Email marketing and social media rule the headlines. And small businesses are riding the digital wave to creatively and cost-effectively build their business. Learn how home medical equipment home care businesses can use email marketing and social media to reach and engage their target audiences.
2. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 2
Seminar Objectives
► Learn how email marketing can help small business
expand and deepen customer relationships
► Learn campaign basics that targets your audience,
increases deliverability and open rates.
► Learn how email marketing and social media work
together.
► Learn best practices for safe and successful campaigns
3. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 3
Why Do Small Businesses Use
Email Marketing?
► Outbound and targeted
– Interactive, personal verses reliance on audience to visit
your website, blog or see/hear an ad
– Sensory rewarding
– Leverages social media (facebook, linkedin, twitter)
– Distribution channel
► Inexpensive
► Builds brand and relationship
► Measurable
4. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 4
Email Marketing in Small
Business
Home Health Care
Use & Application
Colette Weil
Email Marketing & Social
Media Basics and Other
Market Examples
Pamela Adams
21. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 22
Email Marketing for Your HME
Business
► Email marketing as part of your strategy
– Clear purpose for email marketing
– Copy/promotions of interest/importance to your audience
– Creative
– Consistent execution
– Connects with social media
► Email marketing service requirements
– Provide training
– Creative, easy templates and services
– Reliable & flexible to grow with your needs
– Implementation and reporting is easy
22. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 23
Home Health Care Specifics
► Ongoing Permission-based email
address collection
– Intake/CSR
May I have your email address with your
permission. Please check the boxes for
email contact. We will not release the
address. You may opt out at any time.
□ Notification of delivery, product availability
and updates
□ Monthly information on home care,
Medicare, events & announcements
– Sales people
– In-services
– Delivery tech
– Retail desk
– Events
– Website
23. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 24
Home Health Care Smart
Targeting
► Contact databases
► Segment by audience
– Referral sources (by geography)
– Retail locations (by geography)
– Event/campaign response
– Rewards loyalty program
– Website
– Employees
– Media
– Vendors
– Affiliate businesses
– Local neighbor businesses
24. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 25
Samples
Referral & Consumer Newsletters
► Provide critical/timely information
► Alert on Medicare/insurance
issues/changes
► Use customer questions to get at
tough issues
► Explain terms
► Provide expert consumer buying
information Intro products & services
► Solve problems
► Links to social media to extend reach
and community
► Offer promotions
25. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 26
Referral Source
Newsletter
Referral Newsletter
► Communication strategy
– Info vs. soapbox
► Links to Medicare info
► Links to “Expert” information
► Links to company info
► Affirm company position and brand
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Spotlight - HME
► Consumer Newsletter
– Focus’ on consumer
view
– Based on consumer input
• Actual issues/questions
– Use survey tool
27. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 28
Sample Promo
► Consumer Newsletter
– Reference local organizations
– Linking
– Consumer special
28. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 29
Expert Buying Info
► Consumer’s Guide Series
– Stand alone series
– Expert information
– Repurpose copy on website,
news articles, store flier, etc.
29. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 30
Promote Events
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Sample Email Service Provider
Costs
Considerations
► Database size
► Non-profit or not
► Unlimited Image library (a
must)
► Archive
► Unlimited use
► 500 names or under
► For profit
► Service: $25 – 30/mo
► Real costs are in time to
develop template,
develop/obtain copy
► Training programs cut through
wasted time
31. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 32
Summary
► Integrate email marketing in your strategies with social
media
► Continuously build your permission-based email lists
► Structure campaigns with valuable content for your
target audiences and objectives.
► Brand your personal communication with news, events,
timely information and unique opportunities
► Monitor campaign performance with report metrics
► Be realistic about your target audiences: 45+?, self care,
caregivers, patients and WHAT is worthwhile to them
32. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 33
About the Speakers
Pamela Adams
Regional Development Director - GA
Constant Contact
Office: 770-564-9055
Toll-free: 866-848-0074
Like Pamela on facebook
www.ConstantContact.com
padams@constantcontact.com
33. S T R A T E G Y P R O G R A M S P E R F O R M A N C E 34
About the Speakers
Colette Weil, MBA
Managing Director
Summit Marketing
3 Marsh Drive, Mill Valley, CA 94941
Office: 415-388-5303
Fax: 415-388-2675
Like Summit Marketing on facebook:
http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp
cweil@summitmktg.com
http://www.summitmktg.com/fact_sheet.htm
Many firms provide email marketing services Constant Contact for small business are Vertical Response, SmartMail (provided with website), My Emma, iContact
Today’s (tonight’s, this morning’s) presentation offers a solution. You can make a connection with the people who need your products and services, inform them by delivering your message in a professional and cost-effective way, and grow your business to reach your lifestyle goals with The Power of Email Marketing.
The Power of Email Marketing has three parts and six subtopics. Today (tonight, this morning) we’re going to cover (topic titles or all three parts). My commitment to you is to help you understand this information so (please ask questions as we work through these concepts) (I will be available after the presentation to answer questions). The commitment I need back from each of you is to take action on the information, because you have to take action in order for solutions to change the way you’re living your dream. Let’s get started with (topic title).
If you email total strangers you’re likely to get a high number of spam complaints – much higher than 2 in 1,000 and it will literally block your ability to deliver email to your audience. That’s the challenge, here’s the opportunity. If you can find a way to build a quality permission-based email list, you will have a significant competitive advantage because you will gain a low-cost way to contact your customers. An email list is an asset and it’s worth spending the time to build it right. Building it right means building your email list where you connect.
Put a signup link on your website, on your social networking profile page, and on your blog.
And put your signup link in your email signature so people can share their email address with you.
If you have a physical store, place a guest book on your counter and ask people to sign it.
Ask people to join your email list at events and meetings. When you exchange business cards, ask them if the email address on their card is the email where they would like to receive your regular emails.
Every time someone calls your business, ask them if they are on the email list related to the reason for their call.
It helps to give people an incentive to add their name to your email list. Try a discount or special privileges.
(give a few examples if you have time)
Whether you use an online signup form, like this one, or whether you ask for an email address in person, make sure you also ask for permission to send. People who simply give you their email address might not understand that you would like to send them regular communications that may contain promotions.
Make sure they understand how often you’ll be sending emails and what kinds of content you provide. Let them choose the types of information they want to receive. Some people will decline, but remember that quality matters more than quantity, and spam complaints often happen when people share their email address expecting only to receive one-on-one transactional emails instead of promotions and other messages..
Drives Repeat Traffic and Sales
Enhances Business/Customer Relationships
Builds Customer Loyalty
Increases Brand Awareness
Increases Lifetime Customer Value
You need objectives and a plan for creating your email content. If your email content doesn’t have a chance of meeting your objectives it’s not worth spending the time to create it.
What do you want your emails to accomplish?
Promote
Motivate purchases – drive traffic to your website or store, an affiliate program, make an appointment…
Increase event attendance – register online, RSVP, buy tickets, invite a friend…
Inform
Inform potential customers – new products, customer support, share expertise…
Differentiate my business – describe features and benefits, customer testimonials, industry facts…
Relate
Increase loyalty – special invitations, press releases, greetings & thank you cards…
Encourage more referrals – rewards programs, forward valuable information, invite a friend to an event…
After determining the type of content you want to deliver, recognize that there are lots of ways to format an email to make your email content look professional and support the theme of your message. In all cases, you should use a design that clearly identifies your brand. Here are three popular formats:
Newsletters:
Frequency: Regular i.e. monthly / weekly
Stay consistent. Keep the same regularly recurring day and time unless you have a reason to change (i.e. a holiday).
Lots of educational content (typically non-promotional)
Consumers expect email newsletters to be informative. No more than 20% of your newsletter content should be direct promotion.
Use bullets, summarize information, be concise
Use links after summaries to send interested readers to longer articles instead of including entire long articles in the email. Make your email easy to scan and let your audience read more online or in a downloadable document. A good test of length is whether your email prints out on an 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of paper.
Promotions/Invitations/Surveys
Frequency: Depends on your business and sales cycle
If you don’t want your business to be known as a discount store, send more informative content and fewer promotions. If your business model includes being a discount alternative to your competition, you can usually get away with more promotions.
Focus on promotion / limited content
Consumers don’t respond to complex messages. Keep your promotions simple and stick to one basic message.
Use content to invite click-through or other action
Convincing your audience that you are a great business won’t matter if you can’t convince them to take immediate action. You have to ask for action and give them reasons to act now, you can’t just display your phone number and expect them to call. Actions include clicking a link, forwarding the email, printing the email, dialing a phone number, and so on.
Announcements
Frequency: Event-driven
Think ahead. Avoid over communicating by sending announcements only when they are really important to your audience. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about your audience.
Press releases, holiday greetings, thank you cards…
Don’t ask for a direct response. Focus on building an emotional tie to your business.
Use content to build deeper relationships
Ask yourself how your announcement will deepen the level of trust between you and your customer.
Email content has to be easy to scan so your audience can quickly understand your message and decide whether the information is valuable. Instead of emailing large bodies of content, use your emails to generate interest and drive traffic to your content.
There are two reasons to keep your content concise and host larger bodies of information outside your emails:
Consumers are very time-sensitive. Concise emails are more likely to be scanned or read immediately.
Every email link can be tracked back to the clicker. If your reader clicks to get more information, it’s a sign of interest.
It’s much more difficult to come up with good Subject lines than good From lines. When you write a subject line, focus on getting the email opened. For example, try highlighting the main theme of your email or an important article in your email instead of using generic titles such as “July Newsletter.”
Once you have done everything possible to help get your email delivered, you need to be sure your email has a good chance of gaining the attention of your audience after you send it out. Most consumers look at the From line in your email to determine whether to open it, so it’s important to make your From line familiar. Ask yourself how your audience is most likely to recognize your business and put that information in your From line.
Use your open rate as an indication of interaction with your email, and watch your open rates over time to identify trends instead of judging your success using a single email.
If your open rates are trending down:
Fewer subscribers are enabling images
Use text that invites your audience to enable images – tell them it’s safe or make the images sound important.
It could be an indication of subscriber boredom or delivery problems – watch for clues in emails with higher or lower open rates. Was there a particular link, subject line, or image that increased interaction?
Fewer subscribers are clicking links
We’ll discuss click-through data on the next slide
If your open rates are steady:
Assume the email is being received
Unless you have hard data to indicate otherwise, such as a bounce report showing that the email was undeliverable.
Check your ESP’s average delivery rate
If you’re using an Email Service Provider, ask them for their delivery rate and make sure it’s been verified by a third party. Average delivery rates tend to be around 80%, but some Email Service Providers deliver email at much higher rates. (Constant Contact’s delivery rate is consistently above 97%)
When you look at a click report, you’ll see every link in your email and you’ll see who clicked on which links. Use your tracking report to determine
Audience interests
Clicks tell you what topics were interesting. For example, a golf retailer that sells special golf clubs for kids under 12 can assume that anyone clicking on a link to learn more about the clubs has kids under 12.
Save clickers in an interest list for targeted follow up. When you know who is clicking on your links you can save them as a separate list for more targeted follow up. In the golf example, the retailer could begin to include kids promotions and golf tips for kids in future emails to the interest list.
Goal achievement
Use links to drive traffic toward conversion. Make sure every link moves the clicker closer to making an immediate purchase (or other decision) instead of distracting them from the ultimate goal.
Compare clicks to conversions and improve. If your email resulted in a lot of clicks and a low number of completed purchases or ‘conversions,’ your email was effective in driving traffic toward conversion, but your website, store, or sales process isn’t working. If your email doesn’t receive very many clicks but you have a high conversion rate, your sales process is effective and your email message needs attention to drive more traffic. (you can track conversions with website analytics or by comparing the number of emails sent to the number of purchasers who responded to the message in your email)
You can increase the number of clicks on your email links overall when you have a strong call-to-action, good copy, and a compelling offer in your email. Make sure your email describes the benefits and rewards for immediate action.
