Email Campaigns
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 20th, 2011
With online ad spending hitting new highs, Internet advertising is becoming one of the key tools that companies use to attract attention for their product or service online and online ads are beginning to eclipse traditional advertising.
History
Hardly a new concept is it? Advertising has been used ever since mass production became possible well over a century ago as a means to influence an audience with the intention of getting them to buy your product or service. You just need to read Claude Hopkin’s 1923 book on the topic called Scientific Advertising to understand the importance advertising has had from a business perspective for the last century (and many of his points still apply today).
Recently however traditional media advertising (TV, newspaper, billboards etc) has faced a tough challenges with readership and viewer numbers plummeting, savvy audiences becoming desensitized to traditional advertising techniques and with the rise of alternative ways to influence target audiences (such as social media).
One of the saving graces for advertising is the ability to use the Internet to advertise online. Online advertising has a few advantages over traditional advertising:
- Less Expensive
- Highly Targeted
- East To Track Effectiveness
There are a number of different forms of online advertising, each with its own pros and cons.
Search Based Ads
Usually associated with search engine results ads like Google Adwords and one of the most commonly used forms on online advertising, search based ads are predominantly text based and appear as sponsored or paid ads when people search for a particular phrase or keyword online.With search ads you pay or bid on an ad appearing to a searcher (impressions) or when someone clicks on the ad (pay per click). These ads are highly targeted because they appear only to the people who enter pertinent related keywords. If you have a new website this is a great way to get noticed by the major search engines, and really useful if you are going after new audiences. The key to being successful using these ads is to use very specific key terms that you know potential clients will use and to make the most of them in the ad text.
Banner Ads
Banner ads (or web banners), are for the most part, rectangular image ads that appear on another organisation’s website. Pop on over the Entrepreneurial Woman’s website and you will see an example of a banner as right at the top of the pag
e. One important consideration with banner advertising is that you should only post your ads on sites that are related to your product or service or that attract your target audience. Banner ad costs can vary according to the traffic the site gets and can be on a pay per click basis or on a time based (i.e. monthly) fee basis.
Email Ads
Not to be overlooked, more people use email on a regular basis than use any other online tools. Having a regular opt-in marketing newsletter should be part of every company’s online advertising strategy to promote its products or services. Email advertising can also include buying placements in the newsletters of related companies.
Network Advertising
Advertising networks companies make it easier for organisations to advertise on related sites. Google Adwords is an example of a tool that facilitate network advertising and this is a growing area with companies like Tribal Fusion acting as facilitators between publishers of high trafficked content and organisations looking to advertise to their large audiences.
Pop Up Ads
Those annoying ads that pop up on your screen unexpectedly and won’t go away. Spare your audience and don’t use them.
Online Classifieds
Just like traditional classifieds, online ads on classifieds sites are used for the most part by the general public to buy or sell and by companies that target consumers. Craigslist and Kijiji are just 2 examples of online classifieds – they are easy to set up and free to use but before you do consider if this is appropriate to your brand.
Social Network Advertising
Many of the major social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter allow you to advertise and these social ads are the fastest growing form of online advertising. The biggest benefit of advertising using social networks is that your ads can be aimed at a very highly targeted audience and you can get started with just a few dollars per day to test the waters.
Online advertising tools make it easy for companies to use adverts to reach their audience online and can be a huge driver of targeted traffic to your website. If you are considering your online advertising strategy and would like more information about our services please contact us.
Related posts:
The Future of Digital Advertising, iAds and Promoted Tweets
The Future of Advertising
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 20th, 2010
In a world of never ending SPAM it’s a real challenge to create successful e-mail campaigns but not impossible. Email can still be a hugely valuable tool to reach your market and should not be dismissed. Here are some pointers to bear in mind when consider your email campaigns:
Tips For Effective Email Campaigns
- Avoid the hard sell – People get so much spam these days that if you try to sell to strangers via e, you’ll hit the junk file faster than you can say spam. Newsletters that add value are better than sales letters that harass;
- Keep in Touch – It is easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one. Email is a great way to keep in touch with clients; to reinforce your brand; add value, to remind them you are here and to give them special incentives to do more business with you;
- Email Marketing Tools – use a tool that allows you to easily create and mail your newsletter to contacts. It is important to choose one that allows you track who opens, when they open, what they click on etc: this will allow you to assess whether your campaigns are working.
- Action – Use a call to action in the subject line – one that is brief, catchy, intelligent that will entice people to open the mail. I’ve noticed a lot of people use titles that are completely unrelated to the content of the mail – this, to me, is deceptive and not the actions of a company I would do business with;
- Unsubscribe – Always ensure there is an unsubscribe button or hyperlink in the content so that your mail is perceived as more professional and law abiding – just remember to delete those who unsubscribe from your mailing lists – always. Also, don’t make people jump through hoops to unsubscribe, just get it done without any annoying “are your sure” messages;
- Links - Drive them back to your website by including links to related articles or pages – you can then easily track click throughs to make follow up calls more targeted;
- Keep it simple stupid – The old adage applies here too: don’t add too many fancy images or graphics, it will just clog people’s mail boxes;
- Incentives - The body of the text should include some incentive to act, but don’t overdo it with too many calls to action – this will simply dilute your message and confuse the reader;
- Keep it Simple – War and Peace just isn’t appropriate in an e-mail. You newsletter should be short and to the point if you want people to read it;
- Think outside the box- email content should be unique and should tell your audience something they don’t know about your product, company, service, the industry or niche;
- Build your List – Encouraging visitors to subscribe online (add a subscribe form to your site); tell people about your newsletters in the real world and give incentives to readers to share with their colleagues;
- Don’t Over Do It – If you send out newsletters too frequently, there is a good chance that your open rate will decline and that more people will unsubscribe. Respectthe fact that people are busy and don’t overload their already heaving in boxes with even more stuff.
- Don’t SPAM – ever, ever. Always use valid e-mails from people you have actually met or who have given you business cards at events and shows. If you don’t its the fastest way to get an unsubscribe.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 25th, 2009
This most excellent article landed in my inbox today in the form of Seascape Web Design’s monthly newsletter. The article gives you 7 common sense tips that will help you get more out of your newsletter campaigns. These considerations are very valuable when putting together an effective e newsletter campaign and, even better: they are tried and tested. Thanks for sharing Katy!
7 Tips for Writing More Effective Newsletters
It’s very important to keep in constant contact with your prospects to keep you and your services top of mind. One very effective way to do this is to send out a monthly newsletter. Some write newsy emails with updates on recent events and pics of their children. But a far more effective strategy is to provide information about your industry that your readers will find valuable. This also helps to establish you as an expert in your field. Here are 7 tips that will help you to get started.
1. Put your newsletter subscribe form on every page of your website. You never know which page your visitors will enter your website so it’s a good idea to have your subscribe box on every page near the top.
2. Offer a FREE REPORT to entice visitors to sign up. Did I get your attention? Nothing gets people’s attention better than a FREE offer. This also gives your visitors a free sample of your valuable information.
3. Have copies of your previous newsletters available on your website so that visitors can see that you really do have a newsletter that is worth subscribing to and you won’t spam them. For example, view back issues of our Monthly Tips Newsletters.
4. Write list articles like this one. Highlight in bold the first sentence of each paragraph. This serves as a catchy headline. And then write a short paragraph providing further explanation. These types of articles are very popular on the Internet are very easy to read quickly.
5. Use a headline in your subject line. When I first started sending out my monthly newsletter, the subject line read Monthly Newsletter. When I started putting the title of my article in the subject line, I received a much higher response rate.
6. Send out your newsletter at the same time each month. This way your subscribers will start to look forward to reading your newsletter.
7. Newsletters are meant to be educational so be careful about putting ads in them. Many people don’t like getting huge one page ads in their email box. But many like reading informative articles to help grow their business. So place your ads in a smaller second column or at the bottom of your article. Be sure that your ad content compliments your article content.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 15th, 2009
The to blog or to email question reared its lovely head again this week so I am reposting this blog article from a while back. The answer is of course that you need to do both. Read on….
A blog and a newsletter are two distinct tools with different attributes, each suited to a different audience and useful for building awareness in distinct forums.
A newsletter is best used to keep in touch with those youre already have an established relationship with such as clients, prospects, partners and so on. Its a great way to keep your company fresh in their mindset and remind them of what you do.
A blog on the other hand is better for getting the word out to an untapped audience. Blogging allows you to introduce your core services or products to a wider audience whilst reaching your customer and contacts if they so choose. A blog has the added bonus of building links and increasing traffic.
Theres another key difference between the two and that is that one is push the other pull. A newsletter pushes out your announcements and news to the audience whether they like it or not (which is why its best for existing relationships otherwise it risks being spammy). A blog on the other hand is a source of information that people choose to go to to read or subscribe. Its less intrusive and has more buy in (and therefore is more likely to be read).
If you are asking this question because of limited funds and have to make a choice, first consider where youll get the most bang for your buck. Existing customers are far easier to build business with (assuming you did a good job first time round) than folks you dont know so if you have a lot of those go the newsletter way. But if you are starting from scratch trying to grow a new business and establish your website a blog is the way to go.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 11th, 2009
I was full of good intention to liveblog tonight’s Canadian Women in Communications event at BCIT tonight but the connection failed so here is the “almost” live blog of the event. There were six sessions taking place in the room. Unfortunately given the time constraints I could only attend 4 so I have tried to catch the essence of each.
1. Blogging – Telus Senior Communication Business Partner Deborah Chatterton discussed the benefits to giving employees their own publishing platform.
First you should determine if social media is right for your company. What is it all about? Its about engaging your target audience in conversation with you. In the past you pushed information out now you get info back.
Types of social media:
- You Tube for sharing videos
- Digg is a site where you can share websites you like.
- Social Networks like Facebook.
- Blogs
- Wikis – user generated content that can be added to
- Social Networks – like Facebook
Social Media Considerations:
- You should ask if social media is right for your company.
- Are your customers there yet?
- Are your company’s communications old style and can they adapt to this?
Blogging – Deborah points out that ghost writing a blog is unethical and that a sales or marketing pitch is a no no. You should keep the tone of voice real and hone in on actual experiences rather than trying to invent blog stories.
To find out if your company ready for social media culture – ask if they are you willing to give up control.
Q Why would you do it? A – The world is changing, people are retiring, knowledge pool is shrinking. Millenials are using this already, its a way of life for them and they are the next generation of new hires. This is going to happen anyway. You have no control over it. This is an opportunity to: shape the conversation; demonstrate thought leadership; strengthen relationships; make executives more approachable. Studies back up that social media actually increases productivity.
You have to have a strategy as to who will blog, what they will blog about, how often and whether you will allow comments.
Telus is not externally blogging.
Risks of blogging include: slander, bad behaviour – but these things happen in real life anyway.
Issues include: privacy, security, ethics, respectful workplace, insider trading. To mitigate risk: – you should post guidelines before you start – its very important to have a policy. Check out Sun MicroSystem’s policy for a great example.
Good social media examples:
- Dell were perceived to have terrible customer service in the days of “DellHellâ€, now they have an online customer forum where people can contribute and the company can track reactions and respond accordingly.
- Cadbury Schweppes.
- I’m for GM
- Obama campaign
To learn more:
- Darren Barefoot
- Canadian Public Relations Society Conference
- Northern Voice (registration is now closed).
2. Podcasting – CBC Radio 3 Senior Producer Andrea Gin provided insight into podcasting:
Andrea gave an introduction to podcasting and her work with podcasts at CBC. They have on average 100,000 downloads per week and are the most listened to radio podcast in Canada
Q Is it simple?
Anyone can be a podcaster. All you need is:
- recording device
- audio editing software
- quiet
Before you start podcasting, Andrea recommended that you think about what you have to offer – what is your niche and why would people want to listen? Also consider how people will access your podcasts. You can offer them as downloads on your website or register in iTunes. You can use images anywhere in the chapter or section of the podcast.
Q Do you edit it or broadcast live? A – It is usually edited and posted rather than live.
Q How do you make money? CBC doesn’t have ads but is more about content and supporting Canadian artists? Other companies have sponsors or use as a marketing tool.
Podcasting is different from radio in that people can listen to it anywhere they want when they want. With a radio show you miss it you miss it. Its also much more interactive than radio, lots of people comment and contribute.
Q.Can you download to your Blackberry – A – You should be able to but it will depend on how much memory you have.
CBC Shows also appear on Web Radio and Siruis Satellite.
CBC Audience expanded worldwide thanks to podcasting – lots Canadian expats around the world tune in.
Q Do you use webtrends to track this? A -Mainly Google Analytics and an in house tool
Q – Podcasting vision has it changed over the 5 years since you’ve been doing? A – Yes at the start we treated it like radio now its more of a cycle: your listener gets involved and interacts/contributes.
CBC doesn’t launch a podcast till they have 5 or 6 shows under their belt.
Tips:
- don’t do it sporadically;
- build an audience by being consistent;
- podcast regularly.
- Encourage feedback – phone calls and emails and comments from the blog.
What kind of software do you use to edit? Adobe Audition
How long are your podcasts? We try not to go over an hour and a half. An hour is about as much as people can tolerate.
Stuff you should know is a good podcast from howstuffworks.com focused on answering questions like how long can you go with out food or water.
3. Online Market Research – Angus Reid Strategies Executive Vice President, Monique Morden, discussed proprietary online panels and communities for
cost effectively reaching the voice of customer.
Angus Reid provides research services – they are a full service company providing the soup to nuts. Vision Critical is a software company (AngusReid are their power users and parent company), its a nice marriage of the companies. Angus Reid has taken research online and has opened up a whole new world. They are all across NA and have small and large companies as clients.
Research used to be done on the phone now its all online. Some people don’t even have a phone particularly in the younger demographics so phone research results are skewed and you don’t know who are you reaching when you do phone research. (No call doesn’t apply to researchers.) Online is becoming such a great communication tool – research is another form of communication.
How do you do online research? Now you show the ad (or whatever your subject matter) and ask about it before you had to just describe it and ask questions to get feedback.
Types of research companies:
- Full service – Angus Reid
- Self service – ie Zoomerang, Question Pro, Survey monkey
- Panel software – Vision Critical, GMI
Sample (the people to be surveyed) Sources:
- email list – be careful about legal issues – do you won the list and is it okay to send.
- advertise on a website
- Customer base
- Access panels set up by others
Angus Reid has a full serve service where they design the survey and bring in the survey group. They have people they work with who form the survey group.
Validity of online research: Canada has highest internet penetration (about 86%). 55 years plus demographic is the fastest growing. Angus Reid did polling for elections and were the most accurate of any of the pollsters all done online.
Comes down to quality of questions and who you survey.
Angus Reid works with a group of panelists – they know about their panelists: if they have diabetes, age, kids etc etc so you don’t have to ask every time. They use only online polling because people tend to be more honest online – its less embarrassing and they tend to be more comfortable giving info online. They use open ended questions/comparisons to validate information. Usually panelists are surveyed once per week payment and have a small renumeration incentive of 1-4 dollars per survey. Online qualitative research is possible now: a group of people can have a conversation.
5. Webnames.ca COO Cybele Negris covered website and security pointers.
Domain Name Strategy – What domain name:
Depends on budget where you are – you should get at the minimum .com and .ca -
- .com is global 77 million globally registered websites;
- .ca is specific to Canada – 1 m .ca sites exists because it helps native companies to brand themselves.
Companies should have both – webnames.com was taken by someone else and he set up in competition to them. Protect your trademark/brand.
Canadians like to deal with Canadians. We ordered $5b worth of goods onlkine in 2005 – 63% from Canadian ventures.
Domains:
- 250 country code domain names in the world.
- 21 generic top level domain names: .net, .mobi (for mobile internet)
- .tel – used to store and share all contact information: Phone number, cell, home details, Facebook details etc. You can have different profiles for different aspects of your life. Works on any mobile device and gives you a geo location so that it will automatically generate a gigamap.
Domain Tips:
- Register as many as you can afford. You don’t have to pay for hosting – you can forward it to your main site.
- More sites = more links.
- You should register your domain for longer than simply one year as it shows Google continuity and improves ranking will have a better ranking.
- You should register your own domain in your name. If someone else does it then they are responsible and they can take it with them when they go.
Tips For Using Email Effectively
- Don’t use gmail, hotmail etc for your corporate communications it looks unprofessional use your branded email but gmail etc for entering on websites.
- Use departmental addresses – makes you look bigger/more established and allows you track email traffic i.e. info@yourcompany.com, sales@yourcompany.com, webmaster@yourcompany.com
- Use an auto signature
- Use rules and folders
Tips Online Privacy and Security:
- PIPEDA Act covers online privacy.
- Spam Act – first reading was 2008 – Still no anti spamming law in Canada.
- Phishing – people sending you an email disguising themselves as a company you deal with so that you are inclined to give them private information.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 13th, 2008
This great article came from Rowena List of Getting It Together and deals with strategies to get your email organized – thanks Rowena!
Getting Your Mail Together
Dedicated to all the people who would like to simplify their lives just a little bit more.
When it comes to our mail you will want to adopt the “Deal with it, delegate it or dump it” philosophy.
Deal With It: Let’s start with the first one. Collect your mail from the box when you have 2 minutes to deal with it. Handle each piece of mail once if at all possible. File your bills and invitations etc under the appropriate dates in your 1to31 organizing binder. There is no need to pay bills until the day they are due. By being organized with your mail you will avoid the pitfalls of having piles of unopened mail all over your kitchen counter or top of your desk.
Delegate It: Can you delegate any of the mail tasks? Setting up prepaid authorization payments is a great way of delegating your bill payments and takes the stress out of paying them monthly. Is there someone in your household that can fill in the forms that need to be returned to set-up authorized payments? If not set aside some time to do this yourself. The time spent to get it set-up will be worth it!
Dump It: Dump all junk mail in the recycling bin or better yet sign up for the RED DOT program and you will never receive junk mail again. Think of the trees you will be saving too.
Next time you go to your mail box try these simple tips and see how much time you will save. What will you do with that extra time?
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 15th, 2008
I often get asked my advice on the blog versus newsletter question. That is – should a company have a corporate blog or should they send out a newsletter instead? My answer is always the same: do both!
A blog and a newsletter are two distinct tools with different attributes, each suited to a different audience and useful for building awareness in distinct forums.
A newsletter is best used to keep in touch with those you’re already have an established relationship with such as clients, prospects, partners and so on. Its a great way to keep your company fresh in their mindset and remind them of what you do.
A blog on the other hand is better for getting the word out to an untapped audience. Blogging allows you to introduce your core services or products to a wider audience whilst reaching your customer and contacts if they so choose. A blog has the added bonus of building links and increasing traffic.
There’s another key difference between the two and that is that one is push the other pull. A newsletter pushes out your announcements and news to the audience whether they like it or not (which is why its best for existing relationships otherwise it risks being spammy). A blog on the other hand is a source of information that people choose to go to to read or subscribe. Its less intrusive and has more buy in (and therefore is more likely to be read).
If you are asking this question because of limited funds and have to make a choice, first consider where you’ll get the most bang for your buck. Existing customers are far easier to build business with (assuming you did a good job first time round) than folks you don’t know so if you have a lot of those go the newsletter way. But if you are starting from scratch trying to grow a new business and establish your website a blog is the way to go.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 17th, 2008
I don’t know about you but every day my in box was overloaded with unwanted email. You know the stuff I mean: grow your penis, bank detail links, lottery winnings and the list goes on. Here are some of the steps I have taken to reduce the amount of unwanted and unsolicited mail I get.
- Use a firewall and anti virus software
- Set up a Gmail account and use that email when listing you contact details online
- Use Gmail – of all the mail systems I have used Gmail seems to be the best for filtering unwanted crap
- Use Akismet to reduce blog spam – its a great anti spam tool to catch unwanted comments
- Don’t answer or open email from anyone you don’t know
- Never click on links or open attachments in emails from people you don’t know
- Only give your primary email address to trusted contacts
- Complain to the spammer’s email provider (this works for fake bloggers too)
- Change your email address (or at least the one you surf with) regularly
- Don’t forward those emails that say if you forward to ten people in ten minutes something good will happen – it won’t
- Go incognito – enter fake email addresses rather than real ones when filling out online forms.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 07th, 2008
A recent article by a local Vancouver writer Sheena Daniels, in Blitz Magazine debated the benefits of newsletters versus blogs. A blog and newsletter are two totally distinct tools marketers can use to grow their business. Each should be aimed at an entirely different audience and used for different purposes.
The article points out 3 important considerations should you have to choose between the two:
1. Audience you are trying to reach;
2. Internal resources available;
3. Message you are trying to communicate.
Unless limited by the 3 above, why choose between the a blog or a newsletter at all? Each can and should be used for distinct purposes to enhance marketing communications and by using both you can hone in on 2 distinct audiences with distinct marketing messages and increase effectiveness of each.
A newsletter, unless you’re a spammer, is aimed at adding value to existing contacts, partners and customers (people that have already “touched” you) and should be used to keep your company at the forefront in the minds of those important in your network and to reinforce your presence with them.
An blog is aimed at a wider audience many of whom are unknown entities. It should be used to bring attention to what you do, spreading awareness and establish expertise with new prospects or new markets. They key difference is that a blog is a collaborative medium aimed at supporting on-line interaction between interested parties via comments. Its a two way street whereas newsletters are a one way push.
Both are complementary technologies and as the article points out, you can blog a newsletter via RSS allowing your efforts to reach people the way they want to be reached. But consider this, if you intend to focus on newsletters and use RSS you cannot call this a blog as the article suggests, not unless your newsletters go out at least once a week. A corporate blog, to be considered effective and established should be updated once a week at the very least.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 07th, 2008
Lets get something straight here first and foremost – I am female: I look like a woman and I sound like a woman but yet I have been called Mr. on two separate occasions recently.
The first was an e-mail following up on a booth I visited at CES – the e-mail actually mentioned how much they had enjoyed meeting me!.
The second was in a voice mail left from someone referred to me by a service provider. The person listened (but did not hear) my message and yet still called me Mr. To spare these people the embarrasment I won’t actually mention their names or company (although they probably deserve it for their blatant ignorance) but these occurrences served to remind me how important it is in business to know your customer.
What do you think the chances of me doing business with either of these companies are? I’d say somewhere less than zero. Not only did they offend me from the start but the first had the gall to blatantly lie in their communication (enjoyed meeting me indeed) – it did nothing for their credibility.
It takes nothing to pay a little attention to your customer, prospect or potential client and offending someone will be counteractive to your cause.
So next time you are planning an email or phone campaign or any marketing or sales activity for that matter, give a little thought to your audience:
1. Don’t dare to assume that the recipient is male when they could be female and vice versa. If you’re not sure if someone is male or female then its often best to avoid such a salutation.
2. If you’re not sure of the spelling of a contact’s name then omit it (you should see the collection of incorrect spellings I’ve collected over the years with a name like Mhairi).
3. If in doubt either don’t take the risk or take a little time to do some detective work to find out.
A little attention to detail can go a long way in helping you open the door to business so take heed and take time to know your audience. It will be worth your while.
