Email Marketing

• Strategy, Methodology
• Targeting your audience
• Crafting your message
• Follow-up and metrics 

The state of the inbox: Overloaded! 

Most businesses and marketers realize one of the cheapest methods of contacting clients. 

Can be acquisition tool, but more of a nurturing tool

Move prospect along a path towards conversion

Great retention tool, keep yourself in front of client with minimal effort

Keep in touch, show you care

 

Must distinguish when you are inside the inbox

Users delete emails faster than bouncing a website., esp. if they are looking at emails on their hand held mobile device, blackberry, iPhone, palm, etc

 

Email like SEO, is a science 

Many factors to get just right to win people over, requires control group, variable testing, careful use of From, subject, offer, content/variables, time of days, platforms, etc

 

Must segment data, not every email right, how to leverage social media?

Email must, best way to keep clients; touch points

Offering them something of interest

Surveys to know your marketing

Use metrics to gain insight and sell better

Use email to create follow up since often it may take 5-7 touch pts to sell/convert

Email to drive online or to offline channels or to action like webinar, trade shows, white papers, etc

 

The emphasis will be on bottom line results, ROI.  Getting high readership is critical but part of the program should include encouraging other behaviors such as subscribing to a service, taking a survey, participating in an event, driving them to a web page, referring an associate, or attending an event.

 

What’s your biggest challenge besides getting new business?  

1) Getting easy new business and

2) retaining your existing business clients.

 

What’s the reality:  It’s impossible for you and your staff to make a face to face visit every year, let alone 2 or 4x per year.  Even calling each one of your clients per day is tough.

 

Most businesses are not unique, in that the same basic product or service is available elsewhere. A large percentage of them (85-95%) offer similar prices the table. Most relationships with clients start out “hot and heavy.” They were drawn by promises of great prices, excellent service, wide selection, ability to come through in a crisis, and other. But over time, many customers fall through the cracks. Some repeat customers may purchase only one of what you’re selling when they could buy more. Need can drive them to buy more, or come back. But salesmanship is more important for long term success. And the Web is your point of contact for your new media sales team.

 

One of our clients, an insurance broker, increased their up sales of car insurance, health, life insurance, short term disability, long term disability, boat insurance, key man insurance, business insurance and more to customers who previously only purchased one or two policies. The same tools that helped boost up selling helped reconnect them with past customers, an important revenue source considering the research shows the insurance industry typically has a 9% annual attrition rate.

 

Do the math. What’s the attrition rate in your business, your industry? What’s your average sale?  What if you could combine a reversal of that attrition rate along with an increase in up selling? Your website and integrated marketing plan should be doing that. It should be helping you grow, and retain your client base.

 

Testing groups, variable analysis, multiple offerings, comparisons of text vs. graphics, spam filtering, analysis of repeat customers, special offerings to best customers and much more are part of any such search engine optimization or Web strategy. A monthly “Blast” that some companies send out, hoping people buy, can’t be can be supported scientifically, nor is it a good use of your money.