I recently spoke at the American Marketing Association Madison Chapter’s Annual Meeting about how to get the most from e-mail marketing.

In our rush to jump on the shiny new social media bandwagon, it’s easy for marketers to forget that email was the one of the first relationship-building tactics, and that it’s still one of the best ways to communicate and engage with your customers and prospects. Here are 10 tips that can help you maximize your return on investment and get the most out of your email marketing efforts:

  1. It’s all about making connections with the right people, the right ways.
  2. Make the most of your first contact and offer alternatives to completely dropping out.
  3. Your list matters. Take the time to scrub, clean and maintain your list.
  4. Build a relationship by offering valuable content.
  5. Your subject line is one of the most important things you can write.
  6. Accessibility plus functionality equals great design.
  7. Provide multiple ways to engage. Your call to action should be clear, visible and compelling.
  8. Stop thinking of this as a print medium; the more you can segment and micro-target, the better your results.
  9. Know your metrics—open rates don’t matter as much as click-throughs, conversion, and lifetime or overall value of a contact.
  10. Data matters. Review by contact, offers, campaigns and more over time. Do more of what works best and less of what doesn’t work.

~ Valette

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I admit it. I’m a geek.

I love technology. I lust after new gadgets. I spent part of my recent vacation happily upgrading the new Blu-Ray player and setting it up with NetFlix.  I own an iPod Nano, iPod, iPhone and iPad—not to mention an  iMac and MacBook (no MacBook Air yet, darn it). I’ve designed and programmed websites for fun. I remember when “social media” was the forums on CompuServe. And yes, I like science fiction. I’ve seen Star Wars more times than I can count.  Heck, I’ve been kicked out of a scifi convention by Harlan Ellison (not really my fault, by the way).

Think my colleagues make fun of me? Oh, yeah. In a nice way, of course. But they also enjoy the flip side of my geekitude—as part of the interactive and social media team here at S&B, staying up on the latest technology and interactive trends is part of my job. Figuring out how to make those trends work for our clients as we talk to their customers is what I do. My inner geek helps me do it well.

We all have an inner geek struggling to get out. I like to think of a “geek” not as someone who is socially inept but instead as someone who is passionately interested in a subject. Maybe you get all geeked out about sports. Or weiner dogs. Or locally sourced food. Whatever it is, there’s something you care passionately about.

So share it. Let your inner geek flag fly. Take your passion and put it out there for the world to see. Even better, find a way to channel it to do your job better. It’s more fun than a barrel full of Ewoks, I promise.

~ Valette

This is one of 31 entries that will be posted during the month of January describing the New Year’s resolutions proposed by the 40 vibrant and talented CCOs at S&B.

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It’s 3 p.m. Do you know where your customers are?

Are they watching  Oprah or the Dr. Who marathon on SyFy? Are they picking up their kids from school in their car? Are they sitting at their computer, brain-dead now that their afternoon snack has worn off, ready for a little online industry reading  as a way to stay productive?

The answer of course, depends on who your customers are.  It’s important know more than their sex, age and geographic location—you need to know what they care about, what they watch/listen to/read/consume (plus when and how), what their other choices are, and what motivates them. You need to know who they really are. And then develop your plan accordingly.

That’s why we are “tactic-neutral” at S&B. We’re focused on the customer and will recommend strategies and tactics that hit them where they live, whether it falls under “advertising,” “public relations,” “interactive media” or “social media.” How only matters so far as it gets our message to the right Who.

~ Valette
This is one of 31 entries that will be posted during the month of January describing the New Year’s resolutions proposed by the 40 vibrant and talented CCOs at S&B.

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choicesCustomers have choices?  Wait, our client’s product or service isn’t their only option?  It sounds so simple, but it’s easy to forget. Customers are faced with countless options, and we need to not only be experts on our client’s business, but their competitors as well. It’s the only way to truly understand the customer’s decision making process. 

We spend a lot of time thinking about why our client’s product or service is the best. But we have to remind ourselves to alter that conversation and think about what differentiates our client from their competitors. As a savvy customer, why should I choose them? What benefit or feature would motivate my purchase?  True to our CCO positioning, that’s where our brainstorming should start.

~ Megan 

This is one of 31 entries that will be posted during the month of January describing the New Year’s resolutions proposed by the 40 vibrant and talented CCO’s at S&B.

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