FREEDyourMind

Email Marketing: Best Practices

In a recent post, I mentioned that our research at ForeSee Results shows pretty convincingly that email marketing is still the most effective paid tool that online marketers have at their disposal (more effective than traditional or advertising, social media, search engine marketing, etc.)

So I thought I'd share these 11 best practices for email marketing published in iMedia by eROI's Ryan Buchanan. It's a very tactical approach and includes some sound advice. Check it out.

I'd add this to Ryan's 11th point, "Test it and Tune it..." Beyond A/B testing, you can actually use voice of customer to evaluate the success or failure of an email campaign. This type of evaluation goes beyond just the normal click through and conversion statistics, but helps you get an understanding on the longer term and broader reach impact of an email campaign.  More importantly, VOC can identify specific ways to improve email marketing so that you get better results based on what kind of behavior you're hoping to elicit. Want people to buy more as a result of emails? Visit the store? Open an account? Subscribe to a loyalty program? Voice of customer can pinpoint what kinds of changes will make those behaviors more and less likely to happen.

An example: we worked with a e-retailer who had 20 million people subscribed to their email newsletters, with above-average open rates in the range of 20-30%. They coupons in the newsletters drive millions of dollars in in-store sales, but the newsletters also included quite a bit of content that this retailer thought would be relevant to its loyal subscribers.

We segmented the newsletter subscribers into two groups: those that wanted content and those that wanted coupons. Four out of five subscribers said they visit a store because of the coupon while only two of five visited a store because of the content in the newsletters. A lot of companies would stop there and assume that resources should allocated disproportionately to coupons and away from newsletter content.

Instead, this company went further and determined that newsletter subscribers who liked content were far more likely to actually buy something. The data showed them that they needed to make content more prominent in the newsletters while also keeping the coupons. A reduced focus on content in the email marketing could have been a terrible mistake.

So make the most of email marketing. I promise it still works (for now at least!) despite the naysayers who are eager to proclaim its demise because they think everyone is on Facebook instead of on email.

Blogging Oblivion: Bloglivion?

TypePad has an article up called 10 Ways to Find New Blog Topics. I looked at it because I thought I better see what it was all about before I made fun of it.

But seriously, if you have to read an article to come up with ideas of things to blog about, you are probably not interesting enough to need a blog. But hey, some of you may argue I'm not interesting enough to have a blog! Hopefully a few of my ideas keep you coming back...

I'm sure my marketing department or a social media strategist would tell you that you have to blog x times per day or x times per week for maximum value. But if you don't have anything to say, don't blog! Do not sit at your desk and stare at a blank screen and think, "hmmmmm... I wonder what I should blog about today. I think I'll go review my outgoing email (an actual tip provided by Type Pad on the theory that everyone says at least one interesting thing a week in email)."

I have a feeling my favorite B2B bloggers are limited mainly by time and not by ideas. I bet they see 10 articles a day that spark an idea that they want to blog about but just don't have time for. I bet they have 10 conversations with colleagues a week, hear 10 news stories, etc. I bet there is rarely a time when they find themselves with time to blog and nothing to say.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on the B2B bloggers of the world. For those of you that blog: do you struggle to come up with ideas? Maybe if I were a blogger who posted 10 posts a day, I would need tips on how to get ideas for blog posts. As for me, I have more ideas than time, and I'd think if that ratio switched, it might be time to start blogging a little less.

Thoughts?

"Movin' on up"

ForeSee Results is "movin' on up" to the north side.  The north side of Ann Arbor that is. 

Trivia Question: What 70's TV show is the phrase "movin' on up" from?  And for bonus points, what TV show was this show a spin off from?

We are excited about our move this weekend at ForeSee Results.  We moved from the South Side of Ann Arbor to the North Side of Ann Arbor.  We moved because our growth has continued and we had run out of space at our current facility.  We moved to a great building that more then doubles our current square footage and will allow us to continue to grow (without making people sit on top of each other).  And I am happy to say the move is happening without a glitch -- thanks to a great team of folks who have been working tirelessly on the move. 

If you are in the area, make sure you stop by and say hi!  Our phone numbers (and of course our emails) are the same. 

Has Unemployment Bottomed Out?

Have we hit the bottom?    Many people believe we don't start moving forward until we start getting people back to work.

52% of 245 large U.S. employers surveyed in February have already done layoffs and 56% have instituted hiring freezes.  Both of these numbers are up from December's numbers of 39% doing layoffs and 47% with hiring freezes.  This is according to a Watson Wyatt survey. 

Now the good news from the survey.  Only 13% of companies surveyed are expecting to do more layoffs.  This is down from 23% in December.  And only 10% are expecting to institute hiring freezes in the future compared to 18% in December.  So maybe we have hit the bottom and are starting to move things in the right direction  --  or at least, the slide downward is slowing

I am very happy to report that at ForeSee Results we are still growing and still hiring!

Where Do You Spend Your Time Online?

Nielsen Online recently came out with a survey showing that social media has eclipsed email in terms of where people spend their time online. Time spent on social networking sites now accounts for almost 10% of all Internet time (not from 9 to 5, right? Right!) and is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest online sectors (search, portals, PC software and email),

1. Search : 89.5%

2. General interest (portals and communities): 85.2%

3. Software manufacturers: 73.4%

4. Member communities (social networks and blogs): 66.8%

5. Email: 65.1%

However, this may be another area where Nielsen has some blinders on about the importance of time spent. A 2008 study performed by IDC found that 43% of social network users never clicked on ads, and only 11% of those who did actually purchased anything.

So people are spending more time there, but how do you harness that fact and convert it into information that impacts the bottom line?

Our research of the top e-retailers consistently shows year-after-year and month-after-month that the two things that STILL drive the best quality traffic are 1) a previous satisfying experience with the brand and 2) email promotions. What do I mean by the best quality traffic? The people who are mostly likely to buy, return, and recommend.

Social networks are hugely important and becoming increasingly so. But 3% of online shoppers say that social media influenced their visit, whereas 28% were influenced by an email promotion and 40% by a previous satisfying experience with a brand. So, you know, keep it in perspective.

Is Securing Access To Our Websites Locking Us Out?

I just had an interesting experience today trying to access my credit card online.  When logging on I got prompted to set up a "security shield".  Now, that sounds like a good thing.   But after answering a number of questions, picking an image and a sound, I can only imagine that this security shield will most likely end up shielding me from my own account. 

Is this really the best answer we can come up with?  There must be a better way to secure our access to critical and private information on the Internet.  What about security tokens, password challenge devices and other technology solutions.  Now, we don't want to end up with a situation where we have a token for each site we access, but can you imagine how simple (and secure) things would be if we had a token that could work with any website?  No more questions about our favorite pet, etc.

It is time for industry standardization of a more secure and more user friendly solution.

Perception is Better Then Reality

I had an interesting conversation at an industry event a short while ago that is worth sharing.  To protect the innocent, let's use the name Sam.  Sam was questioning the value of voice of customer analytics.  His premise was "why do I care what they say, I care what they do.  Satisfaction, attitude and perception are soft and fluffy.  Give me hard data that I can rely on, clicks, hits, page views, conversion rates and sales."

My answer -- perception is reality, better yet, perception is better then reality.

Well, what do you think?  Which is correct?

Let's dive a little deeper.  I can understand where Sam is coming from.  Real numbers are good.  I know when I am looking at our financials I want real numbers, not opinions and perceptions.  I know when I am looking at the shrinking stock market, I want real numbers, not excuses and opinions.  So why do I want perceptions, intent, attitudes and opinions when talking about something as important as the success of my website. 

There is more to the visitor then today.  There is tomorrow - what the visitor will do in the future - will they return, recommend my site to others, will they be loyal?  There has been a lot of work done in years past on the lifetime value of a customer.  That is an important concept. 

What the visitor will do in the future is directly dependent on their perception of the experience today.

The visitor may have bought today.  But will they buy tomorrow?  If they were satisfied they will. If they were not satisfied they won't buy from you in the future - they will go elsewhere.  The visitor's perception of the experience (their satisfaction) will determine what they do in the future.  Their perception of the experience is far more important then the actual and factual experience.

Ramblings from Etail

I was at the Etail conference in Phoenix last week.

Some observations:

• Almost 400 retailers attended - not a bad number.  But keep in perspective there were probably almost as many vendors as retailers.
• Not as many attendees as last year.  Not a big surprise based on the economy.
• A lot of folks that I haven't seen before at an online retail conference (etail, shop.org or Internet Retailer).  It is good to see new faces and new companies attending.
• Also some new vendors...and some vendors we are used to seeing weren't there.   
• Some great content...although not all sessions were at the same level.
• I loved Jessica Tsai's running commentary on Twitter of the sessions.  A great use of Twitter, following along the sessions and making the sessions a little more interactive (in a tech, geeky kind of way).  Although, it today's world, every "online" conference should provide free wi-fi in the conference area.
• It is always fun to talk with James Samford of Citi Investment Research and get his insight on the online retail economy.
• I didn't catch every session, but a few that I liked:
  • Kevin Ertell gave us a great overview of what he had done at Borders - some very cutting edge stuff.  And he provided a good rundown of some good technologies out there.
  • Noah Maffitt from LiveNation is always interesting to hear from.  
  • A good panel on allocating resources with Michael Cooper from Home Depot, Laura Christine from Skechers, Jamey Maki from Golfsmith, Vicki Updike from Miles Kimball and Fiona Dias from GSI Commerce.
• As always there was plenty of time for good networking.
• And we hosted a great dinner for some friends of ForeSee Results. 

And of course there is the weather.  Nothing like mid 80's and sunny, especially when coming from the frigid Midwest.