SOCIAL MEDIA KILLED THE E MAIL STAR(?)

PERMISSION MARKETING RULES!

demystifying web, empowering entrepreneurs

Didn’t spam kill email? or

Blogs or

Twitter or

Facebook or

Pinterestor

With so many free ways to communicate online?

…Who needs email?

GOAL?

…Brand Recognition

Relationship

RESPONSE!

The more things change the more they stay the same.

MARKETING MIX!

Inbound

SEO Permission

In concert with SEO, Social and a solid website hub eMail is GOLD

(Effort + Authenticity + Best Practices) x Consistency = Results

WHY EMAIL?

• NURTURE 80/20 stay top of mind build database

• Move conversation to PERSONAL PLACE the in-box.

• Build a relevant, permission based database

• Capture TARGET market website visitors who may have been to your website but not contacted you = competitive advantage

• Best ROI

• Easy to share your campaign

• OWN vs. RENT ie: FB edgerank = maybe 20% see it

• Control over exactly who it is delivered to

Older than dirt in internet terms - email must be dead.

NOT JUST A WEBSITE … AN INTERNET STRATEGY.

Website HUB

Social Media AMPLIFIER

Email Marketing Database builder (access and control)

Relationship Building and Maintenance

Top-of-Mind Brand Recognition

PERMISSION TRUMPS INTERRUPTION– WHEN YOU’RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO GET IT,

HONOUR IT!

Some thoughts from Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing…

“Subscriptions are an overt act of permission.”

“Magazine subscribers are worth more than newsstand ones.”

“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.”

“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.”

“It is a value exchange — your valuable information for your prospect’s valued time. Your subscribers need to know they can trust you.”

Interruption marketing Fails because it is unable to get enough attention from consumers.

Permission Marketing Works by taking advantage of the

same problem there just isn't enough attention to go around.

Best Case Scenario:“Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they

ask where you went.”

- Seth Godin

BEST PRACTICES

Set Expectations & Just do it If it is going to be different - let me know in advance (permission)

Clarity beats sales every time

Niche – Authentic – Share – Consistent – Interesting – Brief Relevant – Informative – Branded – Provide Value

Test before sending - Think viewers perspective - Do they care?Remove any “Yada yada”

Before adding – do they know me? – slow steady and authentic wins

Segment – talk to people with specific interestInstall social sharing widgets – social sharing widgets should be in all marketing content

CALL TO ACTION…

What do you want them to do?

Walk into your store? Call? Share? Forward to a friend?

Include a clear, compelling, risk-reducing, or benefits-oriented Call to Action

“add to cart” “Start your 30 day free trial” “Like” “Tweet” “Save now” “Reserve your spot” “Contact Us” “Purchase” “Click” “SHARE

“Learn more…” “Follow” “Register now” “Enter the Contest” “Subscribe” “Get your free copy”

“free assessment” “DOWNLOAD” “Read more….” “join our community” “get the free app”

“make that blue button green”

From: info-bsp@rogers.comTo: james@bartsbiz.ca, sales@xyzcompany.com, reliant@jameslor.com, jason@salesfork.com, linda@burlington.com, support@customerservice .ca

Subject: March Newsletter

…WHAT NOT TO DO

Boring

Too much text

Too many fonts / colours

No Branding

No images

Stuffy

All CAPS screaming

List of recipients showing

Send every other day

“Email #23, June 23 2014”

If you are going to include a lot of content – give the reader an above the fold index

…WHAT TO DO

Identify yourself in the From: 60% decide here – include brand

Compel me to open in the Subject – keep it short : 30% decide here– give me a reason 5-8 compelling words (keyword rich)

• Enrolling question: “Would you like to double your client list overnight?”Who would say no to that?

• Incomplete sentence:  Our brain hates them! E.g. “Did you know 70% of biz owners don’t know ….?”.

• Curiosity statement: Something that creates intrigue.• Numbered Sequenced Subject Line: e.g. “The Top 5 Marketing Mistakes”.

Branding

Call to Action Short – Simple – Drive traffic (Snippets with links)

Consistent Benefit

Include Forward - Share - unsubscribe

MORE WHAT TO DO

Avoid Stale - evolve the look while maintaining branding

Not boring or stuffy - personal familiar

Fewer options = more action

Always one click away

Segment and focus on interest – survey to clarify

Accessible - 60% have images off - Info in text as well

Web Hub - All content lives at 1 other destination - Social & Email all drive traffic to that 1 place

Use a service with good deliverability - avoid ending up in spam folders.

Proofread!

SEO 101 (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)

• Non salesy

• Keywords used naturally in content - what users say, not what you say

• Onsite SEO - content, layout, usability, internal links, site efficiency, mobile friendly?

• Off site SEO - inbound links, social signals

• Text locked in images = useless

• PR - still useful to get the word out but no longer nirvana of SEO

• Video YouTube - #2 search engine – transcripts = SEO edge 

• Tricks? (no big green button)Hummingbird = no stuffing, no duplicate content, no strict density

• Think Niche, niche and niche and then nichey. Oh did I mention niche?

 

BUILD YOUR LISTP.O.P

- Bowl for business cards – clearly stating they will receive emarketing

- Ask- 50% will fill in card at POP

QR - on banner at trade show etc.

Text to join

Offer:Coupons

Tips

Info

Events

Downloads

Support

APPS: CaptricityContact Captureicapture

• Ask on Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

• Offer incentives ("bribes” e.g., $5 off, 10% off) in exchange for an address

• Collect contact info, including email addresses, from everyone who calls your office – with full disclosure (CASL)

OPT IN OR IT IS SPAM?

Aside from the fact that it is not targeted and a waste of your time, sending spam is illegal according to the Can Spam Act (CASL)

Better providers will help you comply - You are allowed to legally send bulk emails (email blasts, mass emails, or newsletter emails) because companies like Constant Contact and AWeber only allow opt-in emails.

People have to agree to receive an email from you (permission). The most obvious way this is done through a “join our community” or “sign up for our monthly digest” button on your website. By voluntarily giving you their email address, they are agreeing to receive whatever you have promised in that signup form - updates and other email communication from you.

METRICS

Do more of what’s workingFind out what’s working and what’s not - refine

Opens?

Click through? what? then to where? (GA link builder)Never post full info = clickable snippet link to websitte

What got most response?

Frequency? Time? – Test - Know your industry(3 – 5x/week Faceboook, 3 – 5x/day Twitter, 1– 2x/month mail)

Autoresponders

CHALLENGES?

Time to Produce

Get message out In few words

Where to get content

- don’t worry about giving away the farm

Also keeping up consistent SM broadcasting

Building a list

Standing Out - Less is more - genuine for value

….Why bother?

LEARNING CURVE?• Build your database

• Use good reliable service with customizable templates

• Decide on copy (largest commitment)

• Choose graphics if not just pulling from an existing post

• Use your segmented database to decidewho to send to

• Hit send

Yes, the first two or three emails will take a little longer but with a little planning ahead, weeks' of work can be accomplished in just a

few hours once you are familiar with the tools and process.

CONTENT! …UGHHBONUS - ALL IDEAS ARE INBOUND LINK OPPORTUNITIES

Blog Post (articles)

Guest BlogTips & Tricks

Client Case Studies

Free Tools / webinars

Coupon offers

Announcements

Relevant Quotes

Video

Add to resources list #ff style nod to relevant businesses = Link bait & useful

Book or industry event reviewsInfographic

Product Announcements

Humour – more viral than good info

Testimonials for relevant colleagues

Get interviewed - helpareporter.com (HARO)

Press Releases – your own or collaborative

Network - build relationships for future reviews, testimonials, guest posts, sharing…

Volunteer to be the subject of a case study. Companies often looking for customers willing to be

subject. Volunteer your time for one of your major vendors, and get a backlink from the case study once it's published.

EVEN MORE CONTENT IDEAS• Do some newsjacking. – first to comment on a news event brings

you to the top of SERPs due to freshness component of Google Algorithm - others will link to your content (and so on)

• Scoop.it – tool to find and curate content (really good curators of relevant content) – why Search through all the content when others are actively curating for you

• Postplanner – discovery engine – enter relevant keywords and it displays recent content that you can sort by popularity

• Swayy – specify categories and it will pick the most relevant content based on popularity among your friends and followers

• Feedly – allows you to subscribe to blogs and view the latest posts within the application

• Rebelmouse – not truly explored yet but looks immensely interesting - automated site curration of your feeds.

• Repurpose: Use a longer version of an article for a blog post. An easy read shorter version for Facebook post, a 140 character tease as your next tweet. (hoot suite)

• Use photos. (Image Handling)

• Don’t feel you need to be an expert on everything you share, just surround yourself with, or read and learn from experts. That’s what Oprah does! (Curation)

• Use your e-campaigns database – not to sell, but not only to share content - also for thank you and happy holiday notes. (add a join form now, figure it out later)

MORE CONTENT IDEAS

REALLY NOT READY TO START?

Add a signup form to your site with an incentive and build an email list even with no plan right now.

• Someday you will want to speak to those who have visited

• Someone will want to sponsor something

• You will want to send something out 

….even if it is just a “happy holidays” message.

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

~(Zig Ziglar)

A few thoughts on choosing a service…

APPLES TO APPLES?• Begin as you intend to continue;

Do you really never want more than 2,000 subscribers?(2,000 can actually mean only 500 if you want to segment)

• Support? Mailchimp: 0 Constant Contact (or Aweber): 110%

• Poorly executed email campaigns or time spent battling a template or databasecosts more than monthly subscription savings

• If you go free, know where you will turn when you need help.

Oh, and stay away from email marketing companies that force you into long-term contracts - should be able to suspend and retain static components; databases, sign-up, existing templates.

MAILCHIMP

Pros

• Easy to use for beginners

• Integration

• Free for up 2,000 subscribers

• Pre-made templates + wizard

• Responsive templates

• Upload images

Cons• Logo included at bottom of every email sent on free accounts.

• Usability - great graphics but heavy load

•  'hold your hands’ approach bothersome once you know your way around

• Much less intuitive GUI

• Only email customer service.

• No auto responders on free accounts

• Must use MailChimp templates cannot create our own 

• Templates have same basic layouts & styles. 

• - Difficult to differentiate - critical in an increasingly crowded internet

• Segment ignored for count 

• - Multiple list subscriber counts for every list 

• - i.e. 900 subscribers can look like 5000 (faster to move you to paid)

• Forms notoriously problematic, most use third party tool for signup form to make Mailchimp signup work well and look elegant

• - if you are a coder go for mailChimp! 

• Apparently they may suspend your account without notice for using affiliate links so they don’t have a high bounce auto responder service.

Clearly designed for non-technical users (as it should be since there is no

support).  Colorful, friendly, and fun. They even have a monkey

with humorous sayings in a bubble

AWEBERPros

• Excellent, responsive support

• Integration

• Auto-responders

• Ability to have custom templates

• Fast load time

• 99% or above deliverability of messages

• Pre-made, customizable templates

• Ability to use completely custom templates

Cons

• No wizards: Unlike MailChimp, Aweber does not have any step-by-step wizards for setting up email campaigns (for some, this is a bonus)

• No file uploads: If you want to embed images, they must be hosted elsewhere (your website, Flickr, Photobucket, etc)

• Not yet responsive templates 

A leader in email marketing. Good integration with social and their auto

responder is best in the business and they rock the deliverability rate (99% or above).  

CONSTANT CONTACTPros• Pre-made, customizable templates

• Completely custom templates

• Upload images

• Auto-responder

• Social share 

• Responsive templates 

• Multi lists no duplication - as many segmentations for whatever use you choose

• No contract to sign -not locked in. You can cancel for several months & start back with no loss or hassle.

• Periodic updates? Suspend your account on the months you’re not using it and still see analytics etc.

• In all comparison charts CC rated best for customer support, analytics and content management.

Incredible customer service!

Easily dovetails with Eventspot and survey

Cons

• “User friendly” interface can be clunky at times.

• Always improving means always changing

Like a hybrid of MailChimp and A-Weber. 

Amazing real time support plus tons of learning resources.

Premade email templates + ability to create custom Flexible cost, service suspension no distribution limit.

 

HAPPY MONKEY USERS?"I’m willing to give up a free service and pay for another because saying Mailchimp performs the same function as Aweber or Constant Contact is like saying a Ford Escort performs the same function as a Maserati.”

"MailChimp’s Sign-Up form.  It’s hard to customize and it looks like a 5th grader designed it in 1995 HTML code.  That doesn’t make it classic it makes it crappy.”

"Mail Chimp is a nightmare to setup and use. It isn’t at all intuitive. And I’ve been using, designing, Q&A software for over 20 years now (yikes!) Don’t get me wrong though – I think they are awesome for their free service.”

"Mailchimp display in Outlook is reportedly (for a long time) terrible - Mailchimp has never done anything about it”

"Mailchimp has to get the sign up form right for non developers. It’s just crazy.”

“Less time posting monkey videos from youtube, more time worrying about the top of my funnel.”

"Why not Mailchimp? –um… the forms, the tracking, the auto-responder, nobody to call…” 

RESOURCES5 reasons Email Crushes Social Media Marketing – kissmetics

http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/24486/are-you-doing-email-wrong-just-four-steps-to-increase-sales

http://blogs.constantcontact.com/fresh-insights/holiday-promotion-ideas/

http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/basics/why.htm

http://www.sethgodin.com/permission/thanks.asp

http://www.marketingprofs.com/cmp/29/oct13sale?adref=prosaleribbon&utm_source=mpsite&utm_medium=ribbon&utm_campaign=pro&utm_term=discount&utm_content=membership

http://www.constantcontact.com/learning-center/webinars/live/index.jsp

https://www.rebelmouse.com/

https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460-using-twitter-lists

http://www.informationweek.com/social-business/social_networking_consumer/the-art-of-tweeting-dos-and-donts/240157863

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/2013/09/29/become-a-social-media-rock-star-in-4-easy-steps-infographic/

Google URL builder https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en&rd=1