Archive for the 'Best Practices' Category
September 2nd, 2010
I work in children’s mental health. Every day, our company sets out to serve children who are facing challenges that would make a Hallmark Movie Channel moment look like dinner at grandma’s. Barring a full rundown of our entire corporate belief structure, I’m going to share a mantra our entire team subscribes to - Needs Aren’t Services.
In our world, Needs Aren’t Services is about the families we serve. As service providers, it is very easy to get into the rut of telling a family what THEY need. “Your child needs therapy.” “Your child needs a mentor.” “Your child needs to be on anti-depressants.” After all, we’re the experts, right? We’ve been trained to figure out what people need and how to give it to them. Surely, we know best.
Read more of “Borrowing a Social Cause Mantra for Social Media”…
September 1st, 2010
Humor in blogging is tricky. There is the possibility of offending a client or their followers. Or using humor that is not understood by the reader. Many people will avoid humor at all costs to avoid any negative reaction to the company. Unfortunately, most people will not remember information that is too dry. Think of an insurance seminar. It is not because the information is not relevant or important; it’s just that there is no hook to help the reader remember your message.
Using too much humor leads to your audience not remembering the name of the product. However, they will remember the commercial and how the product was used. I can think of numerous times that I remember the commercial and not the name of the product. The ad gets drilled into my head because I laughed at some feature in the video. Since it is so over-the-top, I forget the vendor name.
Read more of “Humor Writing in Blogs”…
August 31st, 2010
At Delivra, part of our account management process includes a quarterly review where we provide a report card summary of the clients e-mail marketing efforts over the last 90 days. This report card covers topics such as sending volume, membership trends/health, complaint rates, mailings listed by engagement score, etc. It gives us a great opportunity to talk about what is working, what is not, and discuss recommended changes or improvements to implement over the next 90 days.
I wanted to share a few of the topics and suggestions that have come up recently in my quarterly reviews with clients.
August 30th, 2010
An accomplished businesswoman and acquaintance of mine commented recently about how her husband relished in her success. As many people would describe success as the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like; I asked how she defined success. Her answer surprised me.
Read more of “What’s Your Definition of Success”…
August 27th, 2010
Few things amaze me more than my wife’s ability to find a good bargain. In fact, she doesn’t just excel at finding deals. Sometimes she creates a deal where none previously existed.
In American society, negotiation of prices is expected in certain settings only. For example, we understand that when buying a car, the “manufacturer’s suggested retail price” is truly only a suggestion. So we show up at the dealership ready to haggle, and the dealer expects this. It’s considered normal.
Read more of “Revolutionary Ideas, Then and Now”…
August 26th, 2010
The dog days of summer usually signify really hot, lazy days where little progress is made.
Are you in the dog days of summer right now?
Feeling unmotivated and unmoved by anything?
Shake it off, get moving and give your email marketing plan a kick in the rear! Here are 5 things you can do with your email marketing efforts to beat the dog days of summer:
1. Welcome new subscribers- Set up a warm welcome message for new subscribers. Include what your emails are all about, allow them to select their preference of interest and frequency and maybe include a nice coupon code for them to use.
2. A/B split testing- Are you getting the open rates you want? How effective is that subject line you’ve been using for your newsletter? If things are slow right now and you have some extra time, pay a little extra attention to your analytics and test your content. Read more of “Dog Days of Summer”…
August 24th, 2010
I, along with the Delivra Director of Marketing, Carissa Newton, attended the Blog Indiana 2010 Conference held at the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex this past weekend. It was a great event where several speakers offered their expertise about the world of blogging, social media, and related topics.
Carissa was one of the presenters during the 2-day event and spoke about blogging and how it was relatable to a marriage (an interesting combination!) in No Road is Long With Good Company. For those of you that couldn’t make it to the event, we will be posting video as soon as it is made available.
During the presentation and throughout the conference, Carissa was able to encourage (with Starbucks and iTunes giftcards) others to be guest bloggers on the Delivra blog. So, avid readers of eMailchatr: make sure you are staying tuned in for the next couple of weeks as we start to post some of these blogs written by experts in their given fields.
Furthermore, one of the conference attendees, John Uhri or @yOmbo (if you prefer), offered his “sketchnote” abilities and took notes from the several presentations he attended, Carissa’s being one of them.
For a look at the rest of his “sketchnotes”, please visit his blog! They are a creative, unique resource to see what some of the presenters from the Blog Indiana conference discussed.
Lavon Temple | Marketing
August 20th, 2010
Neil Berman recently used the analogy of a wedding to explain the importance of planning your marketing efforts, but it got me thinking how much email marketing is like a relationship.
Imagine your prospective recipient’s first visit to your site as the first date. Perhaps a friend set her up (through a personal recommendation or link from a trusted site), or she used a dating service (you showed up in a Google search).
You begin spending time together, getting to know one another (through browsing and analytics). One click leads to another, and before you know it, you’re popping the question (“Would you do me the honor of becoming my subscriber?”)
She says yes. The wedding is set and when the Priest/Rabbi/Judge asks “Do you..?” (in the form of a confirmation email), she says “I do!” (by clicking the link.)
Read more of “It’s Not You….It’s Me”…
August 19th, 2010
It can not only be difficult to determine what resources and who you can trust online, but it is also a struggle to build your own credible online presence for others to use and come to rely on. The TPE blog this week addresses this by offering the insight of several business professionals, including our Delivra Director of Marketing, Carissa Newton. They offer their feedback on how to create this presence online and offline – while explaining and giving examples of how they’ve tried to create their own credible online presence.
To read the TPE blog and learn more about building credibility online, please click here!
August 18th, 2010
Years ago, I would have been impressed if I came across a commercial email with my name in the subject line. I would have felt like that email was written with me in mind, and I’d open it to find out more about it.
I won't call any names... but this brand normally sends me huge, single-image advertisements with my name set above them in text. They're personalizing their mailings, but it really doesn't seem to add any value.
Today? That’s a different story. I’m especially skeptical of any email in my inbox with my name in the subject line. I’ve seen too many spammers ‘personalize’ their content to get my attention by pasting my name (or worse, someone else’s) in the subject line or header. When I find an email advertisement in my inbox that has nothing to do with me personally—but has my name slapped across the top—it can seem even less personal… like it was an afterthought; they’re simply using my name to push an open or a click. Personalization is an old trick, but it needs to be done right.
There’s more to personalization today than simply adding in a simple name merge. Setting up a profile form, respecting my choices and sending content to me based on my subscriber history are all parts to a great marketer-subscriber relationship. To get your recipients to really listen and pay attention to you, you need to listen and pay attention to them. Great email marketing is a two-sided conversation.
Read more of “There’s More To Me Than My Name”…
