Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged E-Newsletters and Email Marketing
The Continued Value of Email
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
Social networks are no doubt the “sexy” topic of the day for most marketing and promotional people, or just citizens in general. The rush to social media marketing has left some to question the continued value of email communication. What is the current value of sending an email newsletter, for example?
A few facts to consider before declaring the end of email:
First, email is still ubiquitous; almost 100% of Internet users have an email address and check it with some regularity. As mentioned in previous blog posts, this may change at some point in the future, as younger folks switch to other methods of communication, but for the foreseeable future email remains king, especially with business users.
Second, not only is email here to stay, but it’s still the preferred way to distribute information. When sharing a link with a colleague, friend or family member, most people (78%) still report that email is the primary way they would do so.
Social networks are gaining in importance for sure, and may one day overtake email – just as email has largely replaced “snail mail”, or even phone conversations. (The pros and cons of these facts are certainly up for debate, however!)
And finally, email is cheap. Depending on the size of your list, distributing an e-newsletter can cost pennies per recipient. And you control the message and formatting of the communication 100%.
Open Rates
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
There different ways to measure the success of your email marketing or E-newsletter, but the most common and easiest understood metric is the Open Rate. Makes sense. If folks don’t open your message, they can’t be influenced by it!
But what about the simple brand awareness/recognition that you achieve by recipients simply seeing your piece in their inbox? (see, it’s complicated…)
So your open rate is obviously of supreme importance over the long term. It’s the first step towards “conversion”, whatever that may mean to you, and marketing success.
It is also fairly clear that you’ll never achieve a 100% rate, or anything close. Everyone’s time is too short and inbox too full for that to happen. But you shouldn’t spend much time worrying about the specific open rate, anyway. (What?? I thought you said it was vitally important a second ago? Bear with me for a moment.)
The reason the actual number is of limited significance is this: What constitutes a “good” rate? In comparison to what?
There are many different types of communications, both business-to-consumer and business-to-business. Business-oriented lists tend to have higher rates, partly because emails seen in the preview pane of Outlook (a common business email service) count as “opened”. Everyone has a different list profile, too.
If you send to a rented list of 100,000 people, and 10% (or 10,000) view your piece, that could be a smashing success. If however you send to your own personal house list of 50 addresses, and only 10 view your email (20%), you might consider this a failure!
What matters most is when or how your open rate changes from campaign to campaign. An increasing rate says you’re hitting the mark, a decreasing open rate points to a problem.
That said, there are certainly some tricks and tips that our writers have learned to improve open rates over time. We’ll share some of these in future posts to help you improve your rates, too!
The One Thing Your Competition Can't Buy
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
Many companies don’t even realize that their email list of contacts is the most valuable piece of data they own. It provides a low cost and instantaneous communication channel to many of the most important people to their success. And unlike other more traditional marketing, it can provide real-time, measurable results.
You have probably heard that it is far less expensive to keep a customer than to acquire a new one. This holds true for most other groups, associations and non-profits also.
And your email newsletter can help you communicate and stay “top of mind” with current business relationships – and increase retention – while also allowing you to share knowledge and promotions with prospects, too.
It’s all about increasing the lifetime value of your contacts. Remember: Competitors can always buy their way into your market – and match your pricing, your products and services, and even the “look and feel” of your brands or organization.
But the one thing they can’t purchase? Your relationships.
Every E-newsletter you send helps solidify the connection between your organization and your customers, members, participants, clients, volunteers, donors… and even prospects!