Reviewing Your E-Mail Marketing Campaign

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As we start a new year, it's always helpful to take some time to slow down, look back and evaluate the year gone by. Examining the past year's e-mail marketing efforts and results can help you uncover new ways you can improve going forward.

To get started, take a moment to review the results of your e-mail campaigns from the past 12 months (this is where the reporting features of an e-mail marketing service really come in handy). Then, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What was I trying to accomplish with e-mail marketing, and did I do it? What was your goal for your e-mail marketing efforts? Did you achieve what you set out to do? Did you measure the results? Is your e-mail marketing adding significant value to your organization? Did you uncover other useful purposes for e-mail marketing? Asking these questions can help you set your goals for the upcoming year.

2. Did I grow my list, and is it better segmented? There are many great opportunities to grow a list. Looking back, how did you do? Did you collect e-mail addresses whenever you got the chance--at events, during networking, at point of sale and on your website? Does everyone in your organization ask for e-mail addresses? What can you do differently to grow your list even more this year? What about segmenting? Did you divide your list into groups so you could send more targeted e-mail campaigns? How can you further segment your list forwarding the future?

3. Did I send consistent, high-value e-mail communications? With e-mail marketing, you have a great opportunity to stay connected with your list members. Did you communicate with them as often as you intended to? Or on the flip side, did you contact them too often? What about the quality of your campaigns? Did you spend the time you needed to create compelling content that included images and well-written copy? Did you put thought into offering your list members information they'd value and find useful? (Hint: Your open and click-through rates can help you figure out their interest level.) How can you improve your communications next year?

4. Which of my e-mail campaigns got the best or worst results and why? Look at your e-mail campaigns and identify the winners and the losers. What can you learn from them? What topics were your readers most interested in or not interested in at all? What did you do (promotions, subject matter, etc.) that, judging by the response, you should do again? What day and time worked best? You can take this information and modify future campaigns based on it. Create a new e-mail marketing plan that includes what you want to do more of and what you won't do again.

5. What did I do to become a better e-mail marketer? Did you ask friends and colleagues for their input on your e-mails? Did you ask your list members for feedback and incorporate their suggestions? Did you take advantage of some of the free e-mail marketing resources available online, like webinars and articles? Did you read a book about e-mail marketing? Did you review campaigns from other companies for ideas? It might be overwhelming to think of doing all these things, but why not set a goal for this year that you'll pick one or two of these activities? You'll be glad you did.

By taking a moment to ask yourself "How did I do?" you can make positive changes to your e-mail marketing efforts that'll help you get even better results. After you answer the questions above, you'll be well on your way to having your best e-mail marketing year yet.

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Gail F. Goodman is the"E-Mail Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and is CEO ofConstant Contact, a web-based e-mail marketing service for small businesses. She's also a recognized small-business expert and speaker.

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Long Copy, Long Copy, Long Copy

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I don’t write long copy because I like long copy.

I write long copy… because that’s what works.

You start at the beginning of your sales message… cover the points your prospect needs to hear in order to make a decision… urge him toward the right decision (buy your stuff)… and close with panache.

When you can do that in a few terse sentences, or in a single brief whiz-bang video, let me know. I’ll be right on your heels with my next pitch.

After almost three decades in the front-line trenches of business — slogging through the fog and chaos of multiple technological upheavals — I’m not holding my breath, though.

Still, the nature of business requires flexibility.

And, curiously, this is NOT an age-related thing.

At both seminars, I encountered wizened old farts who were cleaning up online, totally hip to every cutting-edge burp and tweak of the Technology Beast… and I met bright young business would-be-wizards who couldn’t ossify and wall themselves up in a cave fast enough.

And vice versa, of course.

The guys, young and old, who were making it work were flexible jaguars, alert and eager to learn. The ones wandering off into the desert — young and old — were dogmatic dinosaurs, unable to change even when the case for change couldn’t be more obvious.

Two quick examples: (1) I met several too-young-to-be-considering-suicide online biz owners who were, indeed, considering some form of suicide… because the Google Slap of last summer ruined their only business plan. Without the easy traffic of unchallenged Adwords, they became depressed and sleepy and unable to adjust.

Get a grip.

(2) I also recently critiqued a direct mail letter that looked like it’d been written in the early 1970’s, fossilized, and put somewhere safe from every single change that’s happened to advertising since Jobs and Woz wandered bleary-eyed from their garage-lab, giddy with success.

I didn’t even bother getting into the copy — instead, I gave the mailer a focused little pep talk about what had transpired since the digital explosion.

The basic rule is simple and eloquent: Things change.

And most folks resist change. Yes, that super-tight polyester disco-era leisure suit in the back of your closet may yet come back into vogue… but nearly every aspect of successful advertising has moved along at a brisk clip.

The days of easy traffic online are now as quaint as the days when having a toll-free 800 number was an exotic luxury. Ancient history.

The good news: It’s actually fun to stay hip and wired into the cutting edge.

There never was a rule dictating that the adventure and excitement had to stop in your life after a certain expiration date.

The key is simply to stay loose and alert, like a jaguar. The action is still hot and heavy at the front lines, as it always has been and always shall be.

And if you need a little help finding your way through the fog and chaos of the rear ranks… well, that’s what guys like me are for.

We live in exciting times. I understand the urge to go hide under the covers… but I also know the thrill of going mano-a-mano with the great Technology Beast, and winning.

Grrr.

Stay frosty…

John Carlton, http://www.marketingrebelrant.com/

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Personalized Baby Blankets

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http://www.fillintheblankie.com

Personalized baby blankets aren't new. Do a Google search and you'll be presented with dozens of stores offering blankets with embroidered trims. Many department stores and baby retailers offer the same service.

However, as we're fond of pointing out, everything can be upgraded. Sonya Bebeblankee's suitably cute website (www.fillintheblankie.com) sells eight types of baby blankets, varying in weave, weight and price, and including a "400 Count Blankie" that brings the luxury of 400-count sheets to the infant world.

Their unique selling point? Unlike most competitors, Fill in the Blankie allows buyers to have up to 200 characters embroidered along a blanket's satin edges (the norm is just 20 characters). Instead of being limited to a baby's name and date of birth, customers can pick a poem, write a letter or tell a short story -- making for ultra-personalized gifts that can be ordered in a matter of minutes.

The Dallas company's other claim to fame is an extremely quick turnaround: 3 to 7 days instead of weeks. Proving once again that entrepreneurial TLC can turn a staid idea into something fresh, desirable and profitable.
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Small Talk: Postal rate hike changing the way many do business

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When postal rates go up on May 14, many small business owners will be looking for ways to save on their mailing costs. Many will switch to e-mail and other high-tech methods, while others will opt for smaller envelopes or thinner packages.
    And some will take more drastic steps - such as abandoning higher-cost, low-margin parts of their businesses.
    Steve Weber, who sells books online, already stopped shipping some lower-priced books in recent years because he simply couldn't make enough of a profit as mailing costs increased. When rates rise again, he expects to pare his inventory further, discarding or donating books that would sell for $5 or less.
    ''I'll probably downsize quite a bit and focus in on the items that are worth more money,'' said Weber, adding that he'll also be shipping fewer books overseas.
    Weber noted that there are booksellers whose specialty are books that cost just a few dollars, and so shipping costs - which can be limited by online retailers that display the booksellers' inventory - can offset or outstrip any profits. That means some book merchants will be forced to find entirely different books to sell, perhaps targeting a niche market.
    ''The key to making money is to specialize,'' said Weber, who runs his business, Weber Books, from Falls Church, Va. ''You've got to focus in on markets like collectible cookbooks or poetry.''
    The postal rate change that will send the cost of a first-class stamp up 2 cents to 41 cents will also make it more expensive for businesses to send most of their letters and packages. Evan Bloom, who co-owns a Sir Speedy printing franchise in Westbury, N.Y., said that while in the past the U.S. Postal Service based its prices on weight and size, now thickness of a letter or package is being thrown into the mix.
    He noted, for example, that a business sending out a letter with a complimentary pen to a prospective customer has only had to worry about the weight of the package. But as of May 14, the thickness of such an envelope will figure into the cost because the pen will make it harder for the package to be sorted.
    Bloom said many companies will be able to save on postage costs by using different size envelopes or making smaller mailings. But, he said of the increase, ''there's no way to avoid it entirely.''
    He expects his clients to do what his company has already been doing to contain its own costs - culling mailing lists to target the best sales prospects. ''It makes me think more in detail about how I'm mailing, whether it will reach the people we need to,'' Bloom said.
    Bloom also expects the postal increase to affect his revenue as well as his costs. ''Some clients will now decide maybe they'll do a little less,'' he said.
    The postal rate hike follows by several months rate increases at package delivery services including FedEx Inc. and UPS Inc. And so the higher cost of mailing and shipping is likely to make many small businesses turn to e-mail and Web-based mail to send out letters, reports, presentations, projects and more.
    Andy Abramson, chief executive of Comunicano Inc., a Del Mar, Calif.-based marketing firm, said his company uses e-mail and the Web to send and receive most of its documents, bills and letters. For larger mailings that are too big for some Internet service providers or servers to handle, Comunicano relies on companies that deliver PDF files.
    Business owners wanting to learn about the various high-tech ways of mailing need only talk to other, more tech-savvy entrepreneurs, or to search the Web. While there are many sites run by companies wanting to sell you services, you can still learn about your options without signing up. You can also get some help from SCORE, the organization of retired executives who counsel small businesses for free; its Web site is www.score.org.
    But Abramson, who noted that he is the son of a postal worker, said businesses shouldn't expect to abandon regular mail altogether. Some pieces of mail can have an impact - especially an emotional impact - that e-mail and PDF files just can't deliver.
    ''There is something special about receiving a card, or a calendar that goes on your wall,'' he said.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune - Small Talk: Postal rate hike changing the way many do business

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