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The Biggest Email Marketing Mistake You Can Make by @LindsayFultz

A couple weeks ago I got an email from a nationally recognized brand that shot to fame thanks to a controversial Super Bowl commercial spot a few years ago. The email sender was from DONOTREPLY@BrandX.com. That same day I ordered a product online from another company and the “subject” of my email confirmation read: CONFIRMATION ONLY PLEASE DO NOT REPLY BACK. Yes it was all in caps which just SCREAMS to me, their new customer, that they view me as dollar signs and not as a valued, long-term customer, but hey, at least they said please right?

Effective email marketing should actually continue the conversation in new media, strengthen your brand, products, customer experience and relationships while establishing a nice ROE (return on engagement) and ROI (return on investment).

Email marketing tips to ROE and ROI:

  • 1st of all if you use DONOTREPLY@brandX.com or EMAIL CONFIRMATION ONLY PLEASE DO NOT REPLY BACK, stop. People want to feel valued and important.

  • Use a catchy but not misleading subject line. According to Email Sender and Provider Coalition, 69% of people decide whether to open, delete or hit spam based on the subject line alone.
  • Add your social networking links to continue the conversation. Great opportunity to build that rapport and customer loyalty.
  • Rock the content! Throw out the “me, me, me” email marketing mentality and actively listen to people in your target industries and try to solve their problems by offering your solutions, introduce a social media contest, conduct polls – ask for their input, people LOVE to think they can make a difference and incite change, instead of “see how awesome I am” testimonials, try highlight customer success stories – their success is your success and this helps create New Brand Ambassadors.
  • Use specific call to actions. Emails that strictly try to hard sell get opted out of pretty quick.
  • Reply back in real time to questions, comments or concerns.
    *** When my company sends out e-blasts it is normal for us to get dozens of customers replying back sending us product pictures, thanking us for reminding them that they needed to place a reservation, wanting to confirm details of a current order and even ways we can improve our product and customer service. All the emails come directly to me and they get a response with in minutes.***
  • Monitor and track your opens, un-opens and bounce backs. To me this is a no-brainer but many marketers neglect to do this.
    ***In one month from one call to action e-blast my company made $60k. Right then, I knew it was a successful campaign IF the customer took the time to open it. So, naturally I got the un-opens and tailored a very specific follow up call to action campaign which brought in another $24k. For the bounce backs I had my consultants call to verify email addresses.

    **Branding is an ongoing experience. It is every single touch point a customer, potential customer and partner has with your company, this includes email. In this digital world, email is often the first and last touch point a consumer has with a company for a single online transaction. Always make sure to keep it social and the communication lines 3-way.

Got any great email marketing tips you’d like to share?

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Lindsay Fultz – New Media Marketing Promotions and Campaigns

Lindsay is the obsessive compulsive Manager of Sales and New Media Marketing at Grosh Backdrops and Drapery, located in Hollywood, CA, Lindsay has successfully transitioned the marketing department from 100% traditional to the world of new media. Her social media campaigns and call to action email marketing style have brought in over $300k in revenue including raising $24k for charity. Lindsay is passionate about infusing personality in everything she does including engaging, branding and marketing. She is a strict vegetarian/vegan, shape shifter, runner and subjects herslef to the torture of Bikram Yoga regularly.

To learn more about Lindsay Fultz and her contribution to the Liz King Events Blog, view her profile.

To see more of Lindsay, check out her series of posts. 

The opinions and viewpoint expressed in this blog represent those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Liz King Events.

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Liz

Liz King is a social media-integrated event planner and award winning blogger. As the owner of Liz King Events, she runs an innovative firm that creates dynamic branding events integrating the use of social media. Planning events from soup to nuts, she works with her team to create and sustain your event brand and enhance attendee engagement. Liz is also a co-founder of the Event Technology Showcase PlannerTech. As the owner of Liz King Events, she has been featured as a speaker at the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, National Association of Colleges and Employers, ExpoWest/Supply Expo and several other events as an expert on the topic of social media and events. She has also been featured in Connect Meetings Intelligence and Convene Magazine, among others.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 10:55 am and is filed under Contributing Bloggers, Lindsay Fultz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.