Emails selling private jets, Lasik eye surgery, financing, professional training, software and more, have worked their way into the inboxes of Tribute Media employees in the past year. Some of this is decent marketing--in the sense that it all applies to us (although the private jets may just be wishful thinking)--but what isn’t decent about these emails is that we did opt-in to receive these messages.
Unlike personal emails, company emails (more specifically, those sent for marketing or sales reasons) are not guaranteed access into recipients' inboxes. There are a plethora of reasons for this, which we’ll go into more detail about in this blog, but the important thing to keep in mind through all of this is: you are a guest in someone’s inbox. Don’t abuse it.
Email can be created in a variety of ways, but the key to a successful email includes (and is largely dependent on) deliverability. If you can’t get your email into someone’s inbox, the rest of it doesn’t really matter anyway.
To get into an email inbox, you must understand what could keep you out. There are rules to email sends, and if you don’t abide by them, you’ll find your emails in junk or SPAM folders, or you’ll actually have recipients mark you as SPAM (and believe us when we say, you don’t want that).
As a top marketing channel, email provides the perfect platform for generating and nurturing leads, delighting customers, and keeping open communication with your contacts.
Email marketing isn’t rocket science, but it also isn’t elementary addition. If you’re feeling lost and don’t know where to begin, we’ve got you covered.
The first thing you want to do is segment your contact lists. Initially, this will take quite a bit of time. However, once you set guidelines for segmenting, it becomes an automated process for future email sends.
Segmentation is one of the key elements to sending the right email to the right persona at the right time. This is not a step you want to skip.
If you are looking for a way to test the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, A/B testing (or split testing) is the way to go. A/B testing can be used with emails, web pages, calls-to-action (CTAs), etc. Essentially, you take one copy of a marketing material, and you tweak it enough to create two versions. You then experiment at random with users (or target specific user segments) to find which version they engage with the most or which variation performs better for a specified conversion goal.
Within the complex and uncertain business climate we all work in, the biggest challenges often rest on the shoulders of C-level officers and managers. They are left to deal with significant issues that affect their company such as globalization, demographic changes, corporate social responsibility, and the impacts of innovation and digitization.
That's some heavy stuff.
If you are one of these individuals faced with such high-level issues, the last thing you want to add to your plate is the task of strategizing and implementing marketing campaigns. Maybe you've been tasked with finding a marketing solution for your company; you've done your research, and the deeper you go, the more certain you are that there is more to marketing--especially on the web--than you want to deal with and you need professional help to move forward.
An email expert over at Hubspot once told me that, as marketers, we need to start marketing to people in the way we want to be marketed to. I could not agree more. When I start sifting through my emails first thing in the morning, the last thing I want to see is yet another email that brings absolutely no value to my day. I'm sure you think the same! So, why do businesses keep sending crappy (there really is no other word to describe them) emails that nobody wants to read?
If you are ready to put aside your old ways of viewing and implementing email marketing campaigns, you've come to the right place.
What accounts for nearly a third of all mobile searches, has grown 50% faster than overall mobile searches in the past year, and is an element you can't afford to ignore? Location-related searches. Recently, Google announced that it is about to roll out a new way of displaying ads for mobile devices. This integration of ads into location-related searches gives advertisers a greater reach and more exposure. The question with this Google update roll-out is the same as with any update: "How does this affect my company?"
Do you ever find yourself frustrated with the requirements Google sets for websites? You think you finally get to a point where everything is perfect, and then Google goes and changes things again. Welcome to SEO! It's like a minefield. You have to be aware of the direction you are going and wary of where you step. It's important to establish a solid base and move forward from there. Let's discuss some good starting points.
As professionals who have distinct business goals and desire a certain amount of engagement, how do we approach our Twitter audience in a way that lines up with these goals and doesn't associate us with those on Twitter whom everyone dreads?
