VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Small Biz Marketing Events You Can't Afford to Miss!

As the director of lifecycle marketing at VerticalResponse, I'm often asked to speak at, or have members of my team speak at industry events. After presenting and attending many of these over the years, we've compiled a list of the most relevant and rewarding events for any small business and marketer.

February:

• Marketing Sherpa Email Summit - Las Vegas, NV 
• Email Evolution Conference - Hollywood, FL
• Technology For Marketing & Advertising - London, UK

March:

• 7th Annual Small Business Summit - New York City, NY
• SXSW
• Orange County's Largest Mixer - Los Angeles, CA

April:

• Ad:Tech - San Francisco, CA
• Nonprofit Technology Conference -  San Francisco, CA

May:

• Small Business Week - San Francisco, CA

June:

• Blog World & New Media Expo - New York City, NY

September:

• Content Marketing World - Columbus, OH
• Dreamforce - San Francisco, CA 

October:

• DMA 2012 - Las Vegas, NV

And, if travel isn't in your budget this year, you can also join us for our free webinars, which can be enjoyed from the comfort of your chair (no baggage fees or delayed flights necessary). Check out the lineup here. New webinars are announced each quarter and there are recorded versions here.

 

Posted by: Kim Stiglitz

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

 

 

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Learn from the Pros: Mobile Sites You Just Can’t Hate

When it comes to mobile websites, haters are gonna hate and boy, do they! In my quest and request of others to direct me towards their favorite mobile sites, the sound of crickets echoed in my eardrums. However, once I inquired about unfavorable mobile sites, the list was so long, I was sorry I asked! 

People are passionate about their mobile web navigation, and for a reason: They’re using their smartphones non-stop (guilty as charged). According to Morgan Stanley, by the year 2014, mobile Internet will surpass desktop Internet usage. That's a lot of on-the-go Internet browsing! With 1.08 billion smartphones in the world, maintaining a mobile site that satisfies is vital if you want to keep people coming back. Today, I’ll share the love and discuss three exceptional mobile sites you just can't hate. Let's learn from the pros:

1. Pitchfork Media
(m.pitchfork.com) 

As a music addict, wanting the latest and greatest music news at my fingertips quickly is of the utmost importance. Having the ability to actually read all of this information from an iPhone screen, in the words of David Bowie, “it ain’t easy.” Pitchfork, a music webzine, has incorporated the technology on its site to detect your pint-sized mobile device. After detecting your mobile, the site immediately directs you to the easy-to-read mobile version instead of dumping you onto a larger-than-life interface with microscopic font. The option to switch to a desktop version of the site is also available, if you so desire.
 
The site navigation is simple and clean, while still providing me with all of the music news, reviews, tracks, videos and features I’d normally find on the homepage of the desktop version. There's also a convenient menu tab at the very top that allows me to quickly navigate throughout the entire site.
 
Highlights: Mobile device detection, simple, easy and well thought out layout, yet still includes all aspects of original site.

 

2. ESPN
(m.espn.go.com)

I’ll admit, I don’t watch, follow, or play sports. However, I received such positive feedback regarding this particular mobile website, I had to check it out, and guess what? It’s pretty fun, even for someone as sports-challenged as myself. The site is not only optimized for nearly every mobile platform, it also provides fans with timely updates and immediate access to whichever team or sport your action-packed heart so desires. The most exciting aspect of the mobile site is “my ESPN” in which you can customize the site to your particular interests, speeding up your access to all things involving a ball, puck, or… see, I am bad at sports.
 
Highlights: Mobile optimization, timely updates, grouped sports pages, easy navigation, preference settings.

3. Airbnb
(m.airbnb.com)

This San Francisco start-up has seen dramatic growth since its inception in 2008. The site connects people worldwide who are looking for a temporary place to rent or rent out vs. taking your typical hotel or hostel route. Destination listings cover more than 19,000 cities, 192 countries and the site alone has made more than 100 million social connections.

This mobile site deserves major props for its aesthetically pleasing design. Rental listings are beautifully listed including pricing, map location, reviews and more including all necessary info that is easily organized and found under description, details and amenities tabs. A filter button on the homepage allows you to specify your searches depending on availability, and a fun pricing scale lets you slide your way into a preferred budget. You can also sign in via your Facebook account.

Highlights: Beautiful design, details, details, details (with little fuss), Facebook integration, slide and tap features for info-hungry hands.

 
Finding a fast mobile site that adheres to your device, is easy on the eyes, and doesn’t skimp on the details may seem like a dream (that you’d like to watch on your smartphone), but they're out there! So tell me, which mobile sites have you found that pleasantly surprise you, and which ones make you want to scream?

Posted by: Colleen Corkery

Colleen Corkery is the Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @youcollme.

 

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• Email & Social Marketing - 2011 - A Year in Review
• Designing Your Email for Mobile Devices
• Email Delivery: How Your Email Looks in Different Email Clients
• Guide: 8 Rules for Creating Mobile Emails
  

How to Tackle the Super Bowl Hype & Score with Your Customers

Regardless as to whether you’re cheering for the Giants or the Patriots in the upcoming Super Bowl on February 5, chances are you’ll tune in to watch not only the game, but the commercials too. Advertisers are bringing sexy back as H&M debuts a 30-second ad starring David Beckham wearing nothing more than his boxers, and Go Daddy has Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels painting the body of a super model.

The Times reports that NBC is charging an average of $3.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Sponsors are already creating hype around the expensive ads to get the best return on their investment.

So, without a gazillion dollar budget and Hollywood celebs or super models, how can your small biz leverage the Super Bowl hype and score with your customers? Prepare to take the snap and execute a strong offense with these tips:

Just Do It: Super Bowl hype is building. Even if your business doesn’t cater to the “typical” football crowd, you can still capitalize on the theme. For instance, use a football themed subject line to capture attention in the inbox and leverage the theme in your email marketing template or in your messaging. Just because you don't sell TVs, food or beer doesn't mean you can't have some fun and be creative with your message.

Try subject lines like:

• Are you ready for some savings?
• Kick off the savings in time for the Big Game!
  
• Big Game Super Deals
• Score! Save 50% off + Free Shipping
• Down, Set, Savings!

Last year, fashion retailer Banana Republic pulled this off in a winning campaign cited in Sherry Chiger's article on the The Big Fat Marketing Blog. BR used a staid subject line for its email, sent Friday before the game: “Super Bowl savings: 25% off! + FREE Shipping Every Day.” The body of the message, however, played off a corny joke: “What was the cheapskate’s favorite football play? To get the quarterback.” Amid drawings meant to resemble a coach’s play diagrams, and a headline read, “This weekend only get a quarter back. 25% off all full-priced items.” Banana Republic managed to link a sporting event to women’s fashion in a simple yet effective way.

 

 

I was super impressed with the email I received from Kiva this past Friday with the subject line, Super Bowl Friday. It grabbed my attention because I thought what does Kiva have to do with the Super Bowl? Turns out that's exactly what they intended and it worked. They even wrote a blog about it here. Kiva does a brilliant job spinning the Super Bowl into an opportunity to get their users and prospects thinking about making a microloan.

Check out the top of the fold creative from their email:

 

 

Kiva set up two lending teams based on the Giants and the Patriots and does a great job with their messaging. Touchdown Kiva!

Go Small: Yep, I said go small. While the big guys will be paying out the wazoo for a 30-second ad, you can produce your own mini commercial and upload it to YouTube. Include a link to the video in your email and use a subject line like, "Check out VerticalResponse's Big Game Commercial!" All you need is a camera or phone with video recording capabilities, some creativity and you're good to go.

Use Your Special Teams: While email marketing is your quarterback for delivering your message to your receivers, make sure you call in your special teams: Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn, to reach a wider audience. You can send a link to your above-mentioned video to your social networks and cross your fingers it goes viral!

Party: That's right, I am telling you to have a party. Rent a big screen TV and show the game in your location. Offer food and beverages and special savings to anyone who shops during the game. You can offer discounts based on the score, the number of touchdowns, etc. You can even use our Event Marketing tool to plan a great event.

Target the Non-Ballers: Though 111 million people tuned in to watch the Super Bowl last year, that still leaves lots of folks who are tuned out and looking for something, anything to do that doesn't involve football, so cater to these people too. This is especially beneficial if your business is slightly less attuned to the whole football aesthetic. You can host a special event or sale for these folks too. Theme it around a football respite or, "Who Cares About the Super Bowl?" Your non-ballers will certainly appreciate it.

What will you do to promote your biz during the Super Bowl?

Posted by Kim Stiglitz.

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

 

 

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Super Bowl Super Emails

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The Results Are in! Takeaways from VR Email Tests: CTA Edition

Photo credit: Sebastian Bergmann

We're already a few weeks into 2012 and I don't know about you, but some of my New Year's resolutions have already started falling by the wayside (gym membership, what?). One thing I am happy to say I've stuck to, is testing a lot of different things in my email communications. This isn't just because testing is an integral part of my job, but also because I'm a huge data geek (nerd?) and am always looking to learn more about my intended readers' behavior. So I thought it might be fun to share some of these tests in a series of blog posts throughout the year. Maybe you can take advantage of some of these findings too!

 

The Tale of the Tape

In this post I'll be going over a test we ran on the positioning of a call-to-action button (you can call it CTA) for one of our promotional emails. Originally, our emails would look like this (version A):

Then we thought, why don't we make the CTA the first thing the recipient sees when he/she opens the email, well above the fold? So we drafted up the following (version B):

We made sure to tag the links for the CTA and banner images in both versions with referred-by codes (simply add "/?REFERREDBY=XXX" at the end of your URLs, with REFERREDBY and XXX being something relevant to you, for example in our case we used "/?image=CTA" and "/?image=banner") in order to differentiate them in VerticalResponse's reporting tool. We set up both versions with identical offers and messaging, with a separate mailing list each, and off the emails went.

And the Winner is...

Results were rather surprising: version B's CTA button garnered about the same amount of clicks as version A's, but its clickthrough rate (unique number of clicks divided by total number of opens) overall was superior by 12% while bringing in over 33% more revenue. Version B by decision victory!

Surprised by these results? What kind of tests would you be interested in reading about moving forward?

Posted by My Truong

My Truong is the Marketing Programs Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter @PtitMy.

 

 

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5 B2B Email Marketing Takeaways from Tebow-Mania

Photo credit: Jeffrey Beall

If there's anything I've learned from the Tim Tebow craze, it's that giving the right pitch to the right (or wrong) audience can get your name out there, for better or for worse. If your message is irrelevant, if it is controversial or if you're too aggressive in the delivery, you may end up polarizing your audience or losing followers. Being known for something, whether it's good or bad, may be beneficial in the media world, but in business communications being infamous can hit you right in the pocketbook. In order to keep your business in the best light, follow these five B2B email best practice tips.  

1. Connect with your receivers - We've all got a lot of interesting things to say about our business or industry, but bombarding your recipients with too much information will overwhelm them and most likely make them sack your message (otherwise known as delete or unsubscribe). Create your message with relevant and engaging headlines and digestible chunks of content so busy readers can easily scan for valuable information.

2. Get them into the end zone - Design your message with a clear purpose in mind. Whether you want recipients to sign up for a free trial, attend an event or visit your website, the next step should be evident. Each message should have a main call-to-action. Including the same call-to-action more than once can help reinforce the end goal by giving recipients multiple opportunities to take the next step.

3. Target your fans - It's tough to create one newsletter or promotional email that will successfully engage members of multiple industries, titles and interests. Make your message relevant by segmenting your lists to offer useful and pertinent information to distinct audiences.

4. Spread your coverage - Include social sharing and forward to a friend links in your emails. This allows you to leverage your current customer base and their social networks for referrals and new business. You can also track how popular your emails are by tracking link clicks and social shares.

5. Run the drills - The best way to create effective emails is to examine your analytics and reporting to see what's working and what's not. Continue to make your messaging more effective by refining subject lines, calls-to-action, image placement, headlines, send times, cadence and more!

Using these tactics can help you score big with your readers. Do you have a particular tip or practice you've found beneficial in your B2B communications?

Posted by Savannah Stewart

Savannah Stewart is a Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @savannahstewart.

 

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Has Communication on Twitter Gone to the Birds?

I don’t want this to be one of those nostalgic posts that remember the “good old days” on one of the more popular social networks. No, I just want to share some very unscientific findings that made me scratch my head.

See, I’ve been on Twitter for almost four years now. Not as long as some of the more pronounced early adopters, but long enough to see the changes in the social network for better or worse. Like I said earlier, this is not a post to bash on what Twitter is today, but just to bring to light what those changes are and get input from other users to see if they're observing some of the same things.

So, to set the stage, let me tell you a little about the Twitter environment I reside in. As of this publishing, I have tweeted 25,406 times, I have 5,652 followers and I follow 607 people. And the makeup of those 607 people equate to some of the most socially savvy people in the Twitterverse.

To obtain a sample for this post, I categorized 100 tweets in my stream starting at 1:12 pm on January 23, 2012. I broke them into fairly distinct categories, but you will see that a few could have been combined (i.e., Foursquare, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.). I chose to leave them as separate categories, though. The tweets broke out as follows:

Type of Tweet                                                             # Tweets

Links (a tweet with a clickable link)	53
Conversation (tweets with people actually conversing)	15
Status Updates	13
Retweets	11
Foursquare Updates	4
Spotify Updates	1
Pinterest Updates	1
YouTube Links	1
Instagram Updates	1

So what are my observations from the findings? Well at least in my world, conversation has taken a back seat to sharing other pieces of content in a big way. Not to say this is a bad thing. After all, I'd be the first to admit that I source a large percentage of my content consumption via Twitter. I do, however, miss those multi-person conversations that would be moving so fast it would be hard to keep up. They were entertaining and provided different points of view on a multitude of subject matter in one easy to digest package.

But enough about my Twitter experience circa 2012, I’d love to hear your observation of today’s foremost micro blogging network! Let me know your thoughts.

 

Posted by Derek Overbey

Derek Overbey is the Senior Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @doverbey.

How to Customize Your Email Marketing With Little to No Effort

This article originally appeared on iMedia Connection, an online resource covering the latest and greatest in interactive marketing.

In a market that’s saturated with mass email campaigns for every product and service known to man, being able to consistently strike a chord with your customers isn’t easy.

High-level customization of email marketing campaigns usually requires collecting various types of data on your customers, segmenting your lists and using (and paying for) complex enterprise-level tools. But for many of us – especially the small agency or small business marketer – we need to start our email marketing efforts pronto without spending a whole ton of money.

Thankfully, there are ways to make it seem like your campaigns are customized even if all you have are the basics. How? Take your content cue from seasonal shifts, news headlines and even weather fluctuations.

Here are a few examples from big brands where this type of approach works well:

Baskin Robbins: To combat an inevitable dip in ice cream sales during the chillier months, they served up a double scoop of savings with a BOGO coupon (Buy One Get One Free) for their aptly-named Bobsled Brownie cones. Subject line: "Slide into Winter with December's Flavor of the Month."

Cole Haan: Their post-Black Friday campaign offered exhausted holiday shoppers a chance to both pamper themselves and score a year's worth of freebies. (In exchange for an email address, of course!) Subject line: "TREAT yourself: Enjoy 25% off AND enter to win 12 months of shoes."

Kaiser Permanente: The healthcare provider's December e-newsletter got a timely (and flavorful) boost by including a heart-smart winter soup recipe. Subject line: "Warm up your holidays with our lentil soup."

Recyclebank: They gently nudged members to earn extra points redeemable for free stuff by either pledging to reduce energy consumption and consumer waste, or by playing the latest, seasonally-themed game called “Green Your Seasons.” Subject line: "Last Days! 'Green Your Seasons Winter' is open, did you get your 90 points yet?"

Of course, you can kick it up another notch by automatically including the subscriber’s first name in the subject line, if you collect that information; most email service providers offer this feature.

Have you spotted any examples of “customized” marketing based on timely happenings or seasonal trends? Let us know!

 

Posted by Janine Popick.

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter and check out more of her iMedia Connection columns.

How to Put the Love in Your Valentine's Day Marketing

Valentine's Day 2012 is coming fast! According to the experts at the National Retail Federation, retail spending for the holiday will increase nearly 13 percent this year - that's huge! On top of this, the average person will spend $116.21 on traditional Valentine’s Day merchandise this year, an increase of 12.8% over 2011’s total, with expenditures on jewelry and clothing expected to rise substantially.

This makes this Valentine's Day the fourth most popular shopping holiday of the year, just behind the winter holidays of Christmas/Hanukkah, Back-to-School and Mother’s Day.

How can you share in the love-fest and reap the rewards this Valentine's Day? The good news is, no matter what industry you're in, or kind of business you have, you can capitalize on the theme. And, the time to get started is now!

Here are a few quick tips and tactics to get you and your readers feeling the love:

Work with the theme, but be a bit unexpected - Since everyone and their brother will be sending out emails with hearts, cupids and roses on them and subject lines with references to love, you'll want to ensure your emails and direct mail pieces stand out from the crowded mailboxes both online and off.

One way to catch your subscribers' attention is to put a creative spin on the theme and use the basics of content marketing 101 - tell a story to connect with your audience. For example, if you sell jewelry, tell a story behind symbolism of a particular precious stone that's used, or share a story of how a piece is created. You can even share the meanings behind Valentine's traditions or fun facts, like how many roses or how many pounds of chocolate will be sold this year. (The answer? 110 million roses and 1.1 billion boxes of chocolates will be sold throughout the U.S.) This way, you'll draw your recipient in and will hopefully get them to react.

Gift guides make shopping easy - Send an email marketing campaign or direct mail postcard with gift ideas by price point for him and her. If you're sending an email, try including a call-to-action button that encourages your readers to Buy Now. You can also use this free tool to make your own free custom button.

Use social to share the love - It's easier than ever to extend the reach of your messages to potential and new customers by sharing your email content on your social networks. Check out Roost by VerticalResponse, a free tool that lets you easily and quickly create a campaign of posts across all your social networks. The best part is you can do it all from one place and not have to log into Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn separately. You'll have your Valentine's Day campaign ready in a flash! You can also extend the life of your email campaign by sharing the hosted version to your social networks. You've spent the time to create it, now make sure as many people as possible can see it.

Be careful with your subject line - This is a great tip from our pals at the Retail Email Blog about not shortening Valentine's Day to V-Day in your subject line or tweets to save characters. V-Day has a number of meanings and associations, generally violent. Email marketers are always looking to trim characters from their subject lines, but this may not be the best way to shorten "Valentine’s Day."

How will you message your audience this Valentine's Day?

Posted by Kim Stiglitz.

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

Calling All NonResponders - Don't Give Up on Them Yet!

Who and what exactly are nonresponders? These are subscribers who continue to get your emails, but haven't opened, clicked or responded in a long time, if ever.

We've all read the advice to clean up our email lists and get rid of the "dead weight," the unengaged, the nonresponders. But wait! Have you tried to reengage them before you cut them loose?

More than 90% of consumers unsubscribe, “unlike” or stop following brands because of too frequent, irrelevant or boring communications.

Did you read that, 90%! And that b-word...BORING! I'm sure you've never, ever delivered said boring content and only provide the most timely, relevant information exactly as you promised your subscribers when they signed up for your list. But, if you've ever been guilty of not delivering on your promise (ahem, guilty as charged) then read on and we'll explore how to come back from the dark side and reengage the people on your list who may have gone quiet.

Provide Value with a Capital V: Are you providing value for your subscribers? Your goal is to make sure that your content meets or exceeds subscribers' expectations. But how to know that? Do you guess? Make assumptions? No! Send a quick survey to your subscribers and ask them questions related to why they subscribed and how the content you provide meets those expectations. If you find a disconnect between what you're providing and what your subscribers expect, it's time for a change. Remember that people opt in for different reasons and want different content. You may need to look at segmenting your list and content to provide the most relevant information to keep your subscribers coming back for more.

A great example of this is an email I received recently from Open Table reminding me of the restaurants I visited by booking though their system in 2011. All my visits were merged in the email. Great use of personalization and targeted messaging.

You can also send a specific email to your nonresponders reminding them of the value and why they subscribed in the first place. Just ensure you're delivering what you promised!

Test It! Try taking the last email campaign you sent that had a decent open and clickthrough rate and download your list of nonresponders (Sent emails - Reports - Download Lists - All nonresponders). Now, make a copy of your last email and try changing a single element, the easiest and fastest being the subject line. Now resend it to just your nonresponders and see what happens. Check out our recorded webinar Testing Your Email & Lists for Success for more tips. And, we also have a killer marketing guide: Testing, Testing 1,2,3 here.

Change the Channel: Going after nonresponders through email alone might not be enough, but have no fear because you can use email's best friends, direct mail and social media. How? It's pretty simple really. You can print up some simple inexpensive direct mail postcards and ask your nonresponders to come back and update their email address. Up to 30% of your email list can go bad in a single year alone due to people changing their email addresses. You can also reach out via your social media channels like Facebook & Twitter and ask people to visit your website and re-opt in via your opt-in form. Adding a special offer to this like "come back and save 30%" can provide a little incentive and reward to your subscribers for making the effort as well. 

Reactivating nonresponders can take a bit of effort, but if you get them back, you will regain a valuable resource.

What have you done to reactivate your nonresponders? I'd love to share your tactics.

Posted by Kim Stiglitz

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

Why is Google's Logo Blacked Out Today?

You may have gone to Google today and got a bit of a surprise, the site's logo is blacked out. Wikipedia and many other sites also have their home pages altered. 

What's going on with this? It's an online protest to two bills: Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. You can find full text of these bills in PDF form here for SOPA and here for PIPA.

Both of these bills are designed to tackle the problem of websites that distribute pirated content like movies and music. The problem is that most of these sites are located outside the U.S. Because it's tough to police sites outside the U.S. for this pirated content, these bills put the onus on sites like Google to make it hard for people to find these sites, and sites like YouTube to police what people post to their networks. The bills would effectively enable content owners (think movie studios and record labels) to shut down sites that they believe are violating copyright.

While these sites do agree with all content owners that pirated content is illegal, the main point that they're trying to make with their online protest is that it's impossible to enforce this legislation without promoting censorship and without completely changing the way their businesses run. Many of the protesting businesses do support legislation against piracy of some sort, but argue that SOPA and PIPA as written do not represent the best course of action. Even the White House has indicated that these specific bills are not the right solution.

How do you feel about these bills? Will they affect your business?

Posted by Janine Popick.

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter.