Increasing Email Marketing Statistics: Open Rates and Click Thru’s

You probably have heard that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to deliver a message, track results and generate a higher return on investment. You may also wonder, if this is true why haven’t my sales increased or why aren’t potential clients breaking down my door? If you haven’t seen a high return on investment and want to start generating better results and higher sales conversions, this post is worth your time in reading.

It Starts with the List

When you are just getting started with email marketing or if you are trying to improve your results, be sure to understand your list. There are a number of different factors that make up an effective email campaign, but those factors will fade out without understanding your list. As an example, say you have a list of 500 current and potential clients.

• The first thing you need to do is make sure that you segment your email list so you are not sending your current clients something that they have either bought or are already aware of. Not paying attention to this type of segmentation can actually effect how people view your company.
• Once you have separated potential clients from clients, you will want to make sure that you get to know them better. I am a firm believer in online survey’s. Take the time to put together an online survey with questions that answer the following points.

- When they check their email

- What type of information they would like to receive

- How often they would prefer to view your information

- What are their hobbies and interests

There are many online survey products, but I prefer either Constant Contact or Survey Monkey. Constant Contact makes it much easier to manage your data and import into list segments.

• Review your results from the online survey and now determine how you would like to segment your list and how you want to deliver content to the email list segments. In the example of the list of 500 contacts, you will need to determine, based on the survey results and how much content you actually have capable of delivering, what segments make sense based on numbers. For example, if you break your list down into the following segment: POTENTIAL CLIENT > INTEREST: FISHING and only 5 other people choose that as a hobby or interest, it may not be worth your time segmenting that far. However, you could break it down into the segment: POTENTIAL CLIENT > INTEREST: OUTDOORS. When it comes time to review your email campaign statistics, it will be much easier and less time consuming to find out how this particular segments reacts to your email content.

These are just a few points to consider. Please check back frequently as I will follow up and take the subject of increasing email marketing effectiveness steps further. It will be well worth your time.

I would be more than happy to grab a cup of coffee sometime or chat on the phone to discuss your current email campaign. I have my contact information listed below. Thanks for your time in reading today!

- Jason Verdelli, Author
President of Phase 2 Solutions, LLC
(717) 823-6657
jasonv@phase2solutions.net
www.phase2solutions.net

Grow Your Email List and Segment to Increase Sales Conversions from Email Campaigns

In the last post, I gave you a few ideas on how to grow your email database. In this post I will go into how to segment your email list properly to assure that you are securing maximum profits in your email campaigns. To start, when you are collecting emails for your email database  you want to try to collect as much data as you can, keeping in mind that you want to keep the forms short enough to assure people aren’t being turned away due your email collection forms being too long. Name, email and zip code seem to the be the most common. Some website only collect the email address itself which will statistically increase the amount of sign ups to your email list due to the fact that it doesn’t take much time to just enter an email address. Having to fill out a long form can be too much for some people, so my suggestion is to keep it short, you can always collect more data once you have their email address. Let’s dive into that a bit further.

By keeping your email collection forms short you will need to research further into the demographics of your email list. My suggestion is to take advantage of survey tools offered by company’s like Constant Contact, Survey Monkey or a form that stores survey data. Ask questions such as

• What topics are you interested in receiving information about?
• How often would you prefer to receive the information?
• Is there any particular topics that you would like us to cover in the email campaigns?

These are just a few questions to ask. Keep some of your questions objective and some of them subjective. With your survey results you will be able to create email list segments so you can send targeted information to the subscribers within those lists. By taking the time to conducting the surveys and segment your email list accordingly you will find that you will receive higher open rates and higher click thru rates. One of the most important points to remember after you have segmented your email list is to always create a call-to-action in the email campaign to have your subscribers refer other people to join your email list. If you are only collecting basic information from the subscribers you will need to create an email list called “General Interest”. Anybody that is in your “General Interest” email list should be in the que to send a survey to later on once you have collected their email address.

All of these points that I have just mentioned are very important as you grow your email list. Growing an email list is great, but you need to segment your list if you want to increase your sales conversion rate and make more money. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, please feel free to contact me: info@phase2solutions.net

10 Ways to Grow an Email List

Below are 10 great way to grow an email database to assure you are building a list of quality email addresses. This will ultimately lead to increased sales conversions and higher profits.

1. Provide Incentives to Your Current Clients -Your clients are connected to many people that would be more likely to consider your product or service. Providing incentives to your current clients to forward onto their contacts is key to assure that they will actually do it so you can grow your email list. Find yourself a service that can manage and automate this type of activity. Here is a great site that provides a service that is inexpensive:

Forward My Flyer.com

2. Put a Link in The Signature Line in Your Email - Simply put a link at the bottom of your email list that says something along the lines of: “Start receiving our discounts” or “Make more money with XYZ Newsletter”.

3. Advertise on Other Relevant Newsletters – Simply call or email other businesses that are running a newsletter that provides content that is complimentary to yours. Make sure that the link goes back to your email lead capture form. Offer a spot on your newsletter to the company that has agreed to add your link on their newsletter.

4. Put the Email Marketing Sign Up Instructions on the Back of Your Business Card: The back of your business card is where you are going to want to put the purpose of your email campaign as well as instructions for signing up for the email list.

5. Position Your Email List Sign Up Form in Proper Position on Your Website: Positioning of where your email list sign up form is crucial in making sure that you are optimizing the amount of emails that you are obtaining from your website. Typically putting the email list sign up box on the top right part off each page or at least the homepage seems to be the best. I have tried to put the email list sign up form on different parts of websites, but have found the best results came from the top right part of the page.

6. Write A Blog to Grow Your Email List – Provide a very informational blog that provides valuable information to your readers. Keep your articles up-to-date and give your readers the opportunity to receive more “exclusive” information that you would not normally post on your blog. This shows that there is a great value in joining your email list thus forcing their interests to turn into additional readers on your email list.

7. Just Ask – Think of how many people you come in contact within a days time. Think of how many phone calls that you make during a day. Simply make sure that you develop a habit of asking for their email address and ask if they would like to receive more information from your company. The simple act of asking is enough trust for some people to give their email address up to receive your newsletters and email blasts. Even if these individuals do not convert right away, as long as  you have them on your email list they will be kept up to date on everything that is going on with your company so the next time that you call you will have discussion points.

8. Put Your Email Marketing Sign Up Form on Other Websites – Look for sites that serve as a portal for company’s that you are within your industry. Most sites will attract targeted traffic and the opportunity for more people to visit your email list sign up form. Website directories and program such as Forward My Flyer give you the ability to link directly from these sites to a page devoted to your form. The destination URL should only have a form for them to fill out and nothing else. The less you clutter pages like this the more likely you are to get more targeted people to sign up fory our email list.

9. Use Social Networking - Start a conversation with a business professional or prospect within on a social network (i.e. LinkedIn, B-Link, Plaxo, etc.) and simply ask them if they would like to receive the valuable information that you are providing through your email marketing efforts. You will find most people, if you have taken the time to engage the conversation, will say yes and will look forwarding to receiving your information. Remember, you are not selling on the social networks, just developing conversation. Start enough of them and you will find your email list will skyrocket with people that are interested in your product or service. Email marketing is when you move the conversations on the social networks to the qualification process to increase the amount of conversations coming from  your email campaigns.

10. Provide a Forwarding Incentive or Prize – One of the single most successful program that has worked in growing an email list is providing a contest to current clients to give them the chance to a win a worth while prize by forwarding an opt-in message to their contacts. By simply automating this process, through programs such as Forward My Flyer, you will be able to track the data and manage the offer, incentive or prize winning that you are providing to your current clients or people on your email list. Make sure that the prize is given away within a short period of time to make the forwarding process and the email growth process happen faster. Remember you are simply giving the your current clients or people on your list the ability to send incentives to their contacts as well as a link back  to your forwarding form so they can sign up for your email list as well as send your information onto others so they can be eligible for your contest.

How to Build a Quality Email Database of NEW people

As an owner of an internet marketing company, Phase 2 Solutions, I have been responsible for managing email campaigns for hundred of different clients. One thing I have learn over the years and research and practice is that you can follow all of the rules of email marketing and do everything right in the process, but if the quality of your database is not matching that you are going to struggle. I have found that average open rates in email campaigns tend to range around 30-50%. The most successful clients ranged around a 50-70% open rates. The main difference in the average campaigns versus very successful campaigns is the email list. Although proper email aesthetics, subject lines and messaging are important, the who is receiving that information is above all. Most people find very poor results from email marketing when they send to a list of business cards that they picked up at a networking event or email addresses from a list that was purchased or entered from a membership book. The rate of return these types of lists are approx. 1%. This is where most people who use email marketing as a tool to market their business get discouraged and don’t understand why it is not working as effective as they have been told or heard from others.

The email list starts with relationships. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Who are my current clients?
• How often do I come in contact with my clients during a week/month/year?
• What do my client appreciate more than anything?
• How well connected are my clients in the community?

These are just a few of many different questions that you need to ask yourself when you are looking to enhance your campaigns. The key to success to building a quality email database that will produce results is to understand the power of relationships. Within relationships witholds one of the most important element in sales and life for that matter: TRUST. You build relationships to eventually build trust. Everyone around has relationships so let’s start there.

First, try thinking of 10 people that you know very well. Second, name at least 2 people that have strong relationships with each of the 10 people. Now we need to find a way to transfer trust that the 10 people that surround you withold and give it to the people they have relationships with. You may ask, How can that be possible? I am here to tell you it is possible and it is actually quite easy. You need to learn how to leverage online tools to streamline and automate these actions. Programs, such as Forward My Flyer, that facilitate this activity give you the ability to provide an incentive to your current clients or closer business colleagues by simply sending them to a web page with a simple form. Have them fill out their name and information and their friend or business colleagues information and the system will automate the entire process from messages to flyer or gift voucher graphics with their data on it so everything is personalized. Take the data from programs like this and transform it correctly into an email marketing sending service (i.e. Constant Contact). It is important to name your data field in your email marketing program so that the recipients (the people that your closest people have relationships with), see that they are receiving information because of somebody they knew had sent them information about your business. Learning how to customized the data within email marketing programs like this can make your open rates and click thru rates skyrocket.

To get started in  your planning process to implement a strategy like this, simply pull out a sheet of paper and write your name in the center of it. Draw a circle around your name and another circle outside of that. Once you have complete that start listing everyone you know closely within the two circles. Then draw another circle and jot down who you know that they know. Continue on until you cannot draw any more circles. Your immediate goal should be to draw ten circles. Most of you will stop around 3 or 4. Take some of the ideas that I have shared in this article and put them to action and reach that 10. Once you have reached that 10 and are habituating this process to where you can start drawing 50 circles, you will slowly become a online viral marketing expert.

Be sure to check back daily as I will continue to write more articles pertaining to this topic and other relevant topics.

Here is a great website to get started in your online viral marketing effort:

Forward My Flyer.com – Online Viral Marketing and Quality Email List Build Reaching NEW people