Marketing 101 Whitepaper

Transcription

1 Marketing 101 Whitepaper

2 Introduction Marketing is an essential part of an organization s communications strategy. As social media and mobile usage continue to rise on the list of ways to communicate with your audience, continues to be the most consistent, reliable and effective method to keep members informed. When done properly with a strategy in place on your end and expectations set on the subscriber end marketing provides a great return on investment for your organization. But, in order to achieve optimal success, you need to have a strategy. There s so much more to marketing than just uploading a list of addresses and sending out your latest news. In order to develop a successful strategy, you must look at the whole process from start to finish from growing your list and designing your templates, to developing content and analyzing your results. In this whitepaper, we ll walk you through how you can get started with marketing at your organization. This whitepaper will clarify: How to build your subscription list and gather preferences. What types of subject lines will inspire readers to open s. The importance of relevant content. How effective design can make or break a reader s experience. What to look for in reports to build on success and correct failure. How to approach testing as you go through the creation process.

3 List Development One of the most essential parts of marketing strategy is sending to the right person. You could have a beautifully designed with a thoughtful and powerful message, but if that message isn t getting delivered to the right person, what good is it? The thought of building a subscriber list from scratch can sound overwhelming, but it doesn t have to be a difficult process. Start with your fans. Who are your current members, supporters and donors? Who are your prospective members, supporters and donors? Who attended an event you hosted, purchased something from you or visited your website? When you re starting to build your subscriber list, opt-in leads are the best. Sending to someone who actually wants to read your s can greatly impact your bottom line. Don t waste time and money sending to lists of addresses of people who don t care about your communications. Those messages are only going to end up unread and in junk mail folders. Before you start gathering addresses, it s important to build a strong subscription form. A strong subscription form will come in handy down the road, when you re segmenting your list and personalizing your messaging. You ll want to collect standard information, such as name and address, but also be sure to collect preference information. How often do they want to receive ? What topics are they most interested in? Do they want information on events only, or events and membership? Remember, only ask what you will actually use. Asking for too much information could turn off the subscriber from filling out the form. Keep in mind that this isn t the only time you ll be asking your subscribers their preferences. The average list churns 20 to 30 percent per year, so you ll want to make an effort to remind subscribers to update their profile information. Quick tips Go overboard with your signup form. Make it easy for people to subscribe and post it everywhere your website, your signature, social sites, etc. Viral marketing could be your new best friend. Encourage current subscribers to forward your s to a friend and grow your subscriber list by word of mouth! Remember, quality counts! When it comes to s, quality is so much more important than quantity! Remember, it's going to take time to build a quality list, but a quality list will deliver the results you want to see. What to test in this section: Where are most of your subscribers coming from? Track this information and then capitalize on those avenues. Preference forms. Sometimes people don t want to provide a lot of information when they initially subscribe. Try different sized forms to see which forms people complete more often.

4 Design Now that you have the strategy for building your list, let s take a look at what your message will look like. Quick tips Don't deter subscribers from reading your s because of display issues. Instead, be sure to include a link to a web version of your and drive them to view the content in their browser. Keep it short! When composing mobile-friendly s, shorten the links, subject line and text. If you have a lot to say, make sure you provide a link to a web version of your message at the top of the . The design and layout of your message is key to how effective it will be. Sure there are other important pieces of the puzzle, as discussed in this paper, but if your brand does not stand out or if the content does not render correctly on the reader s end, those things won t matter. Let s start with branding. There are two key areas that will identify who you are and set the tone for the the from information and the layout. The from will alert the reader who the is from. Using your organization s name or a recognizable leader in the field, on a consistent basis, will create brand awareness in the inbox and help you to develop a trusted relationship with your subscribers. Changing the from address often can affect deliverability and brand recognition. Once the is open, the layout needs to guide the reader to the call to action. Some theorize that if the layout doesn t change for each audience or type of conference, it won t stand out. However, then neither will your brand. This is not saying you can t insert different images or use a slightly different color palette, but the layout and placement of key items should stay the same throughout. Did you know? The rise of mobile usage isn t just an educated guess or general observation it s a proven fact. Our 2012 Association Marketing Benchmark Report found that the mobile readership of had nearly tripled since It is important to learn what your members are using and then design for those clients.

5 What to test in this section: Design Continued There are a few must-include items in every design. They are: Quick tips State the obvious; your s should spell out exactly what you want the recipient to do. Make your links very clear and call attention to directions you provide. It's okay to be repetitive with the call to action include it at the beginning and end of your message. Your logo. Your branding needs to be obvious! Readers shouldn t have to do detective work to figure out who the is from. Contact information. This includes a physical mailing address, which is required by CAN-SPAM law. Opt-out and unsubscribe links. This is another CAN-SPAM requirement but will also encourage readers to properly remove themselves from your lists instead of marking your as spam. A link to a mobile or web version of the mailing. Don t isolate readers who are reading on their mobile devices they want to read, too! Put this link at the top of your so they see it as soon as they open it. Viral marketing links. Include social media sharing buttons and forward to a friend links to increase your subscriber base, get your content on the web and increase visibility of your messages. Consistency is the key to design and having your subscribers recognize your s over others that they receive. The from address should it come from the organization or from an individual person? The only way to find out what resonates with your subscribers is to test it out. Test the placement of links and the images vs. text on a variety of messages and to different audiences; what works for one group may not work for another.

6 Content Content the meat of your ! Content is arguably the most important part of your . After all, if you don t have anything to say, why would you send an ? Content encompasses many things, so let s start with the first thing that alerts readers about the content of your the subject line. Your subject line has a major influence on whether or not your will be opened. With overcrowded inboxes and increasing demands on readers time, your subject lines need to be on point. Studies show that you have about three seconds for an recipient to understand who the is from, what action you want them to take, and what value is in it for them. We recommend that 50% of the time spent developing an be spent on the subject line it s that important! Once the reader has opened their , make sure you deliver on what was promised in the subject line. Use a strong headline clearly stating the call to action. Readers should immediately know what the is about and what you want them to do. Also, keep it short. Try to keep your to one scroll (three four if viewing on a mobile device or if it is a newsletter) to keep readers engaged. If you re featuring an article, don t include the entire text in your ; include a snippet and link to the article on your website. Sharing quick tips, or a lot of detailed information that could get lost in sentences? Try using bullets to make it easy to read. You want the body of your to be succinct, but not too brief that you leave readers wondering why they bothered opening the . Quick tips In subject lines, use urgency to drive action. When combined with discounts, free product offers, etc. you ll see positive results! Create Top 10 lists (or 3, 5, etc). People like seeing information in bite-sized chunks, and will be more likely to open and read an that they know is easily digestible and informative. Did you know? Our 2012 Association Marketing Benchmark Report showed that s sent to larger lists had higher unsubscribe rates than s sent to smaller lists. What does that mean to you? The need to focus on segmenting and targeting s based on what will resonate best with an audience isn t just a creative idea, it s essential.

7 What to test in this section: Content Continued Finally, take time to make sure that you have one clear call to action. Don t overload the reader with five different offers, asking them to purchase a book, join your membership and visit your website. The goal of any is to get a click. When you make it easy for the recipient to know what you want them to do and to do it, you re much more likely to get that coveted conversion. Don t stress them out or they ll end up hitting delete faster than you can say click here. The key to developing high-performing content that your readers will find valuable and keep them opening your s again and again is relevance. You have all of their preferences from the subscription process and know what they want to hear, so use it! If you re not targeting your s, you are wasting your resources. Subject lines! Should you personalize them or not? Ask a question? Use your organization name? Subject lines are great to test on an ongoing basis. Headlines. Try two different versions of a headline and see which has a higher click-thru rate.

8 Reporting Quick tips Don t wait until the campaign is over to review the results; look at them after each . This insight can provide you with your next step. Manage your bad addresses to keep your list as clean as possible. Continuously sending to bad addresses will affect your overall deliverability. Anxious to see the results of your latest campaign? Wait 24 to 72 hours after an is sent before diving into your reports for a more comprehensive analysis of your success. Looking at reports tends to be an afterthought in marketing campaigns, but they should not be. Reports are your window into what your subscribers are telling you. The insight gained from your reports should always guide your strategy and will help you learn about what works best with your audience. Let s go over key metrics you ll want to analyze in your reports. First, start with deliverability. It is crucial that you regularly monitor your delivery rates and know what an average number is for your s because any drastic changes can indicate major issues. Your delivery rate will also give you a clearer picture of the quality of your list. Next, analyze your open and click-thru rates. Was your subject line effective enough to encourage recipients to open your ? Take a look at the links in your with the highest click-thru rates. If it is a newsletter, this will provide information on what areas subscribers are most interested in and could lead to a redesign of the order of stories, additional courses or products to sell. Similar to surveys, click-thru reports deliver the information about what your subscribers want. It s also important to take notice of how people are reading your s. Do you know if your subscribers are using their mobile devices to read ? Look to your reports for the answer. Understanding what your readers are using will help decide the length of subject lines, content, layout and call to action. Finally, what happens to those individuals who clicked on your register now button but never registered? Identify these subscribers and automate a follow-up to go out to them. You have the data, now use it! What to test in this section: Try testing things like link placement, subject line and time of day of your to see what works best for your audience. Test out where you place your social media links. Instead of hiding them at the bottom of an , try placing them on the sidebar, or even include a call out periodically to encourage readers to join in.

9 Conclusion Overall, to be successful at marketing you need more than just a batch and blast approach; it takes strategy. By creating a strategy in the beginning and being flexible along the way, you will be able to maximize your return and produce high-performing campaigns. marketing is an effective way to communicate, and in a world filled with noise it is essential to remember the basics. From defining the list of subscribers to the reporting at the end of each mailing, every step counts. Throughout the year, refer to this guide to ensure you are on the right track and still mastering the basics. Checklist GETTING STARTED Create a strong subscription form. Include a link to your subscription form everywhere! Segment subscribers based on data from a preference form or other data in your database. DESIGN Ensure brand consistency between s and with other communication vehicles for the organization. Include a physical mailing address and an unsubscribe link. Include a mobile/web version link. Promote viral marketing with social sharing and forward-to-a-friend links. CONTENT Decide on a subject line and count the characters, including spaces. Keep the length to one scroll on a desktop, four on a mobile device. Have one clear call to action. REPORTS Evaluate open and click-thru rates. Take note of top two clicked content links. Review mobile readership, popular time to open and social media sharing. Monitor and remove bad addresses.

10 About Informz Since 1997, Informz has been dedicated to serving the association and nonprofit industries by offering powerful online marketing tools built to meet the unique challenges faced by these organizations. is a Science Web-based technologies from Informz enable personalized, highly targeted communications coupled with real-time reporting features designed to reach the inbox and drive results. Sending the right message to the right people at the right time is achieved through relevancy and your organization s ability to leverage its database. Your successful marketing and communications depends on reaching the inbox and engaging subscribers. Simply stated, targeted communications improve your response rates, and better response rates increase your message s impact. Contact Information Informz x5 The Informz Difference In addition to on-demand product support, you deserve one-on-one, up-to-date marketing guidance relevant to your unique needs, built upon strong relationships and reliable collaboration. In order to maximize your success, your exclusive emarketing Advisor is always ready to assist throughout the development, publishing, and measurement of your campaigns. Devoted to your professional success, Informz combines state-of-the-art technology with our trusted emarketing Advisors to bring you products and services that align with your marketing goals. Through dynamic targeting, intelligent deliverability, precision reporting, seamless integration, and expert Advisors, Informz truly is the way to know marketing. Informz has been a great marketing tool; providing great analytics, great customer service and an easy to use product. Informz is now our core marketing solution from s and newsletter to surveys and alerts; it has become essential in our business. ~Chris Ma, Australian Veterinary Association