Did SEM pass $20 billion this year?...

Search Engine Marketing industry grew to $16.6 billion in 2010, compared with $14.6 billion in 2009.

Did it pass $20 billion this year?

Why do shoppers abandon shopping carts?

A Forrester Research report shows:

• 44% thought shipping and handling costs were too high
• 41% weren't ready to purchase
• 27% wanted to compare prices
• 24% wanted to think about the purchase and return later to buy

In email marketing, the relationship is king...

If you’re trusted by your subscribers and provide valuable information, they will look forward to receiving your emails and are more likely to not only open your email, but also click through, share, and convert.

Thank-you should be a part of your marketing message stream...

Did someone purchase from you online? If so, email the customer a thank-you message with an offer to revisit or purchase again; ideally, you'd provide a coupon or free gift to entice action soon.

 

Did someone buy in your store or office? Send a thank-you follow-up letter via postal mail.

 

Did customers do business with you at a conference, fair, or tradeshow? Email and mail them an invitation to engage with you at your physical place of business, your online storefront, or both.

 

And keep the follow-ups going.

 

Search Engine Marketing... Five Rs ..... #5

Reach

When developing your content, write about topics that have wider interest. If your focus becomes too narrow, people simply won't search for the information you have to offer.

Search Engine Marketing... Five Rs..... #4

Readability

Make your content easy for customers to digest by breaking chunks of information into headlines, bullet points, graphics and infographics. Your website will appeal to search engines with proper content, tags and keywords.



Search Engine Marketing... Five Rs..... #3

Remarkable

A good way to go unnoticed by search engines is with competent but unremarkable products, services and content. People don't comment about stuff that's ordinary. You have to be remarkable. Remarkably good or remarkably bad: that's when they comment.

Search Engine Marketing... Five Rs..... #2

Reputation

Good reviews never hurt... but they can be much more helpful if they come from respected sources. Who's saying you have good content? Who's linking to you, saying you have good content? This makes all the difference.

Search Engine Marketing... Five Rs..... #1

Relevance

Question? "How do you make sure you have the right content that's speaking to what people are interested in?"

Answer "The search engine's goal is to match the user with what is going to be the most relevant content related to what their query is."

Make it hot!...

Make all graphics "hot" (clickable): If you've ever been in a usability lab, you will notice that people click on anything and everything. So, it makes sense to have all graphics link to your landing page. You've already gone to the time and expense of an email campaign, why not optimize your efforts.

Your landing page... Make it all about the action you want!...

Your landing page is where it all begins! Save your customers from confusion by not giving them anything that will distract them from buying. The next several days we will let you know what you have to do to get the result you want...

A welcome email....

A welcome email allows new subscribers to check out what the past newsletters have looked like, plus it invites the subscriber to follow you on Twitter and Facebook right away.

The Pitch...

Have a specific goal for each message. A recipient should be able to identify the purpose for each email and appreciate the pitch.

Custom Email Template...

Build a custom Email template. Generic templates often look like generic templates. Your business is unique so let your Email be so too!

Revamp your email marketing...

If you're still sending emails from Outlook... GIVE UP! You will have deliverability issues, lack of metrics and blacklisting problems.

Outsourcing WILL boost output. Let someone else (an ESP like Vidi Emi) worry about the tech side of your email-marketing efforts... Allowing you to focus on what matters... you're messaging and your ongoing strategy.

Triggered Email Musts!...

• order confirmation
• shipping confirmation
• request for feedback on a purchase
• post-purchase email featuring upsells and cross-sells
• request for a product/service review
• welcome message series post sign-up
• birthday email
• cart abandonment email
• promotional email featuring products the recipient recently browsed on the website
• thank you emails

Less is more...

Simplify your sign-up form to reduce abandonment. Keep form fields to a minimum, while still collecting relevant information for segmentation. You can always request that your subscribers update their profile at a later time.

Consistency...

Avoid "quiet spells" in your marketing. It's a bad business practice. Effective marketing means being consistent year-round.

Having a purpose is key!...

Have a purpose when you email to your customers! Trying to educate? Trying to start a dialogue? Want to inform of news and events in the industry?

Big Brands & QR Codes...

QR Codes have been causing quite a buzz as big brands clamor to harness the power of the latest mobile marketing tool. Are you evaluating it?

Don't Neglect SMS...

In the drive to go mobile marketers shouldn't neglect SMS, which is an effective means to engage and win consumers. A call to action is key.

Let'em Reply...

Novel idea but seldom done. Encourage your customers to reply to your email message. Instead of blatant “do not reply" language.

Email Jargon 1a."CAN-SPAM Act of 2003"...

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (acronym for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003) officially came into law on January 1, 2004. The CAN-SPAM Act applies to almost all businesses in the US that use e-mail, and provides recipients of spam with the right to opt-out of these spam messages, and have their opt-out (or unsubscribe) request acted upon.  Under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, permission of the e-mail recipient is not required prior to sending out the e-mails, however if a recipient wants to unsubscribe or opt-out of the mailings then the business must stop sending the e-mails as per the opt-out request or face severe penalties.
 
In addition to enforcing an opt-out or unsubscribe system for recipients, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 also prohibits some of the common spammer trickery such as; changing mail servers to send the spam, changing e-mail headers or the "from" e-mail address to hide the identity of the sender, and using deceptive subject heading.

Email Jargon 1a "HONEYPOT"...

"Honeypot" These are old/inactive/unused email addresses that are intentionally set up to catch spammers. If you havehoneypot email addresses on your list, it may be time to review your process for growing your email list.

 

 

Email Jargon 1a "BLACKLIST"...

Blacklist. A blacklist contains a set of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that are suspected of sending out spam email.

E-Mail & Social Media go well together...

E-mail and social media tactics go hand in hand better than any other. Marketers are building audiences and conversion with cross-promotion.

Sweepstakes Cont'd...

Sweepstakes Make it personal; offer one of your products as the prize. This will attract clients that are truly interested in your product.

Sweepstakes...

Keep it simple! Have a strategic, limited-time offer so that subscribers will respond quickly to your urgent and exclusive offer.

Use Sweepstakes to Grow Your Subscriber List...

The main goal of email campaigns is to engage the subscriber and grow the list. A great way to do that is through acquisition sweepstakes.

Minimize HTTP requests...

Instead of  forcing your web site to request multiple files for images, content or ads, combine some pages. Not every page, but pages that make sense to have together like multiple stylesheets, for example, can be combined to reduce the number of requests and make page loading faster.

Decrease Page Load Time Speed...

GIFs are best for logos JPEGs are best with multi-colored images PNGs are best for quality transparent images....

Social Media... Are You?...

The Top 3 Social Media Activities You're Probably Not Doing— But Should... Podcasting, Location-Based Marketing & Social Gaming...

Don't let leads wither on the vine...

Did you know that 70% of leads never receive effective sales follow-up. Don’t let your leads languish neglected in a pipeline.

Keep in regular contact with leads...

Send pertinent emails related to where your prospect is in the buying cycle. Help move from one stage to the next.

Make contact as soon as possible...

If you wait too long, leads might forget who you are or worse assume you don't think they're worth your time.

Trade Show Leads...

Don't alienate tradeshow leads with an email campaign that treats them like they're still just a face in the crowd. Personalize your follow-ups.

Avoid the cost of untargeted marketing...

Marketers are realizing they need to facilitate personalization across all marketing channels. Delivering only relevant messaging to each customer is one way marketers can satisfy customers growing demands and avoid wasting resources. By not reaching out to uninterested customers who will likely ignore unwanted information, or worse, become annoyed by it, marketers can save money and increase efficiency.

 

 

Online video is exploding...

Any B2B marketer concerned with marketing ROI and sales enablement needs to know how and when to use it. Take YouTube, for example. Second only to Google, YouTube rapidly has emerged as an easy-to-use and reliable search tool.

Make 'em feel special...

Make your company's Facebook updates stand out with valuable info they won't find anywhere else. Such as sneak-peek product announcements.

Left align your text, and stick to a single column only...

It's best if you set your text alignment to the left and create one column instead of two. Keeping the mobile reader from having to scroll.

 

 

 

Make sure your website is also designed for mobile phones...

Chances are the links in your mobile friendly emails lead to your website, so you'll want mobile readers to be able to view the web pages you send them to as well.

Space your clickable links...

If links are close to one another and the reader touches the link he/she wants to visit, they could end up touching the other link by mistake. Very frustrating for your your customers/prospects.

Keep your images small...

If you really have to include images in the mobile version of your newsletter, keep the image and file size as small as possible, and then save them in GIF or JPEG format only.

Mobile phones have small screens...

Set the mobile friendly template size at a width of 320 pixels. Because mobile phones have small screens, your template needs to be smaller.

Keep the "From" and "Subject" lines short...

Since your subject line will be short, make sure you create one that is engaging. A few examples of engaging subject lines that will get a response are "special discount," "special offer," "free offer," "last chance" or "act now."

Build two newsletter templates...

It's best to have your regular version and a mobile friendly version. Edit your regular version by placing this text at the top: "View on Mobile Device". Next, link that text to your mobile friendly version.

Mobile Friendly Emails... What you need to know...

I'll be focusing on Mobile Friendly Emails and what you need to know! Last year over 30% of us read our personal emails on our mobile phone.

 

 

Consider re-categorizing your segments...

Look at what campaigns each customer is opening and consider re-categorizing them. However before you re-categorize them, ask what they are interested in, and let them choose their own categories.

 

 

Keep them up to date...

Once you have segmented your lists it's vital to keep the categories up to date. Schedule a regular date to review your segments, annually or bi-annually.

Purchasing Habits...

Another great way to segment is by identifying what type of product your customers bought, how much they spent, and which store they bought from. Then send a discount coupon for that product or type of product redeemable for that store only.