Making the Most of Email Marketing

and Social Media

Erin Jacobs,

Director of Marketing

VerticalResponse

Introduction- Erin Jacobs

•Director of Marketing at VerticalResponse since 2007

•15 Years Experience in lead generation and direct marketing for various industries

•Authors a Marketing Blog on StartupNation.com and Manta.com

•Frequent speaker at industry events on email marketing and small business marketing

About VerticalResponse

Helping SMB’s Grow Their Business Via Online Marketing Since 2001SaaS Solutions for Self- Service Email, DM, and SurveysJanine Popick - CEO, background is direct marketing online and offOver 50,000 Active Customers

Award Winning and Customer-CentricInc. Fast 500, Fast 5000, Deloitte, Business Times, ClickZ, and many moreActive Member of the Email Sender & Provider Coalition since 2003We thrive on making small businesses look like giantsEnvironmentally & Community Friendly

Tools For Marketers, By MarketersCreate and send a campaign in minutes with no help from IT neededSophisticated tools and reporting, yet simple to deployEmail, online survey, and direct mail postcard in one tool

Overview

•Why Email works for Destination Companies

•Creating a Plan

•Building Quality Lists

•Offers that Work

•Integrating Email with Social Media

•Best Practices

•Understanding Deliverability

•What an ESP Can do for You

Misconceptions Marketing = Big Investment

What does Marketing mean to you?

•Billboards

•Logo/Branded Items

•Print Advertising in Travel or Local Magazines

•Public Relations

• High Profile Events

Where did you start?

Small Business Marketing Landscape

•Signage, Advertising, Phone Book Listings, Direct Mail, Chamber of Commerce

•Build a website

•What worked for you?

•Were you able to track ROI?

•What did you learn from your customers and prospects?

Where do you go from here?

Marketing tactics that are accessible and easy to manage for small business owners

– Websites/Blogs– Paid Search– Email– Direct Mail– Surveys– Social Networking

Why we recommend all of these… you can control costs, track results and use them together for a blowfish effect!

Why we recommend all of these… you can control costs, track results and use them together for a blowfish effect!

Why Email Works for Small Business

•Highest % of Access

•Cost Effective

•Fast

•No Design Skills or Software No Problem

•Results are Immediate

•Blowfish Effect

•Complements other customer programs

Case Study- Locksmith Parts & Supplies

• Niche market since 2001

• VR customer since late 2007

• List of 30K emails

• 1st Email increased web traffic 700%

• In 8 hours made $6000 online sales

• Now create 1 email per month

• Added $200K in revenue in 2008

• Average monthly investment $250.00

Types of Email Communications

OUTBOUND

• Thank You– For Visiting

– For Referral

– For Attending

• Invitation – To Events

– To take a Survey

• Promotional– Product offer

– Discount/Sale Announcement

• Newsletter– Message from the organization

– Tips/What to do/see

Expectations for Your Emails

•Response Rates– Open– Clicks

•Bounce Rates

•Unsubscribe

•Google Analytics

•Conversion Tracking for ROI

•Inbound activity based on outbound campaigns

Building a Marketing Program

3 Components

•Your List

•Your Offer

•Your Media

Building a ListQuality Lists are NOT built in a Day!

•Leverage• Leverage existing network• Customers past/current• Business associations

•Invest/Build• Opt-in form on Web/Blog• Ask for referrals• Online Marketing/GoogleAds• Invite Online Followers

•Maintain• Relevancy• Frequency• Privacy Policy

The Fool Proof Offer

Is there something in this newsletter for the recipient to:

•Learn?– Educational content– News– Tips

•Gain?– Discount– Time– Access

•Enjoy?– Free Gift with Purchase/Stay– Added Value

Offers that Work

Provide Convenience- Make Life Easier• Late check out, day room with spa

• Added Value

• Free Shipment to home

• Personal Experience

Encourage the Impulse• Exclusivity

• Gift with Purchase

• The Mini Service

• Events

Don’t forget to recognize loyalty• Give customers incentives to refer a friend

• The coffee card, discount on next purchase, free service

Your Media- Email links them all

•Online Ads/SEM/Yelp– Site Traffic– List building

•Website– Drive traffic to your site for more info– Response capturing for apt request/rez/

•Blog– Integrate your website, email newsletter– Captures user generated content

•Email (Inbound & Outbound)– Creates consistency– Delivers a compilation of news and offers

•Social Networking– Expands your network– Generate User Reviews and Content

PART 2

CREATING EFFECTIVE EMAILS

Best Practices for Creating Effective Email

Top to Bottom- Space is Everything

•From Label

•Subject Line

•Headline/Preview

•Offer

•Call to Action– Where else can they find you

– Blog

– Twitter

– facebook

•Use of Images/Text

Creating an Effective Email

•From Label- Should be your company name or who the subscriber has the relationship with- Stick with it and avoid changing it!

•Subject Line- Keep it Short - email programs default to +/- 40 characters and cut it off there

- Don’t repeat from label in subject line - space is too valuable- Don’t try to mask words like “free” with words like “fr*ee” - spam technique

- Don’t use excessive punctuation - !!!!!- Don’t use CAPITALIZATION - email screaming!

Creating an Effective Email

•Make sure some of your best content is “above the fold” or in the preview pane.

Creating an Effective Email

•Avoid using images as your sole content

•80/20 rule- 80% Text / 20% Images

•Always use image alt text- <img src=“http://path/to/image.gif” alt=“Widgets Inc. Logo” />

Example- Sonoma Valley

Newsletter

•Preview pane perfect

•Bullets break up copy

•Links to easy to read list on the website

Understanding Deliverability

What happens after you hit send?

•The ISP

•The Corporate Domain

•The Inbox

How do you ensure it get’s there?

•CanSPAM Laws– Easy unsubscribe process– A valid postal address– The subject line reflects the content– From label - Must be "From" who the

recipient has the relationship with

Tips for Long Term Success

•Continue inviting followers to join email list & vice versa

•Establish frequency and commit

•Consistency in Outbound and Inbound

•Leverage the data in reports

•Segmenting your list for Relevancy

•Leverage reports for improvements

Integrate Email with other Online Properties•Add an Opt-in Form to every page of your site

•Start a Blog

•Use your Blog as the landing page for Newsletter content

•Encourage participation online

Integrating Email with Social Media

•Using Email to integrate other online initiatives

– Facebook

– Blog

– Twitter

– CRM database

– Surveys

– Yelp

Getting Started in 10 Steps

1 Create an Account with VR (FREE)

2 Upload your list (FREE)

3 Add an opt-in form to your website (FREE)

4 Segment your list customers vs. prospects (FREE)

5 Create a Welcome Email- thank you for your business

6 Create a Promotional Email- get people excited and active

7 Create your first Newsletter

1 Message from the Owner (Tips or Fact to share about a product)

2 Offer- don’t forget you want them to take action

3 Customer Testimonial/Quote

8 Launch your campaigns one per week over a month

9 Measure results

10 Remail- test new subject lines to non-responders!

Special Offer from VR

Start a FREE Trial Account today and receive:

•100 Email Credits to send your first campaign

•25 Online Survey Responses

•www.verticalresponse.com/

•Watch a Demo Every Tuesday at 10:00 AM Pacific. Go here to register for our next demo with Richard Huffaker our Training and Community Education Manager.

•Call our Live Support line for helping getting started: 1-866-6VERTICAL.

Resources

•VerticalResponse Education and Support Section– Recorded webinars– Tutorials– Best practice tips and articles

•Join a live Demo hosted every Tuesday 10AM by our Training Manager

•Blog.verticalresponse.com

•Lounge.verticalresponse.com

•Follow us on Twitter: VR4SmallBiz

•Follow me on Twitter: ReillyJacobs