Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

My take on this is to write for those who are actually buying. Repeat buyers are a lot easier to sell to than new ones.

As to the other 90% - what might tempt another 5% out of the woodwork?

There's a neat thing you can do with the new Facebook advertising platform - tip in the 90% email list and have an ad "did you see my last email?" Facebook'll also come back with info on who clicked through, plus lots of juicy info too. Well worth the effort!

Quick answers: "Yes" and "Now".

What you are referring to is called segmentation, and it is an absolutely crucial aspect of your email marketing. You should always be looking for ways to communicate effectively with the different subscribers on your lists.

But dont just create a 20% off coupon and blast it off! Dig down into the demographics and find out what drives them, why they are on your list, past purchases, etc. The more you focus your promotions, the better the response. You may have several promos for different people on your list. Only your subscribers can tell you what, when, and where (based on your email and website stats).

Sounds like work, huh? It is hard work, but it's worth every second. Email is an extremely valuable tool, one that trumps social factors such as "likes" and "tweets" up to 100-fold or more!

However, Moriarty provides some sound advice regarding using Facebook. It can help you grow if used correctly. Check out AmyPorterfield.com and sign up for her free videos. She is a FB guru and provides awesome advice on what to do.

Food for thought: based on a chart I saw from Constant Contact, average retail open rates are about 18%. So 9% isn't awful and 90% is frigging fantastic!

One big question I have for you: Are the people who read actually clicking through? If not, why? If yes, where are you sending them (hopefully your most valuable and popular page(s) that have been optimized/designed to illicit more interaction and sales)?

Also, did you build this list naturally from your site or is it a paid list? Paid lists are exponentially LESS valuable and LESS effective than lists built from your own customers opting in.

If people are reading, but not clicking through, something is wrong. Dont believe comments like "it takes time" or "be patient". Good email marketing should be grabbing their attention and compelling them to learn more. I would check out Jon Morrow's "Headline Hacks" at boostblogtraffic.com. You can apply these techniques to email subject lines, etc.

Unless you want to pay someone to manage your campaigns, you will need to learn some best practices you can implement on your own. The topic has tons of resources available to you with a simple Google search of "how to improve email marketing". Focus on advice from:

1. the top email providers like Aweber, Constant Contact, and Mail Chimp
2. Top blogging sites like MarketingProfs.com, Copyblogger.com, BoostBlogTraffic.com, Problogger.com and others. Check out Technorati.com, they have top 100 blog lists along with what topics those blogs focus on.
Why use blogs as a resource? Because they get most of their business from email marketing and the most successful blogs know how to use it well. Sign up for some of their offers and study the emails they send you. You can apply the techniques to just about any industry...even retail.
3.Check out your competitors! Sign up for their updates, specials, etc and study them as well. Use their techniques and tweak them to fit your business.

Be careful! Borrowing is ok, plagiarizing is not!

To get you started, here is a link to an article here at MarketingProfs.com called "Top 10 Ways to Improve Email Open Rates":
https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2013/11212/top-10-ways-to-improve-e...

Hope this helps and good luck!

--Blaine Wilkerson

Several questions.

How are people subscribing and why are they doing so? From what kinds of sites? Of the 9 percent that are opening your messages, is that across the board, or is it 9 percent for one message? What's your click through rate on the opens? What kinds of sales path do you have in place in order to close and fulfill?

How many messages have you sent and what split tests have you done on subjects lines, on times of the day and on days of the week when you're messages are sent? What format are your messages in and what kinds of calls to action are you including in your main message headline (inside the message), in the body of the message, and in the close?

What steps are you taking when people attempt to unsubscribe to remain in touch with them through some other means, such as by encouraging them to follow you or to connect with you on social media?

I'm relatively new, too, to email marketing, but I have a sneaking suspicion that your CTR won't improve until you do more in-depth research on your audience, which may require segmentation. Look at those who've clicked already to see if there's a unifying feature in your clickers.

While the retail nature of your emails may be merely to drive people to a particular sale or unique item, maybe you should focus more on the content of your email and how it's presented, rather than just trying to push something on them. That might improve your CTR.

As for your read rates, could the 25% open email have been sent on a different day or time? Was it a different subject line or product? Is the highest CTR coupled with the 25% open, or is that on a different email? I've seen emails with high CTR and comparatively low opens. Typically when this happens, I get a higher open for the next email--like I've justified more people opening it because they found good content the last time they did.

Btw, is that CTR 2% of those who open the email, or 2% out of the entire list? (So is it 2% of 7% of the list, or is it 2% of the list?)