Research shows that over 30% people do not know how to do email marketing. They admit email marketing is efficient to promote business but still can not use it. After years of development, email marketing becomes mature. Now many marketers would like to start email marketing campaign rather than advertising, newspaper or social media. Now email marketing is still developing. So what does it like in the future?
Email marketing keeps growing. In the old time, when people talk about it, they always consider it as spam. Marketers sent mass emails to large number of audiences without permission. This is totally unfriendly to audience, and will surely be considered as spam. Being segmentation and personalisation must be the main trend of the further email marketing. Marketers will realize the disadvantages of direct marketing, and turn to use opt-in marketing.
More and more user generated content will contain in emails.
The user generated content becomes much more important in the online business. This is the key of email marketing campaign. Nothing is better than the customer trusts. Now people receive a marketing email, they would like to read and provide feedback to their friends. This obviously isn’t a new trend – people were chatting with friends and discussing products they bought way before the internet was invented. This is a efficient way of business spreading. If marketers provide useful information for audiences, audiences will happy to spread your business!
Email marketing needs Integration in the further. Successful email marketing campaign should not be divided into several parts. After integration, audiences can get the information easier and clearer. At the same time, the audiences profiles will be integrated for a better service.
Marketers will integrate social media to email marketing. This is a big change of email marketing. Social media marketing develops very fast these years. It is necessary to integrate social media to emails. Social media marketing is a perfect addition to email marketing. Email newsletters can be posted on Facebook, the ‘like’ button can be integrated into the email campaigns, or the latest company tweets can be included within the newsletter. With all these marketing channels at our fingertips, new markets and target groups can be reached with the help of social media and you can essentially extend the campaign outreach.
Email marketing by software is another trend. It is not a new one, but a important one. Maybe there are not many people using a software, but in the further more and more people will realize the importance of a good email marketing software. Here is the iKode newsletter software which is a iKode Newsletter Software is a full featured, professional email list management and email marketing software designed by iKode. Good one for email marketers!
Everyone knows that customer experience is what can make or break a business. In a store front, you have to count on your employee’s to show the best side of your business – so why wouldn’t you want to do the same online?
Today, people have more access than ever to resources about companies and their experiences. Businesses need to ensure that their products and services actually do what they’re supposed to, and make sure that their customer support is helpful and easily available as well. Not only does the company need to watch their own blogs, but they need to know which streams and channels to listen and participate with. It’s not just about watching their own twitter feed, it’s about getting out there and wading through all of the data that might be relevant.
To successfully run a social media campaign, you need support that will listen and engage your clients. You need to be able to keep the knowledge available to everyone involved with your social media process. Aligning your team will help work flow and necessary information be passed along.
How Does Social Media Enhance Your Customers Experience?
1. Listen and Respond.
Listen for the needs of existing and potential clients. Could your clients benefit from an active social media account? Could you respond to them faster with an active Twitter account than an 800 number? If you have your support group in place, they can watch proactively causing your business to react faster to any needs or questions a client might have.
2. Cross Reference Data
Now that your social media system is in place, cross reference your data. Is the clients posting on your media stream the same clients that are in your store purchasing items? To successfully serve your customers it’s good to know their history with your company so that you can give them the best experience possible.
3. Understand the Relationship
You have a new level of customer intelligence, and the business side should be used to learn from. Consider your client interaction. How could it have went smoother, what was the response time like? A company should never appear like it’s using personal information, especially of someone who has no relationship with the company. Just because someone you have on file sent you a tweet, it doesn’t mean that you should send them an email to their personal account to respond.
If an existing customer is having a bad experience, your first priority should be fixing the experience. Communicating back and forth with the user, and ask the customer to voice feedback and opinions. This will help increase brand affinity and an experience worth sharing with others. Regardless if it’s a good or bad experience, it’s key to communicate and participate ideas and find a way that they can be voiced and captured. Communicate the progress back to the customer so that they can see you are proactive in finding a solution.
Share and Collaborate
While you’re doing everything mentioned above, make sure that your team are on the same page with you. Cross referencing social data and internal data and retaining references of conversation threads. Keeping everyone on the same page while delegating tasks to each other can help provide an excellent customer experience.
How Does SevenAtoms Fit in?
Social engagement can be outsourced, but be smart about who you’re using. You need a company that will keep all information open and shared on a regular basis. SevenAtoms will communicate with you openly about all of the activity that comes along, while making sure, that we understand our client. We make sure to present ourselves in a demeanor that mirrors the representation expected from the company.
Our staff keeps up to date with all of the current social media trending, and do our best to make sure each blog is filled with the SEO keywords that you want to represent your company. Visit our social media solutions for more information.
When spending your hard earned money on marketing it is really all about how much return you get from each dollar spent, but what drives the return is what many people commonly overlook.
One very frequent mistake is overselling the product or service by adding too much information thus drowning out the important message of what’s in it for the customer. People tend to want to tell every benefit and feature their product has and talk on an on about how long they’ve been in business, their accreditations, client testimonials, price and everything in between. While those subject have their importance they should not all be crammed into a single ad.
The most important thing that should occur the moment someone looks at your ad is that the consumer should instantly know what your product is and exactly how it would benefit them. On the onset no one cares about how long a company has been in business or what ever their bragging rights might be. They only thing they care about what it is that your product can do for them. For example a company that sold burglar alarms would not be well served if their primary focus was on the price because anyone interested in an alarm system has a primary focus of safety. That said the message may be that 9 in 10 homes that are burglarized did not have a home security system.
Though price should not be a focal point, a good marketing message will generally include a special price that is only valid for a short period of time. With today’s busy society a shopper might find an interest in a marketed product and have full intentions of responding but will put the offer away until they feel they have time to act. A deadline motives serious buyers to pick up the phone or respond immediately to the message so they don’t risk losing out on a deal that is soon expiring. The special price makes a prospect believe they are getting a deal that may not be available if they postpone their decision to buy now.
Most businesses now have websites that they draw people to but don’t forget that a website is an advertisement as well and it should also be able to work as a stand alone marketing product as well. In other words when people search for your items online you need to make sure it comes up in the search engines and not rely solely on paid print to drive people to it. Make it a point to research and learn free SEO tips as you can find most of what you need online and at no cost to you.
If you are in an industry that accepts after hours calls consider the reality that people responding to your ad may want to talk with a live person and might just call some other business instead of leaving you a message. Most people are surprised to learn that an outsourced call center answering service or even a flat rate answering service can increase their closing rate of responders by as much as 500%.
Business Marketing Strategy – Social Media, Content, Website (SEO), Search Engines (SEM), E-mail, Video, Mobile, Community
There are several ways small businesses can get an edge these days. Marketing strategy is key to getting things done in a productive manner. You want to make sure that what you invest in marketing shows a return in new prospects and the ability to turn those prospects into clients and customers.
Social Media – First, let’s talk about social media. At this point there is no way to deny that social media is now the fastest growing connection to clients and customers. More and more businesses are realizing that we are living in an age where you have to be connected to your clients/customers via social media. More than 50% of the population will have a profile on a social network. More and more of our customers and clients are coming to us through digital means. Using social media is a great way to promote your business by engaging with customers and prospective customers to deliver information on your business, provide assistance with problems and questions concerning your products or services, and of course a quick and easy way to make your current sales and promotions known to everyone at once. This gives you a direct line to your clients and customers. Be clear, it is all about engaging your prospects and customers these days as opposed to “selling”. Posting on a regular basis to social media sites and updating your blog holds great value to business and even greater value to small business. It also gives a cool new way for the best marketing tool there is to bolster your business (Word of Mouth Marketing). Customers can easily share your information with friends and followers giving you a direct line to new prospects.
Content – What is it that you are trying to engage them with…? Content. Content marketing is what everyone is looking to do. Content marketing is the creating and distributing of relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience. Consumers are becoming more and more intelligent. They want to be educated on the products and services they receive. If you are a vitamin store, buyers want to be educated on the products you sell and how and why they should use them. If you are a real estate agent, buyers want to know about the neighborhood, the current mortgage rate, and if it is a buyers’ market — while sellers want to know how to calculate the worth of their home and what other homes in the area are going for. If you are a day care, parents want to know the best way to potty train their child, what foods help promote growth and nutrition in young children, and why Johnny keeps sticking things up his nose. My point is, this is information that your business should have and consumers want to know and want to know that you know. It goes to credibility. If you are a reputable and credible business then you should be engaging your customers and prospects with content that is meaningful, educational, and interesting.
Website (SEO) – Search engine optimization is necessary for every website. This allows search engines to “organically” rank your website and helps tremendously in getting your site closer to that top spot. This means that any paid search (SEM) will not make a difference when it comes to SEO. Making sure that your site’s keywords are actively present throughout your site is very important for organic search. It is important that you are using the proper “tags” and your rules must be simple to understand so that the search engines and users can find you quickly and easily. Be wary of SEO companies that offer big results with underhanded practices that manipulate search results. This could cause your site to be removed completely from search engines like Google.
Search Engines (SEM) – Search engine marketing is becoming more and more effective for small business. With over a billion searches every day you can target locally so that more of your target audience will see your ads. The risk is small as you set your budget and only pay when someone clicks on your ad and is directed to your business. Creating an effective campaign strategy to promote the success of your PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign can mean you going from page 23 on a Google search to page 1. SEM runs from a well-developed keyword list for your products or services that is optimized with your with your website landing pages. This will result in a higher quality score and enables you to have a great Click-Through-Rate (CTR). Monitoring the performance of your ads can achieve the optimal ROI (Return on Investment).
E-mail – Reinforce your customer relationships with e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing,social media marketing,event marketing,and online survey tools help small organizations grow their businesses by building stronger customer relationships. Many small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and member associations worldwide rely on e-mail marketing to send personalized, professional communications that engage casual customers, members, prospects, and passionate customers wherever they congregate online – from their email inboxes to their social networks. Send newsletters, current promotions, surveys, etc. on a small budget.
Video – Video marketing is not a new wave thing but it is becoming more and more important to business marketing. Having a unique video on You-Tube or in an advertisement will visually get your product or service across to current and prospective customers as it is a more engaging content format that often results in your audience responding with much greater force. Posting a short commercial spot on your website can decrease website bounce rate. How well the video is made and how long it is could help you hold a website visitor on your website and can really make a difference in converting prospects to actual sales.
Videos on your website and video sharing websites really help optimize your rankings with search engines. Sites like YouTube are only growing in power and strength and many businesses are already leveraging the amazing technology for opportunities that exist in helping to grow their business.
Mobile – The emergence of mobile marketing has been astounding. Now everyone wants to be able to do and see whatever it is they were able to do on the home computer or laptop on a cell phone or tablet. Society in general is on the go and very mobile. You have to change how you are marketing your products and services to be able to deliver your message to more consumers. Everyone you see is on some sort of mobile device whether it is a cell phone or tablet. Most smart phones have the ability to access the internet. Mobile marketing is the advertising of any product or service on a mobile device like a cell phone or tablet. Making sure your website, email marketing, and other web advertising are mobile friendly is of utmost importance since we are such a mobile society.
Community – I stress community involvement to my clients. Don’t just be a part of a community and expect support from that community without giving something back. Being involved in your community as a member of some community association, by offering your space to a community association for meetings or other events, by offering certain free services or special discounts to consumers in your area, or by having charitable events to benefit your community (i.e. clothing and/or food drives) can make all the difference of whether the people around you know you are actually there and what you do. For some businesses it is easier than for others. But, community involvement can help you to stand out against your competition (possibly right down the street from you) and you will find that if you support your community they will support you.
This should all be a part of your plan for 2012.
If you’re looking for a promotional product that has relevance in today’s technology-led world, whilst being cost effective and with broad appeal, then the printed mouse mat may be the perfect solution.
The brand awareness of a promotional mouse mat is vast; it’s an essential office item that is used on a daily basis (usually for extended periods) and the print area is substantial. Typically the whole surface can be printed with a logo and design so every time it’s used, your company name will be on show. If your design is especially compelling, it may even attract the attention of co-workers; thus increasing your brand awareness.
A great idea to further increase the retention value is to include a calendar as part of the design or even a calculator set into the mat itself. This extended usefulness should also mean that it is favoured over any other mouse mat!
Promotional mouse mats are produced in a range of styles and sizes, and as such they can be tailored to the recipient. Both lenticular and liquid-filled mats provide a new quirky angle to the traditional mouse mat; whilst shaped mats are eye catching and can be matched to reflect the nature of the business. Recycled and PVC free versions are ideal for eco-friendly promotions; whereas for health and well being campaigns, mouse mats with an incorporated wrist rest are always a popular choice.
Since many businesses are focused on reducing staff sick days, the Anti-bug mouse mat, with its special coating that kills 99.9% of known germs, is fast becoming a popular choice for B2B promotions.
Another consideration is whether to opt for a soft top of hard top. Most often this depends on the nature of your promotion, but if it’s targeted towards an older audience then a soft top may be more suitable.
Branded mouse mats are often credited with being the most popular promotional desk item, but they are also ideal to include in a goody bag or advertising package. They can form part of a matching desk set with a coaster and pen pot (increasing retention), and are easily slipped into a branded carrier bag along with other giveaways. Very lightweight, they are also perfect to post as part of a direct mailer campaign, and the inclusion of a giveaway will encourage recipients to read the accompanying flier.
Whether you choose a hardtop or soft; shaped or traditionally rectangular, this handy desktop giveaway is a great low cost investment to include in your advertising campaign.