Postcard Marketing Is Still Profitable To Any Business

Once, postcards were used as a cost-effective business promotion, with a little personal touch to reach the heart of customers.  Internet marketers have so many venues in the modern age, but this can be a difficult thing to manage.  The internet provides a quick statistic tracking method.  However, with so many methods of marketing, your advertising may become diluted or lost.  The important thing here is to pinpoint your market.  With digital marketing methods, are postcards effective?

The initial investment can be off putting, as postage prices have increased to thirty-three cents in 2013.  Despite that there are plenty of statistics pointing to the effectiveness of a well-crafted postcard campaign. 

• Despite what you think a postcard campaign is still relevant.
• Studies show new customer support is as much as 34 percent more with direct mail.
• 54 percent of postcards are read when received.
• Response can be up to 39 percent. 

There are large amounts of recorded evidence that direct mail is the most successful, in fact.  How can you translate this to your business?

For example you have a web-based market service that costs $240 per year, and 70 percent of recent members stay with you for 12 months.  Your single sale profit is $180 dollars.  Printing 10,000 postcards, receiving 39 percent return yields 399 new customers.  Your gross profit for the campaign is $71,821.

Now remove the costs of postage and printing, approximated at $4,000, your total net profit is a little over $67,000.  Any added fees for rentals must also be calculated.  Delivered directly to your market and customers must having to at least glance at your advertisement, are fantastic examples that postcard marketing is still relevant and effective, even in our digital age.

If you’re looking for fantastic information on postcard marketing, call Guest Contact today for guidance.

Tips On Building Your Email Reputation & Avoid Becoming Spam

Email campaigns can be the single most effective marketing tactic in the modern business world, but getting marked as a spammer can be a serious detriment.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to make it to the top, with the proliferation of spam campaigns and internet service providers cracking down on business email.  One in every five corporate emails never reaches the recipient's inbox, finding itself either in the spam box, or blocked altogether. 

Small businesses are the most often affected by these spam filters; even willing recipients often are missing their business updates.  Many new businesses start with the wrong tactics with their email marketing campaign.  Many saturate the inboxes with generalized ads that tend to cause irritation in most customers.  Adversely, many companies do not send enough messages to be put on Internet service Providers message lists that prevent many of these problems.

Here are some things to keep in mind with your internet marketing.

Polish Your Reputation

Filters often look closely at particular spam methods, so write an interesting, unique add.  ISPs track your spam saturation, much in the same way credit reports track your score.  Email providers ticket your score through a number of methods, but the most common is the report spam option.  If approximately one in a thousand messages is reported, your emails may never reach inboxes. 

Use Your Own Lists

Avoid buying cold-call email lists, as many may be spam catching addresses that can automatically dock your reputation.  It may be time consuming but building your own lists of customers via surveys can be extremely beneficial.  Ask them in your survey what kind of emails the wish to receive.  If they subscribe to your newsletter but not advertisements, you should honor that or risk harming your ISP reputation.  Consider also, that segmenting lists based on your surveys will keep your customers reading.

If you’re looking for a little extra guidance in creating an excellent email campaign Guest Contact is ready to help. 

Six Things Not To Do With Your Email Marketing Campaign

When you first start an email campaign things can be tricky and confusing.  When done well you’ll see high quality results.  It’s important that you take the time to make sure you’re not doing any of the ‘No-Nos’ below:

 

DON’T Target a Broad Audience.

Most business promotions target a sweeping customer base, but often this can lead to more woes.  Create a sign-up survey when customers subscribe.  Create your advertisements based on the answers provided.  If you can’t ask, create ads that target a specific sub-group of customers.

DON'T Stop Testing.

Email marketing is a perfect testing ground for what products are catching people’s eye.  When you change an email campaign, try sending both the old and new versions, and see what receives more responses.  In certain cases, plain text may work better for you, but testing the waters is a simple thing to do.

DON'T Ignore Unsubscribers.

You can learn quite a bit from customers unsubscribing.  They will often be open and tell you what wasn’t working for them.  Create a survey for unsubscribes and see what your business may be lacking.

DON'T Make Response Difficult.

Keep it simple, if you have two statements or call to actions, it is too many.  Try to localize and specialize specific emails to target your audience directly.  Causing your customer to think, makes them less likely they will act.  Keep your goals simple, and your response will be simply amazing.

DON'T Overlook Smartphones:

Three-quarters of smartphone users check their email hourly, so do not overlook the importance of that market.  Tailor messages to cell phone users.  Remember to make links larger, as it is more difficult to find and click them if they are miniscule.  If you frustrate or fail to target mobile phone users, they will be less likely to purchase your product, and may even think less of your brand in the future. 

DON'T Spam.

If your email marketing is successful, you may be tempted to saturate inboxes for short term sales.  But be wary, sending too many emails can be a detriment to long term sales.  Users may unsubscribe because of clogged inboxes, or worse, report your ad as spam.

For more tips on creating a sizzling email campaign contact Guest Contact today.

Four Significant Ways To Make Your Email Marketing Stand Out

Email marketing still holds a prominent place, even with today's social media scene.  The amount of email marketing messages stayed at unprecedented levels this summer and according to some sources, business e-mail volume should grow about 20 percent just this year, due to more customers moving away from standard paper and print letters.

That makes your job all the more difficult.  Your restaurant is now competing with literally millions of ads, which means you must be deliberate when creating email marketing.  Here are a few tips how to make your email really stand out.

1.  Create a Full List

This is an important but easily missed point: Make sure you're targeting your potential customers.  By checking your open rates, you can discern if your list is outdated.  The market average is about twenty percent.  If you are not achieving that, you may need to organize your list; however some markets differ on these statistics.  Click-through and external link views can also be a good bellwether, but the open rate is generally the most important

 2.  Throw a Curveball

Try sprucing up your emails with unexpected quips.  Perhaps try segmenting your list to target those customers that haven't opened your emails in a while.  This may draw interest back to your campaign.  It may be tempting to send to these unresponsive customers and it can be difficult to delete these addresses but, speak to those that want to listen.

3.  Use your Images

Try using your own images.  Use corporate photos or staff models.  Your imagery doesn’t need a polish- real world photos often grab more attention.  Many elements make some email clients slow or unresponsive, so be careful. 

4.  Make it Easy to Read

Remove the jargon.  Try to communicate on a human level.  Simple speech is more likely to be read and responded to.  Making your call to action obvious may also help, and always use first-person to grab attention.

If you have more questions on how to create a great meal, contact Guest Contact today.