VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Complacency - Is It Killing Your Business?

I was talking to a woman about her business the other day. We were focusing on a particular service that she knew would be a nice thing for her customers to have and wouldn't take a ton of work to do. It would even help solidify what was an already pretty good relationship with them. But she then said "It's not like our competition has it now and it's not like people are complaining that we don't have it. The few that do complain aren't going to go anywhere because we're kind of the only game in town. We're just too busy to think about it anyway."

So I got to thinking, what happens when all of a sudden you're not the only game in town and that little "nice to have" might actually be a nice differentiator for your business?

I was reading research by the University of Florida and studies showed that for every customer that complains about something there are 25 more dissatisfied customers who don't! What's worse? An unhappy customer will tell 13 people about his or her dissatisfaction. That adds up.

Yes, there are such things as priorities, we have them here too: A finite number of people to do the infinite amount of things you have to do. Here's an exercise: look at your infinite list of things you want to do for your customers, I bet there are 5 of them that aren't as hard as you might have thought.

What are a few examples of things you can do that maybe your customers AREN'T asking for?

Offline Retailers - You might be carrying the same things as your friends down the street and for the same prices, but do you have a few nice cushy chairs for people to relax in? How about serving espresso to your customers as they shop. Check out very inexpensive things like Tassimo or Nespresso. A little can sure go a long way

Salons - My husband goes to a place where his stylist gives him a 5 minute scalp and shoulder massage, he's a lifer!

Software Developers - We ALL have the list of things that a) WE know will be great for our customers and b) bugs we need to fix. Why not do the quarterly "mini" release for your customers that bundle some of these small things together with a mix of upgrades along with something new?

Consultants - Here's an idea: put together some research on the industry you serve from other researchers. It's a pain for your customers to track down any data or information, but it would be nice for you to write a quarterly white paper and send an email to your customers informing them of your new download.

Restaurants - Amuse bouche! What a nice surprise it is when a tiny appetizer that isn't on the menu shows up in front of you to start the meal.

What are things you can do to give your customers the "Wow, that's cool" factor, before they complain or worse yet don't and never come back?

Direct Mail Postcards Gone Good and Gone Bad

I get a ton of mail, I'm sure you do too. Today I want to focus on a good example of a direct mail postcard with a fun offer and I want to show you a creative example that in theory would be good but in practice turned bad.

Gone Good

This real estate firm does a lot right with this card. They use a great image of a property and they use the postcard almost as an invitation to a party. "Join Us for a Grand Opening Party!". It's a very creative way to invite people in the neighborhood to what might normally be a boring old open house. They're serving wine and hors d'oevers, having a meet and greet with the architect and the decorator. The whole offer is enticing and different.

They also pre-sorted their zip codes to get the discount and included the bar code on the card so the post office didn't have to. Nice and clean.

Gone Bad

First of all, creative attempt, "Why Wait? The Time is Now" with some canned image, great for marketing on a budget. Big Typo: "Capet" should be "Carpet". Argh.

Reverse side - this is where I'm having the biggest problem.

First of all, I think that they're trying to fit TOO much copy onto the back of the card. Four scary bullet points about all of the fungus and pet dander I might have kids rolling around on and I'm sold.

Secondly, you need to take into consideration what the post office might do when your cards go through their sorting machines.

This company tried to be creative and flip the copy on the back of the card to be vertical which is fine, but they also flipped the addressing area to be vertical too, not fine.  The bad news is, the post office machines line up all of the same-sized cards horizontally, like the real estate card above, to look for the bar codes (if there is one).  The last thing you want to do is to have the post office "trying" to read your card.

One more thing, it's in your best interest to have your cards bar-coded at the same time they get addressed. If you don't include a barcode the post office may stick a nasty piece of tape with the bar code on your card (shown here). Here you see that the post office did it not only once, but twice, covering up valuable bits of information like the logo, address and phone number. Yikes.

Just a few examples to get you thinking about how to put your own postcards together.

5 Things to Know About Using Images In Your Email

We've recently been asked a bunch of questions about using images in email so I thought this would be a good time to talk about 5 quickies to help you out.

Beware of a “good” image to text ratio - We recommend a 30/70 image to text ratio as a healthy mix for maximum deliverability. Why? If your email is image heavy you run the risk of winding up in the junk folder. I've recently been looking at a few junk folders and I'm finding that one key across multiple junk folders is image heavy emails.

Use “Alt Tags” - What is an alt tag? It's the alternative text you give your image that pops up when your image is either moused over or not displayed. Alt tags can also contain key words for some search engine results. For example, our alt tag for our VerticalResponse logo might be "VerticalResponse - Email Marketing for Small Business" so that our recipients know when they open the email and see that alt tag they know that it's us.

When you use our Media Library you can give all of your images Alt Tags.

Don’t use one large image as the sole content of your email -  If your email is made up of either only one large image or multiple images and your recipient's reader has images turned off, the first thing they'll see is your unsubscribe link.

Don’t use heavy images - Try to keep your images under 25k because if they take too long to load, your impatient recipients will likely move on to their next email. If your images are too large, use a tool like spinwave to make them “lighter” without sacrificing too much quality.

Don't forget to link your images – Make sure if you include an image you link off from it. Everyone expects to be able to get somewhere by clicking on an image.

I hope this helps, if anyone has any other ideas please share!

Someone Tried to Put One Over on VR? I don't think so...

Every week I use an online tool from Andiamo Systems that helps me track what people are saying about VerticalResponse online real-time (plug: my husband's rockin' technology, try it). I came across a cryptic post and asked Richard, our Manager of ISP Relations and Policy enforcement (long title, I know) to look into it.

I've asked him to post this, it's unreal. Richard, take it away...

"It’s 6:00 on a Tuesday evening, I’ve just arrived home, and what do I find in my inbox but a fairly cryptic email from Janine that says:

Does this make sense to you?

http://www.thealbanyproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1184

I followed the link and found a blog article discussing some particularly annoying sounding political spam going out through a company called “linkedcampaign.com.”  Makes sense so far.  But then I read:

Linked Campaign is an email marketing service provided by a company called VerticalResponse Self Service Direct Marketing in San Francisco, with servers in North Carolina.

This, of course, did not make sense at all.  First, I know we don’t offer any sort of service called Linked Campaign.  Second, all our servers live here in San Francisco with us and don’t often make the journey to North Carolina (at least not while they’re on the clock).  Third, the type of mail described in the blog post would be very unlikely to make it out through our system.

Why would a blogger think we offered this “Linked Campaign” service?  I went to the linkedcampaign.com website in hopes of finding out.  And I certainly did find out:

Linkedcampaign.com was nothing more than a copy of our entire website as it appeared in March of this year! 

I immediately commented to the blog post (and emailed the Albany Project owner) to explain the situation.  They very quickly edited the article and posted two very detailed correction posts explaining that we were not involved with the problem email.  I couldn’t have dealt with nicer, more professional people than the folks at the Albany Project.

I then set out to track down the owner of Linked Campaign.  This was complicated by their use of Domains by Proxy to hide their WHOIS info (the owner of every website is required to have their contact info published to a WHOIS record, which can usually be looked up by anyone).  Domains by Proxy refused to release the information to me without a Court Order or a Subpoena.  I understood this was necessary to protect their customers, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating (or any less suspicious that the owner of a website that was a copy of our site was hiding their WHOIS info).

Luckily, the spam emails had gone out through a perfectly traceable IP Address that led back to Road Runner (an ISP).  I contacted Road Runner, discovered they were hosting the linkedcampaign.com website, explained the situation, and they took the website down.

I also discovered that one of the websites responsible for the spam emails had a very small print contact phone number at the bottom of the main page.  I contacted this number, and after being passed around a bit (and being given a different phone number) found the owner of that site, who put me in contact with the owner of Linkedcampaign.com.  The owner apologized, said he didn’t know the Linked Campaign domain was being used to mimic our website, and explained the numerous steps he’d take to ensure the problem never happens again.  And so far so good in that regard."

JP: So the bottom line is, keep a tab on what's going on about your company online, then make sure you act on it, bad things can happen to the best of companies. Good news for all of you? We spend a ton of time protecting our reputation so your email gets in the door!

 

Here Come the Holidays! 7 Tips to Get You Ready Now

If your business is anything like ours here at VerticalResponse, you're pretty hectic from now until the end of the year. We've jotted down some ideas to get you thinking and acting now. By the way, some of this post is targeted at those business that sell retail and ship things, but you can apply most of this list to your business even if you don't.

Here are things you'll need to think about for each of your holiday email marketing campaigns:

1. Calendar Out Your Activities - Use the free Interactive Marketing Calendar (or that paper calendar that's on your desk). The Calendar Link is located in the top nav bar in your VR Account. You can easily input important tasks such as writing copy, upload images and  launch, or just write them down. Either way get something tangible you can look at.

2. 80% of your clicks come within 1 day - It's a good rule of thumb so you may want to work this into your calendar as well. Then you can project how long you'll need before you want to potentially reach out to your recipients again.

3. Your Subject Line - I've said it before I'll say it again:
    Don't repeat your from label in your subject line
    Be smart about your first 40 characters, put the most important info up front
    Check out this post for some super subject line tips   

4. Guarantee Shipping - Decide on the date when you'll guarantee shipping before a holiday. Call your shipper to see when they're guaranteeing delivery then pad this so you won't have negative customer service issues in the case where a shipment isn't made. Use this date in your email marketing campaigns as it gets closer to the looming deadline.

5. Retail Locations - If you're staying open late to capitalize on #4 above, make sure you heavily market this in your emails.

A note to #4 & #5 above, gift cards rule! eMarketer published a report noting that gift card sales will rise 25% this year over last and that most people buy them in store, however a surprising 26% of gift cards will be bought online, so you may want to include that in your email marketing campaigns.

6. Include Forward to a Friend Link - It's many times forgotten, but you might pick up a few new customers from your current ones.

7. Host Your Emails on a Web Page - There is going to be so much email flying around the next few months you might see an increase in recipient's spam filters stripping out images (see previous post about this). If you include a link that says "Click Here to View This Email in a Browser" your recipients that are having issues can view your email as a web page. Just select it in the pulldown in Canvas or select the box in Wizard. Either way, we'll host it for free for you.

It's not too early to get your holiday schedule nailed down. It will be one less thing you have to think about. Now there will be one less than a million!

Take a Stroll Through My Junk Folder

I thought it might be fun to peruse my junk folder and point out why some of the emails wind up there...ready? Let's begin!

From: Neiman Marcus
Subject: FREE SHIPPING + What's the hottest CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN style for fall?

Problems: I know I always bust on Neiman, but it's pretty easy.
FREE SHIPPING - Avoid this and please not in all caps, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN is all in caps too. They use a + and a ? which by themselves might not be bad but coupled with everything else wrong...why not add in a few !!!! while you're at it? The content was made up of only images without names.

From: Brookstone
Subject: Stop Snoring! Clinically Tested Sona Anti-Snore Pillow!

Problems: Did they learn nothing when they used to be a VR Customer;-)
They use two exclamation points and their email is only images.

From: eMarketer
Subject: eMarketer Daily - Prescribing Online Pharma Marketing

Problems: I usually get this amazing email in my inbox but this one went directly into Junk, why? My guess is that the subject has "Prescribing Online Pharma", it's too much like selling drugs online like many spammers do.
One more thing - We don't recommend repeating your "from" in the subject line, it cuts off what you really want your readers to see.

From: Monsoon Email
Subject: Re: Mortgage Brokers - #1 mortgage broker marketing tool end of summer promotion

Problems: My guess as to why it landing in my junk folder is that a) I never signed up for this b) never but a Re: when it's really not a reply, c) stay away from using Mortgage, let alone twice in the subject line. Also an image heavy email. And I'm not just picking on the competition who spammed me ;-)

From: The Westin Copely Place, Boston
Subject: Limited Time Offer: Summer Sale

Problems: Seems simple but "offer" and "sale" are probably not great to have in the subject line together. The good thing they do? They mix up their creative with some text so I do get an idea about the content of the email. The bad thing? I can't "click to view in a browser".

I will end this post by saying that just because you use an Email Service Provider, even VerticalResponse, there is no guarantee you'll get into the inbox without a bit of work on your part creatively. We can get you through the gates of the ISP but we need a bit of help from you when you create your email to get that into the inbox, and the retail season is upon us and it's more important than ever for many of you to increase your sales.

Here are a few posts that might help.

Email Deliverability and You - A Handy Guide
Stop Looking to the Big Boys for Creative Ideas
A List of Subject Lines and Offers for the Holidays
5 Quick Ways to Improve Delivery Rates

Hope this helps!

Design a Graphic...In a Pinch

Ever have a hard time getting the right image for your email marketing campaigns? Ever thought about creating it yourself but you were too afraid to do it? I know, I struggle sometimes too but I've got a workaround that might help you out. All you need for this is Powerpoint or Google Docs (which is free) and your computer!

Take a Picture, It'll Last Longer

The first trick is to make an image from anything you see on your screen. Here's how you do it.

Mac: "Shift + Command + 4" gets you cross hairs, then just click and ›drag over the area you want to take a picture of and it makes a camera clicking sound. It's saved as a PNG called "Picture 1" or "2" or how ever many you already have. Click on the icon on your desktop and it will open up, then click "Save As" in your "File" menu and save it with the format of JPEG. You've just created your own image without any expensive software!

PC: This seems a bit trickier, but it's probably because I'm a PC moron.

Press "alt + print screen" which copies the active window to your clipboard. Go to "start>all programs>accessories>paint" and paste contents into a new paint window (control + v). In paint you can select the portion of the image and crop it, then save it as a jpg. Thanks to Paul our Customer Service Manager for that one...whew!

Want to take it further?

Drag your new image into PPT if you have it or insert your image into FREE Google Docs under Presentation and create something even further. Got a great picture from the web but need copy to go with it? Type copy in a text box in either of these programs then take another picture and repeat step 1. You've just become a graphic designer. (Ok not totally).

Here's an example...

I was creating fake logos and graphics for our all new pre-designed layouts in our Email Canvas tool. That's right, if you use one of these, chances are it's designed by myself or Carol, our Direct Marketing Manager. I needed a "No Sushi" graphic for the sushi haters and a "Downtown Sushi" logo.

I simply used the fancy "NO" symbol already available in PPT (you can find these images free on the web I'm sure), made it red, typed in "No Sushi" into a text box, then moved the text box over the symbol. Then I took a picture and saved it as a jpg. Voila.

For my Downtown Sushi logo I typed the words "Downtown Sushi" and found an image of a single piece of sushi. I took a picture of the sushi then positioned it right below the copy. I duplicated and arranged it 7 times then I matched the words with the color of the sushi.

Then I took a picture of the final outcome. Pro-fessional!

Check this out, I needed a graphic about Josh for a blog post. I dragged his image onto PPT, used the "balloon" graphic from PPT (again I'm sure you can find these images free on the web) and typed copy into a text box, then snapped a picture and saved it.

Cheesy? Maybe, but I got what I needed without having to bug our designers. Got a workaround that lends itself to marketing? Bring it on!

We Hear You! List Segmentation Trial is Extended

Boy you guys are vocal, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We have decided to extend the trial for our list segmentation feature too see how you all like it and how you use it. So instead of two weeks, you've got a few months. We ask ONE THING...that in the course of the next few months you guys give us some feedback on the tool. See ideas on segmenting your lists and data here.

Capiche? Thanks!

VerticalResponse Integrates with NetBooks!

Have you heard? A super new company called NetBooks just launched  and they're using VerticalResponse as their email marketing partner!

What is NetBooks?

They are the newest partner of VerticalResponse! They are an online solution that lets any business run everything from soup to nuts for a low monthly fee.

What Soup and Where Are the Nuts?

You can run everything from bookkeeping, to production, to inventory management, to sales and shipping. Oh, throw in a bit of CRM and email marketing (VerticalResponse) and you've got a nifty solution all rolled into one. Best of all? Since it's all online you get it from anywhere, anytime, no more software to keep upgrading. I highly recommend you joining the online demo, it's packed full of information and you can ask any questions you'd like. The team over there rocks.

True story: Ridgely Evers, the CEO, also started DaVero, an amazing wine and olive oil business. He's been a customer and fan of VerticalResponse for many years, and came directly to us to be heavily involved in this new gig. Oh, and as the guy behind the original Quickbooks, you can imagine how great that was. You will still get all of your fantastic VR functionality when you use them.

By the way, they are using the VerticalResponse API to do much of the integrated work. If you need to integrate with a top-notch email service provider check out our robust API. Developers love it!