We get it, the world is changing and nobody likes change. However, when you or your business stand in defiance of all the technological advances used in 2010, take this into consideration.
The first text message was sent in December of 1992, when a 22 year-old engineer named Neil Papworth used his personal computer to send the words "Merry Christmas" to the phone of Richard Jarvis. The message was sent via a single network provided by Vodafone. Fast forward 16 years later. With the most pioneering move in political history, presidential candidate Barack Obama first announced his vice-presidential candidate via text message to over 2.9 million people.
Similar stories of progress have been seen with the integration of new technology into almost every aspect of everyday life. Nowhere has this been more prevalent than with the explosion of the internet. In the United States alone, there are over 3,500 different internet service providers providing internet service to over 227 MILLION people across the country. That's over 74% of the US population!
According to a study published by The Nielsen Company (http://bit.ly/diUcmy) 1 in 2 Americans will have a smartphone by Christmas 2011.
What do all these numbers mean? They mean that as technology and trends change, so should your marketing efforts, regardless of your geographic location and marketing budget. We are not suggesting that you do a complete overhaul of your marketing efforts. However, we are suggesting that you stay abreast of the latest trends in small business internet marketing.
A recent survey (http://bit.ly/dzjUHv) conducted by Constant Contact has uncovered some staggering numbers that no business, big or small, can afford to ignore. The survey was conducted with the cooperation of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, the Service Corps of Retired Executives and the Association of Small Business Development Centers.
Here is the "down n' dirty" if you will.
When asked the question "How important to your business is each of the following methods in finding new customers," here are their responses. (Pay particular attention to the email marketing and website rows)
In case you missed the most important stats on the chart, here they are.
-The most important marketing tool to small businesses is word of mouth with a 98% positive report.
-The most utilized channels to stimulate word of mouth are email marketing at 89%, and a company website at 93%
In another recent study conducted by The Nielsen Company, (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/us-smartphone-growth.png) research showed that smartphones are poised to out-number feature phones by Christmas 2011.
So what does this mean to you and your business?
It's quite simple. While we understand you might have personal connections to the director of sales at your local radio station, but the time is now to start looking to bring your marketing efforts into 2010. With 90% of businesses across the country taking their marketing efforts viral, small businesses have two choices to make.
Change your ways and move forward with the 90% of other businesses that are doing the same. Or, become those 10% of businesses watching their businesses fall apart at the seams.
Take emotion out of the decision, the numbers don't lie.
Bryan Mulvany is the Chief Communications Specialist at Rock Solid Media LLC. Follow him @bryanmulvany
Inbound Marketing University awarded the Inbound Marketing Certification to Chris Stone, Principal of Rock Solid Media LLC (http://rocksolidmediallc.com), as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).
This certification acknowledges Stone's proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.
Stone joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. In total, 1,300 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.
To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Stone completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)
The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times' best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google's Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)
This certification is administered by HubSpot.
About Rock Solid Media LLC
Rock Solid Media LLC is an internet marketing company that helps businesses develop customized solutions to get found on the Internet, initiate more leads and convert a higher amount of those leads into customers. Rock Solid Media helps guide your company goal of finding qualified prospects by instituting best practice email marketing, video production, search engine optimization, blogging and social media campaigns. Based in Galion, Ohio, Rock Solid Media can be found online at http://rocksolidmediallc.com
About InboundMarketing.com
InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site's content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.
About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot's software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot's free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.
One of the best metrics to determine the success of your email campaigns is click-through rates. Click-through rates mean that your subscribers are interested in the content you're providing, and, ultimately, that they're interested in your company. It's a way to measure engagement, which is vitally important to the success of small business email marketing. One relatively easy way to increase click-through rates in your email marketing efforts and drive traffic to your website is to incorporate video into your marketing mix.
So Easy a Kid Can Do It
Microsoft released Windows 7 last year, and one of their commercials features a child making a slideshow from all the phrases on her dad's PC with the number 7. Both PCs and Macs usually come pre-loaded with a basic video editing program. One quick and easy way to make a video for your next email campaign is to take pictures of your business. Load them onto your computer and then open the pre-loaded video editing program. Follow the simple instructions the program provides and create your video slideshow. These programs also allow you to place a music bed in your video. Be careful when selecting music. Your favorite song by Kenny Chesney probably isn't a good choice because his music is copyrighted by his record company. Here's one website where you can download music without paying a royalty.
Now The Easy Part
So, you've created your video slideshow complete with music. Now what? You need to upload your video to the web, and it's super easy with YouTube. Go to YouTube and create an account. Again, simple steps that anyone can accomplish. Follow YouTube's steps to upload the video. Once the video is uploaded and processed, you can grab the code to link to the video. Now, go back to the email that you want to use with the video. Create a link to your video on YouTube and prepare to watch your click-through rates go through the roof!
Client Success
Farmers Citizens Bank, a community bank in Ohio, started using video in their email campaigns in October 2009. Their click-through rates increased 273% from their August 2009 email (73 unique clicks) to the October 2009 email (199 unique clicks). The bank's email campaign unique click-through rates increased another 118% from October 2009 (199 unique clicks) to January 2010 (234 unique clicks). Get the picture? Here's the video used in the January 2010 email, which Rock Solid Media produced for Farmers Citizens Bank.
Now, go forth and email!
In a previous blog post, we provided a quick review of school district email marketing practices for several large districts in Ohio. The review quickly examined four areas of the districts' email marketing efforts:
- Content
- Personalization
- Design
- Images.
Over the course of the next several weeks, we're going to take a deeper look at each of the afforementioned areas. This post is all about personalization and includes recommendations for improving personalization in school district email marketing.
More than "Dear John"
Personalization isn't just about "Dear John". Personalization also includes interest areas, geographic location and demographic information. School districts, especially larger districts, can serve a huge geographic area with a wide range of demographics. All school districts have one thing in common. They have multiple opportunities to engage stakeholders because these individuals have different interests in school district operations. Parents, and young adults (25-45), want to know what the district is doing to enhance educational opportunities for students. Grandparents, and older adults (45 and up), want information about the decisions school boards are making that may have an affect on their financial well-being. Some district residents have a strong affinity for the district's athletic programs and want information about wins and losses. And, unfortunately, there are district residents that don't want any information about the district. The challenge for school districts involves three areas.
- Identifying potential stakeholder interests
- Capturing stakeholder data
- Managing stakeholder data and expectations
What Do People Want?
This is one of the biggest challenges for any organization, especially school districts because most work within a very restrictive budget. However, there are options for uncovering stakeholder interests in your school district. If you have a subscriber database for your current email marketing efforts, you can create a survey using Survey Monkey to determine current subscribers' areas of interest. We would recommend using your current email marketing efforts to drive traffic to your survey. Use the survey to help you develop different segments for your larger subscriber database.
Once you've developed these segments, send another message to your larger database asking them to update their information preferences. Use an incentive to drive subscribers to update their information. Partner with a local business to provide a product or service as the "carrot." Plan on sending multiple messages over a period of time. You should always "take the pulse" of your subscribers to make sure you're providing them the information THEY want to receive, and not the information YOU want to give them.
Now, go forth and email!
Here's the scenario. You've been utilizing email as a channel to market and promote your small business for the last 6 months. Your results for the first quarter have been tremendous. Customers are redeeming exclusive coupon offers because they receive AND read your email on a frequent basis. You couldn't be happier, and then suddenly you realize that you're seeing the same faces all the time. Then the question hits you; "How can I grow my email marketing list?"
Congratulations, you're just like every other business that uses the email channel for marketing. You have a desire for new prospective customers. The challenge is how do you find them without spending a boat load of cash, right? Email marketing. End of story.
Give a Little to Get a Lot
Six months ago, one of our best clients, a community banking institution in Western Indiana, approached us and wanted to grow their email database. Our idea was simple, easy, and has proven to be extremely effective. Think about it. Banks deal with people's money, which in turn endears these people to the bank. Our client has a very loyal customer base, as do many community banks.
The idea was simple, with a slight twist. Give current email subscribers an opportunity to enter for a chance to win FREE CASH just for forwarding the bank's email to their friends. Seems simple enough, right? Email marketing software has the capability to track which subscribers forward email to their friends, as well as how many times subscribers forwarded the email. But, hold the phone. Here comes the twist. In order to be eligible to win the prize, the subscriber's friends have to sign up to make both parties (the subscriber and their friends) eligible to win the contest. So, in order to be eligible for a chance to win the contest, the subscriber has to forward the email to their friends, AND the subscriber's friends have to sign up to receive email from the bank.
The campaign we developed centered on the biggest holiday of the year: Christmas. The incentive was a chance to win $100 a week over a 4 week period just for forwarding a weekly email to friends. The catch was that the subscriber's friends had to read the email, click on the "Sign Up" link in the email, and then signup for email from the bank. The success was awesome, to say the least. Over the course of 4 weeks, the bank's email database increased 20% for nothing more than a middle of the road laptop computer.
The Beat Goes On
Because of the success the bank experienced with this campaign, they've decided to continue using this list building technique FOREVER. They recently sent a marketing insert inside their customers' statements encouraging current customers to sign up for the bank's email marketing campaigns. The carrot: Don't miss an opportunity for a chance to win FREE CASH just for being a member of our email marketing program. Check out a larger version of the insert the bank sent.
The lesson to learn is simple. Don't be afraid to give something away to grow your small business email marketing database. You never know when that next email address might be a potential customer who can significantly increase your business' bottom line!
No, Disney's newest feature film doesn't highlight the inner workings of
school district communications in the twenty-first century. Quite frankly, I doubt even Disney could turn that subject into a hit movie. However, one of Disney's most famous flicks helps put into perspective the kind of relationship school superintendents should have with their communication team.
At this point you are probably struggling over just which Disney story I am referring to. If you guessed Lion King, Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid, Aladdin or Peter Pan, you would be incorrect. When trying to think about the film that provides guidance for school district superintendents, "Let your conscience be your guide."
Still guessing? When discussing the best practices for communication between a school superintendent and his communication team, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket laid the foundation long ago.
Throughout Pinocchio's journey, Jiminy Cricket gives Pinocchio the advice he needs to help become a real boy. Sometimes Pinocchio listens, and sometimes he doesn't. It isn't that Pinocchio doesn't care what Jiminy has to say, it's just that he has a lot going on in his life, and Jiminy's message is often lost amongst all the other hustle and bustle going on around him.
This is very similar to the relationship between a school superintendent and his communication team. Superintendents are busy people. With student achievement, building projects and professional development taking up most of their time, communication often gets placed on the proverbial "back burner." Much like Pinocchio, superintendents don't mean to brush off Jiminy's advice, in this case, the suggestions and requests for permission from their communication team. They simply don't hear the message amongst the hustle and bustle of their chaotic schedules.
Much like Jiminy, it is easy for communication teams to become discouraged and feel like their ideas and requests fall on deaf ears. When these feelings arise, simply take a step back, and remember Pinocchio's journey. No matter what was going on in Pinocchio's life, Jiminy was always able to see the big picture. In much the same scenario, superintendents are often so focused on student achievement and improving test scores that they can't see the district's communication needs. This isn't to say that superintendents are inept, it simply shows just how much goes into running a successful school district. The reason superintendents have a communication team is because they are smart, and they know they don't have the time to devote to develop effective communication strategies.
To bring our Disney tale full circle, the model for communication between a superintendent and his communication team has been right in front of us all along. As superintendents go through their daily grind, trying to help their district reach its potential and become "a real boy," it is important for communication teams across the country to be their conscience. Remember that all of your ideas will not be seen through to completion, but eventually your message will be heard. Remember that although superintendents are great at what they do, there is a reason they hired a communication team. Every now and then, they need a "conscience" to be their guide. That's where you come in!
Photo courtesy of mydogbarchs.blogspot.com
In a previous post, we reviewed school district email marketing practices for several large Ohio districts. These school districts should be applauded for deploying a solution that is a cost-effective and efficient form of communications. However, there were 4 areas where we think these districts, and others, can improve in their email marketing efforts. The next several posts will take a deeper look at each of those areas, with the first being content.
School District Email Marketing: The RIGHT Content is King
School districts, especially larger ones, have little difficulty developing great content. There are so many different aspects of a school district that provide opportunities for relevant, compelling content. Academics, athletics, administration and other areas are all relevant topics for school districts. While all of the content from a school district is important, one of the biggest challenges is deciding the right content that is going to resonate with email subscribers. One way to overcome this challenge is to let subscribers tell you what information they want to read about in your district's emails. Develop a robust signup form on your website that gives subscribers the ability to choose the types of content they want to receive in their inbox. And, don't overlook the smallest areas of your district's operations. You might be surprised by the performance of your emails that have a "micro" focus. Another way to overcome this challenge, especially if you're already deploying email marketing, is to conduct a survey of your current email subscribers. The most efficient way to do this is use an online solution, like Survey Monkey, to seek feedback from your subscribers about the content that is important to them. Some email service providers (ESPs) offer a survey application within your subscription. The content areas with the highest response rates should be where you focus your efforts.
School District Email Marketing: Send Them Home
One of the biggest benefits of email marketing is the channel's ability to drive traffic to a website. Two of three emails we reviewed used full content stories in their entire email. One of the biggest problems this presents is that your subscribers have to scroll through a ton of content to find the one piece of information they're seeking. Many school districts have spent, or will spend in the future, significant dollars to develop a top-notch, engaging website. Email should be designed as a "conduit" to more information on your website. Besides increased traffic to your website, you also present subscribers the opportunity to find more information about your district on your website.
Ultimately, using the right content in your emails and driving subscribers to your websites, you will increase the effective of your district's email marketing efforts!
Now, go forth and email!
So, you've started using email as a channel to market and promote your business or organization! Outstanding! You're starting to build a relationship with your current customers or clients that can be very profitable for your business. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that email marketing generated a return on investment (ROI) of $43.52 for every dollar spent on the channel in 2009. For many small businesses, email marketing can be a tremendously successful channel to drive revenue growth. However, to achieve even a small percentage of this success, you must overcome several challenges when using email as a marketing channel for your business.
One of these challenges is growing your subscriber database. We're asked daily, "How can we grow our list?" Growing your email subscriber database is very similar to growing your business. You have to be patient and set realistic goals. One piece of "low hanging fruit" that you can capitalize on, and one of the strongest attributes of email marketing, is email's ability to be a great referral source. The problem is that the majority of small business email marketing campaigns don't ask for the referral. Why not? One of the biggest reasons we hear is that clients are scared that they might lose something. And that something is usually money. Understandable, especially as consumers continue to guard their personal information more closely.
What do you have to lose? What's worse? Not asking for the referral and not growing your database, or putting the carrot out there to get your current subscribers to forward your email to their friends and growing your database 5%? Look at it this way. You never know until you ask. Run a contest for free products or services. Or better yet, and we've had great success with this one, run a contest for free CASH! But, make sure you incentivize both the subscriber and their friend. "Forward this email to your friends, and when your friends sign up, you and your friends are entered for a chance to win." Your current customers are the ones who have helped you succeed. Give them the opportunity to be a spokesperson, a champion if you will, for your business. Many small businesses say word of mouth is the best marketing and sales tool. We couldn't agree more. So why not let your customers use your email to market and sell your business through word of mouth online?
What do you have to lose? Ask for the referral!
Now, go forth and email!
Want more beginners tips for email marketing? Download "Email Marketing 101: 5 Tips for the Beginner" to help you get started!