Local Marketing Online: Part 7: Email Marketing

Posted on May 10, 2011

As part of your larger local marketing strategy, email marketing is a powerful and cost effective way to help you move your targeted recipients through the conversion process. In this part of the series I will show how to organize and manage your email marketing communications so that they work together with your social media, website, and other online initiatives to ensure you generate not just ‘Followers’ and ‘Friends’ but potential business.

The first step toward effective email communications is the ability to demonstrate to your targeted recipients that you understand what interests them. The more specific your understanding of their interests the better received your message will be. So the first order of business is:

Read what they write about: Whether you receive a direct communication via email, a post to your blog or social media site, or your read something they wrote on a Review site, or other third-party blog, website, or social media site, tracking what your targeted recipients write about online provides you with an understanding about what interests them right now. Begin by making a list of resources other than your own from where you will gather information about their current interests. These may include:

Twitter’s ‘Trends’
news outlets online
shopping and review sites
competitor online listing sites such as Google Places, Yahoo local and other such sites that allow for customers comments
and other places online where you know your targeted audience groups post comments and questions

Keep an active ear to the ground by monitoring these resources regularly, preferably daily, so you know the current interests you have to address in your email communications to get the attention of your targeted recipients.

Track online behavior: At your website, on your blogs, and even on your social media pages, it is important to track targeted user behavior because it provides you with ever more insight about what currently interests your targeted recipients. By now you should be seeing the theme: your communications have to be of interest to your recipients. You may want to empty your warehouse of the overstock of green galoshes but if you cannot effectively tie that objective to a conversation your targeted recipients are already having online then you are going to have a difficult time getting them to even read your email. This may take great creativity and ingenuity on your part but you have to connect your objective to that of your recipient to start them on the path to conversion.

Develop a Communications Strategy: For any email marketing campaign to be successful, you have to develop and follow a strategy that includes:

Audience segmentation (by interest)
Schedule of delivery: how many days or weeks will there be between emails
Targeted messages: a) communicate what you know interests to be b) make assumptions based on known interests to get recipient to make further considerations concerning your offer and c) ensure your recipients know what action you want them to take next
Strategic delivery of messages/response: know which message you will send first but be flexible about follow-up messages; you want every communication to be an appropriate and effective response that gets them to move through the buying cycle by tapping into a) their known interests first and b) their related interests based on your assumptions

The bottom line: use the information you learn from your website, social media pages, your blog and any other relevant online media where your targeted recipients post their thoughts, to let your audience know that you understand what interests them and can get them what they want. Find a way to join the conversation they are already having and use email marketing to keep that conversation going so that your ‘Friends’ and ‘Followers’ become your customers.

In Part 8 of the Local Marketing Online series I will talk about integrating pay per click advertising to generate business while you develop your organic listing strength.

Read the Series:

Local Marketing Online: Part 1: Intro

Posted on April 26, 2011

Local marketing has become one of the most powerful ways to reach and convert customers online. With more than 2.5 billion local searches a month on Google alone, Google has taken notice of this fact and recently initiated a direct marketing campaign in targeted regions throughout the US to promote its local marketing opportunities. The company sent, by FEDEX, to select businesses a white box containing brochures and offers about the benefits of Google Places and the company’s online advertising programs.

Google is smart. They’re taking advantage of the trend and so should you. Why? Because local searches are easier and less costly to convert as prospects are typically further along in the buying cycle. The key is making sure:

You can be easily found by your targeted audience groups
They can trust you because others have said so
You deliver the right message at the right time
They can easily contact you or visit your location
You’re easily identified online as an ‘authority’ for what you offer
You follow up in an appropriate manner with the appropriate communications
You deliver on what you promise, and maybe a little extra!

In this eight part series I will explain the multiple facets of local marketing online and how its various components are now cross-referenced by the search engines to determine an ‘authority score’ which affects web page rankings. This multi-part series will cover:

Web & Map Listings
Google Places
Search & Social Media
City Sites, Reviews & Recommendations
Share Your Content
Email Marketing
Pay Per Click Integration
Mobile Marketing
Optimized Web Design
Tracking & Reporting

Look for Part 2: Web & Map Listings, where you will learn about Google Places, web directories, maps, and the importance of claiming your online listings.

Read the Series:

Why Audience Segmentation and Targeting is So Important

Posted on December 15, 2010

I came across a great little B2B case study in a post by Michael Brenner that I recommend you all read. In a nutshell, by providing respondents with “directed paths and audience-specific messaging” the subject of the case study increased website conversion rates by 556%.

It is so often the case that companies offer a tremendous amount of valuable information on their websites but they just are not getting the kind of conversions they expect. Typically the problem is the way in which the information is presented and sometimes even the keywords used to attract audiences. The entire presentation is either too generalized or not targeting audiences accurately.

Not all information is relevant to all audiences. Additionally, even if the information is relevant to everyone, it is often not relevant for the same reasons. These distinctions are important to understand when you are creating and presenting web content, particularly landing page content designed to greet respondents from a search engine or email campaign.

The first order of business is to understand who you are talking to (segment and profile) and why they should be listening to you (value you offer them). There are many ways to segment your audiences and the criteria you select to do so should make sense for your business. An example would be to target differently those familiar with your type of service or products from those who are just now learning how what you offer could work for them. The core information may be the same, but how you present it will determine how successful you are at attracting and motivating each group.

Something else to consider when segmenting and profiling your target audience groups is what their role in the decision-making process will be. If you are marketing B2B, typically you want to get your message across to decision-makers but have to go through those who are conducting the research. In this case, your initial challenge is to speak to the interests of those conducting the research using the language they use. If done well, later in the process you may begin to present information in a manner that will allow the researcher to be your representative to the decision-makers.

Bottom line, present web content in a way that allows each of your target audience groups to easily identify and interact with the content meant for them. From landing page through to conversion, keep the conversation focused on them, providing each group with interesting ways to interact with your information as it guides them seamlessly through each step to make contact with you.

Holiday Greetings and the Importance of Customer Communications

Posted on December 13, 2010

In business, Holiday communications are really about saying ‘thank you’ and ‘we really appreciate you’ to those who have helped you by giving you business. They are a simple but very effective way to demonstrate your corporate values, reinforcing to your clients the good feelings they have about you.

Oftentimes it is easy to forget to include on your client / vendor recipient list those within an organization who play a smaller, albeit important role. Considering how people advance in their careers both within an organization and by moving to another organization, you want to make sure you don’t exclude anyone.

Effectively managing client communications is an essential part of relationship building and maintenance. Here are some important considerations:

Develop a Communications Plan: There is likely more than one person within your organization who is communicating with clients. Each one of your people may also be communicating with several representatives associated with a single client. You can see now how complicated it can be to keep track of the myriad of people who come under the classification of “client” (or even “prospect” for that matter). You want to keep contact with all of these people because each one represents a potential opportunity, either today or at some time in the future.

Segment and profile your contacts so you can create appropriate content and a ‘send’ schedule for:

Marketing Communications
Holiday Communications
Project Communications
Events
Corporate Announcements
Personal Greetings
any other communications important to your business.

Establish Contact Rules: You want all of your employees who have contact with clients and their representatives to understand

what information they should be collecting
how often it should checked for accuracy and updated, and
where it is to be stored.

Decide what criteria you want to track such as Name, Company, Job Title, Project(s) they contributed to and their Project Role, Project Dates, Basic Contact Info, Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook, Communication Content and Date Sent, Reciprocal Communications, and so forth. To manage contacts effectively, you need all of your employees to be on the same page.

Use a Professional Contact Manager: Once you understand how complicated keeping track of communications can be, and how unreliable basic email programs can be (think about the difficulty you experience when a client you worked with a few years ago calls you out of the blue referencing a specific aspect of a project for which you have to locate the particular email – good luck!), you will want to use a professional Contact Manager.

Whether you need a custom Extranet, which offers you the most flexibility and control, or a store-bought “off-the-shelf” product, it is an investment well-worth making.

Business development is an on-going endeavor that is based to a large extent on relationship building. From your initial contact with a person, you have the opportunity to establish and maintain a relationship that could last for years and result in continued business with your company. The important thing is to develop your communications plan, establish your rules, and implement a way to ensure everyone sticks to it.

So make your list, check it twice, and send a Holiday Greeting to everyone with whom you and your employees have had a business relationship you’re looking to maintain.

Better Conversion with Targeted Landing Page

Posted on September 29, 2010

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The success of your website promotion and marketing initiatives is dependent upon your goals and your carefully planned strategy.

An element of campaign success often overlooked is the landing page your targeted respondents will arrive at by following the link in your ad. You need to ask yourself where you want them to go and what will best address their needs.

Would it be best to send them to the home page of your corporate website? To a specific internal page of your website? Or to a highly focused, targeted landing page?

The home page of your website is typically designed as a general introduction to all that you offer. It functions as your beautiful lobby where visitors learn more about reaching the department that interests them. Hopefully you have presented your content to welcome and guide your different audience groups effectively; however, it is still a general introduction that may not be addressing the specific concern raised in your latest targeted email, AdWords or banner ad campaign.

An internal page of your website may contain the specific product or service information promised in your ad but does it speak directly to respondents in the same way that compelled them to click your ad’s link in the first place? Probably not.

It most likely provides a generic description of the product or service or addresses a typical need different from the one in your ad.

A targeted landing page offers you the ability to control, track and report on each element of your campaign. You are able to present a marketing message that takes advantage of information you already know as well as the information you will learn from the campaign over time.

For example, let’s say you are selling energy drinks. Currently you are targeting two user groups: athletes and college students. You strategically place your ads on various content sites specifically geared to the different target groups: maybe healthy living and exercise sites for the athletes and popular video and gaming sites for the college students.

You know that athletes are interested in physical endurance and performance while college students are interested in mental endurance and performance. In order to specifically address the differing needs and interests of the two groups, a targeted landing page is developed to receive each one separately. Highly focused content is developed for each of the landing pages that clearly confirms to the user the reason why he responded to the ad and clicked on the link in the first place. The landing page speaks directly to the specific pain identified in your ad that prompted the user to respond.

The content developed also takes into consideration the frame of mind of the person clicking on the link. The college student, for example, who wants to overcome his tiredness and do well on his exams, and not give up any time he spends playing games :), clicks on the ad for the energy drink that promises the solution. He arrives at a landing page that acknowledges how he feels, accepts his need to engage in these targeted activities, and demonstrates how the energy drink is the solution to his pain. As long as the offer is a good one and the “Call to Action” to take advantage of it is clear and easy to follow, this college student is most likely to convert because the message fulfilled his need.

Here are some questions to consider:

Where is your respondent coming from? Health journal, popular video site, etc…
What type of content was around him? Tips on healthy eating and exercise, information on performance enhancement supplements/vitamins, social networking, online video gaming, etc…
What type of reader is he – interests, what motivates him to take action? Solution to enhance physical endurance, solution to enhance wakefulness or mental endurance, etc….

Use what you know now about your anticipated respondents, and what you learn throughout your campaign, to craft a targeted landing page that speaks directly to a specific group about why they clicked your link in the first place.

Targeted landing pages also allow you to conduct A/B testing to learn which ad creative and CTA’s (calls to action) are most effective. Although not impossible, it is more difficult to conduct this type of comparative testing on the home page or internal pages of your website, particularly where there are CTA’s not specifically related to your ad.

Another great benefit of targeted landing pages is the ability to track both user interaction and conversion using tools like Google Analytics. By tracking results on targeted landing pages (especially by setting up Goals in Google Analytics) the data you gather is specific to your campaign and not diluted in any way by visitor behavior outside of your campaign. This concentrated data can be used to make adjustments to improve your overall results and increase your ‘return on advertising spend’ (ROAS).

I will talk more about the benefits of Google Analytics in future posts.