EMAIL ESSENTIALS Successful Strategies for Studio Owners

Presented by: Jill Tirone

Session Overview•  Email is the most cost-effective,

targeted, trackable, and efficient way to build and maintain relationships in your dance studio.

•  Learn the best tools to enhance your email marketing campaigns, how to optimize your emails for mobile devices, and use social media to greatly increase the effectiveness of your emails.

•  You’ll also learn how to measure your campaigns to help you get your audience to open, read, and act on their email.

Target Audiences• Active/Enrolled Students • Prospects/Leads Why Email Marketing?• 77% of us want to get marketing messages via email (source: MarketingLand)

• 66% of consumers have made a purchase online as a result of an email marketing message (source: Direct Marketing Association)

• 76% of email opens occur in the first two days after an email is sent (source: Alchemy Worx)

• When combined with social media, your results can exceed your marketing goals.

List Building & Best Practices•  Make it easy to subscribe

•  Post a simple opt-in form on your website •  Utilize Facebook advertising to push viewers to an opt-in

page •  Practice good list hygiene

•  Keep clean, detailed and segmented lists •  Tell subscribers what to expect •  Send a welcome email •  Design your newsletter to fit your brand •  Make is simple and be friendly •  Personalize it & use their first name •  Include calls to action •  Spend time on your subject line •  Edit and proofread •  Test! “Measure twice, cut once” •  Keep a publishing calendar and commit

Email Marketing Planning Guide• Successful email

marketers keep a publishing calendar and commit to it!

• Determine your sending frequency and goals

• Make your schedule

• Measure the awesome results!

Social Media & Email Marketing•  Email marketing combined with social media, can produce

results that exceed your marketing goals. •  If you have a strong following on Facebook, Instagram, or

Twitter, don’t hesitate to ask for new email subscribers through that channel.

•  Pick a key image from your newsletter and pin it to one of your Pinterest boards. Be sure to link it back to your archived newsletter! This will give you extra exposure and nice SEO!

Mobile Optimization: The Statistics•  47% of email is now opened on a mobile

device (Source: Litmus) •  66% of emails are opened on either a

smartphone or tablet (Source: Movable Ink) •  PC email opens are down to 34%

(Source: Movable Ink) •  Only 11% of emails are optimized for mobile

(source: Equinux) •  69% of mobile users delete emails that aren’t

optimized for mobile (source: Litmus) •  Nearly a quarter (23%) of campaigns initially

opened on mobile devices are opened a second time by consumers (source: Campaign Monitor)

•  Mobile readers who open emails a second time from their computer are 65% more likely to click through (source: Campaign Monitor)

How To Optimize for Mobile•  Use an email provider service and a a mobile-friendly design

•  Displays cleanly on desktops and tablets, so you only need to create one version. •  Maximum width of 560-580 pixels -- the best size for desktop, mobile, and tablet. •  Increase the text size to 14 points. Small text is difficult to read on mobile. •  Space out calls to action. Avoid frustrating users who click the wrong button.

•  Optimize what is shown in the mobile inbox •  The inbox, whether mobile or desktop, displays the first text it finds. Include

compelling reasons to open in the subject line and the pre-header. •  Use all 80 characters shown in the mobile inbox to entice your readers. •  Give your pre-header language the same attention you do for your subject line.

•  Mobile Landing Page optimization •  Optimize your website pages for optimal mobile viewing. •  Readers are using their fingers to select items so use appropriately-sized buttons. •  Keep it simple. •  Keep forms minimal -- the less fields the better.

Important Mobile Optimization Takeaways

• Your audience is reading your emails on mobile devices. Make it easy for them to read and click through by using mobile designs.

• Mobile-friendly designs look good on desktops and mobile devices.

• Landing pages on website must be optimized for mobile.

• Service providers make it easy with mobile-optimized templates.

• Keep it simple.

Email Automation / Autoresponders•  Automation increases revenue. B2C marketers who

send automated emails see conversion rates as high as 50% (eMarketer).

•  Automation is the best and easiest way to send timely, relevant emails to your subscribers. Relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails (Jupiter Research).

•  And you can use it to keep potential customers engaged until they're ready to buy. Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases (The Annuitas Group).

If you're looking for an easy automated email to get started with:

•  Start with an automated series to welcome new subscribers. Welcome emails typically have 4x the open rate and 5x the click rate of other mailings (Experian).

Measuring and Tracking Results•  Measuring and tracking is the only way to ensure success! •  Utilize the reporting offered through your email service provider

•  Messages Sent •  Messages Delivered •  Bounces Rates •  Unsubscribes •  Messages Opened •  Click-Throughs

•  Use Google Analytics •  When you launch a campaign, insert a

unique code for each mailing •  Set up segments in Google Analytics

specifically for your email traffic

•  Add dashboards to your website •  Mailchimp & Constant Contact Plugins for

Wordpress

Measuring and Tracking: Making Sense of the Data

•  Open Rates •  Open Rate = # of messages opened / # of messages delivered •  This measures the recipients’ interest in the From and Subject lines of your email •  Aim for at least 15% - 25% •  Improve your open rates by:

•  Creating more compelling From and Subject lines •  Testing your subject lines

•  Click-Through Rates •  Click-Through Rate (CTR) = # of click-throughs / # of messages delivered •  The CTR tells you how interested recipients were in a particular issue and how well you

converted that interest into click-throughs •  Aim for CTRs between 1% and 10% •  Improve your CTRs by:

•  Making content and descriptions compelling •  Change your format •  Highlight what you want readers to click on

•  Response or Conversion Rate •  Response Rate = # of actions taken / # of messages delivered •  The Response Rate is the best way to measure the effectiveness of an email campaign •  Improve your response rates by:

•  Providing a compelling reason to act •  Making the action simple and obvious by limiting users' choices

•  Unsubscribe Rate •  Unsubscribe Rate = unsubscribes/ # of messages delivered •  Use the Unsubscribe Rate to measure how well you hold your subscribers’ interest over

the long run. •  Reduce your unsubscribe rates by:

•  Providing more value •  Reducing your volume of email

Measuring and Tracking: Takeaways• Don’t obsess about your metrics

•  Identify any patterns that make your open and click rates go up or down and focus on improvement

• Test new ideas and try different things to find what works best for your list

Email Marketing Tools• Email Service Providers

•  Mailchimp •  Constant Contact •  Emma •  iContact •  Vertical Response •  And many, many more!

• Registration Software with Email Tools

•  Jackrabbit •  Studio Director •  CompuDance •  MindBody •  DanceWorks •  And more!