We’re talking about sending emails to people that are not already engaged with your company or salespeople. Maybe you met them at a trade show several months ago and haven’t talked to them since or maybe you just purchased a list of target customers.
Pain = the problem your customers have that your company addresses. There may be more than one. That’s good. Each Pain should be the basis of its own email or entire campaign.
OK, so here’s what you’re doing wrong…
Mistake #1 – Too Much!
Once you get started talking about how awesome your company is, it’s hard to stop, right? Yeah, we know. We get your emails….
“Show up and throw up” doesn’t work in sales presentations. Why do you think it would work in an email?
Just think about how you read your own emails. You scan the inbox for emails from people you know and you tackle those first. Then you look at the subject lines and if they don’t get your attention or sound like a sales pitch, you delete before you even read the email. Then, if you actually open it up, if it’s 2 pages of text, are you going to read it? Not very likely.
Get to the point quickly. If you can’t express how the reader will benefit from taking the desired action in a couple of very short paragraphs, then you should not be using email.
Mistake #2 – Me, Me, Me!
We all get too many emails. The ones we least like are the ones that are trying to sell us something. The fastest way to pick those emails out in the inbox is to look for descriptions of features and benefits.
Don’t talk about yourself in a lead generating email! Talk about the customer and their world. You wouldn’t walk into a party where you don’t know anyone and immediately start telling everyone how awesome you are. You would first ask questions about the people you meet. Maybe compliment their home or clothes, etc. Get them engaged and interested in talking to you about themselves.
In B2B marketing, talk about the Pain the customer is suffering from that your product or service fixes. Do you have this pain? If so, here are some suggestions…
Mistake #3 – No Call to Action
What is the action you want the customer to take? Make it easy for them to do that! Give them a big fat button in a bright color they can click on. Don’t make them read 5 paragraphs and then write you an email in order to get your attention.
A good approach is to dramatize the Pain you fix in the opening line or two and then summarize the call to action. “Are you fed up with ever growing costs and poor service from your Internet provider? If so, we’d like to show you 3 things you can do to increase Internet performance and reduce costs.” Then another paragraph with more specifics about how a poor Internet provider can be a big drag on business and then a big button – “Download 3 Ways to Cut Costs and Surf Faster”.
Even if your desired call to action is to for the prospect to set an appointment with you, give them a link to a calendar app like Calendly.
Again, here’s a video series that will walk you through creating your first campaign.
Is <the “pain” your customers have that you fix> driving you crazy?
Are you wasting time and losing money as a result?
If so, you might enjoy this <insert link to pdf, blog post, video, etc. with tips to fix the pain>.
To schedule a brief phone call to discuss how <my_company> may be able to help, click here to schedule an appointment at a time that’s convenient for you.
If you’re a salesperson getting started with leveraging email marketing, lead nurturing and email templates, all the jargon can be confusing. However, there is a lot of power to engage with customers and close sales in the data about your email efforts so, let’s clarify the jargon and discuss best practices for using email engagement to drive sales engagement.
The main terms to get to know are:
Opens
Clicks
Opt-Out
Bounce
Email Opens
An email is recorded in your email marketing system as “Opened” when the recipient opens the email in their email program (Outlook, Gmail, etc.) and views the images and text in the email.
Practically, this means that they saw your email in their inbox and either because they recognized your name/email address in the From column of their inbox, or because the subject line caught their attention, they decided to view the body of the email instead of delete it.
So, when a customer opens your general marketing email, it’s not a very strong signal of interest or intent to purchase. It just means your messaging got their attention.
If you’ve sent a customer a proposal via email, then the fact that they’ve opened it is more important!
Email Marketing systems and CRMs track opens by embedding a tiny image in your email template that no one sees but, when the recipient views the email and the image is pulled from the system, that recipient is shown as having opened the email. This is not always accurate. Depending on the recipient’s mail program and settings, such as “preview mode”, just opening their inbox can register an open. This is the most common reason that a recipient sometimes registers multiple opens.
Don’t think of an open as a strong sales signal unless you were sending a proposal, price quote, etc.
If a customer shows multiple opens on one email, it could be a quirk of their email program OR it could mean they are keeping your email in their inbox and re-reading it over and over!
For general marketing emails, a rule of thumb is that 10-20% of your emails will be opened.
Email Clicks
An email is “clicked” when the recipient actually clicks on a link in the email to visit a web page, watch a video or download something.
So, a click is a far stronger indication of interest or intent. The recipient saw your subject line, was interested in that, then opened the email, read it and then decided to click on a link in the email. Typically, salespeople can watch for clicks on emails and contact those recipients and find they have a relatively “warm” prospect.
Email Tip
Send interesting articles,videos, etc. to potential prospects and then call those that click on the link to read or watch. That can be a great way to have “warm” conversations with pre-qualified leads.
Videos get clicked on 2x as often as links to articles, etc. Use videos in your emails!
CRMs and Marketing Automation solutions measure clicks by embedding special code in the URLs in your email template so that when the link is clicked, the link points first to the email solution and then to your intended destination for the recipient. Of course, all this happens so quickly the recipient doesn’t notice it.
For marketing emails, a 1-2% click rate is a good benchmark. That means 1-2% of the overall list size.
So, if you’re sending an email to 10,000 contacts, you might see 1,000 to 2,000 opens and 100 to 200 clicks. This is one of the key revelations of most sales teams when first venturing into marketing automation.
If you have less than 5,000 contacts on your list, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to have a large number of responses. But, depending on your business, 1 or 2 responses might be great! If you have a relatively small list today, invest time and energy in building up your list.
Opt-Outs
Also known as unsubscribes, this happens when a recipient receives your email and clicks the link at the bottom to “unsubscribe” or opt-out of your list. Essentially, they’re saying “stop emailing me!.” And, that is handled automatically by marketing automation and CRM solutions. Once a recipient opts-out, the system won’t send emails to them anymore, until they “opt-in” again.
Sales Teams are often very concerned about compliance with “CAN-SPAM” regulations. Essentially, making it easy for the recipient to opt-out and respecting their wishes when they do is the main things you have to do under the law. Again, virtually all email marketing and CRM solutions make sure this is the case!
Depending on your business and the type of customer that opts-out of your list, you might decide to “manage” the situation differently.
For a general marketing contact on a big list that you’ve never done business with, you should probably just leave them alone or ignore them. If you’re emailing current customers, you might want to call them and learn why they opted-out, as his can help you improve your emails in the future.
Bounces
A “bounce” is when the receiving mail server tells the sending mail server that the email was not delivered to the recipients inbox.
This can happen when the email address is invalid, but also can happen when temporary issues prevent delivery.
A “hard bounce” is when the email address is invalid.
A “soft bounce” is when the email address is valid but, the email was undelivered because the recipient’s mailbox is full or the server is down or sometimes when a vacation reply is received.
All email marketing and marketing automation systems will stop sending immediately when a hard bounce is registered. This is because many ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, Comcast, etc.) will start to block your emails as spam if you continually send to a mailbox that they’ve told you (via the hard bounce message) is invalid.
Email marketing systems handle soft bounces differently but, in general, they’ll continue to send to an address that has a soft bounce a few times but, after several soft bounces in a row, they’ll treat it like a hard bounce and stop sending to that address.
In general, you might want to call and get an accurate address if the contact is highly valuable to your business.
A best practice is to give each salesperson a list of recipients in their territory that have bounced recently and let them follow up via phone. Often there has been a personnel change and that can often mean opportunity! Or, you might find they just changed their email address and can update it.
Get started with your email marketing efforts slowly and treat it like an experiment. Test your first email with a portion of your list, then adjust based on the opens and clicks and send again.
Use the Open rate to optimize the subject line and the click rate to optimize the body and call to action within the email.You’ll find that the data will guide you to success.
What does it mean when an email “bounces”? How do popular email marketing solutions like Constant Contact, MailChimp and SalesNexus manages bounced emails?
When B2B sales teams begin email marketing, there are a lot of “mysteries” and bounces can be one of the most difficult to sort out. A typical sales team’s email marketing efforts can be paralyzed by the uncertainty.
One of the most frustrating experiences for most salespeople is when they load their contact list from Outlook or their CRM into the email marketing system and send out their first email, they can find that a surprisingly high number of bounced emails. Why? Often, the sales team loses faith in the email marketing system immediately.
What are the different kinds of bounces?
Hard Bounce
A hard bounce is when the receiving mail server (your customer’s mail server) says the address you’re sending to is not valid. It’s an incorrect email address.
Once a hard bounce has been recorded, virtually all email marketing systems will not send to that address again.
In most systems, including MailChimp, Constant Contact and SalesNexus, if you edit the customer’s record in the system and change the email address, the system will begin sending your emails to that new address again.
Soft Bounces
There are several different types of “soft bounces”:
SalesNexus will continue to send to an address that has a soft bounce up to 5 times. If, after 5 soft bounces in a row, SalesNexus stops sending to the address.
In Constant Contact, MailChimp, SalesNexus and most systems, you can easily retrieve a list of all contacts which have bounced, either for a specific campaign or in general (on any campaign).
It’s a good idea to pull these lists periodically and give each salesperson a list of their customers that have bounced so that they can try to make contact via phone or other means and determine if that person’s email address has changed or if perhaps they’ve moved on and someone else has replaced them.
Email marketing is not one thing. There’s a lot that goes into it. The most effective emails are those that are created with a very specific purpose and a very targeted audience in mind. Small and medium sized businesses often miss the mark with email marketing. Of course, so do the big guys. The causes are common, easy to identify and fix!
That’s good news because the return from very simple email marketing campaigns can be tremendous! Most sales organizations have accumulated a sizable list over the years and a well-designed campaign can often generate 15% to 25% increase in sales quickly!
A well-designed email marketing campaign can often generate 15% to 25% increase in sales quickly!
Running the numbers
Average email marketing campaigns get a 1-2% click rate. “Clicks” are people that both open and read the email AND click on a link or call to action in the email. Imagine a salesperson talks to 100 leads a month. In one year, that’s 1200 leads. If you have 10 salespeople, that’s 12,000 leads in a year. If your email to that list gets a 2% click rate, that’s 240 (12,000 x .02) “new” or newly engaged leads.
So, if you send only 1 email a month, then that’s a 24% increase in leads for each salesperson!
Average campaign click rate
1-2%
Salesperson 100 calls a month
1,200 lost leads in one year
10 Salespeople 100 calls a month
12,000 lost leads in one year
2% Click rate on 12,000 leads
240 engaged leads
1 Email sent per month
24% Increase in leads per salesperson
Seems like a no-brainer right?
Common pitfalls that undermine success are poor targeting, vague or absent call to action and talking about yourself, rather than the customer.
Often the lack of clarity about responsibilities and expected results is the fundamental flaw. In a smaller business, there may be a one person “marketing department” with limited email marketing experience and limited time to focus on it due to other responsibilities. So, the effort may fall to the sales team. And believe, salespeople are the last ones you want writing your emails! More on that later.
In a larger organization, the same flaws surface for different reasons. The salespeople may see opportunities they’d like to exploit with email marketing but, getting support out of the often bureaucratic marketing department can result in delays and distortions of the intent of the campaign.
Often the lack of clarity about responsibilities and expected results is the fundamental flaw.
Best Practices
In general, if the intent of email marketing is to drive sales or sales leads for the sales team, then the sales team needs to be involved in defining the objectives.
However, salespeople are most commonly guilty of writing “salesy” or “pitchy” emails. We need a marketing hat involved for the creation of the content.
We’re also going to need someone to get the list we send to straightened out. The list should be segmented and different messages sent to each segment. Again, this is not something the sales team is typically good at.
We’re also going to need someone to get the list we send to straightened out. The list should be segmented and different messages sent to each segment. Again, this is not something the sales team is typically good at.
Salespeople are commonly guilty of writing “salesy” or “pitchy” emails.
1st: Your List: Targeting Your Audience
The general concept is to offer recipients something that will be of value to them, without expecting them to do anything for you. That’s how you earn their trust and over time, the right to ask them for something. Email marketing is best done with this approach because if you just “sell” your products or services, you’ll quickly turn off most recipients and no one will be reading any of your emails anymore.
So, getting your list as finely segmented as possible is worth the effort. The more targeted your message to a specific audience, the more effective it will be.
Pull together all the lists you can.
Current leads that are actively in the purchase process
Existing Clients
Past Clients
You may need to pull together lists from your accounting system, operations, your website, trade shows, etc. and your salespeople’s contacts in Outlook, etc. If you’re doing this in a spreadsheet, be sure and add a couple of columns to identify where each contact came from or how you met them and what their current status is with your company.
If you’re using a CRM or other software for this, hopefully some of this is a bit easier. Either way, when you load the list into your email marketing system, you’ll be able to create separate lists based on all of these criteria and send different messages to each “segment”.
The tricky part is that you’ll need to maintain this list as an on-going effort
Obviously, when one of your leads turns into a client, you want them to go on a different list or into a different “segment”. That means you’ll need to have a regular process of updating the lists with new leads and changes to those already on the lists. This probably sounds like more work than it’s worth but, it’s not. Once you get a process in place, it should only take a couple of hours a month. If you’re lucky, you’re using a CRM and Marketing Automation solution where all that is automated!
One key to keeping the maintenance of your list manageable is to remember that no list is perfect. After all, you’re just sending them emails. With email marketing, there’s little cost to it and as we touched on earlier, you’re only hoping for 20% or so to even open them. So, there’s a point of diminishing returns in cleaning up your list. Just be sure you don’t have the same email address listed more than once and your actual clients are identified so you’re not treating them like you don’t even know them.
The general concept is to offer recipients something that will be of value to them, without expecting them to do anything for you.
2nd: Creating the Campaign
In email marketing, the idea to keep in mind is “Give to Get”. Give recipients something of value to them and earn the right first to keep sending them emails and secondly, the right to eventually ask for something yourself.
For the “dyed in the wool salespeople” out there, the fringe benefit of this approach is that this type of email marketing campaign is a great way to “diagnose” the customer’s needs. Those who click to read a specific article or watch a video are telling you what they’re interested in. That can be a great way to target prospects with specific offers, in additional emails or with sales calls. More on that later!
A simple approach to creating your emails is this:
List the Pains
Identify the “Pain” of each audience or “segment” in your list. Write down 3 or 4 pains (problems or challenges they suffer from) that this audience will have if they are going to be interested in your product or service. If you’re not sure how to do this, stop reading now and go here .
Finding Content
Find content that would be helpful to someone suffering from each pain. The content can be an article, a video, a blog post, a report or white-paper, etc. It should be free. Don’t ask them to complete a form on your site (you already have their email) or put any other barriers to benefiting from the content in the process. Remember, this is a gift!
Don’t get worried that you’re going to have to spend the next 3 weekends writing or spend thousands on a writer. In fact, avoid investing lots of time or money in creating content at all costs at this stage. If this is your first attempt, you have to look at it as an experiment. There are a lot of variables and many of them will need some adjustment. The idea initially is to get something out there so you can measure what works and what doesn’t and then make changes.
If this is your first attempt, you have to look at it as an experiment.
In fact, you don’t actually need your own content at all. If you have helpful articles or reports now that’s great! Things like “5 Ways to Reduce Your Costs for XXXX” or “3 Ways to Know if You Have YYYY” or even “How to Fix ZZZ” are all perfect. But, if you don’t already have good content, then use someone else’s!
A note on video: Email recipients will click on a video twice as often as other types of links (articles, downloads, etc.). So, use video if you can!
Go to Youtube and type into the search bar “How to fix <insert one of your pains>”. See if you can find a video that you can link to. Often you’ll find news reports or trade association videos that are perfect! Remember, the idea here is not get to them to your site. It’s just to give them something helpful and learn that they have an interest in that subject. Of course, you can perform similar searches on various sites and find government and educational institution reports, etc. Just be sure you don’t link to something that promotes your competitor!
For the “dyed in the wool” salespeople out there, the fringe benefit of this approach is that this type of email marketing campaign is a great way to “diagnose” the customer’s needs.
3rd: Writing the Email
In email marketing, the first thing to remember in creating the actual emails is that less is more. Think about how you navigate through your inbox. If you don’t recognize who sent you the email (the from field) then you look at the subject line. Likewise, if the subject line doesn’t sound interesting, you delete it without even reading the email. Moreover, if you do open it up and find 2 pages of text, DELETE!
What’s the point here? Keep it short! Also, don’t feel like you have to design a bunch of beautiful graphics.
So, the subject line is key. If it doesn’t get attention, nothing else matters.
Focus on the pain
Is <insert your pain> costing you money/hurting your business/frustrating you?
Fed up with <insert pain> solutions that don’t work?
“Are you suffering from <insert pain>?
3 Ways to Fix <insert pain>
Follow the same formula to create the body of the email
Firstname, Is <insert pain> costing you money/hurting your business/frustrating you? If so, you’ll want to out this short video “Simple Ways to Fix <insert pain>”.
Then link to the content. That’s it!
Expectations
Remember, you’re going to get 10-20% of your list to open the email and 1-2% to click. Working on making that list bigger is worth the effort.
The emails above are great for “cold leads”, or leads that aren’t already engaged in a buying process. If you’re emailing leads that are already talking to your sales team or have reached out to you for information, then they’ve essentially told you to sell them your solution. The emails should still err on the side of “give to get” but, you can offer things like a comparison of your solution with brand name competitors or an ROI analysis or just a description of your different packages with a subject like “4 Great Ways to Fix <insert pain>”.
If you’re nurturing leads that have come in through your website, be aggressive. When people request info on your website, they’re most often doing the same exact thing on your competitor’s site so you’ve got to beat them to the punch.
NOTE: These types of emails also work well for lead generation campaigns.
Remember, you’re going to get 10-20% of your list to open the email and 1-2% to click
How to Respond – Making the Sale
If you’re selling business insurance and you send an email with the subject “3 Ways You’re Business is at Risk” that links to a video on CNBC about essential kinds of business insurance. A recipient opens the email and clicks on the video to watch it, which is a strong indicator that they’re raising their hand and saying “I am concerned that my business is at risk.” That probably makes that person someone your sales team wants to talk to.
If you can organize things so that a salesperson can call recipients that click on your emails within a couple of hours, then it is FAR better to call them instead of sending another email.
It turns cold calling into very warm calling! The script goes something like this:
“Hi Bob! This is Mike with Insurance International. I noticed you watched that video on essential business insurance. What did you think of that? What type of insurance does your business have?”
You can start the call with a level of familiarity and get right to what you already know matters to the customer. Salespeople know, the hardest thing about a cold call is getting the customers interest initially. This takes that out of the equation!
If you can’t call them within 3 or 4 hours, don’t bother
However, if you can’t call them within 3 or 4 hours, don’t bother. They won’t remember it. Think about how many emails you get every day. Do you remember on Wednesday, the links you clicked on Tuesday?
Again, an integrated CRM and Email Marketing solution can make this kind of quick calling easy. If it’s not realistic for you, then try switching those that click 1 or 2 of your initial content emails to a different campaign that treats them more like a new lead, providing some info about your company and how you solve the problems they’ve shown interest in and possibly requesting an appointment.
Have a follow up email ready for your sales team to send if they talk to the prospect or leave a voicemail. Normally, in the conversation or message they’re going to talk about things they’d like the prospect to see so, the email can link to those items and just get the conversation started.
It’s also worthwhile to call the people on your list that “bounce”. If they’ve left the company, you can find out who their replacement is and put them on your list.
However, if you can’t call them within 3 or 4 hours, don’t bother. They won’t remember it. Think about how many emails you get every day. Do you remember on Wednesday, the links you clicked on Tuesday?
4th: Email Marketing Campaign Management
Once you’ve got your first email marketing campaign going, compare the open rates for each subject line. Which ones are getting people’s attention? Focus your efforts on more content and emails in the same area. Don’t get stuck trying to make a subject or piece of content work that just isn’t. A lot of this is going to be counter-intuitive. Let the measurements tell you what to do next.
For the emails that get good opens, now look at the click rate. If you’re getting 10% or more opens and you’re not getting at least 1% click rate, then try moving the “call to action” (the link or video) higher up in the email so they see it more easily or try rewording the call to action itself. If that doesn’t work, then find new content.
Keep tweaking and adjusting. It may take you 2 or 3 iterations before you start to feel like you’re getting things dialed in.
Once you start seeing over 1% click rates consistently, then it’s time to start thinking about devoting some time to creating your own content and investing in a bigger list.
The concept of “firing” a prospect comes as surprising to a lot of salespeople, but often the best way to move forward with a prospect is to let them go.
Prospects expect salespeople to “chase” them, so they assume you’ll keep calling and be there when they’re ready. Not very courteous but, very common! Here’s an article on firing a prospect via voice mail.
Below is a great email a friend shared with me that works well if you’re calling the customer multiple times and sending them a few emails, or even using a marketing automation drip, and you want to “say goodbye” via email.
The general idea here is that as soon as you let the prospect know that you’re giving up on them, they often will respond. Most don’t want to be “taken off your list” and enjoy the fact that you’re chasing them, so when you let them know you’re gonna stop, they’ll shoot you a quick email explaining things. It might just be “I’ve been swamped and I’m going to get back to this project in 2 weeks. Call me then.” or something like that but, at least you know and can focus your efforts elsewhere in the meantime.
Try something like this email and let us know how it works for you!
From: You
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2016 3:52 PM
To: Sally Prospect
Subject: Should I stay or should I go?
Sally:
I haven’t heard back from you and that tells me one of three things:
You are happy with the product you are using for your <your product or solution> and if that is the case, please let me know so I can stop bothering you.
You are still interested but haven’t had the time to get back to me yet (understand that totally).
You’ve fallen and can’t get up, and if that is the case, please let me know and I’ll call 911 for you.
Please let me know which one it is because I am starting to worry.
Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Your Name
Your Title
Company and Website Link
Phone
SalesNexus will release a completely new design with enhanced features in June 2016.
The user interface has been updated and modernized to be easier for new users to learn and use quickly and to provide more full featured controls on tablets.
In addition, the release includes powerful new features:
Automated Campaign Triggering – clicks on emails in one campaign can trigger an entirely new campaign.
Email Notifications – users can be alerted of clicks on an email by recipients via email.
Enhanced search – simple and easy to use yet powerful and fast search of contacts, companies, campaigns, opportunities and notes.
Calendar synchronization – sync calendars between SalesNexus and Google Calendar and Outlook/Exchange.
Automated Profile Pictures and Social Links – profile pictures and social links are automatically added to your contacts when added to SalesNexus.
The new release will be available to new customers in early June 2016. Existing SalesNexus users will have the option to upgrade in late May to take advantage of the new, simpler design and new features, or choose to upgrade during the summer months in order to plan staff training.
How can you prevent email spam? Being reported as a “Spammer” is serious. It can easily damage your sales automation efforts. Even if you are legitimate in your email automation efforts, if you send enough emails…you will eventually be reported.
Since the remedy to a report of spam involves suffering through a “guilty until proven innocent” process, you want to do everything in your power to avoid the experience. When it does happen, quickly respond to any report and work with your email provider to resolve it quickly.
Why Does it Happen???
Recipient Mistakes: Sometimes an inexperienced user will hit the wrong button. Instead of simply unsubscribing, they will hit a button like “report abuse” or “mark as spam”. They are simply trying to communicate that they think the email is unwelcome or “junk”. Instead, they send a spam alert.
Sender is forgotten: When a marketer collects emails legitimately, such using an opt-in form on their site, if they don’t send emails rapidly and consistently, the recipient will not remember opting in.
Customer is transaction oriented: You may have thousands of email addresses of customers that have purchased from you in the past. If you don’t have marketing automation in place at the time of purchase, the customers may not feel they have given permission to send emails. Anytime you begin an email campaign to a new group of recipients, ask for permission.
Business card collection: At trade shows and local network events, marketers will collect business cards of the people they meet. Armed with a fist full of these information sources, the marketer will place these new acquaintances on their standard mailing list and begin sending full blown newsletters and promotions. Good marketers will have a standard template in the CRM for these new prospects that is an “invitation” to join the mailing list.
Ways to Prevent Email Spam Reporting
Make your unsubscribe link highly visible: Some marketers have the mistaken notion that hiding the opt-out link will keep their email lists strong. Consider putting the “unsubscribe” link prominently at the top of the email. This is a much better alternative than the “spam” button provided by the email server.
Professional looking emails: Use the templates provided by your email marketing service to create professional looking emails. You don’t want to look like a scammer phishing for information. If the email does not look professional, the recipient may be skeptical about using your “unsubscribe” button.
Set expectations: When someone agrees to opt-in to your list, they deserve to know what you will be sending them. For example, if they sign up for a monthly newsletter and begin getting promotions each week, they will feel spammed. It’s best to have segmented lists with opt-in choices. Let the recipient choose whether they want a soft-sell, informative newsletter or a hard-sell, bargain-focused promotion. Don’t combine those lists.
Two Resources for Email Spam Issues
Being accused of spamming is awful. It is time consuming to resolve and it can be very difficult to recover your status. To learn more about different abuse reporting services:
SpamCop.net: The “blackhole list” here is kind of like the FBI Most Wanted list. If you get on, email servers will block you all around the world. However, they are known for listening to reason to resolve your issues.
Abuse.net: This network abuse clearing house – not the network police. The site allows you to look up contact information and forwards messages to the system managers that can resolve the issues.
If you’re a marketer, permission based marketing should be a well-understood and applied practice. However, for those just getting into marketing, gaining a basic understanding of what permission based marketing is and what it is not can be useful. This will help you keep current customers and attract new customers in a respectful manner.
Permission-Based Marketing Definition
By definition, permission-based marketing is: “The practice of sending marketing communications only to recipients who have given their consent to receive them. It most widely relates to email marketing communication, which is what this post will focus on.”
There are two kinds of permission for permission based marketing:
Explicit permission is obtained when the individual opts-in or specifically requests to receive information from you. (Ex. Sign up for newsletter, contact us form on website, etc)
Implicit permission is obtained by a customer or client relationship. (Ex. Contacting current customers about new offers, incentives and more)
Over the years, consumers have become wearier of email marketing campaigns. This is due to frequent misuse of personal emails by corporations and commercial institutions. Everyone these days has a “spam” email address. They give out this address when an email is required by a retailer or online form. People are bombarded with advertisements, sales, client emails, and personal emails every day. Therefore, when they don’t know who you are or why you’re sending them an email, you’re likely to get deleted immediately or flagged as spam. And once you get booted it’s really hard to get back in front of them. Then it would be difficult to change their perception of your brand or company.
According to Seth Godin, a marketing guru, “Permission is like dating. You don’t start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit.”
Opt-in Email Marketing
Consumers opt-in to receive content of interest. Moreover, they follow companies or brands they advocate. The opt-in process needs to be obvious and clear. It doesn’t have to be a formal, “join my list” type thing. However, you want to make sure people know they’re giving you their information and what they should expect in return. They can opt-in by filling out a form or check a permission box while filling out a registration form of some kind.
You make a promise to the consumer in exchange for information. It’s wise to be specific about what you are offering. Additionally, they should know how often they will receive communication from you. If it’s an email newsletter, then tell them if it’s weekly, monthly or bi-monthly. For a free download, tell them it’s an immediate download via email. Good permission-based marketing practice is making promises and actually delivering on them.
Permission Based Email Marketing
The old adage, “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” doesn’t hold in email marketing. Email marketing is a very personal medium unlike TV, print and radio. Emails are personally delivered to you, just like a call to your cell phone. And nobody likes telemarketers, right? They call you when you are having dinner with your family, or are busy working. Then they won’t take no for an answer. You don’t want to be that guy in the world of email marketing.
To avoid being “that guy” in email marketing, it’s imperative that you ask for permission. Permission based email marketing makes you more credible. Moreover it will also create trust, build a better list and increase your return on investment.
“It’s better to ask for permission than forgiveness.”
When legitimate email subscribers give you permission to contact them you will know you are sending your messaging to the right audience. As a result, your open and click rates will be higher. People who actively subscribe want to know more about your company and offerings. Taking the time to build this list is key. Rushing into email marketing with unsolicited email blasts can have long-term negative impact. This can bleed into the social realm. Everyone knows that strong relationships build strong business. So if you want to build strong customer relationships through your emails you better be asking for permission.
As you can probably conclude, Opt-in email marketing is optimal. It’s better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to your business reputation. In the case of email marketing, it should be said, “It’s better to ask for permission than forgiveness.” Keep this in mind next time you get the itch to send out unsolicited emails. It’s the interested and loyal audience you want anyways.
Now you have a base understanding of what permission based email marketing is and how to apply it to email marketing. Check out our post on How to Build an Effective Email Marketing List to get started today!
One of the most common email marketing questions is, “How should I write my email subject lines so that more recipients will open my emails?”
It’s widely known that the email subject line is the gateway to the reader. It’s not uncommon for people to peruse their inbox looking at subject line and sender alone and delete irrelevant emails without even opening them. So how do you keep your email from falling victim to the trash folder? This post outlines a few key ways to make sure you are writing subject lines that will get your emails opened!
Use these 7 simple tips to write your email subject lines and get through to your customers
1. Email Subject Line Length: Less is More
The email marketing rule of thumb for email subject lines is to keep your subject line to less than 50 characters.
A typical inbox reveals about 60 characters of an email’s subject line. But a mobile phone shows just 25 to 30 characters. We read at least half of emails on mobile phones, so make your point in six to eight words. Therefore, put the most important information at the beginning to avoid loss of compelling details.
Keeping it short is the sweet spot!
2. Localize to Personalize
Studies show personalized email subject lines increase open rates.
However, the use of the recipient’s name has become such common practice many users overlook the message as spam. Instead, intrigue your target audience with location-specific offers right in the subject line.
People are curious about things going on near them in their city or state, which makes it feel more personal. This can be seen in the growth of localized deal sites like Groupon or Daily Deals that provide deals to your inbox based on where you live.
3. Fresh is Better
Newsletters tend to spike interest at first, but over time, suffer a reduction in open rates. When an email subject line reads the exact same way each time, your email gets stale.
Keep the content fresh.
Clearly indicate in the subject line what is of interest inside each new edition. Establish continuity in your newsletter with recognizable language.
4. Give a Deadline
Indicate if you need a response right in the email subject line. Your reader wants to know whether they really need to read your email now and if they have to respond. If you have a lot of information to convey in the email itself, include a deadline right in the subject line. As a result, you can increase the odds your reader responds.
5. Words to Avoid
Emails about emotional investments or timely and valuable information are valuable, but promotional emails are easy to ignore. Keep your message simple and avoid flashy promotional phrases, all caps, or exclamation marks in subject lines. Most email marketers know to avoid familiar words such as “free” and “sale” since they tend to trigger spam filters. Other words proven to reduce open rates are “Help,” “Percent off,” and “Reminder”.
6. Include Keywords
Archived emails can be a goldmine for information recall. Most professionals have filters and folders set up to manage their email. Also, they may not even focus on your message when they first receive the email. Include keywords in the email subject lines related to the topic of the email for easy retrieval later.
7. Pay Attention to the Preview
The email preview follows the email subject lines and is a valuable piece of property. Many marketers ignore the space or let the area clog up with junk text. Make the most of the preview field. Move the “view in browser” links and other mumbo-jumbo to the bottom of the email.
Your email’s subject line is your first (and maybe your last) impression on your target consumer. Therefore, your email subject lines directly determine whether your intended audience receives your message. Even a great newsletter is worthless when lost in a sea of unopened emails. Make your email subject lines sell.
Common Email Marketing Subject Line Words to Avoid
The most overused and least compelling words in email marketing are:
help, free, reminder, donation and special.
These words will get your email caught in the clutter vortex and deleted. Moreover, steer clear of exclamation points in email subject lines.
Always put yourself in your reader’s shoes. What would you dismiss and what would you open? The email subject lines that are most likely to be opened are short, descriptive and give the reader reason to open and read your message!
Email subject lines that are too salesy or cheesy tend to look like spam and turn people off immediately. Ultimately, the best email marketing subject lines tell, not sell!
Now that you know how to write good email subject lines, you may want to learn how to Easily Create Professional Emails. Mastering these email marketing skills will help get your emails opened and read!
Don’t think of an open as a strong sales signal unless you were sending a proposal, price quote, etc.
