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8 Do’s and Don’ts for Email Marketing Campaign Success

September 17, 2020/in Digital Marketing/by Courtney O'Connell

Email marketing is one of the best ways to remain top-of-mind with your audience. According to Campaign Monitor, email is capable of driving a 4400% ROI and $44 for every $1 spent. The opportunity email presents is endless, but creating a successful strategy right off the bat isn’t so simple. While no one expects their campaigns to fail, the truth of the matter is it’s not as easy as just sending an email out to a massive email list. There are specific steps to take in order to reach success. With that in mind, here are 8 do’s and don’ts to keep in mind when creating your email marketing campaign.

Do:

Put together a targeted email list

No matter how great your email is, if it’s not reaching the right people, you won’t be generating any leads. Which is why it’s essential to take the time to create a well-thought-out email list. It’s best to choose those who have already interacted with you in some way. It’s much more effective to send emails to a smaller group of people that are actually interested in your business, rather than a large group of users who likely have no need for what you’re offering. The best way to go about building this list is by asking users to subscribe when they land on your website. There are many ways to go about this. The most effective ways are either using a subscribe button throughout your site or with an exit-intent popup that will give them the option prior to leaving a webpage.

Use an eye-catching subject line

One of the most essential components of a successful email is the subject line. Without an engaging subject line, users won’t be compelled to open the email. Here are some tips for creating a solid subject line:

Keep it short and sweet. Studies have shown that the best performing subject lines are 40-50 characters long, so be sure to use your characters and spaces wisely.
Make the point clear. You don’t want to be vague or misleading, this can result in getting flagged as spam, which completely defeats the purpose of sending emails in the first place. Tell your readers what to expect when they open your message.
Personalize them. Adding a reader’s name to the subject line can help draw in their attention and increase engagement.

Make the body of your email short and sweet

The same goes for the body of your email. Nobody wants or is going to read a multi-paragraph long email. Your email copy should be just long enough to get your complete message across. Here are some additional tips for writing an email body that will keep your reader’s attention and lead them to convert:

Include a strong lead.
Don’t come on too strong, make your reader comfortable.
Personalization is key.
Find additional ways to make readers engage such as including surveys, polls, videos, images, etc.

A/B test

A/B testing is essential for any marketing tactic. This is when you create two or more versions of a digital marketing asset, change one variable and test them against each other to see which performs best. Try out different subject lines, messaging, fonts, colors, images, CTA’s, etc.

Don’t:

Purchase an email list

This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in an email marketing campaign. This can seem like a quick and easy way to grow your list and prospects, but in the end, it’s usually just a waste of money. Generally, people don’t appreciate getting unsolicited emails from companies. These users are much less likely to open or engage with your emails since they’ve had no prior connection with your business. This can lower the reputation of your company and decreases your chances of connecting with qualified buyers.

Use a one-size-fits-all approach

Everyone is different, you don’t want to use the same type of messaging for everyone. Which is why you should always segment your lists into different groups of people. At minimum, you should have two: those that are existing customers and those that are not. You can get as detailed with your lists as you want, such as a list for those that have subscribed to you but have never purchased, those that have subscribed but haven’t made a purchase in a few months, etc. The most important part is that you change up the messaging in your emails to cater towards the segment you’re sending it to.

Bombard your recipients

While following up on your initial email is important, sending out constant emails only turns off your recipients and will result in them unsubscribing or flagging your messages as spam. Experts usually suggest to wait at least three days to follow up from an initial email to send a follow up. Following the second email, you should wait around three weeks before sending another unless your reader answers with specific questions, in which case, respond immediately.

Leave your email address unbranded, generic or anonymous

With people getting hundreds of emails a day, you don’t want to let yours get lost in the spam folder. People like to know there’s a real person behind an email they’re engaging with. Avoid making use of email addresses like marketing@yourcompanyhere or customerservice@yourcompanyhere. These look fishy, and email filters are increasingly registering them as spam. Using your company name or your actual name shows your recipients your legitimate and personable.

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Tips to Keep Your Marketing Emails from Getting Flagged as Spam

August 13, 2020/in Digital Marketing/by Courtney O'Connell

When you put a lot of effort into creating your email marketing strategy, it can be frustrating looking at the stats and seeing that a large amount of your messages end up in spam. A report from Return Path revealed that spam filters are more rigorous than ever, with one in five emails failing to reach the inbox. This can be very concerning, especially when email marketing is a large part of your overall strategy. But there are a number of things you can do to help prevent your emails from getting marked as spam by filters and consumers.

Build Your Own Email List and Regularly Clean it Up

If you’re buying email lists and sending content to people who never signed up to receive them, your chances of ending up in the spam folder skyrocket. The average office worker receives 121 emails daily, meaning it’s unlikely they’ll waste time opening unwanted messages. It may take more time, but organically building up your email list will be much more effective in the long run.

Once you have a good size list built up, it’s important to manage it. Some recipients will naturally unsubscribe from your emails, but others will just start ignoring them. This will lower your engagement rate and make you seen as less favorable by the ISPs. This ultimately means your emails will more likely go to the spam folder. You can combat against this by regularly looking at your stats and removing unengaged users, bounced emails and role email addresses.

Make it Clear Who the Email is From and What it’s About

Most companies have multiple email addresses within their domain, depending on the size. You don’t want to change the sender field too often. Try to stick with the one that works best with promotional messages and avoid odd names, such as donotreply@yourdomain.com or 123456@yourdomain.com. Build trust with your recipients, meaning you don’t want to confuse them with using a variety of sender addresses or unprofessional ones. Try to either stick with a person’s name or your company name.

Once you’ve made it clear who the email is from, make it clear what it’s about. This means avoiding spammy subject lines. Don’t want to try to trick recipients into opening your email by starting your subject line with “FWD:” or “RE:” implying there was previous communication. You also shouldn’t use click bait, such as telling them they’ve won a prize if they haven’t. Try to find something catchy and compelling that peaks curiosity, yet still gives enough information that recipients aren’t confused about what the email is.

Use a Reputable Program

A sign spam filters keep a lookout for is an IP address associated with the sending email address and see if there are any spam complaints associated with it. If there are, then even legitimate email addresses can get flagged due to association. To ensure this doesn’t happen to your emails, always use a reputable provider. All the top providers take steps to prevent spammers from using their platforms. They also have built in features to help avoid other common spam triggers, such as not including a physical address or using a sending email address that looks suspicious. There are thousands of marketing automation and email marketing companies out there, so just do research before deciding on one.

Follow the Laws Governing Email Marketing

It’s always beneficial to be aware of the laws that govern digital marketing communications. Specifically, the CAN-SPAM Act, which outlines the practices you must use when sending commercial emails. There are some harsh penalties for sending spam emails, so you should be aware of what are considered spam emails. The CAN-SPAM Act defines spam as any message that are sent:

To a recipient without permission.
Without including a mailing address.
With a deceptive subject line.
Without including a way for the recipient to opt-out.

Most modern email marketing programs ensure you comply with the mailing address and opt-out by default, but you should be careful about subject lines and sending emails to those who didn’t sign up for them.

Send Valuable Content

At the core of any successful marketing campaign, is value. You shouldn’t be sending emails just to send them or to try to hit a quota. This causes engagement to suffer. When you send emails that don’t resonate with recipients, it’s unlikely it will get opened and more likely it will land in spam. One study found that the top reason why emails get reported as spam is because the brand sent irrelevant or too many emails.

Before you start drafting an email, ask yourself these questions:

Is this new or urgent information?
When was the last time I sent an email about this? Was it recently?
Do all my subscribers need to know this information or only a segment?
If I received this email would I find it valuable?

Takeaways

Email marketing is an essential part of an effective strategy, but if your messages are getting flagged as spam, they’re just going to waste. The key is to identify why your emails are getting flagged and how to avoid this going forward. Keep in mind that the higher your email engagement is, the more likely your next email will end up where intended and not in a spam folder.

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Marketing Automation: Why It’s Essential and What to Avoid

August 21, 2019/in Digital Marketing/by Courtney O'Connell

As more businesses shift away from traditional marketing tactics, agencies should follow suit. The times of one-time projects, lower value relationships, and thoughtless solutions with no unified reporting will lead to failure. The demand for full digital marketing services continues to increase, meaning agencies are taking on new clients while trying to keep existing ones happy. But with the rise for the need of digital services also comes the rise of resources available that makes providing those services easier.

Some agencies have started using automated marketing systems to increase both sales revenue for both their company and their clients. These solutions allow repetitive tasks like email marketing, social postings, and ad campaigns to be automated, not only for efficiency, but to also create a more personalized experience for users. Not to mention, every step customers make can be triggered and tracked as they go through your marketing funnel. Allowing marketers to make appropriate adjustments to ads, campaigns, website, etc.

Marketing automation is becoming a must have for agencies to stay relevant, but it can lead to failure if it’s not correctly implemented.

Why You Should Use Marketing Automation

Higher Value Relationships

Marketing automation presents the ability to build and provide hyper personalized services for clients. This includes things like initial automation technology adoption and strategy, creation of email templates, nurture sequences, landing pages, as well as ongoing campaign assets, analytics, and optimization. Providing all these services ,in addition to the initial transition, makes it difficult for clients to change agencies. Not to mention it sets you apart from the competition, as many agencies have not yet integrated automation into their marketing strategy.

Recurring Revenue

Marketing automation is what can make an agency go from completing endless one-time projects, to being a consistent, must have resource for a number of companies. Marketing automation is necessary for almost any client and many companies struggle with technology. Many companies also struggle with knowing where exactly they need to personalize messages and where they shouldn’t. That’s where you should come in, and ultimately move towards a retainer-based relationship and consistent revenue.

Proving Value

Clients always want to know they’re getting the best ROI possible. When marketing automation is carried out correctly, there should be no issues presenting results. It gives you the ability to show measurable results with comprehensive lead-to-revenue reporting. Since it’s rooted in data, you’re provided the necessary numbers to help clients pinpoint what should be focused on and what should be tossed. Marketing automation also becomes more valuable and a better investment the longer it’s used. The more data there is, the more accurate the results will be, and can hopefully show month to month improvement.

It’s Necessary to Stay Afloat

According to Ad Age’s Agency Report 2018, U.S. agency growth is the slowest it’s been since 2010, except for those offering digital marketing services. With the need for digital services growing, marketing automation is basically becoming a must to stay in business. Companies need more data than ever to feel confident about their spending. Marketing automation can assist with all of these aspects when executed correctly. You can create new streams of revenue, attract new clients, provide real evidence of ROI and a service too complicated to take on in-house.

Marketing Automation Mistakes

A misconception has grown around automation that is can salve for any slowdown in marketing growth, including the need for generating new leads. This leaves many marketers with sophisticated tools automating the middle-of-the-funnel, but no real strategy or solution to generate new leads to nurture in the first place. This commonly results in marketers purchasing email lists to nurture instead of generating inbound leads. While this is a quick solution, it doesn’t work long term. This strategy fails to create a solid foundation for healthy, long-term customer relationships. Instead, it produces spammy content and incredibly low ROI.

Another mistake is using marketing automation to force customers through a funnel with arbitrary touch points and irrelevant content. Marketers try to pass customers on to the sales department as quickly as possible, creating a disjointed customer experience. When marketing automation operates in a silo like this, points of friction are introduced that stall and strain what could have been productive, long-term customer relationships. Instead, there should be a contextual experience built on each customer’s individual needs.

Final Thoughts

Marketing automation can be a powerful and effective tool. To make it work it’s essential to understand all components and distinctions. Marketing automation should always be backed by an inbound strategy centered around the prospect, using all the information known about a person to inform the automation strategy. The ultimate goal is to deliver the information people need to make a purchase, when they need it, right where they’re looking for it.

More From Onimod Global

At Onimod Global we are experts in marketing automation and customer relationship management software. Our work is creating digital synergy and cross-channel digital marketing campaigns driven by machine learning analytics and human intelligence. Together ensuring your brand meets the consumer when and where they need them. Learn more about what we do, or become a client today.

5 Tips for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

August 14, 2019/in Digital Marketing/by Courtney O'Connell

It’s a common misconception that marketing through email is dead. In all actuality, 90% of adults and 74% of teenagers use emails regularly. Email marketing is still a great tool for building customer relationships and generating leads and sales. Best practices for things like deliverability, subject lines, and layout have evolved over recent years. There are many aspects that go into whether or not the recipient sees or opens your message, meaning there are many aspects to be kept in mind before hitting send.

Here are the top 5 tips for creating a successful email marketing campaign:

1. Build a Strong Subscriber List for Precise Targeting

Every successful email marketing campaign starts with a full list of qualified leads that are already interested in what’s being offered. This list can be built by converting website visitors into subscribers. Even if you feel that you already have an established list, never stop adding to it. Your website should have strong sign up features with forms on the homepage, blog page and anywhere else you can fit it without taking away from more important content.

After you’ve built a targeted email list, gather as much data as possible. From geographic location to customer buying habits, study the data so the list can be divided accordingly. Not every subscriber should be treated the same, which is one of the most common mistakes made in email marketing campaigns. Data can be easily gathered through Google Analytics or Facebook.

2. Create a Compelling Subject Line

A subject line can make or break an email campaign, as it’s what customers base their decision to read or delete the email off of. The subject line should be honest, compelling, and attention grabbing. It’s best to avoid hot-button phrases like “make money” or “earn fast cash.” Phrases like these often make users weary that it’s a spam email, causing them to delete immediately. Go for subject lines that pique the recipient’s curiosity, but tells the truth at the same time. Consider these options when creating your subject line:

Telling people what they will get out of opening your email.
Adding personalization, as including people’s name in the subject line can keep them more engaged.
Borrowing one of these high-converting email subject lines and adapting it for your own use.

3. Personalize When Possible

Try to add personal elements to emails whenever possible. Most email tools allow you to enter shortcodes that will be replaced by the recipient’s name when the email is sent out. If you have a business that works with multiple industries, consider sending out different versions of your email with each one providing information specific to each industry. The more personal you can get, the easier it is to build trust. You’ll also have a better chance of your emails being opened and read.

4. Keep it Clean and Simple

Keep layout crisp and clean by limiting the use of flashy graphics, huge fonts, or any other “in your face” items. The email should look professional and be easy to navigate. Consider:

Using short paragraphs and ensuring that keywords and phrases relevant to your readers stand out.
Including bullet points to help people skim the content and take in the vital points.
Inserting pictures sparingly. Images should illustrate your message rather than replace your content. Some email providers block images or consider them an indicator of spam.

5. Include a Powerful Call to Action

The goal of most email campaigns is to generate traffic back to the site or a specific landing page. Always try to include visually striking buttons with text that give readers more than one opportunity to interact. It should usually appear multiple times within the copy. You don’t want to pitch readers too soon, or anywhere that it seems awkward, but there’s usually a CTA near the start, middle, and end. The best call to actions are short and clear.

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The 411 on 1:1 Marketing

May 15, 2019/in Digital Marketing/by Courtney O'Connell

The “one size fits all” mass marketing method has been well on its way out of style. Before it was all about getting out a message to as many people as you possibly could, hoping that at least one of them would become a customer. Over the last few years marketers have discovered that going this route is generally not the most cost effective. They’re now trying to send out more personalized messages to a more specific target market.

One-to-one marketing, also referred to as relationship marketing, is by no means a new strategy, but has become one of the most popular buzzwords of 2019. It focuses on personalized interactions with each customer, catering to their individual behavior and needs. The challenge faced by marketers now is how to achieve this digitally. While brands are constantly updating their process to be more customizable, it still has yet to be perfected.

Types of One-To-One Marketing

Customization

This gives each customer the ability to customize the product to fit their own taste. The company doesn’t have to learn the preferences of each individual customer. It just has to produce and manufacture each product differently, according to the preferences set by the customer.

An example would be how Nike.com gives consumers the opportunity to customize their own shoes, deciding the colors, material used, etc. Some social media platforms also let users customize their profiles by giving the option to alter their feeds to fit their own preferences and interests.

Personalization

With personalization the company takes the time to learn the personal preferences of each customer individually. The company then customizes its marketing plan accordingly, catering to the tastes of each individual.

Amazon.com is considered one of the most successful at using this strategy. They collect data on users based on what they have bought or looked at in the past. Amazon then uses that data to recommend new products for them to purchase.

Why it Works

One-to-one marketing takes customer relationship management data, then segments, activates, and measures that data to discover the customers of highest value, while maximizing reach to them. One-to-one marketing generates lift, has the ability for extremely specific segmentation, as well as producing measurable results. You have the ability to substantially increase conversion rates due to the fact that you’re delivering more relevant messages to each audience segment, according to the feedback from those segments. You’re also creating micro-segments, targeting each customer specifically and uniquely.

Getting Closer to One-to-One Personalization

As we said before, this is not a new concept, but taking it and perfectly applying it to the digital marketing world has difficulties. MarketingLand has found 5 steps brands have started integrating into email campaigns, attempting to get closer to reaching one-to-one personalization.

1. Practice Good Data Hygiene

Remove inactive subscribers, duplicate emails, and fake accounts regularly. The quality of your content doesn’t matter if it’s not making it to the right, and legitimate, people.

2. Maintain Good Relationships with ISPs

Brands need to follow the best practices to maintain good relations with internet service providers such as Google, Yahoo, etc. A poor reputation can prevent your brand’s emails from reaching your subscriber’s inboxes. Monitor your reputation by frequently reviewing and adjusting targeting, frequency, and deployment strategies.

3. Use User-Friendly Templates

The development, creation, and deployment of campaigns can take weeks, maybe even longer, if marketers don’t have a streamlined process with the right tools in place. Marketing teams can build responsive, dynamic campaigns without coding, using drag-and-drop functionality. Production time can be cut in half, allowing your team to create more relevant content for more of your audience.

4. Dynamic Content Blocks

These have the ability to cater to each subscriber segment, creating greater efficiencies when changes frequently occur. For example, in retail there is a constant movement of pieces from inventory to offers that have the possibility of changing at a moment’s notice. Building automated pieces of content into template ensures that these last minute changes can be made with no real labor. This reduces production and also allows the design team to focus on other, more important tasks.

5. Have a Robust Trigger Program

This is the easiest way to implement personalization for email programs. The program delivers relevant content in a timely manner with the results being open rates exceeding far above averages promo messages. MarketLand suggests to frequently check subscriber activity, purchase history, browser behavior, preference data, etc. to find additional ways to boost your program. These triggers can provide a jump in revenue with less maintenance in content creation.

Additional Thoughts

All marketers are aware that individualized content is the best way to build awareness and relationships with customers. While it’s easy for smaller companies to personally communicate with each individual customer, there are many barriers when trying to make that happen on a much larger, digital scale. Despite the challenges, marketers are employing a variety of strategies that are allowing them to get much closer to one-to-one personalization.

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Industries Benefiting The Most From Digital Marketing Campaigns

September 22, 2017/in Digital Marketing, SEO, Social, Website Development/by Onimod Global

Although running successful digital marketing campaigns can be beneficial for many industries, there are some in particular where ROI is much more substantial. It’s almost an “adapt or die” scenario for companies within certain industries in an advertising market dominated by digital media. Listed below are a few industries that have substantial returns on investments when it comes to digital marketing efforts.

Health:
The health industry in today’s market is comprised of millions if not billions of dollars. Physicians, dentists, and any other entities involved in the health industry produce significant returns from clientele. The importance of effective search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) strategies to appear on the first page of search results is huge. The ROI is so substantial that there are some health clinics and larger hospitals that allocate millions of dollars to their annual advertising budgets. That alone shows the importance of leads and conversions and why digital efforts need to be emphasized in the health industry.

Food and Restaurant:
The scope of the food and restaurant industry has changed drastically. Businesses are always trying to find new ways to attract consumers to their venues and get customers to feel connected to their brands. Many restaurants have started to prioritize social media advertising as a way to reach target markets and new audiences. According to Toast Inc, “there has been a 20% overall increase in restaurants advertising on social media so far in 2017 compared to historical data.” Therefore, restaurants have started to pick up on the digital advertising trend and those who fail to adapt will suffer in the long run.

Law:
It’s no surprise as to how much money is involved when it comes to the legal industry. The ROI for defense attorneys and law firms is in most cases substantial. However, it was reported by Greentarget in a survey that in 2014 only one in four law firms prioritized their digital marketing plan over other marketing efforts. Although it was three years ago, this statistic is mind boggling due to the high amount of search traffic for law related key words. Essentially, in order to stay on top of competitors in the legal industry, a major online presence is needed and prioritizing digital marketing efforts is a must.

Auto:
Marketing has always played a huge role in the auto industry, but the traditional days of billboards, magazines, and radio ads are diminishing. With the majority of today’s consumers searching online for automobiles, the importance of digital marketing has increased tremendously. eMarketer stated that “spending on advertising in traditional media by all major auto companies is following a downward trend, while spending on digital advertising is increasing every year. In fact, from 2014 to 2015, it rose almost 22 percent.” In the end, it’s clear that companies within the auto industry will continue to battle it out through digital marketing and continue to find new ways to reach consumers.

In Need Of Digital Solutions?: At Onimod Global some of the clients we serve are in these industries and we know what it takes to deliver positive ROI. If you’re associated with a business seeking improvements with SEO, SEM, Website Development, or any other digital marketing service feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!

Why Email Marketing is Thriving

July 5, 2017/in Design, Digital Marketing/by Onimod Global

As new technologies are developed, previous practices and techniques become outdated. Email marketing is different. This more traditional form of digital marketing still performs well in today’s modern environment, and here is why.

The Data:

An info graphic created by WebsiteBuilder gives stunning statistics about email marketing. According to the graphic, 71% of mobile purchases are the result of emails sent by companies. The graphic goes on to claim that emails deliver an ROI that is 3 times higher than that of social media.

This data clearly shows that email marketing is still influential and effective. Even small businesses can see huge growth with these strategies. So how can you better your email marketing to drive these same results?

The Potential:

Email marketing has evolved. In order to garner attention from potential customers and clients, your business needs to stay ahead of the game. There are plenty of email marketing programs that will allow you to more easily connect with users. As long as they provide a big enough database for your contacts, easy data export capabilities, and trendy templates, you should be set.

One of the most important things to remember when crafting your email is this: build a relationship. Not only do you want to interest and engage the user, but you also want them to become personally invested in you and what you have to say. This all comes from a connection.

The Logic:

Many consumers receive these emails because they asked to in some way or another. Whether they subscribed to a newsletter or followed a company on twitter, they gave permission to be contacted.

Since the user has already done most of the work, now all you have to do is make them care. Assist the consumer by helping them learn what they have to gain from working with your business.

Promotional offers and discounts are highly effective when used in email marketing. General information and updates within the company also help to keep subscribers involved. Whatever the recipient may be looking for, try to help them find it with your emails.

Time to Spring Clean Your Digital Marketing?

March 21, 2017/in Digital Marketing/by Onimod Global

Yesterday brought the official first day of spring – Now is the time to dust off the old and get your digital marketing sparkling like new! Read more

Google Search Algorithm Update February 7th

February 8, 2017/in Google/by Onimod Global

We just had some Google algorithm update a week ago potentially targeting spammy links I believe. And now a week later, around February 7th, yesterday, it seems there was another algorithm update. This update doesn’t seem specific to links or spam but rather just a normal unconfirmed Google update where ranking changes shift based on something changing at Google.

I do not believe it is related to the mobile bug because most of the automated tracking tools only track desktop search.

There is some chatter, the chatter in the SEO community is not YET that hot but it might heat up throughout the day as people check their analytics and tools.

An ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has these posts:

SERPs movements again in our vertical. We’re seeing some recoveries from previous penguin casualties and some domain crowding. Spam STILL having a huge positive impact.

Yesterday (Tue 7th) I saw a huge spike in organic traffic, ~30% over avg, and 18% increase from previous record day in November. It’s a Canadian financial-related site. Increases from both Google.ca as well as other search engines/

Here is a post on Twitter that even caught Gary Illyes attention:

And here are the tracking tools showing changes on the 7th, note Mozcast is well behind in terms of tracking so this might be related to the link spam update we covered last week?

Mozcast: