Improving your email open rate

Getting your clients and prospects to read your emails isn't the first thing you should be worrying about. How good is your deliverability and open rate? In this article by Karen Gedney she profiles a business that dumped their internal system and implemented an out-sourced email service.

The results were fantastic - and immediate...

The e-mail list for Miller's Professional Imaging, a B2B segment of professional photographers, benefited from automated list cleaning. Deliverability for that list jumped from 86 to 98 percent. Its average open rate is now 50 percent, and its click-through rate is 20 percent. The Mpix contact list, which is more of a business-to-consumer (B2C) segment geared toward advanced amateurs, now also has a deliverability rate of 98 percent and an average open rate of 34percent.

These days it is critical to use a professional email service provider (ESP) that can do the following for you:

• - manage your database, new subscribers, and unsubscribes automatically.
• - deal with bounced messages, without any action from you.
• - report on open rates and click-through rates.
• - maintain good relations with the major ISP's (so your messages get through).
• - can provide templates and advice on creating your email messages/campaigns.

Read more on this topic, plus see a list of leading email service providers in Tip #10 on the Biz Tips page at my website.

Why write? Is it an opportunity or a time waster?

Here's an interesting real-life example about a blogger who stopped - and who noticed. Why am I telling you about this? Because there is a great lesson here about how writing can help you grow your business.

On many occasions I recommend to clients they should be writing more. As a service provider (especially a Business-to-Business service provider) the art of 'writing' is usually a very important component of your marketing mix. But often it seems like such a waste of time.

Writing can be in many forms. Website pages, articles, 'how to' ideas, tips sheets, commentary, blog posts, reviews.

Just yesterday I was reading this post from the Logic+Emotion blog. It was about the re-appearance of another blogger - Leigh Householder - who blogs under the name Advergirl (a 32 year-old Account Executive from a mid-West USA advertising agency).

Of particular interest was the post on the blog at AdFreak.com...

As a fan of Advergirl, I shared this concern. Had she tired of blogging? Had she gone Luddite and thrown her laptop into the sea? I set out to find the answer.

And answer she did. Advergirl is quoted as replying with...

I still think about getting it going again— focusing more on commentary, consumer insight & agency life rather than just creating a collection. But, it’s a big commitment. And, for all the personal satisfaction, blogging is really a job you don’t get paid for—one that provides value to lots of your contemporaries and drains significant amounts of your personal and professional time.

But Advergirl has returned to blogging - just the other day - and in doing so she has regenerated interest in what she is doing.

Note: if you are a small business owner with limited expereince in dealing with advertising agencies - the Advergirl blog will give you a real insider view on how an agency operates.

As a service provider or independent professional you need to generate interest in what you are doing, and help educate potential clients on how you can help them. And writing is one of the key ways you can achieve this.

Take a few minutes to read the posts on the blogs listed in this article. Think about how you can communicate with prospects and existing clients.

How can you show your unique voice?

How can you help people understand your industry?

How can you inform others?

After all... writing is about sharing, influencing, and responding.

10 ways to increase web site results

I've been managing/editing the Marketing Nous website for the last 6 years. In that time I've seen a lot of trends and fads come and go. By sticking to the basics I've managed to have the website consistently in the top 3 listings at Google - where it is #1 right now for the term 'marketing consultant' (on www.google.com.au).

I particularly like this article by Sumantra Roy (from Web Marketing Today website). He mentions the top 10 factors to increase conversions from your website. Check them out and try them on your site. Get the combination right and you can enjoy the benefits of extra business - at little or no cost!

The 10 factors:

1. Long copy vs short copy.
2. Credibility logos.
3. Security assurance in shopping cart or order form.
4. Banner vs having no banner
5. Text on button - submit vs order
6. Audio message
   
7. Testimonials
8. Urgency
9. Headline
10. Price

As you can see from the list, there are plenty of specific things you can work on to increase conversions - and effectiveness in general - for your website.

Mobile phones will be the new frontier

If you are still having trouble getting your head around marketing via your website, things are only going to get more complicated. In this report Coca Cola explains what they are doing about setting up a special "social network" website to be accessed via mobile phones for consumers to share their own stories and information.

This is a growing trend - to involve your customers in your business/brand. Some people are calling this movement Web 2.0. From the report:

Coke, part of a growing group of advertisers putting ad campaigns on cell phones, will make the U.S. site available to Web-ready phones on June 22. It launched in China last week and is eyeing other markets in regions like Latin America.

What does this mean for your business? Don't ignore what is happening online - websites, mobile advertising and promotion, sharing of information, the rise of the consumer to post whatever information or comments they like, whereever they like.

Stay up to date with these developments. Use them where you can in your business. Otherwise the gap between you and the market leaders will get wider and wider.