Earlier in the year we updated our 2008 article titled – New Year’s Resolution – Grow Your Mailing List. How did you get on – did you manage to deploy our key techniques? If so, right now you’d be witnessing new people joining your mailing list on a regular basis and you’d be getting the benefits from reaching more people every time you mail out.

There is another key technique you can use to grow your mailing list/database – inserting standard and custom tags in your emails. Are you aware that there is a fully functioning TAG library in your account?

You can access the TAG Library by clicking on the link that is visible just above your HTML editor – in your create message area of your account.

Key Tags For Your Email Template = Forward, Subscribe, Feedback

A good starting point for utilising the TAGS in your account is to add three standard tags to your email template. These tags assist your existing mailing list subscribers by encouraging them to provide you with ‘FEEDBACK’ or ‘FORWARD’ your message to a friend. All generic email templates can also benefit from having a ‘SUBSCRIBE’ tag too. An ideal position for these tags is on your email template menu bar.

While the feedback tag is not as well used as the ‘forward’ and ’subscribe’ standard tags – I suggest it is also utilised. While the focus is to push information out to your mailing list/database, getting information back can provide your business with valuable insight. To get tags put into your email template – please send an email to support@mobilizemail.com (special rate – we will update your template with tags for just $45).

The ‘forward to a friend’ tag when clicked allows the person to enter in the address of the person they wish to send the message to. The message is then sent to that ‘friend’ in exactly the original format so it renders well. Clicking ‘forward’ on your email client often distorts the presentation of the message when it is viewed as a ‘fwd:’ message. When you log into your mobilize mail account the last email campaign statistics on your home page will present the ‘forward’ tag statistics for every message that tag is included. The same applies for the ‘Feedback’ and ‘Subscribe’ tags just like your current measurement where you can view the ‘open’ and ‘unsubscribe’ statistics.

You can start growing your mailing list now with these standard tags in your email template… contact us. Our next blog post on tags will detail use of tags for customising your email messages.

The good news is 52 percent of your website visitors actively respond to online advertising – according to a recent study by iProspect.

The study also suggests there is a close relationship between online advertising and search engine marketing where iProspect says:

“Internet users initially respond to online display advertising as follows:

       
1. 31% respond by directly clicking on an ad.
2. 27% respond by searching for the product, brand, or company by launching a search on a search engine.
3. 21% respond by typing the company web address into their browser and directly navigating to the website.
4. 9% respond by investigating the product, brand, or company through social media venues.”

 

Reading between the lines this information tells us that we will more than likely get a greater response to our online advertising with a website that ranks well with search engines.

Nearly half of direct clicking of an online advert triggers a follow up internet search on the business. How does your company perform on a Google search? Does it come up on either the first or second page using key words that describe your business?

There are strategies you can take to improve your website search ranking results including SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), active participation on social media sites including discussion forums, and paid search engine marketing.

The iPropsect study also revealed that 33 percent of online adverting response is converted to actual sales. Of course this is not true for all online campaigns – greater success would come from marketing your service or product to a targeted audience.

Email marketing can also provide an effective online advertising medium with small static banners, and the highly effective text banners strategically placed in your emails.  Suppliers to your business may be willing to advertise in your emails – essentially paying your email marketing costs!   Or if you are part of a referral network equally all network partners would benefit from marketing to different databases.

For more information on banner advertising in your emails Contact us for more information on banner advertising in your emails.

I recommend MOBILIZE MAIL

I have been using the services of Mobilize Mail for nearly 18 months, both for my own business NEW ZEALAND FOR YOU, and also through my involvement in two other property marketing firms. From my first meeting with Donna Richardson of Mobilize Mail, I was very impressed with her enthusiasm, her knowledge and her commitment to her clients. Donna immediately saw what we were trying to achieve in communicating effectively with our database using regular newsletters. She came up with a strategy that fitted our budget and one we felt would enable us to grow the business, and to generate sales.

Database marketing via e-mail was something I had tried on my own account previously, however I was keen to project a more professional and consistent approach. Plus I wanted to ensure that as many recipients as possible received and opened the newsletters I sent. I am aware of the pitfalls of taking a D.I.Y. approach, when it makes more sense to use the services of experts. I have found that Mobilize Mail are definitely experts in their field, and have been a big help to me in my business. They know all about anti-SPAM legislation, and Mobilize Mail works hard to ensure their clients operate within the new regulations.

Donna and her team, led by Marc Krisjanous, have proved to be very helpful and efficient. At the beginning it was something of a learning curve, however Marc and Donna were there to talk me through the various issues. They have designed templates for us to use, plus handled the time consuming aspect of loading my database onto the Mobilize Mail system. I now use the template and insert my own text and images, and then send the newsletters to my database.

The Mobilize Mail system is Web-based, and this means I have access to the system from anywhere with Internet access. There are excellent statistics provided by Mobilize Mail as regards which recipients receive my newsletters, which pages they click onto, plus a whole host of other statistical data – all provided as part of the service. Each time I send out a new newsletter, I can tell how many people have received that message, what particular page(s) they click onto and view on my website, etc etc.

In my opinion, the fees charged by Mobilize Mail are very reasonable for the value they add to my business. I find that Mobilize Mail is a cost-effective way for me to maintain contact with my clients on a regular basis. I frequently receive positive feedback from clients who tell me they enjoy receiving, and reading, my newsletters. Obviously not all clients are ready to purchase a property, however I find the newsletters a great way to keep my New Zealand For You business in front of potential property buyers.

I have no hesitation in recommending Mobilize Mail to any firms looking to communicate with their clients on a consistent, professional manner. Donna, and Marc and the team are great to deal with, and very helpful at all times.

Cheers NOEL

NOEL AVENELL
NEW ZEALAND FOR YOU

Recent research on business email marketing has revealed the five practices that can end any chance of email marketing success. We suggest you keep this list handy when you are email marketing so you can avoid making these easy-to-do mistakes that can sever any chance of successfully using email to market your business.

Avoid these common mistakes:

1. Use a “Do Not Reply” email address as the email sender. Our latest research shows that up to 20% of your subscribers will click the reply button to your email message. The usual reason is that they want to ask you something regarding the email you just sent them or even better they want to place an order with you because your email did its job. By electing a noreply@yourbusiness.com email address you are in fact giving your subscribers the perception that you do not want to hear from them. Even worse, if the email address is not monitored, you may lose a sale or even worse lose a subscriber.

   Mobilize Mail Recommends….
   Ensure your ‘From/Sender’ address is regularly monitored for email replies from your subscribers.

2. Send your subscribers content that is only of interest to you. Who still enjoys receiving emails from businesses stating how fantastic they are and how bad their competitors are? Subscribers are inundated with email every day and their patience wears thin when they open your email and see your sales.

   Mobilize Mail Recommends…
   Email messages that are ‘targeted’ – where the content is directly relevant to the subscriber/email recipient.

3. SPAM your subscribers. If stated that you would only send one email per month and you are sending at least one message per week you are spamming your subscribers by not sticking to your agreement. Increasing the frequency of your emails without asking permission from your subscribers is one of the worst actions you can take.

   Mobilize Mail Recommends….
   Seek permission from your subscribers prior to increasing the frequency of your messages.

4. Send your email without testing it first. Email presentation changes with each email application e.g. an email message looking great in Outlook 2003 does not (and normally will not) mean it will look great in other desktop email clients such as Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, Apple Mail nor will it look the same in the web based email clients such as Yahoo!, Gmail and HotMail.Therefore sending your email without testing it first may result in your subscribers receiving a message that is not your best and this may reflect poorly on your business and brand.

   Mobilize Mail Recommends…
   Test your email message by sending it to as many mail clients as you can BEFORE you send the message to your subscribers.

5. Send your business newsletters via your desktop email application. A sure fire way of getting marked as a spammer is to use your desktop application such as Outlook to send your newsletter to all your subscribers at once. Why? Because most desktop email applications will send your email via your Internet Service Providers mail servers which many, at any given time, are blacklisted. This means there could be a very good chance that 30% to 50% of your emails are not getting to your subscribers!

   Mobilize Mail Recommends….
   Use an ESP – email service provider to deliver your bulk email. Check out our case study of what happens when you send your email via your ISP Click here

If you are interested in how Mobilize Mail can help your business please check out our Feature Tour – click here.