Tag : email list

  • 5 Reasons Why Your Emails Aren’t Opened (And how to fix it)

    Posted Jan 25th, 2011 By in Email Marketing With | No Comments

    Imagine this: You sent an email to your entire list to generate sales for an end-of-the-month push. Later you check your reports and see that your open rate were abysmal. What a blow! Not only did you fail to generate sales, a bunch of contacts unsubscribed from your list.

    There are a few reasons why this may have happened, but here are the four most likely reasons along with advice for how you can fix it.

    You send junk

    Would you sending the stuff you send to your list to your friends and family? If not, think about a different way to touch base with your contacts and provide something of relevance. Not sure if you send junk? If your email message is “useful,” it’s resourceful and people want to save and archive it. If your message is “interesting” it’s funny, relevant and usually good for forwarding to their contacts. If your message is neither interesting or useful … it’s junk.

    You use unoriginal, boring subject lines

    People are tired of receiving the same emails with the same boring subject lines. They get it. Really, that’s why they don’t bother reading them. Be imaginative and creative and make people think when they read your subject line.

    You are still emailing customers from 1998

    Do you use the same email address for everything? Probably not. Chances are, you have a primary address for friends and family and a secondary address for commercial offers. Your contacts are the same way, and are probably using their secondary address with you.

    Email permission tends to expire in about 10 months – so the more opportunities to confirm and re-confirm their interest (beyond an opt-out link), the better. To fix this, consider using an alternative follow-up campaign (phone/direct mail) to have people update their contact information and re-opt-in to your marketing. Disciplined email marketing pays off when you have a truly engaged, interested and hungry list – and you can really cater to the people who matter.

    You send just like the rest of ‘em

    We all get our nighttime to morning email flood. I admit, sometimes I just use my Delete key more liberally during those hours and my reply button during the daytime. To fix this, try mixing up and allowing people to choose if they want your message in the morning, in the evening or mid-day.

    You emailed to your entire list

    Not every subscriber is interested in everything you have to offer. Slice and dice your email list into relevant, targeted groups and send to those groups of users where the message is attractive, engaging and relevant.

    Not everyone’s open rates will always improve. It’s fact. However, the more you pay close attention to the result of your emails and more importantly, your recipients’ expectations and satisfaction – the more your email open rates will rise with your fine-tuning.

    To learn more about email marketing best practices, download a free report about Email Marketing 2.0.

  • Top 3 Costly Email Marketing Mistakes

    Posted Aug 30th, 2010 By in Business, Content Marketing, Email Marketing With | 4 Comments

    If you use email as part of your marketing strategy, deliverability is probably among your top concerns. After all, emails need to arrive in the inbox before they can effectively generate leads. Unfortunately, there are a few gaffes that can cost you when you send your next email marketing message.

    Here of the top three mistakes:

    1. Sending to an Old List

    It’s tough to let go of people on your email list but the consequence of sending to people who haven’t heard from you in over six months is quite severe. If you email 1,000 people and two hit the “Report Spam” button, the odds of your other emails being delivered drops drastically. Yes, it’s that serious! The 0.1% industry guideline is mandated from ISPs and burdened by email service providers.

    To overcome this, do NOT email people you have not had recent contact with (we’re talking longer than six months). Email permission typically expires after about nine months and spam complaints go up exponentially after six months. Alternatively, you can use a reconnect campaign via direct mail like a postcard or letter to help “ignite” their permission again. Permission is key.

    2. Sending the Wrong Message at the Wrong Time

    Over the years, small business users grow comfortable sending to their entire list. This can irritate recipients who don’t want every single announcement from your business. What do these people do when they receive a poorly-targeted/timed message? They unsubscribe and report spam. Tough love, eh? This isn’t the time for list scrubbing – it’s the time for targeted, segmented and truly relevant messages to be delivered to your recipients.

    The solution is to narrow your broadcasts to smaller groups in your database. Leverage technology that allows you to segment the interest, needs and previous activity of your subscribers so you only send to the ones who expect your email and are interested in getting specific and targeted information from you.

    3. Infrequent, Inconsistent Contact

    Similar to above, sending infrequent, unexpected emails to your subscribers can be just as damaging as sending too often. Email recipients often expect to be notified on a monthly basis, maybe more or less frequent depending on your expectations when they opted-in. Exercise discipline when maintaining a quality email relationship with your subscribers.

    If you plan on changing your email delivery schedule, let them know. Some marketers allow subscribers to self-segment into “Daily,” “Weekly” or “Monthly” communications. This reduces spam complaints and allows recipients to receive messages when they want them (not when you do).

    A Costly Mistake

    The cost of making these email mistakes will vary by the type of business you have. Undoubtedly, it will often cost you valuable email relationships as people unsubscribe. If you don’t adhere to best practices, your email service provider could drop you for spam.

    There is a laundry list of to-dos and don’t-dos out there but it really comes down to one thing: respect. Respect your subscribers’ needs and interests and they will reciprocate. These top three mistakes small business email marketers do are often overlooked until after they’ve shot themselves in the foot. Consider this advice before you send your next email marketing broadcast.

    To learn more about email marketing best practices, download a free report about Email Marketing 2.0.

  • 6 Ways to Let Google Optimize Your Business

    Posted Aug 25th, 2010 By in Google, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media With | 3 Comments

    It’s easy to take the idea of search engine optimization for granted. Yeah, the marketing landscape is abuzz with all things SEO today, but did you even know what the term “search engine optimization” meant ten years ago? The term has no doubt covered a lot of ground in a short period of time.

    But let’s forget about SEO for a brief moment (gasp!). Trust me, it’ll be OK.

    We spend a lot of time and money trying to make our businesses look good to Google. Maybe it’s time we listen to what Google already likes about our business and do something about that.

    “What the hell does that mean?” Let me explain via a personal experience.

    Shortly after I started blogging a few years ago, I experienced a less-than-optimal situation at my local gym. With one post, I ranted about it. Soon thereafter, I decided to try to be a small part of the solution instead, so I wrote a post filled with my own gym marketing tips. It was a short-lived and somewhat related departure from my normal topics (namely, marketing leadership), so I immediately returned to my regularly scheduled programs.

    Here’s the deal: I’m not a gym marketing expert. I have expertise in certain areas of marketing, and I have frequented lots of gyms over the years, but I’ve never really combined the two. I was simply just giving my unsolicited advice on how gym owners could make things work a little better.

    However, Google doesn’t quite see it this way. In Google’s eyes, I’m an authority on just about any phrase related to gym marketing. I get a minimum of 20 visits a day from people looking specifically for gym marketing tips. It wasn’t my plan, and it wasn’t on purpose. I’m not sure if the post is constructed well or if it’s simply a void niche, but Google has decided what I have to say on this topic matters.

    Which got me thinking ….

    How to Leverage Surprising Inbound Keyword Phrases

    Let’s face it: expertise is in the eye of the beholder. If Google thinks I know what I’m talking about, and comments and emails and other analytics confirm that I know what I’m talking about, then maybe I know what I’m talking about. But how do I take advantage of such an unexpected gift?

    I don’t know the answer to this question, but my pondering has led me to these six options, and I’d love to hear more.

    1. Accept advertising for the specific post. Any niche is going to have its major players. If Google’s looking to you when it comes to certain keywords, then these top dogs probably should, too. If you’re entire site isn’t dedicated to the topic, then run-of-site advertising probably doesn’t make sense to them. But an ad per post probably would. Email them and make them aware of the traffic you’re pulling for specific keyword phrases, and then give them a price. You could do banners or simple text links. This is probably the easiest and most immediate way to leverage this traffic. In my example, I could go find software programs for gyms or even authors who write on the topic of gym marketing.
    2. Build your list. Forget cash, at least directly. Build your email list or subscriber level with a special, targeted call to action within the post. Or set up an autoresponder that expands on the specific topic. Then, hopefully, your delivery of valuable content over time will build trust, which in turn could lead to business.
    3. Create an information product. eBooks, white papers, videos, automated presentations, video, podcast, whatever. If your ideas on the niche have legs, let ‘em loose by creating a more robust information product. You could give it away and leverage the list-building and linking to your site as your form of currency, or you could sell these items at a reasonable price. Just be sure to link the title of the product to the keywords that are most often bringing people to the site. Might as well give them exactly what they’re looking for.
    4. Use affiliate links that make sense. Whether you’re keeping it easy with a simple Amazon.com affiliate program or something a little more robust with a service like Commission Junction, affiliates oftentimes take a lot of the grunt work out of selling. Find some products that fit your niche and just post them. Or you could find creators of products that would make sense for you to peddle and offer to set up an affiliate program for them. Then everybody’s winning.
    5. Manufacture your own hard good. Go ahead and go old school. Make an actual, tangible product, be it a book, a widget or whatever. No need to feel confined to the online space if an offline product is what people are looking for.
    6. Build a company around it. If you’re really feeling ballsy, and if the niche is really ripe for the picking, and if you’re passionate about the niche, then maybe there’s a business waiting for you here. Just be careful: opportunities like this are great at taking your focus off of what you’re really good at it. Make sure you enjoy centering your business around this new niche, or else you’ll be miserable.

    Remember to harness and harvest the gifts that Google gives you every single day. Google will let you know where you really stick out. If you can figure out a way to leverage it, you’re a step ahead.

    I have no idea which of the above ideas I’ll move forward with, if any. If you were me, what would you do? What other ideas do you have for ways to leverage surprising niche keyword traffic?

    Guest Author: Brett Duncan offers common sense for marketing leaders at his blog, MarketingInProgress.com. He spends his days as Senior Director of Global Online Solutions for Mannatech, and his nights chasing a crazy little boy around the house in between brief moments of cheering on the Texas Rangers. He lives in Irving, Texas. Sign up for his free newsletter now if you like practical, thought-provoking marketing tips.

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