5 Tips to Optimize Your Next Email Campaign

Our inboxes may be full of offers and news, but email marketing is still serving its purpose.

A recent survey notes that 68% of marketers believe email marketing is a very effective strategy, one of the highest among social media advertising and social media listening. Those marketers must be on to something: the Direct Marketing Association notes that email marketing has an ROI of 4300%. 

Earlier this week, our founder and president Jorge Villar shared 3 practical tips to increase response on your next email campaign. To piggy back off his post, we've decided to continue his list with 5 more strategies you can put in place TODAY.


1. Edit. 

While this seems like a no-brainer, I bet you can look in your inbox right now and find several reasons that it needs to be restated. Have someone who isn't working directly with the campaign read over the subject line as well as the message. It's easy to grow so attached to our ideas and our work that we overlook typos, misspellings and improper punctuation. A fresh set of eyes can help you zero in on areas to be improved.

2. Include video content. 

There's no doubt that consumers love to watch and engage with videos. Long form and short form videos alike, consumers enjoy an interactive experience with content that is entertaining, informative and shareable. Effective marketers know this and use it to their advantage. Recent research shows that when a video is used in an email, the CTR increases by 200%-300%.

3. Make your landing page one click away. 

Consumers engage with content that is not only entertaining but that is also conveniently accessible. Two clicks to reach a landing page and/or watch a video may take too much time and effort, especially depending on internet connection and considering your audience's busy schedule.

4. Use one CTA per email campaign. 

You may want your target audience to call you, email you, download a white paper, visit your website and follow you on social media, but your email campaign needs to focus on only one of those at a time. This will help you hone your message as well, providing prospects and clients with a clear idea of what you're offering as well as how they can follow up with you.

5. Send your email at the right time. 

Scott Stratten, marketing expert and president of UnMarketing, has a great quote on this concept: "The best time to never send email is when someone else told you to. Do your homework. The only important data out there is what your own list does." You have analytics on your target audience; use that data to determine the right time for your brand to send emails and to optimize your campaigns.

What would you add to this list? Tell us below or tweet us!

@rme360

             By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Convert More Clients with These 5 Tips

Earlier this week, our founder and president Jorge Villar shared 3 important tips on developing messaging that will help you convert sales. Every word within your messaging matters, and some words more weight than others. 

But what other tips should you consider as you strive to convert more prospects to clients?

Let's take a look at these 5 ideas:

1. Listen. 

Are you listening to your prospects? Are you talking over them or interrupting them? Do you take the time to hear them out and then paraphrase what they say to make sure you understood them? This critical - and simple - tip can change the way your prospects see you. Be clear and concise when you speak and respond to them, but make sure you provide them ample time and space to speak first.

2. Be irresistible. 

What do prospects really want from you? What can you offer them to solve their problems? Identify those solutions and kick them up notch by creating offers that compel them to do business with you. The offer should provide convenience and highly competitive advantages and should also showcase your exemplary level of service.

3.  Help them make the right decision. 

If you're talking to a prospect, you have both already recognized that your services are needed and are being considered. Don't focus on selling her your service; focus on selling her the solution that fits her needs.

4. Remember your manners. 

Just as your parents said, "yes m'am" and "no sir" go a long way as do "please" and "thank you." What impression of a business are you left with when one or more of its team members are discourteous to you? What does it say to you when someone you do business with goes above and beyond to exercise exemplary etiquette with you? Provide your prospects with not just the treatment they deserve but the treatment they will talk about to their friends.

5. Follow up consistently. 

By following up, you not only increase your opportunities to convert sales but you also create opportunities to build relationships and develop trust with your soon-to-be clients. These relationships are what will inspire clients to stay with you long-term and to refer business to you.

What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments or tweet us: 

@rme360

#convertthissale 

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Seminar Marketing Success Factors: The Critical Factors You Must Avoid

Long before social media marketing, there was the original social marketing concept: seminar marketing. And while there are many marketing trends that allow you to reach your targeted audience with your brand messaging, your brand can't afford to ignore the classic solution of seminar marketing that brings you face-to-face with interested prospects.

Click here for our FREE white paper to learn more!

#planyourseminar





By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

"Once Upon A Time...": Why Storytelling Matters in Marketing

Your audience is attracted to stories. 

We all are. We're social creatures and enjoy relating to other people.

We also enjoy relating to and connecting with brands. How does your brand use storytelling in its marketing? We'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

To see a larger version of this infographic, click here. 

Tweet us about your brand's story!

@RME360

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Your Brand Has A Story to Tell: The Value of Storytelling in Your Marketing

Happy Monday! 

We're kicking off a week of social media focus on the value and power of storytelling in your marketing with this infographic.

Your brand has a story to tell, but do you know the optimal times to do so on social media?













What would you add to this infographic? What tools do you use to post on social media? Tell us about your social media experience in the comments below!

How do you tell your brand's story? Tweet us about it:

@RME360

             By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

20 Email Marketing Tips for Reaching Your Audience

What tips would you add to the list? 

What is it about email campaigns you receive that resonates with you the most? 

How can you improve the way you reach your audience today? 

Tell us in the comments below! 

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Back to Basics: Three Tips to Make Direct Marketing Work for Your Brand

So you think direct mail is dead, huh? Think again! 

Direct Marketing Association found that the response rate for direct mail to an existing customer averages 3.4%. 

Epsilon found that 50% of U.S. consumers prefer direct mail to email. 

And Target Marketing found that direct mail has the highest rate of success in new customer acquisition at 34%. 

An effective direct mail piece walks your brand, your products and your services into your prospects' homes and you become the topic of conversation around the dinner table. Professional, personalized and compelling direct marketing packages coupled with targeted consumer data will open the door for you; the quality of your products and services will close that door on your way out of a successful sale.

























Check out these three tips to having a successful direct marketing campaign: 

Use a list that best fits your needs. Use multiple data files to identify your prospects by age, income, zip code criteria and other important selects. What about your markets should you consider? What lifestyle choices of your prospects will make a difference when narrowing your target? Work with a list database expert to ensure you have the right list. 

Create a professional, personalized and compelling mail piece. This isn't the time to mail our your company brochure. Your direct mail piece should have a strong offer and a strong call to action as well. Your brand's brochure allows it the opportunity to inform, but its direct mail pieces should ask for specific action. Give your prospects multiple ways to respond to increase your chances of that action. A marketing services expert can provide you with copy and design services to ensure your message invokes the response you seek. 

Manage your responses. While you can't anticipate the exact number of responses you will receive, you can plan ahead so you can manage those responses swiftly and effectively. This will depend on the action you identify in your messaging. Are you asking prospects to email you for more information? If so, have that information ready to send and/or discuss. Are you asking prospects to call in and discuss a particular product or service? If so, train the team who will field those calls on what types of questions to expect and how to answer them. Are you asking prospects to visit a landing page and download something? If so, make sure the messaging of that deliverable matches the direct mail piece and that the link is functional and accessible. 

What other tips should you consider when launching a direct mail campaign? Tell us in the comments! 

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

6 Tips for Building Lasting Client Relationships

 Do your favorite brands interact with you on social media? Do they show their appreciation of your patronage? Do they give you the "wow" factor at each point of service?

If they want to build lasting relationships with you, then they should be doing these things and more. And if you aren’t providing such things in an effort to build meaningful relationships with your clients, then it’s time to make immediate changes. Use the following tips to help you provide amazing service so that you can wrap the story and reputation of your brand around each client and prospect.

• Celebrate milestones with clients. This sounds simple, huh? But often we find ourselves too busy to remember birthdays, anniversaries or other important milestones our clients celebrate. Make time to send a card or to send a VSnap video via social media or email for such dates. (VSnap allows you to record 60 second personalized videos, a technique that can help you establish a connection and create trust.) 

• Remember that not every call should be a sales call.  If a client thinks you only call to sell her something new, you won’t be able to establish a meaningful relationship.  Find other opportunities to call clients and provide value to your service. Invite them to lunch to say thank you for their business, send them links to articles relevant to their businesses or call them to discuss best practices for a product or service you provide. Try to have multiple client touches throughout the year. 

• Don’t hinge your entire relationship on digital communication.  It’s very easy to rely on e-mail as the primary relationship tool, but remember that clients need to hear your voice and see your face, both of which add a personal touch and go a long way toward deepening client relationships.

• Exceed your clients’ expectations with the “wow” factor. One of the best ways to develop a meaningful relationship with your clients is to give them 1) exceptional service and 2) exceptional results. Don’t oversell yourself and don’t promise more than you can deliver, but set expectations that provide you with opportunities to excite your clients. Think about the last time a brand left you saying “wow.” Did a representative call you by your first name? Did he tweet about your business from his company’s profile? Did she deliver a product or document to you because you couldn’t come into the office? Did he send you a goody basket with a handwritten note? Remember how you’ve been dazzled by exceptional service and recreate such moments for your clients.

• Inspire your team with best practices. So now that you’ve recalled how you were dazzled, inspire your team to do the same by discussing best practices. One of the most powerful ways to continue with providing the “wow” factor is to share ideas on how to do so with your employees and/or colleagues. Bring in breakfast one morning and sit down with your team to listen to their ideas and to pass on yours as well. Talking about these ideas can increase the chances that providing “wow” factors become a standard for your brand.

• Find common ground. Do you and a client both love sports? Do you both have aging parents? Do you both enjoy the same activities outside of the office? Talk with them about such common ground issues; having something to talk about other than the business you are collaborating on makes working together on both sides much more gratifying.

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360