Over the Past ten years I have worked with a myriad of health care providers as well as individual family doctors helping them with their email marketing. Like most email marketing we always suggest strongly to segment and offer content based on the individual recipients wants and needs. When these rules are followed along with personalization, the increase in opens and click-thrus as well as interaction with doctors about content in their newsletter were amazing.
We took a sampling of family doctors who opted for help segmenting their lists and providing dynamic content based on patient’s medical needs and history as well as current prescriptions. This sample was taken over a 12-month period with 12 doctors who segment/personalize their newsletters and 10 doctors who did not. Continue reading →
Check out this post at The Email Guide we did as a Contributor and find some of the great email marketing people to follow on Twitter.
Why I’m not an email marketing expert, guru, thought-leader, Jedi, blah, blah, blah…
Cheers, Chris
The Email Guide is kicking off eMail Radio with a conversation with leaders from the Email Experience Council of the Direct Marketing Association (www.emailexperience.org). Ali Swerdlow is the executive director of the Council – the largest working group of the DMA and Stephanie Miller is volunteer Vice Chair of the Council. (Her day job is at email deliverability company Return Path).
Also joining them will be John Caldwell of Red Pill Email. Active in the email marketing and operations space since 1996, John Caldwell is an innovative marketing executive experienced in integrated and tactical email marketing and operations.
You can call with questions by calling 1-877-WE-Email or use Skype. More details on the Email Radio website.
Inbox Group is proud to sponsor the inaugural broadcast and are excited at the great line-up of industry professionals that will be available to answer your questions about email marketing.
Please join your hosts for the show Jeff Ginsberg and Jim Ducharme from the email guide for what will be a great show and kick-off of Email Radio. You can follow Email Radio on Twitter @EmailRadio and can follow The Email Guide too at @TheEmailGuide.
Save The Date
Mark August 10th at 1pm EST on your calendar and tell your friend. Call in with your email marketing questions and get help from the experts. We hope you enjoy the show.
Cheers, Chris
Who's on First?
Abbott and Costello for those of you too young to remember made the title of this article famous. Their comedy bit about baseball and Who’s on First is a classic. When it comes to email marketing, remembering those two lines might just help you with your next campaign.
When you plan to send an email marketing campaign ask yourself:
Who’s on first? Who am I sending this email to and why.
What’s on Second. Is what I’m sending relevant and valuable to the recipient? If you’re still working with the one list approach, it’s time to make a change.
Most likely your list is comprised of current, past and future customers. All of which you need to address differently with customized content. Current customers have seen your value and have acted on it. Past customers saw value but have since lost faith. Future customers haven’t yet seen the value or are on the fence. Continue reading →
Earlier this year I had the great fortune of going to the Red Sox Fantasy Camp for a week to play baseball with other fans of the Boston Red Sox. It was without a doubt on of the greatest weeks of my life. I got to be a kid again. I was playing a game I love with the baseball stars of my youth. There I was playing with the likes of; Bill (The Spaceman) Lee, Oil Can Boyd, Dave Henderson, Rick Wise, Dick Drago, Frank Viola, Bob Montgomery and others. And of course, Luis “El Tiante” Tiant.
Chris and Luis Tiant
Although playing with these guys was an amazing experience, listening to their stories was by far the most enjoyable part of the week. I was lucky enough to spend some time one-on-one with Luis Tiant over a few drinks and a cigar. Continue reading →
While heading to the Ben & Jerry’s site to subscribe to their email newsletter, I noticed this little tidbit of text at the bottom of the subscribe form:
By providing this information, you acknowledge that Ben & Jerry’s may send you information, samples or special offers we feel may be of interest to you about Ben & Jerry’s, or other carefully-selected companies. If you would like more information, please read our Privacy Policy.
Really! How exactly is Ben & Jerry’s going to carefully select companies to share my information. They don’t ask for my interests in the subscribe form. They didn’t send a welcome message asking me for more information about myself. All they know if I completed all fields is where I live and how old I am. Will I be getting emails from AARP since I’m 50? That would be depressing and would probably send me out to the store for some ice cream to drown my sorrows. That must be it!
Maybe this is a reason for the less than stellar response to their email marketing efforts by their subscribers. Please don’t share my info. Or at least make it an option for me to choose to share my info that I have to check.
If you want to know what I like ask me. But I don’t like having my information shared willy-nilly. You don’t know what other offers I’d like to receive.
Okay enough ranting on my part.
Cheers, Chris
For customer retention the number one social network is…the telephone. With all the focus on social media, I think we sometimes forget that a regular phone call to clients (at least once a month) is the most important social connection we can make.
Having a personal connection with a client and providing great service, products and support will make leaving all the more difficult. Take time to ask them about their personal lives if the opportunity presents itself. Having a mutual interest other than business can often lead to a close bond. Be pro-active, sincere and go over-and-above and your clients will notice. Continue reading →
Answer: They just want out of a bad relationship.
That may sound a bit strange at first, but it could be the reason. You see the most important part of email marketing isn’t delivery rates or open rates or even clicks… it’s your relationship with your client.
Do they value your business relationship? Do you? Are you sending them relevant and valuable content?” Do you send the same content to everyone? Do you know what your client wants or needs from this business relationship? Continue reading →
For many businesses the 70-30 rule is a reality, 70 percent of revenue is generated by 30 percent of their clients. Most businesses have an active on-going relationship and regular communications with these customers. They are the customers that appreciate the personal service, close relationship, fast response and/or value that the business has to offer.
The other 70 percent of customers that generate the other 30 percent of revenue are simply less engaged. Maybe they only make a purchase once or twice a year. They might be price shoppers, or only think they need your services under certain circumstances. They might not even know all the services you offer, or they simply do not understand the value your company brings to the table. Continue reading →
