Traffic Academy: Get In the Driver’s Seat! (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of our guide to driving traffic online!
In Traffic Academy Part 1, we covered what online traffic is, why it matters, and how you can increase it using free methods.
In this section, we will cover the paid methods you can use including Facebook ads, banner ads, solo ads, and PPC advertising.
By the end of this series, you will have the knowledge to form a strategy which integrates both paid and free traffic methods to get the results you are looking for.
Let’s get started!

Paid Traffic Methods

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are available through the Facebook platform as long as you have an active Facebook business page.
Facebook offers a user friendly ad creation process that you access right from your profile page.
The native ads they provide can appear in the newsfeed of your audience so they blend in with other posts.
Alternatively, they can appear in the right-hand column of the desktop version of Facebook.

 

There are many objectives you can choose from depending on what your goals are.
You can drive traffic to your website, drive conversions, increase app downloads, increase video views, or even just boost a post to reach more people!

 

Once you select your objective, you can target your audience using very detailed options.
From demographics to interests to behaviors, Facebook really allows you to fine tune your audience.
They even allow you to create custom audiences through existing lists you have, and look-a-like audiences so you can target users who are similar to those on a list you already have.
For more on targeting and audiences, check out our Facebook Targeting 101 post here.
Once you target your audience, you will select your schedule, set your budget, design your ad, add in calls to action, and then place your order.
When you have ads running, you can track their performance and cost in the Facebook Insights section.
It is a relatively easy process and the ads have shown they can be very effective.
Facebook continues to focus on improving the experience for their users by limiting the amount of organic business posts in news feeds in favor of friends and family posts.
Facebook ads can help you to still get the exposure you need to reach your desired audience!

Best Practices

When designing an ad for Facebook, keep in mind that visually appealing ads do best.
Be sure to choose engaging media whether it’s an image or video.
You will also want to invest some time into strategizing your ad copy as you have a small amount of space to engage and interest the reader to click through.
It can also be helpful to create different messages to different audiences.
You can create an ad targeted at people who have never heard of your business before, one to retarget those who have previously visited your website, and one for those who have watched your videos, etc.
Lastly, once your ads are posted, be sure to always follow up to gauge ad performance and make adjustments accordingly.
Better yet, try out this tool to check out the ads that have worked for your competition and save yourself some of the guesswork!

Banner Ads

Next up are banner ads.
These are advertisements that you can purchase that will show up in rectangular displays horizontally or vertically on host web pages.
They are typically image-based with some text and can link to the destination that you choose.
You can pay host sites for these advertisements using 3 pricing models: views, clicks, and conversions.
If you are interested in investing in banner ads, you can buy them direct from websites (i.e. Waze), by joining an ad network, or by hiring an ad agency through a catalog type environment where you buy remnant from various publishers (i.e. Google Adwords).
There are various sites available for banner ads, but here are some options you can check out:
http://web.blogads.com
https://www.buysellads.com
http://valueclick.com/
http://www.bannerspace.com/
http://www.eads.com/
http://www.doubleclick.net/

Best Practices

When using banner ads, you’ll want to identify your goal, who you are targeting, and what websites your target audience visits.
Once you know, it is time to design your banner. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Identify what you want to communicate in the small space available
• Keep your message clear
• Include a call to action
• Use colors that match your branding
• Consider interactive elements to attract more attention
• Stick to standard sizes
• Create a hierarchy
• Forget flash

As far as designing the banner, you could hire a professional web designer, a freelancer off a site like 99designs, or create your own.
There are also services like envatostudio available which handle all the back end coding for you so you can just design it from the front end.
These can be a viable option for reaching a new audience and directing them to your desired destination.

Solo Ads

 

Above is an example of a solo ad vendor website.
Solo ads are another great opportunity for you to reach a new audience, particularly if you know your conversion rate based on past data.
With solo ads, basically you create an ad in the form of an email.
Then you find a vendor who has targeted lists of email addresses and you pay them to send your email to their list.
Now, to be clear, you are not buying an email list.
An email you create is sent out to someone else’s list as a way for you to reach their audience.
It is important to understand that there is a risk in solo ads because you are trusting that the vendor has a list of engaged recipients and that they are actually sending your email to them.
You will want to choose a vendor who is reputable to decrease your risk.
You will also want to look for a vendor that offers performance-based pricing models in comparison to fixed rates.
This will ensure you are only paying for click-throughs, opens, and conversions.

Best Practices

Once you decide you want to use solo ads, it is important to calculate your marketing budget in order to ensure your investment is profitable.
You will need to name your goal, for example: email sign-ups, sales, etc.
Then calculate how much each conversion is worth to you and how often conversions to your target audience occur.
For example, if you get 100 email subscribers and 5 out of every 100 subscribers buy your product or service which costs $150 a piece, then every 100 email subscribers is worth $750 gross.
Then look at your conversion rates from the solo ad.
If you can get 100 subscribers and still end up profitable after your costs then this can be a useful tactic.
To find reputable vendors, you can go to well-known sites like Udimi.
In general, just keep in mind that if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.
Lastly, when creating a solo ad, keep in mind you have a small window to make an impression.
Your headline must be eye catching, your copy engaging, and you need to include a strong call to action that directs readers where you want them to go.
For more information about solo ads check out our Beginner’s Guide to Solo Ads article here.

PPC

In section 1 of this guide we talked about SEO and how to increase traffic organically by using certain tactics.
While highly impactful, it can take quite awhile to climb up to first page rankings.
If you need results faster, that is where pay per click (PPC) comes in.
PPC advertising allows you to display ads and only be charged when people actually click on them.
This means you can be making impressions and increasing brand awareness without paying.
Paid ads show up above organic search results on the search engine results page (SERP).
Here is an example where you can see the top results are marked as ads:

While getting to the top of search engine results can take some time with SEO, paid ads allow you to buy your spot right away.
However, it has been reported that organic search results have an 8.5x higher click through rate.
So, paid ads have their place as a part of a joint campaign with organic SEO efforts.

Best Practices

When running a paid ad campaign, keyword research is of the utmost importance.
You will need to use a tool such as the Google Keyword Planner to identify the right words to target.
You will find that short tail generic keywords like ‘sweaters’ are searched more, have more competition, and cost more to bid on.

 

Long tail keywords like “hoodie sweaters for women” which are more specific to your product or service, are searched less and are more affordable.
Additionally, these long tail keywords often have higher conversion rates as the people who type them are further along in their buying journey.
So, your campaign should include a balance of both.
Once you have your keywords chosen, you design an ad which will be relevant and attractive so that searchers will click on it.
Then the ad should lead to a destination which is also relevant to the ad and keywords.
In choosing which ad gets shown, Google takes into consideration what is known as the quality score.
This is basically an analysis of how relevant and effective your ad is to the page it leads to as well as the results of the click through.
So the more relevant and effective your ad, the more it will be shown.
As your campaigns run, you should be tracking and analyzing results to find out which ads and keywords are most effective.
Over time, you can improve campaigns and earn a higher ROI.
The ideal ads will result in high click-through rates and conversions with a lower cost per click.
To learn more about PPC Advertising, check out our article on 8 Reasons to Try PPC.

Time for Action!

Now you have an understanding of the fundamentals of driving traffic!
It’s important to consider the benefits available from both paid and free methods and to combine them strategically.
For example, if you have implemented an active social media presence on Facebook and Instagram paid Facebook ads can expand your reach even further.
Additionally, by implementing SEO practices on your website and blog you can climb the ranks of organic search engine results, while PPC advertising campaigns can give you visibility in paid results.
By doing both, you can end up with total domination of the search results page for your terms.
A combined strategy is the best strategy.
With this in mind, take some time to review your options.
Here is a quick overview of what we covered through this 2-part guide to driving traffic:

Free Traffic Sources

• Email marketing
• Blogging
• Social media
• SEO

Paid Traffic Sources

• Facebook ads
• Solo ads
• Banner ads
• PPC

By experimenting with the different channels available and tracking your results, you can gradually find those which work best for your business.
As a result, you can invest your marketing budget and time into those channels.
Also, always remember to strike a balance between free and paid traffic.
This will benefit your wallet and help your efforts since free and paid traffic methods drive different types of results.
Finally, don’t be frustrated if your results aren’t what you hoped for right away.
It is important to think of your marketing strategy as an ongoing process of refinement rather than one you get perfect on the first try.
The only way to really know what works is to research, plan as best you can, experiment, track and adapt.
Best of luck in your traffic driving efforts and if you have thoughts to share, feel free to comment!



Source

Start The Year Off Right: Clean Your List

As digital marketers, we know that one of the most important metrics of business is the size of your email list.
But hear this: email marketing is evolving.
As the CEO of Sendlane, I’ve been fortunate enough to see a lot of email marketing data come through our hands (to the tune of over 7 billion emails).
It’s interesting to see the different types of email list sizes and compare the actual activity that comes with them.
And, I’ve come to realize that the question is no longer the “size of your list.”
Now it’s “how active is your list.”
And yes, I’m talking about your open and click-through rates.
Because size doesn’t matter as much anymore… engagement is what we are aiming for, right?
Now, here’s a quick disclaimer: if you read something and worry about it going against what you’ve heard in the past, don’t let that deter you.
This entire article is based on my experience with Sendlane and the data we’ve analyzed over the life of the company.
Basically, the information comes from email marketing that is happening right now in the REAL world!
Now, I want to start off by debunking some MYTHS about “Cleaning Your List” so let’s dive right in!

The Myths

1. You need a service to clean your list

If you built your list the right way and have opted in subscribers (people who actually gave you permission) the idea of a “clean up service” is not the one for you.
Clean up services were created for people who buy data – aka buy email lists.
They will generally clean up known bounces, bad emails, spam traps, and more.
But if your email is permission based (which it should be) this should not be a concern.
So save your money – unless you REALLY want to spend it 🙂

2. They will open my email eventually!

Back when I started in 2009, I remember building my first email list.
I BABIED them.
I was scared to email them.
And when they stopped opening my emails, I started to get worried but I kept trying.
But, inactive subscribers aren’t just waiting for you to send the perfect email before they take action.
Here are the facts – 4 easy reasons why subscribers usually become inactive:

1. They no longer own or use the email (aka they changed emails)
2. They ignored enough of your emails (the email algorithm is now placing your messages in their spam).
3. They marked your email as spam (Ouch! I know, but it’s human nature, either by accident or on purpose).
4. They are simply no longer interested (and too lazy to unsubscribe).

Look, these are not the ONLY reasons – but these makeup MOST of the reasons why a subscriber may no longer be active.

3. It’s my Autoresponder service

If you are blaming your problems on your provider and thinking you have to move your list you might be right.
It’s true – not ALL Email Marketing Services (aka Autoresponders) are created equal.
But any reputable one, with a mass number of customers, will be pretty equal at the end of the day.
So, if you are bouncing back and forth between big providers (Sendlane, MailChimp, ConstantContact, etc.) expecting great results, you are doing yourself (and your marketing) a disservice.
Look, I wish I could sit here and tell you that Sendlane is the absolute best, but that would be a myth…
Your service doesn’t determine your activity.
But I will tell you what does if you keep reading!

Let’s focus on reality now

Now that we’ve gone over those 3 myths, let’s hone in on what is REALLY going on.
And luckily, these are also things you actually have the power to change.
So, here they are – 5 things that really affect your delivery:

1. Your actual email – simply put, the words that YOU put in your email can cause spam. Avoid the spam and email “curse words.” Really though, just STOP using these words!
2. Your links – You would be SHOCKED at how many links are blacklisted. Get a tool like ClickPerfect and keep yourself protected.
3. Your FROM email address – This is something people overlook. Is your domain aged? Does it have a website attached to it? Does it have good reputation? Consider an email address that reflects you professionally.
4. The TIME you send your email – Simply emailing at different times of the day can EASILY affect your open and click rates.
5. Your list is INACTIVE – Yes, I said it. If Joe Schmoe from 2011 doesn’t read your emails then it’s time to let them go!

And just as before, these are not the ONLY reasons for your delivery problems, but are 90% of why your emails are most likely not getting delivered.
Now that you’ve heard the 3 myths and their breakdown, let’s jump into the actual logic of properly cleaning your list!

How To Clean Your List (The right way)

It’s time to start talking about the actual task of CLEANING your list, the proper way.
List cleaning is actually much SIMPLER than it sounds – but also scary to a person who may or may not be accustomed to the idea.
If you’re using any email platform (such as Sendlane, MailChimp, Aweber, Get Response, Constant Contact, etc.), you’ll have simple and powerful segmentation tools available to you.
These will help clean your list painlessly.
The cleaning itself is generally done using the “Segmentation” tool.
Using Google, Wiki or a search in your AR tool’s help desk will reveal how simple it is to create a segment for your inactive or active list.
Now before you start, here’s the ONE basic rule of thumb:
“If a person has not OPENED an email from you in the last 120 days (4 months) – It is time to delete them from your list.“
Listen, I know that seems “short” but on the Internet, it is a LONG time.
If in 4 months they haven’t paid attention to your emails, what makes you think they will 121 days later?
Scroll above and read MYTH 2 again 🙂

BUT WAIT – What about “List Re-Engagement?”

The age old question – one that everyone who is CLINGING to their email list asks.
I’m going to give you the hard truth again.
If the person on your list has been IGNORING YOU for 120 days and you send an email saying, I’m going to delete you… and they open that email, does that really make them an active subscriber?
In the day and age where each subscriber costs you money (in the form of the monthly subscription to your autoresponder service) AND each subscriber can affect your overall delivery, why are you looking to re-engage someone who hasn’t OPENED an email in 120 days?
It’s the harsh reality and even if it sounds crazy, it’s time to let them go.
You only want people on your email list that are ACTIVE and want to listen to you.

What Do I Do With My Old, Inactive Email List Segment?

If you have a segment of your list that hasn’t opened an email in ages, there’s still lead potential to be had.
You can upload it into your custom audiences on Facebook or Google and create advertisements for them.
They are a warm lead as they opted in with you AND they were at one point active with your newsletter.
So take advantage of that!
Create a targeted ad and get them to buy or opt in to your list again.

Closing Thoughts and the Truth About Cleaning Your List

This is one of those articles people will either love or hate.
Those that love it will understand the importance AND benefits of cleaning your list.
Those who hate it, only hate it because they know what they NEED to do and the thought of removing people from your list is very scary.
But here are the 3 things you will achieve with a proper list cleaning:

1. You’ll have a more active and engaged list, one that will want to hear from you more often, buy from you, and respond to you.
2. You’ll save money. Each subscriber adds another tick mark to your list size. That list size determines how much you pay monthly. Don’t pay for dead weight.
3. Your OPEN and CLICK rates will increase. This happens for people every time I recommend it, and even in regard to my own list. Because you’re delivering LESS email and it’s getting HIGHER engagement, the ISP (like Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, etc.) will favor your emails for the engagement and push it into the inbox.

So today is the perfect day to start!
In the comments below, let me know which one of my tips were your favorite and if YOU plan to clean your list after reading my article!



Source

12 Tips for Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

 Christmas is well and truly just around the corner. Take a look at our 12 Christmas email marketing top tips to help you build and send fetching, festive email campaigns.

Analyse

Take the time to view and analyse past email marketing campaigns to see what worked well and what didn’t. Once you have acquired this knowledge you can plan your future festive campaigns to give them the best chance of getting good engagement rates.

Research

Spend a bit of time researching what’s hot and what’s not in your industry and check out the competition to see what they have up their sleeves. Try and incorporate these trends into your email marketing to show that you are also on trend.

Set A Goal

Whether it’s to get 20% more opens or 30 more clicks than last year, it’s good to set a goal as it gives you something to work towards. This way you can also aim towards improving results and statistics which always goes down well!

Plan

The old saying ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ is something to abide by here. Without having a plan of action for your email marketing it’s bound to not do as well as it could. Take a bit of time to sit down and think about individual emails and overall email campaigns. Look out for key dates and content that can be included to target specific audience members.

Punchy Subject Lines

As potentially the most important part of an email, your subject line needs to be powerful and punchy to encourage the recipient to read on. The best subject lines create excitement, urgency and curiosity. This can be done using personalisation or even emojis! Just be sure to keep them short and snappy.

Engaging Content

Probably one of the most important elements of an email – the content. Create engaging content by including clear images, gifs and easy to ready text.

Mobile Optimised

The festive period is a busy time, people are out and about on the move so you want to be able to target them whenever and wherever they are. Do this by ensuring your emails are optimised for mobile. Up to 75% of emails are opened on mobiles or tablets so it’s crucial that you make them compatible with mobile viewing!

Clear CTA’s

Call to actions are essential, they catch the readers eye and give them direction/instruction. Whether this be ‘BUY NOW’, ‘SEE MORE’ or ‘SHOP’ make sure they are direct enough to encourage recipients to click through to your website.

Test

Before any campaign is sent it’s imperative to carry out the necessary tests and checks. This includes making sure your email looks correct across multiple platforms, any spelling mistakes, images load properly, link errors, plus split and multivariate testing. For peace of mind, it’s always handy to have someone else take a glance as a fresh pair of eyes may notice things you haven’t spotted!

Dynamic Content

Some of your subscribers will be previous customers and you will have details of their last purchases. Use this to your advantage and tailor emails using dynamic content to include products relevant to recipients. This way you will have a much better chance of engaging them and potentially making another purchase.

Automation

Automation is crucial for email marketing these days. It allows you to set up multiple workflows for customer journeys including welcome programmes, nurture programmes, basket abandonment programmes, loyalty scheme programmes and many more!
Find out more about our visual marketing automation system, Maxautomation.

Review

Once an email campaign has been sent don’t just forget about it! Use this time to review and analyse how the campaign did. Without tracking and analysing results how will you know if they have been a success or not? Take the time after each campaign to look at delivery rates, open rates, click through rates and conversion rates.



Source

7 Tips to Help You Set up a Killer Email Drip Campaign

How are you planning to market your products and services?

That's probably the most relevant question for any business owner.

And the answer isn't an easy one.

Not because you don't have any marketing procedure to embrace, but because you're spoilt for choice these days.

But have you ever given a thought about embracing drip marketing for your business?
They are in-vogue these days.

Want to know why?
Because email drip marketing increases the open rate of emails significantly.
Average single open rate of drip campaigns is 32.85%. In fact, drip open rates are about 3 times higher than the click through rates of emails sent individually.
So, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t start a drip campaign to increase the return on investment for your business.
So, what's the best way to do that?
In this post, I’ll discuss how powerful drip campaigns are and will share actionable tips to build a killer email campaign that’ll increase sales and enhance customer retention.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Email is an extremely effective marketing tool for businesses, both established and start-ups. And that's not without any reason.
Did You Know?
• 82% of B2B and B2C companies use email marketing to reach out to their customers.
• Automated email messages experience 70.5% more open rates and 152% greater click-through rates than any business email.
• With email marketing, you are 40 times more likely than Twitter or Facebook to get new customers for your business.
Besides, here are a few benefits of email marketing, which can come in really handy at times.
• It reduces your marketing costs by helping you go digital.

• You can easily connect with your target audience.
• It helps to spread the word about your business.

• Ensures that you can connect with existing customer and attract potential ones.

In short, email marketing can help you reach out to a wider audience within a short time.

So, what is an email drip campaign?

An email drip campaign refers to sets of automated emails, which are sent out based on various aspects, such as user actions, specific timelines, and so on. For example, when a user registers for an account or performs an action on a site, an email is sent out to him. So, the emails sent out for drip campaigns are not required to be written manually every time. They are chosen from a set of already written emails, which are sent out to share the necessary information with the audience at the right time.

Is the email drip campaign really useful? How do they work?

Let’s have a quick look at a couple of case studies about the use of the email drip campaign.

Case study 1: A visitor registers on your website. An automated email is sent to the user to welcome him.

Case study 2: A document detailing your business is sent to a user. If he opens it, he is given one option. If he doesn't open it, another method is tried until the end of the drip.

This flowchart from the infographic on the website of Pardot, the marketing automation company, is a perfect graphical representation of the details of the drip campaign.



So, the email drip campaign can come in extremely handy to establish a brand name for your business. But that’s not an easy task. You’ll have to ensure that the right steps are undertaken to give an edge to the email drip campaign’s efforts.

So, how can you make your email drip campaign effective?

Here are a few tips that can come in quite handy for the purpose.

Know What You Want to Achieve

Why are you planning to begin an email drip campaign?

The objectives are usually quite simple: it's either to boost the sales and get new customers, to increase brand awareness, or to retain the existing customers.

But when you are starting the campaign, you should have a clear idea, which of these things you want.

How will having a clear goal help?

You can plan your steps of the email campaign in such a manner that they are meant to achieve the target you've already set for yourself.

Focus on the Quality of the Content

You have planned your email drip campaign. You have a proper goal in mind and you have also decided about the frequency of sending out the emails.

Yet, you are not achieving the desired results.

There can be several reasons behind this.

The most common, in fact, is that the quality of the content shared on the emails is not quite as good as your target audience would like them to be. Remember, when you are sending out emails for marketing and for generating leads, you can't send out any write-up.

So, you must create excellent email content before sending them out. Ensure that the content is engaging. You can shift from sharing simple text-based content and include various other media, such as images, videos, and so on.

Decide the Frequency

When you are engaging in a marketing campaign involving emails, you need to focus on one thing properly.

That's the frequency of sending out the emails.

You must have a clear idea about how frequently you should mail your current and prospective clients.

• 42% people think you should email your customers 2-3 times a week.

• 17% thinks you should mail 4-6 times.

• Only a few people (4%) think sending mails more than six times a week actually helps.

The frequency of sending out the emails will depend on the objective of your campaign.

For what are you sending the emails?

This will define whether the emails should be sent on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis.

Remember, one of the most important reasons for sending the emails through drip campaigns is to ensure that your brand remains in the mind of the current and prospective customers. It will also drive them to subscribe for your products and services.

The whitepapers or other documents can also be sent through drip campaigns. And these are mostly sent out on a fortnightly or monthly basis.

You can also set the time of sending out the emails. They should be planned in such a way that the target audience gets it during such a time of the day when he is most likely to open and go through it.

Keep an Eye on the Sequence

Even when you are sending the emails following the right frequency, you might get it wrong somewhere else. For example, you might send the emails on a wrong sequence. And that can be as bad as it can get!

In fact, an error like this can impact your brand name. Besides, your target audience might feel that you are spamming them.

How can this happen?

Here's an example.

When a person registers on your website, you are supposed to send a welcome email. You have set it to send out on day one. The next day, you are supposed to send out an email, which will ask the user how his experience of using your website has been.

Imagine a situation where the second email is sent out first and then, the user receives the first email the next day. This surely is going to be a debacle.

So, it is essential that you keep an eye on the sequence at which the emails are being sent out. This will help you perform the email drip campaign in a proper way.

Maintain a Checklist

There are quite a few things that you need to manage while creating an email drip campaign.

But it’s really not an easy task. And with so many things to do, you might miss out on one or two.

Well, that’s really going to be the worst thing possible. Missing even a single of those emails or sending them on a date, which isn’t scheduled can have an extremely negative impact on the email drip campaign.

So, is there a way to solve this problem?

Of course, there is.

You can create a checklist, which will help you keep a track of all the steps of the campaign.

It will also come in handy to have an idea of the emails, which are going to be sent to the potential as well as existing customers through the campaign.

Source

Don’t Do It! Most Common Email Marketing Mistakes

 Email marketing is one of the simplest forms of marketing, however, even with its simplicity there are a lot of common mistakes that Marketers can make. We’ve put together some of the most common email mistakes and tips on how to avoid them.

Mistakes in Subject/Preview Lines

Subject and preview lines are one of the most important components of an email however this is where mistakes are often made. Marketers tend to focus a lot on the actual content of the email and, more than often when testing or reviewing, the subject and preview lines are overlooked.

The best way to avoid this is to send test versions of your emails to a group of people within your office – this way the chance of mistakes slipping through the net is much more unlikely.

Email not Optimised for Mobile

In this day and age not having your emails optimised for mobile is a cardinal sin and there is no excuse for it. Up to 75% of emails are opened on mobiles or tablets so it’s crucial that you make them compatible for mobile viewing.

Your email builder should offer the option to create mobile-optimised templates at the least or in other builders such as Maxemail, the builder will automatically create a mobile version which can then be edited.

When testing your email always ensure you check it on mobile variants too!

Using A ‘No Reply’ Email Address

A big part of email is being connected and able to communicate – having a ‘no reply’ email address signifies the complete opposite. Recipients like to know there is someone ready and available to talk to if needed but being faced with an email they can’t reply to can lead to missed engagement opportunities.

To combat this you can use an email such as ‘contact@’ to encourage correspondance and include details of how recipients can get in contact with you if required. This promotes a much more friendly and helpful customer service.

Non-Personalised Content

Every recipient is different and has varied interests. Often Marketers send bulk blast emails to their whole list of contacts without regard to what individuals are actually interested in. Not only does this cause low engagement/click through rates it increases the amount of unsubscribes and spam marking as recipients are effectively being spammed with information they are uninterested in.

To keep your customers engaged and subscribed to your emails, personalise your emails to suit individuals. Use a mixture of segmentation, dynamic content and automation to tailor your emails to be relevant for recipients.

Find out some more tips on personalisation.

Not Using Automation

Automation is the hottest trend within the email marketing industry at the moment, so not using it would be one of the biggest mistakes you could make! Marketers can spend hours trying to create perfect workflows for customers’ and their journeys, but with automation, this time can be significantly reduced. Multiple programmes and workflows can be set up within minutes with ease and emails are so much more targeted for recipients – which ultimately improves the experience for recipients.

We’ve recently launched a brand new visual marketing automation system, Maxautomation. Find out more here!



Source

The Future of Messenger Marketing: What It Is, Where It’s Going, & Why The Future Is So Very Bright For Businesses

Find out what’s coming and how businesses are already deploying Messenger Marketing strategies to grow relationships with customers in this post.

If there’s one thing all business owners can agree on, it’s that you have to approach your customers in the places where they’re already hanging out.

If your customers are sports-loving guys who watch ESPN and the NFL Channel, you wouldn’t advertise to them on HGTV and Lifetime, would you?

Of course not.

You’d put your ads on sports networks where your target market will see them.

And that, in a nutshell, is why Messenger Marketing is set to become the world’s single biggest marketing channel in the next 5-7 years.

Messenger Marketing – noun – the act of leveraging mobile, chat platforms to facilitate conversations and commerce with prospects and customers.

There’s no denying the fact that we’re moving away from emails, SMS and phone calls. More and more we’re using mobile-friendly messenger apps like Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and WhatsApp to keep in touch with friends, family, and even businesses.

It’s the quickest, easiest, and most convenient way to reach someone.

Is it any wonder, then, why Facebook Messenger Marketing is the most exciting new marketing channel to come by in a long, long time?

Just look how quickly messaging apps surpassed social networks in monthly active users:

Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/messaging-apps

The steepness of that curve should tell you something: messaging apps have a naturally huge appeal. They’re too easy and intuitive not to use.

So, what’s to come? In the next 1,700 words, I’m going to give you a glimpse into the future of Messenger Marketing and apps, along with a few hints about some of the sophisticated new tools we have in the pipeline for ManyChat.

Before we jump to the future of Messenger Marketing, let’s talk about what it is and why it’s so important for your business to start using it to connect with your customers.

What Is Messenger Marketing?

Messenger marketing is a new and increasingly popular way to communicate with prospects, leads, and customers.

As a marketing channel it boasts better engagement than any other channel out there, including…

• Email
• Direct mail
• Social media
• Push notifications
• Skywriting

…you name it.

So what does that mean? Very simply, it means when you send your customers a message on Facebook Messenger, more people will open, read, and interact with your messages.

And those messages can either be live (say, a real-time conversation between a customer service rep and a customer), or they can be automated using a chatbot (much like an email autoresponder series). But unlike email, which has come to feel like work for most people, Facebook messages are quick & easy to respond to.

As a result, they get sky-high open and click-through rates.

If it sounds a little bit like SMS marketing, you’re on the right track.

However, with Messenger Marketing, you can do a lot of things you can’t with SMS, like sending beautiful messages that come complete with clickable call-to-action (CTA) buttons, GIFs, galleries, and more.

Basically, Messenger Marketing combines the instant delivery & attention of SMS with the attractiveness and automation power of email. Messenger also feels more personal than email, but less invasive than SMS—striking the perfect balance for businesses looking to communicate with customers.

And thanks to more and more integrations (such as our new integration with Zapier), you can now easily and automatically add Messenger contacts to your email list, register them for a webinar, and much more.

What Can You Do With Messenger Marketing?

The beauty of Messenger Marketing is that you can still do all the stuff you’re used to doing in your marketing efforts…

…it just makes everything easier and more effective.

When someone sends you a message they’ll be automatically added to your ManyChat subscriber list. From there you can add them to your email list and continue to follow up with them via email.

You can send them content, sell them products, ask for feedback, and more—all within the native messenger app.

The ability to add clickable call-to-action buttons in messenger gives you the freedom to customize messenger marketing for any business.

For example, look how easy it is to register someone for a webinar:

Depending on which link you click, Derek’s chatbot can automatically register you for the webinar, give you the details on how to attend, or offer to send you the recording.

You can also use ManyChat to segment your visitors and find out what their interests are, so that you can present them with relevant and personalized product recommendations:

Or, simply use a chatbot to deliver deliver white papers and other lead-nurturing content:

Cutting-edge ecommerce companies are using messenger marketing to send transactional messages (whether on desktop or mobile) — sending purchase confirmations, letting people know when their product has shipped, and so on.

Look how Code&Quill, a brand that creates specialty notebooks for creatives sends all the information their customers need about their orders:

Of course, you’re already able to do all of this through email. But email feels cold and impersonal, and even the best email marketing departments in the world still get open rates under 30%.

In contrast, Facebook messages provide your customers with the personal, one-on-one interactions they want, with open rates currently hovering around 85%. And if they have a question, all they have to do is reply to your message—and someone from your company will be able to respond instantly.

And that’s what’s so great about Facebook Messenger Marketing. It gives you all the automation you could want, but in a way that’s also private and personal. As a result it provides less friction for the end user, helping you to develop a deeper relationship with your customers.

(RELATED READING: How to Build a Simple Facebook Messenger Bot with ManyChat)

It was that goal—less friction for the end user, helping businesses to develop a deeper relationship with their customers—that drove us as we built ManyChat; the platform can already accomplish those things. But in the near future you’re going to see companies doing even more remarkable things with Messenger Marketing.

The best is yet to come.

And for a glimpse into what the future might hold, let’s take a quick trip across the world—where the future is now for messaging apps.

The Meteoric Rise of Messengers: The China Case Study

I’ve said before that in the next 5-7 years, Messenger Marketing is going to capture 80% of all B2C communication.

It’s going to replace email, websites, phone calls, and SMS as the primary way businesses communicate with customers. It’s not going to be “just another channel.”

It’s going to be THE channel.

And if you’re skeptical about any of this, look no further than China—where this exact thing has already happened.

In China, over 900 million people use WeChat each month, making it the most widely used app in the country. It’s the dominant way people communicate, pushing SMS and email to the sidelines—even at work, where many employees use WeChat for business communications (instead of email). The app allows for free video calls, easy sharing of large files, and instant group chats. Instead of exchanging business cards, you simply use WeChat to scan someone’s QR code and snag their contact information.

It’s done more than that, though.

In many cases WeChat has actually replaced websites altogether. Many bloggers in China have turned to WeChat as their primary channel for distributing content, generating massive readership without ever even posting to a traditional blog.

Did I mention it’s also a revenue monster—largely replacing cash and credit cards? WeChat Pay is everywhere in China: you can use it to pay for purchases at physical and online stores, request taxis, order movie tickets, and even buy a drink from a vending machine.

According to the 2017 WeChat User Report, 87-94% of users in China pay for offline purchases using WeChat…compared to 38-51% using cash and 29-36% using debit/credit cards:

Source: https://chinachannel.co/1017-wechat-report-users/

Statistics like this are really cool because they give a glimpse of what’s possible, of what’s coming, in the rest of the world. And when you combine that with all the capabilities of Facebook…all the rich data and targeting options hiding in our profiles…

You can see why the future of Messenger Marketing is so exciting.

The Future of Messenger Marketing

Imagine you’ve just spent a night at a hotel.

After you check out the next morning, you look at your phone and notice a notification from Facebook Messenger. You check it, and see that the hotel has sent you an automated message asking, on a 1-5 scale, how your stay was.

If you respond with a 1-3, the chatbot automatically asks you if anything was wrong and what they can do to improve. If you respond by telling them about the cockroaches you found under the bed, a customer service rep immediately replies to your message and credits you with a free stay.

If you respond with a 4 or 5, the chatbot automatically thanks you and gives you a link to leave a review online. They also tell you that, in the future, you can book a room by simply sending them a message with the date and type of room you want.

Doesn’t that sound quicker, easier, and more convenient for everyone involved? (Especially compared to the nightmare of opening graphic-heavy emails and navigating a poorly designed website on your phone?) And of course, the hotel chain will be able to store the data from this conversation in a central system and use it to provide better service in the future.

In short, scenarios like this are what the future holds for Messenger Marketing.

You’ll be able to set up chatbots that automatically send a message based on the last interaction the person had with your company—whether it was watching a video, making a purchase, viewing a certain product page on your website…you name it.

When someone needs to contact you, they won’t go to your website. Instead they’ll send you a Facebook message. Messenger will become your single point of interaction with customers—the one place where they can easily reach you anytime they have a question, need help, or simply want to make a purchase (which they will also be able to do directly through Messenger).

Powerful New Features Coming to ManyChat

I can’t give too many specifics just yet…but let’s just say we have a LOT of really exciting new tools and features coming out for ManyChat.

First up is an all-new way to create your Facebook Messenger experiences with a versatile and easy-to-use builder that will help you visualize the setup of the logic and sequence behind your chatbots. Built into this new tool will come a suite of intuitive analytics that will simplify the process of optimizing your Facebook Messenger campaigns.

We’re also working on more sophisticated and robust ecommerce systems that will help online retailers to generate more sales while providing better customer service through Facebook Messenger.

Better live chat capabilities are on the way, as are a whole host of triggers and automations to help you maximize sales & revenue while providing a seamless user experience for your customers.

Stay tuned for more news on these coming features as we roll them out in the coming months!

Want to Grow Your Business With Messenger Marketing?

Make no mistake: Facebook Messenger Marketing is going to be a huge marketing channel for everyone—consultants, ecommerce companies, brick & mortar stores, public figures and celebrities, event organizers, and more—for the foreseeable future.

Everyone can benefit from integrating Facebook Messenger into their marketing strategy. And given how fast Messenger Marketing is growing, the sooner the better.

Source

Writing a High-Performing Email

 Introduction

Imagine you’ve got a new product or feature you want to tell your subscribers about.

You sit down to create the email campaign, but you have no idea what to write. How do you write a subject line that gets your email opened? And how do you explain your new product to your subscribers in a way that will get them to click-through and buy it?

Writing high performing email campaigns can be a challenge, but it’s critical to your success as a marketer.

So in this guide, we’ll teach you how to write a high-performing email campaign that your subscribers will open and click, and will subsequently drive sales and revenue for your business.

The importance of great writing in your email campaigns

According to research by Microsoft, smartphones have left humans with such a short attention span that even a goldfish can hold a thought for longer.

According to researchers, who surveyed 2000 participants and studied the brain activity of 112 others, the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds today.

A goldfish is estimated to have a 9 second attention span.

This growth in smartphone usage and the subsequent reduction in attention span has significantly increased the importance of great writing. If you can’t write a great subject line that captures people’s interest, then you’ll never get them to open your campaign. And if you can’t explain your offer quickly and easily, you’ll never get them to click-through and purchase your product.

So how do you write a high performing email campaign that gets opened and clicked?

In the tips below, we’ll walk you through each stage of writing an email, and give you tips and best practices you can put to use in your very next campaign.

5 tips for writing a high-performing email campaign

1. Use a familiar from name

The From name is one of the most prominently displayed elements of your campaign when it arrives in your subscribers inbox.

On many desktop and mobile clients, it’s displayed with a larger text and heavier font to help people quickly identify who the email is from.


Given its prominence, it’s probably not surprising that 68% of Americans say they base their decision to open an email on the From name.

So how do you optimize this critical part of your campaigns and help boost your open rates into the 30%+ range? The key is matching it up with your audience’s expectations.

For instance, imagine you subscribed to an email newsletter from the BuzzFeed website. Would you expect to receive emails from ‘BuzzFeed’ or from ‘Dan Oshinsky’? Given that you’ve signed up for these emails from the BuzzFeed website, chances are it’s the earlier, even though it’s actually Dan who is creating and sending their campaigns.

On top of matching the From name to subscribers expectations, it’s also important to consider the number of characters you include in your From Name as many mobile devices have a limit to how many they display.

Device Name	Number of Characters Displayed
iPhone 6	32
iPhone 5	23
iPhone 4	23
Samsung Galaxy S4	32

 

*Results can vary based on your chosen copy as well individual user settings and preferences like font sizes and email clients. To get as close as possible to real-life results, we tested with the default email clients on each device, used Lorem Ipsum dummy text and had the device in portrait mode.

As you can see, although it varies based on device and screen orientation, keeping your From name under 23 characters will likely mean it will display in full regardless of the device or screen orientation the recipient is using.

2. Write a short, benefit focused subject line

After the From name, the subject line is the second most prominent element in the inbox when it comes to driving opens.

On most devices, the subject line is formatted with darker, heavier text in an attempt to make it stand out among the other details of the email.

Given its prominence in the inbox, it’s inevitable that it will have a significant effect on open rates. So how should you be optimizing your subject line to drive conversions?

The first thing to consider is length. Although research has shown that the length of subject lines doesn’t have a huge effect on open and click-through rates, it is advisable to keep them under 30 characters long so as to ensure they appear in full on both desktop and mobile devices.

Beyond length, there are a number of power words you can include in your email subject line to help improve open rates. These include:

	First word: Open % Change	Last word: Open % Change
[firstname,fallback=customer], what’s this?	14.68%
Invitation	9.45%	7.69%
Introducing	7.36%
We	5.87%
A	4.09%
Your/You/You!	4.07%	6.20%
Year, eg. 2014	3.89%	2.84%
Update		3.69%
New	3.26%
Month name, eg. June	3.25%	3.34%
Special/Specials	2.75%	2.08%
News	1.31%	2.22%
Sale/Sale!		2.40%
Events		1.97%
Offer/Offers		1.86%

As you can see from the above table, personalization (represented above by the dynamic tag ‘firstname,fallback=customer’) has the largest positive effect on open rates, while the inclusion of personal pronouns such as ‘Your/You/You’ shows that speaking directly to your subscribers is an effective way to increase open rates.

While it’s great to consider length and include proven power words, it’s important not to over-optimize your email subject lines to try and milk a few extra opens. Tricks like including ‘FWD:’ or ‘Re:’ in your email subject lines may get people to open your campaigns, but when they realize it isn’t a genuine forward or reply they’ll be disappointed and likely not read on and/or click-through, defeating the purpose of sending the campaign.

So make sure that, regardless of what optimizations you make to your email subject line, it’s still an accurate description of the content in your email or your subscribers will be left disappointed upon opening your email and likely not open another campaign from you again.

3. Write compelling preheader text

The preheader is the short summary text that follows the subject line when an email is viewed in the inbox

The pre-header text is a critical component your subscribers use to decide whether or not they open your campaign and engage with your content. So how can you optimize your preheader text for mobile devices?

Given that the preheader text appears next to the email subject line, the two need to work together to tell a cohesive story rather than be thought about as two separate parts of your email campaign.
Derek Halpern does a great job of this in the announcement campaign for his latest webinar.



As you can see, the subject line talks to a very specific audience (people who don’t yet have 1,000 subscribers) and while it makes the email super appealing to those people, it does limit its appeal to others.

So he counters this by using the preheader text “Got more than 1000? Open anyway…” to address the other recipients who have more than 1000 subscribers already.

By using the subject line and preheader text together, Halpern makes the email appealing to a wider number of recipients and increases the chance they’ll open the email and click-through.

4. Write simple, compelling body content

With your well-thought-out From name, subject line and preheader text driving opens, it’s time to focus on click-through rates with quality body content.

There seems to be this perception among marketers that good writing is a magical art. As if professional writers know a whole bunch of words everyday marketers don’t that will magically turn prospects into customers.

The truth however, is quite the opposite. Good writing isn’t about using any particular magic words, but about getting your audience to understand your offering and the benefits it brings them in the simplest way possible, as that’s what drives people to purchase.

Take a look at this campaign from Campaign Monitor customer Freshbooks, announcing the launch of their new Fundbox Integration feature:

Freshbooks do a great job of making it crystal clear what the product does and what the benefits are for the user (get cash for unpaid invoices). There’s no jargon or buzzwords, just some simple content that makes it clear what the offer is.

While your product may be different, there are a number of formulas you can use to help you write great email content. The PAS, 4 P’s, and BAB formulas are all easy to follow frameworks that help marketers like you write high performing email campaigns by positioning your product or service as the solution to your customer’s pain points.

5. Optimize your button

The buttons you use in your email marketing campaigns are the final step towards getting someone to click-through from your campaign and visit your website, and the words you choose for them can play a big part in determining whether someone will click-through or not.

But what do you write to ensure your button gets clicked?

The key is to use the button to reinforce the benefit you promised your reader throughout the rest of the email.

A good example of this is the campaign for the premier of one of Showtime’s new television programs, Penny Dreadful.

Instead of using generic button copy, Showtime utilizes the button copy to reinforce the exclusivity of this event by reminding its readers this is not just any television episode – but a season premiere.

Here at Campaign Monitor, we’ve done several A/B tests comparing benefit-focused copy to generic copy and each time the benefit-focused copy has increased click-through rates by about 10%.

On top of using your button copy to reinforce the benefit, it can also help to use it reduce perceived barriers. You can do this by removing friction words.

Friction words are those that imply your reader has to do something they don’t necessarily want to do.

Common friction words include:

• Download
• Apply
• Order
• Submit

Think about it for a second, nobody wants to spend time downloading or applying for something, they simply want the end benefit downloading or applying for the item brings.

So to reduce the perceived effort of your readers, replace these friction words with frictionless words like ‘Get’ or ‘Learn’ and follow them up with a benefit statement (I.e. Get your free account).

When Michael Aagaard at ContentVerve tested this, he saw a 14.79% increase in conversions just by changing one word.

In conclusion

The steady growth in smartphone usage and the subsequent reduction in human’s attention span has meant that great writing in your email campaigns is more important than ever.

If you can’t write a killer subject line that captures people’s interest, then you’ll never get them to open your campaign. And if you can’t explain your offer quickly and easily, you’ll never get them to click-through and purchase your product.

So next time you’re creating an email campaign to announce your latest product or feature, use the 5 best practices mentioned above to help you write a high performing email campaigns that gets opened and clicked, and ultimately drives sales & revenue for your business.



Source