Ten Tips for Best Email Results

10 great tips on how to be the best at email marketing

Probably the best advice is to put yourself in your recipient’s position. Go to your email inbox and look at which messages you read, which ones you don’t even open because they make you think ‘spam’ and which ones go straight into your junk folder - then use that information to help you design your campaigns.

Don't do what spammers do and keep your messages simple and short!

Using Social Media in B2B Marketing

Read how a technology marketer used Social media as an immediate, cost-effective way to reach their niche audience and bring qualified visitors back to their website. Making web traffic the major contributory of leads and pipeline activity!

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30946&pop=no

Top newsletter subject lines

MarketingSherpa have analysed subject lines from the past 12 months pulling out the top 10 and bottom 10 subject lines based on both clickthroughs and click-to-open ratio. The four biggest takeways they found are:

1. Show value in the first two words - convey the intended benefit "Top 12,” “Simple Email,” “6 Actions” and “Your Copy”. These all inform the user their *getting an actionable item*.
2. Find the right ‘trigger words’ - a name, the use of numbers, the number of characters in the subject line (30-40 characters), the use of an industry phrase, or the appearance of an unusual word.
3. Watch the hard sell - asking subscribers to do something rather than showing value reduces opens and CTRs. Provide value in the subject line and promote in the email content.
4. Hot brands work across sectors - Getting a hot brand (e.g. Facebook) into that crucial two-word window can turn a good email performance into a better one.

See the full article here:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30938&pop=no

Search-based Keyword Tool

The new Google Search-based Keyword Tool helps you get a better sense of what your potential customers are searching for and which keywords you should advertise on. It provides keyword ideas:

• Based on actual Google search queries


• Matched to specific pages of your website with your ad and search share


• New to your Adwords account (typically excluding keywords matching those already in your account)

Helping you identify additional advertising opportunities that aren't currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns.



The Search-based Keyword Tool is now available to all advertisers in the US and UK. Try it out at http://www.google.com/sktool

The right time of the day to send emails

MarketingExperiments tested emails sends at diffetrent times of the day and found:

- Emails sent before 9 a.m. dramatically lift clickthrough rates.
- Early-bird execs on the East Coast respond to email before their workday begins.
- Time-zone segments are worth testing for marketers with international lists.

Shift from Offline and Brand to Online and Direct Tactics during economic downturn

In today's economic climate, marketers need to accurately predict, measure and optimize tactical results pushing the industry toward direct and online answers.

According to MarketingSherpa: "only 12% of marketers predict increases to traditional budgets compared to 31% who expect online increases. More importantly, perhaps, this roughly balances out those predicting reductions. There’s more good news for online marketing, as larger companies are somewhat more likely than the average to plan increases as budget is reallocated from more expensive offline efforts".

Dropping registration barriers increases awareness by almost 50%

Dropping registration barriers, such as data capture forms, can triple the number of people who download your content. If the content is good, they will pass it onto collegues so you could potentially educate 50% more prospects. If 48 more people are educated, how many more interested leads do you think you could get?

A tip to getting data capture from a nurtured lead: Give them the registration free content and tell them if they want more white papers / case studies / best practice guides visit your website landing page. If you ask for their data at this stage, they'll be more than happy to give it!

Increasing Online Advertising ROI

7 top design tactics to increase click through rates:

Are you a methodical, spontaneous or competitive persona?

Customers can be split into different persona's - understanding a customer's inner diolog allows you to design an experience that addresses customer concerns in context of that dialog.

There are people that make decisions logically and those who base them on emotion. Also, those who decide quickly, and those who take their time.

Websites should be carefully constructed to persuade these different personas to lead someone intuitively to the information they need - see persuasion pathways.

Viral Marketing : Patterns of Sucess

The best viral campaigns appear to follow the same patterns:

http://www.shipsbiscuit.com/2008/07/11/viral-marketing-god-patterns-in-viral-marketing/

e-coupons - % Off or £ Off?

An eretailer did a simple A/B split test using different ecoupon offers and found:

• $50-Off Coupon generated 170% more revenue than the 15%-Off Coupon.
• $50-Off Coupon had 72% higher conversion rate.
• The 15%-Off Coupon did generate an average order size that was 44% higher.

See the full Marketing Sherpa case study here: Dollars-Off Coupon Gets 170% More Revenue: 2 Simple A/B Test Steps

9 best practices for optimising one-off emails

9 best practices for optimising one-off emails

1. Timing is Everything - B2C weekends, B2B weekdays
2. Keep Subject Lines Short and use numbers and details
3. No Scrolling
4. Split test subject lines, copy, landing pages, offers
5. Use Your Competitor as a Pilot Fish - use their lists
6. The List Owner is Your Friend - ask what the list respond to
7. Get a Copywriter
8. Beware of List Fatigue
9. Ask Where New List Members Come From
10. Bonus Tip: Top Link, Bottom Link

How to Measure Website Engagement

Engagement Calculation (Ci + Ri + Di + Li + Bi + Fi + Ii)

The calculation relies on 7 metrics, each one an index that represents an engagement factor. They all depend on the variable “n” - you set for each variable to make the calculation relevant to your business.

1. Ci: Click Depth Index = % of sessions a visitor clicks deeply into your website.
   # sessions more than “n” page views / total sessions by the user
2. Ri: Recency Index = % of sessions that a visitor returns in a set time.
   # sessions more than “n” page views that occurred in the past “n” weeks / total sessions by the user
3. Di: Duration Index = # visitor’s sessions that exceed a set time.
   # sessions longer than “n” minutes / total by the user.
4. Li: Loyalty Index = 1 if the user has come to the site more than “n” times during past "n" weeks (otherwise scored as 0).
5. Bi: Brand Index = % sessions a visitor arrives as the result of a branded action.
   # sessions that have no referring URL or are initiated by an external search for a branded term / total sessions by the user.
6. Fi: Feedback Index = % sessions that a visitor provides feedback.
   # sessions where the visitor gave direct feedback /total sessions by the user.
7. Ii: Interaction Index = % sessions that a visitor completes a “mini-conversion”
   # sessions where a user completed one of any specific tracked events / total # sessions by the user.

Engagement score % = (Ci + Ri + Di + Li + Bi + Fi + Ii) / 7 x 100.

10 Fast Fixes to Generate and Nuture More Leads

How to genrate more leads:

1. Check your website searchs - what are the top 10-25 search terms conducted by prospects when on your website? Use this to get to know the terminology your prospects use and ensure it is used on your home page etc.


2. Get more speaking arrangments - cheap opportunities to get high quality leads. Identify who has something interesting to say e.g. new research, top 10 dos / dont's etc.


3. Generate more interaction from your blog - a) Add a subscribtion box to get blog entry by email b) Add contact info - signature line to bottom of every post c) Promote free PDF /ebook d) Add a search box e) Make 'Older posts' easy to find.


4. Separate Search vs. Contextual ad accounts - different media (search vs direct advertising) so prospects have different motivations - require different message, copy and creative. Search = factual vs. contextual = attention grabbing.


5. Take a quiz offer - gain info and generate targeted sales leads.


6. Drop registration barriers - more downloads = more education and brand awareness. Once interested offer them a good call to action with registration e.g. three more white papers, free evaluation etc = qualified prospect.

Nuturing leads into sales:

1. Make welcome emails more interactive - also include 'send an invitation to a collegue', 'toolbar to download', 'customer support' etc.


2. Immeadiate telemarketing follow up calls - when online expect instant response so follow up online form fill within 5 minutes = 80% likely to close (30mins = 10%, 1 hour = 2%, 24h = -20%).


3. Add postal mail - stick value longer than email and more likely to be read.


4. Start an audio testimonial library - support sales team to clode deals. Use a 3rd party reporter to conduct an in depth interview for everything a prospect would want to know about the company - create a transcript, audio and details library.


5. Identify & schmooze evangelists - identify key influencer and help them present your solution e.g. create buyers kit with emails, presentation etc.

MarketingSherpa B-to-B Presentation - Top 10 Marketing Fast Fixes + How to Generate and Nurture More Qualified Leads: PowerPoints, MP3 and Transcript

Demonstrate excellence and competency through video advertising

Great Online Video Advertising is Authentic, Engaging and Actionable

People who seek information online are looking for authentic content they can trust and use to make educated decisions.

Online Video is its own medium. It provides a personal, emotional connection that is great to give service providers the opportunity to develop trust.

Authenticity and information are critical in ensuring viewers aren't disappointed in their decision to view the video.

Video advertising with poor production quality or uninspiring content creates a negative brand experience.

Do's and Don'ts of Online Video Advertising

Correlating Rich Media Interactions to Results

DoubleClick’s Spotlight for Rich Media enables digital marketers to correlate individual rich media metrics like interactions, expansions, multiple click-throughs and video plays directly to conversion activities on your website.

This insight can be used to optimise the effectiveness of specific graphical and interactive elements and measure ROI of rich media campaigns.

Junk and Adult Content filters work by looking for key words

Microsoft Junk email filters work by looking for the following key words:

Junk E-mail Filter
First 8 characters of From are digits
Subject contains "advertisement"
Body contains "money back "
Body contains "cards accepted"
Body contains "removal instructions"
Body contains "extra income"
Subject contains "!" AND Subject contains "$"
Subject contains "!" AND Subject contains "free"
Body contains ",000" AND Body contains "!!" AND Body contains "$"
Body contains "Dear friend"
Body contains "for free?"
Body contains "for free!"
Body contains "Guarantee" AND (Body contains "satisfaction" OR Body contains "absolute"
Body contains "more info " AND Body contains "visit " AND Body contains "$"
Body contains "SPECIAL PROMOTION"
Body contains "one-time mail"
Subject contains "$$"
Body contains "order today"
Body contains "order now!"
Body contains "money-back guarantee"
Body contains "100% satisfied"
To contains "friend@"
To contains "public@"
To contains "success@"
From contains "sales@"
From contains "success."
From contains "success@"
From contains "mail@"
From contains "@public"
From contains "@savvy"
From contains "profits@"
From contains "hello@"
Body contains " mlm"
Body contains "@mlm"
Body contains "///////////////"
Body contains "check or money order"

Adult Content Filter
Subject contains " xxx"
Subject contains "over 18"
Subject contains "over 21"
Subject contains "adult s"
Subject contains "adults only"
Subject contains "be 18"
Subject contains "18+"
Body contains "over 18"
Body contains "over 21"
Body contains "must be 18"
Body contains "adults only"
Body contains "adult web"
Body contains "must be 21"
Body contains "adult en"
Body contains "18+"
Subject contains "erotic"
Subject contains "adult en"
Subject contains " sex"
Body contains " xxx "
Body contains " xxx!"
Subject contains "free" AND Subject contains "adult"
Subject contains "free" AND Subject contains "sex"

Having trouble viewing this message?

Thanks to preview panes, image-blocking and Outlook's Autopreview, the first /only line readers see in an email could be the negative statement: "Having trouble viewing this message? Click here".

Email labs, suggest you "Put more value in your top line" and use this most valuable real estate to give a better incentive for the reader to scroll into the email or click to the Web version. They suggest you rewrite your top line each time so that it reiterates your value proposition or specifies the benefit in the message:

Offer-oriented message: "(Customer name), if you are unable to properly view your email to receive free shipping on your order, view the online version (URL) or enter promotional code ABCD1234 through August 27th to receive your special savings."

Newsletter: "Scroll down to read why open rates don't really matter, or click to see it on our Web site (URL)."

It adds a minute of work each time you create a message, but it it's a very good idea!