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4 Email Ideas to Improve Your Sales

2012-02-01T22:25:55Z

Too many emails are short on pertinence and benefit copy. This reduces sales for many emailers. But other problems persist. These four recommended modifications to your email activities will improve your results as you implement them.

Limited space constrained the list to four areas. So please add your comments once you have read this post to add your own.

1. Don't send sales messages, sell benefits. Otherwise your email becomes spam to the recipient. It also diminishes your brand.

If you're looking at a new product or service, what appeals to you more? "Our software leads the industry, so you should consider our product." Or "Our software does not require a manual to use, cuts 50% off of the time you normally spend on administrative duties and provides templates for nearly every letter, email or contract you will need in your business."

Or better yet, create three emails featuring each one of the above benefits using testimonials and other evidence that support your message.

Keep the message focused on solving a prospect's or customer's problem. Some call this consultative selling.

2. Control your email volume. Use a CRM system to make sure you balance the frequency and content of all of your emails sent to each prospect and customer.

Build your reputation with your recipient by helping them with useful information even if feels like you are taking time away from selling. In fact, by helping your contacts you are demonstrating that you care about them and understand that you make money only when you solve their problem.

Make sure you have a compelling reason to contact the prospect. That is, do not send an email when the only apparent winner is the company rather than the recipient.

Here are a few turn offs.

- Duplicate emails.

- Emails that come out of the blue from individuals or companies the recipient never heard of.

- Emails offering products and services that the recipient has no proven interest in

- Emails from companies where the recipient made an inquiry or a purchase 2 plus years ago.

- Emails that proclaim something is free when it isn't. In my book, even leaving that impression is a lie and brands the organization as hucksterish.

- Emails that makes the same offer repeatedly believing that email volume will somehow win the day. In the process, you just burned your bridge with the abused email recipient.

We used to say that in telesales, smaller is better. This means that more carefully culled prospect lists that are pre-qualified are more cost effective than bombarding the entire market with ineffective calls to poor prospects. In the same way -- for email less is better. Make every email you send count.

Email messaging is inexpensive, but the toll on your long term effectiveness can cost you a bundle in lost sales if you abuse your email privileges. Don't use a scorched earth policy on your prospects. You will loose in the long run.

3. Know your value proposition. In other words, answer the recipient's obvious question about why he has a problem and how your product or service will solve it. Not only that, demonstrate how you can solve his problem better than your competitors.

Of all the weakness in email (and all advertising for that matter), the lack of clarity on the company's value proposition kills sales. A powerful value proposition represents your elevator speech. It's focused, clear and addresses your most powerful selling weapon.

Here are a few examples listed in Tim Berry's post entitled: "An effective marketing strategy requires focus."

- Michelin Tires: Offers safety-conscious parents greater security in tires, at a price premium.

- McDonald’s Restaurants: Offers convenience-oriented eaters fast meals at competitive prices.

- QuickBooks: Offers user friendly, dynamic accounting software at an affordable price point for small businesses.

4. Include a call to action. Most emailers are getting good at this. But please give your prospects a reason to call, click on your landing page or respond to your email. Direct marketers call this "the offer."

Other than the demand for your product value proposition and the quality of your list, the most important predictor to response is the offer.

As examples, here are a few weak offers.

- To find out more, click here

- Call us for more information

- Please complete your profile

- See us at a store near you

Strong offers.

- Click here for a free demo and a 90 day free trial if you respond by February the 21st.

- Register for the DMA Fall conference by August 1 and get a $500 discount

- Get landscaping design for $300 (a $1,200 value) if you set it up prior to the planting season by March the 15th

There are numerous other issues we could talk about to strengthen your email program. But if I leave you with nothing else, please treat your email program as a gift from your prospect that you should never take for granted. Carefully evaluate each email to make sure your prospects and customers are interested in the subject and will respect you more each time they receive one of your helpful and pertinent emails. If you do, then you will see your open rates improve and your bottom line grow.

Sloppy Marketing Weakens Email Effectiveness

2012-01-13T22:25:00Z

In just a few short years, email revolutionized marketing. Yet email abuse, spam and sloppy email marketing practices have reduced its effectiveness.

As a result, I routinely pass over email as a viable acquisition channel.

Only double opt-in email sent to customers offers sufficient revenue to warrant attention. There are exceptions, as always. But unsolicited mass delivered emails to prospects often work to the detriment of the advertiser's reputation and bottom line.

As Reggie Brady writes (a recognized authority on the email channel) in her recent Target marketing article entitled "E-commerce Link : Don’t Tarnish Your Reputation!".

"Email deliverability is still a major challenge for marketers… The newest wrinkle is that user behavior can affect deliverability—particularly for consumer mailers.

Many ISPs now calculate a mailer's reputation based on how many email messages are opened and/or clicked. If too many recipients do not open or click, your email may be routed to a bulk folder even if you are white-listed. Conversely, even if you've had higher spam complaints, your email may be delivered to the primary inbox if your opens or clicks are strong".

The government, ISPs and spam filter developers are all working to reverse the tide. But spam and spammer ingenuity continue to grow. In this environment, emailers struggle to keep their noses above the water line.

Other than spammers, the worst offenders are the companies that send their emails indiscriminately or too frequently. Their sloppiness reduces the email channel's potential for all of us.

The best email strategy is the same strategy for all marketing efforts. Marketers should carefully consider the impact of their marketing decisions on the customer first. If they do so, customers will reward them with repeat sales and loyalty.

Is It Data Overload or Lack of Vision?

2011-12-05T23:12:43Z

Marketing technology explodes. Virtually every customer interaction is captured in the Cloud. Customers expect companies to make relevant messages based on their buying habits with their favored brands. Yet many companies fail to grant customers what they want most -- recognition that they are a valuable customer to the company.

In a recent post at Customer Intelligence Blog, Tony Coretto writes the headline: "IBM Study Reveals CMOs Unprepared for "Data Explosion".

As businesses become more sophisticated in capturing data on every facet of the customer interaction, they’ve accumulated an enormous treasure-trove of information. However, as this study reveals, in most cases they don’t know what to do with it!

Heck. I'd be happy if retailers and other large businesses even bothered to maintain a customer database and used the tracking capabilities offered by their present POS vendors.

Why do so many companies lag behind the technology, tracking and data gathering process? And even if they do stay on top of the technology, they have failed to develop the talent and resources needed to turn analysis into action!

In my view, the future belongs to marketers who master the dashboard and know what to look for when analyzing the available data. These same marketers also know how to work closely with the CIO and CEO to break down the silos that make data gathering and its translation into action possible.

We must become ruthless in our zeal to help our clients and the companies we work for break away from making decisions based on what was done in the past. Great marketing decisions are founded on customer buying behavior.

But I think the real reason more companies have not grasped the power of customer intelligence to treat customers like, well... customers resides squarely in the hands of the CEO. Without a great CEO, a potentially great marketer stands little chance of making great contributions to the company.

The business vision should not revolve around operations, money management, acquisition, or European expansion. As important as all of these things are, they pale in comparison to the importance of creating many happy customers.

As the late Peter Drucker said:

...the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.

Clients Shoot Themselves in the Foot

2011-11-23T20:50:49Z

Have you ever interviewed a prospective client only to find that they think they know what their problem is but they really don't?

Agreeing to the principle that understanding the problem is the first step to solving it does not work -- unless we realize that it applies to every problem.

Here's a good example of what I mean.

A leading competitor and founder of the idea that a lot of people want cash now for their settlements was no longer number one in the market. J.G. Wentworth was taking over the market from my prospective client. They brought me in saying that their direct mail was no longer generating sufficient leads to keep up with their younger competitor companies and wondered how I might help.

We went through my questions and theirs trying to nail down what needed to be done to compete with their direct mail program.

They showed me their direct mail packages, list selection criteria, results over the last few years and readily answered my questions. They also listed their foremost competitors.

I went back to the office and contemplated what we should do to reverse the tide.

Their in house direct mail was weak and the results reflected it. They believed this was their biggest problem and that correcting it would get them back on course.

Unfortunately, the client failed to look at the big picture of what was happening. Their competitors were taking their business away with multi channel strategies such as DRTV, direct mail, digital and every known medium was explored and used heavily.

So I returned proposing a full solution including testing other channels -- especially DRTV -- as well as bringing additional talent to bear on their direct mail program.

They decided instead to hire a freelance copywriter to work with their in-house copywriter to improve the creative product. Never mind that the freelancer was not even a direct response specialist.

But I mentioned that this did not scratch the surface of what needed to be done to increase their growth and slow down their competitors as needed to recapture their lost market share.

This prospective client responded by saying that no, they knew what the problem was and countermanded my recommendation for testing DRTV. They had tried it several years ago and they could not make the numbers work.

This event happened three years ago and J.G. Wentworth's DRTV program has grown unabated.

I never was able to help my prospective client compete with J.G. Wentworth. Why? They had the money, the infrastructure and everything else except an open mind.

They failed to look at the big picture and made the false assumption that J.G. Wentworth did not know what they were doing.

The take away here is to never make the assumption that you have the problem nailed down without an objective and knowledgeable outside voice chiming in. Spend money and thought on what the problem is and season it with a heavy dose of objectivity and humility.

How Do We Overcome Corporate America's Skepticism about Advertising and Marketing?

2011-11-02T23:14:23Z

This is a tough subject, because it is multi-faceted.

To begin with, as a direct marketing consultant I face client skepticism about marketing almost every day.

Many companies have spent a lot of advertising dollars that did not yield the revenue they needed or expected. So they draw conclusions about what caused the failure.

Some will never touch Pay Per Click with Google again because it didn't work. Or direct mail doesn't work. Or we tried outbound telemarketing three years ago and we found that it just cannot deliver the ROI we need.

More often than not, the marketers they hired did not know how to develop the value proposition, lacked objectivity or knowledge to create multi media strategies, or they simply planned and implemented the test incorrectly.

The bottom line -- marketers come with varied backgrounds and poor training. So that skepticism is valid.

In turn, I do not readily believe what clients tell me about the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives. Nine times out of ten, they either did not track the response correctly (or at all) or structure the effort as a test from which an analyst could draw reliable conclusions.

But to be truthful, marketing as practiced by most practitioners lacks discipline. So our reputation is well earned.

The process for achieving success in direct marketing is well documented. But few marketers and clients understand the considerable contributions the direct marketing strategy as a whole will bring to their business.

And unfortunately, the shrinking pool of expertise in this area makes my job more difficult because of the resulting skepticism brought about by inexperienced marketers and the growing number of new media platitudes that are propagating unchecked in the trade press and blogesphere.

A March, 2011, Advertising Age addressed one of the primary reasons why expertise and passion for marketing may be in decline.

The article, "Left to Fend for Themselves, Employees Feel No Loyalty to Agencies," the author reports on a speech given by global CEO Andrew Bennett of Havas' Arnold Worldwide.

Why is this an important issue?

For one, the advertising industry remains a primary breeding ground for CMOs and other marketers. And secondly, the article begs for a reason why this is so.

Note this from the article:

As for training, employees said they generally had to essentially train themselves, or figure out many aspects of their jobs on their own. According to the survey, there was a large disconnect between what employees and managers are saying in terms of training: 90% of employees said they learned by figuring out problems on their own. Conversely, 25% of execs said employees figured out their own issues. "The average Starbucks barista gets more training than the average communications employee."

Lack of training is the symptom and not the reason for the dearth of marketing talent. This lack of talent development comes from a focus on short term profits that favors shareholders rather than employees and clients. Furthermore, this trend exists throughout the whole of American industry and not just with agencies.

Most interesting, however, were comments from readers reacting to the article.

Training your people is not an elective, Business is getting harder, clients are becoming more senior, and agency people are more unprepared than ever before to address increasngly complex marketing challenges. ROBERT SOLOMON NEW YORK, NY

Agency staff are getting younger, less seasoned, and are virtually untrained. Some manage to find their way, others don't." Jamie Harding Birmingham, AL

The publicly held holding company model essentially destroyed the large agencies they hold. In order to constantly increase earnings per share, and satisfy large clients desire to hold down costs, the holding companies must reduce cost of goods sold (talent) to increase margins. The holding companies are trying to "save their way into growth" and this has never worked in the past. CHARLES LARSON INDIANAPOLIS, IN

So how do we overcome Corporate America's Skepticism about advertising and marketing?

Like most big problems, it begins and ends with stronger leaders and better trained employees. Those who benefited from mentors, company training and strategic vision need to hand their knowledge down to the next generation. Those endowed with a passion for marketing excellence need to continue to grow and share that growth with others at every opportunity.

Fortunately, many of you are teaching in universities, training corporate staffs and mentoring future leaders. We need you more than ever.

The Internet is Dead

2011-10-19T18:12:39Z

The Internet with all of its shine and glamor is dead. Now marketers are back again doing the important things with more energy than ever. Tracking results, understanding customers and testing for the best ROI.

The Five Things to Consider Before Hiring a Marketing Consultant

2011-09-18T22:34:49Z

You may be looking for a marketing consultant now or some time in the not too distant future. How do you find one? And once you do, how do you qualify them for your project or specific marketing challenge?

The first step is to organize your thoughts and lay out the task at hand. Once that is done, then the job of finding a consultant becomes second nature. You ask your business friends and other contacts if they know of someone who might best help you with your project. Or even a web search can quickly round up some likely candidates.

Look them up on LinkedIn for credentials and referrals, do an Internet search and start the process of culling down the filed to those who can do the exact task you have in mind.

But what I have found is that most successful projects begin with good planning on the client's part. So the rest of this post deals with helping you, the company in need of a consultant, prepare for a successful search

1. Determine what you want a consultant to help you accomplish.

You obviously want them to help you achieve your sales goals. But that is far too general. So get as specific and quantitative as possible.

For example, we have determined that we need to increase sales by 10% in the following target market over the next 12 months for a total of X. We have X dedicated sales people who need a lead flow of 2 appointments per week with a sales conversion rates of 20% for X number of new customers.

All objectives whether big or small should specify volumes if at all possible. Otherwise, how are you determining whether the consultant or your decision to spend the money worked?

Determine what success is before you enter into a contract relationship with a consultant.

Other legitimate objectives might be to make it easier for people to find your website or improve the effectiveness of your existing programs. But again, you should determine this as far as possible before you begin your search.

2. Help yourself and the consultant by defining your perfect prospect

If you have a business to business market, define your perfect prospect. Who makes the final decision? Who are the decision influencers in a typical prospect company? What industries are you most interested in attracting as new customers? How many employees do they have? Are they startups? New companies? And so forth.

For business to consumer, give the marketer a feel for who your best customers are, where they live and something about their demographics and lifestyles.

This gives the marketer critical information about how to approach your challenge.

3. Evaluate the marketing consultants based on the questions they ask during the initial interviews.

Are they results oriented? Are they interested in making money for you? Do they ask penetrating questions about your business, your customers, your prospects and your competitors?

4. Are they objective about their recommendations?

My first comment to this heading -- is that even possible?

MarketingZone.com says: "You want them to be 'marketing tactic neutral' meaning that the person understands and appreciates all the different marketing tactics (email marketing, direct mail, advertising, PR, trade shows and events, social media, online marketing, web sites)."

But I've found marketers tend to recommend what they know best.

I have yet to find a marketer with 100% objectivity. All are influenced by past experiences of what worked and what didn't. And no two marketers come with the same backgrounds or experiences.

So what do you do?

It helps if the client has some idea about what they want to do to accomplish their objectives. That's why preparation prior to looking for a consultant helps so much. As the marketing consultant searcher, you know what you are looking for.

Do you want to sell primarily over the Internet and believe your ultimate sales goals can be achieved by maximizing your website, then look for a Search Engine Marketing (SEO) specialist to help you build your Internet reputation and organic search.

If you have a highly defined decision maker in specific geographies that are targetable, then you should consider a direct response specialist to help you generate leads and sales from them rather than waste money trying to build awareness.

PR, image advertising, Search Engine Optimization, direct marketing, sales promotion and so one are all valid approaches, but marketers who know all of these areas equally do not exist. Nor will they all recommend the same approach.

5. Should you elect a consultant with specific industry expertise?

Not necessarily. I would focus first on someone who has the marketing expertise you need.

Selecting someone with specific industry expertise does have some benefits.

The upside is that they know the regulatory and competitive environment or other quirks about the industry. This could make them more efficient in some cases.

Consultants who sell vertically within the same industry makes some clients uncomfortable. They can take what works well for one competitor (and that may be your firm) and duplicate it across the board if it is transportable. If it's not, then why hire them in the first place?

Another problem is that vertical marketing specialists tend to bring inbred marketing ideas with them rather than cross-pollination from multiple industries.

More important is to hire a marketing specialist who may have little to no experience in your specific industry, but brings depth in the specific marketing specialization you have identified as a need.

Asking a marketing generalist who knows your industry inside and out to handle your direct marketing program will likely not do nearly as well as a direct marketing specialist with no comparable industry experience to handle the same program.

Marketing expertise trumps industry expertise when it comes to marketing.

What other things should clients consider before looking for a marketing consultant?

The Difference Between General Advertising and Direct Marketing

2011-09-08T23:25:14Z

In effect, general advertising is truly an indirect selling strategy as opposed to direct marketing

Maxing Out Your Fundraising Direct Response Program

2011-08-24T20:33:48Z

This is a question both fundraisers and commercial businesses have asked for years. The answer is complex and there is no simple answer. So here is a check off list to help improve fundraising ROI or target universe penetration.

Direct Marketing Principle: Retention Begins with Acquisition

2011-07-11T21:38:21Z

A number of years ago I was interviewing for what I thought was my dream job until the hiring manager made this statement.

"Whatever you learned as a direct marketer 10 years ago has no value today."

It was then clear that he did not understand that the scientific methods and principles gleaned over the years by direct marketers do not change. They only apply to different circumstances.

From time to time, I will elaborate on some of these undying principles that impact the ROI regardless of the channel used.

Ignoring these principles magnifies your losses due to the complexities brought on by today’s multichannel strategies.

About twenty-five years ago, I learned a valuable lesson about retention from the credit card industry.

At that time, credit cards were beginning to proliferate the landscape. Every store, airline, bank and consumer business wanted its customers to use their card.

Billfolds were bulging with ten or more credit cards. It was more than consumers could deal with. They gradually began to use only three or four cards ignoring the others in their possession. Even high value offers no longer worked as they once did to incite card use.

My client at the time had over 800,000 accounts but only 300,000 had used their cards to purchase products from them. They were concerned that the card applicants were not using their card.

We tested multiple offers to encourage repeat use of their credit card. After two years, we had spent a lot of money while generating little incremental card use or income. We managed to increase use by about 10%, but there was no repeat business to speak of when the special offers ceased.

So we decided that we could not solve the problem with offers or membership schemes.

We began to realize that these credit card holders had simply completed an application to get their card. So how could we solve this problem and earn repeat card usage?

We then tested offering a new card by charging a small up front fee in exchange for special discount notices and other exclusive membership offers. We believed the up front fee was a harder sell than a free card, but charging a fee attracted a more loyal audience who knew that their small up front fee offered special member benefits.

After some time it became clear that these cards holders were not only customers but were now credit card customers as well.

This solved the retention issue and card usage increased dramatically.

What did we learn? We learned that customers must pay something to demonstrate their commitment to the card.

The principle is clear. Get some form of commitment from your customers up front to retain them over the long term.

This same principle applies to fundraising. Donors who initially give $5 through the mail rarely give more than once. They have no lifetime value.

Those giving $10-$20 or more are much more likely than $5 donors to give again.

Customers who make their initial purchase based on a deep sale or contest entry have little long-term value. Poor retention becomes an albatross around your neck.

Understanding and applying this principle will keep you from building a house of cards

So that is why retention begins with acquisition.

What is your experience with this in your direct marketing efforts?