Raleighwood Media Group + Raleighwood Event Group
Traditional & Digital Marketing + Commercial Event Planning Based in Downtown Raleigh
Many email marketing providers have a nifty little feature built in where you can automatically resend emails to contacts who haven’t opened them within a certain amount of time. I love this tactic and wholeheartedly recommend using it and testing things like the subject line to see if you can compel readers to open your campaign.
So you got ghosted… by your email subscribers? Don’t give up on them just yet—let’s try to win them back with a re-engagement campaign.
As businesses have had to transition to mostly online during the COVID-19 shutdown, we have seen an increase in our open and click-through rates for email for clients.
Thanks to Chris Herbert for inviting Raleighwood Media Group’s Lisa Jeffries to share a few expert tips in this fantastic roundup, “How to Build an Email List: 75 Experts Share Their Secrets”.
For the eighth year in a row, iheartretail.com is publishing our annual listing of all of the local retailers and brands participating in Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday that we can find. Our goal is to help shoppers keep their holiday spending local, and to help retailers bring more business in their doors. It’s a labor of love that takes hours upon hours to collect, publish, and promote.
Last year, I read over 100 emails within one 24 hour period from retailers promoting their weekend offerings to compile the annual shopping guide. Some were great, some had lots of room to improve. Here’s my advice to you for email marketing success.
Ditch your email system if it uses no-reply and for Heaven’s sake, put an email address you actually check. Don’t make your customers chase you to contact you, because they will just shop elsewhere.
Just because you’re open normal hours, don’t assume your potential customers know what they are – and if you’re operating extended or shortened holiday hours, this becomes even more important. Your customers are in a rush due to the craziness of the holiday season, so help them out here.
Again, holiday shoppers are experiencing nutty schedules, the demands of family, a condensed work schedule, and more. Sometimes, they just need to know if you have something in stock or if you can make their special request happen. Be ready for their calls and make it easy for them to reach you!
I know this seems crazy, but you won’t believe how many businesses, especially retailers, forget this important link. This is the ideal place to send your audience when they have questions outside of your business hours! (It also offloads your email and phone traffic if you answer their key questions right on your website) PS: Don’t forget to put all of these important points of information (phone, hours, etc.) on your website, too. This is where your audience will likely look before they call you!
Keeping with the theme of convenience for your holiday shoppers, don’t forget to remind them where they can physically find you if you maintain a brick-and-mortar business. (If you’re online only, at least include your city and state so that those paying particular attention to shopping local will know that you’re their neighbor, too!)
The old college rule still rings true: don’t procrastinate! Don’t wait to let your audience know what’s going – especially when it benefits them. If you wait until Thanksgiving or Black Friday to send your Black Friday promotions out, you’ve missed out on a huge majority of shoppers who’ve already made their plans. If you wait until the day of your promotion to email them, you’re likely going to become just an impulse purchase or a late add-in to their schedule. Make sure you send out your info in time to be a priority of theirs, not an after thought!
Digital Marketing for Business conference in Raleigh
I’m excited to be speaking at the Raleigh Digital Marketing for Business conference coming up in May. This two day event has dozens, possibly hundreds, of presentations on all sorts of topics that will help local business owners get a better handle on, and understanding of, digital marketing.
Co-founder Lawrence Harte has offered me the opportunity to share with y’all a stunning 50% discount on registration when you use my speaker discount code, LisaJeffries, at http://DMFB.net/register.
Digital marketing training at just $50 a day? That’s a steal, folks! Don’t miss out.
Event details:
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 – Thursday, May 14, 2015
Raleigh Convention Center
500 S Salisbury St.
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601
To see session and speaker list, visit the event website: http://digitalmarketingforbusiness.com/
PS: My session, 10 Things to Know About Email Marketing Now, will be taking place on Thursday, May 14, at 2:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!
Media Post has a nice updated report, from various sources, of the most effective days and times to send marketing emails and post content to various social media networks, including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Interestingly, the report shows that while the most popular time to send email is on Thursday between 11 a.m. and noon, the most effective time is actually on the same day between 2 and 5 p.m.
See the full report, and what it lists as the most effective time to post to your favorite social media network or to post blog content at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/243355/when-to-post.html
Did you know that 91% of consumers check their email daily?
Raleighwood Media Group has always offered email marketing services to our clients, but this month we’re introducing a new way to plan and budget for your email marketing needs: fixed-price frequency packages.
Beginning this month, we are offering fixed price frequency schedules for email marketing. You can read the details at here, but the short and sweet is that our offerings start at $49 for a monthly email campaign and increase to $156 (which includes a 20% discount over the cost of an individual email) for a weekly campaign.
We look forward to welcoming new clients to our email marketing program this fall and are confident that each client will see measurable results that they can look forward to benefiting from all the way into their 2015 marketing plans.
It seems like at least once a week I read a really well-written and well-thought-out article or blog post about how “email/email marketing is back” or that suddenly interest is surging in the “what once was old” medium of communication. I’m here to reassure everyone that not only is email not dead – it also never went anywhere.
Sure, social media has been the darling of all online marketing communications for the last seven years or so, but I personally cannot remember a single instance where I’ve seen the use of Facebook or Twitter alone out-perform the use of an integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign that included email. As any marketing professional will tell you, it’s highly unlikely that anything you produce will ever go “viral” and even when things go viral, they’re still often shared via the original social media channel: email.
As Facebook continues to limit what shows up in users’ feeds, the ability to actually communicate directly to users who have expressed an interest in our products and services without fear of a filter will continue to prevail. Who wants to spend their hard-earned time and investment to build an audience they aren’t guaranteed of being able to communicate with?
While the currently under-25 crowd may not be strong users of email, I believe that trend changes as they become career professionals, where the modern workplace still depends heavily on the use of email as the primary form of communication.
I’m proud to say that consistent, well-branded email marketing has always been a staple product and service provided by Raleighwood Media Group to our clients. It has a high ROI and is very trackable when it comes to finding out what’s working and what’s not in regards to subject lines, content, list segmentation, and other variables.
For your reading pleasure and if you’re so inclined, here are some of the articles I’ve read about email (and the “return” of email) lately… and often replied with the simple statement, “duh”.
The NY Times – For Email Newsletters, a Death Greatly Exaggerated
BiZReport.com – Email newsletters top news source for business executives
EmailOnAcid.com – Is Responsive Design Really Effective?
I would love to hear your thoughts on where you’re getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to online marketing efforts in the comments below.
Cheers!
–Lisa
This month marks the two year anniversary of the launch of Shop Local Raleigh by the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association – happy birthday, SLR! Join us in celebrating today with two great local events:
Networking Event at Joint Venture Jewelry in Cary
From 4:00pm until 6:00pm, come and enjoy networking, great discussion, and a beverage with other SLR members, volunteers, and local business owners. (Don’t forget those business cards!)
Anniversary Party at Natty Greene’s in Raleigh
Shop Local Raleigh turned “2” on April 15th and to celebrate, we have partnered with NCSU marketing students to plan an Anniversary Party at Natty Greene’s Brewing Co. On April 28th, starting at 7 pm, there will be giveaways, $3 pints of local beer and fun guaranteed for all.
To add to the festivities, we have shared some fun statistics regarding small businesses, public relations, and the return on investment of email marketing, for SLR to use at these events. Along with those “trivia facts”, we’ve also included a special offer for event attendees – so be sure to check out what’s “in store” and “on tap” at these great events tonight. We’ll be back with those special offers here later on the blog, but we didn’t want to spoil the fun by giving them away in advance!
Cheers!
