Work Better, Not Harder

"Yes, it's an old marketing trick to "accidentally" make a mistake in an email campaign so you can resend an email shortly thereafter to increase the number of times people see your message." This was the lead message in an email I received recently which included a correction to information which I had indeed received a couple of hours before. Making a deliberate mistake is a darn poor excuse to get into people's inboxes. Making ANY mistake doesn't reflect well on you, deliberate or not. Do your marketing well and you won't need to resort to tricks. And you won't need to fix mistakes. If a *real* mistake happens, here is my advice about how to deal with it . Let's avoid those made-up mistakes completely. Click to Tweet this Article

excerpt from Pantone's NY Fashion Week Spring 2018 We're just getting back to serious work after summer vacations and the design world is already thinking about spring. I like what I see but then I'm a sucker for bright colours. You'll find these used online next year, too , not just in clothing stores. Pantone says: The Spring 2018 palette encourages a sense of fun and playful release. With an air of complexity and distinctiveness, we find ourselves in a sanctuary of color that is ideal for some more unique and dramatic color mixing. Click here to see all 12 colours in the Spring 2018 Collection on Pantone's website. Click to Tweet this Article

If you give someone a $25 giftcard to a shop where the lowest priced item is $50, is it a gift? What if a complete stranger gifts you 50% off the price of a conference ticket? Is that a gift? The headline said: Our Gift to You: A Special Discount for Generators Summit . When I followed the link in the email to get my gift, I was taken to an Eventbrite ticket purchase page. Currently I can get the early bird price. What a generous gift... not. Usually I would tweet or otherwise share information about such an interesting event, even if I won't attend. This particular event is actually getting a whole blog post. Be aware of the perceptions of people opening your emails or clicking on your links.   Using the word 'gift' in any marketing context is tricky because it mixes up social values with economic values. Just because others do it, doesn't mean it's right (for you). Click to Tweet this Article

... is the one you don't have to learn yourself. You don't know what you don't know. Hire an expert and go do what you do best. Click to Tweet this Article

The first thing I said when he answered the phone was, "Josh, I really feel sorry for you today!" Josh is a pleasant fellow who answered the phone last Thursday when I called the Centre for Arts and Technology in Halifax. I was just a little upset. I was pretty sure that mine wasn't the first call of this sort that he had received, and it wouldn't be the last. It started when I received 17 identical promotional emails to 17 imaginary Daley Progress employees from the Centre for Arts and Technology back on April 17th. ( Click here to get the back story on our imaginary staff.) That's the footer of an email addressed to mikehopkins@daleyprogress.com. (There is no Mike Hopkins.) At the time I replied and asked for all email addresses ending in my domain name to be deleted from their mailing list. Of course, I also took the time to preach a little about the dangers of buying mailing lists. I was disappointed that a reputable organization had been duped . ...

“...at some point along the way, gathering and managing their subscribers' info became more important than their subscribers' experience.”   I made that statement a year ago in response to an article that Danielle wrote explaining her troubles when trying to unsubscribe from Air Canada’s newsletter . Don’t let this happen to you. While your newsletter is your marketing tool, your readers don’t care about that. They don’t care about your processes. They don’t care how much work goes into your newsletter. And they don’t care how successful it is. They only care about the value you’re providing... if you’re lucky enough to get their attention. "Build it and they will come."   Don’t hold your breath while waiting. photo by CarolBEE_blogger Put yourself in your potential subscriber’s shoes. How often do you sign up for newsletters? What triggers you to do that? How do you feel when you’re expected to do extra work? Do you give up? Getting new subscribers ...

screen shot of email header There's nothing like getting an email addressed to 'fname' or 'subscriber' for making you feel valued. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. This is definitely  not the message you want to send to your readers. You want to make a personal connection with your readers but using form fields is not the way to do it , even if you use them correctly. A form field is simply another automation. People know. Am I blown away when I get a newsletter addressed to 'Linda'? Not usually. Sure it takes a little more time to set up and maintain. Various experts will tell us that using a person's name will have a subconscious impact. Is the sender suddenly my trusted advisor? No. Let me start at the beginning. What do I mean by a form field? They're places in an HTML document used to insert specific data from a database. As an example, [fname] will insert the person's first name from the database. You can type "Hi [fname]...

I recently received an invitation to purchase mailing lists... lots of them! Informational email marketing is quite different from promotional email marketing and they have very different goals. If your goals are to build your reputation and relationships, then buying email addresses is definitely not for you! Reputable bulk ESPs (email service providers) insist that you have permission to email the contacts you add to your databases with them. So if you buy mailing lists, there's the potential risk of having your bulk email account shut down. The trigger for this would be a high number of bounces on your first send. Aside from being a nuisance, there are other downsides as well. You don't even know if you're buying valid email addresses ! Daley Progress has 17 imaginary employees who regularly receive email because someone made up their names.   Click to Tweet this Article

photo: The Stakhanovite Twins We get asked this a lot, “When is the best time to send out my newsletter?”  The short reply is usually this: Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 9:45 and 10:15am. Then one Thursday morning I received 4 newsletters at exactly 9:45am. The fact is there is no magic answer - no set of best practices or generally accepted principles. There are lots of opinions though and we've seen many of them disproved through our own work. If you review overall average e-marketing statistics for time of day and day of week, no real trends stand out. See an example below. At first I found that kind of surprising but now it makes total sense - because email marketing is so diverse. More specific statistics, such as industry averages, offer some insight... but who wants to be average? This is why it's so important to know your target market! Where will your subscribers be when they receive your newsletter: at home, at wo...

ex ample of connection links Not every newsletter reader is going to want to engage with you in the same way. Each will have a platform they prefer to use. Linda and I are a perfect example of that. Linda likes Twitter . I prefer Facebook . But none of that will matter if you do not include social media connection links in your eNewsletter. Different than social sharing links , social connection links are the ones that take the reader to your page or profile on that platform . These links allow readers to find you everywhere online instantly. If they can't find you, they can't connect with you. Facebook, particularly, has a really crappy search feature. It is common to not be able to find what you are looking for. You want your reader to be able to find and connect with you in a couple of clicks. Encourage the connection by including social connection links.   Click to Tweet this Article

For a small cost, a bulk email application gives you LOTS of benefits: Cost is minimal. It allows you to schedule your email sends. It allows you to auto-post to your social media accounts. It handles subscribes and unsubscribes effortlessly and accurately. It has built in functionality to manage your contact lists and segments. It saves you time and mistakes. Take advantage of templates plus spell/spam checkers. It keeps you compliant . It keeps you up-to-date and ready to take advantage of new functionality. It raises you above amateur status. Statistics drive strategy . Without them there is no way to know if you are being successful , what works and what doesn’t, and what readers are interested in. The real question is, why not use a bulk email service? If you can think of a reason, please share! Photo:  markyweiss Click to Tweet this Article

If your customers and clients come to you, you have a big advantage over the rest of us when it comes to growing your contact list . Here are some suggestions that you can adapt to your specific situation. Put a large jar with a sign on the check-out or reception desk: WIN a FREE lunch! To enter our monthly draw, drop your business card to subscribe to our email specials. How easy is that as a way to grow your contact list? Run a contest among your staff. Offer a free service, product or time off for the one who signs up the most new contacts. Place paper copies of your newsletter or email flyer at reception, check-out, waiting areas, dressing rooms... you get the idea. Have a computer handy so contact information can be entered on the spot or soon after. Contact information sitting in a drawer wrapped in elastic bands is lost opportunity! You’ll lose about 30% of your subscribers during a year (called ‘list churn’). You need to continually work just to maintain...

I read this recent article quickly at first. Then I blinked and reread it. Sure enough, there it was... advice to add cute animal pictures to your newsletter. If you’re a vet or an animal groomer, this is definitely your strategy. The rest of us should stay far away from them, at least in our business-to-business newsletters. (And blogs, unless you're illustrating a point and have an excuse. I wonder how they got him in that mailbox anyway!) That article was all about how important it is to make your newsletter fun . Here are the other 3 tips: Surprises Jokes Puzzles and games Surprises are good, if they’re genuine. Made up surprises are just plain hokey and un-credible. Jokes? Unless you are a comedian, jokes can be a little tricky (especially dry humour) and socially risky. Anyway, do you really want to be remembered for your jokes? There may be legitimate uses for puzzles and games, depending on your business. Use them only if they really add value, never t...

Whenever you or I read something that we like, often a “What’s next?” comes to mind. I’m frequently cautioning about using calls to action strategically and not having so many that they become distracting. The other end of the spectrum would be not having a call to action at all. When someone is done reading your newsletter, make sure to give them something that answers the “What’s next?” question. Our planning worksheet can help you prioritize your calls-to-action. Click to Tweet this Article

There are several different actions that your subscribers can take when they receive your email in their inbox. While some of them are certainly more desirable than others, most of them aren't as bad as you might initially think. Email is deleted, unopened. This is the simplest thing to do and usually 2/3 of your list will do just that. Does that mean you should stop sending to these people? No way. They see your name in their inbox every time you send. They begin to realize they will hear from you again. Often they intend to read your emails... and sooner or later that might happen. Another thing to note is that many subscribers will read the text-only version of your message or disable images from loading. Your bulk email software will not be able to identify and flag those as 'opens' in your statistics. Your open rate is always higher than your stats show. The difference is increasing with the use of more mobile devices. Email is ignored. It...

Interesting and frustrating. Those are the two best words to describe my reaction to Rebel's Guide to Email Marketing by DJ Wadlow and Jason Falls. The book was interesting because it was well-researched and full of case studies and examples. It explains a lot of aspects of email marketing in great detail. In particular, the authors do a good job of describing how email and social media work so well together - calling them Batman (email) and Robin (social media). Their definitions of social connecting, social sharing, and other social terms cover the basics but they fall a bit short of offering unique ideas about combining the two. The book was frustrating because it was about email marketing in general and I specialize in enewsletters. I kept thinking, "But that's not true for newsletters" or "I wouldn't do that." Much of the information referred to promotional marketing rather than content marketing . While some things hold true for both, ther...

1. Your inbox will continue to be full. 2. You’ll check your inbox at least 5 times a day. 3. The more emails you send, the more you will receive. 4. You will spend significant hours just organizing your emails. And then you’ll spend even more looking for specific emails. 5. At least 100 times, you’ll swear to yourself that you’ll get ‘caught up’ on email. 6. You’ll delete several important emails by accident. 7. A handful of times, you’ll send an email forgetting the intended attachment. 8. You’ll find emails in your ‘draft’ box days after you thought you’d sent them. 9. You’ll click ‘reply all’ one too many times. 10. You’ll unsubscribe from countless commercial emails. But you’ll sign up for a few too. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Click to Tweet this Article

Let’s say you own a business that sells services to the general public. And, because you are so good at what you do, you also sell different services to other businesses in your industry. This is a common scenario for successful small businesses. You want to start an enewsletter - let’s talk content . Stephanie sells financial advice. She also sells advice to other advisors about how to sell and deliver financial advice. Stephanie's approach to financial advice is unique in her industry and she is a crusader. So when it comes to Stephanie's advice, what content will appeal to both of her target markets? Be interesting or useful to both? Be of value to both? Can you write a list of potential topics? It won't be as long as you might think. The type of financial advice that appeals to you and I is not what financial advisors want. A diagram of all the possible content might look like this: If you have two distinct target markets, yo...

Santa can reach every person in the world all in one night. Email can do that too... as long as every person has a computer. Santa has a hard and fast deadline. Email marketers have hard and fast deadlines maintaining consistency to keep their audience engaged. Santa keeps meticulous lists: who’s naughty and who’s nice. Email marketers keep meticulous lists: unsubscribers and subscribers ... again naughty and nice. Santa relies on having a good reputation in order to get into people’s homes. Email marketers rely on having a good reputation in order to get into people’s inboxes. It takes a lot of skill for Santa and his elves to create wonderful gifts for everyone. It takes a lot of skill to create wonderful emails... the kind that feel like a gift . Merry Christmas, everyone! Ho! Ho! Ho! Click to Tweet this Article

Mistakes happen – appointments get missed, deadlines slide by, and that phone call doesn’t get returned. These things happen to everyone sooner or later. Sometimes these are things that can be avoided next time, sometimes they’re unavoidable, and sometimes they’re just plain old stupid mistakes. I get so stuck on details sometimes. I know that’s because I make snap judgments and any kind of mistake distracts me. This isn’t the case for everyone though. I value flawless execution… sometimes at the expense of showing up at all. Many of my friends would say that showing up is most important, even if imperfectly. In my world, imperfect might mean a subject line with a spelling error, a hyperlink that doesn’t work, or a bunch of weird html code showing up in a newsletter. These are all little nitpicky details that can have an immediate and negative impact. Here are some tips to help you make sure those little details are right: Haste makes waste. Slow down and concentrate. A...