The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing PDF
Preview The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing
The Constant Contact Guide to mail Marketing The Constant Contact Guide to mail Marketing ERIC GROVES JohnWiley&Sons,Inc. Copyright©2009byConstantContact,Inc.Allrightsreserved. PublishedbyJohnWiley&Sons,Inc.,Hoboken,NewJersey. PublishedsimultaneouslyinCanada. Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedin anyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,scanning,or otherwise,exceptaspermittedunderSection107or108ofthe1976UnitedStatesCopyright Act,withouteitherthepriorwrittenpermissionofthePublisher,orauthorizationthrough paymentoftheappropriateper-copyfeetotheCopyrightClearanceCenter,Inc.,222 RosewoodDrive,Danvers,MA01923,(978)750-8400,fax(978)646-8600,oronthewebat www.copyright.com.RequeststothePublisherforpermissionshouldbeaddressedtothe PermissionsDepartment,JohnWiley&Sons,Inc.,111RiverStreet,Hoboken,NJ07030,(201) 748-6011,fax(201)748-6008,oronlineathttp://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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HF5415.1265.C6582009 658.8(cid:2)72–dc22 2009021637 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Chapter1 The 40 “Know It or Blow It” Rules of Email Marketing 1 Chapter2 The Power of Email Relationships 14 Chapter3 Making Money: The Economics of Email 29 Chapter4 The Benefits of Permission-Based Email Marketing 44 Chapter5 Building a Quality Email List 62 Chapter6 Making Your Email List More Valuable 74 Chapter7 The Three Rules of Valuable Email Content 89 Chapter8 Creating Email Content That Leads to Action 106 Chapter9 Looking Professional: Choosing an Effective Email Format 121 Chapter10 Making Introductions: Subject Lines, From Lines, and Frequency 145 Chapter11 Email Filters and Other Delivery Challenges 156 Chapter12 Tracking and Improving Email Campaigns 170 Chapter13 Collecting More Feedback with Surveys 186 Chapter14 Getting Beyond the Inbox 195 v vi Contents About the Author 203 About Constant Contact 204 Index 207 Acknowledgements At Constant Contact it always starts and finishes with our customers, without whom I would have very little to write about. To all of those customers who have shared with me and my colleagues at Constant Contact their knowledge and experiences, I extend my most grateful thanks. A special thank you to John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Senior Editor RichardNarramore,whoquicklycaughtontoConstantContact’spas- sion to educate small businesses and organizations on the power of emailmarketingandsupportedusendlesslyinourpursuittobringthis book to market. Thanks to the other members of our team at Wiley: Ann Kenny and Kate Lindsay. They helped me navigate the steps as a first-timeauthor. To Matt Wagner of Fresh Books Literary Agency for guiding us through this great opportunity and working tirelessly to bring this booktofruition. To the people of Constant Contact, who strive every day to revo- lutionizethesuccessformulaforsmallbusinessesandorganizations,a pieceofwhatIhavelearnedfromallofyouisembeddedwithinevery pageofthisbook.ToGailGoodman,BobNault,TomHowd,EllenBrez- niak, Bob Nicoson, John Walsh, Steve Wasserman, Dan Richards, and NancieFreitas,thanksforyourleadership.AndtotheentireConstant Contact Global Market Development Team, a special thanks for the inspirationyouprovidemeonadailybasis. AspecialwordofthankstoJohnArnoldforcoachingmethrough theprocess,expandingmywords,assemblingthepieces,anddriving thisprojecttocompletion. Thanks also to Constant Contact’s partners, including SCORE, SBDCs,andChambersofCommerce,thatsupportusinourmissionto educateeverysmallbusinessororganizationthatwantstounderstand thePowerofRelationships. Andlast,tomywifeTracyandmychildrenMadelineandMitchell foralloftheirsupportandencouragementasItoiledawayintheoffice writingthisbook. vii The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing by Eric Groves Copyright © 2009 Constant Contact, Inc. 1 The 40 “Know It or Blow It” Rules of Email Marketing Email marketing is an amazingly cost-effective way to build relation- ships that drive business success. In today’s challenging economic times, this cost advantage makes email marketing arguably the most powerfultoolforbuildinganybusiness. But the main advantage of email marketing is not cost. Email is simply the most effective way to stay in touch with most of your cus- tomers.Ifyou’relikemanybusinesses,the2009recessionforcedyou to hunker down and focus on driving business and sales from those mostlikelytobuy—peopleyoualreadyhavearelationshipwith—and that’swhatemailmarketingisallabout. Email marketing is powerful, but it’s also a challenge because the inbox is a hostile environment. Whether your email is noteworthy or not-worthy depends on your ability to stick to the fundamentals of authentic relationship building with your customers. That’s what this book is about—how to use email to build long-lasting customer relationships. Over the years, we at Constant Contact have made it our mission to collect, create, refine, and share email marketing best practices withourcustomers.We’reproudtonowsharethesewithyouinthis book—strategies that have contributed to the success of hundreds of thousands of businesses around the globe. On a daily basis we inter- act with thousands of business owners and non-profits just like you on the phone, online via webinars, and in person at live seminars heldthroughouttheUnitedStates.Theseinteractionsprovideuswith 1 2 The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing regularfeedbackandfascinatinglessonsontherapidlyevolvingworld ofemailmarketing. Here are some examples of small businesses and non-profits who havediscoveredabroadrangeofbenefitsofemailmarketing: “We track all of our participants and have found that more than 53% of them found out about us through the Internet or our email newsletter. Email marketing is only a fraction of the cost of print ads and it brings in a phenomenal ROI.” —Girls Learn to Ride “I can’t believe the number of people who walk into our restaurants and redeem coupons. Before I tried email mar- keting, I would put a coupon in the local newspaper—but fewer than 10 people would redeem it. I then put the same coupon in an email and sent it to 400 people. I saw 100 email coupons redeemed that month!” —Fajita Grill “Forour35thanniversary,wesenta‘savethedate’emailto 3,000people.At42centsastamp,thatwouldbeover$1,000 worth of postage we’ve saved from just one mailing.” —Women Employed “Most of all, email marketing has helped us stay connected, build community, and inspire people.” —Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta “Our revenue from return customers has increased about 30% since we began sending out our ‘New Arrivals’ email campaign. We’ve found that a number of customers who haveneverpurchasedfromusbeforewillbuyafterwesend out an email campaign.” —Bijoux Mart International I know the email strategies in this book work because I have personally taught them to thousands of small business owners and watchedtheresults.ConstantContact’ssuccessisdirectlyattributable to the fact that we have helped so many of them grow their orga- nizations. In addition, I used these same email strategies to help build Constant Contact from an unknown technology startup into an industry-leading public company. When I arrived in 2001, we had The40“KnowItorBlowIt”RulesofEmailMarketing 3 10 customers and roughly $100 a month in revenue. Now, we are thelargestproviderofemailmarketingservicesforsmall-tomedium- sized businesses, with 300,000 customers in 120 countries and 500+ employees.Ihopeyou’llfindapathtogreaterbusinesssuccessinthe pagesthatfollow. Sincethisbookisforbusyleaderswhodon’thavealotoftime,I’ve decidedtouseChapter1tosummarizealltheemailmarketingsuccess fundamentalscontainedinthisbook,soyoucanquicklydecidewhich ofyourownemailpracticesneedimmediateattention. The rest of the book will help you build a comprehensive email marketingstrategyforyourbusiness. Ten Keys to Your Overall Email Marketing Success Ifyoulearnnothingelsefromthisbook,Irecommendyoumasterthe followingtenprinciples.Mostofthestatisticsthatsuggesthighreturns onemailmarketinginvestmentdependonhowcloselyyouadhereto thesebasics. 1. Only send email to people who know you. People open email from people they know, and they delete email from peo- ple they don’t recognize or mark it as spam. It doesn’t even matterwhat’slegalorethical.Ifyourbusinessmakesahabitof emailingtotalstrangers,thenyourreputation,yourbudget,and yourgrowthwillsufferforit.Youcanreadaboutbuildingagood emaillistinChapter5. 2. Don’t treat email addresses like email addresses; treat them like relationships. An email address is one of the most personalthingssomeonecansharewithyourbusinessbecause it’saninvitationtosendyourmessagestoaplacewhereheorshe sendsandreceivespersonalcommunicationsaswellasbusiness ones. Email doesn’t work if it feels like a computer-generated HTMLdocument.Ithastocomeacrossasbeingpartofamean- ingfulrelationship.Youcanreadaboutbuildingrelationshipsin Chapter2. 3. Send relevant content that has value to your recipient. You probably weren’t going to send irrelevant, valueless con- tent on purpose, but content with good intentions isn’t the samethingasvalueandrelevance.Inordertoensurethatyour emailsarevaluableandrelevant,youhavetoknowexactlywhat youraudiencewants.Youhavetobeagoodlistenertobeagood 4 The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing communicator.Youcanfindmoreaboutcreatingrelevanceand valueinyourcontentinChapter7. 4. Engage your audience in the content you write. This requires attention-grabbing subject lines, clear headlines, and thoughtfulcontent.Youcanreadaboutwhatmakesemailcon- tentengaginginChapter7. 5. Maximize your delivery rate. Getting email delivered is harderthanyoumightthink.InternetServiceProviders(“ISPs”) suchasYahoo!,AOL,andHotmailworkdiligentlytoblockemails from unwanted senders. If your email isn’t up to professional standards in reputation, technology, or permission, you might aswellbesendingyouremaildirectlytothejunkfolder.Youcan readaboutmaximizingdeliveryinChapter11. 6. Don’tshareemaillistswithanyone.Youremaillistisavalu- ableasset.Itwilllosevalueifyouloanittosomeoneelsebecause the people on your list won’t recognize a foreign sender. You should never borrow an email list from someone else. That list isfullofpeoplewhoaren’tfamiliarwithyourbusiness,andyou Figure 1.1 Avoidingthejunkfolderisoneofthekeystosuccessful emailmarketing.
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