Take 5 Media Group

Email Versus Direct Mail

What Is Email Marketing And How Does It Work?

TAKE 5 MEDIA GROUP – DIGITAL & EMAIL MARKETING EXPERTS

Take 5 Media Group has over 15 years of email and digital marketing expertise. We’re also one of the nation’s leading compilers of consumer information and build audiences based on demographics, intent to buy, lifestyle changes and more.

We then use our innovative marketing channels, that include email, display ad and social media retargeting, influencer and content marketing and geo-fencing to get your message to these highly-targeted audiences.

To find out more about us, call Take 5 Media Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 561-819-5555, in New York at 917-201-7451 or visit our website at Take5mg.com.

The post How a Retargeting Strategy Works with Email appeared first on Take 5 Media Group.

Email Versus Direct Mail

Lyle Deixler — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 15:25:07 +0000

Email Versus Direct Mail – They Both Get Results

Email versus direct mail is a hot topic. While the gurus have predicted that email marketing was history, an increase in email usage and industry numbers prove otherwise. Worldwide, marketers spent nearly $2.8 billion on email campaigns in 2017.

As for direct mail, it’s certainly not going anywhere either, with marketers expected to spend about $42 billion on campaigns in 2018 (keep in mind producing direct mail pieces can get expensive when factoring in the different sizes, material, catalogs and mailing costs).

So, what’s a marketer to do when considering email versus direct mail? First, understand they both have their advantages. You also have to look at your goals, budget and what you want to communicate. And you can increase sales and brand awareness when you combine both of these marketing channels.

Here’s a look at the pros and cons of email and direct mail marketing:

Email – Fast with a High ROI

Email is a fast way to get your message out there, with a direct line to peoples’ inboxes. And people read their email everywhere, on their desktops at work, on their tablets in the kitchen and their phones at the beach.
Email is one of the least expensive marketing channels. If you do it yourself, and don’t spend a lot of time and money on the design, you’ll save even more. If you hire an Email Service Provider (ESP), it will cost you more but you’ll have a host of services to choose from, including highly-targeted audiences (see more on this at What is an Email Service Provider?)
Because of email’s lower costs you get a high ROI – about $38 for every $1 spent.
You can include links to your website, special landing pages, videos and more in your emails.
Email has a lower Cost Per Acquisition, $21.10, than direct mail’s $31.10 (from the DMA’s in-depth Direct Media Response Rate, CPA & ROI Benchmarks in 2017).

For more of email’s benefits see Email Marketing Advantages.

Just be careful with email…

Don’t inundate customers with too many emails. It won’t look good for your brand and people will quickly unsubscribe from your list.
Keep your list clean and up to date. By doing this, you’ll improve delivery and response rates and stay on the good side of the major Internet Service Providers. Consider using an ESP since the reputable ones do constant data hygiene on their lists.
Some email campaigns take time and you need two or three deployments to get the desired results. Take 5 Media Group has found that at least two emails per month, over a three-month period, provides the most effective sales results.

Direct Mail – Big Response Rates

Direct mail shows better response rates than email. According to the DMA, direct mail sent to homes had a 5.1% response rate vs. email’s 0.6% response rate; direct mail sent to prospects had a 2.9% response rate vs. email’s 0.2%.
Size matters: response rates for direct mail sent to prospects were almost double for oversized envelopes (4.9%) than they were for letter-sized envelopes (2.5%).
A direct mail piece is in a customer’s house and a constant reminder of your business. If it’s visually appealing or deemed important someone might even put it on their fridge!
You can put a QR code on a direct mail piece and show people your landing or home page when they scan the code with their phone.
Use your CRM with direct mail to track the performance of the campaign. You can also start a direct mail campaign based on what your customers do and collect valuable consumer data.

But direct mail can get expensive…

As mentioned above, email is more affordable than direct mail and doesn’t require an investment in materials, printing and postage.
Designing direct mail pieces requires more work, and can get more complex, than creating email campaigns.
You have to build a quality, targeted mailing list and keep it up to date.

Email vs Direct Mail, Using Them Together

Email vs Direct Maill will continue to be integral parts of direct marketing for the foreseeable future. They also work well together as part of an omni-channel effort to increase response rates, sales and brand awareness.

Send a Teaser Email

You can, for example, send consumers an email alerting them that something is coming in the mail for them. You’ve now piqued their curiosity, getting them interested in the offer and your brand.

You can then send them a small freebie or mail piece and include a QR code or coupon. If the coupon is only redeemable on your website you should see an increase in traffic – and hopefully sales.

Send Mail to Email Non-Responders

Another tactic is to try a direct mail campaign to prospects who don’t respond to your emails. You could be writing the most hysterical, insightful subject lines ever but there will still be portions of your prospective audience who ignore your emails.

Segment these non-responders and create a direct mail campaign to send them.

Follow Up with an Email to Direct Mail Recipients

You can also go the other route and send an email campaign to your direct mail list. This is a great way to remind people about your new product or upgrade and it can also increase qualified leads and website traffic.

Use Email and Direct Mail with Social Media

If you’re looking for an even bigger reach and higher response rates try using email, direct mail and social media.

Jenna Gross, CMO of the marketing agency Moving Targets, told Forbes, “We pair all of our direct mail campaigns with digital advertising that uses the identical demographic data.”

She noted that by doing so, “prospects see an ad in their mailbox, inbox and social media feed. Using cross-media tactics produces an exponentially better response rate, typically 25% or higher than direct mail alone, based on my agency’s findings.”

Gross also said you’ll get more qualified leads and an increase in website and social media traffic, “resulting in greater exposure to your business. Digging into the data available allows you to learn more about your customers so you can then optimize future campaigns.”

Quick Links – Here’s What We’re Covering:

How to Create an Email Marketing Strategy Plan

The Different Types of Email Marketing

How a Retargeting Strategy Works with Email

What is Email Marketing and How Does It Work?

TAKE 5 MEDIA GROUP – OMNI-CHANNEL MARKETING EXPERTS

Since our founding in 2003, Take 5 Media Group has been one of the nation’s leading compilers of consumer information. We’re experts at building audiences based on lifestyle changes, intent to buy, demographics and more.

We then use our innovative marketing channels, that include email, social media and display ad retargeting, direct mail, content and influencer marketing and geo-fencing to get your message to these highly-targeted audiences.

To find out more about us, call Take 5 Media Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 561-819-5555, in New York at 917-201-7451 or visit our website at Take5mg.com.

The post Email Versus Direct Mail appeared first on Take 5 Media Group.

The Different Types of Email Marketing

Lyle Deixler — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 15:08:29 +0000

Find the Right Option to Get Your Message Out

There are several different types of email marketing messages you can send. Looking to reengage past customers or those who abandoned their shopping carts? Want to send customers a link to your newest video tutorial? Or keep them up to date on product upgrades?

An email can do all that, and then some. You first need to consider your strategy and goals before deciding on the type of email and its content.

You have several choices regarding the various types of email marketing:

Welcome / Thank You

Welcome – after someone subscribes to your list, send them a dazzling, thoughtful welcome email that also thanks them for signing up. They might be new to your brand so let them know about your core values and that you’re excited to be starting a relationship with them. You can also offer them a coupon or free trial to thank them for subscribing.

Welcome emails also get excellent open and click-through rates according to the creative skills experts at Envato Tuts+:

Tutorial / Informational / Newsletter

Tutorial / Educational – did you just release a new product and want to let people know how it works and can help them? Make an educational video, put it on your website, then send an email with a link to the video.
Informational – these are great for letting customers know about upgrades, webinars, upcoming sales and events, website redesigns and new features, etc.
Newsletter – if you write a lot of blog articles for your site, send a weekly or monthly newsletter email with links to your latest posts. Use some space on the email to highlight a sale, new product, upgrade or service.

Here’s a great newsletter I get every day:

While it’s heavy on the copy it has a stark, eye-catching logo and the writer, Dave Pell, comes up with some hysterical headlines and observations.

Get Content and Ideas from Customers

User Generated Content – outdoor sports e-tailer Austin Canoe & Kayak (ACK) lets customers submit their photos for consideration to be published on the ACK website. This serves several purposes, provides content for the brand’s story and builds brand loyalty. It’s also a great way to collect email addresses during the photo submission / opt-in process. You can try this on your site, then send a monthly email with the best photo and story behind it.

Products, Upgrades and More

New product announcement – let everyone know about your latest and greatest. Showcase it with an interesting graphic and concise copy. Design a clear, user-friendly CTA that links to the new product’s landing page.
Product upgrade – again, use a compelling image to showcase the new feature. If you’re constantly releasing upgrades maybe send an upgrade roundup say every two weeks or once a month so you’re not inundating customers with too many emails.
Services highlight – for companies with several services you can highlight one service (with smaller mentions of the others) in a weekly or monthly email, then choose another service to highlight for the next send.

Bring Customers Back

Reengagement – if a customer hasn’t purchased from you in a while an email campaign is a great way to remind them about your products and services.

Here’s a funny reengagement email sent by Dropbox:

Shopping Cart Abandonment – if someone has browsed your site, put items in their cart but never completed the purchase you can send them a friendly reminder and offer them an incentive, maybe free shipping or a discount, to go back to your website.

Here’s how Birchbox follows up on visitors who abandoned their shopping carts:

Order Progress, Anniversary and More

Thank you – thank customers for their business whenever they buy something from you. Use these emails as an opportunity to show them other products or services, similar to what they bought, that they might also be interested in.
Order progress – keep customers notified about the progress of their order. Let them know when it shipped and, if possible, expected delivery date.
Anniversary – you could do two things with these: customer-focused or company-focused. For customers, send them an anniversary email thanking them for being with you for however long it’s been. It’s a thoughtful way of letting them know you appreciate their business. Or, if your company just hit a milestone you can let customers know you’re celebrating x amount of years in business.

Here’s a great anniversary email from Uber that also uses personalized information many clients would find interesting:

This is by no means a definitive list. You can send emails for a variety of reasons but make sure you stick to deadlines and your strategy. You also need to take into account the volume of sends and make sure you’re not inundating customers with too many emails.

Bombarding people could lead to a negative brand experience and people unsubscribing from your list in droves.

Quick Links – Here’s What We’re Covering:

Email Versus Direct Mail

How to Create an Email Marketing Strategy Plan

How a Retargeting Strategy Works with Email

Breaking up your email list into segments lets you send highly-targeted messages to the right customers. You can, for example, create one list for new customers and another for loyal customers and offer different strategies for each list…

TAKE 5 MEDIA GROUP – DIGITAL MARKETING EXPERTS

Since our founding in 2003, email marketing has been a cornerstone of Take 5 Media Group. We’re also a leading compiler of consumer information and experts at building audiences based on demographics, lifestyle changes, intent to buy and more.

We then use our innovative marketing channels, that include email, content and influencer marketing, geo-fencing, social media and display ad retargeting, to get your message to these highly-targeted audiences.

To find out more about us, call Take 5 Media Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 561-819-5555, in New York at 917-201-7451 or visit our website at Take5mg.com.

The post The Different Types of Email Marketing appeared first on Take 5 Media Group.

How to Create an Email Marketing Strategy Plan

Lyle Deixler — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 21:51:19 +0000

Tips to Build an Effective Email Marketing Strategy Plan

Don’t be intimidated by terms like “email campaign”. Consider it part of your overall digital marketing efforts (see more on this below) and come up with an email marketing strategy plan.

Email campaigns should also try to go beyond simply sending a coupon or new product notice. Try to provide value in every email you send and think of each email as a customer service response.

You want to convey something to your customer that’s relevant and answers a question or solves a problem. And when you send something that’s personalized, interesting and useful you’ll see less people unsubscribing from your list.

Your email marketing strategy plan should consider several factors:

What are your goals?

Before starting your campaign, think about what you want to achieve.

If you’re looking for more website visitors, design an email that touts the resources, blog articles and special deals that can be found on your site. If you’ve recently revamped your site, send an email out to let your customers know about its new features and functionality.
Looking to nurture leads or existing customers? Email is great for this and lets you segment your list to send certain types of messages to specific customers (more on this below).
If you want an increase in sales, you can include coupons in an email, tout a special sale or let customers know about upgrades and new products.
If you want more email opens and click-throughs, redesign your emails and do A/B testing with different subject lines, links, CTAs and graphics to see what gets the best response.

Who are your emails targeting?

Segmenting your email subscriber list, knowing what your customers are looking for and how they interact with your business and online presence are also crucial to creating your plan.

… Strategies like sending new customers a discount coupon and loyal customers pre-release and other special offers.

Segmenting helps to find your ideal audience since one segment might respond better than another. This also helps you discover new ways your customers interact with your emails, website and business, providing insights that help you increase sales and ROI.

When you create targeted segments, and send the right emails to the right customers, you’ll also improve opens, click throughs, sales and ROI while lowering bounce rates and unsubscribes.

The email list-building experts at OptinMonster noted that campaigns with segmented lists had “open rates that were 14.37% higher, clicks that were 64.78% higher, and unsubscribe rates that were 8.98% lower than non-segmented campaigns by the same users.”
You might be using both your own CRM data and third-party data (e.g., a purchased audience) when building lists but what works for one might not work for another. To see which audience responds better do plenty of A/B testing with subject lines, CTAs, design and content.
Use software modules that capture the way website visitors interact with your site to show opt-in forms that ask for visitors’ email addresses. These modules are smart and can pinpoint what page someone provided their email address from. This lets you create a list of those specific visitors and send them email offers about the product on that page.
You’ve got plenty of options when it comes to segmenting your list, including by age, gender, type of customer and lifestyle changes (buying a new car, recent empty nesters, etc.)

Social Listening and Talking to Your Reps

Actively monitor your social media channels and talk to your sales and customer service reps about the state of your business.

Track social conversations around keywords, topics and phrases about your brand and competitors. If there are complaints about your product or services send an email campaign that addresses those concerns.
Find out from your internal reps if customers are looking for an upgrade or a better way your business can take care of them. Send those customers an email to let them know about upcoming improvements!
Join online forums associated with your industry to see what people are discussing, and use their concerns to create content and email sends.

Using Email with Other Marketing Channels

Email is the perfect complement to other marketing efforts and you can also increase customer reach, sales and ROI when you use more than one channel.

You can retarget email openers with ad display retargeting for a pre-determined amount of time after the email drop has ended.
You can also retarget email openers with ads in their social media feeds.
Append your direct mail list with email addresses (or vice versa) for more reach and impact.

See more on this in How a Retargeting Strategy Works with Email.

The Different Types of Email Marketing

You’ve got several options to consider when deciding on the specific type of email to send.

New product announcement – highlight new products with an eye-catching graphic and insightful, attention-grabbing copy.
Informational – perfect for letting customers know about webinars, upcoming sales and events, product upgrades, website redesigns and more.
Thank you – use these to thank people for subscribing to your list or making a purchase.

For several more examples see the Different Types of Email Marketing.

Figuring out your email marketing strategy plan is easy once you decide on a clear set of goals. If you have several goals keep them organized and don’t get your strategies confused. Then, set aside the time and resources and do plenty of testing to see which subject lines and designs get the best responses.

One great aspect of email marketing is that as your emails get better, you’ll see better responses (opens and click-throughs) that should translate to an increase in sales and ROI.

And lastly, try to add value to every email you send. Make sure your emails are relevant, interesting and provide something your customers want or will find useful.

Quick Links – Here’s What We’re Covering:

What is Email Marketing and How Does it Work?

Email Versus Direct Mail

The Different Types of Email Marketing

How a Retargeting Strategy Works with Email