Often I find that the first stage of a research project involves bringing myself up to speed on a subject. Linda Cooper, an information consultant in Pennsylvania, once referred to this step as "I am my own end user", meaning her initial search is often for her own use, and not for her client.
Fortunately, we have a number of surprisingly reliable, free ready-reference sources that we can tap. A couple I use frequently are Wikipedia and Answers.com.
The Wikipedia is addictive. Each article is full of links ..., and once you start clicking, there goes an hour of your day.
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, written and edited by volunteers. There have been many debates about the relative value of the Wikipedia and commercial encyclopedias. Most of the focus has been on the fact that the structure of the Wikipedia (like any other wiki, or collaboratively-created document) allows anyone to change an existing article and, with some limitations, to create a new article. Fortunately, the Wikipedia is "tended" by a number of editors. People who have authored articles may also monitor changes to their material, which serves as a quick correction to changes that are wrong or malicious.
More background on how the Wikipedia works may be found in this Wikipedia article. And this month's issue of Wired magazine has an article on the Wikipedia.
While I take anything I read in the Wikipedia with a grain of salt, I do the same for any other reference source. I had a project a while ago that involved the market for tungsten. Turning myself into my own end user, as Linda would say, I realized I first had to figure out what the metal was, and how it was used. I headed over to Wikipedia, and bingo! The Wikipedia article gave me plenty of background information, so I could head off to other sources to get the information my client needed.
There's a lot of intelligence built into the Wikipedia. I was looking for information on a breed of dog that a friend thinks may be part of my puppy's very mixed parentage, so I typed "viszla" in the search box. Happily, I was redirected to the article on Vizslas, a Hungarian hunting dog. And if you search for "Mercury," you will be shown a "disambiguation" page, which lists several entries for the term, Mercury, including the planet, the element, the car, and even the singer, Freddie Mercury.
But be warned: The Wikipedia is addictive. Each article is full of links to related concepts, and once you start clicking, there goes an hour of your day.
The other ready-reference site I use frequently is Answers.com, formerly the fee-based GuruNet. While the site offers some plug-ins that I don't use, its main strength is in providing quick answers. Interestingly, just today they announced a new feature, which lets you query it without going to the search page. Just enter the URL in the browser address line, followed by the topic you want to search -- for example, answers.com/tungsten.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Email Marketing Strategy: Shortcuts to Success
Many email marketing programs grow organically. An idea is born, an email is sent, it works, another email is sent, and so on. While there's nothing wrong with this approach, you can often accomplish more in a shorter time frame by putting a strategic plan into place.
In this article, which is an excerpt from my SitePoint publication, The Email Marketing Kit, we'll look at what's involved in developing a plan for an effective email strategy, be it your first email marketing campaign or an existing campaign that you want to take to the next level. Writing such a plan takes considerable time and effort, and may seem a bit daunting at first, but don't let this deter you. Not only is a plan necessary for the long-term success of your campaign, it's also critical for keeping you on track in the short term. Consider it a creative endeavor, and you'll soon discover that writing a strategic plan is actually quite a lot of fun once you get the hang of it!
The Kit is a comprehensive guide to planning, creating, implementing and improving email marketing campaigns. It covers all aspects of email marketing, from the different types of email, the task of crafting effective opt-in messages, and the challenge of formulating great subject lines, from addresses and message content, to the topics of optimizing deliverability, viral marketing techniques, and the use of third-party lists. For the full details, see the Table of Contents, and don't forget that you can download your copy of this article in PDF format, so you can read it anywhere, any time.
But now, let's get started developing your email marketing strategy!
A strategic plan is an evolving document. As your knowledge of, and experience with, email marketing grows, you'll want to chop and change your plan to incorporate the new ideas that you've learned, and remove those that aren't meeting your expectations. Even the most comprehensive plans will need tweaking with time, so don't hesitate to do this -- it's normal and it's smart.
In this chapter, we'll be developing an email strategy for a fictitious publishing company called Congressional Publications, whose main competitor, the equally fictitious Digest of Congress, already has an effective email marketing campaign in place.
The process we'll move through in order to create an email marketing strategy for Congressional Publications involves a generally appropriate set of steps that you can use in your own email marketing campaigns. This process involves the following tasks:
Undertake a competitive analysis.
Answer some key questions about your offerings, audiences, content, mailing schedule, goals, and budget.
Set quantitative goals for the strategy.
Set and allocate the budget.
To begin, though, let's look at why we should develop a strategy in the first place.
Why Develop an Email Strategy?
Why do we use a road map when we're driving? So that we don't get lost. Good directions will save us time, gas, and money, and provide us with a stress-free journey.
Similarly, an email marketing strategy is your map to success. It will point you in the right direction, keep you from veering off course, and identify the quickest routes by which you can reach your business goals. Like good directions, a good strategic plan will save you time, help you to budget accordingly, ensure that your email efforts are synchronized with your company's goals, and allow you to plan ahead so that you don't miss opportunities.
As with all good things, the task of preparing a comprehensive strategic plan takes time. While it may seem like a lengthy process, having a plan in place will actually save you time in the future -- it's a foolproof way to ensure that you produce the best results with the resources that you have available.
Now that we're committed to the idea of preparing a strategy, let's begin!
Conducting a Competitive Analysis
Before you dive into drafting up your own email strategy, don your detective hat and starting sleuthing to find out what your competitors are doing. Conducting a competitive analysis helps you to understand what you're up against, gives you the chance to gather ideas for your own campaigns from those of your competitors, and work out what will give you the edge to make your communications more effective.
Naturally, you'll want to focus on your competitors' marketing efforts -- specifically, email marketing. Let's spend a little time talking about this now. If your competitors don't use email, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.
Getting on your Competitors' Lists
The first step in a comprehensive competitive analysis is to subscribe to the mailing lists and email newsletters of your competitors. I recommend that you use an email address that doesn't give away too much information about you or your business, as companies have been known to blacklist the email addresses of their competitors.
Keeping Tabs
In analyzing your competitors' mailouts, you should consider a number of points. Keep track of the types of emails your competitors send, when they send them, and who the emails are sent to. Like me, you might also like to keep a copy of each email on file for future reference. Are the emails transactional or relationship-building? Which products and services do they mention? How are different market segments approached? After a month or so, you'll develop a good feel for their basic programs, and you can use this knowledge to help shape your own campaign.
Table 3.1 summarizes a review I carried out on the email marketing campaign of the Digest of Congress, the major competitor of Congressional Publications. The review shows that during the month of June the Digest of Congress sent out weekly newsletters and weekly promotional emails in which the company's product line was rotated. Every fourth promotional send was a catalog that included all of the publisher's products. In June, two emails were sent each week (one was promotional; the other was a newsletter). The Digest of Congress may decide to introduce more newsletters during the weeks in which significant events take place, or to reduce its weekly emails when Congress is on break.
Table 3.1. Competitive overview of Digest of Congress's email marketing
Since we've established the frequency and timing of the Digest of Congress's emails, let's take a closer look at the content of each email. I spent some time assessing the different types of content (articles, interviews, surveys, etc.) the organization used in its emails, and where that content came from. I asked myself a number of questions. Did the content appear to have been professionally written? Did it seem likely to have been purchased? Was the content written specifically for the Digest of Congress, or was it generic?
Can you see any patterns in Example 3.1? Every email has the same feature area. News blurbs are used as a marketing tool -- readers can't get the full story unless they sign up. The opinion pieces include bite-sized morsels of proprietary content designed to tempt users to subscribe. The Tip of the Week and Quote of the Week incorporate short-form editorial content, and reader-submitted content has been developed by allowing readers to participate in polls, the results of which are published. Last, but not least, an advertisement for the Digest of Congress's products is also included.
Example 3.1. Assessing the content of Digest of Congress's newsletter emails
7 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: will nominee be confirmed?
results from last week's poll: will the energy bill become law?
ad for weekly magazine
14 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: what will happen with Social Security?
results from last week's poll: will nominee be confirmed?
ad for weekly magazine
21 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: is the Social Security bill dead for this year?
results from last week's poll: what will happen with social security?
ad for weekly magazine
28 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: will Mark Felt, a.k.a. "Deep Throat" be remembered as a hero or a villain?
results from last week's poll: is the Social Security bill dead for this year?
ad for weekly magazine
All the content has a congressional or political bent to it, and there's nothing on this list that the Digest of Congress would find particularly difficult to develop in-house -- after all, it's a publishing company. The business would easily be able to repurpose items from paid publications for the newsletters' opinion pieces and news blurbs -- the same content that paying subscribers received a week ago!
Since we've got all of this information at hand, let's carry out a quick SWOT analysis of the Digest of Congress's email content. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
strengthsStrengths are the internal factors that make the email newsletter good. I know, "good" could mean anything, and indeed its definition in this context is broad. Look for elements of the newsletter that strike you in a positive way, such as topics that are especially relevant, writing styles that are easy to read, and so on.
weaknessesThese are the internal factors that make the email newsletter bad. Look out for weaknesses such as superficially covered topics, irrelevant articles, jargon-filled content full of unnecessary information, and self-promotional content.
opportunitiesOpportunities identify the ways in which you can match or transcend your competitor. Has the company missed any relevant topics that you could cover? What other types of content would readers like? What else could you do to improve the experience you provide to your audience?
threatsThreats are the aspects of your competitors' performance with which you'll find it very difficult to compete: the flawlessly covered topics, or the brilliantly written articles to which yours just won't match up, no matter how hard you try. It's important to make a list of these threats so that you don't risk your dignity and credibility by challenging your competitors to a game that you can't play.
You can use your SWOT analysis to give your newsletter an edge over competitors. For example, if Congressional Publications compiled a calendar of upcoming votes and key committee meetings, this content could be used in the newsletter, filling the void left by the Digest of Congress. I also notice that, other than the quote of the week, the Digest of Congress's newsletter doesn't provide much content from outside sources. We could include interviews with key Congress members or top lobbyists in our newsletter, which would provide interesting reading for our audience, and differentiate our newsletter from that of the Digest of Congress. Finally, I like the idea of polls and the response that they receive, so I think we should include a "Question of the Day" segment in our newsletter.
The more email marketing campaigns you monitor, the more good ideas you'll gather. With a fresh twist, you may be able to use some of these ideas to suit your own email newsletter and readership.
Addressing Key Questions
Now that we've completed our competitive review, and conducted a SWOT analysis, it's time to think about what we want to achieve through the newsletter. Rather than considering this very broad question, let's break it down into a series of smaller questions that address specific issues.
What Products or Services will you Promote?
If you already have this information in your head, now's the time to put it all down on paper. Include as much detail as you can about your offerings: your products or services, the features available, the benefits you provide over your competition, the special deals you have on offer, and anything else that's relevant. I've prepared the following product description for Congressional Publications:
Example 3.2. Description of Congressional Publication's offerings
The journalists at Congressional Publications report on the daily happenings of Congress. As the first media outlet to focus solely on Congress, we have established the reputation of being a fair and non-partisan publication, and have won numerous awards for our coverage. Our publications are released in three formats: a weekly print publication, a daily print publication, and a purchased-subscription content web site.
A subscription to our weekly print publication, Congress This Week, costs $100 per year. The publication provides highlights of weekly congressional activities, such as updates on the status of key legislation -- who's supporting it and why, who's not, and an expert opinion on the chance that the legislation will become law, and so on. In this instance, our advantage is editorial -- our journalists have many years of experience in watching Congress, and numerous contacts who are able to provide valuable insight from within the chambers.
Subscriptions to our daily print publication, Congress Today, costs $250 per year. This product includes schedules for daily congressional activities such as committee meetings, bills to be presented, votes, and so forth. While it doesn't cover issues in as much depth as Congress This Week, Congress Today does provide a comprehensive review of each day's activities -- a feature that no other organization currently delivers.
A subscription to Congress Online, our paid content web site, costs $500 per a year and includes information from both Congress This Week and Congress Today. In addition, Congress Online also provides the full text of all bills that are currently under consideration, and complete archives of publications and events dating back ten years -- further than any other online service that currently covers Congress.
Who Do you Want to Reach?
Next, it's time to think about readership: who are we trying to target with our email strategy?
Existing Customers
If you target your existing customers, you have the advantage of knowing a little bit about them already. It's a good idea to create detailed customer profiles, so that you have a clear picture of the people to whom you're trying to talk. Try to include the following information:
demographic informationInclude pertinent personal information about customers, such as their ages, locations, educational backgrounds, hobbies, and other necessary details. If your customers are mostly businesses, include the duration for which each business has been in operation, an approximation of its annual revenue, and its staff numbers.
features, benefits, and advantagesWhat features do your products and services provide? What benefits and advantages do customers receive when they choose your products over those of your competitors? Be sure to distinguish between features, benefits, and advantages -- these are not the same!
For example, as the publisher of an industry magazine, I might advertise: "Our magazine provides the latest industry news." In this case, the benefit for my customers is: "As a reader of our magazine, you're always up to date with what's going on in your industry, and knowledgeable about issues that may affect your organization or career." The advantage over my competitors? "Since we publish daily, our readers are always a step ahead of those reading the contending magazine, which is published weekly."
elements of the buying decisionWhat steps are required to purchase the product or service that you're marketing? What logical and emotional elements are part of the decision-making process? Is purchasing your product an impulse buy, or one that requires research? As well as understanding the underlying needs, benefits, and advantages of a purchase decision, it's also important to grasp the process itself. By defining this, you'll gain insight into how you can influence, and even change, this process to your advantage.
Gather as much information as you can using your own experiences, as well as other sources. The Web is a great resource: look for census data, survey results, research, and articles relating to the needs and desires of your target audience.
Prospective Customers
Create customer profiles for prospective customers just as you did for your current customers. In this case, though, you'll be creating profiles for a certain type of customer rather than for specific customers, so your profiles will be more generic. It's natural for these profiles to look like ones that you've created for your existing client base -- if a particular group of people have been great customers, you'll want to find more of them!
You may also be looking to expand your customer base by targeting a completely different market segment. That's fine, as long as you do your research so that you can write a detailed description of who the Chosen Ones are, why they need the services you're offering, and what benefits and advantages they'll gain from doing business with you.
Be as specific as you can. It's all too easy to leave out that bit of detail that's "not very important," but avoid the temptation to define your audience broadly. The more detailed your description, the more effectively you'll be able to develop your email marketing strategy to reach -- and communicate successfully with -- this audience.
The Press
Create press profiles that specify the members of the media (reporters, editors, and publishers) with whom you want to communicate. Can you guess what I'm going to say next? That's right: include as much detail as you can! Remember, detail in your strategy is the key to creating and running a successful email marketing campaign that gives you the best possible return-on-investment.
Think about what you're marketing, and who might be interested in it. If you sell technology services, look for publications, web sites, bloggers, reporters, and others who cover the subject, and hone your profiles for optimal results. If you're selling DSL services, targeting bloggers who write about DSL and high-speed Internet issues will be more advantageous than targeting general technology bloggers who focus on gadgets and aren't particularly interested in what you're offering.
As you can probably tell, you could segment a group of members of the press based on many aspects: the niche areas they cover, the industries they reach, or their geographic locations; again, the segments will depend on the products and services you're offering.
Let's look at the target audience profile we've developed for Congressional Publications:
Example 3.3. Definition of Congressional Publications' target audience
In the broadest sense, the customers and prospective customers of Congressional Publications are both members of the general public and members of Congress who are interested in congressional news. Currently, we serve the three different market segments:
media outletsWe focus on small- to medium-sized regional newspapers that don't have the budget to hire a full-time reporter for Congress coverage. Instead, they turn to us for up-to-date information on legislation of importance, which we provide at a very affordable price. They may use this content as background for stories, or reprint our stories and vote reports verbatim.
The budgets of these newspapers are very limited. While most are happy to spend $100 per year to purchase our weekly print publication, very few are willing to subscribe to our online service that costs $500 per year. Due to the tight budgets on which these newspapers operate, our renewals in this market are generally lower than those of our other constituencies -- if a newspaper suffers a budget cut, our publications are often the first to get the flick.
Securing a new customer in this market can take between three and six months. We normally provide a free trial and then follow up with a phone call during which we answer any questions the prospect may have, offer helpful suggestions, and take orders.
congressional officesCongressional offices are currently our strongest market segment -- every office in the region subscribes to at least one of our products. With our publications, they're able to keep up with developments in various committees, and learn who's supporting a given piece of legislation and why. We provide them with vital information and save them valuable time that they would otherwise be using to gather the information themselves.
Most offices purchase both the weekly and daily print publications for $100 and $250 per year, respectively; many get more than one copy of each product. As with the newspapers, few offices have the budget to subscribe to our online service.
Fortunately, our publications are considered to be a necessity by this particular market segment. This sees our orders soar during significant events such as the election of a new congress member. Subscriptions are rarely discontinued, but for those that are, the main reason given is that the member of that office has left Congress.
The sales cycle is quick, and not much needs to be done on our part to gain or keep the business. However, as this audience is finite, there's little room for growth.
lobbyistsLobbyists are our newest audience, and one that we've found to be very profitable. We target Fortune 500 companies that are devoted to government affairs -- large associations looking to influence Congress on behalf of their members, and large lobbying firms.
Such organizations need to keep abreast of congressional happenings that may affect their businesses, or the businesses of their members and clients. We're a trusted source of this information. Our online service is very popular in this market, as the organizations require access to the archives to track past legislations.
Congressional Publications is also looking to expand its prospects by marketing to a new segment: universities that offer political science degrees. Students enrolled in such degrees are inclined to have an interest in current congressional activity. Our publications could serve as additional teaching aids and illustrate the legislative process. Marketing to universities also allows us to introduce our products to future customers outside of universities, as many of these students will go on to work in the market segments that we currently serve.
Our research has shown that these universities don't have extensive budgets, so our weekly print publication would likely suit them best. Ideally, our marketing campaign would be launched around September, as this is when most universities spend their annual publication budgets. Key contacts for sales will be those people who work within the universities' political science departments, as well as university librarians.
Targeted GroupsIn some situations, it may make sense to divide your customer base into smaller segments so that you can market specific products to specific groups. If you're selling a variety of products or targeting more than one group, it makes sense to divide your customer base into smaller segments so that you can market specific products to specific groups, or word your emails differently to suit the characteristics of the different segments.
You can achieve this easily without busting your marketing budget. For example, let's say that you're the creator and distributor of financial software. Some of your customers use the software to manage their personal finances, while others use it to run their businesses. To tailor your marketing messages to meet the specific needs of both types of users, you'll need to separate your customer base into two groups: "home" and "business." This way, you won't bore the home users with tales about the benefits of your payroll component, while the business users won't think less of you for talking about balancing the household budget.
So, how do you divide the client base? Let your customers do it for you! Ask them what you need to know, and create the groups based on this information. When users register the financial software, ask them whether they needed it for home use or whether they needed it for business use. If we wanted to further target specific industries within the business group, we could ask those users to provide us with more details about the industries in which their businesses operate.
Once you have this information, add it to your audience profiles so that you have a clear idea of how the segments, and your communications with them, will differ.
What are your Goals for the Target Audience?
Right. You've defined your target audience, now let's set some goals for them. I'm going to stress this point again: make your plans detailed! Simply stating that you want your customers to buy from you is not enough. You need to look at the target groups you defined earlier, and set specific goals for each.
Let's start by stating some common marketing objectives for current customers. Then, we'll consider the other audience groups.
Objectives for Current Customers
renewalsWe can use email marketing as a retention tool to encourage customers to re-subscribe. Rather than sending your customers an email that says "Hey, where's my money?" use the email to build customer loyalty so that when the renewal notice is delivered, customers are encouraged to make payments without a second thought.
upsellsEmail marketing can be used to promote enhanced versions of a product to an existing client base. For example, a company providing online music streaming offers two services: a basic service for $9.95 per month, for which subscribers are able to listen to preprogrammed radio stations, and a premium service for $19.95 per month, which allows users to select specific artists, albums, and songs that they want to hear. After snaring a few customers with the initial marketing campaign for the basic service, the company might use the same campaign with a modified email message to encourage users to upgrade to the premium service.
cross-sellsYou can use email marketing to promote related products to an existing client base -- in fact, this is a strategy telecommunications companies often use. These companies offer customers who are already using their telephone services additional products, such as long distance services, Internet connections, and mobile phone packages.
referralsWe can also use email marketing to encourage advertising via word-of-mouth. We all know that a recommendation from a trusted friend or business acquaintance holds a lot of weight. In many ways, this is the best form of marketing because it's earned, not bought.
You can set as many goals for your customers as you like, and those objectives can be as refined or specific as you want. You may have different goals for different segments of customers. Take our little online music business, for example. When it sends out renewal emails, it also offers customers using the basic service an upsell to the premium service. Customers that are already using the premium service only receive the (convincing!) renewal email.
Prospective Customers
At this point you're probably wondering why I'm asking about your goals for prospective customers. You want them to become less "prospective" and more "customer," of course! This goes without saying. However, in order to build a strategy that enables you to achieve this goal, you'll need to think about how exactly it's going to happen.
direct purchaseEmail marketing can generate direct sales. If your products are reasonably priced and the purchasing process is simple, you can use email to give prospective customers the ability to make a direct purchase. If the product is something they desire, most prospects will jump at the chance of an immediate, hassle-free purchase.
lead generationGenerating interest is another valid objective. If you're marketing a complex product for which the sales procedure is not quite so simple, such as applying for a credit card, you can use email initially to get prospects interested in the product. Once the product's caught their interest, a sales representative can work with them personally to seal the deal. This tactic is very different from direct marketing: rather than providing your prospects with details on how to purchase the product, you're presenting them with information that will encourage them to contact you.
brand awarenessYou can use email marketing to generate awareness for a brand. Maybe your objective isn't to sell at all -- perhaps you just want to use email to get your name out there, so that people recognize your brand and understand what your company does. While leads and sales may arise as a result of brand awareness, this is a much softer approach than those we discussed above. Many companies will begin their campaigns with an awareness strategy, introducing products or services that are new to the market. Only after the brand has been established will they switch to lead-generation or direct-response mode.
As with current customers, you can mix and match these prospective customer strategies to create one that works for you. You'll need to understand the sales cycle that customers move through as they consider the products or services that you market, so do your research thoroughly.
The Press
Your ultimate goal with the press is to gain free publicity. You want them to write an article that puts your company in a shining light, perhaps quoting your CEO as an expert in the industry, or stating your business to be the leader in its field. Ensure that you understand the nature of the coverage your press list can give, so that you can package your information to suit their publications.
That's it! Let's look at the goals for the Congressional Publications target audiences.
Example 3.4. Congressional Publications' target audience goals
media outlets and prospective media outletsFirst and foremost, our goal here is retention: we want existing customers to renew their current subscriptions. As most of our media outlet customers purchase the weekly publication, our secondary goal is to cross-sell them the daily publication. For prospects in this market, our goal is to direct-sell them our weekly publication.
congressional offices and prospective congressional officesAgain, our goal here is retention -- getting the offices to renew their existing subscriptions. As they're likely to have subscribed to both print publications, our secondary goal is to upsell them to our online service. Prospects in this market are virtually non-existent, as most offices in the region subscribe to one or more of our publications already. However, if one did arise, our goal would be to direct-sell them the weekly publication.
lobbyists and prospective lobbyistsAs most of our existing customers in this group have subscribed to our high-end product -- the online service -- our goal at this stage is to ensure that they retain those subscriptions. While this is a relatively new market, we've established that it is a viable one. We want to direct-sell our weekly subscription to prospective lobbyists first to get them on board. If the response is positive, we'll launch a campaign that encourages them to upgrade to the online service a little later.
prospective universitiesCurrently, we don't have any customers within this market. Our initial goal is to make ourselves known within this community, but ultimately, we want the universities to purchase our weekly publication. To do this, we'll need first to create brand awareness, then follow this with a direct-sale campaign. Ideally, this campaign will kick off around September, as this is the time when most universities spend their annual publication budgets.
What Type of Email is Best?
Now that we've defined our audiences, and we know what we want to achieve with each, it's time to match an email type to each objective we've set.
Transactional Invoice Emails
These types of email are best used for retention or customer renewals.
We don't ask for much from a renewal email. As long as it reminds customers of their upcoming subscription expirations, and asks them to pay for new ones, we're happy. An email invoice providing payment instructions (a hyperlink to pay online, or a phone number to pay via phone) is sufficient for this purpose. Many organizations use a "renewal series" of email invoices, sending emails during specific points in the renewal process: two months prior to the due date, one month prior, two weeks prior, right up to -- and beyond -- the due date.
However, not many of your customers will be inspired to continue their subscriptions by the invoice alone. Remember that your competitors are always lurking, waiting for you to drop customers that they can catch. During the renewal process, it's vital that you consistently (at least once a month, but not more) make a positive impression on your customers by highlighting the benefits and advantages that your business provides.
For ultimate retention power, combine your transaction invoice email with the very versatile relationship email.
Relationship Emails
Relationship emails are ideal for:
retention or customer renewals
upsells and cross-sells
lead generation
brand awareness
customer referrals
The extremely versatile relationship email can be used to fulfill a number of different goals, and work particularly well when they're combined with other email formats (such as postcard emails or transactional invoices). Relationship emails can contain anything, from short-form editorials to email newsletters, and are most effective when sent on a regular basis.
For example, consider the renewal process for an online magazine subscription. If you're using a series of renewal emails, every so often an invoice will land in the customers' inboxes, reminding them that they owe you money. Now, an invoice never makes for happy customers. But if, a day or two later, they get a relationship email containing an article on a topic they're particularly interested in, their focus will shift from the monetary aspect of the magazine to how much they enjoy it. When the time comes to renew their subscriptions, these customers won't think twice about making the payment.
Relationship emails also make convincing upsellers and cross-sellers when used in conjunction with postcard emails. You could use them gradually to communicate a number of reasons why customers should upgrade their products. Including case studies and top-ten lists (top ten reasons to upgrade, top ten signs that you need to upgrade, top ten awesome things about this kit ... you get the idea) are useful not only for convincing individual customers, but also for providing them with a solid case, should they need to seek approval for the upgrade.
Relationship emails are vital for generating leads. They allow prospective customers to get to know you before they deal with a sales representative, and they require a lower level of commitment than some other formats. Relationship emails allow prospects to get an understanding of the products you offer, and learn why other companies have decided to work with you. They're a cost-effective way to position your organization as an expert in the field, and keep that idea at the forefront of your readers' minds.
Last, but not least, relationship emails are your key to customer referrals. Customers are more likely to forward emails containing interesting content to their family and friends than they are to forward promotional postcard emails. As well as making others aware of your business, these emails may also result in additional subscriptions to your email newsletter, providing you with more prospects.
Postcard Emails
Postcard emails are useful for:
customer upsells and cross-sells
direct purchase
lead generation
brand awareness
An effective postcard email will generally do the trick when it comes to the direct purchase or upsell of a particular product or service. If you've released a new product and want to do nothing more than say, "Hey, I'm out now! Buy me -- you know you want to!" a postcard email is all you need. A meticulously created postcard email can have a great impact, generating brand awareness, leads, and direct purchases.
As we saw earlier, postcard emails can also be used in conjunction with relationship emails to achieve various goals.
Communicative Emails
Use communicative emails for emails to the press.
To cut corners, many organizations send their promotional or relationship emails to the press. In the previous chapter, we saw that, while all these emails may contain the same information, their goals are very different. You'll have better luck getting your article published if you take the time and effort to send an actual press release via a communicative email.
Table 3.2, "Email plan for Congressional Publishing's existing customers" and Table 3.3, "Email plan for Congressional Publishing's prospects" show sample email plans for Congressional Publishing's existing and prospective customers, respectively.
Table 3.2. Email plan for Congressional Publishing's existing customers
Table 3.3. Email plan for Congressional Publishing's prospects
Where will you Source your Content?
We know whom we want to mail, and what we want to convince those recipients to do. But just look at all those emails we want to send. Where will we find all that content?
With purely promotional emails, it's easy: it's all about the features, benefits, and advantages of the products and services that you offer, so you can repurpose existing marketing copy, or create new copy that suits the types of emails that you send, and the audiences you approach. Transactional and communicative emails aren't difficult, either. You know what it is that you want to say, you just need to write the copy that will get your message across.
Things get a little more complicated when it comes to relationship-building emails. The key here is to strike a balance between editorial and promotional material. I often use the 60/40 rule as a guideline -- that is, I include 60% editorial or non-promotional content, and 40% promotional content, in the email. Why 60/40? This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but in my experience, a higher ratio of editorial content often means more work, but little, if any, additional gain; on the other hand, including more than about 40% promotional content takes the relationship edge off the email, which can lead to the impression that you're interested only in promoting yourself, rather than serving your recipients' needs or providing value.
The biggest obstacle most companies face when they launch an email newsletter is to identify and nurture sustainable sources of editorial content. Let's get a head start on this issue, First, we'll talk about the topics that you might cover in your newsletter; then, we'll answer the question of how you'll source the content.
In this article, which is an excerpt from my SitePoint publication, The Email Marketing Kit, we'll look at what's involved in developing a plan for an effective email strategy, be it your first email marketing campaign or an existing campaign that you want to take to the next level. Writing such a plan takes considerable time and effort, and may seem a bit daunting at first, but don't let this deter you. Not only is a plan necessary for the long-term success of your campaign, it's also critical for keeping you on track in the short term. Consider it a creative endeavor, and you'll soon discover that writing a strategic plan is actually quite a lot of fun once you get the hang of it!
The Kit is a comprehensive guide to planning, creating, implementing and improving email marketing campaigns. It covers all aspects of email marketing, from the different types of email, the task of crafting effective opt-in messages, and the challenge of formulating great subject lines, from addresses and message content, to the topics of optimizing deliverability, viral marketing techniques, and the use of third-party lists. For the full details, see the Table of Contents, and don't forget that you can download your copy of this article in PDF format, so you can read it anywhere, any time.
But now, let's get started developing your email marketing strategy!
A strategic plan is an evolving document. As your knowledge of, and experience with, email marketing grows, you'll want to chop and change your plan to incorporate the new ideas that you've learned, and remove those that aren't meeting your expectations. Even the most comprehensive plans will need tweaking with time, so don't hesitate to do this -- it's normal and it's smart.
In this chapter, we'll be developing an email strategy for a fictitious publishing company called Congressional Publications, whose main competitor, the equally fictitious Digest of Congress, already has an effective email marketing campaign in place.
The process we'll move through in order to create an email marketing strategy for Congressional Publications involves a generally appropriate set of steps that you can use in your own email marketing campaigns. This process involves the following tasks:
Undertake a competitive analysis.
Answer some key questions about your offerings, audiences, content, mailing schedule, goals, and budget.
Set quantitative goals for the strategy.
Set and allocate the budget.
To begin, though, let's look at why we should develop a strategy in the first place.
Why Develop an Email Strategy?
Why do we use a road map when we're driving? So that we don't get lost. Good directions will save us time, gas, and money, and provide us with a stress-free journey.
Similarly, an email marketing strategy is your map to success. It will point you in the right direction, keep you from veering off course, and identify the quickest routes by which you can reach your business goals. Like good directions, a good strategic plan will save you time, help you to budget accordingly, ensure that your email efforts are synchronized with your company's goals, and allow you to plan ahead so that you don't miss opportunities.
As with all good things, the task of preparing a comprehensive strategic plan takes time. While it may seem like a lengthy process, having a plan in place will actually save you time in the future -- it's a foolproof way to ensure that you produce the best results with the resources that you have available.
Now that we're committed to the idea of preparing a strategy, let's begin!
Conducting a Competitive Analysis
Before you dive into drafting up your own email strategy, don your detective hat and starting sleuthing to find out what your competitors are doing. Conducting a competitive analysis helps you to understand what you're up against, gives you the chance to gather ideas for your own campaigns from those of your competitors, and work out what will give you the edge to make your communications more effective.
Naturally, you'll want to focus on your competitors' marketing efforts -- specifically, email marketing. Let's spend a little time talking about this now. If your competitors don't use email, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.
Getting on your Competitors' Lists
The first step in a comprehensive competitive analysis is to subscribe to the mailing lists and email newsletters of your competitors. I recommend that you use an email address that doesn't give away too much information about you or your business, as companies have been known to blacklist the email addresses of their competitors.
Keeping Tabs
In analyzing your competitors' mailouts, you should consider a number of points. Keep track of the types of emails your competitors send, when they send them, and who the emails are sent to. Like me, you might also like to keep a copy of each email on file for future reference. Are the emails transactional or relationship-building? Which products and services do they mention? How are different market segments approached? After a month or so, you'll develop a good feel for their basic programs, and you can use this knowledge to help shape your own campaign.
Table 3.1 summarizes a review I carried out on the email marketing campaign of the Digest of Congress, the major competitor of Congressional Publications. The review shows that during the month of June the Digest of Congress sent out weekly newsletters and weekly promotional emails in which the company's product line was rotated. Every fourth promotional send was a catalog that included all of the publisher's products. In June, two emails were sent each week (one was promotional; the other was a newsletter). The Digest of Congress may decide to introduce more newsletters during the weeks in which significant events take place, or to reduce its weekly emails when Congress is on break.
Table 3.1. Competitive overview of Digest of Congress's email marketing
Since we've established the frequency and timing of the Digest of Congress's emails, let's take a closer look at the content of each email. I spent some time assessing the different types of content (articles, interviews, surveys, etc.) the organization used in its emails, and where that content came from. I asked myself a number of questions. Did the content appear to have been professionally written? Did it seem likely to have been purchased? Was the content written specifically for the Digest of Congress, or was it generic?
Can you see any patterns in Example 3.1? Every email has the same feature area. News blurbs are used as a marketing tool -- readers can't get the full story unless they sign up. The opinion pieces include bite-sized morsels of proprietary content designed to tempt users to subscribe. The Tip of the Week and Quote of the Week incorporate short-form editorial content, and reader-submitted content has been developed by allowing readers to participate in polls, the results of which are published. Last, but not least, an advertisement for the Digest of Congress's products is also included.
Example 3.1. Assessing the content of Digest of Congress's newsletter emails
7 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: will nominee be confirmed?
results from last week's poll: will the energy bill become law?
ad for weekly magazine
14 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: what will happen with Social Security?
results from last week's poll: will nominee be confirmed?
ad for weekly magazine
21 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: is the Social Security bill dead for this year?
results from last week's poll: what will happen with social security?
ad for weekly magazine
28 June
news blurbs from last week (link to full text for subscribers)
opinion piece on what to expect this week
tip of the week for following Congress
quote of the week (representative)
poll: will Mark Felt, a.k.a. "Deep Throat" be remembered as a hero or a villain?
results from last week's poll: is the Social Security bill dead for this year?
ad for weekly magazine
All the content has a congressional or political bent to it, and there's nothing on this list that the Digest of Congress would find particularly difficult to develop in-house -- after all, it's a publishing company. The business would easily be able to repurpose items from paid publications for the newsletters' opinion pieces and news blurbs -- the same content that paying subscribers received a week ago!
Since we've got all of this information at hand, let's carry out a quick SWOT analysis of the Digest of Congress's email content. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
strengthsStrengths are the internal factors that make the email newsletter good. I know, "good" could mean anything, and indeed its definition in this context is broad. Look for elements of the newsletter that strike you in a positive way, such as topics that are especially relevant, writing styles that are easy to read, and so on.
weaknessesThese are the internal factors that make the email newsletter bad. Look out for weaknesses such as superficially covered topics, irrelevant articles, jargon-filled content full of unnecessary information, and self-promotional content.
opportunitiesOpportunities identify the ways in which you can match or transcend your competitor. Has the company missed any relevant topics that you could cover? What other types of content would readers like? What else could you do to improve the experience you provide to your audience?
threatsThreats are the aspects of your competitors' performance with which you'll find it very difficult to compete: the flawlessly covered topics, or the brilliantly written articles to which yours just won't match up, no matter how hard you try. It's important to make a list of these threats so that you don't risk your dignity and credibility by challenging your competitors to a game that you can't play.
You can use your SWOT analysis to give your newsletter an edge over competitors. For example, if Congressional Publications compiled a calendar of upcoming votes and key committee meetings, this content could be used in the newsletter, filling the void left by the Digest of Congress. I also notice that, other than the quote of the week, the Digest of Congress's newsletter doesn't provide much content from outside sources. We could include interviews with key Congress members or top lobbyists in our newsletter, which would provide interesting reading for our audience, and differentiate our newsletter from that of the Digest of Congress. Finally, I like the idea of polls and the response that they receive, so I think we should include a "Question of the Day" segment in our newsletter.
The more email marketing campaigns you monitor, the more good ideas you'll gather. With a fresh twist, you may be able to use some of these ideas to suit your own email newsletter and readership.
Addressing Key Questions
Now that we've completed our competitive review, and conducted a SWOT analysis, it's time to think about what we want to achieve through the newsletter. Rather than considering this very broad question, let's break it down into a series of smaller questions that address specific issues.
What Products or Services will you Promote?
If you already have this information in your head, now's the time to put it all down on paper. Include as much detail as you can about your offerings: your products or services, the features available, the benefits you provide over your competition, the special deals you have on offer, and anything else that's relevant. I've prepared the following product description for Congressional Publications:
Example 3.2. Description of Congressional Publication's offerings
The journalists at Congressional Publications report on the daily happenings of Congress. As the first media outlet to focus solely on Congress, we have established the reputation of being a fair and non-partisan publication, and have won numerous awards for our coverage. Our publications are released in three formats: a weekly print publication, a daily print publication, and a purchased-subscription content web site.
A subscription to our weekly print publication, Congress This Week, costs $100 per year. The publication provides highlights of weekly congressional activities, such as updates on the status of key legislation -- who's supporting it and why, who's not, and an expert opinion on the chance that the legislation will become law, and so on. In this instance, our advantage is editorial -- our journalists have many years of experience in watching Congress, and numerous contacts who are able to provide valuable insight from within the chambers.
Subscriptions to our daily print publication, Congress Today, costs $250 per year. This product includes schedules for daily congressional activities such as committee meetings, bills to be presented, votes, and so forth. While it doesn't cover issues in as much depth as Congress This Week, Congress Today does provide a comprehensive review of each day's activities -- a feature that no other organization currently delivers.
A subscription to Congress Online, our paid content web site, costs $500 per a year and includes information from both Congress This Week and Congress Today. In addition, Congress Online also provides the full text of all bills that are currently under consideration, and complete archives of publications and events dating back ten years -- further than any other online service that currently covers Congress.
Who Do you Want to Reach?
Next, it's time to think about readership: who are we trying to target with our email strategy?
Existing Customers
If you target your existing customers, you have the advantage of knowing a little bit about them already. It's a good idea to create detailed customer profiles, so that you have a clear picture of the people to whom you're trying to talk. Try to include the following information:
demographic informationInclude pertinent personal information about customers, such as their ages, locations, educational backgrounds, hobbies, and other necessary details. If your customers are mostly businesses, include the duration for which each business has been in operation, an approximation of its annual revenue, and its staff numbers.
features, benefits, and advantagesWhat features do your products and services provide? What benefits and advantages do customers receive when they choose your products over those of your competitors? Be sure to distinguish between features, benefits, and advantages -- these are not the same!
For example, as the publisher of an industry magazine, I might advertise: "Our magazine provides the latest industry news." In this case, the benefit for my customers is: "As a reader of our magazine, you're always up to date with what's going on in your industry, and knowledgeable about issues that may affect your organization or career." The advantage over my competitors? "Since we publish daily, our readers are always a step ahead of those reading the contending magazine, which is published weekly."
elements of the buying decisionWhat steps are required to purchase the product or service that you're marketing? What logical and emotional elements are part of the decision-making process? Is purchasing your product an impulse buy, or one that requires research? As well as understanding the underlying needs, benefits, and advantages of a purchase decision, it's also important to grasp the process itself. By defining this, you'll gain insight into how you can influence, and even change, this process to your advantage.
Gather as much information as you can using your own experiences, as well as other sources. The Web is a great resource: look for census data, survey results, research, and articles relating to the needs and desires of your target audience.
Prospective Customers
Create customer profiles for prospective customers just as you did for your current customers. In this case, though, you'll be creating profiles for a certain type of customer rather than for specific customers, so your profiles will be more generic. It's natural for these profiles to look like ones that you've created for your existing client base -- if a particular group of people have been great customers, you'll want to find more of them!
You may also be looking to expand your customer base by targeting a completely different market segment. That's fine, as long as you do your research so that you can write a detailed description of who the Chosen Ones are, why they need the services you're offering, and what benefits and advantages they'll gain from doing business with you.
Be as specific as you can. It's all too easy to leave out that bit of detail that's "not very important," but avoid the temptation to define your audience broadly. The more detailed your description, the more effectively you'll be able to develop your email marketing strategy to reach -- and communicate successfully with -- this audience.
The Press
Create press profiles that specify the members of the media (reporters, editors, and publishers) with whom you want to communicate. Can you guess what I'm going to say next? That's right: include as much detail as you can! Remember, detail in your strategy is the key to creating and running a successful email marketing campaign that gives you the best possible return-on-investment.
Think about what you're marketing, and who might be interested in it. If you sell technology services, look for publications, web sites, bloggers, reporters, and others who cover the subject, and hone your profiles for optimal results. If you're selling DSL services, targeting bloggers who write about DSL and high-speed Internet issues will be more advantageous than targeting general technology bloggers who focus on gadgets and aren't particularly interested in what you're offering.
As you can probably tell, you could segment a group of members of the press based on many aspects: the niche areas they cover, the industries they reach, or their geographic locations; again, the segments will depend on the products and services you're offering.
Let's look at the target audience profile we've developed for Congressional Publications:
Example 3.3. Definition of Congressional Publications' target audience
In the broadest sense, the customers and prospective customers of Congressional Publications are both members of the general public and members of Congress who are interested in congressional news. Currently, we serve the three different market segments:
media outletsWe focus on small- to medium-sized regional newspapers that don't have the budget to hire a full-time reporter for Congress coverage. Instead, they turn to us for up-to-date information on legislation of importance, which we provide at a very affordable price. They may use this content as background for stories, or reprint our stories and vote reports verbatim.
The budgets of these newspapers are very limited. While most are happy to spend $100 per year to purchase our weekly print publication, very few are willing to subscribe to our online service that costs $500 per year. Due to the tight budgets on which these newspapers operate, our renewals in this market are generally lower than those of our other constituencies -- if a newspaper suffers a budget cut, our publications are often the first to get the flick.
Securing a new customer in this market can take between three and six months. We normally provide a free trial and then follow up with a phone call during which we answer any questions the prospect may have, offer helpful suggestions, and take orders.
congressional officesCongressional offices are currently our strongest market segment -- every office in the region subscribes to at least one of our products. With our publications, they're able to keep up with developments in various committees, and learn who's supporting a given piece of legislation and why. We provide them with vital information and save them valuable time that they would otherwise be using to gather the information themselves.
Most offices purchase both the weekly and daily print publications for $100 and $250 per year, respectively; many get more than one copy of each product. As with the newspapers, few offices have the budget to subscribe to our online service.
Fortunately, our publications are considered to be a necessity by this particular market segment. This sees our orders soar during significant events such as the election of a new congress member. Subscriptions are rarely discontinued, but for those that are, the main reason given is that the member of that office has left Congress.
The sales cycle is quick, and not much needs to be done on our part to gain or keep the business. However, as this audience is finite, there's little room for growth.
lobbyistsLobbyists are our newest audience, and one that we've found to be very profitable. We target Fortune 500 companies that are devoted to government affairs -- large associations looking to influence Congress on behalf of their members, and large lobbying firms.
Such organizations need to keep abreast of congressional happenings that may affect their businesses, or the businesses of their members and clients. We're a trusted source of this information. Our online service is very popular in this market, as the organizations require access to the archives to track past legislations.
Congressional Publications is also looking to expand its prospects by marketing to a new segment: universities that offer political science degrees. Students enrolled in such degrees are inclined to have an interest in current congressional activity. Our publications could serve as additional teaching aids and illustrate the legislative process. Marketing to universities also allows us to introduce our products to future customers outside of universities, as many of these students will go on to work in the market segments that we currently serve.
Our research has shown that these universities don't have extensive budgets, so our weekly print publication would likely suit them best. Ideally, our marketing campaign would be launched around September, as this is when most universities spend their annual publication budgets. Key contacts for sales will be those people who work within the universities' political science departments, as well as university librarians.
Targeted GroupsIn some situations, it may make sense to divide your customer base into smaller segments so that you can market specific products to specific groups. If you're selling a variety of products or targeting more than one group, it makes sense to divide your customer base into smaller segments so that you can market specific products to specific groups, or word your emails differently to suit the characteristics of the different segments.
You can achieve this easily without busting your marketing budget. For example, let's say that you're the creator and distributor of financial software. Some of your customers use the software to manage their personal finances, while others use it to run their businesses. To tailor your marketing messages to meet the specific needs of both types of users, you'll need to separate your customer base into two groups: "home" and "business." This way, you won't bore the home users with tales about the benefits of your payroll component, while the business users won't think less of you for talking about balancing the household budget.
So, how do you divide the client base? Let your customers do it for you! Ask them what you need to know, and create the groups based on this information. When users register the financial software, ask them whether they needed it for home use or whether they needed it for business use. If we wanted to further target specific industries within the business group, we could ask those users to provide us with more details about the industries in which their businesses operate.
Once you have this information, add it to your audience profiles so that you have a clear idea of how the segments, and your communications with them, will differ.
What are your Goals for the Target Audience?
Right. You've defined your target audience, now let's set some goals for them. I'm going to stress this point again: make your plans detailed! Simply stating that you want your customers to buy from you is not enough. You need to look at the target groups you defined earlier, and set specific goals for each.
Let's start by stating some common marketing objectives for current customers. Then, we'll consider the other audience groups.
Objectives for Current Customers
renewalsWe can use email marketing as a retention tool to encourage customers to re-subscribe. Rather than sending your customers an email that says "Hey, where's my money?" use the email to build customer loyalty so that when the renewal notice is delivered, customers are encouraged to make payments without a second thought.
upsellsEmail marketing can be used to promote enhanced versions of a product to an existing client base. For example, a company providing online music streaming offers two services: a basic service for $9.95 per month, for which subscribers are able to listen to preprogrammed radio stations, and a premium service for $19.95 per month, which allows users to select specific artists, albums, and songs that they want to hear. After snaring a few customers with the initial marketing campaign for the basic service, the company might use the same campaign with a modified email message to encourage users to upgrade to the premium service.
cross-sellsYou can use email marketing to promote related products to an existing client base -- in fact, this is a strategy telecommunications companies often use. These companies offer customers who are already using their telephone services additional products, such as long distance services, Internet connections, and mobile phone packages.
referralsWe can also use email marketing to encourage advertising via word-of-mouth. We all know that a recommendation from a trusted friend or business acquaintance holds a lot of weight. In many ways, this is the best form of marketing because it's earned, not bought.
You can set as many goals for your customers as you like, and those objectives can be as refined or specific as you want. You may have different goals for different segments of customers. Take our little online music business, for example. When it sends out renewal emails, it also offers customers using the basic service an upsell to the premium service. Customers that are already using the premium service only receive the (convincing!) renewal email.
Prospective Customers
At this point you're probably wondering why I'm asking about your goals for prospective customers. You want them to become less "prospective" and more "customer," of course! This goes without saying. However, in order to build a strategy that enables you to achieve this goal, you'll need to think about how exactly it's going to happen.
direct purchaseEmail marketing can generate direct sales. If your products are reasonably priced and the purchasing process is simple, you can use email to give prospective customers the ability to make a direct purchase. If the product is something they desire, most prospects will jump at the chance of an immediate, hassle-free purchase.
lead generationGenerating interest is another valid objective. If you're marketing a complex product for which the sales procedure is not quite so simple, such as applying for a credit card, you can use email initially to get prospects interested in the product. Once the product's caught their interest, a sales representative can work with them personally to seal the deal. This tactic is very different from direct marketing: rather than providing your prospects with details on how to purchase the product, you're presenting them with information that will encourage them to contact you.
brand awarenessYou can use email marketing to generate awareness for a brand. Maybe your objective isn't to sell at all -- perhaps you just want to use email to get your name out there, so that people recognize your brand and understand what your company does. While leads and sales may arise as a result of brand awareness, this is a much softer approach than those we discussed above. Many companies will begin their campaigns with an awareness strategy, introducing products or services that are new to the market. Only after the brand has been established will they switch to lead-generation or direct-response mode.
As with current customers, you can mix and match these prospective customer strategies to create one that works for you. You'll need to understand the sales cycle that customers move through as they consider the products or services that you market, so do your research thoroughly.
The Press
Your ultimate goal with the press is to gain free publicity. You want them to write an article that puts your company in a shining light, perhaps quoting your CEO as an expert in the industry, or stating your business to be the leader in its field. Ensure that you understand the nature of the coverage your press list can give, so that you can package your information to suit their publications.
That's it! Let's look at the goals for the Congressional Publications target audiences.
Example 3.4. Congressional Publications' target audience goals
media outlets and prospective media outletsFirst and foremost, our goal here is retention: we want existing customers to renew their current subscriptions. As most of our media outlet customers purchase the weekly publication, our secondary goal is to cross-sell them the daily publication. For prospects in this market, our goal is to direct-sell them our weekly publication.
congressional offices and prospective congressional officesAgain, our goal here is retention -- getting the offices to renew their existing subscriptions. As they're likely to have subscribed to both print publications, our secondary goal is to upsell them to our online service. Prospects in this market are virtually non-existent, as most offices in the region subscribe to one or more of our publications already. However, if one did arise, our goal would be to direct-sell them the weekly publication.
lobbyists and prospective lobbyistsAs most of our existing customers in this group have subscribed to our high-end product -- the online service -- our goal at this stage is to ensure that they retain those subscriptions. While this is a relatively new market, we've established that it is a viable one. We want to direct-sell our weekly subscription to prospective lobbyists first to get them on board. If the response is positive, we'll launch a campaign that encourages them to upgrade to the online service a little later.
prospective universitiesCurrently, we don't have any customers within this market. Our initial goal is to make ourselves known within this community, but ultimately, we want the universities to purchase our weekly publication. To do this, we'll need first to create brand awareness, then follow this with a direct-sale campaign. Ideally, this campaign will kick off around September, as this is the time when most universities spend their annual publication budgets.
What Type of Email is Best?
Now that we've defined our audiences, and we know what we want to achieve with each, it's time to match an email type to each objective we've set.
Transactional Invoice Emails
These types of email are best used for retention or customer renewals.
We don't ask for much from a renewal email. As long as it reminds customers of their upcoming subscription expirations, and asks them to pay for new ones, we're happy. An email invoice providing payment instructions (a hyperlink to pay online, or a phone number to pay via phone) is sufficient for this purpose. Many organizations use a "renewal series" of email invoices, sending emails during specific points in the renewal process: two months prior to the due date, one month prior, two weeks prior, right up to -- and beyond -- the due date.
However, not many of your customers will be inspired to continue their subscriptions by the invoice alone. Remember that your competitors are always lurking, waiting for you to drop customers that they can catch. During the renewal process, it's vital that you consistently (at least once a month, but not more) make a positive impression on your customers by highlighting the benefits and advantages that your business provides.
For ultimate retention power, combine your transaction invoice email with the very versatile relationship email.
Relationship Emails
Relationship emails are ideal for:
retention or customer renewals
upsells and cross-sells
lead generation
brand awareness
customer referrals
The extremely versatile relationship email can be used to fulfill a number of different goals, and work particularly well when they're combined with other email formats (such as postcard emails or transactional invoices). Relationship emails can contain anything, from short-form editorials to email newsletters, and are most effective when sent on a regular basis.
For example, consider the renewal process for an online magazine subscription. If you're using a series of renewal emails, every so often an invoice will land in the customers' inboxes, reminding them that they owe you money. Now, an invoice never makes for happy customers. But if, a day or two later, they get a relationship email containing an article on a topic they're particularly interested in, their focus will shift from the monetary aspect of the magazine to how much they enjoy it. When the time comes to renew their subscriptions, these customers won't think twice about making the payment.
Relationship emails also make convincing upsellers and cross-sellers when used in conjunction with postcard emails. You could use them gradually to communicate a number of reasons why customers should upgrade their products. Including case studies and top-ten lists (top ten reasons to upgrade, top ten signs that you need to upgrade, top ten awesome things about this kit ... you get the idea) are useful not only for convincing individual customers, but also for providing them with a solid case, should they need to seek approval for the upgrade.
Relationship emails are vital for generating leads. They allow prospective customers to get to know you before they deal with a sales representative, and they require a lower level of commitment than some other formats. Relationship emails allow prospects to get an understanding of the products you offer, and learn why other companies have decided to work with you. They're a cost-effective way to position your organization as an expert in the field, and keep that idea at the forefront of your readers' minds.
Last, but not least, relationship emails are your key to customer referrals. Customers are more likely to forward emails containing interesting content to their family and friends than they are to forward promotional postcard emails. As well as making others aware of your business, these emails may also result in additional subscriptions to your email newsletter, providing you with more prospects.
Postcard Emails
Postcard emails are useful for:
customer upsells and cross-sells
direct purchase
lead generation
brand awareness
An effective postcard email will generally do the trick when it comes to the direct purchase or upsell of a particular product or service. If you've released a new product and want to do nothing more than say, "Hey, I'm out now! Buy me -- you know you want to!" a postcard email is all you need. A meticulously created postcard email can have a great impact, generating brand awareness, leads, and direct purchases.
As we saw earlier, postcard emails can also be used in conjunction with relationship emails to achieve various goals.
Communicative Emails
Use communicative emails for emails to the press.
To cut corners, many organizations send their promotional or relationship emails to the press. In the previous chapter, we saw that, while all these emails may contain the same information, their goals are very different. You'll have better luck getting your article published if you take the time and effort to send an actual press release via a communicative email.
Table 3.2, "Email plan for Congressional Publishing's existing customers" and Table 3.3, "Email plan for Congressional Publishing's prospects" show sample email plans for Congressional Publishing's existing and prospective customers, respectively.
Table 3.2. Email plan for Congressional Publishing's existing customers
Table 3.3. Email plan for Congressional Publishing's prospects
Where will you Source your Content?
We know whom we want to mail, and what we want to convince those recipients to do. But just look at all those emails we want to send. Where will we find all that content?
With purely promotional emails, it's easy: it's all about the features, benefits, and advantages of the products and services that you offer, so you can repurpose existing marketing copy, or create new copy that suits the types of emails that you send, and the audiences you approach. Transactional and communicative emails aren't difficult, either. You know what it is that you want to say, you just need to write the copy that will get your message across.
Things get a little more complicated when it comes to relationship-building emails. The key here is to strike a balance between editorial and promotional material. I often use the 60/40 rule as a guideline -- that is, I include 60% editorial or non-promotional content, and 40% promotional content, in the email. Why 60/40? This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but in my experience, a higher ratio of editorial content often means more work, but little, if any, additional gain; on the other hand, including more than about 40% promotional content takes the relationship edge off the email, which can lead to the impression that you're interested only in promoting yourself, rather than serving your recipients' needs or providing value.
The biggest obstacle most companies face when they launch an email newsletter is to identify and nurture sustainable sources of editorial content. Let's get a head start on this issue, First, we'll talk about the topics that you might cover in your newsletter; then, we'll answer the question of how you'll source the content.
Monday, May 28, 2007
The Great Dying
Some perpetrator -- or perpetrators -- committed murder on a scale unequaled in the history of the world. They left few clues to their identity, and they buried all the evidence under layers and layers of earth.The case has gone unsolved for years -- 250 million years, that is.
But now the pieces are starting to come together, thanks to a team of NASA-funded sleuths who have found the "fingerprints" of the villain, or at least of one of the accomplices
Above: Life was flourishing on the Earth about 250 million years ago, then during a brief window of geologic time nearly all of it was wiped out. This image is an artist's impression of a Lower Permian swamp in Texas.
Sign up for EXPRESS SCIENCE NEWS deliveryThe terrible event had been lost in the amnesia of time for eons. It was only recently that paleontologists, like hikers stumbling upon an unmarked grave in the woods, noticed a startling pattern in the fossil record: Below a certain point in the accumulated layers of earth, the rock shows signs of an ancient world teeming with life. In more recent layers just above that point, signs of life all but vanish.
Somehow, most of the life on Earth perished in a brief moment of geologic time roughly 250 million years ago. Scientists call it the Permian-Triassic extinction or "the Great Dying" -- not to be confused with the better-known Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction that signaled the end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Whatever happened during the Permian-Triassic period was much worse: No class of life was spared from the devastation. Trees, plants, lizards, proto-mammals, insects, fish, mollusks, and microbes -- all were nearly wiped out. Roughly 9 in 10 marine species and 7 in 10 land species vanished. Life on our planet almost came to an end.
Scientists have suggested many possible causes for the Great Dying: severe volcanism, a nearby supernova, environmental changes wrought by the formation of a super-continent, the devastating impact of a large asteroid -- or some combination of these. Proving which theory is correct has been difficult. The trail has grown cold over the last quarter billion years; much of the evidence has been destroyed.
Left: The Earth was engulfed in widespread volcanism at the time of the extinction. Photo courtesy Dick Rasp/National Park Service."These rocks have been through a lot, geologically speaking, and a lot of times they don't preserve the (extinction) boundary very well," says Luann Becker, a geologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Indeed, there are few 250 million-year-old rocks left on Earth. Most have been recycled by our planet's tectonic activity.
Undaunted, Becker led a NASA-funded science team to sites in Hungary, Japan and China where such rocks still exist and have been exposed. There they found telltale signs of a collision between our planet and an asteroid 6 to 12 km across -- in other words, as big or bigger than Mt. Everest.Many paleontologists have been skeptical of the theory that an asteroid caused the extinction. Early studies of the fossil record suggested that the die-out happened gradually over millions of years -- not suddenly like an impact event. But as their methods for dating the disappearance of species has improved, estimates of its duration have shrunk from millions of years to between 8,000 and 100,000 years. That's a blink of the eye in geological terms."I think paleontologists are now coming full circle and leading the way, saying that the extinction was extremely abrupt," Becker notes. "Life vanished quickly on the scale of geologic time, and it takes something catastrophic to do that."Such evidence is merely circumstantial -- it doesn't actually prove anything. Becker's evidence, however, is more direct and persuasive:Deep inside Permian-Triassic rocks, Becker's team found soccer ball-shaped molecules called "fullerenes" (or "buckyballs") with traces of helium and argon gas trapped inside. The fullerenes held an unusual number of 3He and 36Ar atoms -- isotopes that are more common in space than on Earth. Something, like a comet or an asteroid, must have brought the fullerenes to our planet.
Above: The carbon atoms in a fullerene molecule are arranged in a spherical pattern similar to a geodesic dome. (Geodesic domes were invented by Buckminster Fuller, hence the name of the molecules.) This shape allows the fullerenes to trap gases inside. Image courtesy Luann Becker.
Becker's team had previously found such gas-bearing buckyballs in rock layers associated with two known impact events: the 65 million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary impact and the 1.8 billion-year-old Sudbury impact crater in Ontario, Canada. They also found fullerenes containing similar gases in some meteorites. Taken together, these clues make a compelling case that a space rock struck the Earth at the time of the Great Dying.But was an asteroid the killer, or merely an accomplice?
Many scientists believe that life was already struggling when the putative space rock arrived. Our planet was in the throes of severe volcanism. In a region that is now called Siberia, 1.5 million cubic kilometers of lava flowed from an awesome fissure in the crust. (For comparison, Mt. St. Helens unleashed about one cubic kilometer of lava in 1980.) Such an eruption would have scorched vast expanses of land, clouded the atmosphere with dust, and released climate-altering greenhouse gases.
Above: What the world looked like 250 million years ago. Image credit: Chris Scotese. [more]
World geography was also changing then. Plate tectonics pushed the continents together to form the super-continent Pangea and the super-ocean Panthalassa. Weather patterns and ocean currents shifted, many coastlines and their shallow marine ecosystems vanished, sea levels dropped.
"If life suddenly has all these different things happen to it," Becker says, "and then you slam it with a rock the size of Mt. Everest -- boy! That's just really bad luck."
Was the "crime" then merely an accident? Perhaps so. Nevertheless, it's wise to identify the suspects -- an ongoing process -- before it happens again.
But now the pieces are starting to come together, thanks to a team of NASA-funded sleuths who have found the "fingerprints" of the villain, or at least of one of the accomplices
Above: Life was flourishing on the Earth about 250 million years ago, then during a brief window of geologic time nearly all of it was wiped out. This image is an artist's impression of a Lower Permian swamp in Texas.
Sign up for EXPRESS SCIENCE NEWS deliveryThe terrible event had been lost in the amnesia of time for eons. It was only recently that paleontologists, like hikers stumbling upon an unmarked grave in the woods, noticed a startling pattern in the fossil record: Below a certain point in the accumulated layers of earth, the rock shows signs of an ancient world teeming with life. In more recent layers just above that point, signs of life all but vanish.
Somehow, most of the life on Earth perished in a brief moment of geologic time roughly 250 million years ago. Scientists call it the Permian-Triassic extinction or "the Great Dying" -- not to be confused with the better-known Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction that signaled the end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Whatever happened during the Permian-Triassic period was much worse: No class of life was spared from the devastation. Trees, plants, lizards, proto-mammals, insects, fish, mollusks, and microbes -- all were nearly wiped out. Roughly 9 in 10 marine species and 7 in 10 land species vanished. Life on our planet almost came to an end.
Scientists have suggested many possible causes for the Great Dying: severe volcanism, a nearby supernova, environmental changes wrought by the formation of a super-continent, the devastating impact of a large asteroid -- or some combination of these. Proving which theory is correct has been difficult. The trail has grown cold over the last quarter billion years; much of the evidence has been destroyed.
Left: The Earth was engulfed in widespread volcanism at the time of the extinction. Photo courtesy Dick Rasp/National Park Service."These rocks have been through a lot, geologically speaking, and a lot of times they don't preserve the (extinction) boundary very well," says Luann Becker, a geologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Indeed, there are few 250 million-year-old rocks left on Earth. Most have been recycled by our planet's tectonic activity.
Undaunted, Becker led a NASA-funded science team to sites in Hungary, Japan and China where such rocks still exist and have been exposed. There they found telltale signs of a collision between our planet and an asteroid 6 to 12 km across -- in other words, as big or bigger than Mt. Everest.Many paleontologists have been skeptical of the theory that an asteroid caused the extinction. Early studies of the fossil record suggested that the die-out happened gradually over millions of years -- not suddenly like an impact event. But as their methods for dating the disappearance of species has improved, estimates of its duration have shrunk from millions of years to between 8,000 and 100,000 years. That's a blink of the eye in geological terms."I think paleontologists are now coming full circle and leading the way, saying that the extinction was extremely abrupt," Becker notes. "Life vanished quickly on the scale of geologic time, and it takes something catastrophic to do that."Such evidence is merely circumstantial -- it doesn't actually prove anything. Becker's evidence, however, is more direct and persuasive:Deep inside Permian-Triassic rocks, Becker's team found soccer ball-shaped molecules called "fullerenes" (or "buckyballs") with traces of helium and argon gas trapped inside. The fullerenes held an unusual number of 3He and 36Ar atoms -- isotopes that are more common in space than on Earth. Something, like a comet or an asteroid, must have brought the fullerenes to our planet.
Above: The carbon atoms in a fullerene molecule are arranged in a spherical pattern similar to a geodesic dome. (Geodesic domes were invented by Buckminster Fuller, hence the name of the molecules.) This shape allows the fullerenes to trap gases inside. Image courtesy Luann Becker.
Becker's team had previously found such gas-bearing buckyballs in rock layers associated with two known impact events: the 65 million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary impact and the 1.8 billion-year-old Sudbury impact crater in Ontario, Canada. They also found fullerenes containing similar gases in some meteorites. Taken together, these clues make a compelling case that a space rock struck the Earth at the time of the Great Dying.But was an asteroid the killer, or merely an accomplice?
Many scientists believe that life was already struggling when the putative space rock arrived. Our planet was in the throes of severe volcanism. In a region that is now called Siberia, 1.5 million cubic kilometers of lava flowed from an awesome fissure in the crust. (For comparison, Mt. St. Helens unleashed about one cubic kilometer of lava in 1980.) Such an eruption would have scorched vast expanses of land, clouded the atmosphere with dust, and released climate-altering greenhouse gases.
Above: What the world looked like 250 million years ago. Image credit: Chris Scotese. [more]
World geography was also changing then. Plate tectonics pushed the continents together to form the super-continent Pangea and the super-ocean Panthalassa. Weather patterns and ocean currents shifted, many coastlines and their shallow marine ecosystems vanished, sea levels dropped.
"If life suddenly has all these different things happen to it," Becker says, "and then you slam it with a rock the size of Mt. Everest -- boy! That's just really bad luck."
Was the "crime" then merely an accident? Perhaps so. Nevertheless, it's wise to identify the suspects -- an ongoing process -- before it happens again.
A victory for common sense
There is an obvious "yuk" factor in the idea of creating a human-animal hybrid. The Government's decision to give permission to scientists to create three new types of cell clusters will inevitably lead to headlines about Frankenstein embryos. The fact that one of the three types of somatic cell nuclear transfers is named after the chimera - the fire-breathing female monster of Greek mythology with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail - will hardly help.
But it is important to filter myth from fact in this debate. The general public's unease about the idea of a half-human/half-animal embryo being implanted in a womb and allowed to come to term would be utterly reasonable. But that is not what is being proposed.
What will now be permitted is the creation of three new cell clusters: a chimeric embryo made by injecting cells from an animal into a human embryo; a transgenic embryo which results from injecting animal DNA into a human embryo, and a cytoplasmic hybrid, in which the nuclei of human cells, such as skin cells, are planted in animal eggs from which almost all the genetic material has been removed.
The scientific benefits of this are clear. Three new kinds of research will be possible. Studies will be undertaken to try to understand the cause of disorders like Motor Neurone Disease. Other studies will look at how such diseases progress. And others will try to determine how stem cells develop into different tissues in the body. The result could be new treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy.
Those who take an absolutist position - insisting that from the moment of conception a new human being is brought into existence - will object. But to most of the population the right of an embryo to be considered a human being grows only as it develops into a foetus. That certainly cannot be said to happen before the primitive streak forms around the 14th day of existence, signalling the development of a unique potential human being. This new law pays respect to that by insisting that these new hybrid embryos must be destroyed after 14 days. And it forbids them ever being implanted in a human or animal womb.
It is to the credit of the government that it has listened to literally hundreds of submissions from scientists giving reasoned objections to its early decision not to allow such research. The result is a victory for common-sense ethics, for good science and for the tens of thousands of people suffering from diseases which have hitherto always been described as incurable - but for which there is now a new flicker of hope.
But it is important to filter myth from fact in this debate. The general public's unease about the idea of a half-human/half-animal embryo being implanted in a womb and allowed to come to term would be utterly reasonable. But that is not what is being proposed.
What will now be permitted is the creation of three new cell clusters: a chimeric embryo made by injecting cells from an animal into a human embryo; a transgenic embryo which results from injecting animal DNA into a human embryo, and a cytoplasmic hybrid, in which the nuclei of human cells, such as skin cells, are planted in animal eggs from which almost all the genetic material has been removed.
The scientific benefits of this are clear. Three new kinds of research will be possible. Studies will be undertaken to try to understand the cause of disorders like Motor Neurone Disease. Other studies will look at how such diseases progress. And others will try to determine how stem cells develop into different tissues in the body. The result could be new treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy.
Those who take an absolutist position - insisting that from the moment of conception a new human being is brought into existence - will object. But to most of the population the right of an embryo to be considered a human being grows only as it develops into a foetus. That certainly cannot be said to happen before the primitive streak forms around the 14th day of existence, signalling the development of a unique potential human being. This new law pays respect to that by insisting that these new hybrid embryos must be destroyed after 14 days. And it forbids them ever being implanted in a human or animal womb.
It is to the credit of the government that it has listened to literally hundreds of submissions from scientists giving reasoned objections to its early decision not to allow such research. The result is a victory for common-sense ethics, for good science and for the tens of thousands of people suffering from diseases which have hitherto always been described as incurable - but for which there is now a new flicker of hope.
Monday, May 21, 2007
How Not to Talk to Your Kids
- Why did this happen? “When we praise children for their intelligence,” Dweck wrote in her study summary, “we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes.” And that’s what the fifth-graders had done: They’d chosen to look smart and avoid the risk of being embarrassed.
In a subsequent round, none of the fifth-graders had a choice. The test was difficult, designed for kids two years ahead of their grade level. Predictably, everyone failed. But again, the two groups of children, divided at random at the study’s start, responded differently. Those praised for their effort on the first test assumed they simply hadn’t focused hard enough on this test. “They got very involved, willing to try every solution to the puzzles,” Dweck recalled. “Many of them remarked, unprovoked, ‘This is my favorite test.’ ” Not so for those praised for their smarts. They assumed their failure was evidence that they weren’t really smart at all. “Just watching them, you could see the strain. They were sweating and miserable.”
Having artificially induced a round of failure, Dweck’s researchers then gave all the fifth-graders a final round of tests that were engineered to be as easy as the first round. Those who had been praised for their effort significantly improved on their first score—by about 30 percent. Those who’d been told they were smart did worse than they had at the very beginning—by about 20 percent.
Dweck had suspected that praise could backfire, but even she was surprised by the magnitude of the effect. “Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control,” she explains. “They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child’s control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure.”
In follow-up interviews, Dweck discovered that those who think that innate intelligence is the key to success begin to discount the importance of effort. I am smart, the kids’ reasoning goes; I don’t need to put out effort. Expending effort becomes stigmatized—it’s public proof that you can’t cut it on your natural gifts.
Repeating her experiments, Dweck found this effect of praise on performance held true for students of every socioeconomic class. It hit both boys and girls—the very brightest girls especially (they collapsed the most following failure). Even preschoolers weren’t immune to the inverse power of praise.
Jill Abraham is a mother of three in Scarsdale, and her view is typical of those in my straw poll. I told her about Dweck’s research on praise, and she flatly wasn’t interested in brief tests without long-term follow-up. Abraham is one of the 85 percent who think praising her children’s intelligence is important. Her kids are thriving, so she’s proved that praise works in the real world. “I don’t care what the experts say,” Jill says defiantly. “I’m living it.”
Even those who’ve accepted the new research on praise have trouble putting it into practice. Sue Needleman is both a mother of two and an elementary-school teacher with eleven years’ experience. Last year, she was a fourth-grade teacher at Ridge Ranch Elementary in Paramus, New Jersey. She has never heard of Carol Dweck, but the gist of Dweck’s research has trickled down to her school, and Needleman has learned to say, “I like how you keep trying.” She tries to keep her praise specific, rather than general, so that a child knows exactly what she did to earn the praise (and thus can get more). She will occasionally tell a child, “You’re good at math,” but she’ll never tell a child he’s bad at math.
But that’s at school, as a teacher. At home, old habits die hard. Her 8-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old son are indeed smart, and sometimes she hears herself saying, “You’re great. You did it. You’re smart.” When I press her on this, Needleman says that what comes out of academia often feels artificial. “When I read the mock dialogues, my first thought is, Oh, please. How corny.”
No such qualms exist for teachers at the Life Sciences Secondary School in East Harlem, because they’ve seen Dweck’s theories applied to their junior-high students. Last week, Dweck and her protégée, Lisa Blackwell, published a report in the academic journal Child Development about the effect of a semester-long intervention conducted to improve students’ math scores.
Life Sciences is a health-science magnet school with high aspirations but 700 students whose main attributes are being predominantly minority and low achieving. Blackwell split her kids into two groups for an eight-session workshop. The control group was taught study skills, and the others got study skills and a special module on how intelligence is not innate. These students took turns reading aloud an essay on how the brain grows new neurons when challenged. They saw slides of the brain and acted out skits. “Even as I was teaching these ideas,” Blackwell noted, “I would hear the students joking, calling one another ‘dummy’ or ‘stupid.’ ” After the module was concluded, Blackwell tracked her students’ grades to see if it had any effect.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
