The word conversation often seems dismaying to marketers as it raises many questions. How should brands engage in conversation with subscribers? What kind of platforms should be made available to subscribers to should they wish to have a conversation? And the tricky one – how should brands deal with any conversation that ensues? Let’s take a look at the best way your brand can utilise a conversational email marketing campaign.

The benefits of having a conversation

Many good salesman will testify that a good conversation will often pave the way to making a sale. By engaging your audience in stead of simply bombarding them with sales jargon, you allow your brand to be viewed as accessible and amiable, which in turn could lead to increased sales. Email marketing campaigns that feel more like conversations put your audience at ease and makes them and their feedback feel valued.

But it’s not just about giving others the opportunity to speak. Conversations are by their very nature two-way exchanges, which means that you as a business will be required to listen. This, however is a positive aspect of practicing marketing as a conversation and not something to fear. Feedback, comments, suggestions and stories from your audience of subscribers can help you understand your customers, improve your services and even help you develop better targeted campaigns.

Mastering the art of conversation

Know your audience

A successful conversation in daily life is usually one that is informative, relevant and enjoyable. In order to make the most out of your opportunity to start a conversation it is important that your know something about your audience. Having a conversation with a total stranger is of course possible, but much harder to execute. The best place to start is by having access to a profiled email database. A profiled database should be able to tell you basic things about your subscriber such as gender, but can also give you more complex insights such as what their commercial relationship is to the brand . Web analytics can also be used as a way to see where they’ve been on your brands website or what they’ve clicked on.

Start with a reply

Now that you know something about your customer you can engage them in conversation – regard the information that your subscribers have given you as their first ‘reply’ in a conversation with your brand. However be mindful of not ‘freaking out’ your audience by knowing too much about them. Use information sensitively through personalisation in order to foster interaction. You can also make use of triggered emails. For instance, if someone has read a product description or placed an item in their shopping cart , an email that engages them in a conversation of that item or something similar could do the trick.

Invite them to continue the conversation

The technological channels of conversation may change with time, but the humans at the other end will always want to have a chat. Today, social media reigns supreme as the platform most people use to connect to and communicate with brands. If your brand has established a social media presence it is imperative that your email campaigns link to those social profiles. Remember: the conversation email has used the information given by the subscriber to tailor an email that engages them. Now, if the customer wishes to further that conversation it is important that you direct them to a place where they can do so. And once the conversation continues in the social realm your company should be at hand to listen.

What are leads?

Leads are contacts that have been identified as potential customers or clients. Once you have established leads, it is important to group them into two groups: either those who are ready to buy – and those that might need more time. Those that are ready to buy are known as qualified leads and should now become your focus. However, recent research conducted by Gleanster has shown that up to 50% of qualified leads too are not quite ready to close a sale. So where does that leave you as a marketer?

Lead nurturing

Leads are stuck in the buying cycle – they are essentially mulling over whether to commit to your product or brand or to keep looking for other options. This is why lead nurturing is not only critical but rather urgent. Setting up triggered campaigns to target potential leads will start building a relationship, or at least a connection between the lead and your business. This will ensure that your brand will be pop up first in their mind as they inch towards making the purchase. In essence lead nurturing through email is all about keeping your brand fresh in the potential customer’s mind and not leaving any room for a competitor to slip in and effectively nab your lead.

Different kinds of lead nurturing campaigns

Lead nurturing campaigns usually entail a close collaboration between the CRM and Sales teams who will likely implement the use of web analytics and email marketing to construct the campaign. Usually, an automated email is triggered by the acquisition of a new lead. This email can take many forms – Quirk has outlined a few possibilities on their blog:

• Promotional emails – that promote product or service features, or offer discounts.
• Educational emails – that inform the user further on how to best use the product.
• Demo emails – offering step-by-step info on how to use the product, or link to a demo video or download.
• Industry-related email – that offers industry insights into the product or service, or provides the lead with the resources they need to do further research on it.
• Personal follow-up – this is generally only used once the lead has been advanced from the buying cycle to the sales cycle.

Timing is important

These different kind of lead nurturing emails will all serve well in reminding your lead of your brand, but to really boost their effectiveness it’s a good idea to be aware of when they are sent out. The lead nurturing campaign’s content should coincide with where the lead is in the buying cycle. A good idea would be to consider labeling your leads as either cold, medium or hot. Cold leads, or new ones that have just shown interest will benefit from a steady introduction to your products or services. Here the educational and demo mails will work best to inform the lead and nudge them a little closer without seeming overbearing. As your leads get ‘hotter’ the next step would be to push for more promotional material that convince them to take the plunge.

Lead nurturing is all abut gently guiding your potential customers through the buying cycle and into the sales funnel while educating them about your brand.

Focus on social media

Commitment is key when making the decision to take your brand into the social spheres. Social media requires constant maintenance and monitoring by people who not only understand the brand, but your followers and what they require. Delegating the management of social media to a random person within your company is never a good idea – social media in the wrong hands can cause PR disasters that may not be easy to recover from.

With that said, it’s also important to remember that disasters (big or small) are bound to happen. It’s best to acknowledge the risks of becoming an open enterprise and prepare in whatever way your company can. Have support, including legal and security at your disposal, even if it is ‘just in case’.

Another good way of minimising risk could be to roll out your social networking in stages, perhaps starting in a company group. Starting small gives you the opportunity to smooth out any kinks that pop up and gives your company a chance to plan strategies based on the trial experience.

The risk associated with social media can seem unnerving, which is why companies should seriously consider recruiting an agency to effectively manage some or all of their social media. When digital agencies work alongside companies – instead of just for them – great social media success can be achieved.

Think technology and beyond

Social networking and technology are bound together, but they are not one and the same. The focus of your social networking strategies should always be your followers and fans – who are actually real people and real customers. However, in order to effectively use social media there should be a thorough understanding of technology and how it can be used to make social networking run smoothly.

One of the most important aspects to consider is mobile technology. Recent figures show that mobile social networking is on the rise with more and more people gaining access to devices such as smart phones and tablets. Making your brand’s social media elements mobile-friendly could hold many rewards in the future.

Another point raised by Information Week is to always question your speed. That is to say, the speed at which your company is adjusting in order to keep up with the ever-changing times and trends. Social media is one of the most dynamic features of the online world, changing along with it and keeping up with your consumers is essential for taking your brand into the social world.

To illustrate the point – every social networking site you will ever come across (and every other online service for that matter) requires users to have an email address. Users often receive updates from various social media platforms via their email first, since checking email regularly has become an essential part of our professional as well as social lives.
Social media and email and email may seem vastly different, but that doesn’t mean that these two online services need to operate independently in a marketing context. In fact, the opposite is true. When email marketing and social media are properly integrated and aligned they become powerful tools that feed off each other for growth. And more often than not it is email marketing that allows brands to expand their reach on social networking sites.

Using email to fortify your social media presence

Social media networks are vast and interconnected and although that can help brands to spread through social media, there is also a chance of getting ‘lost’ in the online clutter. This is where an email campaign or newsletter can actually help grow awareness, not just of your brand, but of the fact that your brand is available and active on social media platforms. Remember: Your customers are probably using social media, but if they are unaware that your brand is available on their social network of choice, it is unlikely that they will make the effort to find you.

Incentivise!

Sending out a mailer or newsletter promoting your social media presence is definitely a step the right direction, but an even better strategy would include incentive for your subscribers to join you on whatever social network. One of the oldest tricks in the book is still one of the best – offer your customers a prize or a discount on your product and you’ll certainly see your network grow.

Make it easy for your subscribers

The email you send out to subscribers should have a clear link to your social media platforms. This should be the case with all usual mailers anyway, but when you are pushing your social media specifically it really is important to make the process plain and simple. For instance, if you want people to ‘like’ your Facebook page, or follow you on Twitter make sure to have direct links to the relevant pages embedded in the email in a obvious, prominent position.
Also include social network sharing tools in your mailers. People are more likely to share the information in your mailer on their social network if there is a built in functionality to share or tweet built in to the mail. Making your mailers social network-friendly is the best way to get email to expand your social media.

Give your email lists a good scrub

This means regularly checking your email list for duplicate addresses as well as role accounts while also running them against a register of known bad domain names. A quick solution to keeping role accounts off your list would be to add “info@” or “servicedesk@” and other common accounts to your company’s suppression list. Tackling bad domain names depends on a careful inspection of your failure reports. Once you have identified problem addresses see if you can determine whether they are the result of faulty data capturing or non-existent domains.
Another bad apple to look out for is the bogus email accounts. Look out for silly addresses such as abcd@ or qwerty@ and other repeat offenders. Make absolutely sure that these along with all the bad addresses mentioned above, are ditched right away – these accounts drain your valuable resources and can seriously sully your sender reputation.
Another part of your mailing list that will need some tending to are the unsubscribes. Process them as quickly as possible – this prevents disgruntled users from hitting the “this is spam” button, which could potentially damage your brand.

Review any possible problem areas

Once you’ve given your mail lists a good sweep, it’s time to review. Data capturing is the backbone of any email marketing initiative. Critically looking at the process you follow will help you understand where problems creep in. Make sure that your company implements sign-up forms that prompt users to fix incorrect email addresses or syntax errors before they are submitted. Another option would be to add another email address field that gets recorded on a separate list, to cross-compare the entries when you are doing list hygiene checks.

Keep contacting your subscribers

It may seem obvious, but keeping in touch your subscribers is a pretty good deliverability solution. Emails should generally be sent out every 90 days, if you wait too long, the likelihood of emails bouncing become much higher as people are constantly moving to new jobs or email domains. And, if contact becomes too infrequent, people can even forget who you are and that they signed up, which could see your email relegated to the spam folder.

Many of the factors that influence deliverability can be controlled by maintaining your database and keeping in touch with subscribers. An email marketing campaign can bring many rewards, but it is not just an easy job. Remember: making email work for you and your business requires constant maintenance, watchfulness and care.

So what can businesses gain from using a profiled database?

In the fast paced world of digital content it is essential that brands hone their ability to share readable information to potential or existing customers quickly and effectively. However, time-starved consumers do not only need accessible copy – they need and are enticed by personalised information that applies to the individual rather than the masses. That’s where the profiled database becomes invaluable to business.
Opt-in Email databases that are well researched and segmented allow businesses to target certain customers, thereby maximising opportunity to garner response. Consequently, email data rental plays an integral role in gaining access to a diverse database – a list of subscribers who have signed up to receive marketing information from companies.

Using a profiled email database to personalise campaigns

Once businesses have access to a profiled email database they can start thinking about the kind of customer they would like to target through their email marketing campaign. Since research shows that people are more likely to respond to personalised content, it is vastly important that campaigns are matched up to a specific audience.
Profiled email databases are segmented according to a variety of factors including gender, age, demographic or earning power – features that allow companies to identify their most likely customers.

Building lasting relationships

When permission-based email marketing is implemented through a profiled and managed email database, companies can expect a substantial return on investment. Personalised content that seems relevant to individuals not only drive campaigns to excel, but foster relationships between businesses and their customer base.
Making a consumer feel like an individual and not ‘just a number’ is crucial in increasing the lifetime value of that customer.

Due to the high success rate of email marketing through profiled email databases in South Africa, the field has shown enormous growth. In order to stand out from other campaigns clamouring for their customers’ attention is vital that campaigns and content are unique, value rich and as personalised as possible. It requires commitment to maintain an email database, but if executed correctly the rewards could be outstanding.

“Whatever I’d a done, I’d a been the best at it, if I’d a been a trash man I’d a hauled more bins of trash than anyone else!” Muhammad Ali.

I went to Chapman’s Peak Hotel the other Sunday for lunch with my wife. It was baking hot and we’d been swimming and running about on Llandudo beach. On arrival we greeted the staff and sat down at a table. We ordered oysters, good wine and a line fish and were looking forward to a relaxed Sunday afternoon. We each asked for a glass of water from the head waiter. Ten minutes later – no glass of water. I got up and went through to the kitchen bar where I found and got it myself. No worries, they were busy, these things happen. Fifteen minutes later we asked for another glass of water from a lady waitress – she said she’d bring it directly. We saw her wander off, her tray tapping at her side, after which she stood speaking to the maître d’ in unhurried conversation, gazing out over the road. After 20 minutes of exasperation I got up and again went to get the water myself, passing the head waiter who was standing inside in the shade doing nothing, on the way. It was too much trouble for him to get the glass of water. He watched me go in and deliver on the most basic of his job functions. He didn’t say a word.

A rather random story? What do water and the Chapman’s Peak hotel have to do with digital media and the successful running of my business? Well the answer in my opinion is everything. Business is business whether its digital media or restaurants, the same basic rules apply, and this one is a paramount rule : Look after your customer:

The result of that business performance was that I was so disappointed in the service and the way the place made me feel that we cancelled the order and left.

I explained to the Manager why we were leaving, and to his credit he was genuinely apologetic but the damage was done by those he was responsible for.

A combination or poor organisation, badly trained, or in some cases simply obtuse staff (in the case of the head waiter) made me want to get out of there ASAP. They lost my business now and forever due to their poor customer service.

Were our needs particularly difficult to meet? Were we being over demanding? No. And if you run a business the customer is always right (even when they aren’t).

What business lessons were reinforced for me from that episode?

• The importance of hiring the right calibre of individual for your staff.
• Poorly managed staff deliver poorly managed performance.
• The example being set by the leaders of a team run through to the junior levels.
• Delivering substandard performance results in critical opinion of your business in the market place.

Customer service is paramount in business. You are competing against other businesses, so why not try and get everything right in your interaction with the consumer? In that way you maximise your ability to succeed and minimise the chance of failure.

Remember as Dale Carnegi said “Human beings make emotional decisions, even in situations that should be purely rational”. It’s not hard to make a customer feel valued.

I have worked in a number of jobs, from cabbage picker to bouncer, on my way to owning and running businesses in London and Cape Town. Whatever job I did, I always took pride in it. I admire people who truly deliver good customer service – even in a difficult environment.

As I write this I look across the office at Johline my PA and Office Manager. Johline has worked for me for two and a half years. How did she get her job? My car tyre blew on the way to lunch with friends at Graff estate and I ended up in Dyreman at a garage rather than at that beautiful establishment for a meeting and lunch. We were a little stressed on arrival. She was working at the reception and gave us such attentive service that I asked her to the office for an interview the next week. The result? She tripled her salary, reduced her work hours and passed her bookkeeping courses. All that resulted from her commitment to customer service.

To the employer:

If you don’t have staff in your business that are properly trained, motivated, monitored and have a level of personal integrity to want to deliver on what they are supposed to do – get them out and get ones in who do – or suffer the consequences.

To the employee:

Doing your job poorly leads to castigation or at best, little reward. Doing it well leads to improvement in your position and advancement. Whatever you do – take pride.

And to finish – we went down the road to a little Greek restaurant, much less expensive and famous, called Spiro’s who welcomed us to clean tables and gave us great service and we had a wonderful time – I am happy to recommend that business

Take note!

Access to an established database

It can take months or even years to build up a noteworthy database – an undertaking that few businesses have resources or time for. When enlisting the services of a data rental company, you’ll get access to the databases that they have built, fine tuned and managed over time, which saves you as a business an enormous amount of effort.
Data rental companies are also constantly growing and updating their database – which means that your campaigns are heading to actual, active inboxes and not into a cyber graveyard. Even if your business already has a database of their own, having access to a data rental company’s database could help you tap into fresh markets that haven’t had any exposure to your product or service.

Profiled email database

In addition, data rental companies have also carefully segmented their lists of subscribers into profiles. This means that you will be able to customise your business’ email marketing campaign across demographics or even purchase history. In short: using a profiled email database will allow you to send out mailers that are personalized according to gender, age, income bracket and more, a strategy that produces a much higher ROI than emailing a bulk of random subscribers

Brand integrity: keeping it legal

You also won’t have to worry about whether your email marketing campaign is in any way in violation of privacy or other laws. That’s because the databases that email data rental companies compile are made up of lists of subscribers who have agreed to allow that company to send them email marketing content. This is not just vitally important for running a successful campaign, but a legal necessity – permission must be explicitly given by all people to whom emails are sent – no exceptions. Ignoring this crucial law could not only damage the integrity of your brand, but could lead to legal action being taken against your company – something which you can definitely avoid by leaving it to the professionals in charge of data rental.

Email data rental could seem like yet another expense for your business’ marketing plan, but the benefits and efficiency of a profiled email database will undoubtedly pay off. In addition to saving you time and effort, a data rental company could really help your business and your email marketing campaign to flourish.

Valentine’s Day can be a total headache for some but it can undoubtedly mean substantial profits for businesses that are able to capitalise on the day’s mass appeal. Launching a Valentine’s Day centred email marketing campaign is one of the best ways to boost your business and send a lot of love your way, but it can also have difficulty standing out when a flood of V-day content starts filling cyberspace.

Here are a few pointers to point cupid’s email marketing arrow in the right direction:

Offer a solution to their Valentine’s Day woes

Valentine’s Day often puts a lot of pressure on couples to get something special for or do something special with their significant other. Help your poor, lovesick customers out by offering solutions or quirky ideas for their day of ardour.
If you are making use of a properly profiled email database you’ll be able to control to what kind of group the mailers are sent. Studies have shown that men spend more on Valentine’s Day than women, but often have trouble coming up with romantic ideas. Consequently, targeting segmented gender groups on Valentine’s can reap many rewards . However, beware of pandering to crass gender stereotypes. Even if your campaign targets a specific gender group, the tone should still be sincere and respectful to all people.

Tap into both male and female psyches by clearly offering your customers fun Valentine’s Day ideas– a top ten list of Valentine’s day gifts, special offers that could serve as Valentine’s day treats, or even a gift card for the really indecisive – are all excellent ways to grab your loved-up customers’ attention. The idea is to make your customers feel as if you have done all the work for them.

No hassles – just love

As mentioned above, people are already under pressure here. The last thing your brand wants to do is to make the process more complicated than it already is. Even though light-hearted and creative copy is important, make sure that the essential information is visible on first glance. Think about what would be the best way for your customers to get what they need quickly and easily – if that means coming in to a store for instance, make the physical address prominent and clear – if they need to call a number or order from your website –make sure they can easily spot links and telephone numbers.

Look pretty

Valentine’s Day is primarily a day of frivolity and love – tap into the spirit of it by customizing the design of your mailer or newsletter for that specific day. This will also help customers identify the content as Valentine’s Day related. A good balance of Valentine-specific copy and images will likely tempt subscribers into checking out what your business has to offer and will get them thinking about the upcoming day. A functional yet pretty design will help you stick out in their memories and inboxes, which in turn will cause them to look you up when the time comes to get the perfect V-day gift.

Love them back

Customers love to feel appreciated and valued, so make sure to send a Happy Valentine’s Day e-mail postcard to show your love. Thank loyal customers by providing special offers or even complimentary redeemable points (if you have such a programme) or a free gift for Valentine’s Day. This will help build brand loyalty and maintain customer retention. You might also want to consider targeting a special e-mail to people who bought from you last year around Valentine’s Day, presenting them with an even better offer than the general one. This is bound to get cash-strapped and appreciative customers to strongly consider your brand for their special Valentine’s Day treat.

So what exactly does engaging content entail? Producing engaging content is basically about interacting with subscribers and customers in a way that helps them to feel connected to your brand or business. The directness of email marketing is one of its biggest advantages, but it can also be biggest obstacle. Because brands are directly communicating with consumers on their turf – snappy, helpful and engaging content is essential to crossing boundaries and truly connecting with subscribers. Here are four tips to get you started:

1. Personalise on every possible level

Creating personalised content that’s tailored to suit your subscribers’ interests and needs is the most important aspect in email marketing. But in order to create personalised content which caters to customers to whom your company’s service or product is relevant, companies must first know who they are addressing. The first step in finding that out is by having access to a segmented, profiled email database. Companies such as Digital Fire offer brilliant email data rental solutions that are clean, well-managed and highly responsive – allowing companies to connect with the right kind of consumer.

Remember: Successful email marketing is not just about the right content – but about sharing great content with the right audience.

The second level of personalisation can be a small gesture – but it already helps to make the communication between company and consumers seem more “real” and less manufactured. Simple salutations such as “Hi Jane” instead of “Dear shopper” for instance, make customers feel valued.

2. Test out your content

Testing which content resonates with your consumers is important. In email marketing it is often the subject lines and from lines that are the first to stick out and grab attention so invest time in finding the right kind of copy to fill those eye-catching fields .The best way to go about this is to employ a split test to see which subject lines perform better than others.

3. Produce content that is clear

This may seem like an obvious point, but many email marketing campaigns suffer from content that is weak, lacks direction or is simply sloppy and vague. Producing content that is lucid and unambiguous automatically makes it more engaging.

Think about what it is you want your subscribers to know, to do or to see. Bombarding them with mixed or multiple messages will only lead to confusion. The best strategy here is to provide simple links that convey either the call to action or relevant information. Lines such as Check out our new stock, Sign up for our newsletter etc, are informative, concise and unequivocal.

4. Get social

Another great way to create email marketing campaigns that are engaging is to make them social network-friendly. According to a study cited on CEO Online; newsletters that contain a social media sharing option generate a 30% higher clickthrough rate than those without.

Allowing subscribers the opportunity to share a fantastic deal or information on a product not only helps them to feel in control, but also makes the company seem approachable.

Consumers often prefer to receive updates and information via social networking platforms , so make it easy for them to follow, like or become a fan of your brand through email marketing. Remember: Combining or at least aligning social media with email marketing results in more effective campaigns on both fronts.