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  1. #1
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    Email Marketing

    Are there any experts in this field who could advise me on what the best method would be to get a good response on targeted email offers.

    General comments on the principles would be a good start and benefit all.

    I am happy do pay for advice given, if someone can wet my appetite.

  2. #2
    Silver Member Vincent's Avatar
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    I'm not an expert in the field of email marketing, but for starters I do have two ebooks that you can download from my website. They are, "10 steps to email marketing Success," and "Essential guide to email marketing."

    Hope they help.
    Vincent Marino
    Maximising the sales value of your business!

    Business 24-Seven |MyBlog Twitter |facebook |Phat feesh & chips






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    Hi Vincent,
    Thanks for that. I was getting confused and thought your website was another. (got too many site that I am trying to remember) Your site looks good and with valuable info, so I will provide a link to your site from mine.

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    Full Member Ann Williams's Avatar
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    Wink E-mail marketing course

    Hi Ryss

    I am giving my next practical course on e-mail marketing (half-day) in Centurion on 7th February.

    I designed this course (one of my most popular offerings) as there is so much on e-mail marketing coming out of the USA, yet much of which is not relevant to the South African scenario.

    There are many differences (particularly that we just won't read the loooong e-mails that the Americans will lap up.) Our legislation about e-mailing is also very different.

    So we take many of the great suggestions of the US gurus, and put them into a South African context. I also include a lot of my experiences with e-mail marketing (which is my main form of marketing); and tell you how to get results as well as what pitfalls to watch out for.

    Have a look here for more details:
    Marketing workshop

    I will also hopefully be coming down to Cape Town to do this course within the next few months, so will contact you once arrangements have been made.

    Cheers
    Ann
    Last edited by Dave A; 25-Jul-08 at 09:31 PM. Reason: clean up URL

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    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    Ryss, I agree with the post that Ann has made, but I see you are based in Cape Town and likely to far from Pretoria to attend her course, which btw I would recommend anyone to do. Therefore I would quickly try to give you a few pointers.

    Email Marketing crash course

    Factors

    Carefully aimed arrow

    I cannot place enough emphasis on target marketing when it comes to online marketing. You need to understand your market to prepare the content for maximum conversions. Therefore it is highly recommended that you have a proper SMO strategy in place in order to obtain the best possible demographics of your recipients. This can be done with datamining on your site and during signup.

    If you do not have demographics it is fine but your conversion rate drop dramatically.

    Having a good understanding of your target market will ensure that you understand the needs and interests of your target market when you write your email.

    From Field

    Avoid using just an email address in the from line. Rather make use of a descriptive personal name, e.g. company name or company name + description. This also depends on how the person is familiar with you. If it is on a personal name basis, then use your personal name, however if it is company avoid using your personal name. SPAM has programmed people to look at the From address and immediately decide if the mail is SPAM or not. In other words use a familiar name for the From field.

    Subject Line

    By far the most important field. It will make the difference between your email being viewed or deleted. Ensure that the subject has a personal tone from the receiver’s perspective. It can be descriptive regarding your intention but it depends on the purpose of the mail. A personal, relaxed email is much more effective and it starts with the subject line. Teasers can also be effective but avoid the word FREE and uppercase characters.

    To Field

    Try to use the proper name and avoid impersonal email addresses. Make the person feel it is addressed to them.

    Salutation

    If you know the name of the person use it here. E.g. Dear Jack, Hello Jack, Good morning Jack. Avoid the use of Hi unless you are very familiar with the receiver and use use the surname if you are not at all familiar with them.

    First paragraph

    An email’s first paragraph should be short and to the point. It will determine if the reader will continue reading or simply delete. I am not a supporter of sales letters as I have seen to many being deleted, rather use an informal way to promote your objective. Sales letters with Headings that sell, works in printed media not electronic media. Do not SHOUT!!! People hate being shouted at. If they reached your first paragraph they are already reading. Use headings but once again, don’t SHOUT!! The first sentence is a break point between delete and continued reading. Give it a lot of thought and think about what they want to see. Again keep it informal, to the point and short.

    Content

    If the reader reached your content part of the mail, it means there is interest in your objective. Now provide more information with links to your website. Do not write all the information, just enough to generate interest for a click through. Remember a email conversion = click through. Use bullets for points that matters, but keep information to the minimum although you shouldn’t be to concerned about length here it is more a case of once again getting a click through. Again keep the conversation flowing. Include a call to action.

    Last paragraph

    If the reader stuck through to the last paragraph it means you haven’t converted them yet. This also means it is your last opportunity to convert them. Try to have some solid and attractive conversion sentences here. Include a call to action.

    Signature

    A signature is essential. Make it personal but include all contact information here. This should probably be the most formal part of the email.

    Landing page

    The landing page for an email is the crucial part of the whole process. Have a topic related page specifically designed for the email. This page is the final conversion point. Just a warning. DO NOT design a complete new page, design a page within your site’s framework. A lot of people make the mistake of designing sole standing splash pages that are separate from the rest of the site. People want to know more about you and they will want to click through to other parts of your website.

    Tracking

    Utilize some kind of tracking for your website. Even if it is just by including a 1x1px image that reads from your site. If you do not have tracking, you have no idea of how successful the campaign is, or how to improve on previous campaigns.

    Unsubscribe


    Include an unsubscribe functionality.

    Testing your emails

    Check spelling.
    Check all links
    Test the email in both HTML and text format

    Absolute no, no’s

    Do not use a Yahoo or Gmail account to send the mail.
    Do not use small fonts. Keep font size to 10pt max 12pt
    Avoid upper case
    Use exclamation marks sparingly
    Keep paragraphs short and to the point.
    Do not send advertising
    Avoid using to many images. Specifically, do not use all image emails! When using an image include the alt tags with an appropriate description.



    Ryss, this was written of the top of my head. I seriously suggest you reading more on the subject or attend a course at least. Email marketing is by far the most important marketing strategy any business can employ to utilize as acquisitions, retention and conversion method. There are also legal issues you need to be aware of.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

  6. #6
    New Member thebanman's Avatar
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    Hi Ryss,

    Just wanted to know if you are marketing to a list of "opt-in" email addresses.

    Bryan

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    Thanks for the feedback.

    All makes very good sense.

    The matketing I need to do is to a list that I have complied and where I need advice the potential client of a service that I am offering.

  8. #8
    Email problem
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    There are a lot of good email marketing programs available that you can use to send personalized emails.

    So your emails say 'Dear Joe', instead of just 'Hi'. That makes a huge difference.

    If I receive an unsolicited email that is not addressed to me specifically, I just hit delete without reading further.

    I hope you are using a database of people/emails that have 'opted-in'... Spamming has a VERY low return.

  9. #9
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    Hi All
    What do you guys consider a good return on mail shots?
    Regards

    Debbie
    debbie@stafftraining.co.za

    From reception to management training, assertiveness, accountability or interviewing skills, we have a wide range of training workshops available for you!
    www.stafftraining.co.za

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  10. #10
    Email problem Karenwhe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Debbiedle View Post
    Hi All
    What do you guys consider a good return on mail shots?
    Very good stuff in this thread.

    Though one should consider the following before conversions are compared:

    1. Is the email is opt-in

    2. Is there a relationship with the opt-in list

    3. Is it a cold list (no opt in)

    4. Is it from affiliates

    All scenarios will give a completely different answer.

    Generally speaking on conversion to SALES:

    1. Opt-in will depend on what they opted in, if the data is NOT 100% related the % of conversion fall. Some of the best marketers don't ever count on more than 1% conversion. Not in the past and even worse now when no one trusts no one. Some of the best direct response professionals that know what they are doing and made multi millions in this business, don't count more than 2% if they get more the better. I know on the net you will find people saying stuff like 30% and 70%, those claims 99.99999% of the time are BS. Best I ever did was 12% and the list fell into "relationship" category. Then you can get very high conversions in EXTREMELY focus niches (fans of XYZ) that don't need convincing that XYZ is a good thing and the service/product/information is EXTREMELY rare.

    2. If there is relationship in the opt in list for a long time = you have had these people on your list and gave them tons of good info and trust was built with time and they know you are good in your business, then your rates of conversion will be much higher than the 2%, maybe 5% or 10% if you are lucky and extreme niches with little info again conversions go up because there is not much choice around, but still in the assumption that you have relationship and trust which takes time (in years) to build.

    3. Cold list no opt in. Ok, this is funny because the only number I ever heard of here -- as I don't deal with spammers -- was some 5 years ago when a colleague of mine did a marketing test on a cold list of affiliates, by him sending the email not the affiliates selling the product and the conversion was more like in the rates of spam........ like 1 person purchased out of like 30,000 emails. And that was only because they people did not identify his email address to the product and his writing style (that is what came down to after the affiliates did a survey). Obviously this is bad conversion and no go.

    4. Conversion from emails sent from affiliates will immensely depend on their relationship with their clients and database as detailed above and of course the better the relationship and more rare the data the higher the conversion. Now with affiliates it will also depend on the training they get from you and copy of letters. If they don't get help from you the owner and the correct copy to send out, the rates can falls and usually do below 1%.

    As a side note, there is not good conversion to "email shots", there is only good conversion to "relationship building". To do that one has to have an opt in and give huge amount of good information to build trust and show the person that one knows the subject matter.

    If you have a good relationship you need no gimmicks, therefore american, uk, australian way..... and any way - will do, because they know YOU, your individual style as a person. And even if you occasionally make a spelling mistake which happens to all of us, it will be forgiven (that doesn't mean you should not take care of your work quality, but it means that you will be easily forgiven because you are seen as human as a person not some selling company/consultant/machine).

    Now if you have relationship with your customers you conversions will be higher than the 2% or 1% or even 7%, simply because people will love you for what you give them and buy from you because they trust you and look forward to you information and occasionally you can sell your products and they will buy because the know you are good and your word is good and your data is good.

    Then, last point I can remember - the conversion rate will also depend on price ceiling and barriers. If your pricing and offer is right you conversions can be higher than normal. Example: would you buy a house that is worth 500K for 10K? Of course you will anyone will and they will jump. But that is rare and good and they will jump on the offer. Now if I say: Would you like to buy my home cooking course for 10,000 I promise it is really worth the money? The answer is logical NO, because no matter how good the course is and even if it will make you a million if you teach it later, you hit the psychological price barrier for the product line.

    So, to know your conversion you also need to know what your offer is and is it priced right.

    Now, for any beginner, I have only one suggestion. For the first email campaigns do not have high expectations, especially if you haven't done extensive market research..... because if you don't get results it will crush you and you won't be motivated to carry on and that is neither good nor constructive.

    Email marketing takes time and permission marketing was invented because no one trusts no one anymore in this world, do don't expect anyone to trust you unless you show your worth and ......then.......... you get high conversions.

    Last but not least. Landing pages to FREE opt-in for e-books and data are different and depend highly on the copywriting. I heard 35% conversion is good, I got more than that in the past, but traffic was extremely targeted.

    Now converting the free opt-in to a sale. Is another story and without relationship will highly depend on HOW GOOD that free data was. If not good, ouch, you are just losing reputation, if good you will be winning clients.

    Hope this helps.

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