Category: Marketing

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Email is Social

Is the person in charge of social media at your company also knowledgeable and in charge of your email marketing? Or, better asked, is all of your marketing integrated.

Despite calls that “e-mail is dead” because social media has taken the place of e-mail, that gets the process backwards — choose goals and strategy prior to choosing the technology or technologies to implement.

Email is social. Email is also very strongly integrated with social networks. Social media also integrates with email.

If you want fans to your Facebook page, you don’t simply create an offer and let it sit there. Frequently, one of the most effective tactics is to send an email to your list, informing them of the offer on Facebook. This serves the dual purpose of lead nurturing and also empowering your strongest advocates — those that chose to receive your email (it is opt-in only, right?) — to help promote yourself.

According to ClickZ:

E-mail should be working hand in hand with the other digital messaging channels and each channel should complement and leverage the strength of the other. Ask yourself:

  • Are you talking to your best advocates (e-mail list) and pushing them to your Facebook page where they can amplify the conversation in your favor?
  • Are you following up on conversations happening on Twitter and sending your followers the more detailed information, or coupon, or content they want?

You can also tweet your e-mail newsletter, like Smashing Magazine recently did.

According to ClickZ,

E-mail marketers need to get in this mindset – it’s not either/or; it’s not one killing the other; it’s two different channels that are very much the same.
This is why every facet of the campaign needs to be integrated; marketers need to start looking at holistic messaging strategies. Does your community manager have a schedule of when content will be pushed to Twitter and Facebook so that those two channels are complementing each other? Is e-mail on that same calendar? I’m not just talking about someone, somewhere in your organization who has a master marketing calendar. I mean, is all of your digital messaging working together in real-time? E-mail is just another one of your social channels, and it could be argued that the people who subscribe to that list are your best customers.

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E-mail Marketing is Not Dead: The Problem with the Social Media Bubble

There is a social media bubble. That is not to deny the growing importance of social channels in an integrated digital marketing strategy, but there are more and more voices decrying email as dead and only social networks, like Twitter and Facebook, as relevant. Why send an email, when you can tweet, they ask?

That not only misunderstands communication but is sure to ensure that their target audience misses their message.

E-mail is more relevant than ever, to reach key audiences. In addition, email has among the best ROI. Click through rates of email are among the highest — more than banner ads or video.

In 2010, over 107 trillion emails were sent — 294 billion per day. There were over 244 million new email users. 25% of which were corporate accounts.

Over 93% of web surfers subscribe to permission-based email, according to eMarketer. “Best practices for email marketing can be summarized in one sentence,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “10 Best Practices for Email Marketing.” “Get accurate and detailed data from people who want to hear from you, then automate the numerous steps involved in sending them relevant messages.”

E-mail is also adapting and changing. These are concerns that marketers need to be aware of.

  • More and more email is being read on mobile devices
  • Email is increasingly becoming social as well, with content being shared online and links from articles being shared

“Not only does email usage remain a prime activity among internet users of all ages, it allows marketers to contact their target audience with timing and personalized details that social sites cannot match,” said Hallerman. “And the rise of mobile usage helps marketers reach their customers via email more than before, since many people use those devices to check email much more frequently than they might have in the past.”

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Modern B2B Marketing: Creating Content that Sells

I received the following tips from Marketo, and think that they are worth reading for any business owner:

1. It is not promotional – promotional materials will neither excite nor inspire, both critical com­ponents of content marketing.

2. It is relevant – generic materials that are not highly relevant to a reader will not result in increased success. When writing content you must make sure it will be useful to the reader, regardless of whether it supports your company message.

3. It closes a gap – content marketing should answer a business question or problem. An added benefit of this useful information is its ability to be used in lead nurturing.

4. It is written well – poorly written thought leader­ship may not only provide poor results, but may also hurt the company’s reputation. Take time to ensure content is presented in a thoughtful man­ner and is free of errors.

5. It is relevant to your company – if the content you create does not support business objectives in any way, it is a waste of resources to produce. Keep business goals in mind when creating content.

6. It gives proof – since you write to support a business goal, your content may seem biased. Make sure that content you create gives proof either through quotes and testimonials or through actual metrics and statistics.

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Gary Vaynerchuk: There is a Social Media Bubble

Gary Vaynerchuk has been a social media superstar. Certainly no Luddite, he’s used social media — and most important useful content and real expertise — to real business success, both for his wine business and personal businesses. I first discovered Gary Vaynerchuk three or four years ago, when he was in the early days of Wine Library TV and reviewed some Israeli wine for the first time.

Yet, Gary has said that there is a social media bubble. 99.5% of those who call themselves social media gurus (a terminology I’ve long rejected) are “clowns.”

On a recent TechCrunch TV, Gary Vaynerchuk said: “we are going to live through a devastating social media bubble.”

According to Gary, 99.5% of “social media gurus” (A term I would get insulted if anyone calls me that) don’t know how to define real business value. It’s not about “likes” or “fans” but rather about business value. This doesn’t happen at once. It’s not viral. It’s hard work – Gary is known for being online at all hours and answering emails at 3 in the morning.

Social media performs business functions: it’s not a function in itself.

Social media is a tool, like a telephone. He’s repeating a message that I’ve advised clients for years and longed believed: There is a Social Media Bubble.

Social media is a tool to create business value. It’s a tool to show appreciation to your customers, help them with customer service, and provide real business roles.

Viral is not a strategy.

Are you hoping for the magic? Or are you focused on real, long-term business strategy.

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The Need for Integrated Marketing: It’s Not Just Social Media

“If only we went viral” and “If only we had a Facebook page and an Internet guru who knew how to make our RSS feed than we could get on the front page of TechCrunch” is something that is commonly heard.

The promise of social media was, to some, the magic promise of viral marketing.

It’s a false promise.

The fundamentals still matter.

Marketing is not about viral or social media – rather it’s about developing the proper strategy to meet your business goals.

What are you trying to get and what is the pathway to get there?

  • Brand Awareness?
  • Revenue Growth?
  • New Sales?
  • Thought Leadership?
  • Repeat Business?
  • Saved Customers and Recovery of Customers?
  • Introduce A New Program?
  • Donations?

Each goal has a different tactic to meet that goal.
Business Planning Class
Social media is not the answer, it’s a channel. One of my favorite strategic frameworks, Forrester’s POST Analysis, explicitly states that you pick the People (Audience), Objectives, and Strategy before choosing what technology to implement this with.

Before determining the tactic, you need to develop the strategy that maps the strategy and tactics to your goal. This, of course, requires knowledge of integrated marketing: branding/positioning, public relations, marketing, web development, SEO, and more. Yes, with the growing importance of digital platforms, technological literacy is a must for any marketing strategist, but it is not the goal – rather the tool to get it.

Jono Bacon, the Community Manager of Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution, has a good framework for how to map strategy with tactics in his book The Art of Community:

OBJECTIVE:

GOAL:

SUCCESS CRITERIA:

  • Item
  • Item

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

  • Item
  • Item

OWNER:

GOAL:

SUCCESS CRITERIA:

  • Item
  • Item

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

  • Item
  • Item

OWNER:

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Marketing: It’s Not Just a Guessing Game

Frequently, in marketing meetings and client meetings, it’s assumed that everyone has an equal opinion and equal knowledge.

Because I use Facebook, that means that I can do social media marketing.
Because I’ve sent emails before, that means I know e-mail marketing.
I’ve read the newspaper, so I know public relations.

While it’s important to listen to all sides of the story, it’s also important to be based on professional standards and best practices.

What about:

  • Branding and positioning
  • Legal requirements and regulation, such as CAN-SPAM, regulating email marketing in the US, or Israeli legislation on email marketing
  • Standards of e-mail marketing bounce rates and click rates
  • Knowledge of lead generation and the sales funnel
  • Cultural knowledge and nuances of your target markets
  • Technical knowledge (HTML, Web Development, SEO)

We also understand that – like any other profession – marketing isn’t magic and viral isn’t a strategy. Rather, there is a process to build momentum, gain traction, and gain results. But starting with industry best practices, we can develop and implement the best roadmap to achieve your business results.

In today’s rapidly changing world, there is a significant role for experimentation and it’s important to listen to a variety of perspectives in order to maintain agile.

But experimentation is not a substitute for guessing.

As marketers, we have extensive experience and knowledge in what moves human behavior: qualitative and quantitative. That experience is the starting point for successful strategic implementation.

Marketing isn’t a guessing game. It’s not simply having an opinion. The fact that I have an opinion about baseball doesn’t make me a hall-of-fame pitcher – or even a member of the minor leagues. Self-diagnosis doesn’t make you a doctor.

It’s a profession, that we’ve invested hundreds of hours in research, education, and implementation. It’s only by bringing our background knowledge to the table that we can help your business expand.