Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged subject lines
Open Rates
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
There different ways to measure the success of your email marketing or E-newsletter, but the most common and easiest understood metric is the Open Rate. Makes sense. If folks don’t open your message, they can’t be influenced by it!
But what about the simple brand awareness/recognition that you achieve by recipients simply seeing your piece in their inbox? (see, it’s complicated…)
So your open rate is obviously of supreme importance over the long term. It’s the first step towards “conversion”, whatever that may mean to you, and marketing success.
It is also fairly clear that you’ll never achieve a 100% rate, or anything close. Everyone’s time is too short and inbox too full for that to happen. But you shouldn’t spend much time worrying about the specific open rate, anyway. (What?? I thought you said it was vitally important a second ago? Bear with me for a moment.)
The reason the actual number is of limited significance is this: What constitutes a “good” rate? In comparison to what?
There are many different types of communications, both business-to-consumer and business-to-business. Business-oriented lists tend to have higher rates, partly because emails seen in the preview pane of Outlook (a common business email service) count as “opened”. Everyone has a different list profile, too.
If you send to a rented list of 100,000 people, and 10% (or 10,000) view your piece, that could be a smashing success. If however you send to your own personal house list of 50 addresses, and only 10 view your email (20%), you might consider this a failure!
What matters most is when or how your open rate changes from campaign to campaign. An increasing rate says you’re hitting the mark, a decreasing open rate points to a problem.
That said, there are certainly some tricks and tips that our writers have learned to improve open rates over time. We’ll share some of these in future posts to help you improve your rates, too!
The One Thing Your Competition Can't Buy
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
Many companies don’t even realize that their email list of contacts is the most valuable piece of data they own. It provides a low cost and instantaneous communication channel to many of the most important people to their success. And unlike other more traditional marketing, it can provide real-time, measurable results.
You have probably heard that it is far less expensive to keep a customer than to acquire a new one. This holds true for most other groups, associations and non-profits also.
And your email newsletter can help you communicate and stay “top of mind” with current business relationships – and increase retention – while also allowing you to share knowledge and promotions with prospects, too.
It’s all about increasing the lifetime value of your contacts. Remember: Competitors can always buy their way into your market – and match your pricing, your products and services, and even the “look and feel” of your brands or organization.
But the one thing they can’t purchase? Your relationships.
Every E-newsletter you send helps solidify the connection between your organization and your customers, members, participants, clients, volunteers, donors… and even prospects!
Great Email Marketing Subject Lines
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
At Hat Trick Associates, we’re always being asked things like, “What is the best day to send email?”, “What are the real email marketing secrets?” and “What are great subject lines?”. I decided to focus this post on that last one, and offer some really great and proven-to-work subject lines that you can test out for your email marketing campaigns.
First of all, I’m assuming at this point that your recipients will recognize you from your “From Label”. I’ve written why your From Label is very important in your email marketing campaigns. If they are familiar with who the email is coming from, you’ll have better luck getting your email opened with a catchy subject line.
As a retailer your email marketing campaigns are probably all about selling. If you sell your own products or products from other manufacturers, you’ll be trying to announce new products, new seasons or discounts and sales. You’ll want your recipients to act fast, so you may want to try expiration dates in your subject line. We even see businesses using hours in the day in their expiration time periods.
You’ll see that some of these subject lines are a bit vague like “An Exclusive Offer for You”, however sometimes that might get more opens than if you talk about a specific product. That’s something that we often test for clients to determine what specific subject lines have the most impact.
Here are some sample offers:
Enjoy this Special Offer at Our New Location
25-40% off – Email-Only Offer – Today Only
Invitation-Only 2 Hour Event Starts 11:30 AM CT
Ends Today! 20% Off Friends & Family
Top 10 under $10
Free shipping – offer ends in 3 days
Free product with purchase of [product name]
[New Product] has arrived. Order now before we run out.
Earn double points for [insert product or action].
Last Chance: Get up to $25 now
Save 10% on your next order
Service Notice: Exciting new changes at [your company]
An Exclusive Offer for You
[Your company] October Specials
Last minute deals, special offers, and new [product name]
Act Now to renew your [subscription name]
Online only: 25% off friends and family
[Product name] Promotion week. Save 25%
Extended for a day! Get Free shipping through Friday
Limited Supply: Limit 2 [product name] per customer
Ho-ho-ho: The [your company] holiday catalog is here!
Ends Today: Take 20% off your entire order
Your choice of amazing items $50 + under
Great gifts for [Dad, Mom, etc]
Best Sellers for every [girl, boy, man, woman, dog, etc.]
Everything you need when the temperatures [rise, fall]
Free Shipping–Limited Time Offer
Catchy & Creative
We’ve got you covered from head to toe (clothing retailer)
Celebrity Favorites (selling accessories that Hollywood is wearing)
Did you remember to get a gift? It’s ok, we did. (retailer wanting to get people to register for gift reminders)
10 Gift Ideas for your little ones (retailer listing top 10 suggestions for kids)
Take your pick: Our 9 Favorite Dresses (retailer suggesting by popularity)
Coolest modern desk on the job…for $149 (retailer including price in the subject line)
Score Great Savings on Game-Time Gear: HDTVs, Furniture & More (retailer selling TV’s with a sports slant)
Party Like it’s 1999 Aged Cabernet Special (wine retailer)
In our store: Last minute Mother’s Day combo ready to go (retailer getting the last minute shoppers with a catch “combo to go”.)
Adorn Your Home Now & Through the Holidays (Home decor retailer)
Mind-Blowing Grenache (wine retailer)
Bring this email to a Gap store and win! (retailer trying to get store traffic)