Email Marketing

Email Marketing for B2B Sales Cycle

10/23/2009 by Jack Burnett

I recently read an article on B2B marketing from Bronto, an email service provider TwinEngines partners with to provide email marketing services for our customers.  TwinEngines concentrates on integrating email services with internal CRM systems and websites to enable the most effective, lean use of email marketing. While we consult with small and mid-market manufacturing companies on email programs and strategies, we tap into Bronto's knowledge for specialized email marketing information.

The article explained how a global technology leader in electrical components decided to use email marketing to support their B2B sales efforts.  The question was how can email marketing support the sales cycle and add value to the sales funnel.  A lifecycle marketing strategy was introduced with campaigns defined to support the B2B sales cycle.

When analyzing email marketing to decide if/how it fits into your overall sales and marketing efforts, first start with the main marketing goals.  After you define them, then think about the information the audience needs at each stage of the sales funnel.  Different types of email content address different needs during the sales life cycle.  Have a desired response to each type of email defined - something that can be measured to analyze success and improvements.

A sample is shown below:

Keep Your Email Marketing Subscribers

6/23/2009 by Jack Burnett

Email marketing programs are a great way to retain and engage customers, dealers and manufacturing representatives.  They give companies a very cost-effective way to communicate their message, plus comScore found that there is a 4.4% sales conversion on eCommerce websites from emails in the United States.

Email marketing is the last marketing tactic companies are cutting during this recession.  However, with the increases in companies sending emails, people are becomming more and more selective about what they want to receive. According to an Epsilon and ROI Research study, 14% of e-mail subscribers in North America unsubscribe from opt-in e-mails frequently - and 55% do so occasionally.

The number one reason people unsubscibe is because the content is not relevant and useful.  If you are sending email blasts to your house list without careful consideration about the relevance of the information to all those people, then chances are you are causing some people to drop off your emal marketing program.  Segmenting your email lists to receive targeted communications based upon user preferences or past behavior is one way to send the most useful information.  When you integrate your email marketing metrics with your eCommerce data and your CRM database, you are able to segment your list wisely.

The next reason people unsubscribe is because they receive a company's emails too frequently.  This ties into the relevance of the information, but shows that you need to plan the email communications for a calendar year.  You can also help avoid this issue by explaining the freqency of emails when people opt-in, and by offering options on how often to receive an email.

Privacy concerns and the belief that their email address will be shared or sold ia a top reason people unsubscribe.  Your website needs to state clearly what your privacy policy is and how to contact you regarding questions.  A link to the policy should be clearly visible on your website page for opting-into your email program.  The link should also appear on your emails too - for those people who received a forwarded email from a friend.

Another reason is that people just don't remember signing up for the emails.  Sending a confirmation email when people opt-in with information about the communications can help. Analyzing the email metrics and incorporating tactics to target people not responding can help get people to engage with you.

Keep your customers in your email marketing program by addressing these top reasons causing people to unsubsribe.  Implemeting an email marketing program requires planning for the website and the program itself, and crafting each email requires analysis and consideration about the relevance of the message to each person.

Online Marketing and Social Media

6/02/2009 by Jacqueline Harris

I recently attended a webinar that focused on the reasons why online marketing makes more sense now than ever before and why Social Media (i.e. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook) have such an impact on businesses that are staying abreast of the current trends.

It's a given in marketing that you need to be where your customers are. So where are your customers these days? More and more, they're spending their leisure time online, either for personal reasons, checking e-mail or managing their online profiles. But they're also checking out products, services and networking with colleagues. 

While the audience we cater to participate in the Manufacturing Value Chain, it seems that even CEO's, COO's, etc. are getting involved with eBusiness marketing.  Online marketing is rapidly becoming a part of small and mid-market company's efforts in eBusiness.  So, the question is asked, is this new eBusiness, online Social Media hype really worth the time - I'm sure you would have a different response than your boss, but, nevertheless, more and more of your peers are reaching out and touching others via the internet. 

Here's a few thoughts for manufacturing businesses or companies participating in the Manufacturing Value Chain...

To make this new rave work for you, do your research.  Have a good sense of your target market.  Placement/position is key in traditional media and the same is true online - if your customers or prospects are using popular social media such as Facebook or Twitter, you should be using them as well. 

It's time to Adapt to change... Successful Manufacturing companies do not abandon their marketing strategies or increase their marketing budgets in a recession; they adapt them.  I am happy to say that TwinEngines opted to participate in the social media craze and was happy to see many of our clients and partners were already on board. 

One of the most important phrases that stood out to me during the webinar was "While social media enables your news and marketing to become viral in nature and gain momentum, if you're not careful, it also allows other messages to gain momentum".  The example given was a popular food chain prank - Two employees of this popular chain filmed and posted a YouTube video of a prank on a customer's food.  According to reports, the video made its way to as many as 500,000 would-be customers with the help of social media.  While both employees lost their jobs and are facing charges, the company's decision to defer comment initially resulted in its brand and online reputation taking the bigger hit.  All in all, Social Media is great, however, monitor what you publish and protect your brand.

It was recently said that emailing is the "90's", Blogging and Tweeting are taking over. 

Blogging is another form of social media that's on the rise.   Industry veterans with years of experience in business, delivered a fresh, direct and honest eBusiness perspective on new and emerging web technologies and trends in social media and social networking.  With a particular focus on the Manufacturing industry, they found that business leaders involved in the Manufacturing Value Chain were focused on business strategies, revenue and profit keeping their focus on the bottom line.  After a quick survey, many of those business leaders found that customers and prospects were interested in their view point and wanted to hear from them, not just in an email.  Creating a blog should begin a conversation between you and interested parties; Make blogging an informal way to present your thoughts and get feedback.      

In today's increasingly competitive environment, I believe it is critical for manufacturing businesses to deliver reliable, and cost effective, products to the market, however, it's equally important that you stay abreast of the ever-changing world of eBusiness and Social Media, your clients and competitors are....  

Carbon Emissions and Email Marketing

5/14/2009 by Jack Burnett

I just read Eric Taub's article on planning for the cap and trade of carbon emissions, and then I see a report on how spam emails contribute to global warming.  I didn't consider TwinEngines having much of a carbon footprint, being a firm that advises on optimizing the manufacturing value chain and builds IT-based solutions.  But we do partner with email service providers and we do send email newsletters to our community, and we do receive and deal wth a lot of emails.

According to "The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report," released by the security firm McAfee, the annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh).

Chart by McAfee, Inc.

To put it into perspective, eMarketer says that is equal to the electricity used in over two million US homes - and creates the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million cars using 2 billion gallons of gasoline.  eMarketer also reports that nearly 80% of the energy waste created by spam is due to people deleting it or trying to find legitimate emails.

At our annual event for small and mid-market companies, Eric spoke about carbon emissions from transportation, electricity usage and other facets found in the manufacturing industry.  He didn't mention carbon footprints from generating or just deailing with spam emails.  No matter what side of the debate you are on, carbon emissions is becomming a business issue that may very well provide benefits to your company if you are prepared for cap and trade laws when they appear. 

First, if you are not taking advantage of email marketing for promotional offers and to talk about about your products, services and your company, then you are most likely missing an opportunity to generate more business.  If you are using other means such as direct mail, TV,  and print, then you may be not be achieving the cost savings and ROI associated with email marketing.

For those of us marketing our products and services with email newsletters though, now there is this issue of the carbon footprint directly from your emails and indirectly from the email service provider you choose (If you send your own email blasts from your PC, please call immediately - 404-522-4262!).  Are you following best practices to generate and manage email lists and interacting with your customers via email?  Are you in compliance with the Can-Spam Act? Is your web site a souce for spam emails? Do you filter out spam emails going to your employees?

There are steps a company can take to contribute in the quest to reduce spam emails, save energy, reduce carbon emissions and thus save our planet!  McAfee recommends, as a first step, that businesses instal effective spam filters. They estimates that spam filtering saves 135 terawatt-hours of electricity each year - or taking 13 million cars off the road.

Death and Digital Property

5/12/2009 by Jack Burnett

What happens to your digital property when you pass away?  A morbid topic, I know; but it is a growing question people have to consider with the plethora of online accounts, email addresses, Facebook pages, and other social media information we all have on the Internet.  It was the topic of an NPR radio program involving LegacyLocker.com, a new website where you can store login credentials and inform relatives what should be done with your online assets.  That's right, there is a company that will safely secure your digital property and allow access to your loved ones.  So when you are gone - but not forgotten - you can ensure that the persons you want access to your emails has it.

This has become an issue elevated to national radio coverage because wills typically do not protect your digital assets, and most web sites have little or no provisions for a friend or relative to transfer the account information.  After listening to the program, I considered all the logins to banks, brokers, service providers, my Facebook page, LinkedIn account, Twitter conversations, my photos and music stored online, etc.  I'm not sure I need LegacyLocker yet, but I do realize that I need to plan, collect, organize and secure this information.

Then I considered the small and mid-market companies I work with on a daily basis.  Typically these are family-owned and operated, sometimes with online personal and business accounts co-mingled and serving dual purposes.  What happens when the company founder or owner leaves this earth?  Does the progression plan include access to the company Facebook page or LinkedIn account?  Is the login to a partner's co-branded online service in a secure place or would you need access to their email account to get the forgotten password?  Is there one place where accounts and login credentials to online assests are stored; if so, how is it protected?

At TwinEngines, we built our company Intranet on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server platform.  Besides being our repository for HR information, company work documents and our knowlegbase to support our business, we have created a  place to keep account information for our vendors, suppliers, partners and our social media sites.  Our customer extranet built on the same SharePoint technology, stores information about each customer and the services we provide.  All this information is secured with login access tied to our Active Directory accounts, and backed up nightly as part of our database backup process.  So as employees come and go or change job positions, we manage our Active Directoy network accounts and access to company digital assests as part of our new employee orientation, termination and job transfer processes.  Access to our digital assets stored in SharePoint are protected without any other special efforts.

Are your company's digital assets protected when key employees leave for another company or pass away?  It's not a pleasant thought, but one that has to be considered.  Do you have a plan, and what technology do you have to store information that is safe and secure?  Fortunately, the technology piece to the puzzle may be closer than you think. A lot of small and mid-market companies do not realize that they own Microsoft SharePoint already, since it is bundled with their Microsoft Server software.  For larger companies SharePoint is included with their enterprise agreement with Microsoft.   Read more information about SharePoint here.