cuemarketing

When the discussion turns to mass marketing strategies Direct Mail and Email are often seen as competing forces.  I would argue that their relationship is more like that of collaborators. Providing the opportunity to extend your reach farther than would be possible by choosing one or the other.

Personalized URLs (PURLs) are a great way to increase the number of people who interact with your message.  Seeing your name in a in a URL has been proven to improve the likelihood that the recipient will click on the link.  There have been many case studies that have shown a significant increase in response rates due to this technique.  But think about how disappointed the visitor must feel when they click on their “personal” link and visit their “personal” website only to be met with nothing more than a generic sales pitch.

Maintaining the status quo is the easiest way to go about your day to day.  Just keep things moving forward in the same way they always have been.  However, for that to be a successful strategy everything and everyone around you must also stay the same.  Unfortunately, to quote Isaac Asimov “The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change…” In effect by keeping things status quo you are actually falling behind.   

I often write about the benefits of personalization as it pertains to marketing.  I have discussed the positive impact it has on customer engagement.  How it needs to be a key component of your marketing strategy to maximize the success of your efforts.  However, I do have to mention one small caveat.  It is possible to have too much of a good thing.

Often while trying to convey our message we get lost in the details.  We attempt to articulate everything we believe could be of benefit to our audience.  In doing so, we lose the majority who don’t have the time or inclination to sift through the information to find what is relevant to them. So rather than trying to stuff in as much content as possible, determine what is the most important and present that. Shorten the message and create more of them so that each one focuses on the needs of the interest group being targeted. These more powerful, to the point communication pieces will be more effective in enticing the audience to seek you out and find out more.   

This is a sales philosophy that was recently explained to me by a friend of mine.  He abides by it and thought it was important enough to share with me. I realized that it was not only relevant for sales, but that it also rings true for marketing.

Social media has gone mainstream, which has further complicated the world of online marketing.  Marketers now have even more tools to choose from when attempting to improve the performance of their company or that of their client’s. However, there still are questions as to whether these new options are more effective than email marketing in helping an organization increase sales.

Every week MarketingSherpa releases a chart based on a study they have recently completed.  This week’s results (see chart below) come from asking marketers what email tactics they found to be the most effective.  I thought the results were worth mentioning as they reinforce some of the themes that have been discussed here previously.

Establish a receptive customer list
If you are trying to develop a long-term relationship with your customers sending emails to large, unsuspecting groups is not the route you want to take.  That type of strategy does not produce high success rates and the majority of those that do respond will not become repeat customers.  To turn an introduction in to a lasting relationship you must ask for permission before sending additional information.  Those giving permission are telling you that they want to know more about you and what you have to say.

With everyone being inundated with information it is hard, other than for the biggest companies, to stay top of mind with customers.  That is why social media has become so important for those who would otherwise find it very difficult to attract attention.  Traditional mass marketing strategies, such as print, television and radio are expensive and therefore not a legitimate option for many small and medium enterprises.  However, the accessibility of the Internet has made available, to a significantly larger part of the population, the means to fight for our attention.