Gmail Tabs Just Got More Pinteresting Posted on March 27, 2014June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Remember when marketers everywhere panicked over Gmail’s promotions tab? Well, Google has done it again, and is taking the promotions tab one step further. Gmail is experimenting with a new layout that resembles Pinterest, and is turning emails into an infinite scroll of thumbnail images. Now, instead of just a subject line and from address, marketers will be able to attract attention with a compelling image right in the inbox. Google released this image to show us how: What a Visual Promotions Tab Means for You The latest development from Gmail means that there’s even less room for junky, irrelevant email marketing spam. Your email content will still need to be personalized and targeted to your audience. And if your email lands in the visual promotions tab, your email image will play just as big of a role as your subject line does in getting your message opened and read. Gmail’s visual promotions tab is another development stemming from the trending dominance of visual communication. The popularity of online video, infographics, Pinterest, and Instagram all point to the ability of great design to help us digest information in a noisy and complex world. Tackling images and design may sound overwhelming to small business marketers, but it’s actually a great opportunity for the SMB space. Unlike a large Fortune 500 corporation, small businesses are nimble. As a small business marketer, you can adapt quickly to changes like this one, take risks to find out what works best, and carve out an opportunity to stand out in this visual inbox competition. In addition, I think that this new development transforms the promotions tab from a wasteland where emails go to die into a showcase for engaging eye-candy that will keep consumers scrolling. Consumers have already fallen in love with using infinite scrolling images on Pinterest to curate products and dream purchases. Bringing the same design to the inbox could mean great things for marketers. Imagine your best customers scrolling, mesmerized through their inbox where your email image and logo await. With Images Front & Center, What’s a Non-Designer To Do? As a small business marketer, you are used to being a jack-of-all-trades because there isn’t always extra budget for graphic designers or sophisticated design tools. But don’t worry. Design is really about solving a problem visually – and small business marketers are excellent problem solvers. You’re talented, and creative. You just need the right tools. Here are a few to get you started: Canva is a simple graphic design tool for the masses. Use it to easily create eye-catching email images as well as flyers, banners, presentations, and social media assets. DeviantArt Muro is a free, in-browser design app that is less complex than Photoshop, but more robust than MS Paint. Use it when you want to create something from a blank slate. Colourlovers compiles colors, patterns, palettes and trends you can browse or create. Use it when you need a little color and design inspiration. As you add “design” to your checklist of “Things to be Great at Today!” don’t forget that design and content go hand in hand. A stunning visual in the inbox is totally superficial. It might get them to open , but will your prospects click through and convert? They will if your content is as scrumptious and inviting as your email image. If you want to take part in the Gmail promotions tab experiment, you can sign up here for the field trial. Be a guinea pig now so you can deliver your prospects a great experience when the new layout goes live.
Razor Sharp Email Nurturing – Dollar Shave Club Posted on March 21, 2014June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk At Hatchbuck, we love seeing awesome email nurturing campaigns in the wild. Here is a great example of a personalized email campaign that compels customers to convert. Dollar Shave Club’s call-to-action campaign cuts to the point and asks for the sale. Here’s what Dollar Shave Club gets right, and how you can add these tips to your own call-to-action campaign: Segmentation This campaign speaks to those abandoned cart leads who filled out a form to sign-up, but didn’t pull the trigger to make a purchase. These are super hot prospects that have already engaged with Dollar Shave Club, and liked the product enough to almost buy. Key Takeaway: When developing a call-to-action campaign that asks for the sale, hone in on your most engaged prospects. Perhaps they signed up for a free service, abandoned a shopping cart, downloaded a competitor comparison, or visited a pricing page. The more engaged they are with your brand, and further along they are in the sales process, the more receptive they’ll be to this type of campaign. Single Call to Action Following best practices, there is only one path for prospects to take: sign-up/join now. Each of these emails has a single call to action that funnels prospects to the same landing page that also has a single call to action. There are no other distractions from the main intent of the email – getting prospects to convert to customers. Key Takeaway: Focus on a single call to action, whether it’s to connect with a sales representative or make a purchase online. Omit extra distractions to keep prospects on the path to conversion. Alleviating Fears: Thou doth protest too much, methinks Part of Dollar Shaves Club’s challenge is to address the barriers that stopped shoppers from buying the blades. These are HOT prospects that were clicks away from converting to a new customer. To confront those barriers to entry, these emails rejects frequent protests right away, like, “But, I don’t need razors every month!” and “What if I don’t like the blade I choose?” Key Takeaway: What protests do you hear frequently from your prospects when they turn down your solution? When you understand the barriers your prospects face, you can ease their mind up front. For example, do you hear that your offering is too expensive? Explain how the value it adds negates the cost. Are your prospects often concerned about a specific risk? Explain your warranty, or the flexibility of your contract upfront. Benefits are the Star Dollar Shave Club doesn’t beat prospects over the head with features like “best stainless steel blades,” or “soft rubber-grib handle.” Instead, they speak to buyers’ emotions by pointing out the intangible benefits of getting razors delivered to your door. It’s not just a razor anymore – it’s a way to avoid the frustration and inconvenience of making another trip to the drug store. Key Takeaway: Features aren’t meaningful to consumers unless they alleviate a glaring pain point or challenge they face. Identify ways that your offering makes your customer’s lives better, whether it saves them time, adds to their status, or eliminates a frustration. Egos Remained Intact Dollar Shave Club could tell their prospects that they’re super dumb for not saving money on razors. But prospects don’t want to feel dumb, they want to feel like they’re smart and made a smart decision with their purchase. So – in a snarky way that reflects their brand – DSC gives prospects the opportunity to feel like geniuses : “Hey, forking over big bucks for razors is not something a genius would do – and you’re clearly a genius.” Key Takeaway: No one wants to be called out for being wrong or unsophisticated. Make your prospects feel smart by making the decision to go with you. Don’t Let Great Customers Slip By According to Gleanster Reaserch, on average, 50% of your leads are qualified, but just not ready to buy. A benefit-focused email nurturing campaign with a single call to action helps your business follow-up with the most promising prospects. Don’t let lack of follow-up prevent your business from converting new customers. Nurture hot prospects with the right messaging to get them through the door.
Spring Cleaning: Reorganize & Refresh Your Email Marketing Posted on March 20, 2014June 1, 2016 by Lindsey Stroud Spring is officially here, and with that comes the promise of longer days and warmer weather! Like many of you, I have spent the last few months trying to execute on my “New Year’s Resolutions” both personally and professionally. Unfortunately, we often fall into a rut as the winter months stick around, and we welcome the idea of spring cleaning to de-clutter our lives for the upcoming months! While you take the time to re-organize your household, I encourage you to take the same approach to your email marketing. What better time than now to reassess goals you set at the New Year and make the appropriate changes. Here are a few good places to start: Provide Surveys: What do your subscribers want to hear from you? Now is a great time to issue a survey via email or take a quick poll on social media. To encourage participation, give a fun incentive like a coupon, raffle drawing, or company swag. Renew Campaigns: The landscape of your business and the industry you serve can change quickly, making old content feel a bit stale. Revisit your campaigns and refresh your emails with your latest blog posts, offers and resources. Also take this time to incorporate the feedback from your survey into your content and email campaigns. Refresh Your Contacts: Not everyone is a good fit for your product or service, so don’t take it personally when someone chooses to unsubscribe or doesn’t engage with your campaigns. Take this time to remove inactive contacts from your database. Cleaning out your contacts every once in while may shorten your list, but will boost email deliverability and engagement with your list of solid prospects – ultimately translating into more sales. Update Lead Bait: Offering a discount or valuable resource on your lead capture form landing pages? Now is a great time to go back through and make sure they are still relevant. Make sure that you are offering up fresh resources, and make sure you don’t have any expired coupon codes floating around. With a little bit of work up front, your email marketing campaigns will be refreshed and ready to run without a hitch through the upcoming months!
Beyond Email Clicks: Why Small Biz Marketers Want to Measure More Posted on March 13, 2014June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Marketers love delivering email open rates and click-through rates that go through the roof and beat industry standards. The smallest percentage increase in click-through can be exciting, especially as your list size grows. We like to obsess over opens and click-throughs because they’re simple to measure. Even the most basic batch & blast email marketing tools track clicks and opens, and even show you who has clicked. But do you ever feel like something else should be there? Small business marketers are itching to reach more meaningful metrics, metrics that go beyond click-through rates to measure how email campaigns are driving sales and generating revenue. Sure, you know that they’re clicking. But are they converting? Email opens and clicks are the first steps to conversion. With these metrics in hand, there are still questions left unanswered: Are you sending the right mix of content? The modern marketing approach is to provide value-added content that informs, educates or entertains your audience. However, we can’t forget to ask for the sale as well. As you build a track record of delivering awesome content to your list, your email opens and clicks will rise. At the same time, only sending value-added content may not lead to conversions. Email clicks can tell you that your list loves your content, but they can’t tell you if you are sending the right balance of value-added content and call-to-actions that ask leads to learn more about your product and services, shop or buy. What happens when leads reach your landing page? You may have become a master at crafting calculated email content that gets opened and clicked. But do leads hit your landing page and drop off? Or do they follow through with the next call to action, such as signing up for a service, tweeting out a blog post, or making a purchase? If you can’t tie clicks back to a completed action on your landing page, you can’t know if your emails are really driving increased awareness, new opportunities and sales. Clicks can’t tell you that you might need to adjust your email content to match what’s delivered on the landing page, or that a little landing page optimization might help convert more visitors. Email clicks alone do not indicate that leads actually convert on your landing page. Are your email campaigns generating opportunities and customers? Clicks and opens are not currency – customers are. Clicks and opens can indicate the health of your emails and campaigns, but they don’t tell you if engaged contacts are converting to customers. Beyond Clicks: How To Measure the Success of Your Email Marketing Using an email marketing tool integrated with a CRM for your small business closes the gap between email clicks and customers. CRM tracking gives you the full scoop on how your customers, well, became your customers. With CRM, you have insights into: Where your customers originated from What emails they have opened The links they have clicked The pages they have visited The forms they have filled out The sales people they have engaged with Measuring opens and clicks is the foundation of revenue-generating email marketing. But small business marketers feel like they need something more to correlate email activity to revenue. CRM brings these metrics full circle, helping marketers reach the analytics they need to demonstrate the ROI of email marketing campaigns.
Best of Small Business – Week of March 3, 2014 Posted on March 7, 2014June 1, 2016 by Nicci Troiani Happy Friday, Hatchbuckers! We have our weekly roundup of great small business articles for you today that focus on keeping the customer front and center whether you need to refocus on customer service, create better content to educate your customers, or put the customer at the center of every business meeting. Check these out: 1. 40 Eye Opening Customer Service Quotes by Ekaterina Walter Keeping your customers happy and coming back is a high priority in all business, but even more so for small businesses. Here are some great, inspiring quotes about customer service to keep you motivated. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2014/03/04/40-eye-opening-customer-service-quotes/ 2. 5 Business Goals of Content Marketing by John Hall Setting goals with your content marketing strategy is crucial for making it successful. Not only will these goals give you something to shoot for, but they are also a reminder that content marketing has boundaries and limitations, so don’t set lofty goals that you can’t reach. http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140303155824-86319010-5-business-goals-of-content-marketing?trk=cha-feed-art-title-214 3. The Man With the Folding Chair by Don Peppers I loved the concept behind this article. Asking yourself what your customers would think if they sat in your meetings is a great, eye opening way to always keep the customer in mind. http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140304160716-17102372-the-man-with-the-folding-chair?trk=cha-feed-art-title-204 Happy reading and have a great weekend!
The Ultimate Key to Email Marketing Effectiveness Posted on March 5, 2014July 31, 2024 by Jessica Lunk As a small business marketer, you already know that email marketing drives revenue. That’s why you spend lots of time crafting enticing email messages that speak to your prospects. However, while we often dedicate a hefty helping of TLC to email copy and design, it’s easy to overlook the ultimate deciding factor in getting your emails read: A squeaky clean email list. A catchy subject line that gets clicked, a sleek HTML email template that’s easy on the eyes, and an irresistible call-to-action can’t do their job if your email never gets delivered in the first place. The Low Down on Dirty Email Addresses Data decay and human error both contribute to inaccurate, undeliverable email addresses that clutter up your email list or small business CRM. So how bad is it? According to Experian, US companies believe that 25% of their data is inaccurate. Yikes. That’s a quarter of sent emails that never even see an inbox. Okay, so maybe some addresses slip through the cracks. That’s alright. Those were probably bad eggs anyway, right? Actually, those dirty addresses not only affect the contacts with bad email addresses, but they affect the deliverability of your entire list. A Good Business Reputation Relies on a Clean Email List Let’s break it down. ISP: Internet Service Providers Domain name: The address of your site (meant for humans) that points to your IP address Internet Protocol (IP) Address: An address (meant for computers) that corresponds to your domain name Sender Reputation: The score ISPs use to rate the sending behavior of IP addresses. The ISPs then filter emails from the IP address accordingly. In the world of email deliverability, the lower your sender reputation score, the more likely it is that the ISPs will filter your emails right into a spam folder, or even block them from delivery entirely. Bad email addresses = suspect sending behavior = lower sender reputation = low delivery for your entire list. In short, bad email addresses are an equation for disaster. The repercussions can be significant. Bad deliverability means that you’re missing out on opportunities to connect with marketing leads and generate revenue for your business. It also interferes with your ability to communicate with current customers, resulting in poor customer service. It doesn’t take long for a bad email reputation in the virtual world to tumble into a bad reputation in the real world. 3 Factors that Affect Email Deliverability There are three buckets to keep an eye on when optimizing email delivery: Inaccurate email addresses that contain typos cannot be delivered to. Inactive subscribers who don’t open or engage with your emails. Opt-out requests that do not wish to receive your messages any more. How to Keep Your Email List Squeaky Clean Get smarter about capturing contact data. Providing a double opt-in ensures that those on your list truly want to receive your emails, and offers a check-point for deliverability. By using opt-in best practices, you build a highly targeted email list, increasing engagement and deliverability. Verify email addresses before sending emails to avoid hard bounces. Continue to monitor bounces and unsubscribes as you send to your active email list. Make sure to remove hard bounces and unsubscribes from future mailings to keep engagement rates high. Respect opt-outs and inactive contacts. Do not continue to send email to your opt-outs, and cleanse inactive contacts (those who have not engaged with your emails for a time) from your list to increase engagement and decrease spam complaints. For many marketers, email copy and design that converts is the fun part of email marketing. But don’t forget about the foundation of great email marketing campaigns – they all rely on a clean, deliverable email list. Sending to an accurate, active and engaged audience is the best way to keep the ISPs happy and avoid the spam folder.
Small Business Marketers Are Losing to Dirty Data Posted on February 28, 2014July 22, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Small business marketers have more ways to capture and analyze data than ever before. Even with a small business budget, we can capture lead data with free tools and affordable SaaS solutions geared toward SMBs. We are constantly measuring and being measured. So the more data points, the better, right? Well, maybe. The Ugly Truth About Data It’s like buying a new car. As soon as you drive it off the lot, it begins to depreciate. As soon as you capture a contact’s information, they’ve changed their identity or changed their minds. A top decision-maker may have just broken up with her company. A self-declared lager-lover may have just cracked open a life-changing IPA. Preferences and statuses change, and marketers can’t wait around for a data cleanse to keep up. Nothing Gold Can Stay When we talk about data, segmentation, and targeting at Hatchbuck, it’s all really about one overarching goal: Uncover your prospects’ needs so that you can educate and add value. The issue is that needs evolve, and you can’t effectively segment with stale data. With Hatchbuck, and other marketing automation software, you can use forms to capture highly relevant data about your contacts. But it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole of text fields and drop downs that end up capturing a lot of data that doesn’t really make you a more effective marketer. That’s why dynamic segmentation – not data collection- is the better way to tap into data to identify the biggest pain points of your prospects. Scrub-A-Dub-Data More data is good, but when you consider that data decays at an estimated rate of 35% per year, that’s just more data to scrub down the road. Even the most basic of fields, like name and email address, can change and need to be updated. So instead of manually appending new data, let your leads do the work for you. With the right sales and marketing software, marketers only need to ask for the most basic information on landing page forms, and drop a cookie to gather more information down the road. Asking for less from your leads can help decrease form drop-off because visitors to your site won’t feel like they’re giving away the rights to their first born just to download a resource. In addition, the less fields there are for contacts to enter false or bad data, the less data you’ll have to clean up later. Actions Speak Louder Once you capture the most basic of information on your form, let your lead be your guide. They’ll tell you how to segment them by: The webpages they’ve visited The links they’ve clicked The resources they’ve downloaded Their tag score For instance, don’t ask leads if they’re interested in Life, Home or Auto insurance. Tag their interests by the links they click in your email, or the pages they visit on your site. Segment accordingly. It’s easy to feel like you’re fighting a losing battle with dirty data. It’s time to work smarter (not harder) to gather insights from your data. Dynamic segmentation provides a more accurate, real time picture of what your leads are up to, and what their hot-button issues are. Simple sales and marketing tools can help your customers be your guide to their needs. In turn, you can guide them down the path to conversion.
Warm Customers, Hot Profits Posted on February 26, 2014July 8, 2016 by Jessica Lunk According to researchers, customers who experience physical warmth are more likely to make a purchase. The researchers found that: Online shoppers were 46% more likely to hit a “Purchase” page when the daily temperature averaged 77 degrees Fahrenheit than when it averaged 68F. Customers in a warm room were willing to pay more that those in a cool room for 9 of 11 consumer items shown to them. Customers were willing to pay 36% more for items when holding warm, versus cool, therapeutic pads. Researchers say that physical warmth actually activates the concept of emotional warmth, drawing out positive feelings and increasing the perceived value of products. So, being physically warm triggers the emotional warmth that makes customers want to buy more and pay more. But, we can’t always control the temperature. Why not go straight to the source? Use your small business CRM to shine emotional warmth on prospects, increasing the likelihood that they’ll buy. If your CRM is more of a catchall for contacts than a sales and marketing machine, you’re missing a great opportunity to warm up to your prospects and customers, compelling them to make a purchase, spend more, and buy more often. The Cool Customer An American Express survey found that 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. Customer relationship management is more than keeping contacts organized. It’s making your contacts feel valued, known, and well cared for. A better customer experience is built on great communication between all customer and prospect-facing teams. Sales, marketing, and support should leave a trail of breadcrumbs from each contact touch point to the next. If your sales and marketing process is broken, communication breaks down at the expense of your customers, prospects and your business: Instead of following up with warm leads, cold calling is the norm. Instead of being handled with care, customers with issues end up feeling frustrated. Instead of a smooth follow-up process, opportunities to close more deals are missed. Small Business CRM Heats Things Up An efficient sales and marketing process paired with a simple CRM melts these challenges away. First, a CRM can automatically track contact activity. Now you’ll know which web pages a contact has visited, which emails they have opened, when the last point of contact was, or if they’re in your deals pipeline. The more engaged contacts are with your business, the warmer – and more likely to buy – they are. In addition, a rock-solid sales and marketing process can tackle hard-to-trace touch points. Did a customer call in and chat with support? Did sales offer a discount during the sales process? With great notes on contact records, customers feel connected to your brand. They feel known when they reach out to you instead of feeling left out in the cold. This translates into happy customers who feel good about making a purchase. Better relationship management through small business CRM turns up the temperature for your customers and prospects. When your sales and marketing process is seamless and easily scaled, your contacts feel the warmth, translating into cold hard cash.
Put the Heart Back into Marketing, Integrate Email with CRM [Infographic] Posted on February 13, 2014June 20, 2018 by Jessica Lunk No one wants to be just another face in the crowd, they want to be known. So put the heart back into your messaging. Track your contacts’ information, preferences, and pipeline status with CRM. Then, use that data to nurture them through email marketing tactics. By marrying your CRM with email marketing, you can ditch the one-to-many blast and give your customers and prospects the warm fuzzies with one-to-one communication that they can actually relate to. In turn, they’ll show their love with higher engagement and increased sales. Stats & Sources: Email marketers estimate 30% of email revenue derives from targeting to specific segments. – DMA “National Client Email Report” (2013) 61% of US and UK internet users want marketers to demonstrate knowledge of the types of offers they like in email marketing messages. -e-Dialog “Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumer Demand Relevance” (2010) Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. – Jupiter Research Triggered messages average 152% higher click-through rates than “business as usual” marketing messages. – EmailInstitute “3 Key Trends in Email Marketing & What to Do Now” (2013) Despite relatively low volumes, trigger email campaigns accounted for 21% of email revenue. Over 75% of email revenue is now generated by alternatives to generic one-size-fits-all campaigns. – DMA “National Client Email Report” (2013) Marketers who take advantage of automation—which includes everything from cart abandonment programs to birthday emails—have seen conversion rates as high as 50%. – eMarketer “Email Marketing Benchmarks: Key Data, Trends and Metrics” (2013) Organizations that nurture their leads experience a 45% increase in lead generation ROI over those organizations that do not. -MarketingSherpa “2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report” (2012) 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. – Gleanster Research Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. – The Annuitas Group