ATTN: SMALL BIZ OWNERS. Email Marketing

Is Low Cost, Targeted, Measurable, Effective.

EMarketing blog: http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP/

 

The mission of this blog, started by the Founders of www.helpamericaspeople.com, is to raise awareness of the most cost-effective marketing tool for Small Business owners like you >>>  EMAIL MARKETING

 

 This blog will introduce you to 13 terms you need to know to expand your knowledge of  email marketing.   Refer to the blog postings dated April 17th and 23rd to learn about 8 of the 13 terms.  The remaining 5 email marketing terms are delineated in this posting:  Personalization, Segmentation, SPAM, Subject Line and Targeting.

 

If you want to become a successful email marketer, Personalization, Segmentation and Targeting should always be top of mind when developing each email marketing campaign.

Personalization

Personalization helps you to best leverage the benefits of email marketing — building and maintaining a strong relationship with your customers and prospects, ultimately leading to their taking the action you want them to take.  The more relevant, targeted and personal your email, the better chance you have to meet your campaign goals.

This is the time where an information-rich house list is priceless.  The more profile information you have for each customer and prospect on your list, the more personalized, targeted and relevant your emails will be.

Start by addressing each recipient by their first name or first and last name.  This makes the recipient feel more like a person rather than a piece of data.  Next, if you’re keeping track of purchase and product information, you can personalize the copy in the body of the email even further.  For example, you may have 50 customers who haven’t purchased from you in over six months.  You can tailor your email copy to this group – “we’ve missed you” or “we want you back and we’re willing to make you an offer….”  Any information that makes the recipient feel like you know them and their interests and value an ongoing relationship with them will lead to more successful campaigns.

Don’t send one generic message to everyone on your house list – email recipients are more sophisticated and know a “form” email when they see one.  Additionally, you certainly don’t want to speak to prospects the same way you speak to customers.  Here is where list segmentation becomes very crucial because it drives your copy (and sometimes design) theme.  You may have several copy themes (versions) in one campaign, which is actually a sound marketing strategy because it means your campaign is better targeted.

 

Segmentation

Segmentation refers to breaking your house list into smaller parts that share one or more important characteristics.  If you’re marketing to consumers (often referred to as Business-to-Consumer Marketing or B2C), market segments could include one or more of the following:

• demographic — age, gender, race, home ownership, employment, household income, married or single, # of children in household, etc.
• geographic —  zip code, country, region
• psychographic — behavior, attitudes and values

If you’re marketing to businesses (often called business-to-business marketing, or B2B), segments of interest might be one or more of the following:  Company size (in employees, annual revenue), industry, SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code, # of years in business, products and/or services offered).

You can see how important segmentation is to launching an effective email marketing campaign.  For example, your message and/or offer would undoubtedly be different to companies that employ 1,000+ vs. companies that employ less than 10 people.

 

SPAM

A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE) or  UCE, which refers specifically to unsolicited commercial e-mail.  From the emarketer’s perspective, spam is any email sent to recipients who have not given the sender permission (or opted-in) to send them emails.

Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC)  webpage that describes in detail the legal issues surrounding spam: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

  

Subject Line

Along with the From line in your email, the subject line is a critical factor in getting your email opened.  A From line from a recognized sender will substantially improve (but not guarantee) an increased open rate.  Research has shown that the majority of email recipients look at the From line first. After recipients know who’s sending them an email, the Subject Line is the next key to getting your email opened.

The Subject Line in an email is like a headline in a news story or an ad. (In fact, study newspaper headlines for a good lesson in how to write a compelling and interesting Subject Line.) If the headline or Subject Line in the email is relevant, intriguing and engaging to the recipient, chances are very good that the email will be opened.

You should write the Subject Line first; it will help you better focus and target your message in the body copy.  Remember, body text must deliver what you promise in the Subject Line.

Here are a few tips on writing your Subject Line:

• Make it short and descriptive (under 50 characters including spaces)
• Entice the reader to open the email
• Don’t make false promises you don’t intend to deliver on
• Using the word “free” or the recipient’s name triggers spam filters
• Localize the Subject Line, i.e., Attend Boston Event: Become a Smart Email Marketer (total:
• 50 characters with spaces)
• Don’t use all CAPS or mutliple exclamation points
• Asking a question often works well as long as it grabs the reader’s attention
• Numbers and tips work well, i.e., 10 Tips to Becoming a Smart Email Marketer
• Urgency also works, i.e., Just 5 Days Left, Just 24 Hours to Register, etc.

 

Targeting

How important is targeting?  You can’t even begin to think about your marketing strategy without knowing as much as you can possibly know about the audience most likely to want/need your product or service.

Just for starters, how can you select appropriate media to reach prospective customers with your message without knowing the characteristics of your target audience? Or how can you write effective, persuasive copy that will interest and entice prospects to become customers, if you don’t know the characteristics of your target audience?

Identifying your target audience is not rocket science.  As a business owner or someone interested in starting your own business, you probably have a pretty good idea who the target audience is for your product or service.  Take the time to do a lot of research to learn everything you can about your target audience.  As you know, there’s a wealth of free information on the internet.

Many believe they have multiple target audiences; generally they have one target audience with multiple segments (see Segmentation above).

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