So, here’s what you can learn from Salesforce.com:

1. The first mistake is that they send email from a “No-Reply” address. This is a fundamental mistake and email marketing 101. The whole idea of email marketing is to engage your customer. If you cant accept replies to your outbound messages then you shouldn’t be sending them. Some companies make this mistake because they get a raft of replies that have nothing to do with the email sent – and the company therefore considers it a waste of their time. But what’s really happening is that customers are reaching out hoping to find a human being to help solve their problem. I’m not sure anything is more important to a company’s future than helping their customers solve problems, yet it is deemed an annoyance and that customers “should go through the right channels.” In these cases little regard is given that the customers may have already tried that approach and failed. Bottom line is that if you can’t respond to your customer’s replies – you shouldn’t be using email regardless of how big you are.

2. They do not have an opt-out link on their “customer” emails. This is in violation of the CAN-SPAM act, and subjects them to an $11,000 fine per email that they send out. Apparently someone at Salesforce.com has made the decision that since these are “Customers” (or apparently FORMER customers in my case) that they should have no choice than to receive these emails. This is another mistake at creating a one-way communication channel with customers. Ultimately, your customers should have the choice whether or not they want to hear from you. That includes you Microsoft!

3. Since they can’t even take someone off their lists when asked – multiple times, it’s highly doubtful that Salesfore.com is segmenting their audience for targeted emails. The message I received today was to alert me to the upcoming changes that are taking place on their platform and how that will affect me. Well, if they did any kind of segmentation at all they would see that I have had ZERO activity with their platform in the last 9 months, so making me aware of their changes is a waste of both of our times. What they could have done (had I not already asked to unsubscribe!) is send me some kind of message that says “Hey Ken, we’ve noticed that you have not logged into the platform in over 9 months. We want you to know about some helpful videos that we created in helping customer like yourself get started.” That kind of message is targeted and might be relevant assuming I HADN’T ALREADY CANCELED MY ACCOUNT.

4. Another common problem with companies like Salesfore.com that integrate their CRM with an email platform is that any silo of your business (marketing, sales, customer support, etc) can easily broadcast an email to contacts in the database. This can lead to anything from mildly annoying your contacts with too many emails, to complete disaster like sending directly conflicting information or overlapping offers. Large companies need to have an email marketing individual leading a thoughtful campaign with highly relevant email messages instead of the free for all that can exist when everyone has access. I suspect that this is the case with me and Salesforce.com – they can’t figure out where else my information exists to keep people from emailing me and don’t have central control. Or they apparently can’t figure out how to completely delete my record permanently in their own heralded platform.

5. By the way, if you are curious on why we abandoned Salesforce.com it was because of the complexity of the application and it’s steep learning curve. After signing up, and watching my 4th video tutorial and completing my 4th skills test, it was still difficult to figure out the basics of entering a lead and setting a reminder task. And as a former corporate sales champion I have had my share of experience with CRMs. If you are considering Salesforce but don’t need a lot of the advanced tools check out Highrise at 37Signals.com For us it’s the right amount of information, takes about 15 minutes to master, and has all the tools that we need.

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing Tips: #2 Personalize
2. Email Marketing Tips: #4 Relevance is Key

However, it’s always a good idea to confirm this. You wouldn’t want to design your email marketing campaign around people 40-60 years old if your subscribers are all 20-35. By now you should know that buying a generic list is both illegal and a dumb marketing move, so you should have a pretty specific group of subscribers that you can analyze.

These are the people who have come to your website and were interested in more information, or people who were interested enough in what your company does to attend one of your events or come into your store. By looking at the kind of people who subscribe to your emails, you should be able to see clearly what kind of groups your subscribers fall into. You have a target market, you just need to determine who that is.

And once you do, make sure that your email marketing campaign is geared toward that group of people. Not everyone is the same.

Is your list mainly prospective clients/customers or are they people you have worked with before? Are they interested in information and tips, or did they subscribe for products and deals? Knowing this information is going to be the key to creating relevant messages and keeping your “list churn” (the amount of people who unsubscribe) down.

Prospective clients and customers want to hear how and why what you offer will benefit them. They want testimonials and incentives. Previous or return clients and customers want to know you care about following up with them — asking how their product or service was and if there’s anything further you can do for them.

Each company’s incentives will look a bit different. Sometimes it’s appropriate to incentivize with monetary deals, like free or reduced-price products and shipping, or a buy-one-get-one-free service or coupons. Sometimes your target market may benefit more from tips and tricks or advice. Think about what is most relevant for your subscribers, and you’ll find that you have a happy list full of people who actually enjoy getting your messages.

And isn’t that the most you could ask for in an email marketing campaign?

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing Tips: #2 Personalize
2. Email Marketing Tips: #3 Content is Vital
3. Email Marketing Tips: #1 Get Permission

Here are our tips for making sure your content is great every time:

• Consistency trumps creativity — ultimately, you’d love for your campaign to be both consistent and creative, but sometimes you just don’t have the time that month to find the perfect balance. And the worst thing you can do for your branding is have emails that are off the wall, irrelevant or unrecognizable.
• Match your branding – that means the logo, colors and content in your messages should be similar to, if not that same as, your website and other marketing materials. If people can’t match you up with other contact they have with you or they can’t even recognize that the email they received is from you, they’ll probably think you’re spam.
• Plan ahead, not last minute — if you’re pressed for time and struggling for content, you may throw something totally irrelevant into your message. Remember the saying, ‘if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all’? Well, that goes for good content too. Your subscribers aren’t going to want to read something that has nothing to do with you or your business. It’s a great way to end up in the spam pile.
• Brainstorm your ideas & use a list – we recommend setting aside a designated time for brainstorming content for your messages. Think of as many as you can, without edits. Write them all down. You will need to go back later to make sure that the idea is consistent, but brainstorming provides you with a great way to come up with a bunch of creative ideas and keep them for backup. Don’t get stuck trying to think of one thing to say a day before you want your newsletter to launch — get a whole bunch of ideas that you can come back to and draw on.

Content is a way to hook a reader in and make them want to read what you have to say. Don’t spoil that or spam subscribers with bad content — you’re only harming yourself.

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing Tips: #4 Relevance is Key
2. Email Marketing Tips: #2 Personalize
3. Email Marketing Tips: #1 Get Permission

Other than a boring email, why would you want to spend extra time to personalize? Because it is yet another way to develop a relationship with your customers and clients. We’d hope that building a relationship with the people you serve is a priority to you and your company — it should be — and that your goal with email marketing is to further this relationship. There’s almost no better way to do this than to personalize your messages.

Personalizing will provide you with a two way connection. First, you’ll know more about your customers, and second, they’ll see that you took the time to include some information about them and reach out.

Now that you know why you should personalize, here’s how.

First, of course, you will need information about your customers. Basically every piece of data you collect about those on your email list can be used to personalize a message. The important first step is to make sure you’re getting permission, of course — meaning, in this case, that each person is supplying their information to you. Like we mentioned in the last Email Marketing tip, Get Permission, it’s important that the people receiving your messages have given you the go-ahead to use their data.

The easiest way to gather information within the rules is to include an Update Profile link in your emails. This does a couple of things.

1. Initial sign-up is easy — just an email & name — so that there aren’t a thousand boxes to fill out to get your newsletter. This will make sure that you get the highest initial opt-ins, while still giving each person the chance to enter more information later. The less initial information one has to give to sign up, the more likely they are to subscribe. Some studies have shown that even just one extra box can reduce opt-in rates by 40%.

2. If at any point a subscribers information changes, they can easily find and update their profile.

This profile information can be used inside an email message, such as referring to a subscriber’s first name in the greeting or title, or to their company name in the message. It could also be used for segments to send out different, highly relevant information and deals, for example by using their zip code to let people know when a nearby store is having a sale.

The second way you can easily gather information is when customers interact with you. You can document when they purchased an item, when an item was delivered, and even the name of the sale associate that helped them.

This information is great for adding in details to your messages, or to use for triggers. Want a message to be sent to a customer if you haven’t seen them in 60 days? You can do that. Want to send a special thank you to someone for purchasing an item? That’s possible too.

Of course, you can always use Profile information for triggers too — the best example being happy birthday messages.

There’s almost no limit to the categories you can create to personalize your messages.

However…

You don’t want to go overboard. There’s no set maximum amount of personal information to use in a message — that’s a judgment call — but we would recommend you keep it to just a couple key pieces. If you include too much personal attributes, it may distract from your message or be overwhelming to the reader. It’s also a bit Big Brother, and could creep your reader out or turn them off from giving you information.

The best strategy…

Would be to sit down with your team and discuss what the most relevant, useful data about your customers would be. Is it their zip code because you have multiple stores? Is it their birthday so that you can provide special incentives and deals? Is it just who last helped them in the store so they know who to ask for in the future?

Figure these sort of things out, and decide on the methods you’ll use to collect that data. Get to know the people you serve and personalize your messages for them. The benefits are greater than you might imagine.

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing Tips: #4 Relevance is Key
2. Email Marketing Tips: #3 Content is Vital
3. Email Marketing Tips: #1 Get Permission

Spam. You get it, I get it, and we all hate it. Did you know that 94% of all email is spam (New York Times)? It’s insane how much of it is floating around in everyone’s inbox.

With so much spam around, here’s the most important thing you can do when setting up your email marketing campaign:

Get Permission

No one likes getting newsletters in their inbox that they don’t remember signing up for or agreeing to. These days, getting one of these unprecedented emails is enough to make readers immediately unsubscribe before reading what you have to say — or worse, flag you as spam.

Even if someone wrote down their email when buying a product or attending an event, if you didn’t mention that their email would be added to a newsletter list, then you don’t permission to add them to your email marketing list. You need to be explicit, not sneaky. Here are some of the things to avoid when developing an email marketing audience, and ways to grow your email marketing audience legitimately.

Bad Examples

• Buying your list off someone else
• Stealing or randomly generating a recipient list
• Adding everyone who has bought a product from you online or has given you their email for some purpose other than subscribing to your newsletter
• Automatically adding and check-marking the “subscribe” button on a sign-up form for something other than your newsletter

Good Examples

• Adding a newsletter subscription form to the front page of your website for visitors to use
• Adding an optional checkbox for newsletter subscription to info forms at events
• Using a double opt-in method, like a confirmation email with an opt-in link

Why We Recommend Getting Permission

Besides being annoying and very similar to spam mail, here is why some of the bad examples are particularly bad. They are against the CAN-SPAM Act requirements.

“The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.”

CAN-SPAM prohibits:

• “Harvesting” email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
• Generating email addresses using a “dictionary attack” – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations
• Using scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
• Relaying emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization. (Federal Trade Commission)

Here’s the bottom line:

You want your readers to WANT to read your emails. Getting permission will insure you don’t annoy your readers or get marked as spam.

Plus, wouldn’t you rather have a smaller group of dedicated readers than a massive list of readers who don’t care and/or feel spammed by your email? We thought so.

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing Tips: #4 Relevance is Key
2. Email Marketing Tips: #2 Personalize
3. Email Marketing Tips: #3 Content is Vital

You and I are in agreement that email marketing rocks, right? Once you make that conclusion, the next logical step is to start thinking about your email list. For our new clients that haven’t collected email addresses before, or have a very small list, this becomes an immediate concern and the question “How do I build an email marketing list?” is raised. Today I hope to answer that question for you.

Just Start

Some people I talk to want to wait until they “build up a nice list” before they get started in email marketing. These are the same people I talk to a year later who are still “getting ready.”

The trick here is to just get started with what you have. If you start digging you’ll actually be able to put together 50 to 100 names and email addresses just from people you know.  You might be thinking – hey, this isn’t my target market. Don’t worry, they are your friends and want to support what you are doing so they’ll be happy to read your newsletter. Besides, they may not be your target market, but they may know people who are. If your friend is not willing to get an email from you, get some new friends!

Then grab that stack of business cards you have in your desk and contact those people one-by-one asking for permission to stay in touch via email more regularly. Next, immediately schedule yourself to attend a networking event or two in your neighborhood where you know you can make 20 or 30 new contacts (get a business card) – asking each person for permission to stay in touch. Now book yourself a speaking engagement if you have good content to share and ask attendees to sign up. Before you know it, your list will feel like it’s growing very fast.

The other reason you need to get started with what you have is that email addresses age and die.  If you are in touch regularly, it allows people to update their email address with you. If you start “next year” many of your email addresses will already be dead. Follow Nike’s advice here – and Just Do It.

Look for Contact Points

One of our clients sells deluxe automobile roof top tents and collects maybe 2 new contacts per day from his website’s “join our email list” form. While all website owners should have a join form, that’s about the only place he was adding to his list.

During a phone conversation with me, Mike put the receiver down and talked to a prospective customer on the other line. He spent a good 5 minutes giving free advice on how one of his tents could be supported by the prospects particular vehicle.

I could tell from just one side of the conversation that the person was very grateful for the information. After Mike hung up and returned to me I asked, “How many conversations like that do you have on any given day?” and he responded, “Maybe 15 or 20.”  I just about fell out of my seat. I not-so-gently urged Mike that at the end of these conversations he should ask – “Are you getting our newsletters on topics like this?” and if not, ask those people for a name and email addresses. I guaranteed him he’d get the email address 80+% of the time. Then to make sure he’d act, I built and sent him a nice form he could keep by his phone on a clipboard.

Mike just sent us a spreadsheet with about 800 new names on it, and I’m guessing many of those were from phone calls.

Where else are you contacting your customers? At the Point of Sale? During outbound calls? If you are attending trade shows you must collect names and email addresses or you shouldn’t bother even showing up. Give away a prize in exchange and then tell everyone in your first email who the winner was. Are you speaking at events or trade shows? Figure out how to give your audience an easy way to sign up for more information via email on the spot. Do you do deliveries? That’s another time to ask.

Think about your business processes and the number of contacts you have with a customer throughout the cycle, and make sure you are asking for it when appropriate. Why not make a list of contact points right now while you are thinking about it?

Measure and Reward

If you own a company you know that your people only pay attention to the things that are measured, recognized or rewarded. Since collecting email addresses may be another new thing they are expected to do – make sure they understand the importance of it.

With some clients we have advised kicking off the email campaign with an email collection contest. We measure the percentage of emails gathered from the number of opportunities and rank the contestants. This worked in a competitive sales environment, but maybe you need to measure it as a team.

Since you know that email gathering is an important task long term, make sure your employees see the big picture. If you use MBO (management by objective) in your review process, you may want to include email address collection as one of those MBOs or even “spiff” your people for each email collected. For this we recommend a “random” contest. As you measure your email collection effectiveness, randomly announce a winner for “last month’s contest.” People will say “I didn’t know there was a contest last month” and you can reply that it’s always important, that your always measuring it, and they can expect a random contest to occur anytime – so keep asking for the email address.

Name your Newsletter

It’s a small thing, but asking people if they want to sign up for your email marketing newsletter isn’t exactly compelling. “Do you belong to our Savvy Insider’s Club?” however, which is the name of one our client’s newsletter, has much more sex appeal. Mor Furniture calls theirs the VIP List and who doesn’t want to be a VIP?

Should you Purchase an Email List?

I have conversations all the time with new or prospective clients asking if they can buy an email list from me. The answer of course is absolutely not – but it’s important that you understand the reasoning behind the answer.

A purchased email list is a completely worthless investment, is not allowed by us or any other legitimate email marketing agency, and is against the CAN-SPAM law. Even if you’re promised by the slick salesperson at Lists’R'Us, “It’s a completely opt-in, CAN-SPAM compliant list” you should know they are a liar or at best incredibly stupid.  Do you really think that there are people out there who willfully signed up for something and checked the box that said “Yes, it’s OK to sell my email address to anyone on the planet?” Of course not. Though that may be buried in the fine print legalese of some privacy policy that nobody reads, you and I both know the truth – nobody would agree to that.

I understand that this whole email thing would be a lot easier if it was possible to buy a quality list of prospects eager to hear from you, but it’s a fantasy. The sooner you let go, the better. People usually want to buy a list so they can have a “big” email list. Focus not on the size of your list, but on the quality of the contacts. Would you rather have a list of 1000 people where nobody cares about your information, or a list of 100 people who are eager to get your email? The answer should be obvious. I’ll take the smaller list all day long.

Sponsor an Existing Email Newsletter

One technique where you can use someone else’s list is to be featured on an email list that is already going out to people in your industry or target market. Owners of large lists will often allow you to advertise on their email piece, or even allow guest “writers” for content. That’s a good way to build some buzz. Make sure to ask if you can have a link to your own sign up form so the investment pays long term dividends by garnering you new list members. Offering a free white paper or something else of value can be a great enticement.

Focus on Content

Many people are concerned for me when I write Blog posts and articles like this one that seem to give away important company secrets on how we “Do Email Marketing Right.”  I tell them to relax because I know that content is king. You can build the biggest and best list ever, but if you don’t give people what they want to read – why bother? I know that if I can deliver valuable, relevant content for my readers it will pay off in the end.

Besides, we’re looking for 100 great customers at Email Broadcast, not a million. If we provide the best information available, companies that want the best will seek us out. I also know that if our content really hits the mark, our recipients might even forward the message and those people may sign up to receive their own copy of our newsletter – helping us grow a quality list.

Think about it for just a second. Is there anyone you know who might enjoy this article? Thanks in advance for forwarding it to your friends.

Get Relevant Details from the Start

Relevancy is a giant topic that deserves it’s own Blog post and newsletter (coming soon), but with regards to building your email list, knowing that relevancy is your end goal will help you build your list correctly from the beginning. If all you have from someone is an email address, you have to treat them like everyone else – and that’s hardly relevant.

When you are collecting people for your email list, make sure you get enough information from them to treat them like they are special – because they are. This varies depending on your business – but it’s pretty easy to figure out what to ask for. First, always ask for someone’s name. Then dig into the industry specific information.

If you sell computers maybe you should also know if someone is a Mac or a PC, or uses both. If you offer guided fishing and hunting tours maybe you should know if your clients are purely fisherman, purely hunters, or do both. Sell clothes? Maybe Gender is important for your future emails. Yacht Broker? Maybe sailing vs. power boats is important for you to know. Florist? How about asking for an anniversary date or spouse’s birthday? Think about it and start collecting that information from the beginning.  It will be much easier to deliver relevant content using list segmentation and trigger messages down the road.

Hopefully these tips on how to build an email marketing list have been helpful – here’s a quick review:

• Just start with what you have, right now. Go ahead, we’ll wait. Really.
• Consider all the points of contact you have with prospects/customers and use the best ones to consistently collect email info.
• Get your people on board. Measure and recognize good performance.
• Always ask permission before adding anyone to your list, and give it a cool name.
• Build your list correctly, and disregard temptation of list buying as fools’ gold.
• Deliver great content and your list will grow virally.
• Collect more than just an email address so you can make content relevant.



If you have more questions about “Email Marketing Done Right” or are ready to get started, give us a call right now at  Email Broadcast at 206 965-8114. And if you haven’t already – why not get our “Top 5 Tips on Email Marketing” as a free gift for subscribing to “Rock the Inbox”

Related posts:

1. “If B2B Email Marketing Videos Could Talk”
2. Email Marketing Tips: #2 Personalize
3. Email Marketing Tips: #4 Relevance is Key