12 practical tips for customer preference centres
Preferences centres have never really caught on have they? Many of the big retailers like this one from Amazon or Tesco have had them for years, but they're still not used so widely.
Here's a great example of a B2B preference centre:
I remember, as far back as 2003 I defined these ‘E permission marketing principles’ to prompt email marketers to think how to improve relevance and targeting of emails - the main purpose of communications preference centres.
The key advice remains valid I think:
1. ‘Offer selective opt-in to communications’
Offer choice in communications preferences to the customer to ensure more relevant communications. Some customers may not want a weekly e-newsletter, rather they may only want…
How do you bridge the gap between email's value and the failure to recognise this value?
As a marketer, what do you associate with email marketing?
The traditional media impression is one of an ageing Labrador: reliable, steady, still capable of doing a good job, but not really where the action is these days.
And then there's the go-getting reality.
Here are some key numbers that popped out of the UK DMA's recent National Email Client Report, which surveyed 250 brand marketers on how they feel about email marketing and its role, how they use it and what results they're getting…
Is email still relevant in a multichannel, mobile and social world?
89% said email marketing is "important" or
"very important" to their organisation.
It’s just about those traditional generic promotions and newsletters, though?
One-size-fits-all…
It’s a perennial dilemma for email marketers, what's our best tactic to boost revenue?
For some companies, the only way they are increasing revenue is growing the size of the email list to give a corresponding rise in revenue. While an increase in subscribers will undoubtedly improve revenue, we all know that only growing your database can lead to a declining scale of effectiveness over time as open rates drop and the number of inactive subscribers grow.
So what are the alternatives?
This article will look at those key practices for improving returns from email marketing that should be on every marketers list:
Database growth
Deliverability improvements
Open Rate (OR)
Click Through Rate (CTR) & Conversion Rate (CVR) and show you where your time and budget should be spent.
So let’s start by taking a look at a fairly standard situation and see what effect on the bottom line each tactic has.
We’ll start from this baseline: a retailer makes £38,880…
Webcasts from the Smart Insights Digital Marketing Priorities 2013 summit
At our recent free summit many viewers asked to share the slide and recordings, so to collect them together we have a short series of posts to point you in the right direction. These is one for each of the topics covering each of Reach, Act and Convert and Engage in the Smart Insights PRACE digital strategy framework:
The full series of posts covering all eight webcasts are:
REACH audiences using SEO, Social media and content marketing
InterACT with audiences on mobile platforms and for B2B audiences.
CONVERT visitors using persuasive design and CRO.
ENGAGE customers through content and email marketing.
You can view all recordings here.
The two webinars focusing on engaging customers and encouraging advocacy were:
1. Content Marketing priorities for 2013 with Dan Bosomworth of Smart Insights and First 10
Dan Bosomworth MD of First 10 discussed…
Plus 5 things The Hobbit can teach us about email marketing
This is the time of year when we bloggers sit down to write about all the exciting developments and innovations expected over the next 12 months. You know, those game-changing technologies and trends that will represent the "2013 Email Challenge".
It's either that or write about "5 things The Hobbit can teach us about email marketing". Actually, there are a few things the hobbit can teach us, here you go:
Build anticipation
Maintain interest with a multipart content series
Don't try to appeal to everyone (you can't and you don't want to anyway)
Sometimes longer is better...and sometimes it isn't
Use new technology as a tool, not as an end in itself
Anyway, hot trends and innovations are important, but there are basic, less glamorous tasks that need taking care of, too. Perhaps what is most important is things that aren't…
Techniques for retailers reviewing their email marketing communications
Whether it's online sales for mulitchannel retailers, etailers, big chains or independent stores, everyone knows the power of using email marketing to prospects and customers to boost profits. Used in conjunction with a sophisticated automated email marketing strategy, and email marketing can work even better for you. In this post I hope to give you some ideas to take your email marketing to the next level through email automation, particularly if you just have a basic enewsletter programme in place.
How to boost your e-commerce through email automation
Email automation tools gives many options to create more targeted, relevant messages as customers interact with a retailer.
Split the difference - testing
Do you prefer to read your emails over your cornflakes or just before you go home? Do clever subject lines draw you in or do you prefer something a bit simpler? Not everyone has the same…
By
December 18, 2012
Last year I made half a dozen resolutions for 2012 as an email marketer. The basic overall theme was to focus more on relating better to people we serve on their terms, be they clients of the company I work for or subscribers to an email newsletter of any of those clients.
I don’t know how you did with your resolutions, but here’s my self-assessment of how I did.
1. Stop talking like a rocket scientist
I’d give myself 7 out of 10 on this one. While like to think I’m naturally talented at putting industry terms and complex ideas into frames of reference which people can understand, I still found myself being lazy at times. Who wants to write out ESP or CTA and so on? I’ll tell you, don't confuse the people who most need to understand what…
5 tips for better marketing copy
Most articles about writing marketing emails look at calls to action, paragraph length and similar. All important of course.
But the process of developing text that moves the reader to the right action or thought is not just about the actual writing. It's also about creating the ideal environment for people to write good copy.
So how do you help those people do a better job?
(At this point, email copywriters like me will simply suggest you pay them more - just kidding).
Here a few personal tips that I've found help.
1. Provide the right framework
You wouldn't expect an architect to build you the right house with no more information than "I need a house". So it is with an email copywriter. They need a briefing that goes beyond simply stating what text elements you want written.
The more contextual information you provide about the whos, whys and whats of…
An introduction to good practices for Welcome mails
To make your welcome emails work well, start by thinking through the range of motives that lie behind someone visiting your website and signing up for email? Let’s look at one example: A prospective customer has searched online, Facebooked friends for recommendations and ended up visiting your site, they haven’t purchased but have signed up for email.
Putting this into a real life context; a customer walks into your store, browses through several different items but doesn’t buy anything. In their way out they ask if you can send them further information about the products they were looking at.
Would a salesperson watch them walk away or would they take some time to tell them why they should buy from you, the great range that you have, present a few customer favourites or highlight your no quibble returns policy and help them make their mind…
Is there really a best length for an email subject line?
Yes, there is an answer to the question of what is the right length for a subject line. In the words of Deep Thought, "you're probably not going to like it". Nonetheless, I am going to tell you.
In case you don't know, Deep Thought is the computer in Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, built to answer the ultimate question of "what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything".
Deep Thought was the most powerful computer ever made and took some millennium to work out the answer, it is after all a difficult question. Needless to say great expectation and excitement built up around the day the answer would be given.
On that day Deep Thought announced there was indeed an answer, but warned that his makers would probably not like it. Deep Thought pronounced the answer as the number…
