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Creative Strategies - Avoiding the Where's Waldo factor

As part of the proof reading process, put to test your email marketing campaign's call to action.

Open your email. After 3 seconds, decide if you know what to do next based on what you saw. 

For example, often an email will include product information, image, and contact info in the top few inches of the email. Once the reader scrolls to the bottom, only then does the reader see the call to action, something like, "click here for more info."

Revision strategy: Move the call to action to the top portion of the email. Change the language to be more specific, "Click to view sizes and colors of our entire collection."

Remember, people do not want to open an email and have to hunt for the message. Your call to action is not an entry in a Where's Waldo contest. Write clearly, place promently.

A good article on this subject appears on the Email Critic's blog at http://emailcritic.com/2011/03/email-marketing-calls-to-action-cta/

 

Best Practices - Replace Text Links with Buttons

I received a follow-up email from Backcounty.com after purchasing a few Christmas gifts. The email was clean, well organized, and full of image buttons that were almost irresistible! 

There were three buttons per item purchased, all asking for feedback of some sort. They are like candy! 

         

Ah ha! Did you try to click one of these?! 

It's true that image buttons draw more action than text links. The reality is, for the staff in charge of building the email campaign at many smaller businesses, there just is no time for these types of design modifications. But tweek your email design just a bit and you might see more success. 

For example, download an image to link to any social media site using ButtonsHut.com. And be sure to put some space (padding) around the button. An article at Clickz.com recently reminded us to design for mobile phones 100% of the time as smart phone usage continues to grow. 

"The padding around links and buttons needs to increase so larger fingers can click accurately."

Read the Clickz article here:
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2128674/b2b-email-trends-watch-2012

Bottom line, try using buttons instead of text links. 

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Creative Strategies - Web and Social Media

Apply the "BEEPD" Strategy...

Struggling to figure out how to manage your various social media efforts?

Avoid spreading too thin, shouting in all different directions, and quit wasting time in the wrong lane of internet traffic.

Here's a simple process that will work. The world of social media can be very enticing. With a good plan and an organized process, the circle of web marketing will fall more easily in line:

"Get BEEPD!"

1. Brainstorm at your Blog.
2. Elaborate at your Web site.
3. Entice via Email.
4. Point from Twitter.
5. Discuss on LinkedIn.

Stick to the plan, stay in the right lane!

© Kathryn Towner, WinCommunications

Creative Strategies - Include Loyal Customers in Your Email Newsletter

Add this to the email strategy toolbox:

Introduce good customers to other good customers by including fans in the your actual email copy. Often a good customer is willing to comment or give testimony, and creating this kind of exchange via your email newsletter can reinforce loyalty and repeat business. Add facebook and Twitter icons to further encourage customer inteaction.  (READ PREVIOUS POST!)

Creative Strategies - Building a facebook Page for Your Brand

Did you know that Google results can improve if your brand has an active facebook page?  Add this idea to your list of ways to improve your web site's search engine results!  Create a brand page, and post your brand "badge" on your blog and in your next email marketing campaign.  Here's a new WinM@il badge:

WinM@il

Promote Your Page Too

Creative Strategies - Ask for Referrals

One of the simplest and most effective ways to grow your email list and likewise your target list is to ask your biggest fans for their help!  If they appreciate your email newsletter or email campaign, for whatever reasons, then these are the best people to ask for a referral.

And email marketing tools make this process simple.  Highlight your forward-to-a-friend button in your next email campaign.  Encourage sharing and be willing to share.  Using an integrated sign-up request once the email is forwarded, someone you never would have reached otherwise is now able to sign up for your newsletter!

Those who do participate (and you know who they are through your email marketing tool) should be rewarded.  A week later send a thank you note, better yet send a special offer or a valuable "How-To" document that has not yet been posted anywhere.

Email works well for new customer acquisition, it just needs to be executed properly and tactfully.

Creative Strategies - Internet Branding at No Added Cost

It is so fantastic to see your name or your brand meander from source to source, leaving a searchable trail as it travels, logging trackable records good for measuring and reporting.

I searched my name and specialty at Google recently and found myself all over the place! 

Today I'd like to report my name appears at Voddie.com - I never heard of Voddie.com, but it is really cool. It is an internet & marketing company managed out of England.  The reason I am there is an article I wrote on Email Etiquette.  Read my article here >> http://www.voddie.com/blog/2008/03/11/email-etiquette%E2%80%94use-it-or-lose-business/

I am referenced at TCEWorld as a source for a similar article - read their article and find me at the bottom >> 
http://www.tceworld.co.in/index_files/tmm/new/kma/mkt/mc/mc_020408.htm

Today I got busy and updated "what I am doing" at LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter and my 3sixty account. 

None of these appearances on the Internet stage cost me a dime, and all of them are trackable, searchable, and focused on my area of expertise. 

Now why wouldn't someone dive in and begin building a social network, an internet persona. 

Search me!

Creative Strategies - List Building

A good WinM@il customer who oversees the operations of a variety of dining establishments created a holiday email coupon for the subscribers of one restaurant's email program.  That right there is a good idea.

And going one step further, in an effort to share that good news, they sent a promotional email to a nearby property's subscribers encouraging them to sign up for the first restaurant's email program.

This kind of cross marketing works.  It makes more sense, costs less, and drives more business in the door than purchasing a random list of who-knows-who.

Other creative list building strategies include:

1-When speaking with a radio or television reporter, remember to ask listeners to go to your web site for more info and say the address.

2-At a trade show, put your web site address on every banner, hand-out and registration form. Acquire e-mail addresses of booth visitors.

3-Mention your web site and ask for e-mail addresses at every event you attend on behalf of your organization.

4-Partner with a like-minded organization and put an ad at their web site – link it to your web site, spell out your address.

Creative Strategies - Edit for cells & pda's

I am a little surprised by the number of companies that do not revise their email marketing content to suit the growing crowd reading emails on their BlackBerrys, cell phones or other mobile devices.

If I only have a few seconds to view an email from my phone, most of the time here is what I see:

"Problems viewing this email?"

"To view this email as a web page go here."

"This email was sent to kt@wincommunications.com by..."

And then I run out of time and I close my phone.  When I am back at my computer, I see those emails I already scanned and I delete them thinking I already read them.

A more effective approach would utilize the tool an email service provider offers you to edit the text version separately from the HTML email. 

Next, decide what ONE THING you want cell phone and PDA users to know before they exit their email screen, and type that at the top of the text version.

More on email rendering for mobile devices >>

Creative Strategies - Hilton's Homewood Headlines

I love to read emails from my favorite hotels in my favorite cities around the country. 

I signed up a few years ago for Hilton's Homewood Headlines.  The Hilton's email marketing strategies are consistently direct and relevant and the content is useful and entertaining.  I like the note they include to the right, which is usually very personal in tone and offers a chance to win a prize. 

Here's a fun one:

The magic of a family vacation is in the simple moments you share together. That's why Homewood Suites by Hilton offers your family everything you need to create as many of those moments as possible. Spacious suites with fully equipped kitchens and complimentary high-speed internet access keep everyone comfortable. Complimentary hot breakfast starts each day off right. Now through July 15, 2007, show us a photo of the moment that made your vacation unforgettable, and it might end up on a Times Square billboard.

I didn't enter a picture, but would love to see the billboard they mention!