The Long, Hard Climb to the Top ( Of the Inbox)

Editor's Notes

• #2: Welcome to our second webinar in our 2015 blog, webinar AND seminar series: Back 2 Basics. Every day there is more and more clutter out in the world and it is very easy to get distracted and lose focus, so we are continuing our back to basics conversation about how to connect with your audience. This an interactive presentation so we want to hear your questions! Post Questions to us: Comment on Hangout or YouTube. Also you can tweet us using hashtag #RPSback2basics
• #3: For those of you who don’t know Rock Paper Scissors, I am Amanda Sutt, creative director here at Rock Paper Scissors. We have been in this business for three decades so we have seen a lot of change and done a lot of changing ourselves to keep up with the time. We are branding and web development firm. We focus on our client’s brands, not just their logo and marketing collateral, but the entire experience, which in today’s world includes the digital experience. Anything from your website, to social media, to email marketing and more.
• #4: We started in February with Know Thy Customer. It is about taking the time to understand who your customer is and what their lives are like to help you create value and trust. This step so often gets skimmed over when starting on a marketing plan and it makes all the difference. You are going to hear me come back to this throughout our conversation today.
• #5: The second in our series was in March about Marketing Channels. Today, information overload is almost unavoidable. You can put your brand anywhere from the grocery store cart to the Facebook to Pandora to a race car. But how do you connect and cut through the clutter? If you know who your customer is and what they do, then you put your message where they are and when it is convenient for them. It cuts down on your clutter and creates value for your customer.
• #6: For the rest of the year we are going to dig into some of the major marketing channels to give you some of the ins and outs. Today we are going to focus on Email Marketing. Please Note: email marketing may not for your product or service. If you have taken the time to profile your customers and know their lifestyles and know that they are addicted the the chime of their inbox, then the next 20-30 minutes are going to help you connect in a more meaningful way with your customers and potential customers. Why Email: Every year I have clients ask me if “email” is dying, then I ask them, what is the first thing you do every day when you get to work? And that answers that question. Email is alive and thriving - that is not our challenge, our challenge is to get your email in your customer’s inbox to inspire action. How do you create an email marketing campaign that your customers look for in their inboxes and gives you a ROI that grows your business? I will give you a hint, there is a lot of planning but we will give you the cliff notes today to get you started. Shameless Plug: Thursday, April 23rd we will have a deeper presentation about this at our office. We will start with networking and then have an hour presentation and discussion where we can get deeper into this and spend some time on your specific questions and situations.
• #7: The first step in your strategy is to Define the Receiver: before you want to even think about what you are sending out or which platform you are using, you need to understand your receiver. We are going back to “Know Thy Customer”. Being successful using this particular marketing channel takes diligence in knowing who your customer is and what resonates with them. Some questions to think about: What do they need from you? How can you add value to their life? What is their life like? Are they at their computer all day or are they connected to their phones? What does their day look like? Are they checking email all day or do they focus on email at 7 am or when they put the kids to bed?
• #8: Once you know who you are serving, then we need to focus on how you are serving and Define the Need. What need are your filling in your customer’s lives? Are you easing a pain? What are your customers struggling or frustrated with? If you can answer these questions, you have established the foundation for your email campaign content that your readers will value.
• #9: Define the Action: Ok, we have talked about the customer enough, what do you need them to do for you? Do they need to buy something? Sign up for something? Share something? Understand the purpose this client will serve your business in both the short term and long term, and define your call to action so that you have something to measure to know this campaign is working.
• #10: Let’s Play Pretend: We know who we are reaching and what we need them to do, so we are ready to start crafting our content. Before we start writing, I want to you to pretend to be your customer. Where are they when they check email? What device are they using? What other kinds of email are they getting? Do you have a clear picture of the chaos they are living in? … Do you have this in your mind? Good! Now you need to craft a subject line that overcomes everything you just pictured. You should spend just as much time on your subject line as you do writing the content. If it isn’t interesting enough, your customer is never going to click and see the content you wrote. Subject Lines are your first opportunity to stand out among the multitude of emails already in the inbox and say to your readers, “this is something you want to read”. Engaging, bold, and captivating subject lines cause readers to not only open your emails, but look forward to seeing them in their inbox. We will post a Hubspot link that gives great examples of subject lines on their blog
• #11: Content & Tracking: Now we can talk about what is actually going in the email. I hope you you did not think this was going to get easier! Before you start writing, we need to define your brand and your engagement factors: we need to establish campaign your goal, brand tone, your length, and how to track engagement The ultimate goal of each individual email should always be evident and communicated throughout the email. That goal should always be expressed through the established tone that you’ve created for your brand. When crafting your content remember we cannot measure eyeballs on an email, but we can track interactions. So don’t put all of your content in the email, put enough of a description to get people to click to read more. Remember this is a marketing channel and that implies that we are using it to move something through it. We want to use email to drive people based on your initial call to action.
• #12: Now that you have crafted your email, we need to talk about distribution. When are is your customer ready? Another factor to consider when you’re creating your strategy is timing. There are better and worse times of the day to get people to engage with your email. Whatever platform you use will provide you with actual open results, so after some trial and error testing you can really hone in on the optimal time of day. You can also look at your website and social media analytics to see when your customers are interacting with your brand to give you a place to start. Now you are ready to send.
• #13: SEMINAR: Today we are going to focus on the sender. So we will dive into the different platforms and how to choose between mailchimp and constant contact and Emma. We will go through the technical jargon like Opens, Bounces, Clicks, Shares and more. We talk about list building strategies and other built in features that will make your life easier and your communications more effective.
• #14: So, how do we approach tracking? We start by covering the top six measurements that really matter. We’ve broken this down in two sections: What we want more of (opens, clicks and shares) and what we want less of (bounces, unsubscribes, and marked as spam) _ _ _ _ _ _ Opens - The open rate is a measure of how many people on an email list view that specific email campaign | This tells you whether or not your subject line is doing it’s job. Clicks - Assuming you’ve got the whole Call to Action thing down and have placed multiple links/buttons in your email, your click rate shows you how many people are actually clicking them and more importantly reading through your email! Keep in mind, if links aren’t obvious or if the call to action isn’t something that compels the audience to click, then your click through rate will suffer. Shares - Recipients have the option to share with friends by forwarding the email or social sharing.
• #15: On to what we want less of: Bounces - Your bounce rate shows you who didn’t receive your email. There’s several simple reasons for this like a full inbox, the server was down, or the message was too long. We call these soft bounces. Then there are more complex reasons for a bounce like the email is invalid or no longer in use. You want to monitor your bounce rate to avoid trouble for your email account later. Unsubscribes - Individuals who cancel a subscription to an electronic mailing list or online service. In short: people who don’t want your emails anymore. Of course, the smaller the amount the better, but there’s always going to be someone who changes their mind about receiving content from you. This also helps you determine if you’re sending too often or off the scope of your email campaign. Marked as Spam - When recipients mark emails they do not remember opting in for, or did not opt in for as spam. The main moral of the spam story is to never send to someone that has not confirmed by word of mouth or by signing up for it.
• #16: Having different email lists is important because often times you have multiple types of customers. Think about it - If you own a bank, chances are you are trying to communicate with several different kinds of people. That which resonates with millennials may not have the same affect on baby boomers. For that reason, creating lists will help you customize content for while keeping different groups in mind. There are several best practices for creating and maintaining your email marketing lists. List management is critical. Go in every few months and clean up your lists to only contain active email addresses. As we mentioned earlier, customizing your content based on different lists is a strategic way to maintain strong, impactful relationships with your contacts. Finally, after a few months of trial and error, create a list growth strategy based on what you know resonates and reaches each individual group.
• #17: Features are fun because they’re designed to make you look better. Offered features, while just engaging in nature, are very functional and help you run your email marketing campaign more efficiently without requiring too much more effort on your end. This includes things like sign up forms, which helps you to grow your list and increase your following. Another helpful feature is branding your templates because this means you are constantly reinforcing your brand and credibility. Social sharing features help create a consistency across the board for all of the different platforms you engage on.
• #18: Part B of email marketing is tracking. You need to know what worked, what didn’t, and how to adjust your strategy to ensure you will always be improving. This is made possible by the analytics provided by the platform you use to send out your campaigns. The analytics show you the details of your email campaign success. Tracking is just as, if not more important than the content itself because without a consistent gauge that tells you how your emails are performing, you’ll just be creating content to create it.
• #19: The pace of a successful email marketing campaign is slow and steady, because it goes back to earning your readers trust. You might see the kind of results you want instantly, but if you don’t, you’re still right on track to grow a successful email marketing relationship with your clients. It’s your job to make people want to read your emails and by consistently developing your strategy, building your lists, and customizing your content, you will create a campaign will impactful and long-term results. Email Marketing can be a very effective tool for connecting with your customer if you take the time to form a strategy and implement intentionally.