Promotional Products International AssociationE-Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business

Jeanne L. Allert, M.Ed.Ellipsis Partners

Baltimore-Washington

First, a few questions

1. What aspect of your business are you trying to grow?2. Does “growing your business” mean “generating more business” or

does it mean “doing business better”?

MORE– Expand customer base (by geography? number? Industry diversity? )– Expand inventory offering (and make market aware of it)?– Increase transactions (frequency, repeats, upsell, dollar amount)?

BETTER– Expand brand awareness– Improve customer service/responsiveness– Offer contemporary services

3. Do you have the infrastructure to support the growth you desire?

Agenda

Email Marketing - “PUSH”• Building & Managing Your Lists• Refining Your Emails

Website Marketing - “PULL”• Improving your Site’s Visibility• Enhancing the Visitor’s Experience• Learning from your Website

Gathering Customer Intelligence – “ASK”

And a few new tactics on the horizon…

Prentice Hall eMarketing report indicates that marketers have found online promotions achieve three to five times higher response rates than direct mail.

Email Marketing Strategies

Blind Email Campaign Ask for visitor’s email address on your website Offer incentives for online customers to give

you their email addresses. Ask your recipients to forward your email onto

their network of contacts Provide your call center (receptionist) with

script to ask for email addresses and get opt-in permission

Always ask for email addresses on your printed and Web order forms

Have a sign-up form on each page of your website

Encourage sign-up on signature lines Sign-up requests on receipts, invoices,

confirmations Footer on Press Releases

Build Your Email Lists

Manage Your Lists

Ask for preferred email address and state what you will use it for

Practice Opt-in or Double Opt-in Attend to Opt-outs immediately Offer a gracious “you’re welcome to come

back” Let members manage their own Opt-in and

email address changes via your website Use Subject Line to remind recipients to reply

for Double Opt-In

Use Your Email Signature Line

Message Presentation

• Use of branding/imagery

• Use of stationery and colors

• Do you expect the email to be printed?

• What is the likelihood your audience can support the presentation you’ve created?

• How important to have your brand associated with the content?

• Does the graphical treatment lend value to the message or detract from it?

Wasted Effort?

Timing Your Campaigns

• Consider:– When do you want them to receive the

email?– How long does it take for your emails to be

received? – What offline media might coincide with the

email? (news broadcast, magazine?)– What are the psychographics (behaviors)

of your readers? • 62% of emails opened between Tuesday –

Thursday • 80% of emails opened between 5am and 5pm

PST. • News-oriented emails are best (expected)

early in the morning• A high % of SPAM sent during middle of the

night and on weekends; don’t compete with them

SPAM Management

DEFINITIONUnwanted email, sent in bulk, to unfamiliar audiences for the purposes of solicitation

INCOMING• Teach staff how to set up their own filters• Inform staff what filters are operating at the server level• Know the difference between “blacklists” and “whitelists” and how to manage those• Preview pane display = Read• Outlook 2003 – does not automatically display images in HTML; also offers personal

whitelists and blacklists • Do you list staff emails on your website ?

ONE IDEA: jallertATellipsispartner.comANOTHER IDEA: “type first initial last name @ xyz.com”

• Set up departmental email boxes and manage them

SPAM Management

OUTGOING

• Avoid SPAM-prone words like “free,” “give-away,” or questionable adjectives

• Use a consistent email address for sending

• Use an external email service for large mailings

• Send email in small, irregular batches

• Post your privacy policy on your website

• Train your market to look for your email (and whitelist it)

• Have instructions on your website for whitelisting your emails

• Forward "unwanted or deceptive spam" to spam@uce.gov maintained by the FTC. The data collected is used to prosecute perpetrators of scam or deceptive advertising

• Cut and paste email header and full text and submit to www.spamcop.com

• Look up the source of some SPAM mail by true domain at www.abuse.com

• SPAM’em back

Fighting Back !

A Good Example for Marketing

Identifying logo

Call to action

Peer testimonial

Opt-out instructions

Personal tone

Engagingphotos

SMS (short messaging service) Marketing

Advantages of SMS marketing• Personal nature of cellphones make SMS marketing a powerful tool.• Most people take their mobile phones everywhere - effective for time

sensitive messages.• People tend to read virtually every text they getPotential disadvantages of SMS marketing• A maximum 160 characters.• Get their permission and ensure that your SMS marketing complies with

privacy and data protection rules.• Required to make it clear who the message is from and commercial

communications must be clearly recognizable as such. • You need to use a mobile phone company to send out the texts for you.

the amount of money spent on advertising on mobile phones has been small but it has been growing rapidly. In 2005, advertisers spent $45 million on such messages, and should spend around $150 million in 2006 , according to Ovum Research, which projects that such spending will reach $1.3 billion by 2010."

Text messaging enables information to be sent to groups of people quickly. The development of 3G (third generation) and smartphones, which have larger screens and can play music and video clips, has made multimedia messaging service (MMS) possible.

Web Marketing Strategies

Bring them inServe them well

Learn about themBring them back

Your Name and its Visibility

• Secure a domain name that is recognizable, relevant, and memorable

• If feasible, secure domains that are “too similar” and create a redirect to your site

• Use branded email for staff. Most consumers don’t interpret free ISPs as a serious business email address

• Optimize your website for Search Engines

• List your site with Web Directories

• Promote website on offline channels, publications, correspondence and merchandise

Search Engine Optimization

• Set up Tags and Design for Search Engines

• Update Metatags based on site stats, organizational changes and seasonality

• Pay special attention to the TITLE tag !

Register Your Site

Register with Directories: Yahoo, Google, AOL. Switchboard, CitySearch, Local Directories, Shopping portals, Chamber of Commerce, etc.

Register your Products

Linking Strategy

• Local teams, organizations, companies, schools, colleges

• (client) Conference or event archives• Suppliers, Distributors, Partners• Product brands• Your clients• Complimentary businesses• Related products or services• Local web calendars

Create reciprocal linking relationships with:

Paid Placements

Google Adwords• no minimum budget• choose terms• pay only for CPC/click-thru

Navigation Options

• Audience Segmentation

• Searching

• Indexes

• Context-Grouping

• Site Map

• “Ask Jeeves” model

• Anchor your brand on each page

Use THEIR language

• Communicate so as to be understood

• Create website sections for markets where the language shifts dramatically

• Watch search terms to review “user lexicon”

• Have someone outside your industry “proofread” your site

• Don’t “dub-dub-dub”

Test Your Own Transactions

• Be very cognizant of what steps you are asking the customer to take

• Provide options• Anticipate errors• Communicate the PROCESS• Provide help at all junctures• Provide immediate confirmation of

transaction• Be clear on how the customer can

follow up

Personalization

• Products, services and communications targeting the individual• Based on robust database rules

Interactivity

• Message Boards

• Discussion Forums

• Surveys/Polls

• Member Networking

• Images

• Virtual/Interactive tours

What can the visitor DO on your site?

Offer options for Communicating with you

• Provide a range of options for communicating with you

• Communicate service levels and turnaround times for those options

• Anticipate their questions

Online Tutorials

Instant Messenger/Chat

• Real-time response to customer questions• Requires staffing during “off” hours• Requires minimal technical skills• Aids customer use of the website• Transactions can be recorded/ tracked for

business intelligence

Dedicated Customer Support Page

Site Concierge

• Uses video animation to simulate a personal assistant

• Limited interaction• Impacted by user’s

desktop• Impact on 508

compliance

Bulletin/Message Boards

• Encourage your customers to talk about your products online• Regularly mine public boards for postings about your offerings• Periodically search the archives• Monitor boards for opportunities to provide information, resources and links

back to your programs• Volunteer to moderate a public board• Seed the conversation with (legitimate) topics that promote your value

Blogs

• Have a purpose and stick to it• Offer real and unique value• Push customers to use it• Blog SPAM danger

eCoupons

• frequent shoppers are rewarded when they reach a certain level of value or purchases

• shoppers are encouraged to return with an e-coupon towards future purchases

• incentives to encourage customers to purchase immediately rather than waiting for a better deal or shopping elsewhere

• first time customers are offered special deals in order to help turn them from browsers into purchasers

• Coupons usually include a code that the customer is required to enter before they finalize their order to receive the discount.

• used to encourage customers to sign up for e-newsletters, with the newsletter helping to increase sales and build your customer database

Rebate Coupons

• For growing repeat business

• Make the rebate meaningful to the customer

• Be VERY clear about your offer and what you will do with their information

• Test and adjust

What’s Important to Learn about your Online Customer

Classic Market Segments

• Age

• Gender

• Income

• Education

• Geography

• Industry

Web-Relevant Characteristics

→Technology Access/Reception

→Technology Reliance

→Motivation

→Time

→Past Web performance

Market Intelligence Gained By Asking

• Interval Surveys / Polls• Constant Survey• Focus Groups

• Customer profile forms• Interest Inventory• Preferences

Market Intelligence Gained By Profiles

Market Intelligence Gained By Tracking

• Forums• Discussion

Boards• Email Response• Chats• IM usage• Web Stats

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Remember those questions

1. What aspect of your business are you trying to grow?– Be clear about your business goals

2. Does “growing your business” mean “generating more business” or does it mean “doing business better”?– Consider technology investments in both areas

3. Do you have the infrastructure to support the growth you desire?– Better to do less and do it well than try to do more and fail

SUMMARY

EMAIL MARKETING

– Requires ongoing diligence to build and maintain your lists

– May have to train your market to be on the lookout for your emails

– Doesn’t have to be sizzle; should be mostly steak

– Track performance and adjust

WEB MARKETING

– Be active about bringing them to your site (“out of sight, out of mind”)

– Design from the users’ perspective

– Create opportunities for interaction/engagement

– Anticipate their needs and provide for them

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

– Ask them!

– Mine your data

– Learn and adjust