five essential best practices with what I have believed since the beginning to be the most important: Permission. Here’s why
- The concept of permission marketing made its debut in 1998 when Seth Godin, Vice President Marketing at Yahoo, published the book “Permission Marketing” which argued that businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional forms of "interruption advertising" in magazines, mailings, or radio and television commercials. Today consumers are bombarded by marketing messages almost everywhere they go, so Godin put forth the idea that if you want to grab someone's attention, you first need to get his or her permission. Once a customer volunteers his or her time, you're on your way to establishing a long-term relationship and making a sale. Permission marketing serves both customers and marketers in a symbiotic exchange. Email is the perfect environment for that symbiotic exchange to take place, and permission becomes even more important to this channel when we consider both the time and monetary costs involved for a person or company to open and maintain email accounts, plus the sensitivity to unwanted invaders in the inbox and on corporate networks. In short, a welcome email message is one that is asked for, recognized, an received from a trusted sender. Otherwise, it runs the risk of being unwelcome and labeled “spam”. When a marketer asks an email address owner for permission to send email, recognition and trust is strong, and email is seen as welcome rather than unwanted. Since privacy is a foremost concern on the Internet, securing and protecting personally identifiable information is more important to legitimate emailers than ever. For example, a study by one email services provider called showed 52% of recipients will delete an email from an unrecognized name without even opening it. Without permission, you run the risk of your email marketing messages being tossed in the digital trash.
- These finer points are what I call the six “c”s of permission, and they boil down to this. Permission isn’t really permission if an email address owner does not realize he or she is granting it. This means a person consciously signs up to receive email, has some choice and control over the communications received, is not deceived into signing-up for email, and may end the email relationship at any time. The sign-up process is confirmed by the email address gatherer, usually via a return email message confirmation. This closes the permission loop by providing a record of a request to join and successful acceptance of a member on a list. Last but certainly not least, a promise of trust, clarity and integrity is fostered when email is clearly and honestly identified over the course of the relationship. This builds confidence, the final “C”, and even more powerful, loyalty.
- Unfortunately, marketers are not immune to some of the common pitfalls of permission so to avoid them let me give you my permission best practices here. A major shortcoming is a failure to disclose the names and connections to companies, brands, sister organizations or subsidiaries which may also send email to a list member. Further poor practices are a lack of control over how an email address is shared with such other entities, and lack of proper identification of a sender once email begins to flow. If a direct relationship between a product, brand or company is not obvious to an individual receiving email from that product, brand or company, it is the responsibility of the marketer to spell it out at the beginning of an email message. Last but not least, ignoring or skipping the confirmation step after someone joins your list not only robs you of the chance to begin the relationship with a welcome message, but also weakens permission. Your confirmation message is a valuable step in the dialog – don’t miss it! Finally, as you’ll see in a moment when we review the CAN SPAM Act requirements, each commercial email message must contain an unsubscribe, or “opt-out” link, which connects to a Web-based process allowing the recipient to leave the email list. Forgetting or glossing over the unsubscribe in email marketing messages is huge mistake, not to mention illegal. In summary, ensure you are following these best practices when creating your email sign-up processes. In fact, because you might be collecting email addresses from multiple Web sites or micro-sites within your organization, you might even test a single vs. double-opt-in process, or decide that one is more appropriate within a particular context than the other. Using a blend of different permission practices if fine and often necessary.
- It’s not just having a list but how you use it that can drastically influence your deliverability, reputation, and response. List segmentation means dividing your list into groups of people who have something in common with one another, then treating each group uniquely. This is a basic direct marketing principle, but it was costly and time-consuming to do with direct mail, print or catalogs. Not so with email.
- The fifth and final main type of segmentation is Lifecycle segmentation. It’s based on the major stages within the prospect/customer lifecycle. From a lifecycle perspective, email is designed specifically to accomplish marketing objectives associated with a particular stage. For example, email to prospects is designed to qualify or convert them to customers. Email to new customers is designed to welcome them and familiarize them, and email to inactive customers is designed to re-engage them. This segmentation strategy is usually reflected strongly in email offers, creative, frequency and of course, timing. On to some examples:
- You MUST align your messaging and offers with different target audience lifecycle stages.
- A totally different example of lifecycle segmentation is illustrated in this example from Pacific Sunwear, known in short by the brand name PacSun. This is a great example of a new list member welcome email program. The reason the email is arriving is clearly stated (Thanks for subscribing to PacSun email) and to encourage new or first-time customer engagement, the retailer provides a welcome incentive in the form of a 15% off coupon.
- A totally different example of lifecycle segmentation is illustrated in this example from Pacific Sunwear, known in short by the brand name PacSun. This is a great example of a new list member welcome email program. The reason the email is arriving is clearly stated (Thanks for subscribing to PacSun email) and to encourage new or first-time customer engagement, the retailer provides a welcome incentive in the form of a 15% off coupon.
- Created triggers: Your “pink spoon” Widgets Calculators Virtual views Model try-on Free trial
- I’d go so far as to call this Spam
- More about them than me
- More about them than me
- Behaviorally-targeted email. They’re paying attention Dynamically customized recommendation
- It’s not so much about finding people who are loyal to one digital channel as it is about identifying people who are comfortable with digital communication as the norm. Digital savvy people are having conversations in multiple places online - email AND social media - rather than one place or another as Merkle found in their view from the Social Inbox 2010 study which is recommended reading for you in this module, so be sure to check it out. This is why those more engaged in social media are also more connected to their inboxes. Skill at using one online communication channel tends to translate to skill at using others.
- The great news is there’s an affinity between the social-media savvy and their preference for email. The same Merkle study found 47% of permission email recipients cite that well-executed email programs influence their decision to do business with companies both online and off-line. This percentage increases in tandem with online spend, up to 59% for those with an annual Internet spend of $1,000 or more. And best of all as you can see in this chart from Nielsen, the most active social media consumers are also those that spend the most time with email. The Nielsen study corroborates the findings of the Merkle study.
- This is a content leverage strategy – content extension. It’s really social bookmarking, but can get you retweets and viral lift
- In addition to including share to social bookmarking buttons in your email messages, you also want your email list members to be able to find your social media pages on their favorite networks. Here's an email from the Chicago Convention and Tourism bureau that illustrates how they do that. I love that they put this call to action in the pre-header where it's most visible. In fact, build it into your email design template if you can.
- Fourth, proactively INVITE your email list to interact with you on social network sites. Just ask them! This is a great strategy I see more and more and works well to announce your presence if you're new to a major social media platform. It helps conversion if you explain why people should connect to you on social media. Recent research indicates they do so with the expectation of getting discounts and deals, so if you'll be providing those kinds of incentives to your social media friends and followers then explicitly tell them that in the email. Here's an example from Seasons 52 . . .
- What I love about email and social media is the synergy between the two - how one can grow the other and vice versa.
- Right now, email’s in a real sweet spot. So, I see email marketing as the new nexus powering, connecting, pushing and pulling customers and prospects into the many marketing channels and contexts we’ll be operating in. In its early days, it was a great connector between offline direct response like mail, catalog, and phone and it still is. Marketers can leverage multiple channels to gain greater mind share with customers, and of course email can convey information and offers in ways traditional advertising can’t compete with – faster and cheaper than is possible otherwise – which is a huge time advantage marketers now have. What’s really interesting though is how it’s also become the lynchpin of customer contact online. It is still the workhorse powering social media, nudging and alerting members to check in, or transmitting personal messages when a member isn’t actively engaged in a social network. It powers Web site activity, pushing and pulling customers to interact with us online, and by doing so speeds channel migration, streamlines operations and accelerates customer service. And of course, because email has become as ubiquitous a point of contact as the phone, it’s now a primary data element on most customer lists, our online connector to things happening in our offline worlds like events, store openings, mergers, etc.
- Recalling that email is at heart a direct response marketing channel, there are four other channels it best fits with and they're all direct response channels too. First, direct mail can help your email effort by . . .
- God gave us two ears and just one mouth for a reason.
- Second only to permission is something relatively new to online marketing – Reputation Management. With the proliferation and fragmentation of online conversations, not only is it easier for criminals to abuse your reputation, it’s also harder for you to corral what is being said. But it’s vitally important that you manage and monitor it as much as possible because a poor reputation directly affects your ability to successfully deliver email. And if you can’t get messages through the pipeline, you’re dead in the water.