There's been a ton of media attention, both mainstream and online, about the changes Facebook recently made to their privacy settings and policies. It seems that Mashable has at least one article about Facebook privacy almost every day. Time Magazine is bringing Facebook privacy to its readers as a front page story. The flurry of media attention seems to be mostly negative with no ray of hope anywhere in the near future for Facebook.
One topic that's been overshadowed by the larger privacy issues is a Wall Street Journal report that Facebook, along with other social networks, was caught sending user data to advertisers. According to the WSJ article, the information that Facebook, and other social networks, have been sending "could be used to find consumers' names and other personal details." While this practice has been defended by these companies, it should raise some serious concerns for the companies' subscribers. First, it strengthens the case for those consumers who are hesitant to embrace social networking sites because they don't want the entire world to have access to their personal information. Second, it opens subscribers' information to a larger group of companies and individuals who, while they may have the best of business intentions, could abuse the subscribers' information and flood them with irrelevant content. Finally, it could scare subscribers so much that they actually start a mass exodus from these social networking sites. In fact, this last point is highlighted further by several studies that show people are considering this option.
This practice, in our opinion, could spell the end of Facebook's Project Titan before it even launches. In February, TechCrunch ran an article that highlighted Facebook's Project Titan, which is being tabbed "a full featured webmail product." Subsequent articles related to this development focused on how this project COULD be the end of email marketing, as well as how to prepare for the potential of such a solution. The recent revelations brought to the forefront by the Wall Street Journal could doom Project Titan for 3 simple reasons.
- There are already multiple full featured webmail products available to consumers. Many of these consumers use multiple products to try and avoid the flurry of spam that is still received via email despite the Can-Spam Act. While Facebook would have an inside track to consumers' information, and ultimately greater control over who has access to that information, the practice of sending user names and ID numbers to third party advertisers could allow these outside parties the opportunity to sell pseudo Facebook email lists to list houses for a pretty penny.
- While Facebook, and other social networking sites, will defend the practice highlighted in the WSJ article; it still raises serious concerns about subscribers' privacy for Project Titan. If Facebook simply uses vanity URLs as the basis for creating email addresses as some have speculated, list houses and spammers could very easily build their own Facebook email databases and start sending spam email to Facebook users. By the way, my Facebook email if Project Titan launches could be chrissstone@facebook.com. If Facebook is sharing subscribers' user names and IDs, as is reported, what's to stop them from selling their email database to these same third-party advertisers?
- Despite users' love of Facebook, and other social networking sites, they still want to keep their personal information private. Hence, the recent backlash from mainstream and online media outlets. Users are generally willing to deal with advertisements because they can teach themselves to block out the messages, just as they have with traditional forms of advertising. If, and I stress if, Facebook continues the practice of sending user information to third parties, users could look at a Facebook email address as another source of spam email. If a Facebook email address is viewed as a "spam catcher", Project Titan could surely be irrelevant within a short period of time.
At the end of the day, no one knows exactly how Facebook will amend its recent privacy changes. As this post is written, Facebook is briefing Congressional staffers on the changes to the changes it's already made in light of the media attention and subsequent public outcry. Project Titan has probably been put on the very back burner until Facebook can overcome all the negative media attention. This is a good thing for an email marketing agency because it's one less potential opponent to the overall success of their email marketing efforts.
One of the facts that we'll never deny is that we're a small business. This helps us have a better understanding of the challenges our clients face on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. When it comes to website performance, we're like every other small business in that we strive to generate a return-on-investment from our website.
In March 2010, we started using Hubspot and its full suite of products for small business. We now have the ability to update & change every single part of our website based on data, and you can't refute data. More important than using Hubspot's software is the fact that we have fully entrenched ourselves in the practice of inbound marketing. We've bought in, hook, line and sinker, to the inbound marketing methodology in that same time period and have started seeing small successes.
Baby Steps
One of these "small successes" has been a pretty significant increase in our website traffic from organic search, referrals, social media and email marketing. Here's a screenshot straight from our Analytics. You'll notice the May 2010 data is slightly faded, when compared to March & April, because we're still collecting data.
Here's a month over month breakdown based on each reporting metric.
| | Organic
Search
| Referrals | Email
Marketing
| Social
Media
| Other
Campaigns
|
March-10
| 44
| 27
| 0
| 42
| 0
|
April-10
| 42
| 35 | 6
| 59
| 0
|
May-10
| 58
| 34 | 16
| 98
| 2
|
How We Did It..So Far
Two areas that have grown significantly in the last 3 months are organic search and social media. This growth can be attributed to 3 things we've done as part of our inbound marketing strategy, and can be applied to any business.
- Blogging - Blogging is one of the central activities to any successful inbound marketing strategy. By creating and maintaining a blog, we've been able to share insights into our industry, client success stories and our own success stories. One of the biggest challenges we've overcome centers around the topics and information we share in each blog post. We'll save how we overcame this obstacle for another blog post!
- On-Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - We'll never claim to be SEO experts. But, we think we're pretty darn good because we've increased our organic search traffic over the last 3 months. When we started using Hubspot, we utilized the Keyword Grader function to figure out which keywords we ranked for at the time, as well as uncovering keywords we wanted rank for in the search engines. We've also focused on long-tail keywords and monitoring the keywords visitors are using to find our website. Finally, we've started optimizing our old blog posts for SEO. Again, very easy to do all these tasks with the Hubspot software. But, it's something we've made a commitment to reviewing on a regular basis.
- Social Media Marketing - In a previous post, we looked out our website traffic generated from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you didn't read it, you'll be surprised at the data. From a more macro-level, we've made our blog, and other content, the focus of our social media marketing efforts. Our goal is that our blog posts will spark a conversation with our friends, followers and group members. These conversations are what's critical to social media marketing success. Good, bad or ugly, we've made a commitment to be involved in the conversations that take place everyday in the social media world.
The Next Steps
The last step in the inbound marketing methodology is to analyze and repeat. So, we're going to keep applying the same strategies we outlined above, while at the same time increasing our content. Will we make some small changes? Sure. You have to evolve to stay relevant. We have a checklist of items that we want to create based around our goals of getting found and converting visitors into leads. After all, leads turn into sales, and that's what every business needs and wants!
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If you don't believe that LinkedIn works for marketing a business, then stop reading this RIGHT NOW.
Leave. Go read the Wall Street Journal.
....
Are you gone yet?
....
No.
You're still here?
Good. Then it's obvious that you've got some brains about you when it comes to social media marketing. One of the driving forces behind an effective inbound marketing strategy is promoting the great content that you create on your website. Whether it's a blog, whitepaper, video, e-book...whatever. You need to promote your content. The easiest and most cost-effective venue for promoting content is social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Buzz.
Let's focus on LinkedIn. Here's a REALLY brief history of the growth of LinkedIn. Check out LinkedIn's company history for a closer look, if you have the urge.
- 2002 - Started in a living room with 5 guys
- 2003 - Ends the year with 81,000 members
- 2004 - Ends the year with 1.6 million members
- 2005 - Ends the year with 4 million members
- 2006 - Ends the year with 8 million members
- 2007 - Reaches 15 million members by September
- 2008 - Ends the year with 33 million members
- 2009 - Reaches 40 million members by May 5
- 2010 - Currrently boasts over 65 million members
In less than 10 years, LinkedIn went from an idea to a power-player in the social mediasphere. One of the best parts about LinkedIn is that they've built a membership base around the idea of business networking. Business Networking. It's repeated for a reason. LinkedIn, simply stated, is all about building you social business network. It's a virtual business after-hours event with no time restrictions.
Why are we talking about LinkedIn? Couple reasons. First, we're born-again believers in the power of LinkedIn. Since our partnership began with Hubspot 3 months ago, we've realized, first-hand, the power that LinkedIn has to help drive traffic to your website. As of the date of this post, LinkedIn is our number one source of social media traffic to our website. Check out the numbers below.
Second, we want more people to not only join LinkedIn as members, but also to be active participants in the discussions that occur within the LinkedIn groups. We're a part of nearly 20 different groups on LinkedIn today. There are some great conversations taking place about anything business-related you can imagine. Get involved in these conversations, especially when the topic is related to your expertise.
Are our numbers going to compel you to run over to LinkedIn and start networking with other business professionals? Maybe, but probably not. That's okay though. We see a big opportunity to promote our content on LinkedIn, and you not joining is one less voice that we have to compete with for people's attention!
Few movie scenes tickle my fancy quite like the legendary scene from Good Will Hunting that spawned the phrase "how you like them apples." For those of you not familiar with the scene, give it a quick watch! It's only 40 seconds.
Good Will Hunting first hit the big screen in 1997, and even after 13 years of technological evolution, businesses across the country are still struggling to ask the "pretty girl" for her number.
Ok, so times have changed and in 2010 no one would write a girl's number on a bar napkin unless their smart phone was on the fritz. Today it isn't a phone number that businesses want from the "pretty girl," it's their email address. According to a 2009 study, "View from the Inbox", conducted by Merkle, Inc., email is the #1 preferred method of communication from companies among people ages 18-65. And to be honest, it's not even close! Here are the numbers to prove it!
Unfortunately for business owners, customers have been bombarded by countless organizations trying to push their message through to their inbox involuntarily. This has made people extremely hesitant to hand their email address over to just anyone.
Much like when you were dating, it is easy to strike-up a conversation with a potential companion, the problem lies in knowing how to ask for the crucial contact information. You want to be sure he/she knows you're interested, but you don't want to be the "Stage 4 Clinger" who thought dinner and drinks would lead to a trip down the aisle.
If getting email addresses is as complicated as post-pubescent dating, how can businesses effectively obtain customer email addresses? The answer is simple; ask politely, but don't be pushy. Don't be the guy or girl who calls with nothing to say, be the company who uses customer emails to provide an engaged audience with valuable information. Don't use shady antics to trick your customers into opening an email for a false promotion.
Over 83% of North American email users view false promotional items just as invasive as spam. (Source: Epsilon Global Consumer Email Study) Once you have lost the trust of your audience, whether it is a pretty girl or a list of current customers, regaining that trust is an almost impossible task; and with a single email address being estimated at a $47 value, you can't afford to break customer trust.
When trying to grow your email marketing list, stick to the basics. The more customers feel a personal connection to your brand the more likely they are to give you their email address. You wouldn't walk up to the most beautiful person at the bar and ask for their number right out of the gate, don't do the same thing with email addresses. If you want the pretty girl to give you her number, you have to prove your worth. The same thing can be said for customer email addresses.
The next time you or your organization think about asking for a customer's email address for your small business email marketing, think about Good Will Hunting. Think about how Damon did it. Prove your worth, be polite instead of pushy, and the emails will come to you. Then you can ask the competition; "how you like them apples?"
We work with a variety of clients and provide a big portion of them with email marketing services. One of our clients, a city government in North Central Ohio, has been working with us to send weekly email newsletters to citizens and business owners during the city's Downtown Revitalization Project. The newsletters are designed to keep subscribers informed about the progress of the project.
The most recent email newsletter included information about some damage that was caused to a certain portion of the project, along with a request from the city's Mayor & Service-Safety Director asking citizens to respect the barricades and not enter the work area. A side note about the city's newsletter statistics. They've seen a pretty strong open rate, as we expected, because of the nature of their newsletters and the information they provide.
Here's where it gets interesting. The local newspaper, who's reporters are subscribed to receive the city's newsletters, ran a story with the headline "Damage prompts plea from mayor". In the article, the report not only mentions where the information for the story was found, he also quotes verbatim the content that is in the body of newsletter. The reporter used the email newsletter and its content to create a story for a traditional media outlet.
Moral of the story. Email marketing and email newsletters can be a great tool for customer retention, lead generation AND public relations. If your email newsletter content includes news about your business or your employees, send a personal email (from your email address) to reporters and invite them to signup for your email newsletter campaign. You never know when a story from your newsletter might show up as a front page headline in the next edition of your hometown newspaper!
Now, go forth and email!
Statistics abound when discussing the impact of social media on websites and blogs. The whole premise of inbound marketing is to use social media to drive an increase in visitors to the great content you've created on your website. While inbound marketing methodology is obviously more complex and more involved than the very brief synopsis above, it stands to reason that the impact of social sharing on email marketing could be monumental, especially for small businesses that implement an inbound marketing strategy.
According to the "2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey" from GetResponse, only one of every 4 marketers (25%) was placing links to email campaigns and newsletters on social media pages, or including a "share" option in their online communications. Conversely, 90% of respondents in the same study said they planned to integrate social media into their email campaigns. 2010 is almost half over. There's a big gap between 25% actually implementing some aspect of social media in their email marketing, and 90% just making plans. What in the world are you waiting for? An invitation?
Well, consider this your invitation for 3 simple reasons.
- Social media/networking is growing. Facebook, despite their recent privacy mishaps, has breached the 400 million user threshold. According to comScore, Twitter had 75,000,000 unique visits in January 2010 alone, an increase of 1,105%. LinkedIn currently boasts a community of over 65 million professionals. Why would you not want to give your subscribers an opportunity to share your email with these networks?
- An opportunity to increase sales. Here's a scenario. Sally just received your email and is super excited about the big sale next week at your store. She has 500 friends on Facebook and 300 followers on Twitter. Sally decides she is going to share your email with her social network because she knows her friends & followers like the kind of products your business sells. Sally's social network of 800 people represents 800 potential customers for your business. Why would you not want Sally to share your email with her networks?
- An opportunity for list building. In the last scenario, Sally just shared your email with the 800 people in her social networks. Let's say, conservatively, that only 5% of her friends and followers share her interest in the products you sell. Offer a special discount, or other incentive, to viewers who are seeing the shared version of your email to get them to sign up for emails from your business. If 40 people sign up for your emails, that's a 5% increase in your email marketing list. Now, you'll say, "It's only 5%". Look at it this way. That's 40 new people in your email list. 40 new potential customers. And all you had to do was implement a social sharing feature in your email. Why would you not want to implement social sharing in your emails?
If you need more than 3 reasons to start implementing social sharing in your email marketing, you might need to rethink your overall marketing strategy. When implemented with a purpose, social sharing can have a tremendous impact on your email marketing efforts and your business.
Oh, and if you don't know how to implement social sharing in your current email marketing software, contact us and we'll show you how easy it is to implement with our software. Plus, we might just give you a few more ideas to make social sharing more impactful in your email marketing efforts!
Now, go forth and email social!
Image courtesy of SendLabs
In case you've missed it, people are sharing content like CRAZY on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Facebook recently introduced the "Like" button for websites. Since its introduction, the "Like" button has appeared on over 100,000 websites. Facebook is pushing 500 million worldwide users, and, while they don't release user statistics, Twitter growth rate is just as strong.
Many of the email software providers (Constant Contact, Exact Target, etc.) have introduced social sharing in their platforms. While it's good that they've added the feature, it could be better. Well, better is here. Add SendLabs to the list. And they've built a better mousetrap!
As a SendLabs email marketing agency partner, we're excited to have this new feature in our arsenal for current and prospective clients.
So, the question is: "What are the implications of Social Sharing for Email Marketing?" Simply stated, it gives your subscribers the ability to share your email with people in their social networks. Thus, giving your email the opportunity to be viewed by more eyeballs than just those in your database. Think about it. One of your subscribers is on Facebook and has 500 friends. This subscriber shares your email with her Facebook Friends, and you now have the opportunity for 500 more people to not only see your email, but potentially sign up to receive your emails to their inbox.
This new world in email marketing also presents new challenges. Is your content compelling enough that at least one subscriber will share it? Is your email optimized to allow those viewing the shared version to sign up? Are you using compelling calls-to-action to drive shared viewers to a landing page on your website? These are all topics we're going to cover in future blog posts.
For now, revel in the simplicity of SendLabs' new Social Sharing feature. Simple, and highly effective because it gives subscribers the ability to share it on the most widely used social media platforms.
One of the most common things we hear from many small businesses, especially those in small towns & rural areas, is that they're hesitant to start using email to communicate and market because they don't have email addresses. That's a pretty strong reason to not pull the trigger and start using email marketing for a small business. Don't let that stop you.
One of our earliest clients, a small Amish furniture retailer in North Central Ohio, was in that exact boat. We first talked to the owner about the immense benefits of email marketing. Targeted, direct, trackable. You know the benefits. But, one of the biggest challenges for this business was that they hadn't been collecting customer email addresses since they opened the doors. Did that stop them from starting 2 years ago? Nope. The owner, and his staff, followed 3 simple steps that we gave them and started collecting email addresses in droves! The 3 steps were:
- Setup a collection box with signup sheets NEXT to the register - one part of our email marketing services that are very valuable, especially for a small business that doesn't have a website (what are you waiting for???), is that we provide a hard plastic drop box and 1,000 signup sheets for in store promotion. You don't even need a fancy drop box. Go to the pet store and buy a fish bowl. Make a sign to put on the front of it to tell people why a fish bowl is sitting in your store. While you're making the sign, make a signup sheet that people can fill out with their first name, last name and email address. That's all the information you need to start using email marketing for your small business.
- Get the ENTIRE staff on board - this is probably the most critical element for success in email marketing, especially for a small business. Every member of your staff needs to understand that it is THEIR responsibility to help the business grow its email marketing database. Here's an idea on us. Make a contest out of getting people signed up to receive emails. Give your staff a chance to compete for something everyone wants. An extra day off, the newest tech gadget, free cash. It doesn't matter, just let your staff's interest dictate what the prize will be.
- ASK EVERY person that walks through the door to signup - every single person that walks through your front door is either a current customer or a prospective customer, and every single one of them should sign up to receive emails from your business. Every staff member, including you as the owner, should be asking almost every person that walks in to sign up for your email campaigns. Here's another piece of free advice. Develop a promotion that gives people something free just for signing up for emails from you. However, make sure it's something from your business. Give away a $50 gift certificate. Hesitant to give away free stuff, here's a pretty compelling statistic. According to Stan Rapp, founder of Rapp Collins, the value of a SINGLE opt-in email address is estimated at $118. Enough said.
So, how is our Amish furniture client faring today? In the 2 years we've been working with them, they've grown their database to 399 subscribers. From ZERO when we started. Now, take the 399 subscribers and multiply that by $118. The estimated value of this client's email list is almost $41,000. Not too shabby!
They're open rates are very strong (nearly 30% for every campaign). Oh, and by the way, they haven't even started venturing into the social media world yet. Imagine what they could do with Twitter, Facebook, a website and a blog!
Conventional wisdom in email marketing dictates that you never want subscribers to opt-out of your email campaign. Pretty sound advice, especially considering that your goal with email marketing is to engage subscribers to take an action. Buy a product from your online store, complete a form to get more targeted information about your service. The list can go on forever.
But, what about those subscribers that haven't opened an email since you started your campaign? You're probably like most and just ignore them. We don't blame you. These subscribers aren't helping to further your cause. But, we recently challenged conventional wisdom and traditional thinking about unengaged subscribers.
One of our full-service email marketing clients, a family entertainment center in Ohio, is pretty progressive in their marketing efforts for their geographic location. They utilize email marketing (of course), a blog, a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter and a pretty stellar website. They are certainly ahead of the game.
The Challenge
This particular client has over 1800 subscribers in their database. Their open statistics have been lagging below the industry standard of 15-20%. We found that their unopened rates were running above 84% on every campaign we sent for them. The client expressed that they wanted to find a way to engage the disengaged.
The Solution
Last month, we recommended a campaign that was unconventional to say the least. The idea was pretty simple.
1. Target subscribers that haven't opened an email since the inception of the program
2. Offer them a chance to win a prize just for opening the email
3. Use the subject line "Unsubscribe Today"
The first two points are really "no-brainers". Target a segment of your list, and make them an offer they can't refuse. The third point is where conventional wisdom goes right out the door. Or does it? The most important part of any email campaign is the subject line. It's the first thing subscribers read to decide if they're going to open your email. If the subject line isn't compelling or doesn't grab the recipient's attention, your great content-filled email is worthless. "Unsubscribe Today" may not be the most compelling subject line, but it was, at the very least, attention grabbing.
The Result
The overall result of the campaign was what we expected for a couple reasons. First, we knew their data was old. They had been sending emails for about a year prior to our involvement, and we saw the statistics from their prior endeavors. Their open rates had been trending lower for the better part of six months, so we didn't set a high expectation for success. Second, we knew their email marketing habits, prior to our involvement, were scattered at best. Prior to engaging us, the client had been deploying email campaigns just to send an email. There was no rhyme or reason for sending the email prior to our involvement.
Of the 1300 emails sent, 11% were opened. Not a great open rate by any means. But, that 11% represents a group of subscribers that hadn't previously engaged with the client's email marketing efforts. What was more revealing, and more important, was the unsubscribe rate. Only 14% of the subscribers that opened the email actually unsubscribed. We expected this number to be much higher given the subject line of the email. We were pleased to say the least. But, you probably think that's an unacceptable rate. But, that's about 20 people who opened an email that hadn't previously opened an email. At the very least, they opened the email, read it, and decided they didn't want to get emails from the client.
Take Home
Don't be afraid to break conventional wisdom to engage the disengaged. At the very least, you can scrub your database and find out who really reads and engages with your emails. After all, the more subscribers who engage with your email, the more money you should make! Right?