Email marketing on a budget #3 Quick wins + simple targeting

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business successSo you know why you want to do email marketing and you've grasped some basic requirements.

Now let's explore some of the low-hanging fruit that doesn't require big buck investment. In particular, can you target your message better without getting into "advanced dynamic content" and expensive "database solutions"?

Our panel of experts offers some answers...

1. Just do it and stay committed


As Justin Premick, Education Marketing Manager at AWeber so eloquently puts it:

"The lowest-hanging fruit is getting an email campaign together in the first place."

The point is to start and not to wait until you have the world's most comprehensive email marketing system in place.

Michael Katz of Blue Penguin Development suggests an initial focus on your existing relationships:

"Worry less about getting the world to pay attention and first make sure you're in regular contact with your colleagues, customers, clients and others with whom you have a connection."

Dan Forootan, CEO of StreamSend continues the connection theme:

"Focus efforts on connecting with customers, rather than pushing products or services. Ask the customer to communicate back. After all, email is one of the few marketing channels that offers true two-way communication. Using surveys, sending newsletters, or highlighting special events help customers feel more connected to an organization."

Even those competitors who are exploiting the potential of email often let things slide. Which is an opportunity. Steve Adams, Vice President Marketing for Campaigner, notes:

"Make a calendar of campaigns and stick to it."

And he receives vocal support from Raj Khera, CEO of MailerMailer, who adds:

"Be regular: don't send a newsletter now and then wait six months before sending something else."

2. Look to simple opportunities to expand your address list


As Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse notes:

"You can always improve upon a campaign, but if the number of recipients is dwindling, it doesn't really matter."

So while working on what you send is paramount, don't forget to cover all obvious sources of new subscribers. Which means a sign-up opportunity on every page of your website.

But don't stop there. Justin Premick reminds us that anytime there's an interaction with a client, customer or prospect, there's a potential list building moment. So keep paper sign-up forms handy at checkouts, meetings and events.

3. Include a web version


Justin also notes that "...many Email Service Providers can host your emails on a page of their site." This lets you put a link to the "web version" right at the top of your email.

Why do this?

Email software, mobile devices and webmail interfaces can do strange things to an email's display. The "web version" is a safe alternative any reader can turn to if need be.

Also put up archives of your emails where the information is relatively evergreen. It makes good site content, attracts search engine attention and provides evidence of the value of a subscription for those wavering about submitting their email address.

4. Targeting


Obviously you want your emails to be as relevant as possible to recipients. But the cost of expensive targeting tools sometimes intimidates business folk, who then abandon the idea of targeting entirely.

You don't need expensive tools to begin sending more relevant emails to your list.

As Justin says:

"There's a lot of ground between untargeted "spray and pray" emailing and dynamic, tightly segmented campaigns."

Here some alternatives that even very basic email marketing software or services should let you do...

4a Targeting - treat new subscribers differently


Each new subscriber should get an automatic welcome email before the regular emails begin arriving. Justin suggests taking that concept a step further:

"New subscribers often need more education about your company, your products and how you differ from competitors than established subscribers do."

"A well-developed "welcome series" of emails can educate and qualify subscribers before you go for the sale in your "regular" promotions."

4b Targeting - treat inactive subscribers differently


Your campaign reports let you see who never appears to click on your emails. It's worth isolating those addresses and thinking how you might recapture their attention.

Justin offers an example:

"A simple email to non-responsive subscribers that asks if they have any questions that you can answer stands out from the all the promotional content they (apparently) breeze past in their inboxes...just be helpful and try to find out what you can do to create better campaigns."

Janine Popick agrees and also suggests turning the concept around to reward the active subscribers:

"If you've got access to your openers and clickers from recently sent campaigns, those are people who in general have more interest. Target those recipients with your offers. Conversely if you've got people that have never responded, give them your best offer ever, and target those specifically."

4c Targeting - use sign-up information and your reports


A simple targeting technique is to split your main list into smaller lists, where each sublist (segment) shares an important common characteristic. Then you use that knowledge to send relevant emails to each group.

Raj Khera explains:

"For example, a retailer who sells both men and women's clothing might send different coupons based on the recipient's gender."

"You can also target messages geographically. If you hold events in various regions throughout the country, send your message to recipients who live within a 50 mile radius of the venue's zip code."

"Segmenting your list this way is fairly simple and only requires you to ask one or two questions when the subscriber signs up"

Steve Adams agrees, noting:

"No matter what business you're in, gathering subscriber profile information beyond name and email address from the get go and then using that information to segment your lists is one of the easiest ways to improve campaign performance."

Dan Forootan adds:

"Using data such as age, gender, geographic location, previous purchase can all help the sender to target its content to smaller groups who are more likely to welcome the message. "

The data you use to build you segments need not only come from the info you collect in sign-up forms. Steve Adams suggests you ask for additional information periodically, through email surveys or questionnaires:

"Keep asking, listening closely and getting to know your customers better - then give them what they want when they want it."

He also suggests you look closer at the campaign reports your software or service produces. You can build like-minded segments by grouping folk according to the kind of links they tend to click on.

However, Raj Khera warns that not all low-cost ESPs offer such segmentation tools, "...so you should shop around for one that does."

See Part 4, which discusses how your emails can have more impact and drive more responses than those sent by the well-funded corporate giants.

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[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
Permalink | February 19, 2009 | 0 comment(s) - add yours!
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