Use Email To Retain Customers Posted on May 29, 2013 by Nicci Troiani A lot of e-mail marketing strategy is focused on sales and nurturing leads and prospects with the ultimate goal being to convert them to customers. While this is a huge advantage that e-mail marketing gives to small business, you also don’t want to forget to nurture your customers. Just because they bought from you once, doesn’t mean that they will always be around, so remind them why they chose your business. Keeping in touch with your customers and following up is extremely underrated. When a business makes an effort to ensure that the consumer is having the best possible experience, the customer will take note. Here are some ways to utilize your email marketing campaigns to retain your current customers: 1. Appointment or Renewal Reminders If you have a business where the customer needs regular appointments or has scheduled renewal dates, using an automated e-mail campaign can help you to keep track of the dates and send a friendly, personalized automatic e-mail to remind the client as well. 2. Rewards or Referral Programs Rewards programs are a great way to interact with a customer. Give them rewards points for how engaged they are or give them points or a discount for referring new clients. However it works out, giving back to your customers is a great way to keep them around. 3. Holiday and Birthday Emails Some email marketing systems can send e-mails or campaigns based around a specific date. This is a great way to help remember all of your client’s birthdays (without actually having to remember). Sending a Happy Holidays or Happy Birthday email has a great, personal touch to it. 4. Thank You Email or reward When someone first becomes a client, you should always thank them. They did not have to do business with you, but chose your company. Send them an email thanking them for their business. If it makes sense, give them a customer discount on another service, product or upgrade as well. This will not only show them your appreciation but is also a chance to up sell. 5. Surveys and Feedback Most people don’t love filling out surveys. Make sure your customers know that you want to know how their experience has been, so that you can keep improving. If the survey is lengthy at all, send a gift card code for filling it out. Even something small will help to entice them to fill it out and give them something out of the experience. E-mail marketing is a great way to stay in touch and reward your customers. By doing this, your customers will give you feedback which ensures that you do your best and get them to stay customers.
What Small Businesses Can Learn During Disasters Posted on May 22, 2013 by Nicci Troiani When disaster hits, there is one thing that is inevitable– the marketers jump on the opportunity and the public responds via social media. And it’s usually not pretty. One great thing about the reach of social media is that the public can now voice our opinions when we see something that we know is wrong. However, as a small business marketer, it can now be confusing to know what is appropriate marketing-wise during a disaster. With the Boston attacks still recent in everyone’s minds and the the Oklahoma tornadoes that just occurred many marketers are “news jacking” (inserting your ideas into current news issues, to generate more coverage for your business). I have also personally seen hatchbuck users who are helping out in disaster areas and have handled their marketing strategy appropriately. Here are some tips on how to show sympathy and appropriately adjust your marketing strategy during a disaster time: 1. Hold off the self promotional tweets When a disaster hits, it might be wise to un-schedule any tweets and hold off any promotional posts your were planning for a day. Post out something to show you are sympathetic and are aware of the issue. Consumers relate and would rather do business with a company that they can relate to. Show that you are just as affected by the tragedy as everyone else. Companies that continue to promote themselves and leave scheduled tweets (especially ones that could be perceived wrongly) only seem concerned about one thing– themselves. 2. Help, but don’t advertise it If it makes sense to help with the disaster and you have the means to, then do it! Consumers can really get behind a company that does more than just sell a product. That said don’t blast out tweets, Facebook posts and e-mails about how great and helpful that you and your company is. That is still self promotion. There are ways to let people know you are doing good, without just telling them. For example, if you want to collect cans or clothing items for tornado victims, ask your followers, fans and e-mail list to contribute. Create an e-mail campaign to let your customers and prospects know how they can help. You will get a higher volume of donated items and get the gold star for helping without having to say “hey everyone, look what I did.” 3. Don’t news jack during a disaster News jacking gets a bad rep when it is not always bad. Putting a funny spin on a news story can help trend your tweets and can help people connect with your message. However, companies that try to news-jack a story during a disaster time can seriously offend a large audience. In 2011, when much of Egypt was rioting, Kenneth Cole released the following tweet: (photo courtesy of money.cnn.com: http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/03/news/companies/KennethCole_twitter/index.htm) The Twitter-verse exploded with outrage at the company and Kenneth Cole issued a public apology. There have been countless issues with employees improperly tweeting or posting about something at an inappropriate time. Don’t lose fans and customers because of a blunder. Think smart and lay low as a company unless you are asking your audience to help you help in some way.
How Prospects Can Segment Themselves Using Hatchbuck Forms Posted on May 15, 2013 by Lindsey Stroud We often preach the importance of segmenting your contacts. In order to email your prospects and customers relevant content, you must know their interests. For example, if I am an insurance agent and I sell both Renters & Homeowners insurance – it’s important that I identify my homeowners and renters up front so I send emails with content that meets their needs. It wouldn’t make sense if I knew this information up front to email my homeowners information about renters insurance and vice-versa. Many of you use Hatchbuck forms on your website or social media profiles. One of the most powerful overlooked features of our forms is the ability to add “tagging” options. When a prospect chooses particular options or interests, their information will be imported into the system and will add the appropriate tags. This powerful feature allows your prospects to auto segment themselves before you or a sales rep has ever engaged with them. A Tag Comb & Tag Checkbox are great form options to allow your prospects to auto segment themselves.For example, “Do you own or rent your home” is a tag comb and “Interests” is a tag checkbox. When a prospect selects whether they own or rent their own home and their quote interests, they will automatically enter Hatchbuck with the appropriate tags. Once a prospect enters the system with the appropriate tags, you can filter contacts and begin communicating with them with information that meets their needs and interest without ever having to have questions. Allowing your prospects to auto-segment themselves can save you time and allow you to stay more relevant.
Great Subject Lines Posted on May 15, 2013 by Nicci Troiani When your primary job is to assist small business owners and employees with their e-mail marketing practices, you get a lot of questions about what criteria to test. I believe that testing is key to finding out what will work for your business and receive the most opens. While testing e-mails that have different content inside of them can alter the actions that people take (like clicking a link, watching a video or visiting your website), you have to get the recipient to open the e-mail first. If a subject line looks uninteresting or spammy the e-mail is not going to get opened. This is why I believe that testing e-mail subject lines is the most important piece of the e-mail that should be tested. So how do you know if your subject line is good? 1. Be interesting If you can put something that is relevant to the recipient into the subject line you are better off. For example, if you separate your list by city, putting something geographically relevant into the subject line can improve your open rates. Also, questions work well as long as it’s not super cheesy. Think about what questions apply to your audience. Something like “Is your Marketing Stuck in the 90’s?” and not “Looking for a marketing software?” The reason the first is better is that it focuses on a need without directly promoting your product. 2. What’s in it for them If people believe that they will receive or learn something by opening your e-mail, it is more likely to get opened. Ideally, you have your list segmented by geography or interests. Sending someone an email that points to their specific interests is your best bet. For example, if my business is an online wine shop and I am able to track link clicks, I know that Joe Smith always clicks on red wine so I will probably start sending him emails with subject lines like “Have you tried this new red yet?” or “This red here for a limited time– it’s our best seller.” 3. Don’t turn into a spammer When you write someone like “OPEN FOR A FREE PRIZE!!”– you look like a spammer. This example is a triple whammy because it is in all caps, has the word “free” and has exclamation points. Having just the word “free” or just an exclamation point will not likely be the sole reason that you are marked as spam, but don’t combine these things. SPAM filters looks for spammy words within the subject line and basically assign points to the subject line. When it exceeds a certain amount of points, you’re in the SPAM folder. These 3 things are what we have found can make the difference between hitting open and hitting delete on an e-mail. Want some more details on subject lines? Here is an infographic from Litmus that dives a bit deeper: https://litmus.com/blog/how-to-write-the-perfect-subject-line-infographic/subject-line-infographic Even when you have put plenty of thought into it and feel that your subject line is perfect, you may not get the opens you would like so remember to always keep testing. You could be surprised at what works the best!
Hatchbuck Software Overview Posted on May 10, 2013 by Nicci Troiani Want to know exactly how the hatchbuck software can help you retain more leads and convert more prospects to customers all while saving you time? Check out the slideshow below to see all of our features! Hatchbuck overview final from Hatchbuck Hatchbuck is designed to simplify sales & marketing automation for small business and is super easy to use. Say adios to manual follow-up or reminders. Get all the tools you need to stay organized, automate your prospect and customer follow-up and make it rain sales.
Hatchbuck: Rebranding With Purpose Posted on May 10, 2013 by Lindsey Stroud If you haven’t heard the big news, we are in the transition of rebranding our company Systematic Revenue into Hatchbuck. Here is the story of our discovery into finding our greater purpose, and decision to redefine our business with that in mind. Our Humble Beginning: As lifelong entrepreneurs and small business owners, we have always searched for an easier way to drive sales and revenue with limited time and resources. In our previous business, we were crazy successful driving over 1000% growth through marketing automation, but we quickly became frustrated by the lack of affordable, intuitive and easy to use solutions available to small business. In 2012 we decided to roll up our sleeves and invest our own heart, soul, and mind into building the ideal sales & marketing solution to help other small businesses grow their dream. Systematic Revenue was born. Reflecting On What We Do (And Why): Over the last six months we decided to take a step back and truly understand WHY we do what we do, who we serve, and how we can work together to make the biggest difference . While the name Systematic Revenue describes what we do – We felt that we needed a Brand Identity that better delivered on our PURPOSE to our team members, clients, and the world. We feel that hatchbuck better represents who we are, where we’re going and why we exist. We are fanatical about helping others grow their business, nurture their contacts, and achieve their dreams, and we feel the name hatchbuck better represents that mission. Giving Back: Today, more than ever, we are on a mission to help power the dreams of small business and give back to entrepreneurs around the globe as part of our Givebuck and Incubator programs. Our Givebuck program works with our clients and with WorldVision Micro Loans to help fulfill our purpose: To help small business succeed and grow their dream. For every new small business that partners with hatchbuck we help hatch and grow a new business in a third world country. We will enroll every new client into the Micro loan program to help struggling entrepreneurs around the world with a loan to be used within the WorldVision Micro program (on the entrepreneur of their choice). Our NEW brand is more than a name, it is a passionate movement of small business and entrepreneurs working together to grow, give back and be a part of a bigger story…..the hatchbuck story.
hatchbuck Presentation on 1 Million Cups Posted on May 8, 2013June 1, 2016 by Nicci Troiani Check out our founder and CEO, Don Breckenridge discuss the Hatchbuck software on 1 Million Cups this morning. His intro is at the 36:50 mark. Original Link: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/1447117/events/2084658
Writing Relevant Content Posted on April 29, 2013June 1, 2016 by Nicci Troiani To many business owners, writing marketing content can seem daunting. It does take some time to sit down and write content so don’t waste it writing something that everyone will delete! Here are a few things to remember to keep you content relevant so that it will get read: 1. Keep it educational Trust me– no one wants to read your sales pitch. People are always scouring the web for information on something. Use that to your best interest. Here’s an example: pretend that my business is an online wine shop. What do you think will get read more out of these two articles: “5 New Red Wines we Carry at the Wine Shoppe” “5 Tips on Pairing Red Wines with Dinner” The second will get read more. No one is searching Google for the new wines that your shop offers. Regular shoppers will want to know which new wines you are offering– so send that in an e-mail to people who have already bought from you. the “5 Tips..” article would make a better website blog though. There will be people searching for something to pair with the dinner they are cooking tonight and you can still mention your 5 new red wines in the article. By posting something that has taught your website visitors something, you have gained credibility and they will come to your site next time they look for wine. 2. Segment your contacts by interest You probably have customers and prospects that are interested in different products or services. Again, with the wine shop example– we would most likely have people who buy only red, only white, only champagne, or mix all 3. So if someone buys a red wine, they should be entered into your e-mail database, tagged with “red wine” and sent information on other red wines along with educational articles, like above. If someone clicks on a link in your monthly newsletter about champagne, you should start sending them information relevant to champagne. A marketing automation system will allow you to send relevant information based on a link click, so that makes it easy to do. 3. Look at e-mail opens, blog visits and e-mail clicks Look at your articles and e-mails that are read the most. That is a HUGE indicator of what your list likes to read. No matter what you think is best, or what you like to write best– the opens don’t lie! By writing on topics that you already know that your list likes, you are ensuring that they will be reading the content you are working so hard to get out. 4. Ask them! Sometimes we forget the most important way to find out what people like– simply asking! Do a poll on your website or blog or ask people to comment on your articles. This will help you realize what your contacts like about your content or don’t. Don’t get offended if you content doesn’t get a 5 star rating– just use the feedback to keep improving. What other ways do you make sure your content is relevant? Leave comments below!
The 3 R’s of “Go Green” Marketing Posted on April 26, 2013 by Lindsey Stroud As you may know, April 22 was Earth Day. A day growing in popularity, Earth Day aims to inspire awareness and appreciation of the planet. While committing yourself or your small business to helping the environment, transition your marketing into the same “Go Green” mentality. The 3 R’s of “Go Green Marketing” Reduce: Did you know that direct mail accounts for more than 2% of landfill waste? Besides that direct mail is costly and offers a very low response rate, it’s also contributing to the waste that fills our environment. The first place you should consider going green in your marketing efforts is by switching to email. According to PR Daily, email marketing will maintain a consistent 10% growth over the next five years which is great news for a small business! Email is cost efficient, track-able, and received almost instantly. If your small business has not made the switch to email marketing over direct mail, what better time than now? Reuse: In the same way natural resources are scarce, so are small business dollars, resources, and budgets. A great way to cut down time and spending in your small business is to reuse and re-purpose content on multiple platforms. Wrote a great blog article recently? Why not reuse it in your monthly newsletter, on your small business Facebook page, or turn it into a compelling e-book that you can offer in exchange for a prospects information on your website? There are many ways you can reuse content that will stretch marketing dollars and keep great content from going to waste! Recycle: Just as you can reuse content on various marketing platforms, you can also re-purpose old content, update it, and position it from a different perspective. Perhaps you have really lengthy articles or videos that you can clean up and shorten to present in a new fashion. Your small business is ever-changing and adapting new ways to do things. If you have a lot of great content available at your finger tips, don’t be afraid to present it to your audience in a new way. Recycling and refreshing content is a great way to reinforce ideas in new ways!