Email Marketing: It’s All About the List
by Robin Embry on September 2, 2010 | no comments
in Corporate Communications, Email Marketing, Marketing
In our latest e-newsletter, Ashley discussed how to boost email marketing ROI and stressed the importance of not bombarding your readers’ inboxes with unnecessary messaging. This is so true…especially if you don’t have a quality list. Let’s face it, we’ve all huffed and puffed at emails that show up in our inbox uninvited.
Just this week we worked with one of our clients to straighten out an issue that was brought to our attention by our e-newsletter provider. They received a message from someone off our client’s email distribution list who was slightly disgruntled about receiving unwanted e-blasts.
We typically provide ideas on how to populate quality lists but the list in question was gathered using established methods created by the client, so we immediately worked together to determine how this happened to ensure it didn’t happen again.
During our research we discovered if you ask yourself the following two questions, you will increase your chances of maintaining a quality list.
1. How old is your email list?
I realize an email list grows over time which is why it’s good practice to date stamp all new sign ups/opt ins, etc. in your spreadsheet so you can keep up with how long people have been on your list. If it’s been more than 18 months, consider sending a message that asks if they want to continue receiving your emails.
2. What is the time between consent and first communication?
If someone agrees to accept your information/emails, you can’t expect them to remember you a year later. You should try to respond to that person immediately, but if that’s not possible try to send something within 6-8 weeks.
In addition to the questions above, I also recommend you become familiar with the CAN-SPAM act that provides businesses with a list of “can and can’t dos” in email marketing.
The Power of Hitting “Forward”
by Rosemary Plorin on August 19, 2010 | no comments
in Marketing, Social Media, Viral Marketing
I am not one to “forward.”
I approach the “forward” button in my email software in a manner similar to how I approached Kenny Niles (name changed to protect the innocent) in seventh grade: with a combination of shyness, modesty, uncertainty and nausea.
I’m not sure which of those human conditions affects me the most as my mouse hovers over the sacred “forward,” but it reminds me of grade school every time.
Will someone (anyone?) else think this message I’m about to forward is funny/interesting/poignant/useful?
Am I presumptuous to ask this close friend/family member/colleague to take a minute or two to watch this video/view this slideshow/read this fascinating story/link to this charity?
Do I really want to encourage other people to send me “forwards” by sending them “forwards?”
As a result of this self-doubt (and for a host of other less-paranoid reasons) I don’t often “forward.”
That said, I am a sucker for a good viral campaign – whether it’s planned (like Burger King’s subservient chicken – perhaps my all time favorite) or not (like the Heinz family wedding). I sent the Evian babies to half of my address book; I forwarded the Mayo clinic piano video to the other half. And because I don’t often “forward,” when I do pass one along, you know it’s good. My sister says she trusts my messages are “forward-worthy” even before she opens them.
Viral marketing – even social media, for that matter – is akin to multi-level sales programs.
One good, monumentously creative idea needs only a large handful of initial recipients to “seed” the viral propagation process; from there, every “forward” kicks a benefit back up the email chain to the originators. In fact, if you think about it (or even better, do the math), if each person in a “seed” group of 500 forwards an email to just two other people, your message reaches almost 32,000 recipients in just five rounds of “forwards” (or in the case of Old Spice, your sales message reaches about 4 million viewers in just under a month – without any paid advertising expense). Pepper in the power of Facebook or YouTube and your clever idea penetrates even further.
Granted, not every company on the internet is BlendTec, but if your company is on the internet – if you’re doing enewsletters and maybe Facebook or a company blog – don’t overlook or underestimate the power of leveraging your messages across those media. The potential can be exponential.
What’s the last thing you forwarded?
Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing Open Rates
by Ashley Webb on August 17, 2010 | 1 comment
in Marketing, Measurement, Newsletters and E-Newsletters
Have you invested the time and money on an email campaign that is delivering less than extraordinary results? Racking your brain on ways to improve the open rates of your latest email marketing masterpiece? Well rest assured! I’ve put together a short list of important points that could immensely impact your campaign results. Before hitting the irreversible Send, consider the following:
1. The Subject Line:
- Have your company’s name or your connection with the recipient visible in the subject line.
- Keep the subject line concise – no more than 8 to 10 words.
- Let the recipient know there is valuable information in the message – but don’t give away all the details.
- Make it timely.
- Conduct an experiment by creating two versions of the same message and change only the subject line. Split your audience into two groups and send one subject line to one group and one to the other and see how it affects your open rates.
2. The Design:
- According to MarketingSherpa’s research, more than half of email recipients use a horizontal preview pane; therefore it is important to have the most important information in the top four inches.
- The same survey found that recipients read more of an email’s text if graphics are included near the top – this could be a custom designed stationary or branded masthead.
- Use a font and colors that are easy on the eyes. Simple, intentional font and style choices can help grab and keep your readers’ attention.
3. Distribution:
- Mailings that go out between Tuesday and Thursday typically receive better open rates and results.
- Consider your recipients’ time zone. Avoid sending the email first thing in the morning or late in the evening.
- Always personalize your message.
- Within 8 – 10 days resend the message to recipients who did not open it the first time.
Have you seen a particularly effective email campaign that’s intrigued you lately?
Also, check out some of Jessica’s latest posts about effective email marketing campaigns.
Old Spice Sales Prove Campaign’s Success
by Jan Morrison on August 12, 2010 | no comments
in Advertising, Branding, Measurement
As you now know, I love the Old Spice branding campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa, because all of the elements are funny, smart and speak effectively to its audience. But has the approach worked to increase sales? After all, it is product sales that keep Mr. Mustafa and his chiseled abs around to entertain us.
According to AdWeek and Brandweek, who reviewed data from market researchers Nielsen and SymphonyIRI, the Old Spice campaign has helped Procter & Gamble significantly increase sales of its “man-scented” body products.
Nielsen reports that sales of Old Spice Body Wash have increased by 11 percent within the last year. The speed at which overall product sales have risen since the campaign started in February is even more striking. According to Nielsen, sales increased by 55 percent within the last three months and really jumped by 107 percent within the last month.
Now that we know the campaign worked to increase sales, we can explore how it actually happened.
1. Effective advertising. Wieden + Kennedy is to be commended (and they have by earning several awards) for creating ads that communicate with the target audience with creative messaging. These ads made people laugh, so they told their friends and shared online links to the commercial. This helped consumers rethink the Old Spice brand.
2. Leveraging social media to the nth degree. Wieden + Kennedy didn’t just take their witty commercials and slap them on their website and YouTube, then declare victory. They compiled a team of experts in advertising, marketing, writing and social media to leverage Mustafa and his towel across social media in a way that communicated with the brand’s target audience. This team camped out in a studio for days responding via video to tweets, Facebook messages and YouTube comments from fans in real time and posting them for the public to see. In true “Old Spice Man” fashion, these videos were funny, ridiculous and entertaining. This kept the brand top of mind and raised awareness among the target audience.
3. Brand consistency. The Old Spice Man and his witty bravado are not relegated only to the TV screen. His face and style permeate the Old Spice website and product packaging, as well. This helps consumers connect what they have seen on TV with what they see on their computers and the shelves.
4. Time frame. Old Spice executed all of these steps within a perfect time frame. The commercials and social media endeavors weren’t hard and fast, but they weren’t drawn out either. This helped keep consumers engaged and interested.
5. Brand attachment. All of these elements led to people wanting more of the Old Spice man and his brand of humor. Reddit.com created a voicemail generator without involving Procter & Gamble at all. Now you can have the Old Spice man in your voicemail and help raise brand awareness on behalf of the company. While part of me thinks that Old Spice should have thought of this themselves, I also think that this involvement by an outside organization lends a certain amount of credibility to the brand’s popularity.
Hopefully, this won’t be the last of the Old Spice Man. I hope we see him in more commercials and social media interaction. I hope his burgeoning acting career does not take the Mustafa out of the Old Spice Man.
What do you hope to see next in the campaign?
Brands Successfully Reach Bloggers at BlogHer
by Jessica Turner on August 11, 2010 | 1 comment
in Branding, Marketing, blogs
Last week, I took a few days off of work to attend BlogHer in New York City. BlogHer is the nation’s largest blogging conference for women. It draws more than 2,500 attendees from across the country, as well as some of the world’s largest brands.
Before, during and after BlogHer, many brands have off-site, private events to cultivate relationships with bloggers. I had the opportunity to attend many of these events and was very impressed by the brands’ presentations and creativity. Here is a list of my top five favorite events and why they worked.
Hallmark’s Christmas in August Party: Hallmark held a Christmas party in a hotel penthouse suite that was totally transformed to look like a home decorated for the holidays. It had a Christmas tree, the mantle was decorated, a Santa, gifts, Hallmark cards and ornaments and more. Prior to the event, Hallmark sent its guests purple Christmas hats to bring and wear to the party. The relaxed, homey atmosphere caused many bloggers to stay at the party for an extended period of time, which was a fantastic opportunity for the brand representatives to interact with the guests.
At the event, Hallmark promised to send a package of the brand’s Christmas line. This was well-received because so much swag is given during BlogHer that much is left for the housekeeping staff. This ensured that everyone received the Hallmark products that the company wants to introduce to the bloggers.
Unilever’s Penthouse Party: Like Hallmark, Unilever transformed a penthouse suite to create an experience for the bloggers. The penthouse it reserved was multiple rooms, and every room created a brand experience for the bloggers. One room was like a dressing room and featured a celebrity stylist doing hair using Suave products. Another room was a relaxation suite where bloggers could decorate sandals, have water flavored like dove deodorant scents and receive reflexology and massages. Yet another room was like a large kitchen and dining room, with areas set up to showcase Ragu, Wishbone and PF Changs.
The party was spectacular because of the attention given to each brand. Attending the event truly was an experience – and experiences are what bloggers love and write about. After checking out each room (and getting a “passport” stamped in each), bloggers received a large swag bag filled with Unilever products.
Getting Gorgeous by Audrey McClelland and Vera Sweeney: Audrey and Vera are two popular fashion/entertainment bloggers who came together to create an experience for bloggers to interact with multiple brands. They transformed two hotel suites into two rooms filled with beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands. Remington had celebrity stylists doing hair, Hanes shared about its new bras, Tide demonstrated its new wrinkle release product, MiracleBody gave away jeans to every guest and more.
The event was fabulous because of the opportunity to interact with many brands on an intimate level and because the gifts guests received were items that would be used and talked about. Earrings, jeans, curling irons, etc. – not small items that would be tossed. I wore my jeans on day two of the conference – and talked about them to many people. I was also photographed in them and linked them on my blog. This is what brands want.
ShopAtHome.com Shopping Spree: ShopAtAHome.com is an online shopping portal featuring free catalogs, Free Coupons, Printable Grocery Coupons, Local Store Coupons and Cash Back shopping incentives at more than 3,000 leading online retailers. Prior to the conference, they gave bloggers the opportunity to enter a contest to win a shopping spree in the garment district in New York. 38 bloggers were selected and given $150 each to buy clothes at wholesale prices – a perfect tie-in to the types of deals people receive using ShopAtHome.com. In addition to the shopping spree, the ShopAtHome.com representatives gave each attendee a $25 gift certificate to use on their site. This was a smart way to motivate the bloggers to visit ShopAtHome.com after the conference. The experience was organized, fun, different than a party and well-planned.
The Today Show with Today’s Moms: The Today Show invited about 25 bloggers to come experience a morning at Today on the Thursday before the conference began. The bloggers were invited on the plaza and included in a shot, met several of the hosts, got lots of pictures, were taken in studio and filmed during a segment, saw the control room and had time to get to know one another. This event worked because it was not too big and because Today created a memorable experience for the bloggers.
Here are a few additional brands worth mentioning:
Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project: Liberty Mutual invited a group of about 40 bloggers to experience Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. During the bus ride to Ellis Island, the representatives showed a video about the Responsibility Project and shared its vision. Nothing over-the-top, but very thoughtful, well-planned and memorable.
Ebay Fashion: Ebay Fashion’s booth at the conference included samples of the great clothes and accessories you can find on the site. Their stylists helped guests try on some items and then a photographer did a mini fashion shoot. Very fun.
Tide: Tide invited bloggers to one of several small dinners they hosted at a fabulous New York restaurant. These dinners had less than 20 people at each and allowed Tide’s representatives to really cultivate relationships with the invited bloggers. Very impressive and unusual.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Company Blog
by Allison Russo on August 5, 2010 | no comments
in Corporate Blogs, Social Media, blogs
A recent HubSpot study of 1,531 small and medium sized businesses reports that companies with a blog have 55% more website visitors than their counterparts. Of note, company blogs also drive factors that influence search engine optimization (SEO). For example, of the surveyed businesses, those that blog generate 97% more inbound links from related websites and 434% more indexed pages than businesses that choose not to blog.
With statistics like these, the question is, ‘To blog or not to blog?’ But your answer may depend on the tactics you are ready to employ. Perhaps the operative question is, ‘How do you drive traffic and keep readers coming back once you have created a blog?’ There is no single answer but here are few tactics emerging as best practices:
Blog often and provide great content. This is the key to building an audience. It’s also great for SEO. Content is indexed with each posting and, thus, information about your company moves up in search engine prioritization.
Use numerical or ‘How To’ headlines. These cues tell readers that a posting will be a quick and informative read.
Link to your blog in your email signature. Every email you send will increase the opportunities for visits to your blog.
Link to the blog in your eNewsletter. Refer to past blog postings when the newsletter includes related content.
Send personal emails about postings you think will be of interest to particular people. Your contacts are more likely to read the posting when you personally reach out and highlight the relevance of a particular posting.
Invite well-known personalities to guest blog. Offset your workload by bringing in a ringer. While you are at it, ask the guest blogger to link to their posting on their own blog and social media platforms. This will increase the credibility of your blog and bring your content to the attention of new readers.
Partake in a blogroll exchange. Reach out to likeminded bloggers and suggest that they include your link in their blogroll. According to blog etiquette and best practices you should also return the favor.
Respond to all comments. It is important to let readers know that you appreciate their feedback.
Be a little bit controversial. You set your blog apart from the crowd when you express a different point of view on a hot industry topic and also demonstrate that you have unique expertise. As an added bonus, personality tends to attract more readers and more frequent visits to your site.
Leave comments on other industry blogs. Offer intelligent feedback and kudos in the comments section of likeminded blogs and be sure to include a link to your own.
Incorporate a survey or poll. Readers will want to come back to see the results.
Link to blog posts on your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. This will make posts easily accessible to your followers, colleagues and friends, as well as continuously keep your company top-of-mind.
What are your tips for driving traffic to a company blog?
Are Women and Men Managers Really That Different?
by Paula Lovell on August 3, 2010 | 6 comments
in Organizational Behavior, Productivity, Small Business
By nature and by trade….I am interested in communications.
I had a lot of fun bantering back and forth with Jim Blasingame, well-known Small Business Advocate, on his recent radio show devoted to small business owners. We were discussing male and female managers and, although we were talking in grand generalities and had a lot of laughs, we agreed there are some very basic differences in the way men and women communicate and perform as leaders. It emanates from the fact that, in general, the sexes process information differently.
I was first alerted to the “science” behind those differences when listening to a lecture given by biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher. After much study of the way the sexes think and communicate, Fisher points out some interesting capabilities of most women. In her book, The First Sex, she lists many common characteristics, including:
- a capacity to read postures, gestures, facial expressions and other non verbal cues;
- excellent senses of touch, taste, smell and hearing;
- an ability to do and think several things simultaneously;
- a broad contextual view of any issue (called web thinking);
- an impulse to nurture;
- and a preference for cooperating, reaching consensus and leading via egalitarian teams.
By comparison, and generally speaking, men have their own set of natural talents, that include:
- a superb understanding of spatial relations;
- a talent for solving complex mechanical problems;
- an ability to intensely focus on one thing at a time;
- and a gift for controlling many of their emotions.
According to Fisher and many other experts, these differences play out in the management ranks of the workplace in a number of interesting ways. Women make good strategists because they collect a broad range of information and look at issues or crises from a holistic perspective. They want to gather data, look at all the angles, negotiate consensus, and talk through the options before settling on a position or resolution. Men on the other hand are more reactive, dictatorial and focused on securing a swift and tidy resolution – sometimes with or without “buy-in” from colleagues, employees or associates. Men will occasionally view women as not being focused; women can see men as being narrow-sighted or having “tunnel vision.”
In terms of which style is more effective and will produce better results, I think the answer is: Both. And that is precisely why it is so important for businesses and organizations to have women and men leaders at the top, working on senior strategy, jointly call the shots during challenging times and bringing complementary approaches to the management of business.
What do you think? Is this all malarkey? Have you had an experience where you noticed such a difference between the styles and strategies of men and women leaders?
Don’t Take It Personally: Media Relations Can Be a Brutal Business
by Robin Embry on July 29, 2010 | 1 comment
in Media Relations, The Media, public relations
Salespeople aren’t the only ones who have to make “cold calls.” In the PR world, we have to pick up the phone everyday and talk to the media…busy people who are often frantically working on a deadline…doesn’t that sound like fun!
I used to think if I adhered to Media Relations 101 and pitched a reporter a newsworthy story that fit their beat, it would be worth their time to listen. But, hey, reporters are no different than the rest of us and they are entitled to a bad day. At the other end of that bad day, we’ve received some entertaining responses over the years.
Situation: A serious infection is consuming the country and my client released the fastest test on the market that can ultimately save lives. I call a reporter who consistently covered the infection outbreak for a solid month.
Response: “Seriously, do you know how many PR people call me every day hoping I will write about their client. I don’t care if this test saves lives, I’m not giving a company free advertising. You guys exhaust me!” (Note, this “well-respected” reporter called me two days later and apologized for her outburst caused by lack of caffeine that morning.)
Situation: We read in the local newspaper that a local company “might” be expanding into China. We assume if the reporter thinks just the possibility of overseas expansion is news then surely it’s newsworthy that our local client has just opened an office in Australia.
Response: “Don’t call me about companies opening businesses outside of Nashville…we don’t cover companies that are expanded outside our city.” (We wanted to say…”Have you READ your newspaper this morning?!”)
You know the old saying “there’s no crying in baseball.” Well, there’s also no crying in PR, so we take things on the chin and move on. If you’ve had a funny experience, please let me know. I can always use the comic relief.