October/November 2007

In-house email list messy? Shape it up - Bonus: Why CEOs blog for business

Dear GetMoreCustomers reader:

Are you sending your precious email messages to a bunch of people who couldn't care less? If you want to get more out of your email marketing, and make your clickthrough statistics more meaningingful, follow these suggestions to clean out the "dead" names from your in-house list.

1. Check recipients for addresses with low activity. For some marketers, that might mean no clicks in a month; others might view a once-in-a-year response as good news. You decide. Use your email service provider's stats to judge what's average, high or low.
2. Send a simple "reactivate yourself" message. Ask them, "If you'd like to continue receiving our mailings, click here." That click verifies their address and confirms their continuing interest. It's perfectly fair to entice them by making the click go to a special offer or to a form where you ask for a little more information. Hey, if they got this far, they'll probably share more about themselves--and you can never know too much about your prospects and customers!
3. While you're looking at the names in this group, analyze the data to see if they have any characteristics in common. For example, are some of them several years old? Did you get certain names from the same source? Did they sign up because of a special offer? If you see any patterns, think of ways to re-connect that make use of that information.
4. Next, decide if you want to treat low responders differently from those who seem totally unresponsive. And remember, it's not always easy to tell how exactly how many were opened, because many of today's email programs don't display images--meaning you can't know for sure if the email's actually been read. That's why this re-connecting process makes sense.
   Do you want to try a quick one-shot message? You can always come right out and ask low and non-responders if they still want to receive messages--and if they don't respond, drop them from your list. If you want to try a little harder, experiment--try sending messages more or less often, or send a series of special messages, and so on. If you have specific information (those common characteristics we talked about), send a message that's personalized along those lines. Consider waking them up with a special offer--say, a free value-add report or a big discount on their next purchase.
5. Keep watching. If they respond to one thing, be creative about the next messages you send. Don't consider them "won back" until you see the kind of results you want.
6. If nothing is working, drop them from your list. Focus your creativity and resources on subscribers who want to hear from you.
7. Think about why these went bad. Maybe the way you collected those names wasn't strong--e.g., collecting business cards without connecting personally. If it's longer-term subscribers you're losing, consider developing a strategy to engage differently with them as the relationship matures.
8. Always keep finding new ways to add more active recipients to your list.

Automation can only take you so far--you've got to think strategically and treat your prospects as living, breathing individuals. E-marketing is as demanding as any other type of direct mail--and gives you more painfully immediate ROI feedback. Yes, all this takes time. But, like cleaning off your desk so you can work more efficiently, cleaning up your email list will make you feel better about all the work you're putting into it.

Bonus: Why CEOs blog for business
I was invited to Cleveland recently to do a presentation on blogging for business. A crowd of techno folks from the Greater Cleveland PC Users group gathered to hear why blogs are good for SEO (search engine optimization--otherwise known as getting found favorably by Google). I gave them tips on how to find inspiration for what to write and how to write in a way that readers would find attractive and worthwhile.

Several folks walked out saying they felt much more confident about starting their own blogs. One attendee--a physician who's been in managed care for 20 years--even emailed me the next day to say that, after having felt stalled for months, he actually got it started that night. If you'd like to see the presentation slides, visit "5 Reasons Why Blogging Is Good for Your Business." And if you want more inspiration, check out some of these CEO blogs:

• General Motors, Bill Lutz, CEO - www.fastlane.gmblogs.com
• JetBlue Airways, David Neeleman, CEO - http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/flightlog
• Whole Foods Mkt., John Mackey, CEO - www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jm/
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Paul Levy, CEO - http://runningahospital.blogspot.com
• Marriott Intl., Bill Marriott, CEO - www.blogs.marriott.com

By the way, have a beautiful Thanksgiving. Best wishes to you and yours.

Sincerely,
Barbara

P.S. Still debating about a company blog? Check out Blog for Business:

• Blogging about personal technology?
• Ad revenues dropping like rocks for newspapers
• Sort through the small-biz-info jungle

Give me a call if you have any questions about corporate blogs. 773.292.3294 or 216.472.8502