Wednesday
Oct212009
E-mail Marketing - Better than a Sandwich-Board Ad
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 5:07PM
Ever walk down a neighborhood street and become surprised to see a sandwich-board sign suddenly standing in your way? It announces the newest coffee-and-donut deal or today's lunch special. If the person placing the sign was a bit more creative, they may have a couple cute words, a maxim, or some humorous pun tied into the store's name. But, back to the question. Did one of these ever surprise you? Why? For me, it's enlightenment of a new store previously hidden from my view. "I've walked this same route to my office for the past 5 years and never knew there was a salon tucked away in that building!" Well David, it's been there all along with or without your knowledge. And frankly, that's where the attraction ends for me. A momentary diversion of my attention. No more.
The Internet is no different. People, like me and my sidewalk example, are moving toward a specific goal. They're checking a news item or searching for home improvement ideas on their lunch break - whizzing past thousands of e-commerce stores and Websites. And just like the hidden salon on the sidewalk, these products are completely out of sight. While these potential shoppers wade through endless search lists and query results to get that breaking news story or a kitchen appliance comparison chart, don't mistake their sole purpose; to find what they started out for - NOT your Website or product. It's foolish to think that just because someone became distracted by your ad that they will end up buying a product from you. To a small business owner's dismay, the thousands of dollars spent for SEO or SEM (Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing) become useless Voodoo. Getting to the top of a search list, while creating visibility to the entire universe, doesn't guarantee a landed sale or even acknowledge that the customer was correctly matched with the given results. It's equivalent to saying, "I'll build the tallest hotel building in the city. Because everyone will see it first on the skyline, my hotel will be more successful." Don't count on it. It's a far too passive approach to stake your entire business on. That said, the hotelier was partially correct. People can't buy something if they don't know it exists. However by actively guiding a pre-selected audience to your specific product creates an exact match, lands the sale, and doesn't force you to endlessly chase search-engine placement.
First to be seen is NOT a differentiator. It just means you spent more money than the next guy. Think of this as picking a parking option outside a ball field with dozens of homeowners hawking their garage space and lawns. Each one waving pennants, flags, and weary goofy hats to get your attention. (I live by Wrigley - we get some doozies!) Yet, one clown with a "$20 easy-out" sign is indistinguishable from the next. It doesn't matter if one of these guys runs into the street to be seen first. You still have to wade through a thousand clowns and guess which one will satisfy your exact preferences. Unfortunately this requires you to drive around until you suspect a winner. Now put the seller's hat on for a moment. If you knew this specifically matched driver was coming down 14th Street and you're parking space is five blocks away, do you buy a bigger clown nose than everyone else and begin running laps between those two locations to get his attention. What if you could know exactly when Jim Specific is going to drive down 14th, say 1:45 PM and you show up at exactly 1:40 PM with the right message and no clown costume. Then off to another exact moment with Sally Particular driving across Oak Street and so on. Remember, you're not selling to everyone. You can't and not everyone wants or needs you to. Just Jim. Just Sally. Why? Because they were already committed to your category of product before they showed up - even if they didn't know you had their specific match. So cancel the juggling classes at clown school and skip the distracting top-of-the-list techniques. Focus on establishing a relationship with a customer already committed to buying within your product category. Better yet, one that knows you. Best yet, one you can pre-select and confirm.
A true sales relationship is no different on the Internet than within brick-and-mortar. Further, the Internet will probably not replace your physical store presence even if it is an effective and complimentary sales channel. Obvious? Maybe. Although business owners, technology companies, and SEO/SEM consultants seems lost on the concept. The proper conclusion is that you don't need to spend thousands of dollars getting to the top of someone’s list or wait passively for a speculative sale. Instead use an easier, affordable, right-sized solution by sending a legitimate e-mail campaign out to your existing customers. "But Dave - nobody reads e-mail! It all goes into a junk mail folder or gets picked out as spam. By the way, isn't mass marketing just as ineffective as SEM and illegal (or at least harassing)?" The answers are: 1) Not true, 2) Maybe but doubtful, and 3) No, not if you do it with a legally acceptable protocol.
To start, these people are already customers so they will naturally expect some communication from you. If you have their e-mail address, use it. If you don't have it, get it. Second, unless they've specifically blocked your e-mail address from their inbox, your message will probably pass through their spam filter without incident. Keep in mind that misleading teasers get caught like "See you at lunch today" or "Your bank account is frozen and requires your immediate attention". This selling technique is nefarious and deserves the spam prison is gets sentenced to. Legitimate messages are never at risk. Moreover (and point 3), you can avoid being flagged as a spammer by providing a legal opt-in/out option on each campaign message. This is a link that allows a customer to remove themselves from future mailings - no questions asked.
E-mail marketing software provides that critical opt-in/out feature. Further, it is template driven, highly customizable, affordable, and safe (it won't show your distribution list to the world – creating more unintended spam). Yet the truest reward is in the numbers. Real, valid statistic sets. Not coincidental happenings mistaken for statistical correlation. For instance, if a user opens the message you get a statistic. If the user clicks within the message, you get statistics telling you where they clicked. In fact, you can choose how each message tells you a "numbers" story about your customers’ habits. Combine this with demographic information (remember - you already know these guys and should have this on file) and you have a valid statistical set that can be polished into a predictive tool. For example, "45% of recipients living in zip code ZZZ opened the message and 95% of those that did open the message made a purchase". Translation: The teaser line didn't land with zip code ZZZ, yet the copy inside the message or the message's timing was spot on for those that actually read it. Try changing the zip code to rule out a flaw in your message or try changing your message to appeal more specifically to zip code ZZZ. Similarly, "77% of male recipients clicked on the blue button while only 15% clicked on the red one even though both buttons were for the same product". Translation: Change the color of all your buttons to blue when sending your future messages to males or experiment with moving all buttons to the same visible area as the blue one. Why? You've statistically proven this works for males within your customer-base. (Please pardon any statistical over-simplifications in these brief examples)
So where do you find an e-mail marketing tool to begin your data collecting journey? Take a look at Express E-mail Marketing from Kenesco as one example (http://www.securepaynet.net/gdshop/blazers/cb_landing.asp?prog_id=366391). It's great and readily provides all the features I've just listed. Although, you will still have to dig into the data to analyze it. Yet once you start, you won't be able to deny the effectiveness of knowing how and why your customers buy.
In brief:
Happy E-mailing,
David Knea
CEO, Kenesco Computing LLC
http://kenesco.com
+1-877-218-1879
The Internet is no different. People, like me and my sidewalk example, are moving toward a specific goal. They're checking a news item or searching for home improvement ideas on their lunch break - whizzing past thousands of e-commerce stores and Websites. And just like the hidden salon on the sidewalk, these products are completely out of sight. While these potential shoppers wade through endless search lists and query results to get that breaking news story or a kitchen appliance comparison chart, don't mistake their sole purpose; to find what they started out for - NOT your Website or product. It's foolish to think that just because someone became distracted by your ad that they will end up buying a product from you. To a small business owner's dismay, the thousands of dollars spent for SEO or SEM (Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing) become useless Voodoo. Getting to the top of a search list, while creating visibility to the entire universe, doesn't guarantee a landed sale or even acknowledge that the customer was correctly matched with the given results. It's equivalent to saying, "I'll build the tallest hotel building in the city. Because everyone will see it first on the skyline, my hotel will be more successful." Don't count on it. It's a far too passive approach to stake your entire business on. That said, the hotelier was partially correct. People can't buy something if they don't know it exists. However by actively guiding a pre-selected audience to your specific product creates an exact match, lands the sale, and doesn't force you to endlessly chase search-engine placement.
First to be seen is NOT a differentiator. It just means you spent more money than the next guy. Think of this as picking a parking option outside a ball field with dozens of homeowners hawking their garage space and lawns. Each one waving pennants, flags, and weary goofy hats to get your attention. (I live by Wrigley - we get some doozies!) Yet, one clown with a "$20 easy-out" sign is indistinguishable from the next. It doesn't matter if one of these guys runs into the street to be seen first. You still have to wade through a thousand clowns and guess which one will satisfy your exact preferences. Unfortunately this requires you to drive around until you suspect a winner. Now put the seller's hat on for a moment. If you knew this specifically matched driver was coming down 14th Street and you're parking space is five blocks away, do you buy a bigger clown nose than everyone else and begin running laps between those two locations to get his attention. What if you could know exactly when Jim Specific is going to drive down 14th, say 1:45 PM and you show up at exactly 1:40 PM with the right message and no clown costume. Then off to another exact moment with Sally Particular driving across Oak Street and so on. Remember, you're not selling to everyone. You can't and not everyone wants or needs you to. Just Jim. Just Sally. Why? Because they were already committed to your category of product before they showed up - even if they didn't know you had their specific match. So cancel the juggling classes at clown school and skip the distracting top-of-the-list techniques. Focus on establishing a relationship with a customer already committed to buying within your product category. Better yet, one that knows you. Best yet, one you can pre-select and confirm.
A true sales relationship is no different on the Internet than within brick-and-mortar. Further, the Internet will probably not replace your physical store presence even if it is an effective and complimentary sales channel. Obvious? Maybe. Although business owners, technology companies, and SEO/SEM consultants seems lost on the concept. The proper conclusion is that you don't need to spend thousands of dollars getting to the top of someone’s list or wait passively for a speculative sale. Instead use an easier, affordable, right-sized solution by sending a legitimate e-mail campaign out to your existing customers. "But Dave - nobody reads e-mail! It all goes into a junk mail folder or gets picked out as spam. By the way, isn't mass marketing just as ineffective as SEM and illegal (or at least harassing)?" The answers are: 1) Not true, 2) Maybe but doubtful, and 3) No, not if you do it with a legally acceptable protocol.
To start, these people are already customers so they will naturally expect some communication from you. If you have their e-mail address, use it. If you don't have it, get it. Second, unless they've specifically blocked your e-mail address from their inbox, your message will probably pass through their spam filter without incident. Keep in mind that misleading teasers get caught like "See you at lunch today" or "Your bank account is frozen and requires your immediate attention". This selling technique is nefarious and deserves the spam prison is gets sentenced to. Legitimate messages are never at risk. Moreover (and point 3), you can avoid being flagged as a spammer by providing a legal opt-in/out option on each campaign message. This is a link that allows a customer to remove themselves from future mailings - no questions asked.
E-mail marketing software provides that critical opt-in/out feature. Further, it is template driven, highly customizable, affordable, and safe (it won't show your distribution list to the world – creating more unintended spam). Yet the truest reward is in the numbers. Real, valid statistic sets. Not coincidental happenings mistaken for statistical correlation. For instance, if a user opens the message you get a statistic. If the user clicks within the message, you get statistics telling you where they clicked. In fact, you can choose how each message tells you a "numbers" story about your customers’ habits. Combine this with demographic information (remember - you already know these guys and should have this on file) and you have a valid statistical set that can be polished into a predictive tool. For example, "45% of recipients living in zip code ZZZ opened the message and 95% of those that did open the message made a purchase". Translation: The teaser line didn't land with zip code ZZZ, yet the copy inside the message or the message's timing was spot on for those that actually read it. Try changing the zip code to rule out a flaw in your message or try changing your message to appeal more specifically to zip code ZZZ. Similarly, "77% of male recipients clicked on the blue button while only 15% clicked on the red one even though both buttons were for the same product". Translation: Change the color of all your buttons to blue when sending your future messages to males or experiment with moving all buttons to the same visible area as the blue one. Why? You've statistically proven this works for males within your customer-base. (Please pardon any statistical over-simplifications in these brief examples)
So where do you find an e-mail marketing tool to begin your data collecting journey? Take a look at Express E-mail Marketing from Kenesco as one example (http://www.securepaynet.net/gdshop/blazers/cb_landing.asp?prog_id=366391). It's great and readily provides all the features I've just listed. Although, you will still have to dig into the data to analyze it. Yet once you start, you won't be able to deny the effectiveness of knowing how and why your customers buy.
In brief:
- Visibility is critical for sales. A sandwich-board might get momentary attention while confirmed statistical information is money better spent and avoids a wasted message sent to a non-interested audience.
- You won't change the category of a buyers purchase. Remember - they committed to buy long before you showed up. Knowing this, your immediate goal should be to stand in front of only those buyers committed to buying in YOUR industry category. Then guide them into your specific company/product/item.
- Don't hitchhike in the top-of-the-search-list spot and expect a passerby to pick you up and purchase your bottled water for sale. It doesn't matter how big your thumb (think ad-square) is. After all, they may have been searching for beach-front property not drinking water and picked you up by mistake! Hitchhiking (and loitering) is for amateurs.
- Use your existing customers. They're motivated. They already trust you. Now increase your visibility toward the category of goods they already purchase and guide them into a consistent, lasting relationship.
- Do it legit. Use a tool like Express E-mail Marketing from Kenesco (http://kenesco.com) to avoid the Internet police and help us all curb the plague of spam. Then craft an honest teaser that's true to your product and statistically analyze the resulting customer patterns.
Happy E-mailing,
David Knea
CEO, Kenesco Computing LLC
http://kenesco.com
+1-877-218-1879
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