VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Drumming Up Biz at the DNC

The topic? Should you give away your product free and hope someone buys more or should you offer a "Buy One Get One Free" promotion?

Last night we visited a local establishment and a bunch of people were coming in with free drink tickets that were probably included in some package at the convention. I would say half left after they got their free drink and half stayed. Maybe it was worth it for those half that stayed and bought more to cover those that had left.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Do share!

We're off to Invesco Field for the last day of the convention.

Live at the Democratic National Convention - Personalized Email Marketing

Not so lucky with the seats on the 3rd day of the convention as it's crazier than ever. Yesterday we got our mugs on EVERY major network in the US! Today we lugged our stuff over here and are toward the end of roll call in the nosebleed section.

I thought I'd focus on some of the email marketing that is going on to get voters talking.

A lot the emails the candidates are sending seem very personal, almost letter-like with very few links. It seems like this election is really coming from the heart rather than "election headquarters" so far...

I think they could be using more personalization instead of "My Friend" or "Friends", but maybe that will get better going forward.

Live from the Democratic National Convention

We got into Denver on Monday for the Democratic National Convention. Now for those of you who are going to “booooo” me for blogging about the convention, if I got an invite to the GOP Convention, I’d be there too, so no nasty comments please.

Denver is insane right now. 15,000 media people and 4,000 delegates. What’s even better are the businesses capitalizing on marketing opportunities. There is not a square inch in this town left for marketing & advertising. I’m proudly wearing my VR schwag and giving away VR buttons for people to wear.

We made our way downtown; but not before me getting my mug shot with the lovely Charles Barkley in our own hotel. Then we ate at a great restaurant where the famed Video Professor John Scherer sat in front of us mildly annoyed by all the DNC fuss in his hometown. It’s almost over John.

So what are businesses doing here to capitalize on the fuss?

• Restaurants are playing it up big time with DNC specials and parties. One great place Lime, not only extended their hours, but had a “DNC week at Lime” special. Buy one entrée get the second half off. They said they’re going crazy with new clients.
• The author of a children’s book at a bookstore on Larimer St. was signing books outside. Tons of foot traffic happens on Larimer St. so that was a great idea.
• Hotels turned their room keys into DNC sponsored keys.
• YouTube is here with a booth asking people to give a one liner sentence on why you like the candidate. Great for viral, they’ll be posting them all as they’re shot.

The media? They’re EVERYWHERE. Makes me feel kind of funny walking around with my little Flip Camera, but I love it.  Oh and I got my one second of fame on CNN during Hillary’s speech.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more ideas I’m uncovering for business.

Opt-In Forms - What Data Should You Collect?

The question about the "right amount of questions" to ask of people signing up to your opt-in form is a tough one to answer, we get it all the time. Then we have to give the lame answer "that depends." But it's true, it does depend. It depends on what you really need for your business. There are varying degrees of data collection methods, here I've attempted to outline a few.

Quantity

If your business relies on sheer quantity and "just ok" quality of email addresses then you might only ask for email address and maybe first name if you want to ever personalize your email marketing campaigns. For our own newsletter this is what we do here at VerticalResponse.

VR customer BetterWall asks for only the email address because they're going for quantity. They probably will try to convert their subscribers to purchasers at a later date.

Quality

If you need your email addresses to be quality and be "real" verified email address, than a double opt-in verification or a CAPTCHA can be used.

Postal Address - Some businesses need a full address because they'll be sending postal mail to them. If you do need this make sure to make it required so your visitor can't leave the form without filling it out. What's also great about getting a postal address is if your recipients email bounces you can send them a direct mail piece asking them to call you and update it.

If you're not going to be sending your recipients anything by mail but want to know their location, you might want to just ask for postal code. Then you can do free zip code lookups with tools like the ones Melissa Data provides.

Phone Number - Phone numbers can be especially important if you need to call your customers at any given point to confirm something. And just like gathering postal information, you can call them if their email bounces to get an update. Expect to get a percentage of people giving bogus information as well, but many won't especially if you give them the reason why you're asking for it.

Product Interest - We have many customers who want to market to their recipients by the product or service they have an interest in.

Duckhorn Vineyards does a great job at telling their visitors why certain fields are required and asks what varietals they'd like to receive information about.

Age - Asking for age, again depending on the business might be a bit tricky. One way around this is by having a birthday club where you give something to your registrant as a gift. It can be in the form of a discount or something free.

Danger Zone Data - Credit Card information, household income & gender can all be a bit personal and turn off your registrant especially if they're required. Expect a lot of bogus information here if you're asking for it, there are just too many scams going on online and people are generally afraid.

Testing

If you can set up two different opt in forms. For one month show the opt in form with less data required and count how many email addresses you collect. Then in the following month show the opt in form where you ask for more information. At the end of the two months compare the two for what your business needs are and see if you got more email addresses from one month to another and if asking for more information deterred visitors from signing up.

Got any ideas for collecting information that you've learned? Share!

Get Vertical Marketing Workshops Coming To a City Near You

Have you ever asked yourself:

1. What are the best ways to quickly grow my email list?
2. How can I build eye-catching emails when I'm not really technical?
3. What are the current laws I should understand regarding commercial emails?

If you have, then we’ve got the perfect event for you. Join us for a one-day workshop that will answer all of these questions and more!

Chicago, IL - September 16
Portland, OR - September 23
Cleveland, OH - November 12
San Diego, CA - December 2
Scottsdale, AZ - December 3

The GetVertical Workshop includes:

• Easy-to-implement ideas for acquiring new customers and building loyalty
• Step-by-step training on the VerticalResponse system for creating emails and surveys
• The opportunity to share ideas and network with other professionals
• Extreme Email Makeover session with practical tips to give your marketing a facelift
• FREE LUNCH!

If you’re a business owner, marketing professional, or Webmaster, then this workshop is a must! Register now for a GetVertical Workshop in a city near you!

Last Minute Back To School Ideas

I can't believe summer is almost gone. How do I know? The BTS promotions are filling up newspapers and inboxes. Do you have your email marketing promotions in motion to capitalize on this short time frame? Seems like the big boys are focusing on free products and discounts in these tough economic times.

• Toys R Us is giving away a free lunch kit when you buy a backpack.
• Office Depot is giving away a free item for school each week with a purchase. This week in my zip code it's Sharpies, smart since Sharpie is putting a ton of ad dollars into TV lately.
• Dell is doing a fun spin on back to school: Upgrade Your Parents.
• Target has Dorm Deals targeting the college kids. They also allow you to "Create a List" where they ask you for your email address. Nice list building idea.

Almost any business can have a back to school promotion, check out what some VR customers are doing:

Spa/Salon - Frantic about the money you're spending getting the kids ready for school? Come in for some relaxation and get a 15% discount on any of our services.

Winery - Back to School Sale for adults. Check out this clever idea.

Hotels - Offer a discount for the whole family for one last hurrah before the school year begins. Alternatively offer a "The Kids are off to college weekend discount."

Restaurants - Offer "Parents, Give Your Kids a Break" gift certificates for eateries near their school.

Are you doing any back to school marketing? Share your ideas!

Great Email List Building Ideas From a Presidential Candidate

I was watching the news today and one of the stories focused on what is a really amazing email marketing list building idea. Obama is going to announce by email or text message who his VP candidate choice is going to be first.

I had to find out more. When I went to Barack's site I was pleasantly shocked: I found that his entire home page was replaced with an email sign up form "Be The First To Know".

On the page that displays after you sign up with your email address, you're asked to tell a friend. On top of that when you text them to be added to the text list you're asked to "please forward". Great viral components. (Is "viral" still the term these days?) Frankly, I think they are doing a great job using every opportunity they come in contact to get voters to promote them.

How can you use this in your business? Here's an idea to test: when someone comes to your website display a splash page with an email newsletter sign up form. It would be even better if you had something great you're going to announce and like Obama, you give them the opportunity to get the news first. Make sure you also include a "Skip This Page To Go Directly To The Store" link so you don't lose or annoy anyone. Do it for a few days and see if it has an affect on sales or your list size.

If this is too crazy of an idea for your business then you might want to keep your home page and apply this test when your visitor clicks to a sub-page.

Here are other sites that are doing similar things: Wilson Web (stay on the page for 5 seconds) and MarketingSherpa.

If you're doing this with success, let us know!

How To Use an Instant Messenger for Your Business

From time to time I write about some tools we use here at VR to keep the business running. Today it's going to be about Instant Messaging. We use instant messaging here a LOT since we're on different floors and very spread out. Maybe too much. But it can be a really useful tool and very cost-effective since for the most part it's free. It stops our one-on-one email traffic and if we need to move quickly on something it's easy to do. But to most positives there are negatives to be aware of too. Here are a few that we've run into.

Positives

• It's great if you're in multiple locations and you need a cost effective way to communicate.
• It saves us money on long distance.
• You chat with someone while on a conference call to steer the conversation.
• It's great if you can't leave your desk and need a quick answer to a question.
• It saves you on foot traffic if you've got a long way to walk for a quick discussion.
• Stops the shouting between offices if that is a factor.
• We use live chat to talk to customers real time because many of you can't wait for a call or email back from us. Some of our reps have multiple windows open chatting with you.

Negatives

• For long drawn out conversations, pick up the phone. I've been a victim to this too many times.
• Sometimes tone is misconstrued and conversation can take a turn for the worse.
• Putting a smiley face on the end of a nasty note does not make it ok to say nasty things:-)
• Managing people from afar 100% by AIM doesn't really work. People still need to talk.
• It can be an interruption when receiving them since either a tone is heard or something pops on your screen.
• People tend to be more courageous with what they say vs. talking face to face or on the phone.

How to use an instant messenger in your business:

Be Considerate! - Don't just start typing. A nice "U There? before you start typing is always considerate. It's the proverbial knock at the door.

If you are not paying attention and are talking to someone while someone is instant messaging you simply say "hold". Then get back to them. If you're not going to get back to them for a while let them know so they are not sitting around waiting.

Pick Up The Phone - If you're unsure about how the tone of a conversation is going, pick up the phone or have a face to face conversation.

Use Your Status. I'm terrible at this but getting somewhat better. If you're not available or do not want to take messages, tell people that by saying "unavailable" as your status. With many programs you can go as far as to use a custom status and tell people where you are or when you'll be back.

Your Picture - Remember in many programs your picture will show up to anyone you're chatting with. Make sure it's appropriate.

Be Careful - Don't put crucial information like user names and passwords in IM, it's not secure.

How are you using instant messaging for your business? What do you like and what do you hate?

Is Your Company Getting Greener? Tell the World!

Today businesses and consumers alike have to be careful about the energy we use and the environment we want to protect and clean up. There are so many ways a business can get greener, we know, we decided to go on the journey ourselves and believe me, there are a lot of tough habits to break!

As a company that works at sustainability we tend to attract the type of employee who cares about the environment. As a side benefit, employees who work in environmentally friendly organizations might even collectively learn what they can do outside of the workplace. Here at VerticalResponse we've got a long way to go but we'll share a few steps we've been working on. A lot of little things sure add up to a lot.

We don't have a tangible product that needs cardboard boxes to sit on a store shelf!
We send email marketing campaigns on behalf of businesses that are replacing direct mail with email.
We print our postcards on recycled materials.
We don’t use plastic utensils.
We supply our employees with water bottles made out of recycled plastic so they don't drink from plastic cups.
We recycle glass, cans, plastics and mixed paper.
We buy Fair trade coffee.
We print on recycled 20% post-consumer materials.
We often use eco-friendly supplies from green businesses.
We buy many supplies from The Green Office.
We use eco-friendly cleaning products like those from Seventh Generation.
We use reusable bags instead of paper bags.
We recycle used batteries and encourage employees to bring in old batteries.
We offer commuter benefits for people who take public transportation, it's a pre-tax benefit.
When we have to print on paper we print double-sided.
We keep our lights off during the day, it’s nice and bright in here anyway!
We turn our computers off at the end of the day. It saves more energy than sleep mode.
We buy local - saves transportation costs and supports the local economy.
We offset carbon emissions with Native Energy who is building a farmer-owned wind project.
We regularly participate in computer recycling drives.
We collaborate with each other by sending electronic documents through email or posting and sharing them using Zimbra and Google docs to avoid circulating paper.
Our office building is green, using recycled carpeting, and eco-friendly lighting.

You probably have something like this in your area, but if you want some ideas, SFEnvironment has a great checklist with ideas for greening up your business.

And if you've got some ideas for us let's hear them!