251.405.2543
When it comes down to it, email marketing is all about getting the basics right.
Yes, you should be segmenting your lists and yes, paying attention to those open rates and conversion rates are important but you also want to invest time in strategies like positioning, voice and value of your emails. These 5 tips may seem basic but you’ll find that many of your favorite emails coming through your inbox, the ones you open every day, employ the tips in a single email. For best results, apply liberally.
Create an exclusive club.
Making your email subscribers feel special is a great way to generate excitement for the content or offers you send them. It’s also a powerful community-building tool.
Exclusivity can be subtle, like the Apple example below. Whenever Apple launches a new product, customers camp outside their stores to get their hands on the latest device. By offering a pre-order, Apple can cash in on that excitement without putting additional stress on their retail stores. With free shipping as an added incentive, these emails will no doubt drive huge sales before the next iPhone is even released.
Ask for Feedback.
As long as you’re not too pushy, it’s okay to ask for feedback. Find a way to ask without making it sound like the feedback is for the company’s gain but rather to help you, as a business owner, find ways to make their service better. Here is an example:
Get personal.
Email is a great way to humanize your brand. The inbox is an intimate place, mostly used for personal conversation. Your presence there is a privilege, so do your best to write like a human. It’s okay to talk about challenges, obstacles and even failures. Readers can relate since they are likely facing similar situations, whether in business or in their personal lives. Even quotes from your company’s CEO can go a long way, like the example below.
Tell readers what to do next.
One big mistake people make with conversion is failure to make the next step completely clear. How can someone convert if they aren’t sure what to do next?
Conversion rate experts stress this over and over again: “Be clear and direct with your users, telling them exactly what you’d like them to do.”
The idea is simple: just add the webinar to your calendar. Not only does this reinforce the behavior pattern of clicking the emails, but it also increases the chances that the registrants actually attend the webinar. Once it’s on the calendar, they will get alerts from their phone and/or computer…it’s like free marketing!
Keep readers on their toes.
This tip is unconventional, but it’s proven to work.
On one hand, you want your readers to know what to expect in your emails. In our case, here at BIS Designs, that means a new blog post every Wednesday. Our readers know there will be a new blog post each week but they don’t know what topic will be covered until they receive an email once the new blog has been posted on our website.
Conclusion
There are plenty of tips out there about how to increase your open rates but you also want to concentrate on becoming and remaining valuable to your clients and customers. If you have any additional tips to share with us, feel free to share in the comments!
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5 Ways to Get Creative with Email Subject Lines
Author: Stephanie May
Phillip Long - CISSP, CEO of BIS Technology Group, along with his team of marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.
About BIS Technology Group
BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design & Digital Marketing, Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit bistechnologygroup.com.
You may reach out to us at: Phone: 251-405-2527 Email: plong@askbis.com
Here’s a quick illustration of how SEO works…
Google has developed automatic algorithms that rank your website. They send out what are called “spiders” to “crawl” your site and check it for over 100 indicators that determine whether the website is valuable or useless. These indicators include things like backlinks, domain age, traffic, fresh content, etc.
SEO can be considered the art of making sure those crawling spiders are happy with what they find. It is a very complex field that is always changing but in all that chaos there are a few constants that have remained the same since the beginning.
1. You need your own domain and hosting.
One thing that beginners need to know is that you need your own domain and hosting. Free blog set ups don’t do any favors for your SEO efforts. Why?
People tend to speculate that if you were serious about your website you would get your own name and host it yourself. Google only wants to point to websites that are considered serious and trustworthy and so this is a basic signal.
Starting your own website, hosting and a business blog can seem intimidating but that’s why we’re here. We offer multiple packages to meet your needs, which saves you a lot of time.
2. Problem solving with original content.
Keep in mind that Google’s entire purpose is to provide their customers with relevant and useful search results. Everything they do is built around this goal.
To be realistic, the most important thing you can do for your SEO is create the most useful content that solves people’s problems. If you are solving problems that people are searching for then it is likely that you are going to get shared on social media and ranked higher in Google.
And “original content” means so much more than just blog posts these days. You can expand into:
3. Make sure your theme is SEO optimized.
Think of SEO as having two components: the off-site stuff like social media and backlinks and the on-site stuff like optimizing your theme.
Optimizing your theme is important because it helps give Google indicators that you are a trustworthy site. It also helps Google find your content. Some of the things to keep in mind when optimizing are:
4. Build your social media profiles constantly.
You want to have a big focus on social media for SEO purposes as well as traffic building purposes.
Why?
Because Google is now looking to social media as a signal of an article’s authority and relevance. If people are sharing on Facebook or tweeting about it, you must have written something pretty good. The best way for this to happen is to build a strong following, keep them engaged and they’ll see your blog posts as they are shared.
Commenting and sharing other business blogs is always a great way to build a community and possible cross-promoting opportunities for the future as well.
Are you now ready to get a blog started and make sure your SEO is on the right track? Schedule a meeting and we’ll handle every detail from writing, optimizing your website and sharing to your social media!
5 Benefits of Business Blogging
12 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Content Marketing Strategy
Facebook is continually using updating their algorithm to help their users see more relative content and less of what they don’t like. If you have a Facebook business page, you have probably noticed that it is more difficult to get engagement than it does on your personal Facebook page.
Why? Facebook sees your business page as a business. Essentially, you’re a business so you should pay for exposure. Before you start running Facebook ads, try these 5 Facebook marketing tips:
Share images of real people. As a social network, people want to see people, especially people they know, like, and trust. Lose the sales pitch. People are turned off by continuous product images.
People want to win free swag, free product, or free/discounted services. Contests with the right prize will organically boost your traffic. You’ll increase your fan base, page likes, and grow your email list. You’ll increase your chances of going viral with the right product and right response.
Facebook is very proud of this feature. It took quite a long time for this to roll out to all of their users, so those that Go Live – get seen! Going Live allows you to interact with your audience, increase your overall reach, and increase your page likes. A lot of people are afraid to go live, but the ones that do are heavily rewarded.
You’ve probably seen the response time to messages on your Facebook page or another page. The better your response time, the more Facebook will show your posts to your followers/fans. Engagement is key. When you have a private chat with one of your Facebook friends, you’ll start to see them more in your newsfeed, and vice versa.
When you are consistent, your audience will expect it. They will look forward to your engaging posts and Facebook live videos. Make sure you are posting 3-5 high quality posts per week. Create a hashtag, not only for fun, but for tracking purposes. Eventually, your followers will start using your hashtag. Be consistent, but remember, to have fun! Facebook is meant for socializing and having fun. Re-evaluate your social media plan and determine what it is your audience responds to the most. Use the tips we suggested and just remember to lose the sales pitch and stay consistent! If you need assistance with creating a social media plan, contact BIS Designs at 251.405.2542.
BIS Designs is an internet marketing company serving the Mobile, Alabama area. Our content, development, social media marketing and search engine optimization specialists have years of experience in targeting custom audiences for the B2B community and would welcome the opportunity to help your business grow.
Phillip Long, CEO