Author Archive: Carolyn Kopprasch
How’s your content balance?
Building a content plan around your areas of expertise
Marketers are familiar with the credo, “Content is king,” a concept that’s as wildly popular today as it was when Bill Gates started a craze with his column in 1996. With so many sources of content, it’s a challenge to get your customers to pay attention to (and share) your content unless you’re saying something pretty interesting — or, of course, unless you’re sending a laughing baby video. While we can all appreciate the value of a good YouTube video, it can be hard to fully grasp how this trend applies to the average email marketer. Not every piece of content will go viral, nor should it. How will you create content that nonetheless stands out?
While special offers and coupons are an effective way to reward subscribers and increase revenue, and while a funny video can occasionally do the trick, recipients really want to hear the knowledge and expertise that you have. This is a form of content marketing that positions you to engage your fans and strengthen your brand. What sort of specialized knowledge can you provide? If you can answer this question — and build a strategy around your content — you’ll expand your brand’s reach without ever having to discount services.
This article does a great job of demonstrating this trend, even breaking it down by answers for B2B and B2C marketers. It includes a visual representation of ongoing research by the “RF Intent Index,” which studies the reasons that people go online. Some examples are to shop, to do business, for personal expression and to learn. The results may surprise you.
Hey, who doesn’t love a good infographic?
As the article explains, selling, informing and entertaining make for successful messaging balance. We’re all pretty familiar with sales goals, right? And entertaining finds its way into a content strategy pretty easily with the right dedication to a bit of humor. But, based on this research, the opportunity to learn is the clear winner that drives people to go online.
This concept is easy to understand but harder to implement in email. Still, it doesn’t take anything revolutionary or out-of-the-box. Sharing your expertise in an accessible, human way is often all it takes.
Let me take a moment to share a few examples from my inbox. My insurance agency emails me tips on driving safely on ice and keeping my home safe from burst pipes, which is simple knowledge to them, but not necessarily to me. Since it’s helping to keep me (and my home) safe, I’m always interested.
I also welcome advice from furniture stores and home-related blogs that teach me how to maximize a small space. I enjoy getting cooking secrets from well-known chefs, and a recent footwear brand’s email included links to videos of “barefoot running,” a new hobby of mine. Clearly, each brand is hoping that I will continue buying, and they’re making sure that their sell/inform/entertain messaging is balanced to keep me interested throughout the entire customer life cycle.
Think about the best ways to share your expertise with your fans, or if you’re an Emma Agency, how you can encourage your clients to effectively share their own. If you have questions along the way, let us know.
The art of the short (holiday) email
Try short emails that your audience can read on a smart phone.
As a savvy marketer, you know how important it is to send targeted, relevant emails, especially as the holidays approach. You know that a well-timed email alert to that new product line or sale can really drive your numbers. (It’s not called “Black Friday” for nothing.) And no matter what your business or organization specializes in, you know how important it is to stay in front of your audience toward the end of the year.
Luckily, you also see the other side of the story because you’re a consumer, too. Even as the daylight hours grow shorter and your to-do list grows longer, you’re still likely interested in hearing from your favorite brands. (And you might even be planning to pay attention to the sale emails to assist you with the holiday mall stampede crawl.)
Still, the fact remains: Toward the end of the year, you’re a little too busy to give the same amount of attention you normally would to each email in your inbox. Perhaps making a special, non-fat, gluten-free, vegan pumpkin pie for your picky sister-in-law is taking precedence over the shoe sale or non-profit request calling from your inbox. And your own email marketing audience is facing similar challenges.
So what to do? You embrace the art of the short, mobile-friendly email, that’s what. Create a campaign that’s easy to read on-the-go.
Here’s how.
- Keep your message simple. One large, obvious call-to-action will do better than multiple, smaller links.
- Keep your message short — ideally, with no scrolling. It’s a challenge, but it will be far more effective with busy recipients who only pay attention to your email for a few seconds before choosing how to proceed.
- Keep your message narrow. If you have some flexibility, try keeping your campaigns no wider than 600px.
If you want to get fancy, consider fitting your campaign within the general mobile phone screen ratios. For example, the iPhone has dimensions of 2:3 width to height, the early Droid is 3:4, and some blackberries are 1:1. What does that mean for you? Don’t make the height of the campaign much longer than the width (if at all), and make the font legible on a small screen.
One last trick is to give your subscribers a chance to tell you, “Thanks, but not right now.” Email has a distinct advantage over some other marketing channels because you can respond to exactly what your subscribers ask for. Add a button to the campaign that says “remind me in three days,” and use the list of clicks on that link to send a follow-up reminder.
Good luck reaching those busy consumers this holiday season (and even better luck finding that pumpkin pie recipe).
Incentives, follow-up and other helpful survey know-how
Part four of four: Making sure you get some answers for that carefully crafted survey.
Giving an incentive, as Emma customer Babelgum recently did, can boost your number of survey takers.
So, you’ve designed your survey questions and answers, you’ve picked your recipient list, and you’re ready to start collecting data. The next big challenge is designing your survey invitation so that people do you the honor of actually responding to your handy survey.
First, set a clear time-expectation on the front end.
This is crucial. We all hate that “standing in line at a theme park”-like experience when we’re taking a survey, when after completing 18 questions, we realize we’re only about 20 percent through the survey. Being respectful of your respondents’ time investment is important, and setting the right expectation will keep them from abandoning your survey and jumping in line at the log flume. Here at Emma, we even did a split test once and discovered that more people took our survey when we mentioned that it would only take five minutes. (You can read about it here.)
Then, weigh in on human nature.
Using language like “we need your help” (or a milder version like “your feedback is valuable”) can be a good way to get people emotionally involved. The feeling of being needed can be a powerful motivator.
Next, draw a connection between their participation and an outcome.
You can do this in two ways.
The first outcome connection you can make is results-oriented. If you’re surveying your loyal customers or people who have an invested interest in your results, you can let them know what decisions you’re making as a company based on the information you receive. This set of customers may be inspired to participate just from the knowledge that they will be taking part in the brand experience, or that they will be getting something from the results.
An example of a results-oriented survey incentive is the recent census survey. They launched a campaign alerting the public that the results would affect everything from budget allocation for hospitals and schools to the state’s seats in the House of Representatives. That education campaign was expensive but likely had a great impact on their return rate, which was 72 percent (which is pretty good, in my opinion, for such a large recipient pool).
Alternatively, you can use a prize-oriented incentive. This can be a good option if you’re not quite sure that your customers are going to participate based on their love for your brand. This naturally includes the old “you’ll be entered to win a free thingamajig” incentive, which can be a nice complement to subtler incentives. The reward can range from being entered to win one huge prize (large prize with a low win percentage) to earning a coupon just for completing the survey (small prize with a high likelihood of winning). Choose what works best for your budget and which type of nudge you think will inspire your audience.
Lastly, be sure to follow up with your respondents.
The ultimate reward for taking a survey is seeing that your opinion counts, so be sure to alert your respondents of the decisions you make based on their feedback. Don’t forget to close this loop, if you can – it demonstrates a devotion to your customers’ opinions that is hard to beat.
More from our recent survey series:
The ‘when’ and ‘where’ of surveys
The ‘why’ of customer surveys
The ‘how’ of creating an effective survey
The “when and where” of surveys
Survey know-how series, part three of four:
Using Emma surveys can help you plan and streamline events.
Now that we’ve explored some of the best reasons to survey your customers and some things to keep in mind while you’re designing a market research survey, let’s take a look at another useful application of this free, integrated tool. Planning an event to support your business can be complicated and time-consuming to manage. But using email and surveys together can really streamline the communication and let you focus on, you know, the event planning.
Many of our savvy customers are using the survey submit button to collect event RSVP information. This pairs easily with an invitation email, which can provide event details and a link to the RSVP survey.
For example, consider this. You have an event coming up, and your goal is to invite your customers, while hopefully spreading the word to some prospective customers as well. But you need to know how many beanbag chairs to set up, so you’ll be asking people to RSVP. Well, you can use an email campaign as the actual invitation, and then use a survey to collect RSVP responses.
Here’s how:
- Design a survey that asks the RSVP information you need.
- Create an email campaign with all of the details of the event itself. This is your invitation.
- Ask people to RSVP by linking to your survey in the email. Voilà.
- You can even add our Social Sharing feature to your email if you’d like your recipients to be able to share your invitation with others.
This format lets you ask exactly what you need to know: Can you attend? Will you be bringing a guest? Will you be bringing s’mores as your potluck dish? (In that case, you can bet that a few Emma staffers will be there too.)
Once you’ve heard back from your audience, you can easily organize the responses so that you can report back to your caterer (yep, better order some more marshmallows) and get in touch with those who responded. For example, a timely “Directions and Parking” follow-up email to those who said yes can minimize both frantic inbox-searching for your clients and day-of phone calls for you. Or, after the event is completed, sending a follow-up survey soliciting feedback and suggestions can help you continue to improve.
Also, that whole link-to-the-RSVP-form-straight-from-the-email thing makes *actually* responding a lot easier for your recipients. That way, hopefully you and your staff will only have to say ‘s’il vous plaît’ a few extra times.
The “why” of customer surveys
Survey know-how series, part two of four:
Explore the value of knowing what’s on the minds of your customers.
We’ve all heard banal business expressions from motivational speakers and management books about customer satisfaction, right? Maybe something like …
- It takes years to win a new customer and seconds to lose one.
- It costs up to five times more to win a new customer than keep an existing one.
- A two percent increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10 percent.
- The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
OK, so that last one was from my mom and not a *traditional* motivational speaker. But if you boil it down, these types of phrases are just reminders to make sure that you’re taking care of your most important market: your existing customers.
Sending a customer survey means you don't have to guess what people want.
So, how do we do that?
By asking our customers to tell us about themselves and their experience with us and then – and here’s the kicker – listening to them. You have several options when you think about using a survey tool like Emma’s to connect with your customers.
1. Getting to know your audience helps you market and serve them better than you can by simply guessing. Additionally, just the experience of being invited to share an opinion can be therapeutic for a frustrated customer, or inspiring for one who likes you already. A positive experience like that is just one more touch-point that you now have with that customer.
2. Negative feedback is no fun, but it can be extremely valuable for you if it helps you spot and fix problems before a greater percentage of your audience catches on. Customers who are willing to go out of their way to share a frustration with you (instead of simply taking their money and their word of mouth elsewhere) are invaluable. Reward these folks and encourage your team to be truly thankful for them.
3. Surveying people who either have stopped being a customer, or decided never to be a customer during the sales process, can help you fill holes in your service and boost both sales and retention in the future.
4. Lastly, you may receive positive feedback, which is motivating and encouraging. At Emma, we regularly share positive messages about our team and our service along with customer suggestions, and they each fuel our staffers in different ways.
What now, you ask?
A good place to start is to think about your business strategy and form a survey to help you with that purpose.
If…
If you’re finding engagement is decreasing
Try this:
Ask your customers what type of content and offers they are interested in
And don’t forget…
List a few options – don’t make your subscribers come up with them
If…
If you’re wanting to boost sales and retention
Try this:
Ask your lost sales what you could have offered to snag their business
And don’t forget…
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily should offer it. But it’ll give you a good idea of what types of customers your competitors are getting
If…
If you’re interested in serving your clients better
Try this:
Ask them about themselves and what they’ve liked in the past so that you can continue to improve
And don’t forget…
This also may help you create a picture of your customers, which may surprise you
Happy surveying! One thing to keep in mind in all this, however, is that unless you take great pains to get a representative sample of your clients, take care before you act on results. These types of things have a self-selecting characteristic, in that usually you will hear from the very happy and the unhappy. The reasonably satisfied aren’t always motivated to reach out, so take your results with a few grains of salt, or any condiment of your choosing.
Missed part one? Read about the “how” of designing effective surveys.
Next time, we’ll explore the “when” of surveys, with a post about using this tool for event registration and follow-up.
The “how” of designing an effective survey
Survey know-how series, part one of four:
Shape your survey questions to get the most valuable information.
In a world full of emails, advertisements and direct mail, adding surveys to your communication mix can be an effective way to let your subscribers know that you’re listening as well as talking. The simple act of asking people what they think, want and know can open up a dialogue that will allow you to glean valuable information and also let your subscribers feel heard and valued.
Like email, however, a successful survey needs some careful planning and execution. In this first post of our new survey know-how series, we’re covering the “how.” That is …
“How the heck can I write solid questions and answers that will result in a positive survey experience for my audience and valuable insight for me?”
- Think about the layout of your questions. Start with a few non-threatening questions, such as the person’s experience with the subject or some non-specific demographic information, such as state of residence or an age range. You probably only have about 20 – 30 questions worth of attention span, so think about what questions are going to get you the most valuable answers. In most cases, asking up to 50 questions, such as Emma now lets you do, is best used for particularly devoted respondents or for a more in-depth look at an issue. In these situations, it’s helpful to clearly explain the purpose and benefits of the survey to your audience so that they’re more likely to stay engaged.
- Ask one question at a time, to avoid frustrating or confusing your respondents. For example, if you allow Yes/No as answers for the question “Should we spend less money on A and put that money toward B,” you may lose the attention of those who agree that A is getting too much funding but don’t agree that B deserves it.
- Write answers that are both exhaustive and mutually exclusive. To do that, make sure that all possible answers are available, but that none of them overlap. Add an “other” option if necessary to achieve exhaustiveness. So for example, if you’re asking for age ranges, the following answer choices are difficult for both 19-year-olds and 30-year-olds: A) 20-30 B) 30-50 C) 51 and above. (Sure, that example seems obvious, but we’ve all taken surveys and been faced with similarly impossible-to-answer options.)
- Lastly, use neutral language to avoid bias. Write your questions so that the respondent wouldn’t be able to guess your opinion or preference. Steer clear of leading questions or particularly positive or negative language. For example, “What is your favorite Emma summer feature enhancement?” would work better than, “Isn’t is awesome that you can now add up to 50 survey questions?”
Taking the time to order your questions thoughtfully and frame your questions effectively creates a survey that can give you just the kind of information you’re hoping to learn about your audience. And this knowledge can be a valuable tool in your organization’s decision-making.
Once you couple that survey with a “Thanks for taking our survey” automatically triggered email, you’re well on your way to having customers who feel pleased and appreciated.
Next in the survey know-how series, we’ll explore the “why” of customer experience follow-up surveys.
Interactive Charts: Let the data-loving begin
Now in your response section, you’ll find Interactive Charts, displaying all of the useful email results that Emma collects for you in a handy, visual way. You’ll know at a glance how your campaigns perform over time. You’ll see individual results unfold over hourly increments. And best of all, these new charts make it easy to spot trends and patterns in your email strategy. (And they look so nice. Is it wrong to have a crush on a chart?)
Which trends might you identify, you ask? Well, seeing your data packaged so handsomely might lead you to several conclusions. Consider these scenarios:
1) Your clicks and opens drop in months with a higher sending volume.
Maybe you’re sending too frequently.
Not to induce high school math flashbacks, but this pattern is an example of the ol’ inverse relationship. As the number of campaigns goes up, your audience engagement goes down.
What to do? Consider sending fewer emails. You can consolidate messages or modify content so that your various audience groups only get the most relevant and tailored messages. (Not to be confused with messages from your tailor. That reminds us, we have to pick up our dry cleaning.)
2) You don’t see consistency with either results or volume.
Sounds as if your results are just, well, all over the place.
When the campaigns line jumps around, you may notice that your results are a bit erratic as well.
What to do? Build some consistency with your sending schedule so your audience knows what to expect. Set a realistic goal for how often you’ll send. If sending once a week is too much, aim for every other week or once a month. Then see what your most popular campaigns have in common — a morning send-off time, or a certain kind of content — to make those things a more consistent part of your strategy.
3) Your opens drop but your clicks go up.
Perhaps you have fewer, more engaged readers.
If your open rate remains relatively low but your click rates are high or even increasing, your content might be hitting the spot with only some of your audience.
What to do? You might test different subject lines or do something to encourage those folks who are signed up but appear to have checked out (then impress your colleagues by calling it a “re-engagement campaign”). Or look at your signup form – maybe you’re attracting people who don’t really connect with your organization. Send a survey to find out how often your subscribers would like to hear from you and what topics interest them.
4) Your opens and clicks are both falling.
Your measures of engagement may be decreasing over time.
Sometimes your strategy and content might need a little shake-up, and seeing a graph like this is one suggests that your audience is ready for a change.
What to do? Take a fresh look at your content and sending strategy. Think about new ways your emails can bring value to your subscribers, whether it’s new content, different promotions or something else entirely. Consider a new designed look, or try laying out your content in a different way. Some Emma customers have sent an Emma survey to learn what their subscribers like best and what they’d prefer to see less of, then used the feedback to relaunch their newsletter strategy. It’s a fantastic way to build better relationships with your members *and* have better email results to show for it.
And, as always, remember that you should only take a data-driven romance so far. Numbers are only impressive if they’re relevant to your own goals.
If you’re an Emma customer, go ahead and login to your account … you’ll start seeing your response data in a whole new way.
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