Email Marketing EFFECT-iveness

Email marketing continues to evolve. Some may feel that it has become a marketing channel that was more effective before the social media revolution but quite the opposite is true. Email marketing has become even more important to organizations that take the time to use it in its most powerful manner - as a tool to engage their customers with their brand.

EXECUTE Email Marketing

One may ask, is it time to execute email marketing all together? The resounding answer is no, as this infographic illustrates, 2016 projections suggest that spending on email marketing are set to exceed $2.5 billion:

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So if the consensus is that email marketing should not be "executed" as a central part of a successful internet marketing strategy, the question then becomes how to "execute" it properly. To that end, there are several best practices that can be taken under consideration to tailor an effective and successful campaign:

• Ensure those receiving your email marketing have confirmed their subscription
• Your email marketing complies with all requirements of the CAN-SPAM act
• The coding and writing of your email avoids SPAM triggers
• Build enticing emails that encourage response and engage the consumer
• Have well conceived and fully optimized landing pages to capture conversions
• Multi-channel support has been given close attention and strategic consideration
• When devising a schedule insider frequency and timing

As with all things in marketing, tweaking and adjusting strategy generally leads to success - email marketing is no exception - with these tools in hand, the labyrinth of email marketing can be tamed and manipulated to compliment the most aggressive strategy. Remember that the key is to engage the recipient with each an every component of your internet marketing strategy and, over time, the relationship will yield the desired results.

Cross-CHANNEL Surfing

A recent study by Forrester that sought to track online transactions found that less than 1% could be tracked back to social networks. Although the study did not include small businesses, and generally social media is found to have a more profound impact on small businesses, it brings up an important topic in today's world, which is the effectiveness and long-term impact of cross-channel marketing.

CHANNEL Your Energy

So what is Cross-Channel Marketing? Cross-channel marketing is many times mistakenly used interchangeably with multi-channel marketing. Multi-channel marketing is the idea that surrounds traditional campaign thinking - providing a consistent message across different type of platforms. Cross-channel marketing places the emphasis on the consumer, and follows them across the different channels and providing them with the information and if executed properly, will provide a customer service experience that will retain their loyalty - this new marketing paradigm is illustrated below:

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Please note that this diagram depicts only one arrow, and it caries the consumer across all available channels - this is key to cross-channel marketing. The consumer cannot be controlled, but rather it is necessary to ensure that all channels are available to be an active participant in the user experience, providing a unique and genuine experience that is tailored to an individual customers spontaneous needs and desire to interact with your brand or company.

So… What's Your Favorite CHANNEL?

One of the foundations of cross-channel marketing is understanding that your customers may prefer different channels at different times in their relationship with your brand. The initial purchase or contact may be at a brick-and-motor location or event, but as a relationship develops the focus may turn swiftly to eCommerce. Down the road, social media interaction may lead a consumer back to a purchase after a hiatus of activity. The important concept to understand is that customers will prefer different channels at different times in their relationship with an organization. Therefore it is essential to tailor each interaction based on that relationship.

CHANNEL the Power of Social Media

So where does social media fit into this cross-channel equation? Caroline Watts - a marketing manager at ReTargeter - feels social media's primary focus as a channel should be directed at building trust:

You can use social media to make your brand appear more human and build trust. You can also take advantage of the power of the social graph by making it easy for your users to share your brand content with their friends.  After all, people trust their friends more than they trust any brand.  Source

It is necessary to make your organization and brand accessible to your consumers no matter which channel they prefer - and preference really is the key. Just as consumers will flip channels in their living rooms from one show to the next, so to will they flip channels in their communication habits with your brand, understanding that dynamic and having a strategy in place to support this habit is essential to sound marketing moving forward.

Indicating Performance is the KEY

If you understand the concept that a "square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square" then the ability to comprehend the difference between KPI and metrics are well within your grasp. But before we can hold a conversation about KPI vs. metrics, there needs to be an answer to the question as to "why" this is important.

In marketing, understanding the "why" is many times more important than the actual data collection and analysis. If you do not understand "why" you are doing something, then how can you possibly understand how to use the data after it has been collected? This issue exists in every organization and is extremely prevalent with regards to small business owners. Many times marketers or business owners enter into a contracted service because of buzzwords and felling the need to do something simply for the sake of doing it. What is necessary however is understanding "why" KPI is important and a commitment to learning best practices. So let us take this opportunity to learn the difference between KPI and metrics and "why" they are important for your business or organization.

What is the Difference?

The first concept that is critical to understanding the difference between a Key Performance Indicator and a metric is that a KPI is a metric, but a metric is not necessarily a KPI. But how do you correctly  identify a Key Performance Indicator? According to Dennis Mortensen you can identify a KPI by using the following characteristics:

1. Echos Organizational Goals
2. Decided by Management
3. Provides Context
4. Creates Meaning
5. Derived from Reliable Data
6. Easy to Interrupt
7. Leads to Action

Now that the correct characteristics have been correctly identified, we must begin to think of what measurable data will be sought to create our Key Performance Indicators. There a literally hundreds of types of data that can be used as an evaluation measure but some of the available choices that will be consistent over most types of organizations will be the following:

• Raw Statistics  - [#]
• Progress Completion Status - [%]
• Change in Direction - [%]

Erica Olsen reminds us that true KPI measures do no stand alone as numbers on a corporate report. There must be relevancy as well as framed in regards to both the goals of the organization as well as the actions they are currently focused on to achieve those goals. It is also important to correctly identify the best source of data for each KPI as well as establishing a frequency of reporting to correctly monitor progress.

Next KEY Step
Once KPI has been correctly identified, sourced and reported, it is imperative to to use them as foundation for evaluating the success of your online marketing efforts. As all things with marketing, the primary goal is to achieve the fundamental vision of the organization. Once those strategies and efforts are in line, the other contributing factors can be established. Those efforts include:

• Devising a Strategy
• Identifying Objectives
• Establishing Critical Success Factors
• Formulating Key Action Initiatives

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When holding a discussion regarding Key Performance Indicators it is critical to understand that not only is KPI is important to your business or organization but "why" it is important to your business or organization. If done correctly, Key Performance Indicators can expose new growth opportunities and align your marketing efforts to work in tandem to not only evaluate effectiveness but also be the KEY to a sound and unified online marketing strategy.

UNPAID Search

The HEART of Downtown

Volunteering is something that has been ingrained in me since I was very young. At every phase of my life I have volunteered with various organizations. Yet as I became older, the desire to stay involved in non-profits has remained but it became more difficult to find a cause that invoked the passion for which I was searching. Several years after graduating from Marquette University in 2002 I decided that it was time to take a hiatus until an organization once again found its way into my heart.

Last September, I finally found the motivation for which I had been searching. The downtown of the village in which I have come to call my home was hit exceptionally hard by the economic crisis of 2008. It is now time to rebuild and I decided  to be a proactive part of the solution. So last fall I joined the Lombard Town Centre as a volunteer marketer and embraced their mission of an unwavering dedication to the downtown. Since joining I have sought opportunities to use my marketing knowledge to help this organization push forward.

With this renewed focus towards contributing the rebuilding process of downtown Lombard I began to think of how pay per click and other forms of paid search advertising could make an impact on advancing the awareness of this organization and helping to make tangible steps towards producing results.

Google Grants

Not only can SEM efforts be effective for a non-profit organization, but budgets can also remain realistic with the assistance of Google Grants. Google Grants are an under utilized tool by many non-profits nationwide. Grantees are the recipients of free Adwords on Google SERPs:

Non-profit organizations are able to build and manage their Adwords campaigns in the same fashion that a private sector company would - however there are a some restrictions:

     • A daily budget set to $330 USD, which is equivalent to about $10,000 per month

     • A maximum cost-per-click (CPC) limit of $1.00 USD

     • Only run keyword-targeted campaigns

     • Only appear on Google.com

     • Only run text ads

     • The organization must remain actively engaged with their Grants AdWords account

While Google Grants are an exceptional tool waiting to be leveraged, there are still other means to forward a mission by using interactive marketing.

Google & Beyond

There are many opportunities available to non-profits to use the Internet for more than the traditional web site. Google supports philanthropy by providing several other services in addition to AdWords.

Google Apps for Non-Profits and Google Earth Outreach coupled with YouTube for Non-Profits are all excellent ways to proliferate a mission without adding costly line items to an already strained budget. These powerful options from Google combined with social media and the support of organizations like SEOBook.org and SEMCares.com give non-profits powerful allies and sounding boards in their quest to bring change to the global community.

The important realization that all non-profits must realize is that in the new age smartphones and tablets the traditional means of communicating with constituents and stakeholders through direct mail and telemarketing is long since past. There is a new generation pool available to them that communicates in a different fashion. It is imperative that non-profits come to the realization that they must embrace the opportunities that exist for unpaid search and capitalize on them accordingly.

Micro SEO, Macro IMPACT

The rules of search engine optimization, or SEO, are ever changing. Google writes and rewrites the book of what good SEO should be several hundred times per year. Yet, while the rules continue to change, the foundations of what SEO can and should be have been fairly constant over the years:

• Application of diligently researched keywords

• Intelligent Metadata

• Carefully chosen ALT tags for images

• Relevant navigation choices and links

• Clever copy that appeals to both spiders and humans

These are just a handful of the important aspects to SEO, but the list is certainly not complete without the mention of microsites. For a small to mid-size organization, one of the most important optimization techniques that can, and should be leveraged is the microsite. A microsite as defined by Wikipedia is:

"an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discrete entity within an existing website or to complement an offline activity. The microsite's main landing page can have its own domain name or subdomain."

Micro SEO
Microsites that engage users with SEO rich content are sure to attract prospective visitors that are enthusiastic and passionate about your product or service. By creating a supplemental website that provides a particular audience with extensive information and relevant content on a finite subject, you allow your branded site to link to an external website that contains strategic content, enhancing your SEO efforts. 

If a microsite is such a powerful tool is there any reason to not have one? It is important to note at this juncture is that the purpose of a microsite is not to enrich and enhance the SEO for a brand website. There needs to be a reason that supersedes SEO - defining a niche market or micro audience that has interest in a very specific topic and they are proactive in seeking out information.

Macro IMPACT
Mashable feels that the folks at Mollydooker Wines certainly understand this concept. Their "Label our Lefty" microsite went viral as they asked wine enthusiasts to engage with them to name their new offering of sparkling shiraz. Mollydooker claims that their microsite enticed 80,000 pageviews and 14,000 unique visits while it was live. The Aussie winery sought to have a simple goal (name the wine) and achieved success (have customers engaged with the winery). Here is the promotional video that lead to their microsite success:

The success that Mollydooker enjoyed is not unattainable. If the design of a microsite is approached with well defined intentions and employs the essential elements of a well optimized web site, the results most certainly have the potential to bring success. However, if the sole purpose of a proposed microsite is simply to provide SEO and backlink to a parent site, not only to you risk being penalized by Google for black hat techniques, but you will most certainly lose credibility amongst the target population - possibly damaging your brand.

So don't be bashful, find your niche audience and build a microsite that gives them what they crave, just be sure to service their need for relevant information and not your own desire for a better page ranking.

Speciality BLEND

When we talk about communicating and gathering responses we must understand that as important as it is to deliver the message, the manner in which the message is delivered is what truly builds relationships over time. Empathy is the overwhelming key to a successfully cultivated relationship:

"Interactive Marketing is the evolution of marketing to a conversation. “The term interactive, as we interpret it, points to two features of communication: the ability to address an individual and the ability to gather and remember the response of that individual. Those two features make possible a third: the ability to address the individual once more in a way that takes into account his or her unique response. Thus we see interactivity as a tool that allows good marketing to become good conversation. The promise of the interactive paradigm, we anticipate, lies in its ability to put a more human face on marketplace exchanges without losing the scale economies of mass marketing.”  Source

Relationship Marketing

For those of you who may follow Social Media Examiner or have heard of Mari Smith - these are two great resources to enhance your understanding of relationship marketing. In the below video, Mari explains how Starbucks engages with their customers and shows that they "care" about them. This empathy strengthens the relationship, and, in turn, strengthens the brand. Its not about B2B or even B2C marketing, it's simply a concerted effort to have a P2P conversation.

Not only has Mari taken notice of Starbucks and their ability to build relationships, but Social Media Today also agrees. In a very recent article, they express the keys to engaging with customers. The below email is one example of how Starbucks builds and strengthens relationships:

If we refer back to our working definition of interactive marketing, we must focus on several key factors: reach the individual, remember the response and use a previous response to further build the relationship. Starbucks is very clearly taking these words to heart. Their reward? Loyal customers that feel that they have invested in a relationship with one of the world's most-trusted brands.