Of 192.2 billion mails sent daily, does your email campaign stand out?

Behind every successful email campaign is a smart marketer…are you one of them?

Do you know…

When it is the right time to send a mail?

Through which device are emails read the most?

If you’re ‘white listed’ by your subscribers?

Emails should tell a tale to engage readers and create a connection. Storytelling is a powerful tool in getting your message across. No matter how compelling your message may be underlying tactics need to be used to boost email engagement, readability, and deliverability.

Email marketing provides the ability for readers to instantly access free information offered. If you have linked emails with resources such as white papers, case studies or research reports, all they have to do is click on the link, sign up and access what is offered. The fact that readers can directly gain valuable information makes this channel preferred over others.

However, many marketers think sending emails are free. The fact that email marketing is inexpensive makes it an advantage as well as a disadvantage. Billions of email accounts are opened worldwide and the number of emails an individual or business sent and received every day has led to the biggest challenge yet, spamming.

Based on a USA survey, “over half of all emails are deleted within 2 seconds without ever being opened”

With inundation of emails to readers, they have short attention spans, are fickle and have very little patience. In order for emails to reach an inbox, for them to be opened and clicked, they need to be relevant, customized and creative. People today don’t read emails today, they scan through it. All those colorful and long messages with complex offers are surely not going to get you anywhere. Keeping emails short and simple has more impact.

Email marketing is one of the most effective channels for any kind of business, especially, small and medium-sized businesses. It is cost-effective and considered to be one of the best marketing channels to increase conversion rates, engagement and customer loyalty.

So what’s your brand’s story?

Are you sharing it or selling it to your audience?

Connect with Your Target Market Relevantly

ACCESS AN EMAIL DATABASE WITH EXCLUSIVE LEADS

What If Your High Value Customers Were Just a Click Away!

With email marketing and automation, it is not only about bulk-blasting mails. It is about improving targeted messaging to enhance user experience and relevancy. The following stats give you a better idea of the future of email marketing and automation:

• “Triggered email messages get 119% higher click-through rates than "business as usual" messages.” - Epsilon
• “59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective channel for generating revenue.” - BtoB Magazine 
• “61% of marketing companies plan to increase their email marketing efforts in the next year.” -Experian 
• “More than 50% of respondents said they had not yet realized the value of their investment in marketing automation.” - Genius
• “The adoption of marketing automation technology is expected to increase by 50% by 2015.” - Sirius Decisions 

Marketing Automation helps in maintaining a single point view of all customer interactions across channels.

• You can understand customers’ needs at a detailed level. 
• It aids in implementing ‘real-time’, behavior-driven, trigger based campaigns.
• It helps in anticipating and predicting changing customer needs required in improving satisfaction.
• It enables customized communication.

Marketing Automation (MA) is a process that ensures prospects are constantly engaged. It creates and delivers email campaigns and other marketing collateral, and tracks website traffic and responses.

However, it is not about only implementing a new product; it is about a change in mindset. Automation alone does not translate to increase in sales; it will automate sending emails, taking the prospect to the next level is what the sales team needs to do!

Let ‘bots’ help you connect relevantly with your customers

Automation is only as good as the strategy that is developed for it

Integrate your database with one of the leading CRM applications, Salesforce.com

Get to know how

How Well Do You Know Your Customer?

We all know that email marketing is one of the preferred channels B2B marketers use to connect with customers and promote their brands. However, email marketing is also a tool through which you can know your target market better.

How many of us know:

• Why customers join our email lists?

• What customer expect from business emails?

• How customers read, relate, understand and treat emails?

Basically how many of us know the ‘Why, What and How’ of our customers? 

To find out how much you know your customers, try out this simple checklist, the ‘Email Engagement Evaluator’ 

Answers to these 10 questions will give you a basic idea of your customer persona. Utilize email marketing as an intelligent tool to gain insights, let your email database facilitate better B2B marketing!

What’s Your Story? Share It Not Sell It!

Storytelling is a powerful tool in getting your message across. Emails should tell a tale to engage readers and create a connection. However, no matter how compelling your message may be there are underlying tactics that help boost email deliverability, readability and engagement. Questioning is a good way to get answers:

When is the right time to mail?

In order not to get lost in the inundation of emails received by a person daily, time is of essence. Depending on the industry you function in, your customers have specific behavior. 

• Is there a best time to push the send button to optimize Click through rates (CTRs)?
• Some say Monday mornings is best time to send emails, others say Tuesday or Thursday is.
• Some say persona based campaigns drive higher results others say trigged campaigns work better.

Click through rates (CTR), is one the main email metrics used in measuring success of email campaigns. Industry experts say using a segmented database improves CTR by 16%. 

No matter what kind of statistics and suggestions, what works best is what Actually works only for you! The mantra should be to “Experiment, Analyze, Adapt and Execute”. 

You need to know your target market, analyze their behavior and preferences, adapt them into your communication and connect with them personally. 

Through which devices are email read?

It is important to design emails based on how majority of your customers view their mails. Keeping in mind the torrential introduction of new devices, emails need to be developed to cater to specific gadgets.

Has permission been obtained?

Marketers need to understand that obtaining permission before sending a mail is not an option, it is mandatory. Besides ethical aspects, permission based email marketing ensures better deliveriblity, response rates and increase in brand affinity and confidence.

Are you on your subscribers’ ‘white list’?

Wholesale buying of lists is a solution of the last decade. It is important to ensure that you are added to address books of everyone on your emailing list. Getting on their white list makes sure your emails do not end up as spam.

While these are some of the factors in ensuring successful implementation of email campaigns, there is one keyword that says it all…Relevancy! It is the difference why people choose to open an email or choose to ignore it. 

The core of an email campaign is an email, and it has to be right! Get to know how you can create that perfect message with Part IV: The Art of Developing the Perfect Email Message

Email Marketing Is Still Alive and Kicking!

Email marketing has been around for ages and it now shares space with social media and digital ads to influence customers. Irrespective of new marketing channels, hard stats published by two authoritative organizations CMO Council and Direct Marketing Association (DMA), reinstate why email marketing is still alive and kicking!

In May 2012, email marketing was rated as “the most successful digital marketing tactic” by marketers worldwide.

In June 2012, for house lists there was a 2.6% improvement in average open rates and 1.1% increase in clickthrough rates (CTR) of U.S. emails as compared to 2010. House lists is defined by DMA as a list of emails from present and past customers from a company’s in-house database. For prospect lists, there was a more than double increase in percentage in click through rates.

What’s the reason behind such a robust channel?

With the introduction of new implementation tactics such as data segmentation and marketing automation, targeted, personalized and relevant communication is possible therefore increasing engagement rates. 

The ‘elephant in the room’ however seems to be the fact that increase in engagement rates need not necessarily translate to higher sales. The slight decline in conversion rates says it all.

The reason behind this is observed to be other channels grabbing conversion share. Customers who converted through email earlier are now finding new ways to connect such as through social media, search or retargeted display ads. 

No matter what new marketing channels emerge, email marketing will be the preferred medium. Not because it is the easiest, because it works.

And don't forget the 'R' word. Make it Relevant. Keep your ROI rocking!

Target your ideal customer profile with personalized marketing campaigns. But first get organized and sales ready with a segmented database. Ask us how!

5 Actionable Tips for a Better Email Template

Emails are not just about writing and sending. As a marketer you need to watch what you are presenting your readers. The way you present your emails can determine success of your campaigns. Here are a few best practices related to using a proper template for sending emails:

 

 

5 Common Mistakes in Email Marketing

In this fast changing email landscape, it’s important to adapt your email marketing with fast changing online world of blogs, wikis, social networking and mobile interactions. Despite the popularity of Email marketing, most business-to-business marketers still commit same mistake.

With the frequent mistakes see in email marketing, I’m collating 4 rules for email marketing.

Rule #1: Don’t use long subject lines

Every day I receive many business emails with subject lines going beyond what eye can see- literally. This mistake happens when you try to cramp the entire topic in the subject line.  A better way would be to manage the length of subject line within 35 to 45 characters.

Rule #2: Place important information first

Most email s is still written on the line of long prose. If you’re making this mistake, it’s time to crunch the size and put the vital details at the top of the email. Use inverted pyramid model of the email to structure your email message. 

Rule #3: Optimize From Line

All the informative article around non-descript “from” lines fall on deaf ears. This is one reason I see many emails with subject lines like “F C,” “Details” “TRAID”, words that make no sense to me.  At least, you should be using your company name in the "from" line. This makes more sense to have a meaningful name that those abbreviations

Rule #4: Reduce Your Message Frequency

Avoid causing nuisance to subscribers by sending frequency email messages. When it comes to fixing the message frequency, understand the threshold level of your subscribers. But unfortunately, most markets take permission for granted with too frequent emails, which spoils the party.

Rule #5: Segment Your List

Finally, it’s important to divide your email data into segments based on similar traits.  Data segments help you to personalized email communication for higher engagement.