In a campaign to distribute free lesson kits to North Dakota educators, changing a few areas of an email significantly increased responses.

The Flint Group client, ND Switch, is built on the premise that small changes create a big impact. An energy efficiency program sponsored by the North Dakota Department of Commerce, ND Switch is a statewide effort to enlighten residents about small actions that make a major difference when it comes to saving energy.

This part of ND Switch encourages state educators to teach students about energy efficient behaviors. The audience for this phase of the campaign was the 603 administrators, superintendents and principals at N.D. elementary and middle schools.

The offer

Here was the deal: Educators could reserve a FREE ‘Comparing Light Bulbs’ lesson kit (complete with all materials), and pick up the kit at ND Switch’s booth at the N.D. Educators Association (NDEA) conference. (We mailed the kit to people who didn’t attend the conference, but they had to reserve one online.) The kit included a box complete with:

• A compact florescent light bulb
• A florescent light bulb
• Thermometer
• Detailed lesson plan
• National teaching/education standards met
• Key chains and light switch cover stickers for each student (up to 40 per kit)
• Recycled blue tote bag

ND Switch wanted to drive traffic to its NDEA booth, and position itself as a partner in energy efficiency education to state educators.

The plan

We planned to use email, direct mail and Facebook ads, targeted to those interested in teaching and education. The call to action was to visit a landing page and reserve their free lesson kit. The landing page allowed us to gather a little extra information, such as number of students in the classroom and whether or not the educator was planning to attend the conference. (As it turned out, only four were attending, and the majority of kits were mailed.) The Facebook ads were cancelled due to high demand for the lesson kits.

First, we sent an email to our target audience. Five lesson kits were reserved. Response rate: 0.829%. Next, we sent this direct mail postcard:

Six more lesson kits were reserved. Response rate: 1%. That’s about the industry average for direct mail.

Pull the plug?

We had 100 kits prepared, and we’d all counted on stronger responses. To our client’s credit, they didn’t pull the plug. They allowed us to change these three items on the email:

1. First email subject line: An Easy Way to Teach Students about Energy Usage
   Second email subject line: Complimentary Lesson Kits Still Available
2. New lead-in copy on email: Complimentary lesson kit for the first 100 who respond!
3. Move the ‘Reserve your lesson kit’ button closer to the top of the second email

Results increase by 20x

Lesson kits reserved: 94! Response rate: 16%.

We now had 105 lesson kits reserved. Because of continued demand through landing page visits, we changed the message to: “We’re sorry, but all 100 lesson kits have been reserved.”

Lessons learned

ND Switch teaches that small changes yield big results. We’re proud they approved small tweaks to generate nearly 20 times more response in a second email. It also shed additional light on email subject line and actual email content. Obviously, “complimentary” is a powerful word. (It’s also another word for ‘free,’ which is a loaded word and sometimes marked as spam when used in email subject lines.) And, creating a sense of urgency with “first 100 who respond” also boosted our response.

How do students communicate? Would they want a phone call? Forget it. Fax? No way. How about a letter in the mail? Trash it. How could we break through the clutter?

Email was our solution, but not just any “canned” email. We wanted to make it personalized—custom to their specific career interests and college concerns.

How it worked

We used the Engage email marketing platform to create campaign messages that were highly personalized. Gleaned from online form submissions, email content empathized with each individual’s pre-college excitement and anxiety and encouraged students to visit campus. Simply put, if prospects visit, they apply.

Here's a sample personalized email from a UMC admissions counselor.

Beyond the direct, personalized emails, we used landing pages, surveys and a t-shirt incentive as part of the data collection process. Later, communications came from admissions counselors representing prospective students’ geography and current students studying in their field.

Listen as Eric Piela, Flint’s digital marketing specialist, explains the email campaign in full detail:

Here’s the real ROI

For fall 2010, there were 493 new students enrolled at the U of M, Crookston (a 12 percent increase in enrollment from 2009), and 250 of them were influenced by the Engage email marketing campaign—that’s 51 percent!

Teens can be tricky to reach, but we spoke to them in a way they understood and appreciated. How have you adjusted your message or delivery to connect with your target audience?

1. Keep your message short and sweet. People don’t want to read unnecessary information. If it can’t be summarized easily, it might be worth a phone call or face-to-face conversation.

2. Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. Write an email as if you are writing a formal letter, especially if you are writing to someone outside of your organization. Always reread for typos and to make sure your point is clear. If you feel you have spent a lot of time editing, save it as a draft and go back to it later. You may catch things that you previously scanned over.

3. Keep your emotions in check. People sometimes find it easy to say things in electronic communication that they would never say to someone’s face. Avoid “flame mail”—if you receive an email that concerns you, have a conversation with the person. You may find that it is all a misunderstanding. Remember—once you hit send you can never take it back.

4. Use the high importance button sparingly. It’s kind of like the boy who cried wolf. If you use it too much, people will think that none of your messages are important.

5. DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS. This gives the feeling that you are yelling at someone.

6. Include contact information in your signature. Some things are not easily solved by email, and there may be instances where people need to call you or even mail something to you.

7. Include a subject in the subject line. This makes it easier for people to reference your emails. If you are emailing someone on a different subject than a previous correspondence, open a new email to avoid confusion. 

8. Keep formatting simple. Avoid using fancy backgrounds and crazy fonts. Some email systems only recognize simple text, so they may not be able to recognize the font in your message, making it impossible to read.  

9. Keep attachment file sizes to a minimum. If you are worried the recipient’s system may not be able to receive large files, make arrangements to send them a disc or post to a sharing site, such as www.yousendit.com, to avoid server problems.

10. Don’t send anything that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see. People have been fired for inappropriate emails. Even if you delete it on your end, the recipient will still have it. If there is any question as to whether your message is appropriate, it probably isn’t.

Listening and learning from the brightest minds in email innovation, I took away a few simple gold nuggets of knowledge I’d like to bestow upon my fellow email enthusiasts out there…

1. Don’t forget the welcome mat. Growing your email list can be difficult and sometimes expensive.  My advice, once you get that email address – treat it like your mom on Mother’s Day.  The first thing many email marketers do is forget to send an immediate welcome email after a prospect/customer signs up for their email distribution list.  A big no-no. Why is this so imperative?  Well, like the saying goes, first impressions are everything, besides that here are a few reasons why welcome emails are imperative:
   1. Immediately reminds the subscriber they signed up for your emails (hey, I forget where I put my keys down two minutes earlier).  By gently jogging their memory it also helps reinforce their decision to begin a relationship with you and lets them know that you will be attentive to their needs.
   2. Allows the subscriber to put your email send from address in their safe sender list.  This way your email will always reach their inbox and images will automatically be displayed in their email browser. If you aren’t asking your subscribers to put you on the white list, start asking now.
   3. Provides you the opportunity to set expectations with your customer.  Give them a taste of the content, promotions, or value-add your emails will be bringing to their inbox.  Start training your subscriber on what you’d like them to do in your emails, whether it’s as simple as gleaning industry knowledge or directing them to your website to purchase a new widget.
2. Four seconds to save the world. That’s it, four seconds is all you get.  That is how long the average email reader scans (I didn’t say reads, scans) an email to see if it is worth their time.  It shouldn’t surprise you – you are guilty of doing it yourself.  Heck, sometimes I don’t make it past the send from name and subject line.  As email practitioners this should give us some understanding of just what an integral part email design and call-to-action play in your email.  When they glance at your email they should know exactly what the purpose of the email is, what the offer and call-to-action is, and what their next step should be.  You accomplish this by first and foremost having these items above the fold (before you scroll down to see the rest of the email) as well as having them stand out using both images and text (in the event images are disabled when they preview).  Remember, your readers are busy just like you – don’t make them regret signing up for your emails.  Give all your emails the four-second-glance test. Tick tock tick tock.
3. Email isn’t near extinction. Nowadays everyone seems to be enamored with the new shiny object called social media.  And well, rightfully so.  Its public adoption is unparalleled and has countless ramifications for marketers regarding their brand participation and perception.  However, email and social media need each other.  Email remains the foundation for social network verification and notification.  Furthermore, email ROI continues to be the strongest of any direct marketing medium with numbers that continue to increase each year.  Email isn’t going anywhere and in fact it’s getting sexier. Technology advancements now allow email content to be dynamic based on behavior and soon, still in beta testing, these advancements will allow email to be interactive with content that changes and moves (much like a website or rich media banner ad).

The best game plan is to embrace and integrate the three newer digital mediums - call it the “Triangle Offense” – of email, social media, and mobile. You will see all three channels of marketing become stronger when used together.

photo by leetlegreenman on Flickr

A client told me his sales staff was frustrated because the campaign we were running wasn’t generating many leads. We went back through his strategic plan, and I pointed out that the lead-generating activity of the campaign was not executed.

We executed the awareness part of the campaign strategy, which was performing very well. We effectively moved the audience into the interest stage of the campaign. But that’s where it stalled out.

This is a common mistake, but one that is easily corrected.

A solid campaign will, at its highest form, take you through the stages of consumer involvement: AWARENESS – INTEREST – DESIRE – ACTION, or AIDA. There are strategies and tactics that support each of these areas. All the stages should be considered carefully as your audience moves through the cycle to action (the purchase).

Here’s how it works:

1)    Awareness

“Who are you and why should I care?”

Activities include:

• Broad-based advertising like print, radio and television ads that introduces the company or product
• Direct mail that may or may not have an offer
• Public relations
• Email  (Sometimes. This is more effective if the prospect has already opted in or raised a hand.)

2)    Interest

“I might want what you have to offer, but I need to know more.”

Activities include:

• Online search
• Clicking a banner ad
• Visiting a website
• Ordering more information (perhaps a brochure or literature piece)
• Calling the company with general inquiries
• Offering more information to the company by taking a survey or through public relations efforts

3)    Desire

“I definitely want what you have. I just need to learn more, get a little push, maybe see a special offer.”

Activities include:

• Registering for a special offer
• Reading more about the product (beyond general interest)
• Pricing out the product or service, getting a quote
• Email – segmented dialog

4)    Action

“I’m ready to purchase, order or sign-up.”

Activities include: the purchase!

Ultimately you want to move people to Action, but many will stay in the Interest/Desire area for some time. This is where automated campaigns and ongoing dialog are critical. If you can gather enough information about the prospect at the Interest stage, you can serve them relevant information that will more quickly move them to Action.

Sustaining relevance in the Interest/Desire stage will help you close the sale.

Ongoing dialog can also teach you a lot about what messages resonate with certain people. As you learn more, you can segment and alter your campaign to increase effectiveness.

To learn more about AIDA, visit MindTools.

A year ago, my son asked if he could get a Nintendo DS for Christmas. I quickly responded, “No. We’re not getting one of those.”

He proceeded to tell me how cool they are, that everyone has one and they would be SO much fun.

Again, I said no. “You spend enough time on the computer.”

Then, he asked his mother. She said, “Talk to your father.”

Over the next two weeks, he asked anywhere from one to twenty times a day. I was determined not to give in. So was he. Even after last year’s disappointment of not so much as a game card in his stocking, he brushed himself off and tried again.

He said, “Well, maybe next year. My birthday is in August. Can I get one then?”

This time, I said, “We’ll see.”

Music to his ears. He recognized that I gave in a little. The door was back open.

photo by {just jennifer} on Flickr

Over the next twelve months, he cut out pictures of a Nintendo DS, circled them in advertisements and dragged me to the electronics section of retail stores. He even got me to play with one while visiting his cousins. All the while gently asking, “Do you think we can just get one now?”

Last month he saw me doing a Sudoku puzzle in the paper. He took the opportunity to let me know that I, too, could have fun with a Nintendo DS, since you can buy a game card that has Sudoku and many other fun brain teasers. When I tilted my head and pondered momentarily, he knew he had me.

Even though I said no, he knew that this time it was a yes.

The power of persistence.
So, what does this all mean, besides that I have a determined seven-year-old?

It brings me to the value of nurturing, and asking for the sale.

According to the National Sales Executive Association, you might have to make ten to twelve contacts or calls before a sale.

Do you throw in the towel too soon?
50% give up after just one contact or sales call.

• After two contacts, 65% give up
• After three, 74% give up
• After four – 89% give up

What happens if you don’t give up?

• At five contacts your prospect will be able to recall you. You’re starting to become a factor.
• At six contacts, your prospect is getting to know you.
• At seven, you’re finally earning top awareness.
• At eight, odds are that you’re the only one to have made this many contacts or calls.
• At nine, you have likely given the prospect some information that’s relevant to his or her situation, and you’re starting to earn trust.
• At ten contacts… you’ve hopefully made the sale. Or at least you’re well on the way. Don’t give up just yet.

You don’t have to beg.
In today’s marketing world, you can use a multitude of tactics to get in front of prospects and stay in touch. Along the way, you can learn more about them and deliver a relevant sales pitch, and even ask them for the sale. How you go about it will certainly vary by your product or service, your market as well as your objectives and goals. Regardless of your plan, see it through. Don’t expect those sales to magically appear after just one or two contacts.

Remember. The next time a prospect says no, just put yourself in the mind of a 7-year-old.

No can mean yes… eventually.

Break out the birthday cake, party hats and silly string. Email marketing turns 13 this year. Can you believe it? Gasp, a teenager! While many of us wince at our teen years, they were undoubtedly years of great change, influence, and discovery. Likewise, email adolescence is at a similar maturation crossroad. Improved technology, the introduction of social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and the sophistication of spam filters can make email marketing a daunting gauntlet to navigate.

However, email marketing continues to be an extremely effective marketing medium, producing one of the highest returns on marketing investment (ROMI). Jupiter research shows that in 2008 over 40% of consumers were influenced by email marketing in both offline and online purchases. One of the biggest mistakes marketers can make is to get wrapped up in trends of today and forget the basics of email marketing. To help keep you grounded I’ve put together a list of seven deadly sins to remember when embarking into email marketing.

1. SPAM I am. The first thing to remember is the FTC regulations that govern email marketing – CAN SPAM. Foremost, be a law-abiding citizen and embrace ethical email marketing. Here are the key obligations you need to know:
   1. Do not hide your identity (The “from” line must appropriately represent you)
   2. You must include the physical address of your business
   3. No deceptive subject lines
   4. You must give your recipient the opportunity to opt-out (unsubscribe) from your emails. If they do opt-out, you must comply within 10 days.
2. Signed. Sealed. Delivered? The bad news is that inbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail are private networks and are not required to deliver your mail. The good news, they want your mail to be delivered and are protecting all of us from malicious and unsolicited email. All of these providers use automated anti-spam techniques to separate good vs. bad mail (which end up undelivered or in a junk folder). To help ensure your email gets delivered, use an email service provider to send out your email, as opposed to your Outlook or personal email account. Likewise, make sure your email list is up-to-date and remove any emails that are old and may bounce (undeliverable) – those automated spam filters watch for bounces and spam button complaints. Worst case scenario, your email IP address gets black-listed. And yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.
3. Design is “just fine”. So you abide by CAN SPAM and actually get into your customers inbox – now the big question, will they read it? Take careful consideration when designing your email. Formatting, HTML vs. Text, and Image usage all affect the “curb appeal” of your email. Studies show that html emails are read more often, however keep in mind that 30% of readers don’t receive html emails (just text) and the 70% that do are using Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and/or Gmail accounts. By default these accounts automatically block html and images (unless you manually choose to display them). Send test emails to a variety of inbox providers to see how each will visually render and be sure to put yourself in the reader’s shoes.
4. Sloppy copy. Content is key when it comes to email. Give your reader something worth reading. It’s common for marketers to toss too much in an email. Testing has proved that picking a single theme and prioritizing increases open and click-through rates (more about these rates in #5). Keep your copy punchy and active and avoid flowery language. People don’t read email, they skim email. Therefore, use lots of bullets and verbs. With that said, spam filters look for too many exclamation marks, ALL CAPS, and words like “guaranteed”, “free”, and “savings.” It’s ok to use them, but in moderation. (Check out this list of other phrases and words to avoid.)
5. Measuring the wrong “e-ngredients”. There are six common measurements you should be aware of:
   1. Bounce Rates: Ratio of email delivered vs. not delivered (bounced).
   2. Unsubscribe Rate: Number of recipients that opt out of your email list.
   3. Churn Rate: The rate at which your email addresses become invalid.
   4. Open Rate: A measure of who is “opening” or viewing your email.
   5. Click-through Rate: A measure of who is clicking on links within your email.
   6. Conversion Rate: Number of readers who are filling out web forms via your email.

   While these are all important measurements, the real question should be how are you gauging success for your email marketing program? I most commonly hear of clients using open rate to measure the strength of their email campaign. However, I strongly suggest you refrain from that practice. Open rates are difficult to track and often inaccurate due to inbox preview panes, mobile devices, and non-html email.

   What is the goal of your email? Is there a call-to-action? Measure success by what you want your reader to do or glean from your email.

6. Permission omission. While it’s not against the law in the United States to email someone who hasn’t opted-in for your email, it’s most certainly a principle that every marketer should adhere to. Permission based email believes that the only people you should be emailing are those who have asked you to. We’ve all gotten email we haven’t signed up for. It’s annoying and many of us hit the spam/junk button in hopes the internet police will protect and serve us a little better. Give your prospect or client the ability to enroll and opt-in to your corporate emails. You can grow your list by having an enrollment form on your website or a link on your email signature. Drive them to register online via print and direct mail or ask for their permission at tradeshows or a point of sale. Permission based marketing keeps bounce and unsubscribe rates low and open and click-through rates high.
7. Spray and pray. Let’s face it, consumers (by that I mean everyone, including ourselves) are becoming increasingly high-maintenance. We want information now and only if it is relevant to us. As marketers, we need to respect that philosophy and understand that the “spray and pray” or “batch and blast” method (speaking to all of our prospects and customers the same way) is no longer good enough in our consumer’s eyes. Attention spans are diminishing and if you aren’t speaking to your reader on a personal level, it’s on to the next email. Segment your email list (via demographics, consumer interest, purchase history, etc.) and communicate content relevant to them because content is still king.

What other things do email marketers do to annoy you? Do you commit any of these sins with your own email program?

Image courtesy of morberg.