THE BEGINNER S GUIDE TO MARKETING

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Julie Williamson
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1 THE BEGINNER S GUIDE TO Whether you re a new entrepreneur, a recent marketing convert or a veteran business owner, an campaign could be one of the most powerful tools in your digital marketing strategy.

2 marketing is not new. Actually, it was more than 40 years ago that a guy by the name of Roy Tomlinson sent the first . It s gone through many evolutions since then, but today s s are proving to be a formidable method of catching the attention of prospective customers as well as maintaining your existing ones. If you re able to leverage it appropriately, you can use marketing to increase engagement with your targeted audience. This guide will walk you through the basics of getting started on an effective marketing campaign.

CONTENTS 4 Why use email as part of my marketing strategy? 7 Why do I need a service provider?

3 CONTENTS 4 Why use as part of my marketing strategy? 7 Why do I need a service provider? 9 Developing an overall strategy 12 Developing a content strategy 15 Developing permission messaging 18 Developing a strategy for growing my list 20 Scheduling mailings 22 Writing great s 26 Testing, testing and retesting 29 Segmenting an marketing list 31 Glossary

4 WHY USE AS PART OF MY MARKETING STRATEGY?

5 WHY USE AS PART OF MY MARKETING STRATEGY? 51 percent of people are discovering new websites through (compared to 32 percent for social, 18 percent for PPC, and 54 percent through organic search). - Conductor, 2014 It s more personal to your audience. You may already have a fairly effective marketing plan. Maybe it includes social media outreach, word-of-mouth referrals, and ads in local publications. You may have regular customers and a few new ones coming in every once in a while. But if you re not taking advantage of messaging, you could be missing out on opportunities for repeat business or getting new clients who are looking for the types of services or products you sell. In fact, 65 percent of marketers at B2B companies say that is the most effective tool they use. Thanks to recent technological advances, today s marketing campaigns can come across more personal. It is now possible to directly target the interests of the various groups of people in your audience. This type of personalization is called segmentation. It allows you to tailor messages that are more relevant to a particular group of people. It s a great way to maintain communication with your audience without coming across as if you re talking to thousands of people at the same time. It s more effective than social media. According to a recent study by SocialTwist that involved 119 referral campaigns, more than 50 percent of those who became new customers were referred through , 26 5

6 WHY USE AS PART OF MY MARKETING STRATEGY? percent through Facebook and 22 percent through Twitter. remains a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media nearly 40 times that of Facebook and Twitter combined. - McKinsey & Company, Why marketers should keep sending you s, Jan 2014 Not only that, but with mobile open rates steadily increasing within the past few years, a marketing plan that doesn t include won t be nearly as successful as it could be. Your content is also less likely to be shared, as B2B users are 88 percent more likely to share content via . 6

7 WHY DO I NEED A SERVICE PROVIDER?

8 WHY DO I NEED A SERVICE PROVIDER?... a service provider allows you to measure ROI and gauge your successes and failures... Sure, you could craft s by hand and try to tailor them to various audiences, but a service provider allows you to measure ROI and gauge your successes and failures something sending messages through your personal account won t accomplish. There are a number of different service providers with helpful features like 24-hour support, analytics, auto-response, user segmentation and tracking history, to name a few. Make a list of specs you absolutely want or need from a service provider before making a decision. A good service provider simplifies marketing while fitting your budget. Laws like the CAN-SPAM Act regulate the types of messages businesses can send and require that you allow subscribers to opt-out of your mailing list. Your service provider can suggest how frequently you should subscribers or how easily they should be able to unsubscribe to s, but it s ultimately up to you to decide the best features for your messaging. 8

9 DEVELOPING AN OVERALL STRATEGY

10 DEVELOPING AN OVERALL STRATEGY According to Outbrain, 44 percent of subscribers purchased an item they first saw in an , and 35 percent of subscribers open s based on the subject line. You wouldn t reveal a new product or service without first developing a marketing and advertising plan, right? The same goes for starting an marketing campaign. You ll need to decide what you want the campaign to accomplish, who you want to target and how you ll succeed. Determine your goals First of all, you should have a clear idea of what you want the campaign to accomplish. Do you intend to advertise new products and discounted items in order to increase sales? Are you focused on educating your audience and gaining upsell opportunities? Or is this simply a campaign designed to create brand awareness? The tone and frequency of your messaging depends on your goal. Know your audience Being aware of your audience s needs is another key factor in how you ll strategize and frame your messaging. For example, a consumer-based audience likely wants to hear about new products and discounted items, whereas a business audience will be more interested in new services and software updates. Also consider how often you should send s to subscribers. Keep them informed, but don t be a nuisance. 10

11 DEVELOPING AN OVERALL STRATEGY Analyze your competitors Take a look at how your competition is doing with marketing campaigns. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can you improve on their tactics? Are they using software that makes them more efficient or organized? If you notice that your competitors are more successful with their marketing campaigns, it may be because they re sending quality content to their audience. According to Outbrain, 44 percent of subscribers purchased an item they first saw in an , and 35 percent of subscribers open s based on the subject line. 11

12 DEVELOPING A CONTENT STRATEGY

13 DEVELOPING A CONTENT STRATEGY Switching up your messaging keeps readers interested and less likely to hit the unsubscribe button. Once you ve developed an overall strategy for your marketing plan, it s time to map out the most important detail the content you ll be sending to subscribers. Here are just a few topics you should discuss: Develop a mix of messages Switching up your messaging keeps readers interested and less likely to hit the unsubscribe button. Try using messaging that includes helpful advice, free or discounted merchandise, service information, updates, etc. Determine intervals There s a fine line between too few s and too many s. How frequently you message consumers determines whether your s will be helpful or annoying. Sending one a day is enough to keep most readers informed and interested, but unless the serves a purpose for you or the subscriber, the best option is not to send it. Place content ideas in a calendar Keeping a log of ideas you ve come up with will help you stay organized and ensures you won t miss an opportunity for sending out successful messages. Using Basecamp or Google Calendar allows you to share ideas with higher-ups or product developers and gives them a chance to send feedback. 13

14 DEVELOPING A CONTENT STRATEGY Regularly review your content calendar to tweak & update Touch base with key stakeholders regularly so you have an opportunity to hear new ideas or gather updates. This also gives you an opportunity to discover what type of messaging has been working and what needs improvement. 14

15 DEVELOPING PERMISSION MESSAGING

16 DEVELOP PERMISSION MESSAGING When you ask permission to send users s, make it very clear as to what you ll be sending them and what you ll do (or not do) with their personal information. Permission-based messaging is when a user actively signs up to receive s from a business, rather than unwittingly giving their addresses to someone and getting bombarded with spam. Of course, getting people to willingly hand over their address isn t easy, so here are a few suggestions: Offer something free at sign-up Say you won t send spam or sell their address (and mean it) Create a survey they can fill out to make your s more relevant to their interests Allow them to sign up for specific mailing lists for service updates, new products, discounts, etc. When you ask permission to send users s, make it very clear as to what you ll be sending them and what you ll do (or not do) with their personal information. Subscribers will want to know how many messages you ll send and what types of s (promotional, updates, discounts, special offers, etc.) they ll receive. While a service provider strives to ensure your s aren t blocked, some s may still end up in the junk folder when sent to certain addresses. To prevent this from happening, 16

17 DEVELOP PERMISSION MESSAGING immediately request to be whitelisted or added to a list of approved IP addresses (or senders) when someone first subscribes. Prompting subscribers to add you to their address book or list of contacts should prevent future s from being marked as spam. 17

18 DEVELOPING A STRATEGY FOR MY GROWING LIST

19 DEVELOPING A STRATEGY FOR MY GROWING LIST People are a lot more willing to join a mailing list if they know they ll receive a gift. If your marketing efforts have hit a plateau or you want to prevent yourself from reaching that point you ll need to make a plan for growing your mailing list. One surefire way to do this is to offer your audience a free product, service or piece of content in exchange for becoming a subscriber. People are a lot more willing to join a mailing list if they know they ll receive a gift. Another method for growing your list of subscribers is to offer rewards for referrals. If a current subscriber refers someone to sign up for your mailing list, reward them with a free or discounted product or service to make them more likely to refer someone in the future. Also consider following up with subscribers who receive your s but haven t responded to your offers or CTAs for a while. Making them active again may be as simple as switching them to a mailing group that s more relevant to their interests. Utilize social media, word of mouth and other channels to promote your mailing list as well. 19

20 SCHEDULING MAILINGS

21 SCHEDULING MAILINGS... each message you send should have a purpose that informs or otherwise benefits the reader. How often you should someone depends on why they signed up in the first place and what they expect from your messages. Don t send s simply because you can each message you send should have a purpose that informs or otherwise benefits the reader. If you can t answer why you re sending an to your subscribers, it s best not to send it at all. One useful tool for ensuring that messages are sent at appropriate times is an auto-responder feature. If your service provider offers this feature, you can create messages that automatically go out when someone first subscribes to your mailing list. Some also allow you to send automated messages based on a subscriber s unique opens and downloads, or interest in specific whitepaper topics. 21

22 WRITING GREAT S

23 WRITING GREAT S Your subject line is arguably the most important aspect of your message. What makes a great subject line? Your subject line is arguably the most important aspect of your message. It s the first thing subscribers read, and it ll determine whether they even bother to open the . There are quite a few ways to make your subject line stand out, like: Make headlines short Around 6 to 10 words; you should be able to read the entire line without opening the . Be clear and concise The message should quickly get to the point, and should have a beginning, middle and end. Avoid rambling. The subscriber may quickly lose interest. Write comprehensive campaigns If a subscriber has downloaded a whitepaper before, anticipate the topics they will be interested in as a follow-up. Your service provider can give you tips on how to develop subsequent s that will be of interest to your audience. Provide value Whether providing useful resources or a discount, make sure that the delivers some type of value to the recipients. Personalize If possible, insert the person s name in the subject line. If that s not an option, you can still use you and your to make the message more personal. 23

24 WRITING GREAT S Keep it personal, keep it short and sweet, and inform subscribers of updates or discounts that are useful to them. What makes great copy? Similar rules apply to the actual copy as the subject line. Keep it personal, keep it short and sweet, and inform subscribers of updates or discounts that are useful to them. Following is a summary of do s and don ts when writing content: DO: optimize for mobile. According to Litmus, 53 percent of s are opened on mobile devices, compared to just 22 percent on desktop programs. Needless to say, how your s will look on mobile devices should be a big factor in your content layout. Simple things like making the font larger or narrowing the down to one column will make it easier for mobile users to read. DO: use proper grammar and spelling. Ensuring that your content is free of errors not only makes your messaging more intelligent, it shows you put a lot of effort into making your s as flawless as possible. Some subscribers might not bat an eye at the occasional misspelled word, but an errant misplaced apostrophe may be enough to make someone unsubscribe. 24

25 WRITING GREAT S DON T: forget the CTA. A call-to-action gives readers a clear idea of what they should do after they read your , whether it s downloading a new e-book or checking out a description of your latest product. DON T: ramble. Again, s should be short and sweet, as subscribers (especially the ones who primarily use mobile devices) don t want to scroll through a dozen lines of text to get to the point of your message. Focus on why you re sending the , what you want the person to do and how your message will benefit your audience. 25

26 TESTING, TESTING & RETESTING

27 TESTING, TESTING & RETESTING Measuring your successes and failures should give you an idea of how you can improve your messaging. Measuring the success of your marketing campaign can be done multiple ways depending on what you want your campaign to accomplish. For instance, if you simply want to find out how many subscribers are even opening your s or clicking on the URLs, you ll want to measure the open rate and click-through rate. If you want to know how many s fail to reach subscribers, measure the bounce rate. How to do A/B testing One way to find out if one message will be more successful than another is to try A/B testing. A/B testing for marketing is when you send two small test groups the same message, but written differently, to see which one is most effective. An example of this is writing two subject lines that basically say the same thing, but have different tones, like: How to Measure Your Marketing Campaign s Success Is your marketing campaign failing? Find out today As you can see, both have the same message, but one will likely resonate with your subscription base more than the other. When you ve measured which one garners the most responses, send that message out to the rest of your audience. 27

28 TESTING, TESTING & RETESTING What to do to tweak your marketing campaign for increased effectiveness Measuring your successes and failures should give you an idea of how you can improve your messaging. If you see an increase in the number of people opening your s or visiting your site, you know that the type of messaging is relevant to your audience. On the other hand, if you have a portion of your audience unsubscribing, it could be because your messaging is no longer relevant to that group of people. Always give unsubscribers a short survey asking why they no longer wish to receive your s. This can help you prevent further opt-outs for the same reason. 28

29 SEGMENTING AN MARKETING LIST

30 SEGMENTING AN MARKETING LIST Segmenting allows you to automate s with targeted messages so that they are more relevant to a select group of users. What is it? List segmentation is when you divide your mailing list into groups based on the type of audience you want to target for a particular message, promotion, etc. This can be extremely helpful for sending the right message at the right time to the right group of people. Why is it effective? Segmenting allows you to automate s with targeted messages so that they are more relevant to a select group of users. An example of this would be to send a calendar of scheduled webinars only to those who have signed up for webinars in the past or requested more information about them. A subscription list of business clients would most likely read your s from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, whereas a list of consumers are more likely to read s at nights and weekends. 30

31 GLOSSARY Account: Your database where contacts, content, mailing data and reports are stored. Account overview: A commonly used report that gives you a snapshot of your account with standard mailing statistics, which you can customize by time range. Blacklist: A list of spammer IP addresses whose s are blocked. Bounce back: When an fails to reach the recipient. This can be due to issues like an incorrect mailing address, disconnected or full inbox. Campaign: A report tool that allows grouping of mailings sent so all grouped mailings can be viewed in one report. Category: A static subset of the contacts database. Categories do not use queries. Click-through rate: The percentage of unique recipients that click on a URL in your message. Contacts: Database of addresses and demographic fields. Content: The HTML message sent to contacts Custom fields: Available database fields that can store contact information such as Name, Address, Phone, Dates etc. Draft mailing: A saved mailing that has not yet been sent to contacts or a subset of contacts. Engagement: Open, click and forward reporting, rolled into one calculation. There are two types of Engagement - contact and mailing. Google Analytics: Additional tracking function that allows sent mailing activity to be reported back to Google Analytics used on your website. HTML A type of that can include various fonts, colors and designs. Media Library: A place to store image files (gif, jpg, png), PDF documents, Word documents and other HTML files. 31

32 Open rate: The definition of this phrase can vary, depending upon the ESP you re working with. In general terms, an open rate includes images downloaded by a recipient and the number of clicks on a link. On the other hand, a unique open rate calculated by dividing the number of unique subscribers that do either of those things by the unique number of recipients in the entire campaign. Split test mailing: This mailing feature allows two or more pieces of content to be sent to a segment or category where results can be compared to determine which mailing performed most favorably. Subscribe form: An HTML form hosted on your website that feeds back to your Delivra contacts database. Opt-in: When a user subscribes to or gives a business permission to send s. Opt-out: When a subscriber cancels an subscription from a business. Plain text An that doesn t use HTML; often making it easier to read, but less creative. Scheduled mailing: The ability to schedule your mailings at future dates and times. Template: Stored content that allows to create text and HTML designs and store them for future use. Text to subscribe: A feature that allows new subscribers to simply text a keyword to a shortcode to join your contacts database. Unsub: An address that has unsubscribed from communications. Spam: An that s sent to someone who hasn t subscribed or opted-in. SMS: A separate interface that allows communication to subscribers via text messages to cell phones. 32

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