When you’re trying to grow your business, there’s nothing more practical than a well-written and carefully-executed email campaign.
Experts say that email marketing offers the highest return on investment (time and money) for your business, at nearly $40 returned for every $1 spent. But you may exceed that return depending on the effort you put into it.
Joining business associations, using reverse email lookups, sticky messages, and other techniques and tools will accelerate your email marketing campaign’s returns.
Important Email Marketing Concepts
Capturing emails will get you started, whether at point of sale or on your website. It may be more effective to offer an incentive in exchange for the email, such as a discount on future orders/purchases, highlights of industry developments or news, or other customer-pleasing information (always keeping it upbeat).
Remember to:
Get the customer’s first name for personalization, which can dramatically increase the open and click-through rate (user interaction) with the email (some say that a personalized subject line gets opened 26 percent more!)
Ask your loyal customers to forward your message to a friend and offer rewards for referrals (this may require sending a welcome message with an additional “opt in” to make it legal),
Offer several subscription options so they can choose what kind of emails to receive and how often.
Grow Your Email List
Grow your list with alternative tools such as email lookup or username search for B2B clients. Your email list is only strong if it’s constantly being expanded, pruned, and segmented.
You may want to target prospective customers by creating a profile of your dream customer and working backward from there by identifying likely individuals, locating their email addresses, and establishing relationships through engaging email content.
Consistency
Consistency in your message and brand is key. Take time to plan your message style, frequency, and strategy, which requires allocating resources, even outsourcing blog entries. Folks want to associate with positivity and uplifting content, whether there’s a material reward (such as a discount) or not. Can you:
Visual branding is important, using your logo, an inspirational quote, or punchy colors;
Optimize the message for mobile phones as most people at least scan on their phones;
The subject line is crucial, whether it’s funny, highlights the call to action, or calls attention to the best portion of the message, and
Don’t take more time than is worthwhile for message.
Takeaway
Takeaway impact should be clear for each message, otherwise it’s not worth the time. What valuable content are you offering to the customer:
Highlight a client’s business,
Download an industry-specific white paper,
introduce unique information about employees or processes,
Offer insight into responsible sourcing that will make customers feel good about their purchases, or
Offer a peek behind the scenes using short videos?
Accuracy
Accuracy and effort are rewarded. Be sure a second or third person reads the email before it is sent. Try sending test emails to review the message in its final format, and open on multiple devices to trouble-shoot any layout issues.
Segmenting
Segmenting messages increases the impact. It means creating one email directed at retail customers and another for suppliers, professional associates, or other groups. Reverse email look ups can be helpful here to determine which group or groups the individual belongs to.
Segmenting may also be done geographically, by age, or by other demographics (people with children, by income brackets, etc.), much of which can be learned through reverse email look-ups and username search tools for those who are motivated to do so.
These messages may use much of the same content but with subtle differences in tone and approach. For instance, employee-made video shorts of behind-the-scenes activities can make retail customers feel closer or more invested as well as being useful for sending to industry associates.
by loyalty level (total purchases or length of relationship).
Subject lines
Subject lines are crucial to getting eyeballs on your email message. Be creative, perhaps offer an in-house incentive to the employee who comes up with the best/most opened subject line in a 6-month period. Suggestions for this most important component include:
Splitting your email list between two messages with different subject lines but the same content to see which gets opened more;
Ask a question;
Avoid words that will get your email sent to spam filters including “free”, or
Make it a call to action.
Deliver
Deliver something of value. By sending an email you’re asking for a person’s time. In exchange, be sure to make it worthwhile with unique insights, information, an announcement, amazing eye candy, or a significant offer.
You don’t want “unsubscribe” to be their best option. Other tips:
Keep your message short and to the point;
Engage rather than pitch, to develop the relationship;
Make a dedicated landing page on your website for those who click through, and
Make it easy to scan through your content, as recipients are overwhelmed with information and prefer bullet points and specific links to big blocks of text.
Measuring the Impact
Measuring the impact of your email campaigns is simplified by most commercial email platforms. Check the bounce rate and other results to make changes for future campaigns.
You can also check this parameters to find out more:
Day and time sent;
Subject line;
Subject line to specific demographics;
Associated interactions or sales;
Use of the embedded incentive (coupon, discount code, etc.), and
Open/unsubscribe/bounce rates.
Act on Your Analysis
Act on your analysis of messages. If you’re not achieving the desired outcome, it’s time to reconsider your approach. Perhaps you should send a “win back” message to those who haven’t opened an email in a certain period of time.
Author
Ben Hartwig
Ben is a Web Operations Executive at InfoTracer who takes a wide view from the whole system. He authors guides on entire security posture, both physical and cyber. Enjoys sharing the best practices and does it the right way!
Writing emails that sell is an integral part of any email marketing campaign. Perhaps the most important element of any email is the subject line, so it is very important that they are done as well as possible. Here are five simple ways to improve email subject lines.
#1 Make it Short
The golden rule of the subject
line is, “The shorter – the better.” This is why making your subject lines as
simple as possible is essential for making them effective. If you can fit all
the important information only in a few words, it will have a much greater
impact.
Another reason to cut
down your subject lines is that your recipients won’t be able to see the entire
subject line until they open the email. To make them interested and click on
the email, they first have to be hooked by the subject line, and that can’t
happen if it is too long.
Try to keep your
subject lines under 40 characters or about five to seven words in length. You
want them to get to the point right away rather than approaching the matter
from afar. Nobody likes reading tons of text (and nobody has any time for it
either).
You also need to take
out any kind of spammy words or phrases. There are filters that can place your
email into spam just because there are such things as “Free” or “Buy Now” in
them. Do some research and see if any of the words you use could get your
emails to spam.
#2 Be Active
One of the biggest mistakes made when writing emails is not using an active voice. This means that your emails automatically become dull or boring and don’t invite your readers to act and do whatever you want them to do. There are some things you could do to avoid this problem and be active:
Create Urgency:
By including a deadline in your subject lines, you will create a sense of
urgency and prompt your readers to act immediately. Nobody wants to miss out on
a great opportunity. However, you should still have a good offer to make this
deadline work.
Ask Questions:
This can be anything from asking for feedback or opinion on a certain matter to
asking rhetoric questions just to reinforce your idea. Questions help you focus
attention on the most important matter and keep your recipients reading. If you
have an interesting question in your subject line about an important problem,
they will be more likely to click and read your email in search of an answer.
Command:
Sometimes being stricter than people expect you to can work out quite well.
However, you still need to be careful with this tactic as it can just as easily
backfire at you. If you give them direct instructions, they might be more
decisive to act on it.
Teasers:
You can also use various teasers on what you are about to present to them or what
you are going to release in the near future. Of course, such teasers mostly
work if you have something truly interesting and unique.
#3 Customize It
It is an extremely
effective technique to customize your subject lines as much as possible. There
is nosubject line that will work for every single person in your target
audience, so you will need to divide your recipients into groups and create
different versions for each group.
For example, many
people like list articles or content that is organized into lists. They are
much easier to read and take less time to digest thanks to the information
being organized in a certain way. So, if one of your target groups does not
have time for emails, they might change their mind and click on your email if
the subject line mentions that you are sending a list.
Likewise, sharing
announcements will work for the target group that always opens your emails or
keeps an eye on the activity coming from you. They will be a lot more
interested in an update than someone who is simply looking for discounts.
If you know that there
are people in your email list who do not speak English or whose first language
isn’t English, you might want to translate your emails and subject lines for
them. Use a translation service like The Word Point to do this
quickly and efficiently.
#4 Get Creative
You could get very
creative with your emails. Besides, being authentic is essential for your
emails to stand out of the crowd of tons of other promotional emails just like
yours. Here are some practices you could try that can help you get creative:
Uniqueness:
Being unique is not as difficult as it seems, yet it still quite a complicated
job. To be unique, you need to understand who your audience is and what you can
offer them. Once you really know that, it will be much easier to get things
going from that point on.
Humor:
Telling a joke can dramatically increase the chances of your email being opened
and read. Great one-liners don’t only engage the audience but also make them
associate your business with positive feelings and emotions. This leads to your
brand image improving quite a lot.
Surprise:
The element of surprise always works extremely well in any kind of situation.
If you say something your audience didn’t expect you to, they will be instantly
intrigued and wanting to know more. Of course, try not to say anything
controversial, because that can lead to drastic consequences.
#5 Use Multimedia
Last but not least, it
can be an amazing idea to use multimedia in your emails. This makes them way more engaging and interactive.
If you use some kind of multimedia in your email, make sure that you mention it
in the subject line.
For example, you could
add a video or presentation on a certain subject or include a PDF checklist or
guide to something. If you do, always mention it in the subject line and focus
on it, so that the attention of your recipients goes to this particular piece
of information.
After all, you are
putting in extra effort and perhaps even investing in equipment or additional
services to get this video, infographic, or elsewise done. You might as well
make sure that going the extra mile pays off and your audience appreciates this
effort.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, email
subject lines need special attention, so try to create several versions of the
same subject line until you settle down for the one that works best. Follow the
tips in this article to help you optimize your subject lines as much as possible.
Author, Frank Hamilton
Frank Hamilton is a blogger and translator from Manchester. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.
Email marketing is an incredible opportunity to turn potential customers into actual customers or entice former customers into making further purchases. Every email address you earn is a privilege and making sure that you use that privilege and make the most of it is very important for running the online dimension of your company.
Email marketing is a flexible field, with all sorts
of different approaches, some effective, others not so much. Knowing what is
specifically appropriate for your company to send out is really important.
You’ve got to capitalize on the chance to add to your sales.
With that said, here are 5 tips to help you with
your email marketing.
#1 – Write Well
This almost goes without saying, but it is probably the most crucial thing when it comes to boosting your numbers. If someone signs up for emails, whether that be inadvertently or totally willingly, if the emails they receive are completely ill-formatted, poorly written, boring messes (or even just one of those things!) it’s going to make it hard for you to retain email list members.
It also breeds a lack of trust in the professionalism of your company. Even a user who, in their personal life, doesn’t care about good writing will inherently distrust a site which produces poorly written content. You’ve got to shine in this regard to coax your email audience into engaging with your company further.
#2 – Send Regular Emails
“Quite often people express
to me some idea that they would shy away from emailing regularly so as not to
‘spam’ their audience. If a customer is subscribed to your emails, then you
have every right to keep in touch.
In fact, you should; and frequently”, writes Libby Hatfield, sales manager at 1day2write and Australia2Write. Keep in touch, make sure your customers are always up to date. People check their emails all the time so by being their frequently you are able to increase them when they’re in the mood to buy.
#3 – Personalize Your Emails
One thing that can really surprise and impress a customer is when a site writes to them as if they know them personally. Of course, you never want them to feel like they have had their privacy invaded but contacting them and including elements that connects with them specifically is always likely to impress.
It’s standard procedure
nowadays for ‘Dear Mr or Ms’ to be replaced by an actual name, but you can go
further. Include items they might have looked at in their last visit to the
online store, offer them items similar to their last purchase, tell them about
promotions happening specifically in their area. All of this can help a
customer to feel valued and coax them into purchasing again.
#4 – Target Abandoned Transactions
Often customers will leave
items in their basket, uncertain or unable to make a purchase at a specific
time. If you’ve made them enter their email to get that far into the buying
process or you have it through some other method, you can do a very clever thing
of contacting them about the item.
“Email the customer and ask them if they’re still interested in finishing the purchase. This will give them an easy way to revisit the checkout area and it will remind them that they almost made the purchase, so they don’t forget” says sales writer at WriteMyx and BritStudent Monique Manning.
#5 – Offer Them Deals Private To Them
Telling your email audience
about sales is obviously a good idea. But letting your individual email list
members know of deals which are specific to them can make them feel extremely
valued and as if they are members of a private club. You could even combine
this with point 4 and offer them a small discount on the items in their
checkout to help coax them into following through. Any offers like this will be
well received and will encourage sales.
Conclusion
So, don’t be afraid to get personal with your email
marketing. Really target your audience and allow them to feel valued and
appreciated by your company. Being allowed into someone’s inbox is a privilege
and an opportunity. Use these tips to make the most of it!
About the Author
Katrina Hatchett
Katrina Hatchett is a lifestyle blogger at Academic Brits. She has been involved in various business projects, where her main aim is to define project problems and propose solutions, as well as to improve overall communication efficiency. She also writes for Origin Writings, an academic service.
Since the first email was broadcast, it becomes one of the most grounded styles to approach your target clients. Email is as yet a standout among the most options yet profitable choices for any individual who needs to develop their business while additionally sustaining potential clients.
And I must say, the most popular and reliable email service ranking high is “Constant Contact.”
It’s underestimated because on the grounds numerous individuals have falsely stated that email will vanish because of the “new age” of social media. On the other hand, studies have shown that an effective and concise email carrying a clear messages had the highest of a return of investment of more than 100% over time.
This is considerably higher than social media websites, paid searches and regular postal mail. Furthermore, there is a strong expectation of sending email to 250 billion worldwide in 2019.
There are numerous different insights to enable your business marketing emails as effective as possible to reach potential customers. Drafting a business email is one of the simplest ways of email marketing and yet so overlooked.
Constant Contact has made the drafting process super easy. Creating an email in just a few minutes using the classic: Drag and Drop system.
Corporate content writers, business consultants and onlineassignment helper are no doubt time saving with the finest options Having a helper to preview and edit, will help make your messages more convincing, correct and professional.
Following are the types of emails typically sent by businesses as their email marketing on regular basis to attain or retain potential customers:
1. Lead Captures / Email List Building
Lead captures works efficiently when it is simple with an added image. People are greatly misled by complex, over texted and confuse email design. It is common among professionals that message should be short, concise and clear. Images speaks louder than words.
Customers are more likely to convert if the message is short, sweet and to the point. Readers have comparatively less time online. Study shows people on internet spend only 12 seconds reading an email BEFORE they convert or close.
In spite of the fact that there are many online journals that express their most grounded messages have been the ones without any pictures. I find showing one picture performs much superior to having no pictures by any means. Particularly if it’s to urge somebody to download a report or to click for more info.
Have a reasonable call to action. Studies also show that buttons are more clickable than links.
2. Personal or Meeting Emails
If there are personal or meeting emails for clients, marketing guru suggested you should go with only text. Among few this is the point where one should write only text in its emails because it feels closer or affectionate when you set up a meeting.
MAKE IT PERSONAL!
Nobody needs to see an email loaded with standards and pictures in case you’re approaching them for an espresso or a discussion. Address it straightforwardly from you! Share a soft side of your life. People enjoy learning about how you tick.
A free 60 day trial of Constant Contact is yours for the taking if you’re not already using it. CLICK FOR TRIAL. (FYI No Credit Card needed)
Try to be more personal and direct when typing subject of such emails where you going to offer your client a one-on-one meeting for instance “I would enjoy meeting you for an espresso”.
Content of your email must be similar to your subject line. Keep it basic to match the subject. Do not mislead with a subject line. This will encourage them to NOT open future emails. You need to catch them from the email and motivate them to answer back and/or address the “call-to-action.”
In the event that you must inspire them to make a move, make it simple with a straightforward frame, rather than something entangled like a long presentation page loaded with substance and a point by point, on and on, lengthy page load. UGH!
3. Selling and Product Giveaways in Emails
Everyone loves a give-a-way!
As far as giveaways or having something that is of physical esteem, it’s great to be visual. Indeed, even with pictures, you need to go directly to the point. Having a photograph of the giveaway or the things you’re offering is imperative not exclusively to catch consideration yet in addition to demonstrate what precisely it is.
Subject: Stick to features that make desperation and be expressive in your subject line. Focus on simple, English language, current patterns, and live by the simple image rule.
Email Content: Keep it clear with the pictures of the things you’re offering. Post your best specials in case you’re offering and the giveaway things when you’re doing complimentary gifts.
Use a graphic to CLICK or a BUTTON to click with an “Enter-to-win” or “click here to be entered into the drawing.”
4. Feedback and Surveys
A humble approach is strongly suggested when feedback is desired.
Nobody prefers a boaster. Try not to state something like ‘Much obliged for going to the best occasion on the planet, here’s an overview.’ Always make one stride back and request criticism in light of the fact that there are always improvements that could be made for any business. Including mine! (Feel free to add your comments below)
Subject: Be unassuming and amicable and utilize the words feedback and advice as opposed to review for example, “We would love your input on our last event” or “I require your assistance.”
Email Content: Start off with a thank you in your pennant or first heading. By and by, I would abstain from specifying overview. Rather utilize phrases like ‘provide opinion or ‘give your recommendation,’ which will in general work much superior to anything ‘finish this study.
Another suggestion, at the start of the request, add how much time will they need to complete the survey. Personally, if I receive a survey and it states “3 min survey” or “A few quick questions” then I will take it. There is nothing worse, clicking on survey and realizing how much time it is taking away from your day. When this happens to me, I just close it, half way through and never return.
Constant Contact offers some awesome survey templates. And they make it easy to create your own. NOTE: I also use surveys as “forms” but more info on that later.
5. Other Email Tips
Internet marketing or email marketing gurus have defined a “48-Hour-Rule.” Which basically means after 48 hours there must be a 2nd email sent out with a totally NEW subject line, sent ONLY to those that did not open the 1st email.
I suggest you test this strategy on your own lists. See how it works and then decide how to utilize it more in the future.
This type of system will help you get your message across. It will also help gain more “calls-to-action.”
Test, Test, and Test: Get yourself into the habit of sending out test emails. Seek out a friend or fellow staff member and ask them to review your email. More eyes browsing the email ahead of time the better.
Also encourage them to test the links and view the graphics on their desktop vs mobile devices.
Persistently Personalize: According to Campaign Monitor, overall, messages with customized titles are 26% more inclined to be opened. Moreover, as indicated by Aberdeen, customized email messages enhance navigate rates by a normal of 14% and transformations by 10%.
Hold Content to the Landing Page: Include the important points in the email and includes something like: click her for further reading.
Send the reader to a landing page. This will help you keep the email simple and to the point. If they are interested in the rest of your information, they can CLICK to read the rest.
ENJOY A FREE TRIAL of CONSTANT CONTACT, the leader in email marketing! Contact mefor a current coupon code.
List building is an ongoing part of growing a business.
Many of these tips I will share are part of the building processes. These tips should be a daily part of doing business.
1.Back to basics with a paper sign up – it works! Paper sign up forms are convenient for things like trade-shows or at your check out counter. Or if you prefer you can dedicate an ipad or smart-tablet to allow people to “sign-up” quickly. I personally use this at all my events. Passing around my iPad and using a built in app. There are many options for apps including Constant Contact has an option which is free with your account. Feel free to schedule a call with me if you need some assistance.
2. Just ask! Only having a sign-up form available won’t always be enough.
Train yourself and your employees to ask for contact info. Don’t forget, if you’re having a great conversation with a customer or supporter, keep the conversation going – ask them to join your email list as well.
3. Start with the people you know. Use your database of existing contacts and ask family and friends to join your mailing list. Contact meif you need assistance.
4. Using a sidewalk sign or sandwich board to bring in foot traffic? Promote all the great info, discounts, and news they’ll get by signing up for your emails. Purchase a domain name that matches your brand or a style. Then point it to the location. I use the name: JoinMyNewsletter.com. I have it also included on my business cards.
5. Participate in Small Business Saturday! If there’s one day people are excited about finding new businesses it’s small Business Saturday. Make sure you’re asking people to join your list on this heavy traffic day. And keep this in mind for any and all busy traffic days in your community.
6. Offer an incentive to your employees. Get your employees excited about growing your email list. Offer a prize to the employee who collects the most email addresses.
7. Promote a sign-up link on Social Media. Any social media site you use:
– Facebook
– Twitter
– Youtube
– LinkedIn
– Instagram
– Pinterest
– Snapchat
In your profile, in a post, join a group
8. Install the app on your Facebook page. Collect email addresses from those who visit your Facebook page by adding a sign-up tab. tip: Constant Contact customers can use the free app to add a sign-up form right to their page and collect email addresses without doing any extra work. (Book a call and I will walk you through it.)
9.Use the Facebook call-to-action button. Facebook lets you add a button to the top of your business page. Use it to link directly to your online sign-up form.
10. Share your emails on social media. Show your followers what they’re missing by sharing your latest email on social media. They can sign-up when they view your email.
11. Buy a social media ad. Supercharge your social media list growth with social media ads. Get new subscribers by driving people to your sign-up form.
12. Easily add a link to your sign- up form on your website and collect emails from people who visit your site. Give your sign- up form plenty of visibility by putting it on every page.tip: Constant Contact customers can customize a sign-up form within their account to add to their website. I’m happy to walk you through it if you need assistance. Contact me.
13. Promote on blogs. If someone enjoys what you have to say on your blog, there’s a good chance they’d want to see your updates in their inbox. tip: Constant Contact customers using WordPress can use our free WordPress integration to create a sign-up form that adds email addresses directly to a Constant Contact email list. Find out how.
14. Share past emails. Promote archived emails anywhere online. This gives fans an idea of what they’re missing, and prompts them to join your mailing list.
15. Collect emails with an online survey. Add a sign-up link to your next online survey. Let people share their feedback and join your email list.
16. Your email signature. Get more out of your daily email communications by including a link to your list in your regular email signature.
17. There’s an app for that. On the go? Add the Constant Contact app to your smart phone to collect email addresses when you are out and about.
18. Use text to sign-up. More than half of all Americans now have smartphones. Use Constant Contact’s Text to sign-up feature to let people sign up via text message. (Contact me for assistance)
19. Use a QR code. Add a QR code to a flyer, post, or brochure and make it easy for people to sign up right from their smartphone.
20. Use a brochure. Giving out flyers, brochures, or pamphlets at your store or office? Let people know your emails are the best source for up-to-date information and include the QR code.
21. Use menus and table tents. Do you use table tents at your location or at events? Add a QR code or text to sign-up so fans can join your email list.
22. Use an ipad. Wondering what to do with the new iPad? Install the app to collect email addresses in-store or at your next event.
23. Use your packaging. Shipping orders to customers or using take-out boxes? Put a QR code on your packaging. Another tip is to use Stamps.com for your online shipping. Their program allows you to add your website to the address label. When I use them I add: PowerSellingMom.com to every shipping label I print out.
24. During event registration. Stay in touch before, during, and after your event by collecting email addresses when people at registration.
25. Start a loyalty program. Reward your customers and grow your list! Collect email address when they sign-up for the loyalty program.
26. Run a birthday club. Encourage people to sign up for your emails by offering birthday incentives.
27. Experiment with website pop-ups. Consider adding a pop-up to your website or blog that prompts visitors to sign-up right there.
28. Use online payment forms. Collect email addresses in your online purchase flow. Be sure to indicate they’re opting in to receive future emails from you.
29. Book appointments. Are you giving clients the ability to schedule appointments online? Offer a convenient way for people to join your email list when signing up.
30. Offer an online coupon. Offer new subscribers a discount that can be redeemed in-store or online. Plus, add an extra bonus for those who share with their friends!
Let me take just a minute to explain what Constant Contact is for those in the room that may not be familiar. Constant Contact is a do-it-yourself online marketing system. You can use it to create and manage campaigns.
The company is best known for their email marketing tools. It’s easy to create and send mass email, like newsletters
or announcements and updates. You can run special promotions or offers, like a local deal using Constant Contact.
You can build online surveys and create feedback forms for your website or for anything, really. And you can promote and manage your events using Constant Contact with registration tools, accepting payments, sending out invitations – all of it in one place. And it is all built on top of a really good contact database, so that you can load all of your contacts, your customers, stakeholders, volunteers, staff, your board – whatever lists you are keeping in various spreadsheets or in your Outlook or Yahoo folders can be loaded and organized easily in Constant Contact so that your people and your marketing campaigns are all together in one spot. Oh, and it’s costs most people between 20 – $75 a month to manage all of it. NOTE: I do have a special offer for those that attended my latest event. Sign up today for only $5.00 a month for the next 3 months. Use my link: EmailSpecialOffer.com and enjoy! 🙂 Already have an account? No worries. I will welcome you with open arms into the PowerSellingMom network. Just shoot me an email and we can get started on a call or a private webinar ASAP.
Welcome to “The Power of the Inbox for Nonprofits” Tips and Tricks for Successful Email Marketing.
FYI the recording of this presentation was created for “The Association of Fundraising Professionals of Volusia/Flagler County Florida. Visit their website to learn more at:
It was my pleasure to be a speaker during their luncheon on March 8, 2017 at the LPGA clubhouse in Daytona Beach FL. I sure enjoyed meeting and connecting with all the wonderful nonprofits that are adding such value to the community.
Our topic was all about email marketing with a focus on nonprofits. Everyone in attendance was already using Constant Contact with the exception of one nonprofit was using their own website service for their email campaigns. They admitted the downfall for them was not being able to monitor the “spam reports” or a few statistics. However we were all on the same page about the importance of email marketing and staying on “Top of Mind” with our donors and supporters.
I will be happy to offer my assistance going forward to all of the nonprofits in their organization once they are in the “PowerSellingMom” network. How to join? Easy, just shoot me an email saying “Please add me to the PowerSellingMom network. My Constant Contact user name is: _____ and my Constant Contact email is _______ “Easy Peasy!”
Once your in the “PowerSellingMom” network, simply use my appointment scheduler (found at the bottom of my website in the footer section) and schedule a free 45 min consulting call. We can jump on a webinar or speak by phone. I will be happy to walk you through whatever help you need. Or if you just have a quick question, email me anytime!
NOW, onto the transcripts of the presentation:
First impressions matter. And when someone opens your email, what they see is going to determine what they do next. Chances are you’ll want them to read your newsletters or announcements, and take a next step. Maybe you want them to visit your website, volunteer, register for an event, or donate to your nonprofit. This is where a beautiful, professional-looking email designed to drive action is crucial. People make snap judgements about whether or not to read your emails based on a quick glance, because all of us get a lot of email. We choose an email message, give it a two-second glance, then decide if it’s worth our time. If it is, we keep it and read it. If not, we hit the delete key and send the email to the trash folder.
I want to show you the difference between a regular email from your own Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo account, and one sent through an email service provider like Constant Contact.
An email from a service provider looks better and gets you noticed– you can use it to feature your organization’s logo and colors, and include graphics that will capture your readers’ attention – all of this, including the graphics, comprises email content. With a combination of text and great images, you will get through to your audience. And, from a purely legal and practical perspective, an email service provider will help protect your messages from being considered spam. You can also get more email delivered to your audience’s inboxes using an email service provider.
For all of the reasons I have just listed, I want you to understand that you need to use an email service provider to do email marketing the correct way.
Check out the email on the right – the colors and graphics make the message eye-catching and more professional-looking than the one on the left. It also makes the call to action much more obvious, and that’s what we are after at the end of the day with our email marketing….Actions!
So email marketing defined at its base level is:
1.Delivering professional communications: Making sure that we are getting great looking branded emails with no grammatical and spelling errors into the inbox.
2.To an interested audience: This is very important because someone can easily report our emails as SPAM or delete them. We need to make sure that the individuals we are adding to our email lists expect to receive a communication from us. Setting this expectation is vital.
3.Containing information the recipient finds valuable: Just because you have permission to communicate to someone doesn’t mean you will be successful with email marketing. You also need to be sending the right information to the right people on your email lists. Knowing what your audience needs or wants can be tough. Is it promotional messages? Is it informational messages? Is it a combination? If you are unsure, you may want to ask your audience, survey them, ask them on social media, or when you or your staff have interactions with them in person. Many times this will lead you to understand that you may need to segment your list to send different messages to different audiences, more about that later in the presentation.
4.That looks great in any inbox: With so much email being read on smartphones and tablets, you need to create an email that will look good on a laptop, desktop, and a mobile phone.
What can it do for your nonprofit? “DRIVE ACTION”
Email is a great way to bring people back to you that have volunteered with you, attended an event, or donated to your cause. Remember, you have invested money, time and energy to acquire these people and they have already had a positive experience with you. It is much easier to ask for revenue with this audience, than bringing brand new prospects along.
What can it do for your nonprofit? “CREATE AND INCREASE AWARENESS”
If you do a good job building your list (much more on this later today) you will have quite a few people on your list who need to be nurtured until they trust you and have enough interest to participate or donate. Email is an amazing way to continue to touch those potential volunteers, members or donors over the course of time until they are ready to start a relationship with you. One of the reasons your list is so valuable is that you can’t predict when someone will be ready to take that step with you, and if you deliver valuable information over the course of time, more prospects will trust you, and email is the most cost-effective way to communicate with your potential supporters over time.
What can it do for your nonprofit? “BOOST DONATIONS”
As I just mentioned, email is amazingly cost-effective, and can help drive revenue and interest directly from your communication if you choose to inform, promote, push someone into the trusting stage with your expertise, or solicit a donation!
HARNESS THE POWER OF THE INBOX!
OK, trivia time. Question: What do you think is the #1 app on cell phones?
The answer is EMAIL.
Let’s talk for a minute about the importance of mobile on email. 64% of adults (AND GROWING) own smartphones and as a result, more than 51% of emails are opened on a mobile device. In some countries, mobile internet usage is even out-pacing desktop internet usage.
In fact, more people own a cell phone than own a toothbrush! Out of the 6 billion people on the planet, 4.8 billion have a mobile phone, while only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush!
So what does this mean for you? Many people are reading their messages – which include your emails – on a tiny screen. So keep mobile in mind as we move through today’s presentation.
It’s where everyone is these days for everything from updates from your bank or service providers, to messages from mom or the kids and of course promotional messages from businesses you subscribe to and frequent.
People are in their inboxes all day, every day because it’s easy to access through their smartphones.
Email marketing is more reliable than social media marketing. You have control over what your message looks like, who you’re reaching, and when you want to reach them. Social networks have their own rules about who sees what posts and when. They typically don’t reach everyone in your audience. In fact, Facebook posts reach just 2% of fans.
Now, this is a stat that is relevant to small business, but think about the donations and actions you want to generate for your nonprofit. Email marketing has three times the conversion rate as social media marketing.
Why Regular Email Doesn’t work
No matter what you’re using – Outlook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo or Hotmail – you are limited to the number of people you can send to. Plus, if you don’t remember to enter the email address in the BCC/blind carbon copy field, everyone can see the names and emails of everyone on the message, and that’s a privacy concern. An email service provider lets you send to everyone on your list at the same time, without sharing their information with your entire audience.
– There’s no control over how your email looks. You can’t do any special formatting or guarantee that it will look great or look the same in every inbox.
–Your messages are more susceptible to SPAM filters by using regular email services. A bulk mailing from a personal address raises red flags.
You don’t have the ability to brand your messages to have the same look and feel of your other digital marketing efforts.
People are wary of bulk messages sent from personal addresses. You may get SPAM complaints from your audience.
And regular email services don’t give you tracking or reporting information. You don’t know how many people opened your emails, who opened them, who and how many people clicked on your links, or what time and day your messages were opened. You don’t have results to measure whether or not your campaign was successful.
Email Marketing
automates best practices for you -and makes you look great!
An email service provider has built-in features to make your marketing easier and makes your organization look professional and sharp!
– When you use an email service provider, you have access to beautiful, mobile-responsive, easy to use templates and tools.
– These professional emails reinforce your branding identity, and help you establish your brand visually through your marketing messages.
– Messages sent through an email service provider are addressed to each recipient by themselves. They don’t have to worry about their information being shared with strangers. You can also use features to greet the people on your list by name, and that makes your emails feel more personal.
– You have the ability to organize your lists. You can add new subscribers with easy signup tools, manage email addresses that are bouncing your messages, and allow your audience to unsubscribe and give you feedback.
– An email service provider with a good reputation ensures that your emails get delivered, gives you reporting tools so you can keep track of your results, and complies with SPAM regulations.
LIST BUILDING
How do you grow a healthy email list? Well, it’s all about how you ask and where you ask people to sign up. And yes, you have to ask. People might not know about your list or might not think about signing up unless you bring it to their attention. And they already know you and like you, so there’s a good chance that they will!
Permission is a critical part of the email marketing process, and there is legislation in place in the US and Canada that governs how we can email the people on our lists.
Ask for permission in all touch points of your sales process. This could be a checkbox when someone is buying from your website, or you simply asking a question in a face to face interaction.
– When you ask for permission, take advantage of the opportunity to set a couple of expectations. You can tell them how often you will be in their inbox, and also the type of content they should expect. If you do this well and follow through, you will have more success.
– Make sure you have an option to let your contacts unsubscribe in every email that you send. Remember that one of the big advantages of using an email service provider is that the unsubscribe functionality is automated for you!
– Posting your privacy policy is a great way to set your contacts or potential contacts at ease when they are joining your list. It helps them feel that their data is protected. Again, this is something that email service providers like Constant Contact specialize in.
– Treat your subscribers like you like to be treated in an email relationship! Make sure that you aren’t emailing too often. If you set good expectations and deliver value, this part is easy.
– Follow these compliance guidelines. Make sure your signup forms are clear that whoever joins your list is giving you permission to communicate with them. All of your signup tools should clearly identify your organization. Provide contact information. Let potential subscribers know that they are able to unsubscribe if they wish. Have a process to record express consent for subscribers. If they sign up electronically, they are giving you consent. If you use paper signup forms, keep those records.
There are lots of ways to gather contacts.
Collect email addresses at events: Events are a great way to gather email addresses. When people register, make sure you provide a checkbox for them to select if they’d like to receive email communications from you. Another way to leverage events is to hand out swag in exchange for an email address.
At speaking engagement: If you are a featured speaker at events, make sure you gather as many business cards as you can while passing yours out with a way to subscribe to your list on them. Constant Contact has a QR code feature or Text-to-Join tool that you can use to make it easy for people to subscribe using their mobile devices. You can include that information on your cards. After the event, upload these new contacts and include them in your automation emails, welcoming them to your list by thanking them for subscribing. If you’ve had great conversations with these people, certainly send them a special email reminding them that you had met at a particular event and thanking them. It will leave a lasting impression.
Add a QR scannable sign-up code to your table tents: Add these to tables at events. Or if you have a waiting room or front deck in your building, this is a great place to gather contacts. People will be waiting for their appointment or event, so give them a way to subscribe right from there.
On paperwork or paper distribution materials: Include an option to subscribe to your list in enrollment paperwork, and make sure there is an opt-out checkbox for any email collected. It should be an opt-out rather than an opt-in (you’ll collect more emails this way).
Print QR Code on paper distribution materials: Put your QR code signup tool on everything that you print that makes it into potential subscribers’ hands! Your business card, your brochures, ads in the paper or in local magazines, on posters. If you’re in the US, add your Text to Join keyword and unique phone number to these materials with a request to subscribe.
Use a fishbowl on your front desk to collect business cards: Tried and true, this technique still works! Offer a monthly drawing for a free gift or service or swag with your organization’s logo on it. Put this where people can see it, and make sure it looks as full as possible. This helps to encourage people to “go with the crowd,” and add their business card to the bowl. If you’re using the fishbowl, make sure you are organized and uploading those contacts regularly.
Use a signup sheet in gathering area: If you have an activity room, board room or function room at your location, have a signup sheet there. When large groups of people are in these areas, you’ll have a better chance of getting new subscribers.
But really, just ask.
With Facebook as the largest social media site around, this is a great place to collect email addresses. The Constant Contact Facebook app installs directly to your page, which allows fans or visitors to opt into your list. Remember, it is never a good idea to assume everyone who likes your page wants to receive your emails. Installing this app will allow visitors to subscribe themselves, so you know you’re reaching everyone who wants to hear from you.
Facebook also allows you to add a button at the top of your page, this can easily be linked to your email sign-up form from Constant Contact. That way your visitors will have multiple opportunities to sign-up.
The best part about using the Constant Contact Facebook App is that you don’t have to manage any incoming email addresses. We’ll save you time by automatically collecting new contacts and adding them to the list of your choice. Easy peasy!
Creating Great Content
Your email messages to your audience are not actually about you. They’re about what you know or what you have access to that will make your organization interesting and valuable to them.
– Focus on being relevant. Make sure that you know what your audience values. Do the research by asking or surveying your audience. What type of information would they like to receive in their inbox? If you don’t get any interest in routine email letters from your board of trustees, you might want to stay away from that content and stick to what your audience wants to know, not what you want to push out.
– Figure out how much content is enough. Keep in mind that a majority of people will be reading your emails on their mobile phones. They don’t have time to scan through an endless list of items and articles. Make your messages relevant, short and focused. Your email shouldn’t be telling recipients every single thing that you do, and it shouldn’t include extraneous information. If you have a lot you want to share, publish it all on your website. Then, in your emails, write a sentence about the topic and link to the full information on your website. This is a win-win. Your audience can quickly look at the topics you’re offering and then the link drives them to your website, where they may spend more time and look around. Plus, you can track who and how many people click your links and determine what topics drive the most interest.
– One of the easiest ways to create content is to listen to your audience’s frequently asked questions. Many times they are similar, and it’s important to remember that YOU are the expert in your field, and your customers typically are not. These questions can be amazing sources of content. Try doing a “FAQ mailbag” section to your newsletter when you need content.
– Don’t forget that images can be content too. Pictures of events, staff, and outreach work very well. Make sure that you optimize for mobile, and that images don’t dominate your content.
I’ve mentioned relevance, and here’s why it’s important that you include content that’s for your audience, not for yourself. You don’t have to send all of your information to all of the different roles you work with. An update on board meeting materials or a letter to board members can be sent to a list of your board members, and not your entire list that includes volunteers or donors, who may not be interested. A reminder about an upcoming event should be sent to the people who registered, and not to your entire list. Anyone who already registered may be concerned that their RSVP was lost.
38 percent of email recipients will unsubscribe if they think the content in your email is boring or irrelevant – and when a person unsubscribes, you won’t be able to communicate with them again.
32 percent will send irrelevant content to their spam folder, which could impact how email providers, like Gmail or Yahoo, sort your future messages.
Let’s talk about how much content you should include in your email. Think about it. How often do you look forward to reading a long, detailed email? Not very often, right? You’re looking for something concise and easy to read – what’s the news, what are the details of events that are happening, is there any action I want or need to take? – and that’s what you should think about when you create your own emails.
When it comes to email content, less is more. Always.
There is no rule that says your newsletter needs to have three articles, three pictures and three links. One thing is plenty. There is actually a Constant Contact customer whose newsletter is called One Thing – he did it to make it easy on himself and it works really well – people can absorb it and he’s not under the gun to come up with a bunch of content to fill it.
We did a study of our customers and found that the best practice is to limit yourself to 20 lines of text and three or fewer images. This is a great time-saver for your organization! You don’t need to worry about sending a ton of information every time you communicate.
Turning your interactions with your members, supporters, volunteers, and donors into content for your email.
Think for a second about the last interaction you had with someone at your organization. What questions did a donor, supporter, volunteer or recipient have? What information are people requesting about your nonprofit? Can you turn an answer to their questions into an email?
Here are some great examples.
One easy way to practice this in real life is to create two columns, in a spreadsheet or document, or just on a piece of paper, with the questions you regularly get on the left. In the right column, write down a way you can turn the answers to those questions into an email full of fresh, relevant content.
You’ve heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words. In your email, you can communicate through images as well as text. Turn your images into clickable links, so that when your readers click on your images, they will be directed to the action you want them to take. Just make sure you also include a text link to the same location, because about 67% percent of email readers will not see images by default.
Email tools like Constant Contact make it easy to assign a URL to your images, and also to add “alt text” so that a description of the image appears, even if the reader doesn’t see the picture.
Side note – try to avoid giving too many choices in your campaign. These are supposed to be quick decisions to act. Too many choices will reduce the number of decisions or actions a person can take.
Create a beautiful, mobile-friendly template that matches your brand
Start off right by choosing a mobile-friendly, one-column template so it can be easily read by people viewing your email on their smartphones.
– Make sure that you’re using your logo and the colors that you use in the rest of your marketing, so that you’re immediately recognizable.
Use great images of your organization and your supporters so that your audience can easily connect what your organization does with who you are.
And make sure you use consistent language across all of your marketing so that people will not be confused.
Don’t be afraid to use the same content and images across your email, website and social media posts – the more your organization meets your audience where they are, the more likely your audience is to keep you in mind.
Templates make the process of creating and sending emails much easier, while still allowing you to preserve the look and feel of your brand. Here are some examples of how different nonprofits use the right email templates for their messages.
First, we have newsletter templates, which typically showcase your news and expertise. Remember you are giving away good information for attention. Use the teaser paragraph strategy. If you have a whole article of content, tease the first few sentences and link to the rest of the content online. This will help you keep the newsletter short and readable on all platforms including mobile.
You can also use templates to share announcements. These may not be easy to plan on a calendar, so make sure they are special when you send them out. The messages in announcements could include your nonprofit winning an award, receiving a large donation, a special event, or some breaking news that impacts your audience.
Many nonprofits also send promotional emails about fundraising efforts. In these types of emails, make sure that you don’t give too many choices. You want someone to take a quick action.
Get Your Emails Opened
When you’re creating your next email, follow this recipe for success. These tips are based on Constant Contact’s analysis of over 2 million Constant Contact customer emails. This is the recipe for the most effective email campaign:
1. – Use a single column template so your email will be easily viewed by people opening it on any device – mobile, tablet or desktop.
2. – Include images to drive visual interest, but don’t overload readers with visuals. Three or fewer is enough.
3. – Don’t overwhelm your readers with text. 20 lines or fewer are plenty to get your message across. Got more to say? Include the full article or information on your website, and use your email as a “teaser.” Include a few lines of text from the information, and link back to your website. This will drive readers to your website and your email reports will show you useful information about what links were clicked by your audience, and which ones are most popular.
4. – Speaking of links, don’t offer more than 3 to 5 links. The more choices people have, the less likely they are to click because they may have trouble deciding what they want to do next.
5. – Keep the main action you want people to take above the scroll line, which is the top part of the email people see when it’s visible in their desktop’s preview pane, or in the screen of their smartphone. If you put your important action below that portion of the email, people may not read to the end and see or act on what you want them to do next.
We know the email inbox is a busy place. What can you to ensure that your message gets attention?
– Be a recognized sender and be consistent with your name and organization branding.
– Include a compelling subject line so your audience knows this is a message worth reading.
– Be strategic about the day, time and frequency of your messages to arrive in the inbox at the best possible moment.
– Provide your audience with the ability to share your emails with their friends and family through social media.
How do you accomplish this? Let’s look at some best practices and tips.
Who sent the message is one of the factors that make people stop and open your email in their crowded inbox.
Think about how you sort your email. Typically when you open up your email – think about it this morning – you start at the top of the list and you go down, sorting by who it’s from.
Who the email came from turns out to be the most important part of winning the battle of priorities in the inbox. You do it based on who, so it’s important for you to [CLICK TO BUILD] be recognizable.
You do need to exercise care and consider how you’re identifying yourself across the marketing tools you’re using. If you send your emails as “Jane Doe,” but your Facebook page shows up in people’s newsfeeds as “The Springfield Library Fund,” people might not make the connection. Just be sure that you’re consistent with the name you use, and ensure that it’s the one that you’ll be recognized by, so that ultimately your readers and followers will stop and open your email, read your posts because they know they’re going to get something of value and relevance from you.
The second reason to pay attention is the subject line. As a nonprofit, you don’t have time to do things that don’t work, so when it comes to your subject lines, you want to get into the habit of optimizing your subject lines to get the best results possible for your marketing efforts every time.
Approximately one third of people decide to open an email based solely on the subject line so it needs to be a standout subject line that grabs their attention, whether they’re reading on a desktop computer or a smartphone or tablet.
Source:
35% of all recipients of email choose whether or not to open a message on the subject line alone. – inwise “The Magic Words: The Importance of the Subject and ‘From’ Lines for Email Marketing” (2012)
The best time and day also depends on what industry you’re in.
And when it comes to nonprofits, the best time and day varies among different types of organizations. We analyzed millions of emails across 33 different industries to give you this kind of insight! Many nonprofits had a best day to send on Mondays, including educational organizations, health and social services, arts and culture, and government agencies.
And, surprisingly, early morning send times performed best across the board – 5am-8am are the sweet spot.
So what could this mean? What we found is that it could mean a 6% increase in open rates. 6% – just by scheduling your email to go out at an optimal time!
Encourage your audience to share your emails by using social media tools. This is a really effective way you can grow your reach. Emails that include those social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by more than 158 percent!
– If you are using Constant Contact, add the Share Bar to the top of your emails. The Share Bar allows your readers to post a link to your email on their social media profiles
– Remind your audience to share your emails. Ask them to Like them on Facebook, retweet them on Twitter, or pin them on Pinterest.
– And add social media buttons that link to your business’ social media profiles. The buttons are a nice visual reminder for them to click and follow you online.
Your audience has a lot of influence via word of mouth, and you can get your emails in front of more people – their friends and family – if they help spread the word for you.
No matter what kind of email marketing message you send – newsletters, announcements, promotions, event invitations, breaking news, donation solicitations – they will all have one thing in common. That’s click-throughs.
It’s important to measure actions. Click-through rates measure exactly what actions your audience is taking. This metric tells you so much. It gives you an idea of what content people like, what topics they’re interested in, what calls to action work, what keywords appeal to your readers, and what multimedia is interesting to them.
What you ultimately want to do with click-throughs is drive people back to your website, your social networks, to your organization’s physical location. The campaigns you create need to have calls to action that take them to your properties so that they will continue to learn, read, watch, comment, donate and engage with your nonprofit. You’re keeping your organization top of mind and growing your relationships.
So what? It’s good to see all of that, but what do you do with these results? Let’s look at a scenario.
[CLICK TO BUILD] You’re reviewing your reports for an email, and discover that you had a high open rate, but a low click through rate. This means that people were opening your email, but looks like they were not engaging with your content once they opened it, or following your call to action.
Let’s start with the high open rate. It’s a great result, but there are things you can do to make it even better:
The first is to find out what’s the best time and day to send your emails. When you look at your open rate report, you’ll see what date and time each of your readers opened your email. Start comparing that to the day and time you send your email – you should send your messages at the day and time your readers are opening them. They’ll be more likely to check their email then and see your message.
Next, take a look at your subject line – what keywords do you think were interesting to your audience? Think about the keywords you’ve used in your subject lines, in blog posts, on social media, and in your website that draw your audience’s attention. Keep using them in your subject lines.
Also consider segmenting your audience by interest. You can create separate email lists for different audience interests, and send emails that talk about the topics they like. They will open emails that talk about their interests in the subject line.
Now – the low click through rate. How can we improve it? It’s showing that our audience isn’t interested in the links that were offered in the email. Here’s what to do next:
Review your calls to action in your email. Consider the wording in your call to action – is it clear? Is it telling people exactly the action they should take and do they get a sense of why it matters to them?
Look at your email template and design. Is it mobile friendly? Use a mobile friendly template or you can choose a one-column template so your message is easily read on a mobile phone. If there are multiple columns, they might shrink to fit, and that results in tiny text that readers have to pinch and zoom to expand.
Think about how much content is in your email. People don’t have time to read long emails and if they’re on a mobile device, they don’t want to scroll! Also, if you have too many articles, you might have too many links and calls to action. When you give people too many choices, they’re not sure what they should click on, and might not click on anything.
Let’s look at a different scenario: What should you do if you had a low open rate and a high click through rate? This tells you that although not many people opened your email, the ones who did were very interested in your content.
Why might you have a low open rate?
Your timing and frequency could be off. We talked about this with the high open rate – are you sending at the times and days that people would be most likely to read your email. Are you sending too often? Are you not sending enough?
It could be an issue with your subject line. Is your subject line compelling enough? Does it contain keywords that appeal to your audience’s needs? Do you get to the point of the email in a few words? Watch your subject line’s length – if it’s more than 6 to 10 words, it could get cut off by your recipients’ email services or smartphones.
The email’s content might not match up with your audience’s interests. As you review your open rate and click rate, you’re learning more about what content and keywords they respond to. Send emails about the topics they like, and don’t waste time creating content they won’t read.
A high click rate is fantastic. Your audience wants to know more about the resources you’re linking to in your email. Here’s a few things you can do to make your click rate even better:
Format your links so they stand out when your readers open your email. Use buttons or put white space around them. Make sure the links are spaced out for mobile readers – if they’re too close, it’s really easy to click on the wrong link with your finger.
You’re using these reports to get to know your audience better, so keep track of what’s getting the most attention in your emails. Narrow down the links you offer to fit the topics that they want to read about.
The last thing you can do is take that knowledge of your audience and segment them. Your reports allow you to view the people who clicked on individual links and create a list from them. Segment your audience into different lists, and target them with relevant content.
Putting It all Together
One of the best things I can tell you is that, as a nonprofit, you actually have an advantage. You have an advantage because you, your staff and your supporters can be the face, the people your audience associates with your organization or cause. You can be your authentic self.
If you haven’t yet started with email marketing, or if you haven’t sent a message in a while, try this: Get your contact list together, whether it’s five people or 500 people. Try putting one email campaign together and hit that send button. Keep an eye on what happens next. You’ll start to see what works. Do more of what makes you successful.
We’ve made creating a great email easy for you. We took the best practices we talked about, as well as some pro tips and created a checklist. Print this out later on when you get the slides, and use this checklist when you’re designing and sending your next email.
First of all, think about the preview pane. It’s common for email recipients to use the preview pane in their inbox on a desktop, and they’re getting their first look at your email there. If they’re opening your email on mobile, the top section is the first section they see. Maximize the top 2 to 4 inches, keeping all the best practices in mind that we covered today.
– Think small with your subject line. Write your subject lines between 6-10 words. Use the important keywords at the beginning in case the rest of your subject line gets cut off by mobile phones.
– Include your organization’s name in the from name text so your recipients recognize you right away.
– Make your emails shareable for your readers and for you. Including a share bar at the top of the email allows your readers to post a link to your email to their social media profiles.
– The email template you use must be a good fit for the information you’re sharing in your message. What are you trying to communicate? Is it information in a newsletter? A promotion? A business letter? The right template will organize what you’re trying to convey and make you look professional. The template should also be mobile friendly. Stick to a one-column template that won’t shrink to fit or get cut off by a smartphone screen.
– Make sure your branding is visible right away. Include your branding colors. Your logo should be visible at the top of the email, either on the left or in the center. Never on the right side because it can get cut off on a smartphone screen. When you insert your logo, make sure that you include your business name in the text description. Sometimes images aren’t visible by default, based on the recipient’s email service. If that happens, the text will appear instead, and you want your business name to be what they see if your logo isn’t shown.
– Speaking of logos and images, make them clickable. People assume that images are linked to a website, so take advantage of that behavior and link your images to allow readers to take the next step. Choose your photos wisely, and don’t overdo it with images. Stick to 3 or fewer images to get higher click-throughs. Communicate your message through the images you choose. Take your own photos or use stock photography. Size your photos to fit your template. Optimize them by including information about your message in the text description, so the text will appear in case the images aren’t automatically downloaded.
– Be selective with the content you include in your email. Don’t include any content that isn’t relevant to the message you’re sending in an individual email. Most people do not have the time to read through a lot of extra information. Remember that emails with 20 lines of text receive higher click-through rates.
– If you have calls to action – like asking people to volunteer, donate, register for an event, or read an article on your blog – make sure they are above the preview pane scroll line and appear near the top of the screen on a mobile device. Don’t make people search for that key action. Be mindful of the links you use for those calls to action. Don’t just put “click here” when it comes to links in an email. Choose the words you use carefully. Clearly state the value your readers will get when they click on the link. Format your link to stand out, remember that you want it to have enough white space around it, and make sure links aren’t on top of one another. More and more people are viewing emails on their mobile device, and if they are unable to click the link they want because it’s too close to another, how likely do you think they are to go back and click the correct link?
– Don’t ignore social media in your emails. Adding social media buttons that are linked to your business’ social media networks can increase your followers because it makes it easy for readers to click and like you. Using the Social Share tools to schedule posts about your email on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn enables you to share your message to even more people.
When you really think about it, nonprofit marketing comes down to three things:
1. Nurturing the relationships you develop with your supporters, members, volunteers and donors;
2. Delivering on the promises you make to them before you start communicating;
3. Getting measurable results that help you carry out your mission.
You might be sending email updates, running your own special offers or deals, or getting online feedback or run an online survey. No matter what you’re trying to achieve, Constant Contact has the tools, knowledge, and experts to help you get there.
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1. Delivering professional communications. Making sure that we are getting great looking branded emails. Containing no grammatical and spelling errors into the inbox.
2. To an interested audience – This is very important. Someone can easily report our emails as SPAM. Or they can delete them. We need to make sure that the individuals we are adding to our email lists expect to receive a communication from us. Setting this expectation is vital.
3. Containing information the recipient finds valuable – Just because you have permission to communicate to someone doesn’t mean you will be successful with email marketing. You also need to be sending the right information to the right people on our email lists. Knowing what your audience needs or wants can be tough. Ask yourself, is it promotional in nature? Is it informational? Is it a combination? If you are unsure, you may want to ask your customers. Send them a survey them. Ask them on social media. Or when you or your staff have interactions with them in person. Many times this will lead you to understand the need to segment your list. Sending different messages to different audiences, more about that later in the presentation.
4. That looks great in any inbox – So much email is being read on mobile devices. Including: Cell phones and tablets. You need to create an email that will look good on a laptop, desktop, and a mobile device.
Email is amazingly cost effective, and can help drive revenue directly from your communication if you choose to promote, push someone into the trusting stage with your expertise, or solicit a donation!
If you do a good job building your list (much more on this later today) you will have quite a few prospects on your list who need to be nurtured until they trust you enough to spend money. Email is an amazing way to continue to touch those prospects over the course of time until they are ready to buy. One of the reasons your list is so valuable is that you can’t predict when someone will be ready to take that step with you, and if you deliver valuable information over the course of time, more prospects will trust you, and email is the most cost effective way to communicate with your potential buyers over time.
Email is a great way to bring people back to you that have already purchased your product, service, or donated to your cause. Remember, you have invested money to acquire these customers and they have already had a positive experience with you (Hopefully;)). It is much easier to ask for revenue again with this audience, than bringing brand new prospects along.
You need to harness the power of the inbox.
Are you ready?
Today’s Agenda:
Why email marketing?
Harnessing the power of the inbox
Growing a healthy list
Creating great content
Designing a beautiful, mobile-friendly template that matches your brand
Getting your email opened
Tracking your results
Putting it all together
What’s the #1 app on smartphones?
Email! More people own a mobile phone than own a toothbrush, which means huge opportunities for success through email.
Email marketing is hard to beat.
91% of people check their email daily
88% regularly check email on their smartphones (more than social media or videos)
Do you check your email first thing when you wake, or last thing before you go to bed? Many of us can relate to this on a daily basis, and so can your audience. Email works because it brings you to where your customers are.
Email is reliable.
It’s where everyone is these days for everything from updates from you bank or service providers, to messages from mom or the kids and of course promotional messages from businesses you subscribe to and frequent.
It’s clear that email is everywhere. But what does this mean for your business?
Why email?
Because it works everywhere!
Email marketing has 3x the conversion rate as social media, so the time you spend to create and send an email will reap higher rewards. For every $1 spent on email marketing, there is a $44.25 average ROI, which means the money you spend on your email marketing budget will come back to you multiple times over.
First impressions matter.
When someone opens your email, they’ll give it a 2 second glance, then either read on or delete. What they see is going to determine what they do next. Maybe you want them to visit your website, register for an event, donate to your nonprofit, or try a new product. This is where a professional-looking email designed to drive action is crucial.
Let’s compare a couple emails based on first impressions.
Notice the difference between a regular email from your own Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo account (on the left), and one sent through an email service provider like Constant Contact (on the right). Which one do you think is better?
The email on the right clearly looks more professional, which will ultimately get you closer to achieving and surpassing your goals.
Let’s talk about why the email on the left is NOT doing your marketing any justice, and why the email on the right is worth its return on investment.
Why regular email doesn’t work.
Limited sending
No formatting control
Susceptible to filters
No cohesive branding
Potential SPAM complaints
No tracking or reporting
By using an email service provider, like Constant Contact, your bases will be covered. Many best practices are already built into your emails.
Here’s a list of things you won’t have to worry about because Constant Contact already does it for you.
Provide beautiful templates
Customizable, mobile-responsive, easy-to-use
Reinforce brand identity
Features built to match your logo and colors, plus integrate your social media profiles and drive website traffic
Manage subscriptions
adding new subscribers, removing unsubscribes
Ensure email delivery
Track results
Obey the law
Physical address
Unsubscribe option
Creating A Healthy List
Growing your list is all about how and where you ask.
And yes, you have to.
Permission is a critical part of the email marketing process, and there is legislation in place in the US and Canada that governs how we can email customers and prospects.
Get express consent
Ask for permission in all touch points of your sales process this could be a checkbox when someone is buying from your website, or you simply asking a question in a face to face interaction.
Be straightforward
When you ask for permission take advantage of the opportunity to set a couple of expectations. You can tell them how often you will be in their inbox, and also the type of content they should expect. If you do this well and follow through, you will have more success.
Offer opt-out
Make sure you have an option to let your contacts unsubscribe in every email that you send. When you use a service like Constant Contact, not only will we include that option for you, but we’ll also automatically manage those who opt out so you don’t have to!
Respect privacy
Posting your privacy policy is a great way to set your contacts or potential contacts at ease when they are joining your list. It helps the feel that their data is protected, again this is something that email service providers like Constant Contact specialize in.
Follow compliance guidelines (CAN-SPAM, CASL etc.)
Clear & obvious permission on your sign up form
Clearly identify the person, business or organization – brand recognition is crucial. Constant Contact offers free sign up tools that are fully customizable to add your name, logo and even your colors.
Inform them that they can unsubscribe any time
Have a process to record express consent
It’s clear WHY you need to collect email addresses in a responsible way, but HOW do you find them?
One of the best ways to get someone to subscribe is a dedicated area or page on your website explaining why someone would want to subscribe to your list. Tell them why they’d get in their inbox and how it will benefit them.
There are lots of ways to gather contacts.
Collect email addresses at events – Events are a great way to gather email addresses. Before the event when people register, make sure you provide a checkbox for them to select if they’d like to receive email communications from you. At the event, exchanging business cards is a great idea. If you have a booth, Constant Contact offers free printable sign up forms to allow visitors to subscribe. You can also give away business cards and swag in exchange for email addresses.
Add a QR scannable sign-up code to printed materials – if you are a restaurant or café, a salon, a doctor, a financial advisor, or if you just have a waiting room at your business, this is a great place to gather contacts. People are sitting there looking over the menu or reading coffee table flyers. Constant Contactprovides a way to subscribe right from their mobile device. Print the code on your business card, your brochures, shipping boxes and receipts, ads in the paper or in local magazines, on posters. Anyone who scans your code will be automatically added to your list. So easy!
Use your sidewalk sign to offer an easy incentive to subscribe inside – If your business has a sidewalk sign, incentivize someone to come in for a special something in exchange for an email address. You’ll be surprised how many people want to get a special something and how many, after seeing your business will want more goodies like that from you in their inbox. If you’re in the US, add your Text to Join keyword and unique phone number to printed materials too.
Place to sign up on the bill, office form, or application – When someone receives their receipt, include a section where they can write their name and email address, and check a box to receive your emails. Make sure you staff knows to check for this and to record that information at the end of the day.
Use a fishbowl on the counter to collect business cards – tried a true, this technique still works! Offer a monthly drawing for a free meal, haircut, or Gift Card. Put this where people can see it, and make sure it looks as full as possible – this helps to encourage people to ‘go with the crowd’ and add their business card to the bowl. With this, make sure you are organized and uploading those contacts regularly.
But really, with all the free tools Constant Contact provides, there’s no excuse not to ask.
Now if you’re in the US and using Constant Contact, definitely set up a text to join option and put it wherever people are likely to see posters or print materials from your business. Memorize it also – it’s one of the easiest ways – hands down – to get someone to subscribe to your list and takes the least amount of energy to do so.
Set up a unique email list called Text-to-Join to collect these contacts and assign an automation Welcome series to this list so that when people take the time to subscribe to your mailing list this way, they can become familiar with your business right away or receive their incentive to join that you offered immediately and use it at your business.
QR codes are another free and effective way of growing your list. By signing up for Constant Contact, everyone in this room automatically gets their own unique QR code. When you print or advertise this code, anyone who scans it with their smartphone, will be able to instantly subscribe to your emails.
These new subscribers will receive an automatic email welcoming them to your list. You can customize that message to share valuable content and set expectations about the kinds of emails they will receive, and how often. Best of all, if you make any changes to your sign up form, it will automatically update so you don’t have to reprint any of your materials.
Give them a reason to join
Ongoing education related to your product
VIP preference
Insider news or exclusive access
E-book, whitepaper, guide
Updates on your mission
Friends & Family discounts
These are few examples of the types of incentives that you could offer to get someone to subscribe to your mailing list. Make sure that they are feasible for your organization to offer and manage and track and that you have the bandwidth to honor these incentives.
Creating Great Content!
Focus on being relevant—Make sure that you know what your audience values, I have seen business owners assume that they know what their audience wants, and be completely off base. Do the research by asking or surveying your customers and prospects what type of information they would like to receive in their inbox.
Figure out how much is enough—How much content is enough? Keep in mind that a majority of people will be
One of the easiest ways to create content is to listen to your customers’ and prospects’ questions that they frequently ask. Many times they are similar, and it’s important to remember that YOU are the expert in your business or industry, and your customers typically are not. These questions can be amazing sources of content. Try doing a “FAQ mailbag” section to your newsletter when you need content.
Don’t forget that images can be content too…pictures of events/product/staff work very well. Make sure that you optimize for mobile, and that images don’t dominate your content.
Ultimately, when you think about each of these guidelines, consider how your reader would answer. The message YOU want to convey might not be the message your READERS are most willing to respond to.
It’s essential to write content for your audience, not for yourself.
38 percent of email recipients will unsubscribe if they think the content in your email is boring or irrelevant – and when a person unsubscribes, you won’t be able to communicate with them again.
32 percent will send irrelevant content to their spam folder, which could impact how email providers, like Gmail or Yahoo, sort your future messages.
When writing for your audience, make your messages relevant, short and focused. You can make it relevant to your audience by thinking about the conversations you’ve had with your clients, customers and members. After an interaction, jot some ideas down for your next email, and pick 1 or 2 ideas to highlight in each email.
Your email shouldn’t be telling recipients every single thing that you do, and it shouldn’t include extraneous information.
But what’s “too much” information?
Think about it, How often do you look forward to reading a long, detailed email from a business? Not very often, right? You’re looking for something concise and easy to read – what’s the news, what are the details of the deal or sale, is there any action I want or need to take? – and that’s what you should think about when you create your own emails.
When it comes to email content, less is more. Always.
There is no rule that says your newsletter needs to have three articles, three pictures and three links. One thing is plenty. There is actually a Constant Contact customer whose newsletter is called One Thing – he did it to make it easy on himself and it works really well – people can absorb it and he’s not under the gun to come up with a bunch of content to fill it.
We did a study of our customers and found that the best practice is to limit yourself to 20 lines of text and (click) three or fewer images. Just like you, your audience is busy. You don’t need to worry about sending a ton of information every time.
Remember, more than ½ of emails are read on a mobile device.
Our research also shows that 1 link gets the best click-through rate. You want your audience to take an action, so use a link to make that clear. Two links are OK, but once you get to three links, the click-through rate starts to decline. Any higher than 5 links means that people are LESS likely to click ANYWHERE in your email. So try to stick with only one or two clicks, and keep them high in your message so people do not have to scroll down to take an action.
And for your mobile readers – make sure that you’re keeping your messages short, and your calls to action above the fold (meaning, readers don’t have to scroll down to get to your most important content).
Let’s talk about turning your interactions with your customers, clients, members, supporters and volunteers into content for your email.
Think for a second about the last interaction you had with someone at your organization. What questions did a customer or client have? What information are people requesting about your nonprofit? Can you turn an answer to their questions into an email?
Here are some great examples.
One easy way to practice this in real life is to create two columns – in a spreadsheet or document, or just on a piece of paper, with the questions you regularly get on the left. In the right column, write down a way you can turn the answers to those questions into an email full of fresh, relevant content.
As a matter of fact – and this might be a relief for those suffering from writer’s block – great content doesn’t have to be written at all!
Visual content, like photos, videos, graphics and word-images, makes a huge impact in an email inbox. Did you know that 90% of information processed by the brain is visual content and more than half of consumers believe that images are very important factor when buying? Visuals are important to your business because they influence customers’ purchasing decisions. 67% of consumers believe that images are a very important factor when selecting and purchasing a product.
You can use photos to show off your products or shots from a recent event, and you can link to videos to show your organization in action or a product demonstration. Word images – a brief phrase, statistic, or quote over a background image – are a great way to share information in an eye-catching way.
And creating visual content is easier than ever these days – almost anyone with a smartphone has the ability to shoot high-quality photos and videos. You don’t need too much time or a huge marketing budget to create compelling images anymore – you’ve got the technology right there in your pocket.
Photos are a frequent and necessary piece for visual content. Sometimes, you may find you need a photo that you do not have or cannot create on your own. There are a variety of online stock photo sites where you can search for just the right photo that fits your needs. They are a great resource and can work well for visual content that’s based around a theme, a tip, a fact or a quote.
When you download a photo, be sure it is the right size or slightly larger! You can always crop it or scale it down, but will lose image quality if you try to enlarge a small image too much.
It might be tempting, but it’s never a good idea to use just any image you may find through a search, including sample stock photos with a watermark on them.
There can be copyright issues associated with those images; they belong to someone else. When using stock photos, you purchase the rights to use the photo, or in some cases accept a free download and agree to certain credit/conditions. Fees can vary, so shop around for what feels right for you and fits your budget. Here are some services that you can use to get free stock photos!
Constant Contact customers have access to over 12 million images through BigStock. But even if you aren’t a customer, BigStock offers a free trial for new users.
You’ve heard that apicture is worth 1,000 words. In your email, you can communicate through images as well as text. Turn your images into clickable links, so that when your readers click on your images, they will be directed to the action you want them to take – just make sure you also include a text link to the same location, because about 67% percent of email readers will not see images by default.
Email tools like Constant Contact make it easy to assign a URL to your images, and also to add “alt text” so that a description of the image appears, even if the reader doesn’t see the picture.
Side note – try to avoid giving too many choices in your campaign. These are supposed to be quick decisions to act (clicking to shop in your online store or selecting an item and clicking to buy) Too many choices will reduce the number of decisions / actions a person can take. It’s a time limit thing. Think of your campaign as window shopping. You want to entice someone to come in right then and buy because of whatever got their attention.
Designing a beautiful, mobile-friendly template that matches your brand
Stats say 55% of email is now opened on a mobile device (source 1: Litmus “Email Analytics” March 2016), which means your emails not only have to be interesting and actionable, but they also have to look great on every device. Luckily, services like Constant Contact have hundreds of templates already designed to be optimized no matter where your audience reads your email. That’s one less thing for you to worry about when creating your email.
Remember, being recognizable is critical to success in email marketing. Make sure your emails look like your website/printed material from a logo and color perspective. Things like color can increase brand recognition up to 80%! (source 2: BOP Design blog Oct 2015) Within seconds, you can apply the exact colors of your website or logo to the color of your template.
In your email, make sure you’re consistently using your logo and the colors that you use in the rest of your marketing, so that you’re immediately recognizable. And make sure you use consistent language across all of your marketing so that people will not be confused.
For example, the nonprofit Strong Women Strong Girls does a great job of being consistent with their logo and images across their email, website and Facebook page. (see below)
Don’t be afraid to use the same content and images across your email, website and social media posts. The more your organization meets your audience where they are, the more likely your audience is to keep you in mind. Constant Contact templates are fully customization, allowing you to create this same consistency for YOUR organization.
When you sign up with Constant Contact, not only will you gain a level of customization as you just saw, you’ll also gain immediate access to beautiful professional-looking templates designed to address your specific goal(s) and save you time. Different templates are designed to achieve your different needs to help you be successful.
Newsletters—Typically showcasing your expertise. Remember you are giving away good information for attention. Remember to use the teaser paragraph strategy…If you have a whole article of content, tease the first few sentences and create a “read more…” link to the rest of the content on a website. You can even link to a PDF article! This will help you keep the newsletter short and allows you to track your audience’s interests.
Announcements—These are a great way to showcase special updates and opportunities. Could be your business winning an award, or a special event or sale. Or maybe you want to generate interest in your newest product or give your audience a chance to provide feedback. Clickable buttons are a perfect way to draw your readers eye to an important/actionable part of your email.
Promotions—Make sure that you don’t give too many choices. Remember you want someone to see the benefit of your email and take a quick action. You’ll find pre-made coupons that you can customize for your promotion. You can even encourage your audience to spread the word for you by including your social media profiles.
The greatest benefit to all of these templates is the ability to see how well you achieved each of your goals.
Is your audience engaging in your newsletter articles? Did your audience want to read more about your newest service? How many people took advantage of your special coupon? Then you can adjust future emails to cater to what your audience likes. We’ll talk more about reporting features shortly.
This is based on Constant Contact’s analysis of over 2M Constant Contact customer emails –
THIS is the recipe for the most effective email campaign.
Single column template
Fewer than 3 images
Fewer than 20 lines of text
No more than 3-5 links
Action above the scroll line
This is just one example of how Constant Contact supports you in being successful, by providing research and knowledge to help you make the most of your email marketing efforts.
(NOTE: EMAIL me to see if there are any current discount offers with Constant Contact)
Getting your email opened
So how do you win the battle of priorities and get more people to stop and open your email? Think about how you sort your email – or if you’re on facebook, think about the news-feed. Typically when you open up your email – think about it this morning – you start at the top of the list and you go down, sorting by who it’s from. WHO the email came from turns out to be the most important part of winning the battle of priorities. You do it based on WHO, so it’s important for you to be recognizable.
You do need to exercise care and consider how you’re identifying yourself across the channels you’re using. If you send your emails as “Jane Doe,” but your Facebook page shows up in people’s news-feeds as “Famous Cookies,” people might not make the connection. Just be sure that you’re consistent with the name you use – and ensure that it’s the one that you’ll be recognized by, so that ultimately your readers and followers will stop and open your email, read your posts – because they know they’re going to get something of value and relevance from you.
If you are not sure that people will recognize you because they mostly know the company name, then use a combination of your name, then a comma, and then the company or brand name – so you can piggy back off of the recognition of that brand but knowing you’ll get more people to stop and pay attention to an email from a person. Another way to look at it – when you get an email from a company, don’t you automatically assume that it is a marketing message so if you are busy or going through your own battle of priorities, that one usually goes into the later or never pile.
One other note, for nonprofits in the room, you are – and sorry to say this – often starting at later. And not because people do not care about your message. That’s not it at all. It is more about the timing of your messages (which we will cover in a little bit)
But if you think about it, if people are at work and their focus is supposed to be on their work, and then they get an email about your cause or program, even if they really care about it, they cannot always pull away from their primary responsibilities at the office.
As a small business, you don’t have time to do things that don’t work, so when it comes to your subject lines, you want to get into the habit of optimizing your subject lines to get the best results possible for your marketing efforts every time. We’re going to show you some easy ways to do that today.
Approximately one third of people decide to open an email based solely on the subject line so that subject line needs to be a “stand out” subject line whether they’re reading on a desktop computer or a smartphone or tablet. There is a lot of competition for our attention these days in our inboxes, but I’m about to teach you some tricks of the trade you can start to use in your next email.
35% of all recipients of email choose whether or not to open a message on the subject line alone. – inwise “The Magic Words: The Importance of the Subject and ‘From’ Lines for Email Marketing” (2012)
Readers will use your subject line as a way to determine whether or not your email is relevant to them. One way to entice readers to open is by clearly explaining what they’ll get/learn when they open. Ask yourself:
Does my subject line clearly explain why someone should open my email immediately?
Once you’re able to articulate why your audience should open your email (by identifying your purpose), then you can put your creative spin to attract your reader’s attention. Let’s talk about some basic best practices for subject lines.
55% of email is opened on mobile devices. For that reason, it’s important to tailor your subject line and pre-header text to be optimized for mobile reading, which means keeping it short.
30-40 characters max typically appear on most mobile devices
6-10 words is best; 4-7 has greatest response
Control first 11-18 words of “pre-header” text to entice mobile readers
When thinking of subject lines, think small.
The Inbox will typically only show users the first 9-11 words of the pre-header text or any words above the logo. Take control of that fact and put a few power-packed words into a block above your company logo (which should always be placed at the top with a clickable link to your website.)
Rule of thumb – write your subject lines between 6-10 words and don’t forget about mobile users because (51%) of email is opened on a mobile device and you want not to exclude people who are reading on the go and who may be more apt sometimes to stop by your business or respond to your message. This really matters – keep in mind that iPhones, for instance, cut off a subject line at 32 characters – so you want to keep the important stuff at the beginning!
Mobile phones will also typically show the first 15 characters of the first text in the message, so take control of that feature we’ve referred to as ‘preheader text’ and write a second headline that will hook your reader into reading the rest of your email right from the get go. Think of it like a compliment to our subject line or the ‘next step or hook.’ This text should appear just above your logo block and we’ll go into that in just a bit but it is important to keep it in mind as you’re crafting your subject line.
When designing your email, be sure to write pre-header text at the top. (Constant Contact has built-in blocks to help remind you). You can highlight relevance, usefulness, value or educational value at the opening of your message to catch their attention. Or, you and switch it up and do something unexpected or non-traditional or unusual.
This is seen on a mobile device right below the subject line, including some desktop viewers. (click) Use pre-header text or ‘the teaser text’ as a hook or a second chance to draw your subscribers into your email after they’ve considered the subject line. Because this space allows for slightly more words, this is where you want to take your subject line a bit further by explaining or elaborating on your subject line.
Customize the message to match the interests of your audience. [PRO TIP] *If you are segmenting (categorizing) your lists (a good marketing practice), use relevant personal interest information that you’ve collected over time and position your subject line to match those interests.
Also, match your message tone to reflect your brand – Is your brand informative? Sassy? Funny? Quirky? A thought leader? Incorporate that element of your brand’s personality into your subject lines in just a few words.
Make sure you’re not doing things we’ve found spammers to do in their emails. These are things that will likely get your emails sent to readers’ spam folders
Don’t use these typical “spammy” words. When you get the slides, the first bullet here contains a chart you can refer to which contains words that spam-filters are trained to block if they catch them in subject lines.
Don’t use:
The word free
Act now
Fast
Guaranteed
Advertisement
Don’t use all caps (What does it feel like to read all caps? Yelling)
Don’t use excessive punctuation or symbols like the pound or dollar sign or percentage symbol
Avoid the following:
Spam-like terms
Check your spam folder
Use spam-check button
ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
Excessive punctuation and symbols !!!, ???, $$$
Need a reminder of what practices are in a spam email? Can always compare to what’s in your own junk mail folder. You can also check before you send. By using Constant Contact, you’ll have the ability to send yourself a test of your own email before sending to the masses. You can even send to colleagues, friends, and family to get help proofreading. Yet another way Constant Contact helps you do email marketing in a professional and impactful way.
Encourage your audience to share your promotions by using social media tools.
This is a really effective way you can grow your reach – emails that include those social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by more than 158 percent!
Add social media buttons that link to your business’ social media profiles. The buttons are a nice visual reminder for them to click and follow you online.
Your audience has a lot of influence via word of mouth, and you can get your promotions in front of more people – their friends and family – if they help spread the word for you
Can you tell the number of people who read your last email? How about the number of people who have stopped opening your messages entirely? Do you think those questions are important when deciding how to proceed with your email marketing?
Instead of shooting in the dark with a new idea and hoping it works, Constant Contact can shed light on your marketing strategy through important email metrics. In a few minutes, you’ll understand:
What metrics matter when analyzing whether or not you’re achieving your goals
How to use data to make real marketing decisions
The importance of focusing on the click throughs as one of the greatest metrics for success
Open Rate —If you’ve used regular email clients in the past, how many of you know the number of people who actually read the message? The biggest benefit here is the ability to see how many people are interested in your organization and what you have to say. Also by having this information, you can make smarter marketing decisions about timing, content and audience of future messages. Notice how Constant Contact provides the date and time your readers opened your email. This gives you very tangible information about when you’ll get the best results in the future.
The industry average for this metric can range anywhere from 8% all the way to 28%. Remember, these are only averages, and they are different for every industry. If your metrics are within this range, you’re on track. But there’s also a great likelihood that your metrics will be higher if you follow the practices we’ve talked about.
Click-throughs are the best measure of success because you can directly tie the goals of your email to someone clicking on the link. The more people who click on your link, the more you have achieved the goal of your message. Plus, it helps you as a marketer to understand what content people are interested in the most so you can send more of it. We’ll talk more about how you can maximize this metric in a few minutes.
The industry average for this metric can range anywhere from 5% all the way to 18%. Remember, these are only averages, and they are different for every industry. If your metrics are within this range, you’re on track. But there’s also a great likelihood that your metrics will be higher if you follow the practices we’ve talked about.
Did not opens – When you have contacts that don’t open your emails, it’s a great idea to spend a little extra time and effort to win them back. Use this information to target these contacts in a creative way. Resending the same exact email to customers who weren’t interested the first time is a good way to get a spam complaint. So make sure that you take this opportunity to change things up. Try improving your subject line or adding some new content. Constant Contact makes this easier than ever by providing features to segment your least engaged contacts and send targeted messages just for them.
The industry average for this metric can range anywhere from 72% all the way to 92%. Remember, these are only averages, and they are different for every industry. If your metrics are within this range, you’re on track. But there’s also a great likelihood that your metrics will be higher if you follow the practices we’ve talked about.
Opt outs – allows readers to unsubscribe and gives them an opportunity to share their reason(s). By reviewing these comments, you can find areas for development in your strategy, like changing the frequency of messages, or setting clearer expectations when someone signs up to your list. Constant Contact makes this metric easy to manage by automatically removing these contacts from future emails so you don’t have to worry about sending unwanted messages.
The industry average for this metric is less than 1% across all industries. If your metrics are below 1%, you’re on track. This metric may fluctuate depending on your mailing strategy, and that’s normal. If you find this metric to be higher than 1% on a regular basis, we recommend reviewing this feedback and adapting your strategy. The most common complaint by opt-outs is too much email, so sending less frequently is a great start.
Bounces – are equally important for their own reasons. First, it identifies email addresses that are not effective. There are a variety of reasons an email address may bounce so it’s important that you review these email addresses and remove the ones that are not helping you achieve your email goals. Overall, this metric protects your sending reputation and keep your deliverability high!
The industry average for this metric can range anywhere from 2% all the way to 14%. Remember, these are only averages, and they are different for every industry. If your metrics are within this range, you’re on track. But there’s also a great likelihood that your metrics will be higher if you follow the practices we’ve talked about.
What are some factors that might keep someone from opening your email? When you go through your inbox, how do you decide which emails to delete/ignore? (let audience interact, if appropriate)…… Maybe you don’t recognize the sender. Maybe the subject line isn’t relevant to you and it doesn’t look time sensitive, so you think “I’ll come back to it later” (and of course, you never do). Maybe you just received a similar email very recently.
Based on those answers, how can we improve our open rate? (let audience interact, if appropriate)…… (click) Brand recognition plays a large part in your open rate. The majority of people will not open an email from someone they don’t know. So make sure your from name is clearly recognizable and consistent with how your audience refers to your organization. You can also write your subject line in a way that creates urgency for your readers and entices them to see what’s inside. But keep it short; if it’s more than 5 to 8 words, it could get cut off by your recipients’ email services or smartphones. And finally, your timing and frequency could be off. We recommend starting with a monthly email and adapting from there. Too many emails, and your audience will ignore you or unsubscribe. Too few emails, and your audience might not remember signing up. Also consider, are you sending at the times and days that people would be most likely to read your email? Try a different day or time and compare your results.
You’re using these reports to get to know your audience better, so keep track of what’s getting the most attention in your emails. Segment your audience into different lists, and target them with relevant content based on what you know is working!
What are some factors that might keep someone from clicking on a link? When you read your email, what are some reasons you don’t click on anything? (let audience interact, if appropriate)…… Maybe your link was not obvious, or it was hidden between articles or at the bottom of your message. Maybe there were so many links, your audience got overwhelmed and didn’t know where to click. Maybe it simply wasn’t interesting to those particular people.
Based on those answers, how can we improve click through rates? What can we do to bring this number up?
Review the calls to action in your email. Consider the wording– is it clear? Is it urgent? Is it telling people exactly what action to take and why it matters to them? Look at your email design and consider how much content is in your email. If your email is too long, many people will give up and delete it before taking an action. Our recommendation is to have no more than 3 articles in an email. And keep those articles short! Include a sentence or two and then a link to read more. When you give people too many choices, they’re not sure what they should click on, and might not click on anything.
Let’s start with the high open rate. It’s a great result, and there are things you can do to make it even better:
The first is to find out what’s the best time and day to send your emails. When you look at your open rate report, you’ll see what date and time each of your readers opened your email. Start comparing that to the day and time you send your email – you should send your messages at the day and time your readers are opening them. They’ll be more likely to check their email then and see your message.
Next, take a look at your subject line – what keywords do you think were interesting to your audience? Think about the keywords you’ve used in your subject lines, in blog posts, on social media, and in your website that draw your audience’s attention. Keep using them in your subject lines.
Segment “super fans”. The majority of email opens come from a very small group of readers. Usually, the same group of people will be opening your emails, with slight variations every time. This is an argument for smart segmentation – don’t simple send everything to everyone, but recognize that there is a core set of “superfans” who contribute the lion’s share of your opens. You should consider sending the most valuable emails to them first as an exclusive ‘sneak preview’ – make them feel special.
A high click rate is fantastic. Your audience wants to know more about the resources you’re linking to in your email. Here’s a few things you can do to make your click rate even better. Format your links so they stand out when your readers open your email. Use buttons or put white space around them. Make sure the links are spaced out for mobile readers – if they’re too close, it’s really easy to click on the wrong link with your finger.
You’re using these reports to get to know your audience better, so keep track of what’s getting the most attention in your emails. Narrow down the links you offer to fit the topics, products and services that they want to read about.
The last thing you can do is take that knowledge of your audience and segment them. Just like you have “super fans” for opens, you have “super clickers”. These are readers who consistently engage with your messages. This is a huge opportunity to put a special offer in front of your “super clickers”, either by sending it to them ahead of the pack, or by selectively sending them something that is just for the most loyal consumers. By capitalizing on the reporting provided by Constant Contact, you have the ability via smart segmentation to do this for your consumers.
Let me know show you how easy it is to segment your super clickers using Constant Contact’s reporting.
Did you notice that with all the campaign reports we talked about earlier that they had one thing in common? That’s click-throughs. No matter what you’re using – email, events, surveys, offers or promotions, donations or social media – you can measure click-throughs.
This goes back to what we talked about earlier– the importance of measuring actions. Click-through rates measure exactly what actions your audience is taking. This metric tells you so much. It gives you an idea of what content people like, what products they’re interested in, what calls to action work, what keywords appeal to your readers, and what multimedia is interesting to them.
Constant Contact will keep track of each link individually so I can get very specific about what’s working for my audience. For example, if I have links to my facebook, twitter, and linked in profiles in my email, I’ll be able to see which social media profile had the highest traffic based on these numbers.
You can even drill deeper to view who clicked on a specific link, which tells you their interested in certain topics. Back to my social media example, if Facebook had the highest number of clicks (in this example, we’ll say 12), I can view who those 12 clickers were so I can better engage with them.
Let’s take it a final step further. If we were to use that contact information to our advantage, we could save “clickers” into their own list based on their interest. Now the next time I want to communicate with those people, I can target based on what I know they like.
So for my example where the majority of clicks went to my Facebook profile, I can now save those 12 clickers into a “Facebook” contact list. And next time I want to send an email, I could send exclusive content from my Facebook page to the people who I know use Facebook based on Constant Contact’s reporting. What impact do you think that will have on my open rates and my click rates in the future?
They’ll go through the roof! This is just one example of the power of Constant Contact for your email marketing success (and not to mention your ability to be more efficient on other platforms like social media. Spend time where your audience is.)
Putting it all together
We’ve made it easy for you. We took the best practices we talked about, as well as some pro tips and created a checklist.
Small business marketing is
Nurturing relationships
Delivering on your promise
Getting measurable results
One of the best things I can tell you is that, as a small business or a nonprofit, you actually have an advantage over “big business” in this new era of marketing – it is specific to your use of email and social media marketing.
Constant Contact provides the tools, features, and support you need to be successful. Together, we can help you be successful!
Everything we talked about in today’s session is intended to help you grow your business. Strategies, tips and ideas that you can leave here and try. Constant Contact is an online marketing system with tools to help you manage mass communication and marketing campaigns easily and without spending a lot of time or money. You can send email newsletters or announcements of any kind, run your own special offers or deals, get feedback or run an online survey and you can promote and manage your own events.
It’s all together in one place and everything also works closely with social media channels like facebook, linked in and twitter and it’s also designed to help you look good on a mobile device. No matter what you’re trying to achieve, Constant Contact has the tools to help you get there.
Start your free trial or if you’re ready to jump in, contact me to see if there are any current offers or discounts. DannaCrawford@gmail.com
Schedule a free phone call and/or a private webinar with me ASAP.
Attend a LOCAL or ONLINE presentation. View the EVENTS page for up-to-date workshops.
Simple Marketing Strategy for Small Business and Nonprofits
Here’s what we’re going to talk about today:
–We’ll discuss small business marketing in today’s changing world, and why it’s to your advantage.
–We will go over some simple steps for creating your own marketing goals.
–I will show you different tools that really help drive action for you in your messages, and how to choose the right place to promote your message.
–We’ll talk about the important of measuring your goals in order to make future marketing decisions.
–And then we will touch on how you can get started, no matter where you’re starting from.
Let’s start with small business marketing in today’s world. It might seem like there’s a lot to keep up with and you only have so many resources to get you there. We’re here to tell you, you do have something no one else can offer.
So, as I said before, marketing has changed with the growth of technology.
Some of the change is obvious, but I want to talk briefly about one of the subtle changes that affects you and your ability to grow your business using all of the new online tools: it’s a basic shift in the way you may find and keep customers with today’s business climate.
Look at this model:
It’s a typical sales funnel, using traditional marketing methods, things like print ads, radio, television, direct mail. This model is all about your reach – reaching out to FIND new customers. it’s bigger at the top, which is where you spend a lot your time, your money and your energy in this model.
And…it makes sense. You reach out to as many people as you can, convert a certain percentage into paying customers and keep even fewer of those people – mainly because so much of your time, money and energy went into the reach at the beginning.
It’s a standard, sales, numbers game and it makes sense. We are all familiar with this model – the problem with this traditional funnel is that it’s expensive – those ads cost a lot of money and it’s hard for a small company or organization to compete in this landscape.
Digital marketing tools have completely flipped the funnel:
When you begin to use new marketing tools, like email marketing, Facebook, linked in, twitter, events, surveys, etc… you reach to people you already know.
This new marketing funnel is about reaching out to people that already know you, and letting THEM spread the word to potential new customers… you reach out, on a regular basis, with information and offers that are relevant to your contacts and it turns out that if you do it right, you will actually begin to convert more people than you are reaching out to, because of your audience’s desire and ability to share your message.
Through this new funnel, you grow your base, your business through repeat business and referrals – at the end of this marketing day, turns out you keep a lot more of your existing customers so you don’t need as many strangers, and it costs less and takes less time and energy.
The flip in the marketing funnel is actually phenomenal news for you as a small business or non-profit and that’s because you have an advantage over “big business” in this new era of marketing, specific to your use of email and social media marketing.
You have an advantage because you can be the face of the company, the person people associate with that business or organization. You can be your authentic self. Big brands cannot do that. Today we’re going to talk about some of the ways you can leverage this advantage.
In this new marketing world, you’ll spend less time finding new customers and more time engaging your existing happy customers. Email and social media have leveled the playing field for smaller organizations like yours and mine to compete with the big boys.
This social visibility allows your customers or members to spread the word about your business. You’ll be able to engage your current customers and even reach new ones.
With all these ways to communicate, and not enough time, how do you decide where to spend your time? It’s time to ask yourself: are you really spending your marketing budget in the best way possible?
This is not an uncommon challenge for small businesses. You have tons of platforms that you’re being told you need to manage all at once. And sometimes, that pressure is actually to your disadvantage
So how do you really decide what platform to leverage first? What do you think is the #1 app on smart phones?
Email is hard to beat for real marketing value. It still has the highest delivery and response.
In fact, the Direct Marketing Association reports that email remains unbeaten, with return on investment still at almost $41 per dollar spent. Email really is the best way to reach your clients, or customers which is going to allow you to manage your relationship with them in a huge way.[Source: https://blogs.constantcontact.com/email-marketing-roi/]
But what about social media?
In today’s world, we tell everyone about everything through social media channels, even strangers.
46% of shoppers rely on social media when making a purchase. What’s more, 88% find online reviews just as trustworthy as personal recommendations.
Based on the new marketing funnel today and the knowledge of how email marketing and social media play into that success, I’d like to give you an example of how Half Moon yoga was able to leverage this new marketing funnel.
Half moon yoga is a small studio in MA who’s biggest goal was to generate revenue. For them, that means butts in seats (or on yoga mats).
When I consulted with them, they were putting effort into sending lengthy monthly emails, posting to every social media site they could think of, and hosting open house events. They were spread so thin, and they weren’t getting in front of the right people.
When we really sat down to think about their goal, I encouraged them to send short bi-weekly blasts about their class schedule, and to focus their social strategy primarily to Facebook, where we decided most of their clients are. Within months, they had doubled class attendance.
By helping Half Moon Yoga define what they were truly after, I was able to help them focus their budget and their time in the places that would yield the biggest bang for their buck.
The moral of the story is that you have endless options about how to market your business, but you don’t have endless resources. By learning to define your goals, we can narrow down which methods will be most effective to help you achieve success.
Setting Your Goals!
Every business or organization has 1 or 2 major objectives they’re trying to achieve. With so many options in the online marketing world, it’s easy to lose sight of what you’re ultimately striving for, which means losing time and money without seeing huge benefits. It’s important to be very clear about your specific objectives in order to determine your marketing strategy.
At the highest level, what is your organization hoping to achieve?
Many of us have similar goals. You might want to:
Increase sales
Drive referrals, and repeat business
Engage volunteers, members, advocates
Reach new customers or donors
Nurture leads and relationships
Are you thinking “I want to do all of those things”? At different times during the year or during the life cycle of your business, these goals may change. This is when you need to be careful about spreading yourself too thin.
Trying to achieve too much all at once may take you away from your ultimate goal. If you had to prioritize, how would you rank them based on importance to your organization right now?
Download the free worksheets below.
“If you noticed the workbook that follows today’s session, on page 1 you’ll see a list of common goals for small businesses and non-profits. I’m going to challenge you to spend maybe 30 seconds ranking which of those match your current objective. Go with your first gut instinct.
Once you’ve determined your overall objectives, you can narrow down and write your own marketing goals.
When writing your goals, it’s important to understand who you’re target audience truly is, in order to choose the right method of communication. Write down real numbers that are challenging, yet achievable and don’t forget to put a time frame on it. That way you’ll be able to push yourself to reach your goal within the specific time frame.
Online marketing services like Constant Contact have contact management tools that will help you to identify your target audience and tracking features that are going to play a role in determining success towards your goal.
Now you’re ready to write your own goals. Keep in mind, it probably works best to think short term, monthly or quarterly in this quick exercise. You can go big when you have more time and can take a step back and really look at this.
Choosing the Right Message – Pick your platform.
We’ve decided what we’re truly after, and we’ve made a tangible goal to measure our success. Now you’re ready to start designing the message that gets you there.
Start by focusing on the audience you’re trying to reach. Figure out where they are spending their time. For most people, that includes the inbox which is why email is such a compelling channel for small businesses.
But the same will also be true on social media where you need to figure out where you need to be to reach your target audience.
Remember back to the beginning of today’s session when we talked about all the ways your audience engages with you online through email and social media.
How are you supposed to decipher which platform is right for your goal when there are so many to choose from? Let me help you weigh the pros and cons.
What do you think is the percentage of email that gets delivered to the inbox? The answer is 90%!
How about social media…what is the largest social media site to-date? Facebook.
What do you think is the percentage of Facebook fans that see you in their news feed? This might surprise you, but only about 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed.
This stat is surely not to downplay the use of social media, as it plays a big role in online marketing strategies. Where email lacks, social media makes up for. And where social media lacks, email makes up for.
We really need to leverage both platforms to get the maximum exposure we are seeking. Combining email and social media is great for gathering followers and building a reputation online. In fact, small businesses who combine email and social tend to see about:
What benefits can you see to sharing an email on social media?
Increase visibility
By sharing your email on social media, you are able to get in front of more people rather than if you just sent it to your list.
Grow your list
Anyone who sees your email on social media who isn’t already on your list, they can opt to subscribe so they’ll receive messages straight to their inbox in the future.
Save time
How much time do you spend trying to think of content for all of your different social media channels and your email?
You don’t have to create unique content for each of the different channels. Now all you have to do is to create your email and then posting to social media is just a click away.
One of the ways that Constant Contact helps you combine email and social is by allowing you to easily share your well-crafted email to your social media networks, making your marketing even faster and more effective.
Not only can you combine forces outside of your message, Constant Contact has tools to promote social media INSIDE your message.
When you place clickable links to your social media pages inside your emails, you’ll not only drive traffic to your pages, you’ll also get valuable tracking data that will tell you which social sites your subscribers are using most.
By comparing the amount of traffic you get to each of your social pages, you’ll be able to determine where to efficiently spend your time on social media.
Whichever platform is the most popular to your audience is clearly where you should be sending most of your time. You don’t have to be on every social media site to be successful. Constant Contact provides you with the tools to help you use your time more wisely.
When to send is another very common question. Both for how often to send and also when in terms of the time of day and the day of the week.
For social media, we recommend a baseline frequency of at least 3-5 times a weekly. It’s what they used to tell us for exercise. haha
There are tools and guidelines for what times have the highest traffic and most response but it really depends on your industry, your audience and what you are trying to get them to do.
For email marketing frequency, monthly is the most common but it’s also a good idea to add unexpected messages every once in a while.
Once you’ve chosen your platforms, your ready to start thinking about and writing your messages. But I’ll warn you, you will not see the greatest success by simply picking your platform and blasting your goal(s).
In this new digital marketing arena, audience’s respond to brands they recognize and trust. How do you do that? Let me tell you.
In order to reach your goal in the long term, it’s not enough to choose the platform and immediately start promoting your agenda. People do not enjoy being sold to.
What they do enjoy is receiving content that not only speaks to their interests, but enables them to overcome a challenge, achieve a goal, or learn something they may not have already known. 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that offer valuable custom content.
Clearly there is an impactful connection between offering something your audience cares about, and their likelihood to buy from you. Your job is to find the right balance of offering enough valuable content and also promoting your end goal. [Source: https://www.brafton.com/business-model/content-marketing/]
Most small businesses do not realize the importance of content in today’s marketing world. This is a striking concept. The fact is true that trust and value can directly impact purchases.
We typically encourage marketers to follow the 80/20 rule. This is a suggestive guideline about how to balance the amount of relevant content you share compared to the amount of promotion you offer.
In order to encourage your audience to engage with your goals, you must first prove your trustworthiness, credibility, and value. 80% of your message(s) should be valuable content, whereas 20% is reserved for your true promotion (directly tied to your goal).
For example, I work with a small accounting firm and of course they’re always looking to get more clients during tax season. Ultimately, their promotion is “let us do your taxes!” (with the ultimate goal of getting more clients and increasing revenue).
However, they can position themselves as experts and unveil some of their audience’s pain points by sharing content like the “most common mistakes on your tax returns” where they reveal some of the nitty gritty aspects of taxes.
[On page 1 of the workbook, there is a “Fill in the Blank” section. I’m about to give you the answers to the ‘fill in the blank’ right now”.]
Let me give you an example of how this guideline impacts your long-term goals. I recently worked with a real estate agent who couldn’t figure out how to maintain relationships with recent home buyers. After the close date, he obviously didn’t work as closely with those clients, but he knew they would be essential for word of mouth for new clients.
Think about it from his clients’ perspective. They’ve just bought the home of their dreams and a month later, they receive a newsletter about the newest homes on the market that doesn’t make the client feel very valued, right? So clearly he needed to maintain the relationship in a different way.
He kept a list of his recent home buyers and began sending them a variety of emails about “how to maintain your gutters”, “ideas for home décor”, “the best plumber in the area”, etc. And his call to action was always “share my message with your friends and family”. Because he balanced his content, he was able to reach his goal more effectively.
One effective way to do this is by turning your interactions with your customers, clients, members, supporters and volunteers into content for your email.
Think for a second about the last interaction you had with someone at your organization. What questions did a customer or client have? What information are people requesting about your nonprofit? Can you turn an answer to their questions into an email? Here are some great examples.
One easy way to practice this in real life is to create two columns – in a spreadsheet or document, or just on a piece of paper, with the questions you regularly get on the left.
In the right column, write down a way you can turn the answers to those questions into an email full of fresh, relevant content.
Guess what? These questions that you write on your paper can turn into your subject lines and headlines for social media. It’s that simple!
Subject lines are the first thing your audience sees before deciding whether to open your email. You only have a couple seconds to capture their attention and prove why your content is worth reading. There are really a lot of tips you can use to write a subject line, and here are a few:
Keep it short and sweet (about 5-8 words) to entice them to open the message. This is especially important for the majority of your audience trying to read through their inbox on a mobile device.
You could also include numbers in your subject line as it makes what you’re saying quantifiable and lets readers know exactly what they can expect. One example is “Top 3 benefits to volunteer this summer.”
Encourage action, by including a call-to-action to get them to open the message immediately. One example for this is “Schedule your consultation today!” You can even include a deadline to create a sense of urgency. One example using this is “Summer sale ends Friday!”
Once you’ve written your subject line, this will double up as the headline when your email posts to social media. The great thing is that Constant Contact recognizes your subject line and automatically makes it your social media posts’ headline.
[This slide corresponds with the “Write your subject line” activity on page 2 of the workbook. “Now you’re going to write your own subject line based on your goals and your message.”]
Remember, you don’t have to stick to your own content. One of the biggest misconceptions about creating content for an email campaign is that you’re responsible for writing every single post or email. There are many resources you can use to find content that your audience will find valuable. For example, you can use:
Interviews or testimonials (like from a staff member or satisfied customer)
Social Media
Google alerts
YouTube
Pinterest
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Industry News
Annual reports
Competitor news
Press releases
Blogs (your own or someone else’s. Just remember to give credit!)
Special guests
Experts in the community
Sponsors/donors/volunteers
Partners who compliment your products/services
Survey results
[Think about the type of content you can used to reach your marketing objective.
“You’ll find space on page 1 in the section titled “Choose your message” of your handout. Circle any message ideas that you think will help you to meet your goal.”
Whatever content you share, wherever you decide to share it, brand recognition is always important. It’s a great way to reinforce and build relationships with new or potential customers to increase your chances of achieving your long-term goals.
Be consistent
Take the “vibe” of your other marketing materials like your website and apply it to your email and social media marketing so it resonates with your audience
People need to see your brand/promotion up to 20 times before they will engage with your organization/purchase
Make sure it’s exact! Use free tools like color cop or digital color meter
Choose your tone
“Speak” the same in your email as you would in person, in a radio/tv ad, or on social media. Use the same language and tone to address your audience. It does impact the picture of your brand.
Constant Contact makes it easy to choose and fully customize a template to fit your branding and styling needs.
Don’t forget to think about the visual aspects of your message.
Spotlight your products, services, employees and customers
Include 3 or fewer images to get the best click-throughs.
Forrester study: video content increases click-through rates by 300%
product demos
customer testimonials
promotional
user-generated
With Constant Contact, you have the ability to easily add your images and make them clickable. This is especially great for adding in links to your videos.
The pajama program was doing a end-of-year push for warm winter donations. They made a video to recap their mission.
Want people to watch your video? Promote it on all of your marketing channels. That’s exactly what Pajama program did. They got the word out by promoting it using many of their marketing channels – promoted it in their email newsletter – and on their Facebook page using the social share tool when scheduling their email.
Keep mobile in mind to make your message easy to read.
Tip #1: avoid using multiple columns
Prior to the rise of mobile and mobile communication, emails had started to take on an almost website-like feel – with multiple columns and navigation elements similar to what you find on websites.
But with mobile communications driving content to be more focused, and also just to fit a more physically condensed space, multiple columns cause problems. The great thing with Constant Contact is that their templates are all designed to be mobile friendly and easy to read, no matter where your audience reads your email.
Tip #2: avoid using tiny fonts
This one would seem to be pretty self-explanatory…but is no less important. While you might be able to fit more text with smaller font, like 9 and 12 point font, who can read it? People will need to pinch-to-zoom the text, and then have to scroll around.
They’re more likely to delete the message, as well as unsubscribe from future small-font emails. We recommend at least 11 points for body text and 22 points for headlines, and starts to bring greater contrast between the text and the background. But even that it still hard to read.
Tip #3: use images carefully
Images are a great way to convey a message, tell a story…create a connection. But if you don’t carefully consider how you’re going to use images, you may end up with some unintended consequences that lead, at best, to someone not reading your email. Here are some things to keep in mind:
some mobile email clients may not display images by default…so be sure that you’re using what is called “Alt Text,” or text that appears if the image doesn’t, to at least let people know what’s there.
Great images still shouldn’t push the call-to-action all the way to the bottom of the message, making it less likely that the reader will actually click through.
The position and size of the images matter too – You may need to resize images as you build your email (a lot of email marketing tools have simple, built in image-editing capabilities).
Before you send any message out to your customers or supporters, TEST THE EMAIL BY SENDING IT TO YOURSELF also a really beneficial feature when you’re creating your email in Constant Contact!! Be sure to view it with your readers in mind…and make changes accordingly. A few extra minutes of testing can save a lot of headache later.
Write A Call To Action!
We’ve done much of the hard part, believe it or not. We know what we’re after, we know what we’re going to ask of our audience. Now it’s time to promote the message.
Now that we’ve primed our audience with valuable content, they’re going to be more open to responding to our promotion. The fact that we have 20% of our marketing to encourage our audience to take action, we need to make sure that it’s really impactful in terms of helping us reach our goals. So how do we do that?
Maybe your #1 objective is to drive more revenue or donations…how do we actually get from this pretty goal in our workbook to putting money in the bank?
Calls-to-action are the link between asking for what you want, and getting it. They are the lifeline of success, especially in email marketing.
Has everyone ever heard the phrase “call-to action”? Does anyone know what that means?
A call-to-action is a specific action your customers or members will take to help you reach your goal. Many times you’re asking readers to click to visit an important page that relates to your goal.
Unfortunately, we can’t force anyone to take action. There are certain things we can do to make that action more likely. A company called CreateDebate was able to increase clicks in their email by making it look like a button, instead of standard text by 45%!
That’s exponential compared to the average click-through rate anywhere from 5-10%, depending on most industries.
Here’s one example of the major impact a button can have on your goal. Notice the difference between a regular email from your own Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo account (on the left, below), and one sent through an email service provider like Constant Contact (on the right, below).
What do you notice in the difference between these two emails above? The email on the right clearly looks more professional, which will ultimately get you closer to achieving and surpassing your goals. With regular email (left) you have:
Limited # of emails sent at once
No formatting control
No cohesive branding
No tracking and reporting of email results
By sending an email through Constant Contact (right), you’ll have:
beautiful templates
Customizable, mobile-responsive, easy-to-use
brand identity/recognition
Features built to match your logo and colors, plus integrate your social media profiles and drive website traffic
Actionable features like clickable images
Built in buttons
Best of all….trackable results
There are even more best practices you might not know about when designing an awesome call-to-action.
For example:
Narrow down 1-2 per email
One study showed that emails with a SINGLE call-to-action increased clicks by 371%? That’s a major difference.
Use actionable language (like visit our website, order online, register by April 1st, request a copy, or download our guide)
Above the scroll
If you’re asking readers to take action, you need to catch them while they’re still paying attention.
It’s time to determine our actual call-to-action. If we remember the goal of Half Moon Yoga, they really wanted to increase attendance and promote their schedule. What kinds of calls-to-action would be relevant for them? [there is no right or wrong answer, as long as the call-to-action relates back to the original goal. See examples on page 2 of the workbook.]
Calls to action:
If you want to drive traffic, you might ask people to “visit your website”. If your looking to increase your sales/donations, or maybe even drive new or repeat business we’ll ask people to “purchase today”, “schedule an appointment”, or even “donate”.
Think back to the goal you just wrote and look at the examples on page 2 of the workbook. You’ll see some pre-written options and you can also write your own if you don’t find one that fits.
At different points in the life cycle of your business, your goals may change and some of these calls-to-action may be more relevant. Here’s where it’s very important to focus on the top objective you’ve chosen for your organization.
[ Utilize the examples on page 2 to come up with a call-to-action that will generate the best results based on the goal.]
Have you considered where your call-to-action would take your readers when they click?Where do you intend to drive your readers?
The more direct path you can provide to your readers, the more likely you are to accomplish your goal. So when you’re designing your call-to-action, how can you create a call-to-action that is direct as possible?
Well, Constant Contact has tools that allow you to drive your audience exactly where you need them to be. Let me share a couple examples…
For example, if someone says “I link everyone to my website”, ask them how direct their website is to their specific goal.
Do readers have to click more than 2 or 3 times to get to the end result? (ie, they want volunteers, but it takes readers to their info page where they have to download the application, print, fill out, and mail to the location. Is that the most direct route to getting more volunteers? Probably not.)
Have you considered other options besides your website Not everything has to be hosted there, especially if they don’t have the resources to make it happen.
We’ve proven earlier in the session that email + social is the best way to promote a message, so email will be the common denominator in this conversation.
But I want to help you realize that there are tools at your disposal to drive readers to a more direct page to accomplish your goals, which leads us to Constant Contact Plus campaigns.]
Last year, I met Hearts & Tails Animal Rescue who desperately needed volunteers. They had been sending emails to their subscribers where people would click on the call-to-action and be taken to their website where they had find the link to download the pdf form.
The volunteers then filled it out and mailed it or emailed it back as an attachment. Hearts & Tails then needed to manually input all of the volunteer information into their database, which took up a huge amount of man power.
Plus, they had no idea how many volunteers they were missing out on because they started the process and never finished.
When I finally met them, a couple things were very clear: they had a good foundation for their message and an excellent call-to-action, but they hadn’t considered all their options in executing their goal.
By the end of our consultation, I set them up with an online form that would allow readers to click to “volunteer” and immediately enter their contact details and volunteer preferences.
This simple change allowed Hearts & Tails to retain more volunteers by simplifying the application process, not to mention the time they saved by not having to manually enter the volunteer data. They gained 11 new volunteers last year, which was 1 more than their goal!
I’ve also spent some time working with Westin Downtown who runs an annual gala event. They were sending email invitations instructing people to RSVP via email.
Their registration limit was 500 people, so as you might imagine, they couldn’t keep up and things got messy. Registrants didn’t quite know what information to reply with and how to pay for the event.
Employees spent hours and hours speaking with customers, reading reply emails to register, tracking all of the registrations in their excel spreadsheet and then tracking and completing payments using a separate processing tool.
For those of you who run events, which of these challenges can you relate to?
Ultimately, they needed a tool that would automate their event management and provide their attendees with an easy way to register and pay. Instead of driving their call-to-action to an email inbox, attendees went straight to a short form to provide their information, and complete the payment right then and there.
Last year, they sold out all of the tables, 2 weeks before the event.
Offer Coupons!
Here’s another business that I met a few years ago, Boutique on Main. For years, they had been offering coupons in magazines and newspapers in order to drive more sales.
The usage was low, they were targeting thousands of people in their local area, and couldn’t keep track of how many coupons were still floating around.
Part of specifying their goal was really about WHO they were offering their coupon to. By offering it to everyone all the time, they were cheapening their promotion.
A better strategy was to utilize their existing email subscribers who had recently engaged with their messages. I suggested an online coupon to reward regular customers and incentivize them to promote the coupon using social media, which increased their reach to qualified new customers.
[Please complete the “Where does your call-to-action go?” activity on page 2. “On page 2 in your workbook, take a couple minutes to consider the most direct call-to-action based on your goal.” “Are there any examples here that you had never thought of before?”, “Are there any options that you plan to use that aren’t on the workbook?”]
Measuring Success!
At this point, we’ve executed our message. But what good does it do if we don’t follow up to see if we achieved our original goal?
[Are you closing the loop on your marketing goals and strategy. It’s not enough to set a goal, execute, and forget about it. It’s important to measure the results of one goal before moving forward with the next one.]
Have heard the phrase, “If you’re not measuring, you are not marketing”? It couldn’t be truer. Reports are going to help you to determine if you met your goal that we talked about at the beginning of this session.
Depending on your goal, you might use reports like: who is opening your emails, if they’re clicking on your call-to-action, how many people respond to your form or survey questions, how many sign up for your events, pay for your events or even claim or share a coupon.
Using an online marketing service like Constant Contact is going to help you save time and money because we track the actions that your subscribers take.
Let’s take a look at some of the results that our businesses used to measure their success.
Hearts and tails used a form to increase their number of volunteers. By driving readers directly to the online form, Constant Contact automatically recorded all submissions and all the details for interested volunteers. They could compare that end result directly to their goal to determine whether or not they were successful.
The Westin Downtown automated their event RSVP process in an effort to save time and increase event registrants. Constant Contact’s tool allowed them to manage RSVPs, collect event payments, keep track of cancellations, and more.
The Boutique on Main hoped to increase sales by offering a trackable coupon, which allowed them to measure how many coupons were redeemed and shared, without having to manually keep track.
No matter what your organization is trying to achieve at any given time, Constant Contact has the metrics to help you gauge whether or not you achieved your initial goal.
If you didn’t get to where you wanted to be, Constant Contact goes even further to provide you with metrics you need to make better/different marketing decisions for your next message.
Regardless of your end goal, we’ve established email is one of the most effective ways to promote your call-to-action. Not only because of the 90% of people you can reach in the inbox, but also because of the feedback you’ll receive as a sender. By using email, you’ll be able to measure how many people are viewing your message, and how many people are engaging with your call-to-action.
Here you’ll see a variety of metrics you’ll receive, but let’s talk about some of the most important metrics toward reaching your goal and how they can impact your future email marketing decisions.
Opens – this metric is invaluable in helping you achieve your goals because if you’re not getting your audience to open your message, they’ll never have a chance to reach your call-to-action.
First, you’ll want to take a look at the list of people who opened your email, you’ll see the day and time that they opened your email. This is where you’ll look for trends in the day of the week and time of day. This will help you to choose a better time when more contacts are more likely to open your email.
Your subject line is one of the most important factors that affects your open rate, so make it attention grabbing using 5-8 words.
Make sure your subject line is easily recognizable. Your audience should know who the email is coming from. In most cases, this will be your company name.
The industry average for this metric can range anywhere from 8% all the way to 28%. Remember, these are only averages, and they are different for every industry. If your metrics are within this range, you’re on track. But there’s also a great likelihood that your metrics will be higher if you follow the practices we’ve talked about. source: https://support2.constantcontact.com/articles/SupportFAQ/2499?q=industry+averages&l=en_US&fs=Search&pnx=1
Click-throughs – You’ll also know whether your email was engaging and if they find value in the information you are sending. You’ll know who clicked on your link and took the action you requested. To improve your click rate, you want to:
Be sure that your call-to-action is simple, descriptive, and easy for your contacts to understand what you’d like them to do.
Make sure your link really stands out. Ideally, we suggest using a button with a contrasting color to really make it pop.
You may have received a few emails that you didn’t feel like they applied to you, so what did you do with those emails?
You’ll be able to build better relationships and improve results with your customers or members by personalizing content and segmenting your contact list. While you can segment your list based on just about anything you know about the members of your audience, your reports will provide plenty of data to begin segmenting contacts. When you know that a group of your contact list opened your email or even clicked on a specific link in your email, you know that they are interested in that topic, so you’ll be able to save those contacts to their own list and send specific information in the future.
The industry average for this metric can range anywhere from 5% all the way to 18%. Remember, these are only averages, and they are different for every industry. If your metrics are within this range, you’re on track. But there’s also a great likelihood that your metrics will be higher if you follow the practices we’ve talked about. source: https://support2.constantcontact.com/articles/SupportFAQ/2499?q=industry+averages&l=en_US&fs=Search&pnx=1
How To Get Started.
Everything we talked about in today’s session is intended to help you grow your business. Strategies, tips and ideas that you can leave here and try. The good news is, success is well within your reach.
For those of you just getting started, here are your first steps.
Start by writing out the specific goals you want to reach, then you’ll design your call to action and send the message to your target audience to get them to take action. Last, but not least, measure your results so you can keep sending, learning, and making the necessary adjustments with each email.
Depending on your goal, remember to consider a direct route to your call-to-action. It may be your website, but it could also be an interactive page like an online form, or registration page
If you can benefit from a more direct call-to-action and an easier way to manage your marketing, it’s time to consider Constant Contact for more than just email. Constant Contact is committed to helping small businesses and nonprofits succeed in growing businesses. The tools are designed to help you get real results, just like you’ve seen in the examples today.
You might be sending email updates, running your own special offers or deals, or getting online feedback or run an online survey. No matter what you’re trying to achieve, Constant Contact has the tools, knowledge, and experts to help you get there.
I’d love to work with you! You can schedule a free phone call to talk about your goals and I’ll do my best to help get your plan set in motion. I even offer my services to assist and manage your constant contact campaigns. Either way, feel free to contact me anytime via my contact page.
Again, I’m Danna Crawford,
Thanks for joining me and I wish you only the best with your marketing success!
If you received a link to view this page from a “Thank You” email, after registering for one of my live webinars, you are in the right place! If you roamed in from a google search or was sent this page from a friend, it’s okay, everyone is welcome to enjoy the content on this page, aka transcript from the live presentation. NOTE: Subscribe to receive invites to future webinars.
Welcome – Thank you for joining me – My name is Danna Crawford and I’m also known as Power Selling Mom – quick info about me … I’m an authorized local expert with Constant Contact. I’ve been using their service since 2006 and shortly after that I became a Certified business consultant, trained by eBay after being an active seller on the site since 1997 – With my experience of teaching eBay classes and workshops in partnership with the United States Postal Service, Constant Contact contacted me to go through their certification program and now I do webinars and local workshops on the topic of social media and email marketing – Next I became the Development Director for our local Foodbank after a meeting with the board while I was teaching them about fundraising using Constant Contact and eBay, next thing you know they offered me a part time job that I couldn’t resist since I’m passionate about the Cause of feeding America – So those are the three hats I wear, Constant Contact, eBay and First Step Food Bank, Inc. ! You can learn more about me by visiting my website at PowerSellingMom.com or just google my name. NOW, enough about me, lets talk about YOU … and how you can gain more opens, clicks and views on your future email messages.
GROW WITH CONSTANT CONTACT
Let me take just a minute to explain what Constant Contact is for those that may not be familiar.
Constant Contact is a do-it-yourselfonline marketing system. You can use it to create and manage campaigns. The company is best known for its email marketing tools. It’s easy to create and send mass email, like newsletters or announcements and updates. You can run special promotions or offers; you can build online surveys and polls to gather feedback; and you can promote and manage your events using Constant Contact with registration tools, payment acceptance, invitations– all in one place.
All of this is all built on top of a really good contact database, so that you can load all of your contacts, your customers, stakeholders, volunteers, staff, your board – whatever lists you are keeping in various spreadsheets or in your Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo folders can be loaded and organized easily in Constant Contact so that your people and your marketing campaigns are all together in one spot. Oh, and it costs most people between $20 – $75 a month to manage all of it.
First impressions matter. And when someone opens your email, what they see is going to determine what they do next. Chances are you’ll want them to read your newsletters or announcements, and take a next step. Maybe you want them to visit your website, register for an event, donate to your nonprofit, or try a new product. This is where a beautiful, professional-looking email designed to drive action is crucial. People make snap judgments about whether or not to read your emails based on a quick glance. We choose an email message, give it a two-second glance, then decide if it’s worth our time. If it is, we keep it and read it. If not, we hit the delete key and send the email to the trash folder.
That’s why we created a webinar dedicated to helping you make the right impression. We’ll take you through the reasons email subscribers delete emails and how you can design emails that actually work.
I want to show you the difference between a regular email from your own Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo account, and one sent through an email service provider like Constant Contact.
An email from a service provider looks better and gets you noticed – you can use templates to feature your brand’s logo and colors, and include graphics that will capture your readers’ attention. You will get through to your audience. You can use an email service provider to track everything – from who opened your email to how many people clicked on every link. And it allows your recipients to opt out of receiving future messages.
And let’s not forget about the importance of mobile on email. 64% of adults own smartphones and… more than 51% of emails are opened on a mobile device. (source) In some countries, mobile internet usage is even out-pacing desktop internet usage. 64% of American adults own a smartphone . (source) And 52% of mobile owners send or receive email with their device. (source)
So what does this mean for you? Many people are reading their messages – which include your emails – on a tiny screen. And your emails need to look as good in their hands as they do on their desktops.
When you’re creating emails, think about your mobile users. If something doesn’t look good on mobile – readers will delete it.
80% of people will delete an email that doesn’t look good on mobile, and even worse, 30% will unsubscribe if the email doesn’t look good.
Before you send out any email campaign, make sure you send a preview to yourself, so you can make sure it looks good both on a desktop AND a mobile device!
Today, we are going to discuss seven don’ts of email design, and provide you with guidance on how to avoid them.
The 7 Don’ts of Email Design:
1.Don’t forget your branding
2.Don’t use hard-t0-read fonts
3.Don’t use the wrong colors
4.Don’t be disorganized
5.Don’t forget images
6.Don’t forget to make it shareable
7.Don’t ignore mobile
Don’t Forget Your Branding
Your emails should feature an instantly-recognizable, consistent header image such as a logo or a cover photo?. Over time, this image will be associated with the high-quality information you share. Ideally, this email header should relate to the business or product your reader signed up to learn more about.
So, if you own a yoga studio, your newsletter should be visually related to your overall brand, including your logo. That way, your recipients will know that even specialized information is coming from you, a source they know and trust.
The yoga studio’s email on the left uses a logo, but it’s small and doesn’t stand out right away. They also don’t have branding colors that compliment their logo.
This email on the right is a makeover of the one on the left. The logo is large and in the center of the email template. You can easily see the yoga studio’s branding right away when opening this email with their logo, colors and images.
Just like you, the people who read your emails are very busy. So how do you win the battle of priorities and get more people to stop and open your email – or read your Facebook posts and tweets, or share your pin on Pinterest? Think about how you prioritize your own email – or, if you’re on Facebook, think about your newsfeed – you pay close attention to who the message is from.
WHO an email or social media post came from turns out to be the most important part of winning the battle of priorities. So it’s important for you to be recognizable.
You do need to exercise care and consider how you’re identifying yourself across the channels you’re using. Just be sure that you’re consistent with the name you use, your logo, your colors, and images while sending email and posting to social media – and ensure that you’ll be recognized visually, so that ultimately your readers and followers will stop and open your email, read your posts – because they know they’re going to get something of value and relevance from you.
In your email, make sure you’re consistently using your logo and the colors that you use in the rest of your marketing, so that you’re immediately recognizable.
Use great images of your business, products and people, so that your audience can easily connect what your organization does with who you are. We’ll talk more about images in a little bit.
And make sure you use consistent language across all of your marketing so that people will not be confused.
For example, Baked by Melissa does a great job of being consistent with their logo and images across their email, website and Facebook page.
Don’t be afraid to use the same content and images across your email, website and social media posts – the more your organization meets your audience where they are, the more likely your audience is to keep you in mind.
2.Don’t use hard-to-read fonts
Next, we’re going to talk about selecting the right font for your email.
When you’re designing images, think carefully about the fonts that you use. The type you choose can influence thought and behavior. It can support or distract from your message. Your message should be the star, and if it’s cluttered up, or worse, non-legible, because of your choice in font, your message will be lost on your audience.
Another consideration when choosing a font is Serif vs. Sans Serif. Serif fonts are considered to be more traditional and are identified by the small “hooks”
or “curls” at the end of each letter. These are called “Serifs.” Fonts that do not have these are called Sans Serif. Serif fonts are best used in printed material, such as newspapers and books.
When you’re creating content that will be seen online, use Sans Serif fonts because they are easier to read than serif fonts. Try using common fonts such as Arial, Helvetica or Verdana. These fonts are highly legible and compatible with many other less standard fonts.
Choose something that is easy to read and harmonious with the font you use for your brand.
Let’s take a look at some examples. On the left (above), we see a newsletter that has inconsistent fonts, hard-to-read color combinations, poor contrast between fonts and their background colors, text over an image rendering it illegible, too much body copy, poorly sized and positioned images – while the one on the right is quite the opposite. Which one would you rather see in your inbox?
If you use an email service provider like Constant Contact, there are templates you can customize to fit your brand and create clean, easy-to-read emails.
Now let’s talk about the colors you will use in your email.
3) Don’t Use The Wrong Colors!
For your email to look professional and inviting, you have to master color. The biggest color mistakes are choosing ones that are overly bright or florescent. Don’t use too many colors, either. Use a palette with two dominant colors and tone down the rest. Finally, don’t use light text on a dark background. The most readable combination is dark text on a light background.
Let’s compare the emails on the screen (above). The email on the left has too many colors and they’re not branded or complimentary. The email on the right does a much better job with color. It uses a color palette based on the logo, and has some white space so you can clearly read the text in the email.
Color is a key consideration for your visual content. Color catches your audience’s attention and boosts their engagement. Studies have shown that different colors create different emotional responses AND influence customer reactions.
85% of shoppers say color is the primary reason they buy a product.
Color also increases brand recognition by up to a whopping 80%.
It’s not an accident that major social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn use blue as their primary color. Blue happens to be the favorite color of 40% of people worldwide.
Favorite colors can vary by gender, age, region and culture. They can affect moods or feelings and although there may be cultural variations, some colors share universal perceptions, such as red as a “warm” color and blue as “cold” color. Impulse shoppers tend to respond to red, black and royal blue, while navy blue appeals to shoppers on a budget. (Source: June Campbell, https://www.nightcats.com/samples/colour.html)
It’s not an accident that major social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype use blue as their primary color. Blue happens to be the favorite color of 40% of people worldwide.
This color guide (above) can help you decide if one of these colors might be best for your content. You can use this to think about what colors to use in your photos or image designs.
Think about your target audience and use the colors that appeal to that audience. Think about the action you want your audience to take, consider which social networks you are targeting, and choose colors that are the right fit.
When applying color to your design, you should consider color choices that work well together, compliment your brand and project the kind of feeling you are trying to convey. It’s important your message isn’t lost and you reach your readers looking your best. What colors you choose and how you use them can make the difference between looking professional or being marked as SPAM. Some things to watch out for are:
Extremely bright color combinations. It doesn’t matter how many, it doesn’t matter which ones. Using combinations or large areas of intense, pure color is never a good idea. While you may think it will “catch attention”, bright colors are hard to look at, your message will not be read and your email will inevitably end up in the trash. Save the bright colors for small areas, such as buttons or call-to-action elements.
Bright, textured backgrounds. These will distract your readers from your content. They will compete with all the other, far more important aspects of your email and your message will be lost. If you use background textures, they should be subtle, set back and second place to any of your other content.
Too much of anything isn’t good, including colors. Too many colors makes your design “busy” and hard to look at. Try to keep your main palette to no more than 3 colors.
Contrast, especially between your text and the background, is important. Light text or objects on a light background will be lost, as will dark text on a dark background. Keep your message clear and defined by making sure it shows up.
Avoid using color combinations such as red and blue, red and gray, green and red and any other color combinations that are hard to read. Focusing on such color combinations is difficult for the human eye and the content will appear to “wiggle”, causing eye strain. Avoid using black, blue, red, ANY neon colors for background color choices for the same reasons.
Choose colors that are harmonious, reflect your brand and easy on the eyes. Use contrast when placing text against a color, to ensure your message can be easily read.
Color can impact whether or not your email is read or rejected, but did you know that color can also impact whether it even makes it into your customer’s inbox? Just as there are key words that will send an email directly to your SPAM folder, over-use of certain colors can also send your emails to the SPAM folder. For example, extensive use of red in text is considered one of the main “tip offs”*. Red is considered to be a loud color and when it is used excessively in text, it appears it is trying to get the reader’s attention. Since SPAM filters work on a scoring system, and this contributes to the overall score, it furthers the chance that your emails will end up as SPAM. Unfortunately, there are no ways to really know exactly which culprits trigger SPAM filters, but following these basic color theory practices should help keep you in the clear.(sourse: https://www.mailjet.com/blog/psychology-of-colors-in-email-marketing/
Colors are an effective way to make an email instantly identifiable as being from your organization. In our email editor you can easily use your own colors or create your own color scheme.
There are a handful of free tools that can help you match colors by determining their RGB value or their hex value – two kinds of codes that will help you identify and use a specific color.
Color Cop, for PC users, and Digital Color Meter for those on Macs have a color value identifier tool that will allow you to pull an exact color from your website to use in your marketing material. When you go to select the colors for your email, a provider like Constant Contact will allow you to enter the exact values so your colors are perfect matches.
Tools like Color Schemer Online and Adobe Color CC can take you even further, by creating a palette of complementary colors around that primary color.
Now, we’re going to talk about how to use templates to organize your content.
4.Don’t be disorganized.
When a reader glances at your email, they should know right away which information is the most important, what they should look at next, and what’s the least important.
Make this easy for your readers by using large, bold headlines for newsletter’s main topics, but also by using the right template to organize your message. Be sure to pick a template that’s mobile friendly so smartphone readers can easily navigate through your information.
The email you see (above) on the left is not the best fit for the information in their monthly newsletter. It’s also not very mobile friendly because of the column on the right hand side. A single-column template works better for mobile users.
The email on the right uses a well-organized template designed for a monthly newsletter and it’s a one-column mobile friendly template.
This is a list of the types of email campaigns you can send using an email service provider.
Newsletter
Announcement
Product promotion
Fundraiser
Sale
Event
Seasonal
Letter
You should select a template that is appropriate for the message you are sending. After you’ve picked out a template, you can then customize with colors it to match your brand, as we talked about earlier.
Templates make the process of creating and sending emails much easier, while still allowing you to preserve the look and feel of your brand. Here are some examples of how different businesses and a nonprofit use the right email templates for their messages.
A quick note before we take a look at these emails: Now that we’ve talked about a few design best practices, you might notice that not all of these examples follow every best practice we’re going to cover today. What I want you to focus on when you look at these emails is how they’ve used templates that reflect the type of communication they’re sending to their audiences.
First we have Spoilt Rotten Beads (above). They’re a bead and craft store that sells their products online. They use product promotion email templates that allow them to display different items for sale, and images of each of the items are linked to their website. When you click on the products in the email, you can go online and purchase them right away.
2nd email above is email is from a nonprofit, Gorilla Doctors. They send regular emails that include news and information about the organization and fundraising efforts. Gorilla Doctors consistently uses a newsletter template to organize the information they want to share with subscribers.
Third email above is from a business to business, Fogged In Bookkeeping. They used a business letter template when sending out information about tax deadlines to their email lists.
You can start with the right template for your message and be sure to make it your own with your own logos and photos and links. It doesn’t have to be hard to look professional and sharp!
We will talk about images in a minute, but for now, just take note of the balance of images and text in these examples.
Now, we’re going to talk about images – the photos, graphics and video you may use in your email campaign.
5. Don’t Forget The Images.
When I talk about images here, I don’t just mean photography! Images can be graphics, video, photos and word images (like a funny or inspirational quote over a photo background).
You want your images to reflect your brand and look professional. The good news is that most smart phones and digital cameras now shoot very high-quality photos and video, so you don’t need a ton of technical know-how or extra money to create great images by yourself.
Don’t use low-quality images or stock photos that look overly staged.
Look at the images in the email on the left (above). They are professional quality, but the top image has a watermark from a stock photography site. The middle image of the yoga class is too small and it’s stretched out. And the images on the right side are very small and hard to see.
The email on the right has a professional image that’s large enough to see and it does a great job of visualizing the email’s message about yoga classes.
Why are images so important?
Images receive a lot of engagement from your audience. 82% of people pay more attention to emails that have images.
If you need people to do ONE THING, you should consider using a still photo rather than a video, to keep people focused on the physical, measurable result you’re trying to achieve.
You also shouldn’t over-rely on images to get your message across – many email providers, as a default setting, do not automatically show image. You should label your images with text that explains what the image is, in case it doesn’t display. And take advantage of preheader text – the first few lines of an email or the text description of the first image at the top – that will appear if images don’t on a desktop. This text also shows up below the subject line in the inboxes of mobile readers.
A few words of caution, though. I mentioned earlier that you should limit your images – emails with 3 or fewer images get the best click-throughs.
So – what kind of images should you use? Think about what you’re trying to communicate. If you sell products, you should show people what you want them to purchase by using great photos. If you’re a non-profit, you could share photos of your last event or fundraiser. If you’re a B2B, you may want to highlight your employees in action with some good candid photos from your business.
Because not all email providers allow images by default, you shouldn’t use images of your content. What I mean by this is that you should not use a .PDF instead of your email marketing templates – not only will your content not display for many readers, you will not be able to track any clicks to help you strategize for future email campaigns.
Source: 3 or fewer images for highest click through Source: Constant Contact Data Reveals Direct Correlation Between Email Campaign Effectiveness and Number of Images and Text Lines Featured, 2015)
Photos are a frequent and necessary piece for visual content. Sometimes, you may find you need a photo that you do not have or cannot create on your own. There are a variety of online stock photo sites where you can search for just the right photo that fits your needs. They are a great resource and can work well for visual content that’s based around a theme, a tip, a fact or a quote.
When you download a photo, be sure it is the right size or slightly larger! You can always crop it or scale it down, but will lose image quality if you try to enlarge it too much. Remember, you want your image size to be at LEAST, whatever your final image will be. Photos in a one column email template will display at most 600 pixels wide and 200 pixels high for the header image. All other photos in an email will display at most 600 pixels wide, with the height to scale.
It might be tempting, but it’s never a good idea to use just any image you may find through a search, including sample stock photos with the watermark on them.
There can be copyright issues associated with those images; they belong to someone else. When using stock photos, you purchase the rights to use the photo, or in some cases accept a free download and agree to certain credit/conditions. Fees can vary, so shop around for what feels right for you and fits your budget. Here are some services that you can use to get free stock photos!
If you’re a Constant Contact customer, one more tool to find stock photos is available in your Constant Contact account. You have access to free and paid images in your account’s image library through our partner, Bigstock. Purchase images or select free images and add them directly to your account for use in your marketing.
Now, we’re going to talk about making your email shareable across your social media platforms.
6.Don’t forget to make it shareable.
I’m betting that you’ve received an email that includes buttons with the logos for one or more social media platforms, which invite you to click and share the email content through your social media accounts.
This is a really effective way you can grow your reach – emails that include those social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by more than 150 percent!
They also make it easy for your readers to follow you on the various social networks in a single click.
Our email on the left is not shareable (see above). There aren’t any buttons that allow readers to share this email on social media. And, although they did try with a text link on the top for their Facebook page, there are no buttons for readers to click on to follow the yoga studio.
The other email is absolutely shareable, and includes buttons that the audience can use to share it on their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, as well as buttons at the bottom of the message that they can click on to follow the yoga studio on its social networks.
Encourage your audience to share your promotions by using social media tools. This is a really effective way you can grow your reach – emails that include those social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by more than 150 percent!
If you are using Constant Contact, add the Share Bar to the top of your emails – allows your readers to post a link to your email on their social media profiles
Remind your audience to share your promotions – ask them to Like it on Facebook, retweet on Twitter or pin on Pinterest
And add social media buttons that link to your business’ social media profiles. The buttons are a nice visual reminder for them to click and follow you online.
Your audience has a lot of influence via word of mouth, and you can get your promotions in front of more people – their friends and family – if they help spread the word for you
Extend the reach of your emails by using the Social Share tool. Social Share offers a quick and easy way to share an email on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with suggested post messages, images, and the best times to schedule posts based on when your social audience is most active. It also makes it easy to plan social posts for an email with a monthly calendar.
Schedule your Facebook posts in advance, and then Social Share will post to Facebook for you.
Now, we’re going to talk about mobile considerations for your email design.
7. Don’t Ignore Mobile.
Let’s go through some tips to help you make your email look great on a mobile device – something you need to do, because 80% of users will delete an email that doesn’t look good on mobile.
Think about it – do you want to read long and complex messages on your phone? When you’re on the go? No. Which means neither do your customers or supporters. Do you want to read a message like the one on the left? Probably not.
What you want is to see something more like the email on the right: the result of some basic considerations as you build your message.
Start to re-think your content. Long-form content (think newsletters that have more than a couple of short, to-the-point paragraphs) doesn’t work for mobile readers. So look at the content you’re building and start to re-think it. Could it be condensed? Can a picture tell the story better? Can you turn one newsletter into a series by cutting it into pieces?
If you have longer, or more complex content or assets you want to share (like a product guide, or new regulations for your clients or a research report that supporters of your non-profit would be interested in), send an email with a clear call-to-action with a link that directs people to where that asset lives on your website, blog or other resources.
Most of the time you’re going to build emails on your desktop. There are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind in order to make those emails mobile friendly. Let’s see some of those tips I just mentioned in action.
Look at the bottom of this first email (see above) – it’s cut off.
Avoid using too much text. People don’t take the time to scroll through a long email. The shorter the better. That goes for your articles and subject lines – both can get cut off by a mobile device if they’re too long.
Avoid tiny fonts. They’re hard to read and people may not take the time to zoom in and view your entire message.
Avoid multiple columns because they can get cut off or they might shrink to fit, as in this next example. Either way makes your message unreadable.
This email is a great makeover of the don’ts (shown above). You can see that there’s not a lot of text, just enough to get the most important information across. The fonts are large and easy to read. No zooming is needed to view this message. It has a single column – nothing’s getting cut off and everything fits within the phone screen.
We talked about images earlier, and there are some things you should consider with images when you’re thinking about mobile. Images are a great way to tell your story and engage your audience, but they can be distracting and cause your audience to ignore or delete your message if they don’t look good on a mobile phone. Avoid using large images that will get cut off on a mobile screen. Test your emails, and if the images are too big, resize them.
Avoid these mistakes:
Large, off-screen images
Hard-to-find or hard-to-read calls-to-action
Think about your calls to action. Make them easy to read and put them in the top section of your email so people will notice and take that next step. Don’t make people hunt, zoom or scroll.
Your images should be sized to fit a mobile screen – this photo above isn’t cut off and doesn’t take up the entire screen. Also use clear and easy calls to action. In this email, the message is short and sweet. It’s about an event – all the info is right there and a register button is at the bottom. People can decide instantly if this is something they want to do, and take the action right away.
How can you create an email that looks great on mobile? Try building it on your phone! If it works for your phone, it will look great on your customers’ phones.
There are lots of apps that make it easy to build an email with your smartphone. Constant Contact does have an email creation app for your iPhone or Android phone. You can find it by going to the app store and searching for Constant Contact. Apps are more convenient and faster than creating campaigns from your desktop.
You can create your email through touch-based editing right from your mobile device. Then preview your email, send tests and schedule messages for delivery to your list. You also have the ability to keep up with the latest activity with open and click reporting right from your phone. Keep track of who engaged with your campaign and stay on top of your marketing results.
We just covered a lot of information today about email design. What should you do next with it?
We’ve made it easy for you. We took the best practices we talked about, as well as some pro tips and created a checklist. Print this out later on when you get the slides, and use this checklist when you’re designing and sending your next email.
First of all, think about the preview pane. It’s common for email recipients to use the preview pane in their inbox on a desktop, and they’re getting their first look at your email there. If they’re opening your email on mobile, the top section is the first section they see. Maximize the top 2 to 4 inches, keeping all the best practices in mind that we covered today.
The email template you use must be a good fit for the information you’re sharing in your message. What are you trying to communicate? Is it information in a newsletter? A product promotion? A business letter? The right template will organize what you’re trying to convey and make you look professional. The template should also be mobile friendly. Stick to a one-column template that won’t shrink to fit or get cut off by a smartphone screen.
Make sure your branding is visible right away. Include your branding colors. Your logo should be visible at the top of the email, either on the left or in the center. Never on the right side because it can get cut off on a smartphone screen. When you insert your logo, make sure that you include your business name in the text description. Sometimes images aren’t visible by default, based on the recipient’s email service. If that happens, the text will appear instead, and you want your business name to be what they see if your logo isn’t shown.
Speaking of logos and images, make them clickable. People assume that images are linked to a website, so take advantage of that behavior and link your images to allow readers to take the next step. Choose your photos wisely, and don’t overdo it with images. We’ve found that emails with 3 or fewer images will get higher click-throughs from subscribers. Communicate your message through the images you choose. Take your own photos or use stock photography. Size your photos to fit your template. Optimize them by including information about your message in the text description, so it will appear in case the images aren’t automatically downloaded.
Be selective with the content you include in your email. Don’t include any content that isn’t relevant to the message you’re sending in an individual email. Most people do not have the time to read through a lot of extra information. In fact, a recent study we did of our customers showed that emails with 20 lines of text received high click-through rates.
If you have calls to action – like asking people to purchase something, register for an event, take advantage of a sale or coupon, or read an article on your blog – make sure they are above the preview pane scroll line and appear near the top of the screen on a mobile device. Don’t make people search for that key action. Be mindful of the links you use for those calls to action. Don’t just put “click here” when it comes to links in an email. Choose the words you use carefully. Clearly state the value your readers will get when they click on the link. Format your link to stand out, remember that you want it to have enough white space around it and make sure links aren’t on top of one another. More and more people are viewing emails on their mobile device, and if they are unable to click the link they want because it’s too close to another, how likely do you think they are to go back and click the correct link?
Don’t ignore social media in your emails. Make them shareable for your readers and for you. Including a share bar at the top of the email allows your readers to post a link to their email to their social media profiles. Adding social media buttons that are linked to your business’ social media networks can increase your followers because it makes it easy for readers to click and like you. Using the Social Share tools to schedule posts about your email on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn enables you to share your message to even more people.
Now you have everything you need to design an email that looks great in the inbox. You’ll get noticed, and your readers will love receiving your messages. Your emails will help to grow your relationships with your current customers, gain new customers and drive more business.
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Would it be safe to say that email marketing is on the verge of death after the social media and SEO get through? Well, some people may believe this, but in reality, it is not the truth. Wondering why? Because it is unquestionably one of the most advantageous means of marketing that still works.
Whether it is for professional or personal emails, starting an email dialogue is an confidential experience. Email marketing is not like those social media platforms that have nothing to do with the confidentiality, be it B2C or B2B communique.
Comparatively, email marketing offers more opportunities for the business while driving in a better ROI. It even allows you to create a deeper relationship with a wide range of spectators, which is what we need for a better business today. And, how can we forget the abridged costs in this traditional form of marketing?
But, we can’t say that social media is not an effectual tool for marketing. In fact, both of these mediums of reaching the audience are superb. So, how do we use these mediums to get the best results for our business? Well, we have to find a midway to use both of these because leaving out either of them would be harmful for the business.
What if both of these ways are fused together?.
Will it create something unique for us that can also be ultra-profitable for our business?
Why not? When both email and social media are efficient marketing tools, why can’t we use both of them together to reach the top of the marketing ladder? In fact, this fusion will end up in a powerful tool that no one can beat. Many marketing professionals are already using this mix, which has made them the king of the market today. So, how do you actually do it?
Worry not! We have an answer to all your questions that are right now popping up in your mind.
Without much ado, let’s take a look at these answers here!
Make Your Subscribers Feel Special
When you use the mix of both these marketing strategies together, you simply get a boosted business. How? Well, when you have numerous subscribers in an email, simply make a special social media group for them. Being a part of a special group will surely make them feel great about being a part of your organization. By doing this, you are simply building a strong relationship with your subscribers. Plus, you can interact with your existing and prospective subscribers too.
But, hey, don’t think that just making this group will help you. Active participation and different ways to involve your subscribers is what will make your bond stronger with them. You can even plan free giveaways, quizzes, and frequent activities to ensure that all the members stay engaged in all the activities, no matter how busy they are. So, this is how you build a strong customer relationship when you are using both these marketing strategies to market yourself.
Drive Better Social Shares with Email
Do you want all those influential people and blogs to share your valuable content as many times as possible? If you are nodding your head, getting your email content social proof is what you need to do. So, before you are actually sharing any request with any influencer, be sure that you have already shared it many times, and even gained a few likes on it. When you have at least a few likes on the content, your credibility level goes up. So, don’t share such content that has no likes or shares on it yet as it will simply plummet the credibility of your content.
If you are looking forward to your content getting social proof, you can simply include a CTA in the mail, appealing for recipients to make the content viral, as much as they can.
Get into Using Your Social Media Platforms
You can simply use your social media to make boost the number of your subscribers. Simply use Facebook and Twitter ads for driving visitors to emails via sign-ups. And, what all do you have to do in order to do that? Create an ad with enticing content, images, and calls to action, before launching it on these platforms for your fans and followers. You may want to consider hiring a writer who can create something creative to attract the readers. The content must be compelling enough to drive in the viewers.
Another way to rivet the visitors is through offering them an e-book. And, don’t forget to use high-quality images to attract a large number of people.
Re-Target All Your Subscribers on Social Media
Re-targeting ads works like magic! You can simply run a re-targeted ad on your social media including your Twitter, Facebook, or any other platform you are actively using. Running ads that are targeted is a sure shot way to hit a large number of audiences. Start by creating a target email campaign, and allow then re-target the ones who click that ad. You will receive a huge number of subscribers when you follow this trick. Low cost and more brand visibility, what else do you want?
List up All the Subscribers on Social Media
Putting up a face to your email subscribers is perhaps the best thing you can do for yourself. That is how you bring them closer to your subscribers. This is the best thing of having a social media presence; it simply puts a face to the subscribers. And, when they are always seeing your posts that involves them would simply make them happy. So, one thing you can do to keep them loyal is upload a subscriber list to these platforms and engage them in different contests and quizzes. That’s all!
Hence, we can conclude that the marketing becomes better when you fuse both, social media and email marketing in your strategy. Simply connect the email subscribers to those of social media and vice versa. Wait no more; blend both these things together, and see some amazing results waiting to boost your business now.
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