VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Future of Email - eMarketer Report

eMarketer published this recent survey that Ipsos conducted for Habeas about email usage among adults. Two-thirds of adult respondents said they preferred email for communicating with businesses. Just as many said they expected to still prefer email five years from now, however, they'd like their messages more targeted to them.

Check out the VerticalResponse List Segmentation tool to help you target your messaging better, it's free in your VR account. Get the whole study.

Happy emailing!

Crate & Barrel is Missing the Boat - Content Can Be King!

Sounds harsh huh? I don't think harsh enough actually. Look, I like the ole' C&B (especially the all new CB2) but I think they could be doing a better job. How?

I got the new Crate & Barrel catalog in the mail the other day. Cool! I like dreaming about outdoor living (cuz it is NOT happening here in chilly San Francisco!). They've got some really great pictures of a picnic scene with sandwiches and wine, then a great dining set with dishes on the table, then a nice weber grill with some skewers on a tray, and even a nice shot of some peppers frying on a grill pan. I even clicked on Summer Quenchers because I was sure that  headline would surely bring some quenching recipes. Nope.

What really got me going this fine morning was that there is a complete absence of any recipes that might go well with grilling, with any of their pots and pans, an absence of how really delicious summer food looks set up on a table and really the lack people in any shot.

C&B, Williams Sonoma is cleaning your clock. I hopped over to the WS site and they've got a whole section on Recipes. In the Recipe tab I search on "Roaster" because I wanted to know what I could Roast and I was presented with 74 recipes! Then I clicked around and even found Video Recipes on how to use a Weber and make Coffee Rubbed Prime Rib. I'm sold. I might even need that Weber Grill and some utensils too!

My point? In this situation content can sell the product. C&B has all the essentials to be able to do this but they don't pull it across the finish line.

Other situations that might lend themselves to content driven emails, websites and communications? What is your story around your product?

Wineries - Wines offer another great case for pairing varietals with food recipes, but you also might think about featuring the story of the winery or the passion of your winemaker.

Jewelry - Offer the story of the stones you use in your pieces or a story about how you began making jewelry.

Cars - Mini Cooper does a nice job offering up the History of the Mini as well as a community for the Mini owners and games like Word of the Day, fun Motoring Citations where you can write up your friends.

Retail - Due Maternity has celebrity fashion pages, blogs, a great marketing tool "Look Who's Prego" and nifty tools like Create Your Own Calendar, Countdown Clock and Wish List, all designed to sell more product.

Home Depot does a great job with content around selling their products, especially for the "Do-it-Yourself-ers".

Fitness Centers/Equipment - Write about an exercise of the month with a piece of gym equipment that you sell or your center offers.

Bars/Restaurants - Offer up your "secret" recipe for a popular drink or dish. Don't worry, no one can do it better than you, but they'll sure have fun trying!

Non Profit Organizations - You all have stories to tell about your cause. VR customers Street Schools and Children Today do a great job at this.

You can use content either very simply (a recipe) or more difficult (a game) but any way you do it it can help you sell more. Hey, I'd keep the C&B catalog around more if it had some good content in it and who knows maybe even buy a Roaster!

Are you using content to drive more sales? Tell us how!

CAN-SPAM - New Updates to Federal Law

I asked our ISP Relations & Deliverability Manager George Sukara to update me on some new CAN-SPAM rulings that just happened this past week (and break it down in plain English for all of us.)

1) POSTAL ADDRESS - Valid Physical Address can include a PO box or Mail Stop, as long as the USPS recognizes it. This might be an obvious one but it used to be a gray area, now it's not.

2) PERSON is now defined not just as a human, it can also be a corporation, non-profit, etc. This is who is responsible for CAN-SPAM compliance when sending a commercial email. So business entities, as well as regular folks are now responsible for CAN-SPAM compliance in regards to all commercial email they send.

3) DESIGNATED SENDER RULE - This applies to you if you include any advertising or partners in an email. If you don't include your company name "in the email" with a link to access your site, your advertisers are responsible for CAN-SPAM compliance even if your name is in the From Label. This mainly applies to companies who send coupons or offers on behalf their partners.

For example: Company A sends an email to their list with a special offer from Company B. In the email, Company A must have some information that advertises their own service, and some way for the recipients to access their site.

If Company A does not include some kind of ad for their own company inside the email, then Company B being advertised within the email would be responsible for all CAN-SPAM compliance.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you're advertising in another company's email marketing campaign, make sure they put something about their services with a link to their site. You don't want to be on the hook for their CAN-SPAM compliance.

Also, CAN SPAM states (again) that all commercial emails:

• Must have a working reply-to address or other web based opt-out mechanism (which must also be conspicuous) for the company listed in the From Label
• Can't be false or misleading
• Can have no deceptive subject lines
• Must comply with the SEXUALLY EXPLICIT label

4) UNSUBSCRIBE - Unsubscribes must not be complicated, nor can it require some kind of purchase, or taking a survey. The only thing you are allowed to ask for in an unsubscribe is an email address and the user's email preferences.

As usual we'll keep you informed on most of the CAN SPAM updates, just be sure you follow the simple the rules above and you'll be AOK.    

6 Ways to Maximize Your Budget in a Down Economy

It's time to hunker in the bunker for all businesses out there in this economy. The greatest asset you have? Your customers, so remember to treat them really well, but you've also got to think about new business too. We've got a few ways you can think about getting new business and maybe even cutting costs.

Convert Your Prospect Into Customers

Do you have a lot of opt-ins that have not purchased? Do you have a ton of business cards in a shoebox? When was the last time you data-entered the people who signed up for your newsletter at your counter?

Why not do a special email marketing campaign to them with a "New Customer" discount. Check your reporting to see which offers are getting the most opens or clicks and send those who haven't purchased that winning offer with a discount code.

Ways to get at non purchasers: 

• Upload a list of "Purchasers" and "Non purchasers" from your contact management system.
• If you're purchase data is in your VerticalResponse account segment your list  based on people who have not purchased.
• If you have a list to upload and you think it's mixed with both purchasers and non-purchasers, one idea is to segment on who you've emailed before if you're sure those you're mailing are customers. Then take the rest and give them the code.  

You've spent a lot of money to get those people signed up, now it's time to get them purchasing.

Cost: $7+ per month depending on how large your non-purchaser list is.
Gain: New customers!

Your Print Advertising

Re-negotiate It! - Look, we all know print can be expensive, but in a lot of cases it works! Furthermore, publications you advertise in don't want you to leave and they don't want to be responsible for you going out of business because they want to be paid either. Maybe you can ask to cut back on the number of ads you're running or better yet, keep running but ask for a discounted rate for the next 6 months. It's worth a shot. It's in their best interest for you to stay in business.

Share It! - If you do get stuck in a contract, see if you have friends who run businesses that you can share the cost and  placement with. One month you run, the next month your colleague runs. It's great for any business as long as the publication agrees to it. Maybe you can even split the ad in half! We did that at Wine Business Monthly with another company that wanted to get in front of the wine industry.

Cost: Either of these will reduce costs.

Run Advertising in Your Email Campaigns

You've spent dollars acquiring your customers, why not offer relevant advertisements to them in your emails. You can't include Google Adsense in your emails, Google doesn't like it. But you can do it on your own. Simply post a link on your site that says "Advertise" and have a page where you write about the makeup of your customers. Are they more women than men? Are they interested in specific items? Do they live in certain areas of the country? Then either have a "mail to:" email pop up to someone in your business directly or give pricing for advertising right on your site. You might even want to put how many emails you have to email to as well.

• Restaurants/Bars - Offer specials on a specific beverage and get your distributors or liquor companies to sponsor it. You can even get a neighboring business to put an offer in your email.
• Retailers - Anything you sell can be sponsored by the distributor or manufacturer.
• Real Estate Execs - Get a neighboring home improvement company to sponsor emails.

VR Customers that do a great job of this: Splendora, Due Maternity, Mavericks Surf Ventures, Love to Eat and Travel.

Cost: No cost.
Gain: You could cover your email marketing budget and even MAKE money on advertising in your email campaigns.

Collect Email Addresses from EVERYWHERE

• Do you have a VerticalResponse sign up form or link on every page of your site? Do it now, it's free.
• Take a guest book or clipboard to every event you go to for your business.
• Pay your employees per valid email they get in the door. It's cheaper than advertising.
• Restaurants, ask server staff to mention that there is a card in the bill holder. Retail, ask in the guest book at the counter. Salons/Spas, get the email for the appointment reminder and ask if you can add them to your list.
• Offer a birthday club.
• Take that stack of business cards you've collected and send an opt-in email. If they already opted-in when they gave it to you ("Can I add you to my email list?") send an email reminding them where they met you.
• Input this data into your VR account or your contact manager no less than WEEKLY. Then MAKE SURE they get a welcome email from you with a New Customer discount.

Cost: Nothing to host additional email addresses, cost is for sending email.
Gain: New customers!

Stick With Google Adwords

It's important for you to be where your prospective customers are searching for you. What's great about Adwords is you can really figure out what your customer acquisition costs are and limit your monthly budget spend.

Here's a quick example:

• Cost per click for your keyword = .10
• Click Budget per month = $200
• Clicks you'd like to get per month = 2000
• New customers from clicks = 20
• Customer Conversion = 1%
• Cost per customer = $10

If you know that a customer purchases from you 2-3 times a year and the average price is $20, your payback happens pretty quickly. What we love about Adwords is that you really can test quickly by bidding more for your keywords or adjusting your budget. If you need help getting started, check out our partner MerchEngines.

Cost: MerchEngines: $179 per month for 1000 guaranteed clicks. They do the work. Do it yourself and you control the budget.
Gain: New customers!

Create a Blog

The more you post about relevant things the more you'll get picked up by Search Engines in the natural rankings and the more you'll get site visitors. Put a VerticalResponse opt-in form on the blog to collect email addresses free. Check out our partner TypePad.

Cost: $5 per month on the lowest end for TypePad. Email collection from VR is free.
Gain: Overtime, more people are seeing you, great for PR too!

What are you doing to cut costs while still maintaining your business in this economy? We'd love to hear!

Lead Generation Idea - Good, Bad & Ugly

I got a direct mail piece the other day in a letter format. It was from a company that "teaches managers how to manage" so they wrote. They were requesting a meeting with me to talk about how they can help our company. They had a $50 bill clipped to the letter. The punchline said:

"The $50 is yours to keep as prepayment for spending 3 minutes with me on the phone when I call to follow up."

GOOD

It could work to your benefit. Let's say your list was a very targeted list of 100 CEOs at businesses you'd like as customers.

Printing Cost: 100 x .20 =  $20
Mailing Cost:  100 x .42 =  $42
Money Cost:   100 x  50 =  $5,000
Total Cost:                       $5,062

Response rate (high because you're so clever) is 10% so number of meetings is 10.
Close rate (high because you're killer on the phones) is 50% so the number of new customers is 5.
If you charge $2500 (guessing) per training, you've got $12,500 large in your pocket, 5 new customers and you've made $7438 to put towards your next mailing. Nice.

BAD

Christine, our office manager, answers the phone when I'm busy and I started to get calls from the sender of this mail piece. They would never leave a message, just their name regarding the "money they sent me."

This is an uber form of OPT-OUT. It's like sending someone you've never talked to an email, then telling them they're going to hear from you until they unsubscribe.

UGLY

So on the negative side, if you're going to do something like this, be prepared for:

a) Brand damage - Some may not like this marketing tactic and tell the world.
b) The people who don't see the need for your services but keep the dough. It's the cost of doing business.
c) Sending money through a shipper seems a bit risky.

Hey, $50 is nice and would contribute greatly to the "beer fund" at VR, but for me personally, I didn't really need to feel guilted into talking to someone just to feel good about keeping it.

So...I sent it back.

Should I have? You tell me...

5 Places To Include a Survey Link - Ask Your Customers How You're Treating Them!

Listening to your customers can always give you a reality-check. It's super-easy to listen to good news, but what happens when a customer gives you bad news? Acting on bad news might just be the best thing you can do to make your business better. And if you think you won't get any "suggestions for improvement" you're dead wrong, no matter how great business is going. Everyone has their own opinions. So be brave, and learn what these opinions are, by simply asking.

You may want to know:

• Why certain products aren't flying off the shelves (or even falling ever-so-slightly)
• How customers were treated by your personnel on the phones, in email or in person
• What customers might think about a new product line and how much they'd pay for it
• How customers feel about your online checkout process
• What products or services your customers would like to see from you next
• What customers thought about any changes or improvements to your site you've made after the fact OR
• What changes they'd like to see to your site before you do them!

All of this is easy and possible! How? Start with the new and easy-to-use VerticalResponse Survey product. You get 100 free responses and they're waiting for you right now in your account. Then what?

Email Them - You knew I was going to say that! This is especially great for online businesses but if you've got an offline business and you've collected email addresses from your customers it's equally as beneficial. If someone has just visited you for your product or services you might want to email them soon after to find out how their experience was. When I say "soon after" I mean it, you want to get the information while it's HOT!

Oh, if it's something you really want your recipients to focus on you should do it in a solo email and not include it in a newsletter with other links. It may distract your recipient from what you really want them to do.

Confirmation Emails - Include the link to a survey in all confirmation emails that you auto-generate after a customers buys your product online. It's a great opportunity for you to learn.

Transactional Emails - If you send "account update" emails or emails about an upcoming appointment, travel, restaurant reservation or hotel stay, you may want to include a survey link about your overall services.

Pop-Up Windows - When someone leaves a particular product page without purchasing or a landing page without signing up for something, pop up a window with the link to the survey asking for their opinions.

Your Site - You can include a link to "Tell Us How We're Doing" right on your home page or on every page of your site if you like. Make sure you look at this information regularly and act on it. Go ahead, make changes on-the-fly. Isn't the web beautiful?

After your customers have taken their valuable time to help you, why not send them a heart-felt thank you gift for filling out the survey like an e-gift certificate or a discount on their next purchase. It will go a long way in showing your customers that you genuinely care about what they think. Then put it to work!

How are you using surveys?

New Feature! Google Gadget

Are you obsessive about your results? Can't stop clicking that refresh button? The VerticalResponse Gadget is the cure for your compulsion!

Add it to your personalized iGoogle page, or your Google Apps "Start Page" for an up-to-the minute view into your VerticalResponse results.

With the The VR Gadget for iGoogle and Google Apps, you can:

• View real-time stats for your five most recently launched emails and surveys.
• Get the latest email marketing tips, tricks, and best practices from our award-winning blog.

Get The Gadget Now!

So you might be thinking, that sounds great, but what the heck are iGoogle and Google Apps? Watch a short video to find out more!

Great Member Appreciation Idea

I've been talking a bit lately about how important it is to go the extra mile for your customers especially in this economy. A great example came in the mail the other day from my gym. They love people like me because I don't go;-) It's a really great gym with a grill and a spa (which actually I DO go to).

It was a simple piece that looked invitation-like offering us to come in during "Member Appreciation Week" on nice paper folded with a "Member Appreciation Card" tucked inside.

The card had discounts for:

• Private training
• Group exercise one-on-ones
• Complimentary Kinesis® session
• 10% off of any 80 minute spa treatment
• Dinner entrée at the Grill with purchase of entrée of equal or greater value

Nice! Great idea to appreciate your members get them active and give and great offers too. What are you doing to go the extra mile for your customers? Let's hear it!

VR Sponsors Technology Bootcamp All Over Northern CA

VerticalResponse is taking it on the road partnering with the SBDC and NetBooks in Northern CA. The SBDC does this great technology bootcamp about how to use technology to catapult your small business. We're pretty excited that they asked us to be a part of it.

What's Included? For Just $45 You Get:

• 6 sessions presented by industry experts covering the use of technology across all the functions of your business.
• Take-away course book covering all six sessions.
• Access to online resources and training materials
• Breakfast, lunch & beverages
• Networking opportunities with your small business peers

Where Are They?

Fairfield, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, San Ramon, Ukiah, Eureka, Rohnert Park, San Mateo, & Santa Cruz! Some dates and places are TBD so check back often!

See ya there!

Wolf Coffee - Great Idea to Seed Your Product From a VR Customer

Before our Spring Marketing Conference took place we were contacted by one of our great customers Wolf Coffee in Sonoma. They make some really great coffee. They asked if they could donate some bags of coffee to our attendees! What a great idea to get the word out by seeding your product to potential customers.

Where else do we see people doing this?

• Sporting Events - Hire street teams to give your product away
• Outside of Conference Centers
• Concert Events
• Local Non Profit Galas
• Street Fairs

Wolf Coffee you get a gold star from VR for having a great idea on how to spread the word about your product. Anyone else have luck doing this?