I’d like to acknowledge the many fine emailers out there. I remain subscribed to a good number of newsletters and promotional emails I don’t ever remember subscribing to because I get value or interesting ideas from them. To you I say keep it up!

Then there are the spammy types. If you’ve used the same business email address daily for a long time, it’s likely that address has made it onto plenty of lists that are bought and sold, and you get your share of cold emails and spam. They tend to be automated, bot-written marketing emails using spurious, sequential Subject Lines such as these:

• Cold outreach – “Quick question, Sam…”
• Follow up – “Sam, I know you’re busy but you’ll love this…”
• Second follow up – “Hey Sam, you there???”
• Third follow up – “I get it, Sam, we all get sidetracked…”
• Fourth follow up – “Are you slow or just a Neanderthal? LOL…”
• Fifth follow up – “Sam, your lack of response tells me you’re okay being stuck…”
• And so on…

Does any of this sound familiar to those of you who are longtime business email accountholders? This kind of adolescent style approach places some “marketers” into the abyss of unprofessionalism and sleaze.

I’ve been stalked by some of the players. They market their overpromised hype to me as “white label” (opaque and undisclosed) agency services that do all the work while I just schmooze and “grow at scale.” No thanks! That model is no fit for me. My clients aren’t for sale!

Drip Marketing or Drip Torture?

The above “sales funnel” illustration is like drip torture, especially when you’re afraid to click and opt out of an email because of phishing dangers.

You cannot win a business prospect’s attention by pretending to be cordial up front and then ultimately devolving into insult, which I see all the time in these sleazy email campaigns. Unfortunately, these tactics work sometimes, either on witless victims or people who believe in fast fixes. I guess that’s why they continue.

The good news is that email marketing is still a great value that delivers easy to measure results.

Heart to Heart Beats

How would you like to be approached by a potential supplier? What gets you to click a link or reply to an email? Let your own experience and a deeper understanding of your customers guide you in how to strategize your email marketing campaigns.

The motive starts with relevance, ideally emotional relevance, and is reinforced with meaningful or valuable information. Let your audience know they are in control of their conversation with your company and make calls to action transparent.

Sales Funnel or Sales Force?

The moment I realize I’m being dragged into a sales funnel I begin losing interest in taking the next step because I know the game is on. There are requirements coming. When I open a cold email, I’m only there to observe and learn, not play… yet. Let your calls to action be invitational and voluntary, not transactional.

Now here’s the hidden gem: Consider generating phone calls as well as form submissions! That actually puts you more in the driver’s seat of the discussion. You can better qualify your prospects and still gather their data if your sales team is well trained. You might even close on the first call. Happens all the time.

Let me repeat one of my old email marketing pearls: “Email marketing is a privilege.” Treat your audience with the respect they deserve. After all, that’s what you would expect from your own associates and colleagues.

The post Make Your Marketing Emails Deliver appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

No amount of capturable data can tell you when someone is unsatisfied with a situation and willing to pay good money to solve it. There can be digital clues left here and there but there is no tracking mechanism for the human psyche. Despite all the efforts attempting to control your behavior and mine, we still act on our own volition.

Top of Mind Rotation

Whatever you’re selling, you think people need it or will be better off having it. The problem is they are doing fine without it, until they aren’t! This is why regular newsletter-style updates that include valuable, problem-solving information should continually be placed in front of your customers and prospects.

As long as you keep including interesting tidbits and valuable content, your audience will welcome getting your regular updates. When they need something, and your newsletter hits them with an expert recommendation that’s relevant, it’s as if they just got a referral to your business. Something like, “Oh, I should just call these guys, now that I’m thinking about it!”

Newsletters Fill the Gaps

Over the last ten years, our email newsletter has generated over 30% of our clientele. It’s almost predictable. Not every newsletter generates new business but about 1 out of every 4 or 5 does, and this result has been consistent over the years. It works like this:

1. Be curious! Get really interested in conversations with all of your business associates about what’s going on in their companies and industries.
2. Attend business events, have conversations and make mental notes. Then capture the notes!
3. Build themes and topics around your industry’s problem-solving opportunities. Think in the terms of the expert that you are.
4. Write articles and make videos that address specific market needs and publish them on a regular basis – monthly or more often when possible.
5. Publish an email newsletter with front-loaded, value-based summary information about your article and link to it.
6. Proactively contact audience members who show repeated interest though your analytics. Suggest one-on-one networking meetings.

Notice the simplicity and logic of this B2B direct marketing approach. Add it to your marketing mix, especially if email is missing or spotty. With regard to items 1 – 6, they can all be outsourced effectively. We welcome questions about these services.

Regularity is Perfect Timing

Most businesses need to stay connected with their customers and associates to remain relevant in their market. Doing so on a regular basis is the key and email is one of the best ways.

Beyond this simple approach, the power and sophistication of marketing automation can bring your integrated digital campaigns to new levels. Some companies need it. Others don’t. It really depends on how the pipeline is best filled and that can be different for every organization.

One thing is certain. When prospects identify you as the resource for them and reach out to engage, you’ve struck gold! New business that’s generated from your strategic marketing efforts feels really good, fits well and lasts long.

The post Timing is Everything in Needs-based Marketing appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Let’s explore the fascinating scientific phenomena that make emails practically delete themselves. It still seems to befuddle a lot of marketers out there.

One of the easiest things to do is make people delete your email immediately, with or without opening it. Simply disappoint them with irrelevant content. That’s all. There’s literally nothing to it… nothing worthwhile in the content that genuinely relates to audience needs.

I’m a big fan of email newsletters. Can you tell? I like reading or skimming newsletters from companies I follow in my network. I’ve learned quite a lot from some of them and done business with a few. I’m never annoyed when people who’ve snagged my email address add me to their email lists. I always take a look if I know who the sender is. You can never predict what legitimate organizations might inform you of, and it’s easy to unsubscribe from any email service provider if you don’t want more to come.

The YOU Attitude or the US Attitude?

A couple of recent emails from familiar firms hit my inbox last week. The subject lines were “Big News from…” and “News from…” Upon opening the “Big News…” one, I found that the news was really very small and mundane from my vantage point. The “News” could only be “Big” from an internal standpoint – to the owners and managers of the company. It was really just an announcement of something you would expect to hear from this company in any given month. They reported that they just accomplished something that they’re in business to do anyway, so the content was a bit of a letdown.

The “News from” email was mostly a long list of things this company would be expected to do. I’m sure there’s some value in the brand impressions, but how much engagement or response do newsletters like this generate? The answer is less than they could if they were instead using an audience-centered approach – taking on the “YOU Attitude.”

With an audience-centered approach, your subject line will resonate with relevance and more likely get an email opened. With a company-centered approach, your subject line will have little or nothing of value to the recipient. There’s really nothing in it for them. So take on the YOU Attitude and give your audience a compelling reason to engage! Instead of talking about YOUR accomplishments, talk about THEIR opportunities and what THEY value.

Relevance and Congruence

Your subject lines and content must not only be relevant, they must align so that your audience gets rewarded for opening your email. The reward can be as basic as breaking industry news, new & innovative technology or a simple solution to a nagging problem. It could even be a call for expertise – giving members of your audience a chance at being recognized for their professional knowledge, offering space in your newsletter or blog to give them direct access to your newsletter/blog community. Whatever it is, be relevant and relatable. Your audience should at least be able to identify with keywords in your subject lines and the general themes of your articles or promotions.

It’ fine to sprinkle employee and company news updates into your newsletters as long as that isn’t the main thrust of the content. In fact, people will be more likely to pay attention to your internal news once they see that you are a purveyor of worthwhile information.

The last thing you want your subject lines to do is promise “Big News” when upon opening your email, the recipient thinks “fake news” or “no news is good news.” When that happens, the unsubscribe link will be the most relevant section of your email.

The post Big news to whom? What do your emails really say? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Sometimes you read an article that hits so close to home you just need to chime in with your own spin. I came across one such article (from an email) this week. It had a great subject line which made me think, Okay, I’ll bite! It was well worth the click because this article (with accompanying video) by Greg Rollett completely simplified marketing metrics once and for all, at least as far as I understand “metrics.” What really are marketing metrics anyway, and why do they matter?

Metrics, as related to marketing, are units of measurement of an activity that might indicate the likelihood of a future sale.

Mr. Rollett gave me the fodder for my own definition of marketing metrics above that puts them in their proper perspective. Notice the words “might” and “future;” two words that executives hate when it comes to forecasting sales, especially in the short term.

Frankly, most of the metrics that marketers use to measure the success of their campaigns include some kind of feel-good engagement with the brand. It could be the number of social media followers, likes & shares, trackable website visits, clicks and content downloads. Being popular feels nice but how does it predict or influence real sales growth?

The only metrics that you should pay attention to are those proven to have the highest likelihood of sales conversions. For the vast majority of businesses, guess which marketing metric actually produces the highest number of sales conversions?  It’s the number of email subscriptions. Good old email!

The number of email subscribers syphoned from your advertising and online marketing campaigns is your most valuable metric because it has the highest likelihood of directly producing sales when strategically deployed. Email campaigns work better than any other form of marketing for most industries, especially in B2B.

The number of email subscribers is your most critical metric. Period! Why? Email converts more prospects into paying customers because subscribers opt in to get informed about your business. Some even want to hear about bargains and buying opportunities. What’s also great is that email service providers offer excellent tracking tools to easily measure conversions for every eblast campaign.

Hoping you would read this far, I’ve held off revealing the subject line that made me bite. It was a piece from Entrepreneur entitled: The Only Online Marketing Metric That Actually Matters. It’s a good subject line for me because I want to know what that metric is and the article validates my experience as an online marketer.

Find ways to build a bigger, better email subscriber list today and make sure you put it to good use with relevant, targeted campaigns.

The post All other metrics lead to this one. appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Social Media

Several months ago I took a sales call from a social media content marketing automation company and the salesman demonstrated excellence in selling skills. He closed me on one call. I reluctantly signed up for the service based in part on the credentials of the company founder – arguably the top social media guru in the world, Dave Kerpen.

Being somewhat of a specialist in social media content, and understanding that it takes serious work to get right, I felt an imperative to learn how a content automation service could work for my business as well as clients.’ How would the quality of output compare with my original, custom (and time-consuming) content development? My initial research is starting to bear the fruits of real data.

My early conclusion is that social media content automation works well for Twitter, but has limited value for Facebook and LinkedIn. I have gained significant numbers of targeted new Twitter followers without even trying. To a small degree, my LinkedIn engagement is up and my Business Facebook Page has remained very quiet, even with all the new content activity. As can be expected, my own personally written posts get more likes, shares and comments in Facebook and LinkedIn. But on Twitter, engagement is about even between the automated tweets and my own.

Twitter is about real-time, high volume, and topic specific conversations. Therefore, higher volume of industry-relevant tweets can gain you some Twitter traction. What about direct new business results? The jury is still out but I believe my brand value is growing nationally as a Twitter result.

Email

Email marketing content subscription services based on your specific industry (IT, retail, home remodeling, architecture, plumbing, accounting, legal, financial planning, etc.) are commonly available. For a monthly fee, they’ll automate and eblast trending articles to your email contacts on a scheduled basis. You simply provide your target audience demographics and product/service category info. They conjure up relevant content for your audience, then blast out third party-produced messages to your email list. It lets you set and forget your email marketing so you can focus on other things.

How well does it work? Ask yourself this. To which are you more likely to respond, a colorful and graphically perfect Hallmark style greeting from a large insurance carrier or a simple piece of critical advice from a local agent you’ve met or heard of?

On the same day of the month at the same time of day, I now receive 3 identical emails from the same large financial services company. The only difference? The individual sender is a different agent for that company. This may be considered sales support but it’s generically canned support. And how supportive can that be?

One of my clients subscribes to a well-established provider of content  for the financial planning industry. What we found after experimenting with email campaigns is that it’s a good service for supplementing our original custom content but could never replace it. The proprietary and personalized articles in our emails proved to be more engaging than the third party-produced materials. Additionally, people found our own email design to be more graphically pleasing than the structured layout offered by the other service. We’ve come full circle with email – full customized messaging with supplemental content from the service provider.

Here’s the best thing about email marketing: When you deliver personal value in your emails, direct replies include requests to do business with you.

Bottom line: Support your own sales efforts with personalized, valuable advice for your prospects and customers! They’ll appreciate you for it and more easily remember whom to call when they need your services.

The post Custom Content or Canned Correspondence? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.