Posted by: Rosemary Riley, Senior Copywriter

If our recent series of posts on e-mail marketing hasn’t convinced you yet, check out these findings, courtesy of an eMarketer article from October 15th based on MarketingSherpa research:

Highlights of the full story include:

• E-mail ad spending was up 15% to $230 million during the first half of 2008 compared with the first half of 2007.
• As of Q1 2008, online marketers in the US said they were least likely to decrease e-mail marketing spending in case of a recession. Just 5% said they would cut their spending on e-mail if times got tight, compared with 41% who said they would cut display ads.

It seems e-mail isn’t going anywhere… at least not yet.

Posted by: Kelly Hall, Account Manager

When you’re mobilizing to create an email campaign for lead nurturing there are two very important considerations to make. Number 1, timing.

We’ve all gotten them – the automatic email you receive, after registering for something from a company, thanking you for your interest. Great, right? Definitely. But what about when you get another email, pushing you to take action less than a day later? And they just keep coming, every day? All of a sudden you’re not quite as interested in what that company has to tell you. Instead, you may be tempted to unsubscribe, or worse, put them on your blacklist. We, as marketers, need to walk the fine line of staying top of mind for our prospects, and simultaneously not being annoying. read more »

Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager

Third party lists or internal database? How often? What day of the week and time of day? What results can I expect to see (open rate, click-through rate, conversion rates, etc.)? Marketers face many questions when planning, implementing and managing an email program. Here’s your chance to get some answers. Post any questions you have in the Comments area, and a qualified online marketing expert from 90octane will be in touch.

Of course, the industry you’re in will affect your campaigns, but there are still certain best practices and benchmarks that serve as useful guidelines. read more »

Posted by: Megan Amick, Marketing Coordinator

Email is an important part of your online marketing mix. Even with recent developments in the online sphere that have the potential to impact email popularity, social networking in particular, email is the most popular digital communication medium. Check out this blog entry from Oracle AppsLab on the subject.

In order to increase your open and click-through rates, as well as overall email campaign effectiveness, here’s some helpful information, which I’ve summarized from research by Lyris EmailLabs:

·         Most Popular Day to Send: Tuesday is the most popular day to send emails with 25.4% of respondents noting that they send emails out on this day. The second most popular day is Wednesday, which also happens to be the most popular day for emails to be opened. read more »

Posted by: Neil Broome, Marketing Coordinator

Email is a very cost effective tool that reaches thousands of people at once and creates qualified leads for your business. Before sending out an email, be aware of some basic email metrics that you should use to track your email campaign’s success.

Sends
-The number of email addresses in the list you’re sending to.

Bounce Rate
-The total number of emails that were returned as undeliverable divided by the total number of emails sent. Multiply the number by 100 to express the result as a percentage. This helps you gauge the cleanliness of your database and is an important metric because each time you send an email to an undeliverable address, you risk being labeled as spam. After each email send, check the bounced addresses and delete them from your database.

read more »

Posted by: Paul Vangura, Project Manager

Email marketing is a great way to stay top of mind with your prospects and customers, but it’s increasingly difficult to make it into the inbox and catch attention. Check out the tips below to help improve your email marketing performance:

• Use good design and formatting to make your message stand out. Include your company name in the “from” field, write an engaging subject line and keep important content near the top of the message. Also keep in mind the limitations of email services; most programs have a display area of 500-650 pixels wide, for instance.
• Develop a Web version of the email message. Some recipients may be using an older email client or have HTML turned off; in either case, your message won’t display as intended. By providing a link to a Web version, you provide another option for proper viewing. read more »

Posted by: Kayla Wagner, Account Manager

Like many industries, technology is under pressure in this downturned economy. Though tech marketing spending will increase this year, it will do so at a slower rate than last year due to financial concerns, according to IDC’s 2008 Tech Marketing Barometer. With 2009 just around the corner, that’s all the more reason to focus your lead generation and nurturing strategies.

As always, it’s important to tie your marketing efforts to analytical, measureable results. First, focus on the quality of your leads. Whether you choose to nurture them through a lead scoring system or an action-based system, cull out all spam and unqualified prospects. Send the sales team only those leads that are the best candidates for follow up. read more »

Posted by: Christy Roth, Project Manager

If only about a quarter of new leads are “sales-ready,” then the obvious main objective of lead nurturing for the manufacturing industry is ensuring that they’re qualified and mature enough to be handed off to sales. In other words, after pushing each lead through an offer flow and engaging them in higher level offers as they go, we are then able to push them to sales at their most ready. The benefit? Saving the sales team’s time and money and ultimately closing more sales.

A key to the process flow is thinking about the target audience. In the case of industrial manufacturing, we focus on the needs of design engineers (on the OEM side) and plant managers and operators (on the MRO side). That’s why we carefully select educational offers that will interest them on the right level without sending them so much information that they’re overwhelmed or so little that they become cold. It’s all about finding the right balance. read more »

Posted by: Mackenzie Ross, Marketing Coordinator

A straightforward way to remain in regular contact with a lead is through an email campaign. To get started, you need little more than your prospects’ email addresses. Well, that and some compelling offers. With each email send, you include offers that require registration, as the forms allow you to learn more about the leads and build the profiles in your database. The offers your prospects choose to register for, as well as the ones they decline, can tell you a lot about their needs. read more »

Posted by: Kerry Houchin, Marketing Coordinator

Of emerging forms of media today, social media is the fastest growing. Spending on social media marketing (SMM) is projected to grow 60.8% just this year. But how can it be used to generate business leads?

The usefulness of social media as a lead generator depends on your definition of a lead. A lead can vary, of course, from someone who registers to download a white paper to someone who signs up to attend a webinar – and everything in between. Methods for generating leads through social media are as diverse as the forms social media takes. But let’s consider how an event – whether live or online – might benefit. read more »