Drip Marketing is Here!

Always wanted to create a series of emails to be delivered to the right contacts at the right time?  Want this series to be intelligent enough to send marketing messages based on previous actions?

Now you can – announcing Swiftpage Drip Marketing

Drip Marketing blends simple functionality, like the ability to automatically send a sequence of marketing messages to a contact that fills out a form on your website, with intelligent technology that will send different messages to contacts based on their previous actions. For example, send a postcard to those that did not open the previous email – automatically!

Every Swiftpage account receives a free version of Drip Marketing while full functionality versions begin at $29.95 per month.  Automate your Sales and Marketing processes with Swiftpage Drip Marketing.

More than Open and Click Rate

Open and Click Rate are a nice metric for us marketers to look at – but as we become more sophisticated in digital marketing and the technologies we use keep up with this thought process, open and click rate become not good enough in themselves.

You received a 38% open rate on Email A and a 32% open rate on email B sent to the same group of contacts – Great, you know which subject line and content matter resonates best with that group – but what’s the next action?

You received a 5% click rate on Email A and a 7% Click rate on email B sent to the same contacts – Awesome, you know what Call to Action and language resonates best with this group – but what’s the next action?

you, as a marketer, think like a marketer and think about how to squeeze better response out of the next blast or campaign.  You need to break out of your marketing only mode and think about what these results mean to the sales team?  What technologies or processes can you put in place that turns this 38% open rate and 5% click rate into 123 hot leads, 250 warm leads and 75 dead leads?

As a Swiftpage user, you have the technology and we’ve built tools to help you with the processes – When building your next campaign or email blast, think about how to boost lead qualification, not just open and click rate.

Columbus Brings it Home

Christopher Columbus discovered America and today he discovered that the holiday season is upon us. In just over three weeks Halloween will be in full swing, kids will be running around with pitchforks, totally wired and over-served with sugar. But why not? It’s a hoot.

So, this all means that the time is now to get your team in gear and have your holiday marketing and email marketing strategies on the cusp of execution. Within the next two months we will be enjoying more than a handful of major holidays, where everyone is in the buying mood and happy, full of merriment and cheer. So, why not take advantage of that in a pleasant and reciprocal fashion by communicating how you and your organization can truly benefit your customers. Not how you think you can benefit them, but how they can truly appreciate and need what you have to offer.

My advice is to take your pick and really focus on one particular holiday – Not all of them, there are far too many in such a short period of time. So, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Christmas, and New Years. Take your pick, put in your time to create an excellent campaign and get results.

Email and Survey Uses

What types of things are you using email for?  Likely you are sending promotion information and newsletters if you are reading this blog, but how many of you are using email to drive webinar registrations, conference call invitations, distributing whitepapers or sending out event invitations?

Email paired with a survey tool  can provide an extra depth of knowledge for you and your team.  Host a webinar or conference call on industry best practices and let your contacts know via email.  If the call to action in the email is a sign up form, you have the ability to gather extra pieces of data that you may not have know about your customer.

If you are able to offer a whitepaper, give it away for free in exchange for information.  Ask the right questions, like “Of our newest product, what feature has the largest impact on your business?” and you’ll learn how to better segment your contacts for more relevant future communications and ultimately drive more revenue as you offer more relevant solutions to your contacts.

Email in a Design Portfolio

I came across an interesting article today that is aimed at the creative shop that is looking to expand their current service offerings. The main points.

You can already do it
It complements your current services
It’s a new and recurring revenue stream
It works

4 reasons why web designers should offer email marketing as a service

10 Ways to Boost Your Email Marketing

Extra Extra!
Keep your subject lines to 45 characters or less, mention your brand and reference something in the actually body of the email.  It should read like a headline in the Times.

I hate advertisers!
Use your personal email address as the “from” address when sending campaigns.  No one wants to read email from adverstising@xyzcorp.com.

Testing schmesting – Who needs to test?
Test everything you can think of until you achieve the results you are looking for, then keep testing to blow away your numbers. 

List: Subject lines, time of day, imagery, links, copy, geographic location, day of the week, and more

Mmmmm Spam
Run a test email through a spam check tool before you send to your campaign list.  Spam checks will see flags in your email that may tip off spam filters.  Swiftpage has one – http://www.swiftpage.com/spamcheck

Prepare yourself for landing
Use email as a means to drive your contacts to a landing page.  You’ll know more about what they are interested with insight into which links they clicked in the email.

More action than a Bruce Lee film
Make your call to action (“Learn More”, “Buy Now”, “Free Trial”) prominent and above the fold.  Your contacts should be able to open their email and know exactly what to do to take action.

Be one of the cool kids
Get added to your contacts “Safe sender” address book.  When they sign up to receive email from you remind them during the sign up process to add your sending address to their personal whitelist.

Tighten up that waistline
Create campaigns for the inbox by limiting width of HTML templates to 600 pixels at a maximum and design for your main information or index to be the first thing your contact reads.

Building blocks are fun
Build your list and capture names and email addresses by giving away something free.  Write a great whitepaper or article and have people give you their contact information before they receive it.

Slow and steady wins the race
Be persistent and consistent with your email marketing campaigns.  Send on a scheduled basis and your contacts will learn to look forward to your messages.

Promotions

We at Swiftpage put together a package of monthly promotions to test offer effectiveness in different marketing channels. We test through keywords, affiliates, of course email, reselling partner channels, etc…

Seth reminds us about the importance of rotating our crops. Are you throwing the same promotions at your potential and current clients? At this exact moment, how many specials do you have running? How many times have you used them before? Are they worded the same? Something to think about as you go into the weekend.

I couldn’t make a post on promotions without giving one – Swiftpage Special

What’s Your Phone Style?

Have you ever noticed how a phone conversation can change simply by your posture or environment? I caught myself walking around the office while I was on the phone yesterday and thought about why and more striking, when I do this.

Three examples:

When I’m on business development calls, brainstorming or pitching ideas, I’m standing or walking around. It opens my mind for creativity, helps me listen and react on the fly.

When presenting, speaking, or hosting a demonstration over the phone I find myself sitting forward with my elbows on my knees. It makes me focus and stay on task.

When I’m taking personal calls my feet are on the desk, I’m leaned back in my chair and often watching the jets take off from the municipal airport I can see outside my window.

How do you think this type of positioning changes my tone? Is my tone over the phone more creative and welcoming of ideas when I stand, more commanding and serious when I sit and lean forward or more relaxed and comfortable when I lean back? You know this makes an impact on the other end of the line and can lead the conversation in one way or another.

What are some of your “on the phone” characteristics? Say a big client just rings in and catches you off guard, what does your body do to prepare you for what they might say?

Service

I was one of a few presenters at a sales forum in New York last week and was able to speak upon the benefits of email marketing and how to fit it into the sales cycle. Something that struck me as odd is what the moderator brought to light with a simple question. He asked the attendees what their distinct advantage over their competition was. (Mind you much of their competition was in the same room – This was a software sales forum) Time after time I heard “service” – “We have superior service” – “Our clients love our service”. There was only one answer of “We provide a unique custom development opportunity that is unmatched by our competition”

Shouldn’t great service be expected – Not a distinct differentiator?

If your product really sings for your customers, wouldn’t they overlook a blip in service. I’m not saying don’t service your customers, it’s important and worth putting serious effort into, but when you are positioning your company in a competitive marketplace you should wow potential customers with your product excellence and by having the exact solution they were looking for. You can provide all the great service in the world, but if your product needs more servicing than using, you may be missing the point.

Email in the Sales Cycle

As a part of your sales cycle which often involves multiple touches and multi mediums, where does email fit in and how should it be used?

By beginning with email marketing, you immediately have a leg up in profiling your contacts and forming groups of who is most interested. Email is trackable unlike any other touch point in the sales cycle. It is rather simple to get a good look of who is most interested out of the 500 people you are targeting.

As you continue reaching out to your group, the uninterested contacts begin to filter out and your qualified contacts are made more apparent. This is another fitting place in the cycle to include email. Send that last piece of information that may cause your lead to take a buy decision and track exactly what they do with your content. Compare this to your other hot prospects and you will have an even better idea of who you should contact first.