July 27, 2010
Hi Everyone
This week I talk about getting your emails noticed.
The first part of an email a recipient reads is the ‘From Line”.
You have a few choices what to use here, including:
* Your company name: (i.e. Johansen International);
* Your name: (i.e. Kurt Johansen);
* The position name of someone in your business: (i.e. CEO – Johansen International);
* The email loyalty program name: (VIP Club – Johansen International); OR
* your name and a description of your services: (i.e. Kurt Johansen – Email Mastery).
The choice should be based on what you think most recipients are likely to recognize.
Your first and last name is quite a useful relationship building technique but it must be recognisable to your recipients.
If you are sending to a list of people who know you and are expecting your emails then you may use your names successfully. i.e Kurt Johansen.
This particular ‘FROM’ technique works especially well for small businesses who have a personal relationship with their clients.
But…
If you are sending to a list as an employee or from a business where the business name is primarily known then it may be wise to use the business name. i.e. Johansen International.
Whatever you choose be consistent. If you change, it may confuse your recipients which could lead to ‘unsubscribes’.
Please DO NOT use “sales@abccompany”, or “admin@abccompany” etc. as these will not help build a relationship with your lists.
Also keep in mind many emails are now read on mobile phones. Therefore it also pays to get your ‘FROM’ line identified early. i.e “Kurt Johansen – Email Mastery” rather than “Email Mastery – Kurt Johansen”;
An often overlooked element of the FROM line is a person’s email address. Try to avoid using ‘Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail addresses if you email market. Use your email address. i.e kurt@johanseninternational.com.au
Your real address will render a more personal touch when it comes to email marketing. If you do not wish people to reply to the FROM email address (as it is your personal email address) this can be organised.
Email Marketing programs allow you to program where the return/reply email should be directed to.
So, make sure you have your FROM line correctly set up if you wish to succeed in Email Marketing. If you need help contact me. We can get you into a professional Email Marketing system for only $49.50 per month.
Click http://budurl.com/EmailProfits to view.
PLUS…
When you come on board I will throw in 2 one-hour training sessions (valued at $500) from me – absolutely FREE.
Yes, I will walk you through how to use the system to best affect and how to get the most out of your email marketing for FREE when you sign up at http://budurl.com/EmailProfits
Take a look NOW. Click http://budurl.com/EmailProfits to view.
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
Kurt Johansen
Email Marketing Strategist
PS: Act straight away – CONTACT ME. You need to start email marketing NOW.
PPS: We can get you started for as little as $49.50 per month. Click http://budurl.com/EmailProfits to view.
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July 22, 2010
Hi Everyone
For the past two years I have been trying to get ranked in
Google for the Keywords Email Marketing.
Last night I was given this fabulous news.
I am rated #2 in Google for the Keywords Email Marketing
out of 297,000,000 pages which contain those two words.
Beaten only by Wikipedia.
Yes, #2 position in the world out of 297 Million web pages.
Screen shot 2010-07-22 at 10.48.06 AM No 2 in Google
This has only been achieved by NOT GIVING UP.
My clients know; I know Email Marketing.
NOW GOOGLE does too !
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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July 21, 2010
Hi Everyone
A study from ExactTarget reveals what motivates people to give up their email address. The results are not exactly startling but it is useful information to know.
67% to receive discounts and promotions;
55% to get a ‘freebie’;
50% to get updates on upcoming sales;
45% to get updates on future products;
33% to get access to exclusive content;
29% for fun and entertainment;
28% to learn more about their products and services;
28% to stay informed about them;
22% for education about topics they specialise in;
17% because someone recommended them;
14% to interact with them;
11% to show support.
Make sure you build your website or include provision for people to give you their email address easily.
The point I take out of the research is there are many reasons and we should be catering for as many as we can.
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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July 19, 2010
Hi Everyone
When you undertake email marketing it is important you stay relevant to your list of subscribers.
It is crucial to send messages only to people who really are expecting contact on the subject and try to avoid sending emails to your entire list if it is not relevant to them.
Let me explain…
You may have an email list of around 500-1000. They may have become subscribers to you for various reasons. You may have met them somewhere, they have signed up at your store, they may have signed up from your website, and/or they may have been referred to you. i.e. Not everyone on your list may want or need every product or service you have.
It’s important we segment our lists as much as possible to allow us the ability to send targeted emails pertaining to the client or prospect.
This way we avoid bothering people with wasteful material.
Much research has been done and on average people receive 44 emails per day.
But…
Only around 11 of those are from companies, people, businesses they expect to receive emails from. Or in other words permission based emails.
So, it’s important we don’t add or be part of 33 unwanted emails people receive which contain details they really didn’t wish to know about.
Email Marketing is cost effective, yet it is also intrusive.
Be a welcome addition to someone’s in-box not an unwelcome intruder.
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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July 15, 2010
Hi Everyone
“From The Mouth Of A 14 Year Old Came…”
but first…
A very funny thing happened to me on the way to
Son #1’s Paintball Birthday Party last weekend.
(And yes it does hurt if the paintballs don’t burst on impact -
but… that’s another story).
The funny story is; We Got Lost.
Yes lost in the Adelaide Hills.
STOP laughing !
I was using a printed out Google Map route chart but it didn’t show
all the country roads and the GPS in the car didn’t have a clue where
we were either.
So, I stopped the car. Spat the dummy! (And don’t tell me you
haven’t done that before) and said.
“That’s IT. We are going home !!!”
Yep, my patience had grown thin.
Then out of the mouth of Son #3 came,
“Why don’t we just go back a bit ? We were on track back there.
Then we can start looking again.”
Hmmm… with my sanity restored by a 14 year old, I agreed to
turn around and retrace our steps. It only took us a few minutes and
about 4 kilometres to discover we were on the right road all the time.
So, I turned around, AGAIN, and drove back down the road
and YES…
right past the place which had seen my previous tantrum.
Then low and behold there was our turn off.
Only…
Another 150 metres on.
We had travelled 67 kilometres and I stopped short 150 metres
from the desired point.
Gosh, as Maxwell Smart would say, “Missed It By That Much!”
Now, this had me thinking all week, “What if I did listen to myself
and returned home?” What if I didn’t listen to Son #3″. “What If…?”
You know the answer, We would have fallen short of our goal.
And many people would have missed out shooting me with
green-gooey paintballs.
So, the lesson this week is to, “Never Give Up.”
Never give up on your dreams, your passions, your heart felt desires.
And don’t give up on your Marketing and providing your customers
with the all the information they need to include your products and
services in their lives to help them.
And when you do find yourself; a little lost; remember the words of
a 14 year old…
“Why don’t we just go back a little…We were on track back then.”
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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July 7, 2010
Hi Everyone
An interesting comparison hit my desk today.
I was re-reading Guerrilla Marketing “Secrets For Making Big Profits From Your Small Business” – by Jay Conrad Levinson, Copyrited 1984 and saw a very familiar theme which is true today.
Back then Email marketing did not exist. Gosh even the internet may have been around only in thought.
But what I discovered was…
Jay Conrad Levinson told all his clients when you market you must have these three key elements and stick to them.
They are…
- You must be COMMITTED to your marketing program;
- You must think of that program as an INVESTMENT;
- You must see it to that your program is CONSISTENT.
Now how true is this.
He says, If you are not committed to your marketing or advertising, it’s probably not going to work for you.
Marketing and Advertising should be considered as a conservative investment. They are not miracle workers. They are not the magic formulas. They are not instant gratifiers. If you don’t recognise that marketing is a conservative investment, you’ll have difficulty committing to a marketing program.
By accepting this chances are you will be committed to your investment and earn a lot more from money than by spending your money in marketing. And there is a difference.
And the finally, the third key element which he also introduces as his ‘3 secrets’ is don’t change media. Learn as much as you can on one and develop a winning formula. Then don’t change the message either. People come and go in market all the time.
- Consistency equals familiarity.
- Familiarity equates to confidence.
- And confidence equates to sales.,
Whether you choose email marketing or not for your next marketing campaign, all three of Jay’s 3 Key Elements must be in play.
For me, Email Marketing also brings into play 3 other Key Elements.
- Have a List;
- Have a Relationship with your list; and
- Make Dynamic, Irresistible Offers to your list.
So remember those words which were written over a quarter of a century ago: Commitment, Investment, Consistent when you next undertake your email marketing campaign.
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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June 30, 2010
Hi Everyone
When email marketing make sure you use large buttons for people to click onto.
With so many emails now being read via mobile phones it will make it easy for recipients to action the way you wish.
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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June 28, 2010
Hi Everyone
Should we be worried about whether a person reads their emails via a Mobile (Smart) Phone or not?
You see, with the amount of mobile phones being sold (the numbers apparently outstrip sales of PC’s and Mac’s combined) many people check their emails by their phone.
Let’s take a quick look at this.
The mobile phone is small, compact and has a reduced screen size compared to a computer. The problem therefore lies in the viewing space available to the recipient.
If your message contains large pictures then their mobile phone may not be able to view them or at the very least you may be forcing a person to scroll around their screen.
In the past most mobile phones were unable to read HTML emails therefore the pictures you probably sent were useless anyway by the mobile phone email reader; but this has changed in recent times with the new breed of Smart Phone on the market able to view HTML.
Nonetheless, visibility of your message is still a problem.
So, what should we do?
Should we even care?
Well, this answer is always going to be – IT DEPENDS.
Yes, I know this sounds like a “cop out”, but actually it does depend.
Email Marketing will never be anything but…
1. Your List
2. The Relationship you have with your List; and
3. The Offer you are making.
However…
Here are seven tips you could consider if you do have people who read their emails by their mobile phone.
1. If you have a logo/header/brand then display it at the top of your message so you will be identified very early.
2. Get to the point of your message early. There is limited space available to the email marketer for their message to be viewed.
3. Don’t overlook a person may initially read your email via their mobile phone but statistics prove they also re-read important messages back at their PC.
4. Keep the size of the email below 20 kb. Mobile phone browsers have improved over recent times but they still lack the power to read large files.
5. Avoid sending any ‘Flash’ images etc. Again mobile phone browsers are not powerful enough to read them.
6. Curiosity not only killed the cat but it also works so well in email marketing. Don’t overlook sending a person to a website to view the full extent of your offer. Most Smart Phones will allow the user to view a website easily.
7. If you know your customers predominantly read their emails via a mobile phone; you could dispense with including an email header.
(I know an email header is one of my “7 Killer Tips To Get Your Emails Read” and I still believe in it. But we have limited space with mobile phone readers and it may best be served with additional copy.
8. BONUS TIP
Place your Call To Action near the top of the message – you don’t want to lose your prospect by forcing them to scroll down and around and annoy them. If you have the Relationship they may not need to read all your email marketing message.
There you go. Something to consider.
For me I am not about to make an radical changes to my email marketing just yet.
The majority of my customers are small to medium businesses and they view their emails at their PC.
What do your customers do ?
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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June 25, 2010
Hi Everyone
Yes, it’s a question ALL email marketers should consider.
That is…
Do your customers read their emails first or do they dive into Facebook to find out the latest overnight ‘goss’?
You see people’s habits will affect the way they react during the day.
Research tells us if people open their emails before checking out Facebook then they generally are more receptive to receiving special deals and offers via email.
People who jump into Facebook are more likely to be receptive to offers sent to them by friends via Facebook. They also look for GREAT DEALS by becoming Fans of a particular Brands Facebook page.
So, what should we do as email marketers to best use this knowledge?
First, we need to understand that simply crafting an email to your email list and then placing this ‘advertisement’ onto Facebook may be unrewarding
because…
A marketing email should be targeting someone in the ‘first person’; whereby a Facebook ‘advert’ is targeting a group of people.
If this is confusing let me explain it this way…
When we send a marketing email it should be written as if the recipient is in belief it was written directly to them. It should only contain sentences structured in the ‘first person’.
This way of writing is impossible to do on Facebook unless you ‘Private Message’ everyone which is time consuming and improbable to do.
The Message you would be posting on Facebook would be ‘generic’.
Sure it would contain your own immutable style but essentially it can be seen as trying to grab many people. What I call ‘Shotgun Marketing.’
What to do
So, what should the email marketer do after they had obtained if a person views emails or Facebook first?
1. If you have an Email First client ensure you have an Offer and special deal in the email or in a link to a website. Email First customers are transactional (task orientated) and they wish to get to the offer quickly.
You could direct them to a Facebook Fan page but this would be done in the PS’s. Try to avoid sending Email First customers to a Social Media site until after they have viewed your offer.
2. For Facebook First customers rearrange your Offer on Facebook to be lively, fun, interactive for these Social people. The Offer could be the same as the Email First customer but as you are now trying to attract a group as opposed to one-person the style and balance should be alive, and social.
3. Don’t get trapped too much into the age of the person and stereotype them as young, so they are Facebook people. Behavioural styles are developed early and a person’s age will not necessarily fully explain whether they are Email First or Facebook First people.
So therefore…
4. Allow cross-promotion to occur with your messages. i.e. Facebook First people may be happy to receive emails direct from you. Give them the ability to do so. Make it easy for them to sign up to receive your marketing emails. You never know they may be an Email First customer after all.
There you have it. Not really too hard is it.
But I can hear you say…
How do I find out if my customers are Email First or Facebook First people?
The answer lies in a method all marketers should use.
That is…
ASK THEM.
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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June 18, 2010
Hi Everyone
Interesting question isn’t it?
A study by Exact Target in the U.S. researched this very question
and suggested if we do not know whether our customers are reaching
for smartphones to check Facebook, updating their Twitter status or
logging onto laptops to check email then it’s time we should.
Exact Target suggests whatever our customers do first in the morning
will drive their on-line behaviours during the day.
And what this then does is drive their motivators for on-line interactions.
Let me explain this a little simpler.
Research reveals:
- 58% of consumers check their emails as their first
on-line activity in the morning;
- 20% will check out a website first; and
- 11% of on-line consumers go straight to Facebook.
People who begin their day by checking emails are most likely to
continue to do it during the day and are susceptible to on-line offers;
specials and deals which may land in their in-box.
People who go surfing a particular website or sites first generally look for
distinctive brands
whereas…
People who go straight to Facebook are looking for social interaction and
therefore looking for entertainment, and personal connection.
So, what does this mean to the email marketer ?
Well, everything.
If we know what our customers are doing first thing in the morning then
we can craft our messages especially for them.
For example:
Email First Customers
Email First customers don’t wish to get too personal with you.
They are happy to identify you through your brand or name and are
likely to share any information you send them via email to their friends .
They engage with you because they have opt.ed-in to a list to receive
your messages and welcome your marketing emails
but…
they are 5 times unlikely to share these email messages via Facebook.
Facebook for them is a social medium not a transactional one.
Facebook First Customers
These are our social creatures. They are most likely to identify with
a Brand via a Facebook Fan Page and are happy to share their experience
with their ‘Facebook Friends’ via Facebook.
They use email throughout the day but are highly likely to share information
they discovered on a Facebook Fan page to their friends via email.
Email to them is not a social-discovery-exchanging media.
Email is used in a more ‘corporate’ manner.
Sure, they will engage with friends via email because they are social.
They are more likely to exchange their personal buying experiences
via Facebook.
So, why should all this research matter to you, the marketer?
Until now most marketers have used the same message in their
emails as they would on Facebook in the belief as long as our message
is out there it will be OK.
But this strategy is now clearly wrong.
Clear, concise, and precise tactics are now required to the email marketer
or to the larger extent any marketer.
The tactics you need to engage with your customers are changing.
Don’t get left behind.
In my next message I am going to share with you social media tactics
you simply must employ if you don’t wish to lose your customers
attention.
Quite simply, knowing where your customers begin
their daily on-line activities will be your key to success.
Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt
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