Automate your email marketing in 2016
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Automate your email marketing in 2016
- 1. We CoachThe Pros Sandra Flores 832-289-4465 www.WeCoachSalesPros.com Sandra@WeCoachThePros.com "We provide our motivated clients money making processes. So they can be more productive, create more sales, stronger relationships and grow their business rapidly.” Sweet 16 Here we come!
- 3. © Constant Contact 2015 AutomateYour Marketing Planning ahead to convert and keep
- 4. BE A MARKETER All it takes is Constant Contact® #BeaMarketer
- 5. © Constant Contact 2015 Sandra Flores Business Solutionist Welcome Questions during and after the event? Connect with us! facebook.com/wecoachthepros @wecoachthepros
- 6. Marketing has changed. 6 1. Marketing for today Marketing then. Marketing now. Find Convert Convert Keep
- 7. You receive... 7 Automation tools are good for you and them Your customers receive... Clicks & downloads Bring visitors to the door Prompt reservations Encourage calls Coupons & discounts Videos, guides, e-books Support & assistance Information & tips
- 8. 91% of people check their email dailySource: Litmus 8 82%sign up for email on brand websitesSource: Litmus 72%sign up expecting discountsSource: .slideshare.net/bluehornetemail $44.25 average return for every $1 spent on email marketingSource: salesforce.com/blog/2013/07 3x higher conversion rate than social mediaSource: forbes.com/sites/mckinsey Email marketing:
- 9. Glossary Glossary of terms Autoresponder Any kind of pre-designed automated email Date-based triggers Automated emails that send on a birthday/annual date. Contact An existing email address you already have Subscriber A brand new email address you didn’t have before Campaigns Your email marketing message(s) or promotion(s) 9
- 10. Agenda 10 1. What is an automation campaign? 2.How do you know if you should use one? 3. How to use it the right way 4.Next steps
- 11. 11 Automation campaigns can help send what you wish you had the time to send. 1.What is an automation campaign?
- 12. 1. What is an automation campaign? Autoresponder 12 Welcome! Autoresponder works while you do.
- 13. How does it work? 13 1.What is an automation campaign? Subscriber joins via web sign-up (QR code, Text-to-Join, Facebook app) or you manually add them to a list A birthday email can be sent in advance of one’s special day A special message can be sent in advance of milestone date In a series, previous email sent triggers next in queue When a contact is added to a list Birthday event Anniversary event Previous email Actions that trigger emails to send messages to new subscribers:
- 14. 1. What is an automation campaign? Automation List Join Triggers Welcome Emails Autoresponder Date Based AnniversaryBirthday 14
- 15. 1. What is an automation campaign? 15 Date-based automation List Join automation Series of messages sent to new subscribers Messages initiate when prospects join mailing list Triggered by subscription One message sent to existing customers Messages initiate on special dates/occasions Triggered by data in contact record Created in advance for marketing Short, sweet & evergreen Contains one call-to-action
- 16. Email Website Social Media Make a lasting impression. Every time. Offer an incentive to join your mailing list – then make it easy 1. What is an automation campaign? They subscribe! Autoresponder delivers incentive immediately Subscriber takes action by redeeming coupon
- 17. Agenda 17 1. What is an automation campaign? 2.How do you know if you should use one? 3. How to use it the right way 4.Next steps 5.How to grow your list 2. How do you know if you should use one?
- 18. 18 2. How do you know if you should use one? If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions… Autoresponder may be right for you Do you send the same introductory information over & over? Do you neglect to send information to new subscribers? Do you believe each subscriber should receive a friendly welcome? Do you want to create a lasting first impression immediately? Do you have specialized sub-audiences with varying interests? Do you want to celebrate customers’ birthdays? Do you want to send annual reminders?
- 19. 19 2. How do you know if you should use one? 60% Source: Fleishman-Hillard ChiefMarketer.com higher open rates reported when new subscribers received Welcome Email 89% of consumers turn to search engines to research products or services before purchasing Use Automation Campaigns.
- 20. Agenda 20 1. What is an automation campaign? 2.How do you know if you should use one? 3. How to use it the right way a.Identify the goal of an autoresponder series b.Segment contact list c.Use evergreen content d.Determine the timing 4.Next steps 5.How to grow your list 3. How to use it the right way
- 21. Identify the goal. Strategize. 3a. Identify the goal of an autoresponder series A B 21
- 23. 23 Segment lists by your audience’s interests
- 24. 24 Event Announcements Free Shipping Special Offers and Discounts Free Shipping Free Shipping New Product Announcements Event Announcements Project Guides, Blogs Generalized Interest Special Offers and Discounts Free Shipping Special Offers and Discounts Generalized Interest New Product Announcements Generalized Interest Project Guides, Blogs
- 25. New! Regular customers or donors VIPs Segmentation and targeting... 25 2. Make what you have work for you Seasonal customers or supporters
- 26. Dog Owners Cat Owners Bird Owners More Segmentation by interests or demographics 26 2. Know your audience, and when to send
- 27. 3c. Use evergreen content Identify what you can offer - you have plenty Record a video series via smartphone Coupons, promo codes, consultations or gifts A special recipe Highlight products, services, employees with images Share a collage of photos Link to an informative blog post Access to an e-book, webinar or podcast A handout, cheat-sheet or How-To guide Tell your story in installments 27
- 28. Make it timeless. Make it evergreen. It is timeless, it never expires It includes goal-driven calls-to-action It’s short & sweet; informative, useful & timely Make it your best content.
- 29. 3. Timing Best Practices Scheduling your messages. Weekly? Monthly? Bi-weekly? Occasionally? 29
- 30. 30 4. How others use automation tools B2B Whatever you do…don’t forget The Welcome Email! B2C Non-profit
- 31. S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Regular Newsletter 8 9 10 11 Spring Patterns Promotion - $3.99/2 patterns 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Subscribed: Welcome Email 2 free patterns 22 Share social media networks: YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram & Our Company Story 23 LJ Partners Reseller Program & Links & Sew Powerful Charity Foundation - Zambia 24 Introduction to Pixie Packs & Pixie Perks Rewards Program 25 “Buy 2 Get 1 Free" coupon for $3.99 patterns, Promo Code: onetimegift 26 27 Regular Newsletter 28 29 1 week follow-up + link to free tutorials 30 3. Timing Best Practices 31 Autoresponder Strategy Calendar – Liberty Jane Clothing – B2C New Subscriber Request to connect via social Blog post/resource links Regular newsletter Promotion of products or services Coupons/offers/ promotions Autoresponder Series
- 32. S M T W T F S 1 2 Regular Newsletter 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Subscriber joined today 13 14 Learn How to Gain Contacts & What Content to Write 15 16 17 Subject Lines & Goal- Oriented Strategy 18 19 20 21 22 Simple Messages + Integrating Email into Marketing Plan 23 24 List Building Mastery Class Code 25 26 27 28 Regular Newsletter 29 30 3. Timing Best Practices 32 Autoresponder Strategy Calendar – Building Aspirations – B2B New Subscriber Request to connect via social Blog post/resource links Regular newsletter Promotion of products or services Coupons/offers/ promotions Autoresponder Series
- 33. 33 3. How to use it the right way Remind that they subscribed – provide clear way to unsubscribe Tell them how many emails they can expect Set email to send immediately after joining Offer an attractive ‘Thank You’ offer in initial email Neglect to remind them, neglect to include clear way to unsubscribe Send a lot of info in one email they have to sift through Forget to create this ‘evergreen’ immediate follow-up message! Forget to introduce your brand with your colors, logo, from name & mission statement Do these... Do not do these...
- 34. Agenda 34 1. What is an automation campaign? 2.How do you know if you should use one? 3. How to use it the right way 4.Next steps 5.How to grow your list 5. Next Steps
- 35. Next Steps 35 1.Determine how automation could be used 2.Identify call-to-action goals 3.Create segmented lists 4.Use evergreen content 5.Determine the timing 5. Next Steps
- 36. 1. Start with what you’ve got • Growth takes time • Growth is an ongoing process • Efforts must be organized & consistent • A combination of traditional and modern methods are most successful Growing your list sounds complicated but it doesn’t have to be if you understand.
- 37. Gather up contacts 1. Start with what you’ve got 37 Start with your database Digitize business cards Seek out networking opportunities Ask fans/friends on Facebook to join Establish an incentive to subscribe Ask best customers to join
- 38. 38 2. Make what you have work for you - USA Cover all your bases Organize database into lists Segment lists by customer interest - use external terms Create sign up form Add embeddable sign up form to website/blog Setup Text to Join keyword (US customers only) Set up QR Code Set up Facebook Join app Download iCapture app for iPad/tablet
- 39. 39 •Add a Join Mailing List button •Add Social Share buttons for additional way to follow you •Ask to share email on social or to forward to someone Use a permanent footer.
- 40. SALONBELLA Use Text-to-Join to collect contacts SALONBELLA
- 41. Print advertising is not dead - it just leads to the internet
- 42. Paper and pen still appeals to many.
- 43. 43 3. Collect more from everywhere you are Clarify how to join your mailing list online Facebook Business Page Twitter Instagram bio LinkedIn Website/Blog Photo/Project Sharing site Online Listings (YellowPages, Yelp!...) Periscope Pinterest bio
- 44. Ask.Wherever you are. 44 3. Collect more from everywhere you are Explain the benefits of subscribing & provide signup form Include Sign-up Form URL in online listings in “about/menu” Install a Sign-up Form App to FB Create fun posts with a request to subscribe –try using images also Include a Sign-up form URL in profile bio Create a beautiful image detailing how to subscribe – include link in comment Website/Blog Online Listings Facebook Business Page Social media platforms Instagram Pinterest Bio pages Include a Sign-up form URL in profile bios to gather most interested subscribers
- 45. Not sure what to offer as incentives? 3. Collect more from everywhere you are 45 Gift, swag Percentage off Special Offer Code E-book, whitepaper, guide Exclusive Video Link On site service
- 46. If there’s one day people are excited about finding new businesses it’s small Business saturday. make sure you’re asking people to join your list when they come in for this special day. www.constantcontact.com/learning-center Participate in Small Business Saturday
- 47. Supercharge your Facebook list growth with a Facebook Ad. Add new fans and new subscribers by driving people to your Facebook sign-up form. Buy a Facebook ad
- 48. www.constantcontact.com/learning-center Making the leap into online video? Talk about your emails in a video and tell people where to sign up. Use your Youtube channel
- 49. www.constantcontact.com/learning-center When appropriate let members of the same LinkedIn Groups know about your email list. Learn more: New to LinkedIn? Find out how to get started! Join a LinkedIn group
- 50. • tip: Find out how to run and participate iTweet Chat. n a Tweet chats are a great way to boost engagement on Twitter. It can help you attract new followers and can give you a unique opportunity to grow your list. Host a Tweet chat
- 51. Easily add a link to your sign- up form on your website and collect emails from people who visit your site. Give your sign- up form plenty of visibility by putting it on every page. Add sign-up form to your website
- 52. Ask your current contacts why they enjoy your emails and then create a page on your website highlighting the biggest benefits of signing up. Create a “reasons to sign-up”page
- 53. Don’t ask too many questions. You may miss chances to grow your email list. Keep your sign- up form short and simple. Only ask for the information that’s absolutely necessary. You can collect more information down the line. www.constantcontact.com/learning-center Keep your sign-up form short
- 54. If someone enjoys what you have to say on your blog, there’s a good chance they’d want to see your updates in their inbox. tip: Constant Contact customers using Wordpress can use our free Wordpress integration to create a sign-up form that adds email addresses directly to a Constant Contact email list. Find out how. Add to your blog
- 55. Writing for other blogs is a great way to get in front of a new audience. Include a link to your sign-up form in your author bio. If people like your post, they’ll want to get more information from you. Guest blog
- 56. Join our list to learn more about what we have to offer! Join our list to receive exclusive discounts! Over 1,000 people have signed up to receive our emails each month. Sign up today! Don’t miss a thing! Join our email list to get updates sent to your inbox once a week. Test different calls-to-action and see how your audience responds. www.constantcontact.com/learning-center Test different calls to action
- 57. www.constantcontact.com/learning-center Add a sign-up link to your next online survey. Let people share their feedback and join your email list. Collect emails with an online survey
- 58. tip: If you want people to share your email, be sure to tell them directly, “Share this email.” Sometimes, the best way to grow your list is to extend the reach of your emails. Add social share buttons to make it easy for people to share your emails on their social networks. Add social share buttons to your email
- 59. Get more exposure for your email list by including a link in your regular emails. Your email signature
- 60. With picMonkey, you can put text over images—a great way to ask people to join your list! Share your images on Facebook, Twitter, or hang them in your store. Learn more: New to Picmonkey? Find out more. Use PicMonkey
- 61. If people are interested in what you have to say, there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in what you write in your emails. Let people know you have a resource they can sign up to receive. Book a speaking engagement
- 62. Look for ways to reward your customers and grow your email list in the process! Start a loyalty program
- 63. Offer a coupon on Facebook
- 64. 64 4.You’ve got the email address, now what? 79% Source: Fleishman-Hillard of consumers said they Like or follow brands for information about the company 89% of consumers turn to search engines to research products or services before purchasing Use Automation Campaigns
- 65. Next Steps 65 1.Everything in its place 2.Create segmented lists 3.Collection methods ready & functioning 4.Create and scheduleWelcome Emails 5.Repeat 5. Next Steps
- 66. 66 •You really can do this! •One toolkit. One login.
- 67. 76%of people read email on their phones 67 3. Consider desktop & mobile 67%of b2b workers view emails on their phone 64%of key decision makers read emails on mobile Source: 60secondmarketer.com Source: Marketing Sherpa
- 68. 68 Start where you areStart where you are And where your customers and relationships are. SAVE!
- 69. © Constant Contact 2015 All the channels that matter. Email. Mobile. Social. Grow with Constant Contact All the marketing campaigns you need together in one place.
- 70. I could let you leave here and spend your next $20 on lunch… Or you could make the decide to allow me to help jump start your next email marketing campaign and potentially triple your ROI….$20/month allows you unlimited marketing to 500 active contacts!
- 71. Get started today… WWW.MakeBankWithUs.com 71 free 60-day trial No Contract & No Credit Card Needed Text To Trial Text SANDRA to 99000 to set up your account in minutes
- 72. My Upcoming Seminars &Training www.WeCoachSalesPros.com Join Me 11am-1pm Thursday January 14th Automate Your Marketing 25 Ways To Grow Your List Saturday January 30th Vision Board Event~ Create Your S.M.A.R.T Goals Monday, February 8th Let Your Prospect Determine Your Presentation Thursday, February 11th B.A.N.K Style~ Singles Event
- 73. Calling My MotivatedWomen Saturday, February 20, 2016 Hotel Indigo at the Galleria 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM *Setting Boundaries *Finding your Authentic Voice *Business Productivity *B.A.N.K. System *Branding - Including you in everything *Creating systems to automate your life *Gratitude Sessions Expect Even More!
- 74. Sandra Flores- Authorized Local Expert Sandra@WeCoachThePros.com www.WeCoachTheSalesPros.com D:832-289-4465 facebook.com/wecoachthepros linkedin.com/in/wecoachthepros
- 75. 75 Questions?
Notes de l'éditeur
- My name is Julie Niehoff, I’m the Director of Education & Development at Constant Contact. I have been with Constant Contact since 2006, I am based in Austin, Texas and here is my contact information if you want to reach out following this session. Send me an email, find me on facebook or reach out on Twitter.
- Everyone can be a marketer. All it takes is Constant Contact. Constant Contact is a do-it-yourself online marketing system. You can use it to create and manage campaigns. The company is best known for its email marketing tools that make creating and sending mass emails easy. Constant Contact gives you easy access to a one-stop contact database so contacts can be loaded and organized easily in Constant Contact so that your people and your marketing campaigns are all together in one spot. Oh, and it starts at just $20 a month to manage all of it. That said, let’s jump into today’s webinar by talking a bit about marketing in general.
- Opening Hello, I’m __________________ and welcome to today’s webinar, _________________. We’ll get started in just a few moments, but before we do, I have some housekeeping items to take care of. The first of those is to make sure my audio is working correctly. So, if you can hear me, do me a quick favor and open up your chat window in the Citrix GoToWebinar tools and type in what the weather is like in your area. I’ll do it too! By using the chat window, you’re telling me that you’ve heard my instructions and that my microphone is working correctly. Thanks everyone for participating! Let’s talk about what we’ll be doing today. Our webinar will be about 45 minutes. We’ll have plenty of time for Q&A after our webinar, and I encourage you to use the chat window you just used to tell me about the weather to enter your questions. I’ll cover those during the Q&A at the end. Now, the next thing on my list is to make sure you have contact information for the Citrix GoToWebinar helpdesk. If you have any technical issues during the webinar – you can’t see the slides or can’t hear audio – call the helpdesk or visit their support website. [COPY AND PASTE INTO CITRIX CHAT WINDOW] Citrix helpdesk: (855) 352-9002 or http://support.citrixonline.com/Webinar I’ve just typed the Citrix phone number and website into the chat window, and you can use that contact information to reach them for any technical issues you may experience. How to get the slides Now I know you’re probably wondering how and when you’ll receive a copy of the webinar slides. You’ll actually get a copy of them today! At the end of the webinar, right before the Q&A, I’ll share a link to the copy of the slides in the chat window. You can click on that link and access a PDF of the slides on your Internet browser. All the slide links are listed here: G:\ContentCrew\Webinar Content\Slide PDF Download Links.docx
- Let’s face it: marketing has changed and that’s a big reason why you’re here today in the first place. Some of the change is obvious, but there are more subtle changes that affect you and your ability to grow your business using all of the new online tools: that’s a basic shift in the way you may find and keep customers with today’s business climate that actually works more in your favor as a small business or nonprofit organization. [click to build] Look at this model – its a typical sales funnel, using traditional marketing methods, things like print ads, radio, television, direct mail.– the problem with this traditional funnel is that it’s expensive – those ads cost a lot of money and it’s hard for a small company or organization to compete in this landscape. [click to next build] When you begin to use new marketing tools, like email marketing and social media, you reach to people you already know. On the left, the funnel, it’s all about reaching out to strangers. New marketing is about reaching out to people that already know you… you reach out on a regular basis with information and offers that are relevant to your contacts and it turns out that if you do it right, you will actually begin to convert more people than you are reaching because of the nature of social media’s digital word-of-mouth power. You grow your base and your business through repeat business and referrals – at the end of the marketing day, turns out you keep a lot more of your existing customers so you don’t need as many strangers, and it costs less and takes less time and energy. Automation is one way you can make this process of conversion more routine.
- Now that you know that marketing is about getting results that you can measure…using automation tools to compliment your list growth activities helps get you closer to earning revenue or donations. Automation helps you steer new subscribers towards becoming donors or customers and generates action and information that you can measure such [CLICK]. It ensures that you’ll have an ongoing, timely response to customers who subscribe to your mailing list expecting to receive something in return like [CLICK]: Coupons, information, tips, videos, guides, e-Books, slides, free gifts, etc. In a nutshell, automation tools help you get what you want, while delivering what they want. Automation tools will help you get and convert new subscribers into paying customers or supportive donors faster - all behind the scenes FOR you while you focus on to maintaining a loyal, existing customer/supporter base with the contacts that you already have using the types mailings you already send.
- We talked about ‘flipping the funnel’ by marketing to people who already know you. This type of customer nurturing is beneficial because these are the types of customers/supporters who have chosen to interact with your organization in hopes of getting something of value in return. If you fail to send them the information they are expecting to receive in return for sharing their email address with you, you run the risk of losing a potential customer. [CLICK] Considering 91% of people check their email daily, you have quite the opportunity to reach your audience and connect with new subscribers who you’d like to convert to a paying customer. (Litmus). These days, people do their homework before making big purchases or donating. They research the organization first, look around at reviews others have made about it, and when they decide they want to stay in touch with the organization or learn more about it, they take that next step by subscribing to the mailing list. This mostly occurs through your website. In fact, [CLICK] 82% of consumers sign up to receive email on brand websites (Source: http://www.slideshare.net/bluehornetemail/bluehornet-consumer-views-of-email-marketing-2013-presentation-final) and 72% sign up expecting to receive discounts (Source: http://www.slideshare.net/bluehornetemail/bluehornet-consumer-views-of-email-marketing-2013-presentation-final) so if you can incentivize someone to subscribe to your list, do so on your website and everywhere else you can because that is where they are going to go first to learn more about your organization. So how do email automation campaigns come into play here with your marketing strategy? Well consider that according to a recent study [CLICK] (Source: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/07/email-marketing-stats.html) for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is $44.25! If you want to establish a consistent plan to convert and keep subscribers coming back time and time again to your organization, email marketing is the way to do it. Automation makes it easier. In the end, email marketing pays for itself time and time again. With a strong and ever-growing email subscriber list and timely automation series, you can grow your business or increase funds for your nonprofit. Email marketing conversion rates are 3X higher than social media prospect-to-customer rates . Every new subscriber that you collect has the potential to become a paying customer or donor. (Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mckinsey/2013/11/19/email-marketing-think-inside-the-new-inbox/)
- [CLICK TO DISPLAY ALL AT ONCE FOR PEOPLE TO TAKE NOTE OF] I know I have a hard time learning something new when I don’t understand the jargon being used by the speaker so before we continue let’s make sure we’re all on the same page with definitions before I continue: When I say: “Autoresponder” - I’m talking about a series of pre-designed automated emails designed with a specific goal that is triggered after a contact or subscriber is added to a list through your online signup form or if you add them manually. It is set to mail in sequence after it is triggered to send when new subscribers join a list or you add their email address to a list. So, when I say: “date-based triggers ” I am referring to any pre-designed emails that are personalized to send to someone on a specific date – for example on a birthday or the day when they first became a member of your organization, anniversary on becoming a customers, etc. I will also say “contact” when discussing email addresses referring to the existing email addresses you already have stored in your contact management system. Think of a contact as a person you already “know”. “ Subscriber” refers to a brand new person who decides to give you their email address in exchange for something in return. They don’t know your organization yet nor do you have an existing relationship with them. Think of them as people you need to make a great first impression with ASAP. And, when I say “campaigns” I am referring specifically to the marketing messages you design and send to get your contacts to do something like buy or donate or volunteer. Think of campaigns as the ‘thing’ you send out.
- The topics we’ll be covering today are: What is an automation campaign? – We’ll talk about what automation campaigns are and how they can help your organization make the right first impression with subscribers and nurture them towards making a purchase or donation faster How do you know if you should use one? – We’ll talk about how to determine if using an autoresponder is right for your organization and how to identify ways your organization can use an automation campaign to your advantage How to use it the right way – We’ll talk about how to segment your contact list so an automation campaign can work properly and how to set up your web lists and sign up forms to funnel contacts into the correct interest lists. In this section we’ll discuss the type of content you want to use and guidelines for setting the timing of your automated campaigns. How others use automation tools– We’ll take a look at a few ways businesses use automation tools to offer digital assets to nurture new subscribers into a healthy & lasting customer/supporter track Next steps – We’ll take a look at what you need to do to setup, create, execute and measure a successful evergreen automation campaign!
- As a small business owner or non-profit, we know that you don’t have a lot of time. But in today’s market, you know you need to market your business or nonprofit yourself. You’re here because you want to save time and be successful and competitive in your business or nonprofit without having to sit on your computer all day when you have other things that must be done. Automating communications that you find yourself sending manually all the time or wish you had the time to send more regularly is a powerful and easy way to communicate a consistent and unified message about your company or non-profit to every subscriber you receive without consuming any of your valuable time or requiring you to wear more hats than you already do.
- What are autoresponders and how do they work? Autoresponders work while you work. [CLICK] While you’re taking care of business, your autoresponders will be welcoming new subscribers into your community on your behalf and you can rest assured that they will receive the timely information they need to begin to establish a relationship with your organization. When someone signs up for your mailing list, they’ll automatically get sent the promotional materials or messages you want potential new supporters or customers to receive. That could be a coupon or discount code, a video to watch, a downloadable asset like a guide or e-book, a survey or simply a thank you or welcome message.
- [CLICK – CHART WILL DISPLAY] LIST ADD - An autoresponder can be sent to mail to subscribers after you have added them to a list or they have subscribed to your mailing online from your signup form on your webpage, via text-to-join, QR code or through a Facebook signup form linked to your Constant Contact account. **Note: If YOU manually add a contact or group of contacts to the list assigned to your autoresponder series, that counts as a trigger and they will start to receive the series. ** Think about those welcome emails that you sometimes receive after subscribing to a business’s mailing list. Some of them offer you a coupon immediately upon signing up and some offer you a free thing like a coffee or a gift a few days or a week after subscribing. BY DATE : Autoresponders can be triggered to send by a specific date like an anniversary or a birthday. An anniversary date could be when a subscriber became a member of your organization, or when they last donated/purchased a product or service from you. CTCT will search the contact database each month for contacts with a birthday then will automatically send a pre-designed personalized birthday message that you craft to wish someone on your list a happy birthday up to 14 days in advance of their special date. It is in that message that you can try to get them to donate, purchase, or stop by. Whatever you need them to do next for their special day. Ex: - Think about when you get a reminder email about your gym membership fee or if you’re a member of a golf club or other similar organization you may be annual reminder emails. - Or when your favorite salon or restaurant sends you a birthday coupon. These are all examples of automated campaigns triggered by date. An autoresponder not only saves you time, but it also gives you the freedom to think differently about the ways you communicate with your contacts, build relationships, and do more business or foster more support for your cause. You’ll know its there doing the talking for you at times when you can’t. AFTER AN EMAIL TRIGGER – A specific email within a series that will go out after an email sent previously. This allows you to set up a streamlined, successive series of emails and campaigns to achieve an objective.
- There are a few different kinds of automation. Think of it like an umbrella with a few different reasons why one would create an autoresponder and how they would be activated. First: There are messages that are trigger to send once someone joins your mailing list online or if you add them to a list. 1.) The Welcome Email is the most common example of emails that are triggered by someone joining your list. 2.) Another type of autoresponder series that could be created would be done by: creating a list Creating an autoresponder series (ex. Re-engagement campaign, email course) Adding desired contacts from one list to the one created for the autoresponder Second: 3.) Date-Based Triggered autoresponders The system would check on a regular basis for contacts whose stored data qualifies them to receive a birthday or anniversary email. -So a few weeks before someone’s birthday, the system would automatically send the pre-set email or series of emails designed to wish someone a happy birthday with a special offer or message. That way you’re not sitting there every month trying to find out who all the people with January birthdays are so you could send them your special birthday coupon or fond wish. -Similarly, a pre-set email or series of emails could be sent automatically when someone’s membership dues are due, or when they first became a customer or donor or volunteer with you, or when they need to re-enroll for something --- or anything that would require an annual reminder message to be sent. Let’s go deeper into how automation can work for you while you work.
- What’s the difference between date-based automation tools and list join automation and what do they have in common? [CLICK] Dated Based Automation - makes communicating certain messages on specific dates automatic and timely – less maintenance from you! Saves you from having to seek out anyone with a birthday or a membership due for example to send them something special. You design the email once and an automation tool will do the rest and get their special message to them on time every time. For example, if you’re non-profit that collects birthdays to send special messages to big donors or if you must remind people when their monthly membership fees are due, these tools will seek out the birthday or anniversary membership date on your behalf and send a special ‘short –and –sweet’ message which you designed ahead of time to be delivered on that specific date to a specific person or group. [CLICK] List Join Automation – is a series of welcome emails which you create once and schedule to send when triggered by new subscribers joining your mailing list. Autoresponders can sometimes also be referred to as a “drip campaign” — as they engage new people multiple times in a sequence after initial interaction with your organization. It is meant to drive a specific action from the new subscriber while introducing them to your brand and the type of communications you send. Each one should have a theme or be working towards an end goal until the series concludes and that contact can then be folded into your regular communications. Welcome Emails are a good example of list join autoresponders. [CLICK] What they have in common is that they are created in advance and are intended to always be valid or ‘evergreen’ so the contents don’t become outdated. They also should be designed with only one major call-to-action or ‘thing’ that you want the recipient to do after receiving the message.
- Let’s see autoresponder in action: Well let’s say that someone is searching for a gift for someone special. They do a quick online search for ‘boutiques’ and they come across your business [CLICK] either via social media or on your website or perhaps a friend who loves your shop forwarded your monthly newsletter to them. They are interested in the items you feature on your website but want even more information or are hoping for a discount or new customer special. [CLICK] They notice that you advertise a 15% off coupon for joining your mailing list on the website or on Facebook [CLICK] and they decide to subscribe. You’ve made sure to set up a Welcome Email autoresponder that mails a coupon to any new subscriber moments after they sign up. [CLICK] This person gets this email right after subscribing along with some information about what else is in store now that they’ve subscribed. The email thanks them for signing up for the mailing list and shares a little bit of history about the business as well as an overview of the types of items the boutique carries. You’ve set the tone for future mailings and established the beginnings of a relationship with this customer. The subscriber is left with a great first impression of the boutique especially now that they have a coupon! They decide to shop at your boutique with coupon in hand! [CLICK] You have been creating great lasting first impressions in store for as long as you’ve been in business and with an autoresponder you’ve sped that process up– that customer leaves and tells their friends about what a great business your boutique is and now others are subscribing too and soon purchasing from your business. [CLICK] This could work for you even if you sell online because in the end, this cycles ends with your new subscriber making a purchase from you or taking that next step with your business. [CLICK TO NEXT]
- How do you know if you should use one? – Let’s determine if using an autoresponder is right for your organization and how to you can identify ways it can use an automation campaign to your advantage
- Do you send the same introductory information over & over? – if your customers/supporters need special information – like forms, pre-requisite learnings or certain informational content, AR can send this each and every time to every new subscribers. You design that information once and it is sent each and every time at a timeframe you set. Do you neglect to send introductory information to new subscribers? – do you collect contacts on the road, on the go and store them in your email provider database here and there? If you have conversation with people and you tell them you’ll send them information but find that you can never get to it in a timely manner, delegate that task to autoresponders. All you have to do is get that contact in the system and the AR will do the rest! You’ll never miss making a great first impression or a connection again. Do you believe each subscriber should receive the same friendly welcome? – in your organization you probably pride yourself on outstanding customer service and delivery, right? Well your email communications should reflect this too. AR can speak to the specialized interests of your subscribers and will digitally greet every future customer in the same, friendly way your organization does and instantly deliver the critical information new subscribers need to stay in touch with your organization. Do you want to create a lasting first impression immediately? – nothing says that you care more than a generous first-time offer! If you have something to give new subscribers it makes a really good first impression because it shows that you are generous right off the bat and this will make people open your email over and over again. Do you have specialized sub-audiences with varying interests? – Do you want to celebrate customers’ birthdays? – Do you want to send annual reminders? –
- [CLICK] According to a study by the Epsilon Email Institute and Chief Marketer (Source: http://www.chiefmarketer.com/welcome-emails-best-practice-vs-common-practice/ Welcome Emails consistently have about a 60% open rate, so take that opportunity to give your subscribers more of what they're looking for so they keep coming back in that ‘honeymoon phase’ with your organization. Welcome Emails are some of the best performing emails that you’ll ever create. So utilize them! s These days, most people research BEFORE deciding to buy, volunteer or donate. They are more discerning about committing time or money to something and are expecting to receive specific information about your products or services in a timely manner. Those messages help them formulate an impression of your business or nonprofit with the initial email they receive from you so you want to make sure you are steering that impression by delivering what they want/need immediately. Also, 89% of consumers turn to Google, Bing or another search engine to find information on products, services or businesses prior to making purchases. Make sure that you have an automation campaign in place so that you can capture these leads/potential donors by getting them onto your mailing list and delivering what they are looking for with your Welcome Email series. Your future customers/supporters are most likely to encounter your brand from online searches. If they want more information about your products, services, or mission they’ll sign up for your mailing list expecting to receive that additional information. The least you could do is to say thank you with a Welcome Email! They are expecting it, so deliver it. (Source: http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/31/2012-digital-influence-index-shows-internet-as-leading-influence-in-consumer-purchasing-choices/) Let’s talk about how to position this content in a way that delivers that expectation so you can make and keep new subscribers longer for a greater return overall for your marketing efforts.
- How to use it the right way: Now let’s talk about some best practices you need to follow to make sure your automated campaigns deliver the results you want them too. OPTIONAL: We’ll talk about: - How to identify the objective of an automation series - How to use evergreen content so your message never expires and hardly needs updating And we’ll discuss some timing best practices And we’ll talk about how to segment your contacts so you can use automated messages
- Map out your autoresponder emails before you create them thinking in terms of what you want a new subscriber to ultimately do or learn after signing up for your list. Be strategic with each email as each in a series should lead to a result that means something significant to your business at a pace that is right for your organization An autoresponder is meant to educate & mobilize new subscribers to take the next step with your organization. It’s about getting results that you can measure. When you’re designing your autoresponder email: Keep it short and straight to the point. You want them to go from Point A [Click] as a new subscriber/prospect as they research your business or interact more with your digital assets to Point B - becoming a customer/donor No extra fluff – make sure call-to-action buttons, links, or videos are directing a subscriber to log into your online program or come into your store or location. Don’t confuse them with too many things you want them to do or pay attention to. Tell them what you suggest that they do next and provide a simple, no-brainer way for them to comply. If you want them to donate, sign up to volunteer or visit your shopping page or make a purchase with a coupon/offer you provided them, make that the most prominent next action step in the email close to the top of the message. Now, let’s discuss what you need to set up next behind the scenes before hitting the ‘Schedule’ button. [CLICK TO NEXT]
- In order for an automation campaign to work, you have to have organized lists. Period. Since you can create multiple Autoresponder series for multiple different lists, it is important to keep your records clear. One of the best ways to start segmenting is by organizing your list of contacts right off the bat. Create a few lists in your account that will categorize your organization’s relationship to groups of contacts to act as ‘buckets’ for subscribers to put themselves into when signing up for your mailing list. As you title the lists you want to segment contacts into, make sure a stranger could seem themselves in your categorization – in other words – that they could identify with the topic of that list. Use language that people encountering your business for the first time could relate to. There’s no limit to how you can break up and categorize your lists, but try to provide at least 3 separate categories for people to choose from as they essentially give you their email address and tell you what they expect to receive. Here’s another look at this: [CLICK TO NEXT]
- [CLICK] In this example, this B2C business Bisque Imports has created these lists for their subscribers to choose from when asked about WHAT TYPE of mailings they’d like to receive. Some sign up looking for discounts. Other’s want to know when new products are announced. Others believe they’ll find value in your weekly/monthly mailings so they’ll sign up for that list as long as you make that option clear. Whatever a subscriber's interest, those contacts will be added to your list automatically and you’ll know that anyone in each of these lists only wants to receive communications about that particular topic which will lessen the chance that they’ll unsubscribe because they’ve already told you what they want to read about and what they do not. So when you set up your autoresponder, make sure it speaks to the interests of people in the list that say, want to receive discounts vs. read your regular mailings
- Putting these best practices into place and harnessing the organizational benefits of list segmentation right off the bat means that you’ll have a nicely organized list of contacts who have [CLICK] elected to tell you what their interests are specifically regarding which types of marketing mailings they are likely to engage with the most. It gives you a heads up and a fighting chance to grab their attention before they even see anything from you because you already know what they want to read. Also, when you encounter new people along the way and you need to manually add contacts to your account, YOU will know which category they belong in and you can add them to that list yourself, knowing what kind of automation campaign they will soon receive. This makes creating your email each month easier because you know who you’re talking to and what they want to read about. Now let’s talk about what to put in your autoresponder emails. [click to next]
- After you’ve compiled lists and collections of emails that you’ve been storing in different places, it’s time to organize them in one place. You may be using Constant Contact but other similar email providers will have a section where you can store all of your contacts in one place. Get them all into one place and be sure to back them up! Then, organize them into distinct target categories or based upon their interests. This is called segmentation - you want to break up your lists based upon audience interests, or by the different email messages you’ll send out – i.e You’re a Gym – Create lists for Pilates, Weight Training, Kettle Bells, etc. before setting up a signup form to collect NEW subscribers. Segmentation is an important practice in marketing but it basically boils down to organized groupings of contacts based upon how you plan to target them with your marketing communications or how YOUR ORGANIZATION identifies them in their relationship to your business/nonprofit. And you may not be aware of this, but you probably already do this in your head when it comes to your own business. You consider some people Volunteers. Or VIPs/Loyal Customers or Donors. Parents vs. Students, Vendors vs. Customers. You get the picture. Your contact lists will be made up of different groups of contacts at different stages in their relationship to your business or non-profit: [CLICK] one group may be your regulars…those people that are in your store all the time, or at your fundraisers every year. [CLICK] another group may be people who are important, but only frequent your shop or take advantage of your services on a seasonal basis. [CLICK] a third group may be your VIPs…those who always step up with big donations, purchases or referrals to your business. [CLICK] and last, but certainly not least, are those people that are new to your list…new customers or supporters or clients…they’re critically important, because you need to focus on building and strengthening your relationship to them through the communications that you send. These people are the type that you’d send automated welcome emails and introductory messages to to ‘ease’ them in to your brand or non-profit and introduces them to what it is that you do. Essentially, segmenting means recognizing groups and putting their contact information into unique audience lists or giving the subscriber the ability to tell you exactly what they want to receive from you and helps you and them know what to expect with these mailings. Targeting means each communication should be unique based on who will be receiving them from your list of contacts. Here’s another way to look at it: [CLICK TO NEXT]
- Let’s say for example, that you operate a pet store or an animal shelter, you’re selling products for different types of pets or reaching out to different animal lovers to find homes for rescued pets. Some people might be dog owners, cat owners, bird owners, etc. You might want to segment your contacts into lists based on what kinds of pets they buy for. [CLICK – ALL WILL APPEAR AUTOMATICALLY] Why would you want to segment? If you're the pet store and you’re sending everyone on your customer list a special promotion for dog toys, you can find the dog owners and send them the email. That's targeting. The dog owners get the promotion that’s relevant to them and the other pet owners don’t get frustrated by receiving an email about a discount they have no use for.
- These are just a few ideas of what you could offer to new subscribers in an autoresponder whether you are a B2B, B2C or NP. [CLICK – ALL WILL BUILD FOR PEOPLE TO READ OR TAKE NOTES ON WHILE VOICEOVER ELABORATES – CAN READ 1X1 IF YOU NEED TO] The best way to access what you have to offer is to make a list of all the digital assets that you have as well as the capacity you have to run a promotion or offer an ongoing discount to all future subscribers. You’ll begin to see an abundance of goodies that you could use to incentivize someone searching for your services or products to subscribe to your mailings. Find a common thread amongst them and order them by putting the best piece of content or offer in the beginning of a series to lead a lasting impression as generous and/or helpful when a potential customer/supporter needs it most. You’ll also want another stellar incentive/actionable offer to cap it off at the end of the series. Remember, you want this content to be evergreen and feasible for you to manage and honor because it is something that will run behind the scenes for an indefinite amount of time and should not lead to a dead link, expired promotion or outdated and irrelevant information. The options are truly endless and really go a long way in capturing one’s attention, keeping it, and stirring up interest in further experience with your company or nonprofit.
- Evergreen content– is timeless content - or another way of saying it, [CLICK] informational copy that doesn’t have an expiration date and which will require little if any updating over time. You want it to be relevant and deliver all the details that someone new to your organization needs to know to continue establishing a relationship with you and want that message to work today if someone subscribe and 5 years later if someone subscribes. Don’ts: Don’t refer to any specific seasons/events/dates/cultural references Don’t include anything you’ll stop carrying/doing Don’t include too many things someone new to you would have to focus on [CLICK] You want the recipient to respond to your message, so don’t confuse them with a million things to interact with because they won’t. Just give them the one thing that they expect and ask them to do what you want them to do next with what you have offered them. [CLICK] You want to keep it straight to the point, short, sweet and explain to them what they can expect from your business or nonprofit going forward. If you plan to send multiple emails in an autoresponder series tell them how many emails they will receive from you initially and then how often you mail regularly. And remember: this is the first impression someone may have of your non-profit or business. Make that interaction rewarding, uplifting, easy, and quick. Your best content should be in your automated Welcome Series. It has the greatest success at driving measurable results for you that can become lasting business.
- Once you’ve mapped out a short series of emails and designed them, you next want to consider the timing. Deliver that message in a timely way so that each email in a series is a reminder or a gentle nudge towards what your end goal is for the subscriber to take. You’ll send multiple emails in an autoresponder series to ‘nudge them along’ the buying/donating path. But you don’t want them to be too frequent or too infrequent where they’ll forget about you or signing up for your email list. So start the series off with an immediate Welcome Email (and an incentive doesn’t hurt either!) Tell the subscriber in the Welcome Email how many emails they can expect to receive from you initially and then how often you mail regularly after the final one. Short & sweet. Explain what they can should expect. [CLICK] Think about how often you send regular emails. Do you send weekly? Schedule your autoresponder sequence to send at least the Welcome Email and one other within 24-hours of having subscribed. That way, if they happened to subscribe the day before you usually send your weekly email, a new subscriber would already have some context. [CLICK] Do you send once a month? Then with your autoresponder series spread these emails out – do one or two a week to stay top-of-mind, that way new subscribers are familiar with your organization enough to have context for the monthly email when they get that. [CLICK] Do you send bi-weekly? Schedule your autoresponder a day or two apart to introduce a new subscriber to your ‘club’ so-to-speak with enough time to get used to your information so that when the DO receive one of your regular mailings, they begin to feel part of the community or more comfortable with your brand and what you do. With this you want to make sure it is not too frequent that one might feel overwhelmed, so try to spread it out by a few days to give some breathing room. [CLICK] Do you send mailings infrequently anyway? Schedule your autoresponder in a consistent way so that they are not surprised and caught off guard when you decide to send a regular email campaign. If this sounds like you, might would want to send one per day for a week but make sure that what you’re offering delights a new subscriber and calls them to take some sort of action with your business or non-profit, like drawing them to you website or social media pages. Let’s look at some ways that some businesses might map out the timing of their autoresponders… [CLICK TO NEXT]
- FIELD NOTICES: *THESE EMAILS WILL BE UPLDATED AS THE NEW PRODUCT COMES INTO PRODUCT. IF YOU WANT TO USE A MOBILE FRIENDLY VERSION FOR THIS SLIDE, No business or nonprofit should be without a friendly, helpful Welcome Email. One great thing about a stellar Welcome Email is that every customer that ‘walks through your door’ so-to-speak is sent the Welcome Email immediately with the same great quality that the 10,000th customer is treated. Also, you don’t have to think about mailing immediately to people you just met or collected email addresses from, it will always do that for you once the contact is in your database! There’s nothing worse than meeting someone who wants to know more about what you do, and you forget to give them that because you’re busy doing what you do to run your business or nonprofit and you lose that potential donor or customer. These are all examples of Welcome Emails that provide something for a new subscriber to receive. They all offer links to informative content or a special digital freebie to impress the subscriber who in turn is expecting something in exchange for their email address, and these organizations all deliver that immediately. With a Welcome Email, you can rest assured that anyone who has signed up for your list looking for more information about what you do, is getting what that they need immediately to kick off their first encounter with your organization. Set it and forget it. Your list will thank you for it.
- [CALL THIS OUT TO AUDIENCE] Before we start: Have a look at the legend on the right-hand side as a key to understanding what types of content each business is sending in each automated message. The colors are associated with those types of content, the boxes contain the content including in the Autoresponder. The first example is one from a B2C organization. This is an example from LibertyJane Clothing, a niche company that specializes in show making patterns for people to sew their own custom American Girl Doll clothes. We’re going to take a look at how they structure their autoresponder series based upon how often they mail to their list regularly. We’ll be taking a peak at what their content calendar might look like. BACKGROUND INFO: This organization sends OFTEN. They mail to their subscribers twice a month, as well as some extra promotions mixed in throughout the month OFTEN TOTALING WEEKLY EMAILS. But how do they plan out their new subscriber automated Welcome Series? Well as you can see, after the subscriber joins (in yellow), they receive an email with a digital goody everyday afterwards for a week. Then, they start receiving regular promotions that the company sends out to the list as well as a final ‘Thank You’ email and final sign off from the Welcome Series. This approach works for this organization because they have a wealth of digital assets that they have to offer, and many branches of the business that they want to alert new subscribers about. They have a very interactive + loyal following because they provide how-to materials for their base and sell patterns, books, and many other materials that people interact with a lot. If your organization has a lot of digital assets you might want to set up your AR like this. Let’s have a look at how this AR flow looks:
- The second example comes from a B2B. This is an example from Mike Mikelat of Building Aspirations. He provides marketing services to small businesses and has a Welcome Series autoresponder set up. Let’s take a look at how he structured his series differently than the previous example. He does something a little different when someone signs up. He spreads out his digital assets a bit. When someone initially subscribes, he tells them what he will be sending them and what they can expect to learn from the digital videos he’s sending. He then sends two videos per email that people can watch on their own time. He spreads it out to give the subscribers time to learn about the type of consulting he offers and decide what they’ll hire him to help them with. For him, it works well because he stretches his digital assets that he has designed especially for this mailing out across a month’s time so subscribers are not inundated with emails from him and after a month have become very familiar with his expertise and what services they could purchase from him. This could work well if you have a modest amount of digital assets to offer or a more service based business that takes time to deliver. This business remains top of mind, but not in your face. Let’s have a look at a portion of his Welcome Series:
- A Welcome Email autoresponder should remind someone that they subscribed to your mailing list. Make sure you include your logo, brand identity, colors and style so they start to recognize your correspondence. Don’t forget to provide a clear way someone could unsubscribe to show them that you value their continued interest in your company. Tell them how many emails you plan to send in the series so they are expecting them. SET UP THE FIRST EMAIL OF YOUR AUTORESPONDER SERIES TO SEND IMMEDIATELY AFTER SOMEONE JOINS OR IS ADDED TO YOUR LIST. Or use the Welcome Email product built in *NEW VERSION COMING SOON* Make sure you offer subscribers something useful and captivating right from the get-go when their interest is most high.
- So there you have it! We have come to the end of our presentation on automation tools and we hope you have learned a lot that you can take with you today. You’ve learned about what content to create and how to deliver a powerful punch to make a lasting first impression. You’ve seen some great examples for different types of organizations so let’s talk about some next steps that you can take today: How you could use an autoresponder? Identify call-to-action goals Create segmented lists Use evergreen content Timing
- Just recap what we talked about using these points: How you could use an autoresponder? – Identify your goals for new subscribers? When they sign up, you want them to come into your store, redeem a coupon, download useful content. Identify call-to-action goals - What do you want them to do? What do you want them to learn about you or what you do? Create segmented lists – Organize your new lists or existing lists into distinct categories so you can target more effectively Use evergreen content – Make sure your content included in your autoresponder emails – especially your Welcome Email – could be used time and time again with no updating. It needs to be timeless with no end so you don’t have to bother to update it and it can work FOR you for years to come. Timing – determine the frequency by thinking about how often you send regularly. If you don’t send often = send daily in your autoresponder. If you send daily or weekly, spread out your correspondence for off days from you regular mailings.
- [CLICK] EACH SECTION WILL ANIMATE ON ITS OWN You know you need to be marketing and mailing to new and existing customers and subscribers, but you don’t know where to start. Well there are some truths to keep in mind as you embark upon your list growth journey: [CLICK] - GROWTH TAKES TIME - By now you may have heard that ‘your organization lives and dies by it’s subscriber list’. You might look at yours and wonder if you have enough contacts or if it is turning over the results you were hoping for. You’re not alone. But it is important to understand that it takes time and that it should have no end. Learning how to consistently grow your list is something that you want to become a reflex or a habit. [CLICK] - GROWTH IS AN ONGOING PROCESS - Think of growing your subscriber list the same way you think of building and growing your business or non-profit. You always want to be generating business even after you get the kind of consistent business you’ve dreamt about. There will always be periods of lots of business and periods of less than ideal business, and your contact list will be like this too. You want to always be collecting contacts every chance you get wherever you interact with customers or supporters because you’ll always want to be reaching fresh leads as some unsubscribe or opt out over time. [CLICK] - EFFORTS MUST BE ORGANIZED & CONSISTENT – just like the meticulous bookwork that you keep for your business or non-profit, your contact list is most successful when it is organized and is maintained in a consistent and efficient way [CLICK] - A COMBINATION OF TRADITIONAL AND MODERN METHODS – There is no wrong way to collect a contact (except of course if you buy or rent lists, that is! We’ll talk about anti-spam best practices a bit later) You should start with what you know and combine new and traditional methods of gathering contacts. Once you leave this presentation with more ideas than you had to start with and a clear plan of action for collecting as many contacts in as many places as possible, you’ll find that growing your list is just another way of growing your business or expanding your organization.
- [CLICK] Let’s look at even more ways to gather up all of your contacts: Start with your database – Once you’ve gathered a group of contacts from say, your POS/CRM system, start by mailing to them using a mass mailing provider like Constant Contact so you can measure with the reporting data whether or not these people are responding to your messages, opening them or clicking on links provided in them. Just send them an opt-out message that contains information about what you do and how valuable what you do can be to them. You want to be able to see if they opt out of your list, especially if these contacts were collected over 3 years ago. Make sure to provide a clear way to unsubscribe from your list to weed out the ones who will not help you reach your bottom line and are left with the contacts who are still interested in your business or nonprofit. The reporting tools will help you identify who is worth continuing to mail to, and which contacts are not and should be removed to make room for active customers/supporters. Business cards –You might have a shoebox or a special pile in your office for people you’ve met along the way. Start by those digitizing those business cards. There are some services that will do this for you if you don’t want to take the time to do that all yourself, but you will need these digitized one way or another to start to email to them. Some free apps and services are: -Shoeboxed -WorldCard Mobile (for international business cards) -YoluCard Networking Opportunities – Take an inventory of all the places where you come into contact with people. Think about where you could network and gather business cards or emails with the explicit intent of adding them to your mailing list. You’ll have a roadmap for where you’ll gather a bunch of willing subscribers – Just make sure you have all your back-work done - online and paper forms must be ready before these events. Ask fans/friends on Facebook – These days, everyone’s on Facebook sometimes even before they have a website! - and if you have a personal account or better yet a business page already started, ask those there to join your list. If you’re using Constant Contact you can add a signup form button right to your FB account business page where people can see it and join on their own. You can also create digital sign up forms in your CTCT account which you can share as a URL in a series of posts asking people to subscribe to your mailing list with some reasons why it’s worth their doing so. It makes it super easy for people to subscribe to your list that way and much easier to ask and organize for you. Establish an incentive – Think about an incentive that you and your staff can easily offer or process that is attractive and worth enough for someone to subscribe to your email list if they don’t know much about your business. Could you offer a $15 coupon for new clients? 20% off your first meal? A guide? Think about where online and in your store, office or establishment you can advertise this incentive so people who visit your location want to join. Then, follow that up with an automation email or welcome email to automatically send the incentive or coupon to those who join your list for the incentive, then start to incorporate them into your regular mailings. This is important: 74% of consumers expect to receive a welcome email after they subscribe to your mailing list, (Source: http://www.slideshare.net/bluehornetemail/bluehornet-consumer-views-of-email-marketing-2013-presentation-final) so deliver on this expectation and use your welcome email to introduce them to your suite of products or services and welcome them into your email list. More on this a bit later. Promote your list to your best customers/supporters – Your best customers will be the best supporters. Ask them to be the first to join your list and to spread the word about your business or nonprofit to their friends and families. For a consumer, it feels good to feel like a business appreciates your patronage and considers you special and above all the rest.
- [CLICK – TALK THROUGH EACH There are some other things that you need to set up before you can start to grow your list by collecting contacts. Let’s walk through them: -You’ll need to create a sign up form online so that people can subscribe from wherever they find your organization online. This form contains the info you may need to know from your subscribers. If your business or non profit only needs a name and an email, then just require that information of a potential subscriber. Only ask for what you plan to use. -After you do that, you’ll need to add it to your website or blog. * You may need help from your webmaster to do this. They’ll be able to sync your sign up form to your email provider database or your own, but there must be a way that these contacts are captured and stored in one distinct easy-to-access place. If you are use an email provider like CTCT, they’ll have tools that will help you design this form and button in that software that will generate a code you can give to your webmaster to apply to your website. -Next, if you’re a US customer using CTCT, set up T2J and memorize your keyword and number so that on the go, you can ask people to subscribe to your list from their smartphone. -Now that you’ve segmented your contacts, set up QR Codes for sign up form and save them to incorporate into paper graphics like posters, direct mail, brochures, menus, etc. -Add a Facebook Join-My-Mailing-List App to your FB Biz Page – this way if you’ve been building up a good following on Facebook, you can work on converting as many of those fans into email subscribers as possible. Point this button out often because it’s easy to join in 2 steps for the subscriber and easy for you to store in one place automatically with the rest of your contacts. -If you’re using Constant Contact as your email provider, Download iCapture app by Constant Contact for tablet and phone to collect contacts on the go digitally which will sync with your CTCT account. This works especially well for those who are on-the-go or attending lots of networking events out in the field, so to speak. It helps eliminate missed contacts due to typos and bad penmanship. Don’t try to understand handwriting hieroglyphics – just go digital wherever possible. After you’ve compiled lists and collections of emails that you’ve been holding onto over the years, it’s then time to organize them in one place. Get them all into one place and be sure to back them up. Then, organize them into distinct target categories based upon their interests or how your organization will identify differing groups. This is called segmentation and we’ll talk about it more in a bit.
- [CLICK] If you already email regular messages to current customers, design a permanent footer to use with your Master Template that you start with each time you create a new email. [CLICK] Add a Forward to a Friend button and [CLICK] Join Our Mailing List Button to your email in your footer and include it in each mailing – every time. If you use a Master Template for your monthly or weekly mailings, add this footer as a ‘stamp’ to the bottom of your template. Make it part of the unchangeable parts of your template just like your logo and your contact information and links to your website. These links make it easy to share with others, and ask this audience to share with their friends and colleagues on your behalf. A lot of happy customers sharing this with THEIR networks are going to lead to additional subscribers to your list that you may not have otherwise known beforehand. [CLICK] Add Social Share buttons to template – Make sure you’re giving readers a way to share your email. When they’re given a way to share the email with their networks your email will now be in front of new people who’ll have an option within the email to join your subscriber list! Now, let’s talk about what to do to find and capture NEW contacts. [CLICK TO NEXT]
- [CLICK] [********NOTE TO FIELD PRESENTERS: *PLEASE HIDE IF YOU ARE SPEAKING TO A CANADIAN AUDIENCE!********] Now if you’re in the US and using Constant Contact, definitely set up a FREE text to join option and put it wherever people are likely to see posters or print materials from your business. All you do is come up with an easy-to-remember KEYWORD WITH NO SPACES that’s easily associated with your organization. In this example [CLICK] Salon Bella just used their business name as their keyword. Then, set up a unique email list called Text-to-Join to use as a ‘bucket’ to collects contacts who will join this way. This will make it easier to follow up with these contacts or assign an automated email that will send a coupon or incentive out shortly after someone subscribes. Then get creative and put that keyword and assigned phone number anywhere people are likely to see it! [CLICK] Salon Bella put it outside their location on a beautifully designed sidewalk sign. You can put yours on posters, brochures, business cards, menus – the list is really endless. Memorize it also – it’s one of the easiest ways – hands down – to get someone to subscribe to your list and costs you the least amount of energy and money to operate and maintain. [CLICK] Just to show you how easy it is for someone to subscribe – They compose a new text message, they type in your keyword and they send it to the phone number assigned, in this case it is 22828. It will prompt them to provide their email address to subscribe, then the system will thank them for subscribing and they are now in your bucket! Voila!
- [CLICK] No matter what the naysayers say, print is not dead and it’s going nowhere fast. There will be a niche for paper marketing still for years to come. The only thing that has slightly changed is that paper now tends to lead to the internet where further action is meant to take place. Smart phones have played a huge role in making this work, and you can certainly use them to gather contacts from paper sources where people are reading. QR CODES require a smartphone user to use a scanner app on their device to scan a code linked directly to your signup form and/or website. This is designed to lead directly back to your web properties or to instigate subscription right after the required information is added to the form. The best way to use this tool is to create unique sign up forms with matching lists to collect subscribers from different places they are likely to encounter these codes and use individual QR codes linked to the form and list that can be used in print materials. This way you can tell where subscribers are encountering which QR codes and you can track your success. Here are some suggestions for using QR codes ‘offline’ and in print: -If you were an inn and had brochures printed and available at say, a rest stop, you’d want to have these items printed on that so people could explore your online properties before deciding to drive to your location. -If you were a restaurant, you’d want to have these printed on your check presenters and your menu to get people reading the menu to join your list for say, a free dessert, or percentage off the bill right then an there. Then, you’d be able to market to them additional incentives, deals, and events in your restaurant going forward. -If you were an animal shelter, or a social justice nonprofit add this information to paper ads on local community bulletin boards, church materials or in college materials and locations, local newspaper ads if applicable to generate interest for your organization. -If you were a real estate agent/company, include this code in direct mailings, along with ads in local/regional magazines/newspapers and wherever you print information about your services so that people can scan the code to learn more about your business by subscribing to your mailings.
- [CLICK] Pen and paper still works just fine for collecting email addresses and adds that personal touch. Get a nice guest book and place it where people are likely to encounter it. Make sure your staff knows to always ask if someone would like to subscribe and that they know how to later upload or store contacts digitally that they receive each day. I don’t know about you, but there are some sweet little boutiques in my area that I love to frequent. A good small business owner will ask me to sign up for their mailing list to be the first to know when certain items come in or when they have clearance sales. At the desk where you pay there will be a beautiful little book there for me to sign – kind of like a guest book – next thing I know, I get a Welcome Email from them and when I get regular mailings from them, I always read the email to see what they’ve been up to. It’s a little way of staying in touch with my community. The one thing you need to watch out for is handwriting! Using pen and paper to collect email addresses sometimes can work against you if you can’t read their handwriting. Put a request on the page to “write legibly” to try to alert people with poor handwriting skills.
- If you think about it, you want all of your online properties to be vehicles to drive new subscribers and sales. Make an inventory of all of your online properties. Do you have a blog? Website? Facebook business page? Twitter Account? LinkedIn? Instagram Account? Are you on Google + or Pinterest? Vine? Snapchat? Periscope? Flickr? You get the point. Everywhere where someone searching for your industry or nonprofit is likely to come across you online is what we’re talking about here. And don’t forget about your online listings. If you’re using the online listings publisher SinglePlatform (offered through Constant Contact), be sure to include a link to your signup form on your listings in the about section which will be published to various online publishers like Yelp! Yellowpages, TripAdvisor, etc. Now this should go without saying, but make sure your physical and online information is accurate and up-to-date wherever you are listed online and add your sign up app/link wherever you can to cover all your bases. Check this information at least once a quarter to be sure. Make sure signup forms sync back to your contact database to capture those new subscribers so you can gather new contacts wherever your business is online. The reason you do this is to capture interested potential customers/supporters where they are researching businesses or non-profits like yours before making a decision.
- [CLICK – CHART WILL DISPLAY] Include on your blog – If you’ve built a good following with your blog, include a section where someone can subscribe and give them reasons why they would want to. You can even write a small, dedicated blog post to get your readers to subscribe to your list. All it takes is a little creativity and a simple ask. Online Listings – If you feature your menu of services, products or cuisine on any online listing sites, add a sign-up URL to these locations to capitalize on potential subscribers who are researching your business before making a decision. These are people looking for what you offer, so show them how to subscribe to receive that information. Add a Sign Up App to Facebook – There are a lot of subscription apps to try so take your pic. It’s a simple little app that you can add to your Facebook page so that fans there can take it a step further and subscribe to your mailing list right from Facebook. The beauty of these tools is that they sync with your email provider or contact database so shop around for the one that suits your needs. Ask in your social posts and tweets – This is a great way to get fans or followers on social sites that may have been following you for awhile to subscribe to your list. Use a link shortener site like bit.ly.com to shorten your long signup form link and then Tweet that to your Twitter followers. Post a picture or video to Facebook with your sign up link included and just ask! *With Pinterest, create a pretty text image with a details about how to subscribe. Include the hyperlink to your website or online subscription form in the profile or comment included with the post. Include signup link in your bio - Include this shortened link in your social media bios so when people are looking up what it is you or your organization does they can subscribe for more information. If you are using Instagram, put this link in your bio because it is the only place where a live hyperlink can become clickable. *This works well especially with Instagram where clickable links don’t work. The only place for a hyperlink is in the profile so post an image requesting that people subscribe, and tell them that the link to do so is in your profile bio.
- [CLICK] Will animate rest on its own. These are a few examples of the types of incentives that you could offer to get someone to subscribe to your mailing list. Make sure that they are feasible for your organization to offer and manage and track and that you have the bandwidth to honor these incentives. You may need to set these up beforehand so make sure that there is a way to redeem these or honor them. Gift, swag Percentage off Special Offer Code E-book, whitepaper, guide Exclusive Video Link Special service
- [CLICK] Perhaps one of the most important things that you can do to begin to establish a relationship with new subscribers who find your business online or through the various ways we’ve been discussing, is to set up an automated Welcome Email and a corresponding introductory series to deliver the information someone was expecting to find when they subscribed to your mailing list. These days, most people research BEFORE deciding to buy, volunteer or donate. They are more discerning about committing time or money to something and are expecting to receive specific information about your products or services and are formulating an impression of your business or nonprofit with the initial email they receive from you. According to a recent study by the research company Fleishman-Hillard, 79% percent of consumers said they Like or follow brands on social networks to get more information about the company and its products and services and 89% of consumers turn to Google, Bing or another search engine to find information on products, services or businesses prior to making purchases. (Source: http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/31/2012-digital-influence-index-shows-internet-as-leading-influence-in-consumer-purchasing-choices/) Let’s talk about how to position this content in a way that delivers that expectation so you can make and keep new subscribers longer for a greater return overall for your marketing efforts.
- Next Steps Checklist and Recap Alright, we through a lot of information at you today and we want to make sure that you’re walking a way with all the information and tips you need to start growing your list today. -All in one place – round up all your existing contacts and store in one place with a backup file. -Create lists and segment them the same way you break out and label your target audience. Establish a system for organizing contacts -Make sure all the avenues for collecting contacts are set up and functioning properly so that you maximize your exposure wherever people are looking for information about your business or nonprofit. Test these as if you were a new subscriber yourself to be certain. -Create and schedule Welcome Emails and an Introductory series to deliver resources and incentives to subscribers for a lasting first impression and a increased quality customer relationship -Rinse, wash, repeat
- You CAN do this. There are tools out there to make it easier, like Constant Contact, and we are going to go over some simple ways to help you use less time, money and energy running your marketing.
- - 76% of people read email on their phones - 67% of b2b workers regularly view emails on their phones – Marketing Sherpa - 64% of key decision makers read emails on mobile devices – Marketing Sherpa There are no longer any excuses for not designing marketing messages for mobile and your subject lines are an integral part when it comes to your mobile strategy. On a small screen, your messages grab the attention of the reader immediately because there’s only so much time that one spends on their device in one sitting so it is worth understanding how your message is being read. Now we’re going to discuss a couple other things to keep in mind when optimizing your subject lines for mobile marketing before you send your next message. http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2012/07/19/how-people-use-their-smartphones-infographic/
- Start where you are. This is not something that you have to do all at once. Start with email and maybe one social media site… Next, you might think about [click to build] adding another social network (like Twitter). Then, maybe you add [click to build] a blog and start offering deals and promotions. Next you could think about [click to build] how your communications and marketing work across multiple platforms (mobile, tablets, desktop, etc.). You could add [click to build] events to your marketing mix (they work for all sorts of businesses), and finally you could build [click to build] even more of a social presence. But start small, start where you are, and build in a way that makes sense for your business.
- OPTIONAL “COMMERCIAL” SLIDE [SPEAKER INSTRUCTIONS: this is your short introductory “commercial” to explain what Constant Contact is to your audience.] SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS:…. Everything we talk about in today’s session is intended to help you grow your business. Strategies, tips and ideas that you can leave here and try. You can apply these ideas to any system or marketing tool you want to use, you do not have to be a customer of constant contact to come to this session and even if you use a competitor, all of the information provided here today will still help you. That said, I want to make sure everyone here knows what Constant Contact is. How many in the room use Constant Contact or know what it is already? Great, I encourage those of you that did not have your hands raised to speak to someone that DID have their hands raised about our service. I’m confident that you will hear good things or I wouldn’t have said that. Constant Contact is an online marketing system with tools to help you manage mass communication and marketing campaigns easily and without spending a lot of time or money. You can send email newsletters or announcements of any kind, run your own special offers or deals, get feedback or run an online survey and you can promote and manage your own events. It’s all together in one place and everything also works closely with social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and it’s also designed to help you look good on a mobile device. Constant Contact is the leader, and the support is outstanding. I will of course encourage you to use Constant Contact – it only costs about 20 a month – but let’s get to the class and then I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about Constant Contact at the end of the session.
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- Introduce yourself and give them a clear understanding that you are there on behalf of Constant Contact.