6 Keys to Email Marketing Success

Run-of-the-mill advertisers have little respect for the personal nature of email. But smart email marketers know how to talk to their customer as individuals. Here are six ways to do just that.

1. A “From” Field That Shows You’re a Real Person

Consider the different impressions these “from” lines create:

Bill Kastl
William Kastl
William D. Kastl, Nakatomi Corporation
Nakatomi Sales Department
Bill Kastl, Nakatomi Sales

You want your email to be warm and personal without looking like spam. The key is to say something that’s so specific to readers’ particular interests, they know no spammer would ever come up with it. Pick a “from” field that your customers will understand, and stick with it.

2. A Provocative Subject Line

The most important thing about email is that its success or failure is all about context. Email subject lines work not because they follow standard copywriting formulas but because they tap into what specific people are interested in at a particular time.

Here are some subject lines of some successful emails I’ve sent out to my Google AdWords customer list:

When Google is NOT the Best Way to Get a CustomerAre Google Employees Spying on You?Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” and All That5 Insidious Lies About Selling on the WebFistfight at the Board of Directors Meeting

These headlines don’t assault the reader with cheesy-sounding promos -- they hint very strongly at a story. They provoke curiosity rather than scaring people off.

3. Everybody Loves a Good Story

B&B Electronics sells industrial communication hardware—a “boring” geek business if there ever were one. But when Perry Marshall writes its monthly newsletter, he turns that dull, geek image on its head and interrupts a dreary day of engineering with wry humor.

The method? Storytelling.

Subject: ZIGBEE AND THE GEEKS’ REVENGE

Leslye was the girl who made my heart go pitter-patter in junior high school.

I was always sure to take the long way to Social Studies, down the stairs to first floor, past her locker, then back up to second. Just checkin’ up.

I wasn’t the boy who made her heart go pitter-patter. She liked Sam. And she never discovered that I liked her. It was my little secret.

Now maybe you didn’t run the sound system in Junior High like I did. Maybe you ran the film projector instead. Maybe you programmed Apple II computers in BASIC and belonged to Chess Club.

Still, you and I were geeks, and the pretty girls took no notice of us.

But now we geeks rule the world. All the pretty boys and their material girls have viruses on their computers, and they can’t function without us. They’re at our mercy.

And the latest Geek Revenge these days is . . .

ZigBee.

ZigBee is sort of like wireless instant messaging for sensors and smart devices. You drop ZigBee nodes wherever you want, no cables necessary, and the more nodes you have, the more communication paths there are and the more reliable your system is . . .

The story doesn’t surrender to the stereotype that engineers are dull, lifeless geeks who only understand ones and zeros. No. It celebrates it. It turns it into the central message.

More importantly, though, it smashes the engineer stereotype to pieces: Engineers make buying decisions on emotion no differently than the rest of us do. Storytelling works when marketing to them, no differently than people in any other profession.

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4. People Can’t Forget You When They Hear from You Often

Get an autoresponder series going, and you can win the hearts of customers for life:

We like prime-number sequences, so three, five, and seven days are good.

After that sequence is done, keep in touch at a slower rate, maybe every few days or every week.

Your unsubscribe rate should be between 3 to 10 percent. If it’s more than that, your message isn’t matching your market. (If it’s less, you may not be edgy enough.)

Want to squash refunds and returns? After people buy from you, send them a series of messages that show them how to use your product more effectively and share features they might have missed.

When people complain that they’ve missed a day or two from you, it’s a sign your content is good and that the spam filters are doing their job.

5. If You Violate the Expectation of Relevance, You Damage Your List

Let’s say you’re a chiropractor who’s just launched a new herbal remedy that you want to tell your customers about. Should you blast your entire list with it?

Odds are, you could maximize your sales that day, but you’re going to pay a price. All the people who aren’t interested in herbal stuff are now going to be less responsive to everything else you do—even if they don’t unsubscribe. You’ve just taught them that you like to send out emails about stuff they’re not interested in.

The typical marketer will treat everyone the same. The smart marketer will not. The smart marketer will have different lists for each topic—different sublists.

So if you’re the chiropractor, you build an herbal sublist and then sell the herbal remedies just to those folks. That way, you maximize the value of every single list you have.

6. The Human Touch Sells

Don’t hide behind your email. Use it to express more of yourself. You’re not a faceless corporation; you’re a person. Show that side of you, and people will remember you, buy from you, and tell others about you.

Express a personality that people instantly recognize. This is free branding. When you introduce new products or make changes in your marketing program or message, now you can attach those to a name—your name or another person that your business is known for—and that name has even more meaning and credibility.



Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Image Credit: Hero Images | Getty Images




ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

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5 Marketing Strategies From Major Brands: What You Can Learn From Their Mistakes and Successes

Marketing is a spectator sport. We can all learn from each other by observing what brands do in the marketplace, even if we don't have big budgets.

Specifically, we're finding more and more brands making a buzz in the court of social media, and there's something to be learned from every one of them: the good and the, shall we say, not-so-good.

Marketing strategy mishaps

PepsiCo

One of the most newsworthy marketing moments of late came from PepsiCo, which made headlines about snacks designed for women. Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree talking about "Lady Doritos," asking CEO Indra Nooyi to focus on the bigger issues facing women that are making headlines right now. Even Ellen had something to say about it!


The lesson: Before any public announcement, prepare a message track that you have vetted with those closest to you to make sure it all makes sense. Then, make sure you understand the greater consciousness happening in the world and consider it in everything you say and do.

Ram

We recently enjoyed an entire buffet of Super Bowl commercials, many of them scoring quite well with consumers. But, one commercial in particular failed to resonate the way the company must have hoped. Ram Trucks used a voiceover clip from a speech from Dr. Martin Luther King that talks about service, and in the context of the commercial, it came across as disingenuous.

The lesson: Make sure your branding is consistent across the board, from your product or service offering to all of your marketing materials and messaging.

Marketing strategy successes

L.L. Bean

L.L. Bean, via Facebook and perhaps other touch-points, announced that it was no longer offering a lifetime guarantee, but rather a one-year return policy along with further consideration for defects that occur after that time. The company basically blamed those who abused the policy for having to eliminate it.

Yet, many customers explained that the lifetime guarantee was the only reason to purchase and the only justification for the price points. L.L. Bean kept quiet for a moment, and let other customers come to its defense by explaining the reasonableness of the policy and the need to uphold sustainable business policies. I actually joined in myself on that one! As a result, what could have been bad buzz quickly became a non-news item.

The lesson: Let your loyalists speak on your behalf in good times and in bad. Others can be far more influential for you than you can be for yourself.

CVS

Retailer CVS announced that it will no longer retouch photography in the marketing of its beauty products and it will stamp or label any other brands who continue to retouch or alter imagery, in an effort to promote positive self-esteem and healthy beauty standards. While viewed in conjunction with its decision to discontinue tobacco products a few years back, this move was heralded as yet another triumph.

The lesson: create a powerful platform that people can rally behind and that is at the core of what you do, and stick to it by repeating it with consistent and innovative initiatives over and over again.

Gerber

After 140,000 applications to be the new Gerber spokesbaby, the brand picked its first baby with Down Syndrome after 90 years, which met with an immediate standing ovation on social media. The brand announced Lucas on The Today Show. According to Gerber CEO Bill Partyka in a press release, it was Lucas's "winning smile and joyful expression" that won him the role and by the looks of the pic everyone could see why. In one moment, Gerber proved its long-lasting mantra of inclusion that says "every baby is a Gerber baby."

The lesson: Make sure your marketing materials reflect your brand -- and prevailing attitudes that are relevant to your brand.

Marketing is certainly a spectator sport, for big brands and small. Pay attention to what's out there in the marketplace, and you'll learn things that you can positively apply to your marketing plan, too.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Image Credit: Gregory Rec | Getty Images

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Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

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How Email Marketing Can Help Build Your Brand

While writing a letter never grows old, emails have taken over the concept of sending both personal and professional messages to make communication quick and immediate. The average number of emails sent and received on a daily basis has reached 269 billion. This statistic is enough to tell you the potential of an email.


With the right choice of marketing channels, brands can not only chance upon the right set of target audience but also improve their chances of converting prospects into customers. Email marketing is the choicest channel to build awareness, grab attention and convert prospects. It helps you segment your marketing content, reach out individually and personalize your communication based on your relationship with the recipient.


In this blog post, we will uncover how email marketing helps to:

1. Improve brand recognition
2. Increase customer retention
3. Establish authority
4. Boost relationships

1. Improve brand recognition

Brand recognition is "the extent to which the general public (or an organization's target market) is able to identify a brand by its attributes." So when you send out emails to your subscribers, make sure to include your brand's logo and other visual signifiers in the email. The brand colors and graphics should be consistent in every email sent out, in order to help the audience instantly recognize an email sent out by your company. The brand attributes lead to increased awareness, which in turn attracts customers towards your brand's products and services. If they need to pick between two brands for the same product -- one they recognize, the other they've never heard of -- you can count on them picking the one they know.

The emails that can improve brand recognition include newsletters. A newsletter updates your customer on the current happenings and upcoming events and helps the brand stay top of mind with the customers.

This newsletter by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. offers analytical insights to the recipients. It keeps the recipients updated on the latest happenings in the industry. There is an option to update your preferences so that you receive content that you are interested in. It is an excellent way to improve brand recognition.

click on image to enlarge

2. Increase customer retention

Customer retention focuses on strategies that help companies retain as many customers as possible for as long as possible. You certainly don't want to be a one-time purchase for your customer. Ideally, you want them to be loyal customers. A good email marketing strategy can get you there. If you send out the right type of emails at the right time with the right frequency, your customers will keep coming back to you. It is also possible that they become your brand advocates, taking it upon themselves to market your business for you.

When you send out an email, you remind your audience of your existence. These emails can be alerts informing them about new products or telling them about an ongoing sale. These emails are gentle reminders; you should send them to your subscribers frequently. Even when your subscribers are not invested in you, they will be reminded that you exist. When the times come that they are ready to buy a certain product/service offered by you, your brand will be part of their consideration. These emails could convert a "chance meeting" into a sale.

Send out "Haven't seen you in a long time" emails or re-engagement emails to your customers to improve retention and get them back. If you are in a business that requires them to re-order products, you can send out re-order emails to retain the customer. This will show them you care.

Sending out an email similar to the one sent by DuoLingo can help you increase conversion and retention.

click on image to enlarge

3. Establish authority

As a brand, your email marketing should showcase what you have achieved, and how well you know your industry. Offering valuable tips, sizeable information and even content that your audience requires at the moment can help you establish authority, which in turn improves your brand's value. If your email adds value, chances are that it will be forwarded to more people thus spreading good things about your brand.

Send them product information or specifications about the product they are considering to buy. You can even send them industry news if you want to establish authority. The email by Haworth offers a detailed overview of the products offered by them.

click on image to enlarge

4. Boost relationships

When you trust someone, entering into a relationship with them becomes a lot easier. The same is true for those prospects who are evaluating your brand. For you to win their trust, you should ideally invest in communicating with them and connecting with them about the right things. Email marketing can help you do that with ease.

Whether it is a new subscriber or someone who is already on-board as a customer, the emails that you send will help them get to know you better and eventually trust you. Emails help nurture relationships.

Welcome emails, as well as lead nurturing emails, can help foster relationships. They help the prospect onboard your brand and learn everything they want to, before moving from awareness to consideration stage.

This email by Allrecipes welcomes the subscriber. The brand asks the subscribers to send in their preferences and, accordingly, curates the recipes for them. The CTA allows the customer to set their taste preferences.

click on image to enlarge

Build your brand with these best practices

Set your brand's tone and voice

Your existing brand guidelines should be applied to your email marketing strategy as well in order to attract the right people. Your email's tone and voice should be consistent with your marketing communication for the right effect. If you are a serious brand, for example, your email communication should convey it.

Plan your content

The content of the email is an important aspect and should be planned in advance. If you are strategizing your email marketing, make sure you have set forth a plan for the content.

The content should be aligned with the type of email that is being sent to the customer. For example, if you are nurturing a lead in the consideration stage, the email content would differ from the content that is included in the welcome email.

The content should be concise and crisp and such that the reader gets complete information at a glance.

The subject line should convey what the email contains. Keep it simple and attractive.

The content should offer value to the readers and should provide insights to the users.

Add a call-to-action

It is important to write an actionable email. If your prospect is learning about your brand, try taking them to the website. If your prospect is in the consideration stage, the content and the CTA should compel them to buy. Adding appropriate CTAs will help with conversions.

Seek permission

Never send an email without the prospect's consent. Your brand may suffer if you send out an email to a prospect/customer who does not wish to receive emails from you.

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Wrapping up

It is important to channel your marketing efforts in the right direction in order to build a consistent brand. Email marketing is a great way to welcome subscribers, nurture relationships with them, build trust and engage them. You should send out the right emails at the right time to attract attention and retain loyalty. It is also important to craft your email using standard practices to achieve your goals. So, next time you are planning to work on your branding, don't forget to optimize your email marketing strategy.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Image Credit: Shuttershock




ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

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How to Write Strong Subject Lines That Will Get Your Emails Read

It's easy to get lost in our inboxes. How many times have you been in the middle of responding to one email when another, seemingly more urgent, one comes in? Or how many times have you filed away an email to handle it later, only to find that you can't remember the subject line to search for it?

There are three areas that need to be addressed in every email subject line, and when you cover them, with or without acronyms, your employees will inevitably save time.

Topic

Clarifying the topic of your email seems like a no-brainer, but we still see plenty of one-word subject lines or forwarded emails whose subject lines no longer make sense. When teaching your employees how to craft subject lines, make it clear that writing "Thoughts?" with no context won't fly.

In my company's case, internal communication often centers around a specific book project. We make it a point to include the book's title or author in the subject line to help keep emails organized. Whether you work on specific projects with names or not, ask your staff to consider how they would search through their tens of thousands of emails to find this one again and draft subject lines accordingly.

Time

Many people block off specific times in their days to respond to emails. This can create problems when urgent issues come up that need to be addressed right away. But without the word URGENT in the title, how would the recipient know you needed a response by noon?

All employees should understand the value of their colleagues' and superiors' time (not to mention their own time). There are several ways that a subject line can help the recipient quickly determine if they need to read that email right this minute, or if it can wait until higher priority items are taken care of. Here a few common ways of doing so in the subject line:


Urgent: If you need an answer right away, make that clear.


PRB: This means "please respond by" and is followed by a date. Do you need something by the end of the day (EOD), end of the week (EOW), or at a date much farther in the future?


EOM: Writing EOM, or End of Message, is another nice signal that the recipient does not need to spend any more time reading the email. Rather, all the necessary information is in the subject line, such as "Jane Out of the Office Today [EOM]"

Action

The biggest factor in how long it will take someone to act on an email of course depends on the action required of them. Was the email simply informative, or do you need approval on something? Use the subject line to indicate what you're asking the recipient to do to help them prioritize their inbox and improve response times.

Here the most common ways of clearly stating the action needed:


FYI: Meaning For Your Information, FYI is a quick way of telling someone that they don't need to do anything with the email other than read it.


NRN: Similar to FYI, NRN, or No Response Needed, signals to the recipient that they can read the email whenever it's convenient.


Response Needed: If you need an answer to a question but there's no deadline attached to it, writing "response needed" is a helpful cue to your recipient that they need to spend some time on your email.


For Review: Similarly, when you have completed a project that needs approval, writing "for review" tells the recipient that you have completed your work and that the email you sent isn't a question or update about the project.

There are countless ways to craft email subject lines. Some companies prefer strict systems in which all employees use the same abbreviations and formats. I tend to steer clear of hard rules around email communication with one notable exception: repeat emails. If someone is pulling a weekly or monthly report, the subject lines should always follow the same format so that you can easily find and access all similar emails.

Ensuring that your team addresses these three areas in all of their email communications will make everyone more efficient at managing the potential black hole of office email.

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Source: https://www.inc.com/

Image Credit: Getty Images




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5 Ways Personalization and Segmentation Are Changing Email Marketing

In years past, personalization and segmentation may have been optional, but no more. In 2018, marketers have to meet expectations and that means creating relevant, personalized messages that subscribers want to read.

Research shows marketers lean on email marketing to create a personalized experience for customers, compared to other options:

MarketingCharts email personalization chart

There’s no question, there’s a lot of power behind personalization and segmentation. In this post, we’ll look at five ways it’s changing email marketing:

1. Increased revenue through advanced segmentation

Segmenting email contacts into specific groups can give your bottom line a boost. Marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns, according to Campaign Monitor research.


Why does segmentation impact revenue? Grouping contacts by location, gender, age, job title, or buying history, gives you the opportunity to send emails that are more in-tune with what subscribers are interested in. As a result, subscribers are more apt to open your emails, click through, and convert.


For continued success, segment your segments. Start breaking your segmented lists into even smaller groups. For instance, take your ‘female customers’ list and create a list of ‘VIP female customers’ that buy from you regularly.

2. Better engagement through self-segmentation

Customers are embracing the idea of self-segmentation too. Rather than segment email contacts yourself, why not let subscribers do it for you?


Marketers are using email preference centers to give subscribers the power to select their interests. Penguin Random House directs its subscribers to the preference center below. It gives subscribers the power to self-select the book genres they’re most interested in. In return, subscribers receive emails that provide book suggestions they’re excited about.

Penquin Random House Preference Center

Marketers are also giving website visitors the ability to join specific newsletters. BuzzFeed, gives visitors the chance to sign up for newsletters that are based on the content they read. For instance, if a visitor reads an article about cats, a form pops up asking the visitor to join a specific cat newsletter.

BuzzFeed Newsletter signup

This kind of self-segmentation removes any doubt about categorizing a subscriber. As a result, engagement climbs because subscribers see content they want in their inbox.

3. Stronger relationships built through dynamic content

Marketers have figured out how to create personalized emails without spending a ton of time manually tweaking emails. How? Dynamic content.


Dynamic content allows marketers to create one email, but customize blocks of it for certain subscribers. Let’s say you’re hosting a sale at both of your stores in Fresno and Los Angeles. Through dynamic content, you can localize the images and content. The subscribers in Fresno see a picture of their local store and those in LA see their hometown store.


Dynamic content is personalized. When subscribers open the email they think, “This company gets me.” With every dynamically personalized email, you build a stronger relationship with your customer.

4. Eased workload via automation and integrations

The need to create more personalized content sounds like more work for marketers, right? It doesn’t have to be, if you’re using an email service provider that has automation features and useful integrations.


Automation is a must for marketers looking to save time. Using automation, you can send emails automatically. That’s right. You can set up triggers so emails that you pre-make are sent to subscribers when they meet a certain condition.


For instance, when a subscriber joins your newsletter that action can trigger a welcome email. When a subscriber makes a purchase, a confirmation email is triggered. You can even trigger emails based on a specific date, so a Valentine’s Day email can arrive in inboxes a week before the holiday.


In addition, marketers should lean into integrations.  Integrations let you sync platforms for ease of use. 


It’s these simplified processes that have become crucial to marketers as they’re asked to personalize more and more campaigns.

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5. An increasing need to collect data

To personalize emails, you have to know your customers. That means you have to collect data on an ongoing basis.


Marketers are getting more sophisticated when it comes to data collection. When a customer signs up for a webinar, downloads a white paper, makes a purchase, or interacts with a social ad, they’re asking for new pieces of information.


As information rolls in, marketers use the data to build customer personas. These personas are meant to help marketers visualize real customers with details that specify age, location, interest, buying activity, etc.


Every new piece of information strengthens a persona and helps marketers create tailored content.

Marketers weigh in: How personalization and segmentation are impacting campaigns

We asked marketers to tell us how personalization and segmentation are changing their strategies. From increased conversion rates to connecting with customers, here’s how these two tactics are improving the ROI of email marketing:

• Instead of a “spray and pray” email strategy, we now segment our database by emotional target or a reason why they contacted us. Personalizing all emails with content that is geared towards customers’ concerns creates a lasting bond between our brand and our potential audience._

-Brannan Glessner, Express Homebuyers

• What truly drives awesome email performance is a more personalized messaging strategy, one that adjusts the timing, cadence, and content of emails to segments built off our users’ captured behavioral data. With this approach, email is part of a conversation that begins at the inbox, but doesn’t end there.

-Stephen Hammill, Anvil Media Inc.

• We put a lot of strategy into segmenting our email, starting with detailed persona building to determine messaging. From there, we have in-depth interviews with our client’s sales side to identify common questions, concerns and pain points – and we’ve had great response rates as a result.

-Louise Armstrong, Bonafide

• As a higher education institution, we have multiple offices emailing prospective students. By adjusting our email strategy to be more personalized and sending emails segmented by age, location, and level of interest, we have seen a massive increase in open and click rates.

-Lexi Carter, Southern Utah University

• Personalization-at-scale is one of the most important digital trends in 2018. Brands can use the new breed of email marketing automation tools to capture audience attention at the right time, with personalized engagement for every touch-point in the customer journey. It’s still “selling,” but selling in a very efficient yet personalized way.

-Alessio De Luca, Florence Consulting Group

Wrap up

As you can see, marketers are reaching new heights as they incorporate personalization and segmentation into their strategies. The two tactics have become a necessity for marketers looking to connect with customers in a digital world. In 2018, the trend will continue as customers’ expectations continue rise.

ABOUT WNFP
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How to Leverage the 6 Principles of Persuasion in Your Email Marketing

Do you know how to persuade? It’s a critical skill for an email marketer. Perhaps the most critical.

“You’ve created your campaign and attended to all the details of identifying your audience, created your offer, and toiled for hours and hours, honing copywriting and design,” writes Gary Hennerberg at Target Marketing. “But in the end, the tipping point for your success likely stems from the degree to which you emotionally persuade an individual to take action.”

In his groundbreaking 1984 book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” Dr. Robert Cialdini identified what he termed “The Six Principles of Persuasion”: reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity. He was onto something important: his book has sold more than three million copies and been translated into 30 languages.

If you haven’t been putting Cialdini’s principles to work in your email marketing, now is a good time to start. Read on to learn how you can leverage them in your campaigns.

Reciprocity

“Reciprocity is the obligation to give once you receive,” writes Mark Brown at Emailaudience,

Brown illustrates the power of reciprocity by citing a study linking mints that accompanied diners’ checks with higher tips. “The waiters in the experiments enjoyed double the tip amount for one mint (3%), quadruple the amount for two mints (14%) and went as high as 23% when the waiter provided extra gifts unexpectedly,” he writes.

The bottom line: “In every email that asks users to take an action – whether it be clicking on a link, buying a product or sharing information – you should offer a small gift or offering. These gifts can be downloads, discounts or even entertaining videos, however, they should be seen as having some kind of inherent value in order to be effective.”

Commitment/Consistency

This principle posits that once people make a commitment, they behave in a manner consistent with that commitment.

Asking recipients to sign-up to receive free content is an example of gaining commitment. Once they do that, they are very likely to take the subsequent steps needed to obtain your offer.

“You’re persuading people to commit to your content, so that they start behaving in alignment with their choice of committing to you,” writes Neil Patel. “The returns garnered by the commitment and consistency principle could be something as subtle as liking and sharing your content on social media or something as large as following your CTAs.”

Social proof

Social proof drives conformity by compelling people to behave in alignment with the actions of others. Social proof gets results. It’s why email marketers use testimonials, endorsements, awards, product reviews, press coverage, and other forms of validation in their messages.

“Put simply, people trust people, not ads or self-promotion,” writes Daniel Kohn on the Kissmetrics blog. “We want to see or hear or read about others using, enjoying, and succeeding with a product or service before committing to it ourselves.”

Authority

“The principle of authority says most of us realize we can’t be experts at everything,” write Jacob McMillen at The Daily Egg. “Our best bet is to rely on the testimony of experts. Accordingly, we allow experts and those considered the ‘authority’ on any given topic to influence us.

“You can put the principle of authority to work in email marketing by citing professionals to back up any claims you make, by pointing to research conducted on your product or service by prestigious organizations and by showcasing awards and other recognition your company has earned.

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Liking

“It’s hard to say ‘no’ to someone we like or consider a friend, because we want to make a good impression and preserve the friendship,” writes Alexis Rodrigo at Vero. When it comes to leveraging this principle in email marketing, “The key is to get your subscribers to like you in the first place,” Rodrigo advises.

“To start, your emails should sound human. Write conversationally – think business conversation, not street talk – avoiding jargon and legalese.”More tips: “Show the human side to your company or organization. Let subscribers know who’s writing to them, and show an agreeable photo of the author. Get the people who make up your business to share who they are through personal anecdotes or stories that relate to the rest of your email.”

Scarcity

“The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerfully motivating properties,” Cialdini wrote.“Scarcity triggers an emotion response because we find it hard to resist wanting things that are scarce,” writes Sarah Jamieson at Persuasionworks. “Scarcity also increases desire.If we know we can’t have something, we want it even more.”

Jamieson suggests email marketers leverage the persuasive power of scarcity by stressing that quantities are limited, that the product is only available to members of an “exclusive” group, or that a deadline is looming.



Source: https://www.business2community.com/



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

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[Infographic] March 2018 Marketing and Holiday Planning

Spring is just a few weeks away; disregard what Punxsutawney Phil thinks.

Now is the time to evaluate and plan your spring marketing.

Do you need to do a little spring cleaning and get your list segmented? Maybe your business is off to a slower start than you envisioned in 2018?

Whatever your situation might be you can use some of the themes and holidays below to give your marketing a fresh update this spring!

click image to enlarge

Still not using email to market your business? Give Constant Contact a try for FREE!

Source: https://blogs.constantcontact.com




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6 Reasons Why Personalization Makes Your Marketing Better

Dale Carnegie once said that “a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

This is the same reason why you see companies and brands address you by your first name in their promotional emails.

Personalization can be a powerful tool when used right. Marketers have been using this strategy for decades to improve their marketing efforts.

In fact, research shows that personalized email campaigns receive 29% higher email open rates and 41% higher click-through rates than ordinary emails.

Needless to say, if you still haven’t implemented personalization in your marketing strategy, you’re missing out. Here’s why.

Join us for a Email Marketing Workshop: Using Email Marketing Campaigns to Promote Your Business

What is personalized marketing?

How does personalization factor into marketing? Well, it’s much more than just using your customer’s first name in your emails.

Personalized marketing is a strategy of its own that you can integrate into your different types of marketing mediums, such as email, social media, and blogs, to generate better results. Personalized marketing involves collecting data related to your customers and crafting marketing experiences that target specific types of customers through your content.

Data is your friend

Your personalized marketing strategy begins with user data. The success of your campaigns will depend on how well you collect and measure data. Whether it’s email list segments or surveys, you can collect different data to learn more about your users. It’s the only way to offer more personalized experiences through your marketing campaigns.

Once you have enough data and you start to paint a picture of your typical customer, you can begin to properly personalize your marketing campaigns.

The following examples will help convince you of the power of personalization.

1. Effectively target specific audiences

The main benefit of personalized marketing is the ability it gives you to reach specific audiences. By collecting user data from list segments, surveys, or studies you can create more effective email campaigns targeting audiences based on their interests or buying habits.

For example, if your audience likes movies, you can use pop-culture references in your email campaigns, blog posts, or even in your email opt-in forms to offer a more personalized experience through content and increase conversions.

Office Max Uses Personalized Marketing

Many companies, like Office Max, use personalization to increase their customer engagement.

OfficeMax is a company that uses this strategy in their email campaigns. The company uses their user location data to send highly personalized emails based on the user’s location.

2. Create better content
Personalization also helps you stand out from the crowd by creating better and unique content that leaves a special memory for your customers.

Coca-Cola used personalization to launch its Share A Coke campaign, which involved printing common names on Coke bottles to attract more millennials. The campaign helped the company grow sales for the first time in 10 years.

Personalization helps Coke increase their sales dramatically 

Adding first names to the bottles of Coke helped the company increase their sales.

Imagine finding a Coke bottle with your name on it. Wouldn’t you want to buy it and show it off to your friends? It’s amazing how a simple marketing strategy can bring so many sales for a business.

3. Build deeper relationships with customers

Personalizing your marketing will also help build stronger and more personal relationships with your customers. You can show how much you care about every one of your customers by showing your gratitude, by sending an email wishing for their birthday, or sending a thank you email on the anniversary of joining your email list.

Or, you can take things a bit further by improving your entire website and landing pages using personalization. This will not only help you generate more sales and conversions, but it will also make your website feel like home for your customers.

Deepen your relationships with customers using landing pages. 

This gaming community uses personalization to make members feel at home.

4. Gives a face to your business

In order to offer a truly personal experience through your marketing, you also need to give an identity for your company as well. This includes showing the human side of your business.

Include a working reply-to address in your automated emails to let your customers ask questions and leave feedback. Show who’s behind your company emails by including the faces and the names of your employees. Let your customers know that your company is run by humans, not robots.

Show the customer your human side of your company

Adding a personal touch like a first name to your email can boost customer engagement.

Many businesses now combine the company name with the person in charge of different departments to offer a more friendly experience to customers.

5. Make better recommendations

Learning about your customer’s buying habits is not a bad thing. Retail sites such as Amazon and eBay use this perfectly to offer more relevant product recommendations for their customers. They also occasionally send emails with recommended product catalogs.

Instead of asking from friends or searching the internet on which books you should read next, Amazon gives better suggestions based on your own behavior.

Product recommendations helps boost sales for Amazon

Amazon is known for having high-quality product recommendations.

Just remember not to take things too far like how Target exposed a teen girl’s pregnancy before her father knew about it.

6. Boost sales and conversions

Personalized marketing is not just about connecting with your audience. It’s also a great way to help your customers and also grow your sales at the same time. A simple recommendation or a suggestion can help bring you better results.

Twiddy boosted sales by helping their customers first

Truly helping your customers can come back around and help your bottom line.

The vacation rental company, Twiddy used a similar tactic to boost their inventory by over 10%. The company paid close attention to trends and customer behavior to offer pricing recommendation to homeowners to help them figure out better pricing for rentals. This brought in increased revenue for both the company and homeowners as well as a 15% cost reduction for Twiddy.

The future of marketing

Most expert marketers are now going as far as to say that personalization is the future of marketing. Seeing how it improves the campaign results, we have to agree with them.

Personalization is all about doing things to serve your customer first. So, you should try putting yourself in your customer’s shoes once in awhile to look at things in their perspective. This will immensely help you improve your marketing strategy.

Want more tips on personalization? Join us for a Email Marketing Workshop: Using Email Marketing Campaigns to Promote Your Business

Source: https://blogs.constantcontact.com


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Facebook Now Offers Job Posting Feature to Small Businesses

Finding the right talent can be a challenge. Reach qualified people where they're already spending their time—on Facebook. Post job opportunities on your Facebook business Page for free.

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!