Email Do’s and Don’ts

Did you know that roughly 77-percent of consumers prefer email offers and promotions more than any other channel?

The ease of sending out mass emails with a potentially huge audience makes it very tempting to jump into email marketing for your business. However, before you do, consider some of these quick tips to keep you from immediately ending up in someone’s spam folder.

When it comes to a subject line,

DO:

– Make it strong and keep it simple

– Include your business name and relate it to the content

– Some effective tonalities include mystery, wit and excitement

DON’T:

– USE ALL CAPS

– Use a lot of punctuation!!?!?!

– Include spam words such as Bonus, Free, or Call Now!

 

When it comes to the layout/template,

DO:

– Make sure your brand is visible (logos, colors, etc.)

– Break up your email into a visual hierarchy, making the most important things the most obvious with defined sections

DON’T:

– Use distracting backgrounds

– Use a template that’s too wide, making people scroll around too much

 

When it comes to your content,

DO:

– Send content that people are waiting for and wish to see

– Make your content interesting and engaging

– Include calls-to-action

– Include visuals to catch a reader’s eye (just don’t make the visuals too large)

DON’T:

– Be demanding

– Make too many requests

– Include an entire blog post

 

When it comes to graphics,

DO:

– Make them visually appealing

– Include a caption just in case people have images blocked

DON’T:

– Use GIF files that move or flash

– Use intense images that distract the readers from your content

 

When is comes to your contacts,

DO:

– Segment your contacts into different lists (based on location, demographics, etc.)

– Change your messaging to fit the interests of each list

DON’T:

– Put everyone together on one big list

 

Who’s in Control of the Online Marketing World?

Image courtesy of Google Images
Image courtesy of Google Images

The online world has changed the way we look at and buy products or services. Online marketing is all about capturing the customer and being present at the right time while they’re searching, emailing, watching videos, etc. And now that you have this huge online world on your mobile devices, it’s essentially everywhere, all the time. The bigger shift is the shift in control. Because of how accessible content is, the customer is in charge of the buying process. They can share, ask, post, look up whatever they want, etc.

In order to tackle this huge market, there are different types of online types of media you’ll be using: Paid, Owned, and Earned. Paid media is what it sounds like, you pay for ads like Facebook ads, Google Adwords, or any type of display marketing. Owned media is like your blog, a list of people you email, your website, etc. Earned media is organic media you gain. Social media has changed the way we think of earned media, making organic reach play a huge role in your business.

All three of these types of media encompass online marketing. But even more importantly, you need to think of three different strategies before diving into the digital market. According to Brad Batesole from Online Marketing Fundamentals,

“…Many businesses are in such a rush to take advantage of the opportunity, that they fail to build out a proper strategy. Being digital for the sake of just having a presence in these channels is not the answer. The key is to build out a dedicated strategy that results in a strong return on investment.” You can check out his Twitter here.

The three main strategies to think of are a business strategy, a brand strategy (which we covered in an earlier post), and a market strategy. We’re going to be talking about building a business strategy and a market strategy in future posts so that we can give it the same amount of attention and detail. Stay tuned.

The Basics For Developing Your Brand

By definition, branding is:

The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.

Thriving businesses are those with successful and effective branding. Depending on the type of business you run, you might want to consider some of these branding tips before you begin advertising. Let’s cover some of the basics:

Know your target audience

Most likely, you have a specific “target” audience you want to pursue with your product or service. Making sure you understand the needs and wants of your audience will help you develop campaigns and strategies that will reach them more effectively than by just throwing random advertisements out there. These days, creating “organic” reach is extremely important to a business’ brand. People are coming to you because of who you are (your culture, things you stand for, etc.), not just for your product/service. Trying to reach every person in every demographic can hurt your brand, almost diluting it.

People can see passion

Passion leads to long-term success, and it’s obvious when a business is passionate about its product or service. Anyone can build a successful business in the short-term. If you’re super enthusiastic about something you do, it’s only natural that the right people will want to follow you. Followers lead to word-of-mouth advertising, and positive referrals (more organic reach). When you’re passionate about something, it also makes you try a lot harder to save your business if things start to go south.

Be consistent

People come back to a business expecting the same, if not better, service that they received the previous time. Because businesses are so connected through social media, word travels fast, and it’s just as simple to find a replacement for your business if you become inconsistent.

Be distinct

Everyone wants to be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Oprah. What did their brands do to create the enormous empires they built in their fields? They created innovative products, ideas and ways of life. Even if you’re offering a product or service that many other businesses offer, what can you do to stand out from the crowd? Another huge brand, Netflix, dominates online streaming. What makes it different from its competitors such as Hulu, Showtime or HBO GO? Netflix continues to adapt. The company sponsors high quality, original programming. Netflix allow complete user control, focusing on what the consumer wants, and not just adding random features. The company has weeded out competitors because of the freedom and flexibility it gives consumers. At the end of the day, you can’t really beat $8 a month for unlimited streaming, either. Make sure your brand can hold its own, and find its niche.

Design basics

The first thing people see is color. It could be on your logo or the colors in your venue. They set the mood and have an affect whether you or the customer realizes it. There are a ton of color psychology theories out there where you can find the one that fits your image  best. Consider it a starting point if you have no idea where to begin. We’ll get into elements of design in a later post.

Maybe the first things you think about when you hear “brand” are cool colors, a logo or a tagline. Those are all super important to the overall aesthetics of your brand, but there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes planning to do before you bring your brand out into the world. This is why figuring out what you want your product or service to represent can tremendously help your future advertising campaigns. It’s much more difficult to fix a brand’s image than it is to carefully create it from scratch.

Setting Goals For Your Advertisements

If you don’t have an idea of what you want to achieve with your advertisement, it’ll be difficult to determine how successful the ad will be. Setting goals is crucial to advertising because you have to measure its effectiveness and impact in order to make changes and create new strategy. Goals can vary from increased sales, product or service awareness, to more website traffic. You can find out if you are getting a return on your investment by laying out what you hope to accomplish with your advertising campaign. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Be specific

When setting your goal, make it something measurable. To make your goals specific, use numbers. For example, let’s say you want a $300 increase in sales for the month of June, generated by your print ad in the local news magazine. The key is to be realistic: goals may not be met by one ad or over night.

2. Track Sales

Create a spreadsheet so that when you start advertising, you can gauge how your sales are improving or going downhill. Start weekly tracking about a month before your ad runs to set a starting point average. During your advertising campaign, watch how your sales fluctuate. Leave some space for a post-ad period for those who may respond to the ad in the weeks following its publication. If you’re including a coupon in your ad, use a specific code to the ad that was published.

3. Track Awareness

A major misconception about advertising is that it produces immediate results. It is possible, but the most common result of advertising is brand awareness. We’ll save explaining how to determine what your brand is for another day. But for now, keeping track of this kind of increase is important because your ad could be working without you even knowing. Also, people want to know who you are before purchasing your product or service. Keep an eye on your social media sites for increased traffic during your campaign and watch for traffic to your website. Both are obvious indicators of increased brand awareness.

By utilizing these tactics, you can draw a reasonable conclusion about whether your advertising is working or falling flat of your expectations. Instead of going in blind, be smart about how you can advertise and get the most out of it by setting specific and measurable goals.