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Archive for August, 2008

Top 10 Email Newsletter Mistakes

Published August 23, 2008 Newsletter mistakes Leave a Comment

E-mail newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your customers and prospective customers. But almost all marketers get them wrong. Here are ten things they continually screw up:

They assume permission.
31% of B-to-B marketers and 17.4% of B-to-C marketing assume permission, based on assumptions like “They are already a customer.” or “CAN-SPAM lets me email anyone in the US till they opt out.” or “Our unsubscribe rate is low.” But they can get flagged as a spammer and have huge problems

What should they do?: Use verified opt-in (they fill out form, get an email back, and click a URL in the email to confirm) and audit each and every way you add people to your list. Make sure you are consistent and you do NOT precheck the sign-up box.
Lack of segmentation
The more a newsletter is personalized and segmented, the better your response will be. According to MarketingSherpa, Non-Segmented audiences generate 4.14.% opens and .48% clicks, while segmented audiences generate 30.86% opens and 6.68% clicks.
What should they do?: Survey your audience or hold focus groups — and segment as much as you can.
Lousy New Subscriber Welcome
Which email is most likely to be read? According to MarketingSherpa, it is the first one they get from you. But most say “Thanks for subscribing to NAME OF NEWSLETTER.” Dull, boring and this important first contact is lost.
What should they do? Take a close look at what goes out. Make it fun and irreverent. My partner creates cartoons — I directed them to our humor section.
Newsletter frequency — too much or too little.
If you ask 10 marketers how they set their schedule, all 100 will say monthly or when we have content. This is one of the most important decisions you can make.
What should they do? Know their segment. Is there a busy time of year when we should be more frequent? (We have a Fall budgeting season in hotel seo.) Ask the users with a yearly survey.
One Way Communications
Even if they merge in the first name, title and company, almost all marketers forget to provide a way for the recipient to respond. Instead, it becomes from an institution, which feels cold and unfeeling.
What should they do? Write in the first person singular (I, me). Make it from a person, complete with signature and head shot. Provide a phone and email address.
Not interactive
Isn’t the web wonderful? Users are empowered. Yet most marketers treat newsletters as “blast content.” Please note that links that go back to hosted content is not interactive.
What they should do? Make sure it is very easy for the reader to contact someone. Reply button goes to a real email address with a very fast response. Is there a named contact on the mast head? Are their poll questions that are truly being read and responded to?
Long text-centric copy
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, fewer than half of adult Americans read literature for pleasure — down 10 points in a decade. Young people are down 28 points. Readers don’t read — they skim.
What should they do?: Don’t get fancy with video or audio. Instead, add pictures, charts links to downloads and Flash presentations.
Assume they get past Spam filters
Either they say “It does not happen to me. My data says 98% is delivered.” or “That is the email service provider’s job.” As a result, a lot of newsletters are never delivered.
What should they do?: Use a dedicated IP address. Get an SPF code to ensure the validity of your IP address. Run it though the online validator at W3.org.
Tiny type
Just because they open it, don’t assume they can read it. You have fewer than 20 seconds before the click/delete decision. If the text is too small to read, you get deleted.
What should they do?: Make sure the font size is 10 points for body copy or even 12. Also, don’t make your headlines much larger in comparison to body copy or readership will decline. Also, limit the width to 60-65 characters. Lastly, keep body copy in black on white.
Relying on Email only
While the newsletter is vital to communications, too many marketers rely on it alone.
What should they do?: Consider mailing a copy of the newsletter, post online articles, and make sure you use Search Engine Optimization. And last but not least, a well-researched and well-planned voicemail or highly personalized one to one email works great.

5 Great Ideas for CEO’s in a tough economy

Published August 21, 2008 5 CEO tips Leave a Comment

Here are some more tips to crank up business in a tough marketplace.

1) Get out of the office now
Go talk to customers. Ask deep questions. Listen. Show them you care.

Go talk to salespeople. What are their biggest concerns? What would they change if they could change only one thing?

Go talk to staff too. Ask more questions. If they could just do one thing, what would that be?

2) Clone your customers. Johnny Anderson of Bulldog called his program “Two Headed Calf.” The idea is to take your best customers, figure out what and why they bought, and recreate it over and over. If it worked in the past, clone it.

3) Re-craft your value proposition. I don’t care what you call your product or what you say it does. In step one you went out and talked to customers. What do THEY say your product does is what it does.

4) Show some love. Customers want love. Employees want love. When I was VP of Sales and Marketing for a UK based search firm, I was told I have a “very happy” sales team. I left and happiness went out the window. Their number one salesperson left the firm.

5) Marketing please. Go talk to the marketing and sales folks again. What are you doing to drive demand? Do you have email campaigns, webinars, white papers, podcasts, customer testimonials, search optimization, lead nurturing… Is your website optimized for search? Try dialing your own phone system. (I bet you’ve never done this. You’d be appalled how bad they are.)

6) Go viral. Find influential people and pay attention to them. Make it easy for people to share with friends. Get a bit crazy and hound publicity.

For companies looking for best practices in b2b lead generation who wish to improve the way they acquire new customers, Find New Customers is the place to go. CSO Insights says companies need to improve the way they generate leads and implement processes for business to business lead generation.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is a demand generation expert and sales leader, as well as the President of Find New Customers, a lead generation company, who helps businesses create lead generation campaigns and continually publishes the best lead generation ideas, so his readers can determine the best lead generation strategy to find new customers. He can be reached at (516) 284-4930 or mailto:jogden@findnewcustomers.net.

Why SEO is so important for hotels

Published August 14, 2008 Uncategorized 1 Comment

The world was once much simpler for hotels.

Watch your “comp set,” of hotels in the area and crack the whip on salespeople to keep those rooms occupied.

Place some ads in the local press and on TV and watch the room fill.

It is a nice, simple world. Unfortunately, Mr. or Ms. Hotelier, it also no longer exists.

The Web just turned your business on its ear. The customer is now in control. The “comp set” is what the customer might consider, not the hotels in the area. Salespeople talk to those who already know everything.

Enter SEO for hotels. Search Engine Optimization. Hotels need SEO. Hotels must do SEO. When consumers and business travelers go to Google and search, you MUST be found. People who cannot find you, cannot book with you. It is that simple.

If Hotel SEO is important to you, please visit Customer Magnetism as well as the many other search marketing firms focused on hospitality.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Articles – Mr SEO: When to outsource SEO and when to keep it in house.

Published August 14, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Articles – Mr SEO: When to outsource SEO and when to keep it in house.

More basic business operations

Published August 2, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Dear readers,
In this slowing economy, executives are busier than ever. They are in constant meetings and bombarded by email. They face pressures in the office and at home. It’s time to shake things up folks.

First, focus on search engine optimization. Anne Holland, founder of Marketing Sherpa, calls SEO “huge, huge, huge.” Eyeballs are online and companies have to compete online.

Second, start having conversations with your prospects about THEIR issues and concerns. Dig for news, read the trade press and keep at it.

Third, work with your team — your salespeople and managers. Make sure you clearly understand how everyone is motivated.

Fourth, go visit customers and listen. Put yourself in their shoes. Why did they buy? What results are they getting? What if they had NOT done business with you?

Fifth, be patient. A certain UK search company thought a start-up in the US would take about 3 months. You have to build relationships over time. 3 months is naive. A more realistic timeframe for a start-up is 9-12 months. For a good example of a start-up doing it right in the Hotel SEO space is iOptimize Marketing.

As always, good luck and good selling, dear reader.