Targeted Email Marketing

Smarter Segmentation

Thursday, May 17, 2012 by Peter Hayman

Segmentation needs to be ever improving. Companies with traditional segmentation methods may well see declining completion rates going forward. Why? Because subscribers know the difference between targeted one-to-one messaging versus one-to-many. Traditional segmentation, while they narrow down the audience, often is a one to many message. Yes it will lift the odds, but they are turning downward as email marketing evolves.

I believe the next evolution is through better use of analytics. Using everything you can to go over your customers with a fine-tooth-comb. Find the ones more receptive to a well crafted personal offering based on their need to get a job done.

Here is the results of one company’s new segmentation approach. The numbers should open our eyes to a new way of segmenting or at least start dialog on it:

	mass market segments	long tail segments
segment size	20,000	200
emails sent	18,762	200
emails opened	15,449	162
emails clicked	817	98
leads	42	52
deals closed	2	12

Here’s more on the numbers - check out the discussion on it.

Become a Master of the Drip Campaign

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 by Altaf Shaikh

Drip Campaigns 101 by Rebecca Gill of sys-con - A good introduction and a starter checklist for businesses and marketing executives who have been putting this off for another day. IT WORKS - so don’t delay this any longer. If you need help, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Drip marketing campaigns are very effective for sales cycles that occur infrequently or those that take a considerable amount of time to close. In these situations, you frequently come into contact with a prospective customer well before they are ready to make an actual purchase. You need to stay in front of them until they are ready and the drip campaign allows you to do just that.

My marketing background started in enterprise software sales where a given prospect could be in the sales funnel for six to twelve months. We would have a new visitor reach our website while they were still researching available software solutions. Because of the extremely long sales cycle, we had to find a way to stay in front of people while they continued to investigate solutions and weight their purchase options. Even though I was selling into a B2B tech environment, the same process would hold true for a real estate agent, mortgage broker, or financial advisor and these are all B2C businesses that sell to consumers. The element they all share in common is that the sales cycle is long and the purchase happens infrequently.

Drip marketing typically refers to email related interactions. I think that is old school and I believe drip marketing should be a multifaceted approach. With the advent of social media, drip marketing can refer to virtually any digital marketing and includes blogging, emails, newsletters, tweets, and posts.

Steps to Mastering Drip Marketing:

Pick an Email Campaign Provider – There are a ton of email software providers available today. Some are free to start and some cost money immediately upon sign up. The important thing is to consider your requirements, document them, and then compare solution providers. Match the providers’ features and functionality to your needs and don’t settle for just the easies solution or the cheapest. Do you need the software to automatically send multiple emails to the same contact over time? Do you need the software to easily integrate with WordPress or another CMS solution? Do you need prebuilt templates or the ability to whip up your own in HTML? Decide what you need and you’ll easily find a solution to fit.
Consider Your Personas – Who are your personas (aka target market) and what do they need? Different target markets need different types of content, presentation, and frequency. Know your personas and document their needs well before establishing your drip campaign plan.

View the rest of the Eight Steps to Mastering Drip Marketing

If you still have some questions and want more information, please check out some of the drip marketing campaigns ListEngage has put together for our clients.

Security Settings to Protect You and Your Customers

Monday, April 9, 2012 by Altaf Shaikh

To our valued clients and customers: in Partnership with leading ESP, ExactTarget, ListEngage is announcing a new initiative to promote better security practices and to keep your data and your clients’ information more secure in our system.

Beginning May 7th all users who log into ListEngage’s accounts will need a unique username and password, tied to their own email address in order to curtail multi-user sign on, which is a major source of security breach across all ESP’s and SAAS offerings. ListEngage will now provide all accounts with up to 10 usernames and passwords per account, in order to help alleviate the need for more users. Please let us know if you’ll need more than 10 and we can work with you to take care of this.

In addition to this change, there are other optional security settings, such as IP Whitelisting that will also be made available to all ListEngage clients beginning May 7th. For a full list of updates and changes, please email us (info@listengage.com) and we’d be happy to share all of our resources with you.

We look forward to providing you a safer and more secure digital marketing experience in the coming weeks. Please let us know what feedback or suggestions you have as well.

Best Emarketing Strategy and Why Companies Don't Adopt Them

Friday, March 16, 2012 by Peter Hayman

Now that you are investing in email marketing and an emarketing strategy, how do you continue to get the best out of it?

Just turning up the volume is causing many subscribers to tune out. Whereas, companies that have campaigns that are targeted and personalized are finding their ROI is excellent.

How do you get there? Answer - segmentation and content that creatively utilizes it. Take a look at these numbers on the success of companies doing just that.

The Email Marketing Industry Census 2012, newly-released by eConsultancy and Adestra, finds that companies that carry out basic segmentation and testing are far more likely to be getting a high level of return on investment from their email marketing campaigns. 81% of companies who do regular testing for email marketing say their ROI from email is "excellent" or "good", compared to 72% for those who do "occasional" testing, 65% for those who do "infrequent" testing and only 37% for those who "don't test". However, the kicker is—so few companies actually do testing.

According to the research, only 31% of companies surveyed regularly test their email marketing campaigns. While the findings may be intuitive—testing yields better results–eConsultancy research director Linus Gregoriadis says this is the first year the six-year-old study has been able to quantify the link.

"This year, for the first time, we have shown that companies observing some basic best practices are reaping the rewards when it comes to ROI from email marketing." He adds that he hopes with the new data more companies will be inspired to adopt best practices. "Put simply, those simply performing 'batch and blast' techniques are less likely to see ROI benefits."

However, recent trends suggest that won’t happen. Other studies have also pointed to a link between segmentation and performance, but still email marketers don’t appear to be inclined to adopt these practices.

A report by Emailvision found that almost all US and European online marketing professionals believe it is very important (68.4%) or important (28.1%) to send targeted and personalized email marketing campaigns.

Yet for some reason, this does not happen. The Emailvision survey went on to note that only 1 in 5 actively personalize their email marketing content across all campaigns, and that the proportion personalizing content across all platforms is almost matched by the percentage not personalizing any of their email marketing (18.5%).

Read the full article here

image via http://www.marketingvox.com

10 Tips for Split Testing Email Campaigns

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 by Stefanie Uglevich

Email marketing offers a great opportunity for brands to increase subscriber satisfaction and retention, and drive results, if used correctly. There is no better way to understand and analyze what your subscribers want and enjoy better than split testing. The small changes that you can add to an email can make your emails go from SPAM fodder to an inbox star. An e-marketer must look at a multitude of different places in an email that can be tweaked to find the perfect combination.

An effective email campaign is targeted and tested. Targeted, to ensure the message is relevant for the recipient. Tested, to ensure the message is as effective as it can be within the constraints of the campaign. With so many different variables you can test, here are the top 10 tips for split testing email campaigns:

1. Subject lines. Subject line testing is the easiest way to increase your opens, clicks and conversions. Test different subject lines for different customer segments (e.g., use of personalization vs. non personalization, short subject lines vs. longer ones). Shorter subject lines are generally more effective (4 words/25 characters). However, what works with one segment may not work for another. Remember that your subscribers are busy and most likely have competing emails that promise to provide solutions to the challenges they’re facing. These people are just scanning their inbox subject lines. Since you only have a few seconds to grab their attention, it’s important to make your subject line as descriptive as possible and compelling enough for them to open it.

2. Headlines. All marketing messages begin with a headline that communicates an offer or benefit. Similar to a compelling subject line, which motivates recipients to open your email, you’ll want an equally enticing headline that motivates your subscribers to read your message. Take the time to write and test various (or at least two) headlines to see which one generates the best results. Also, try changing the font size…a larger font may be more effective than a smaller font.

3. Content/Offer. Test your content to find out what resonates with your audience. Since audiences are influenced in different ways by different types of content, identify what offers are likely to increase engagement and conversion from your subscribers (e.g., pricing, discounts, soft sell vs. hard sell, free shipping vs. discounted shipping, ebook vs. webinar, free trial vs. demo).

4. Calls-to-Actions (CTAs). Promote engagement with the content of your email to help extend your interaction with subscribers beyond their inbox (e.g., “Register Now,” “Tell us what you think,” “Watch the video,” “Learn more,” “Download Whitepaper”). Test which offers are most successful with different segments of your audience. Offer placement is a key area to look for improvements. Try moving the call-to-action button or text link up further in the email message. Determine if this simple change increases clickthroughs or decreases action due to its location.

Read the rest of the places you can split test here...

Using Dynamic Email Content to Drive Open Rates & Clickthrough

Thursday, February 23, 2012 by Peter Hayman

Are you using optimization in your emarketing strategy and email campaigns? Well know this, it works, and check out how HP proves it!

CHALLENGE

Hewlett-Packard faced the challenge many long-established B2B marketers have -- while its email list was large, it had many of those addresses in its database for a long time, and thus, engagement varied widely across the list.

In other words, many highly engaged recipients were getting drowned in a very large pool filled with long-time, but less engaged, subscribers. So HP decided to drain that pool in a targeted way to deliver more relevant content to the most valuable members of its audience.

The HP "Technology at Work" e-newsletter goes out to more than eight million subscribers across the world -- 50 countries and in 18 languages -- for both small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMB) and enterprise segments.

HP used two percent of its U.S. database to test dynamic email content based on user behavior and personas to increase engagement with its most devoted audience and this case study breaks that process down, step by step.

Cathy Howard, eMarketing Program Manager, Corporate Marketing, Hewlett-Packard, put it this way, "We are very careful not to spam subscribers, and very careful not to inundate them with emails that are just broad-based messaging. We want it to be an experience that is relevant and something that would be engaging to that subscriber."

CAMPAIGN

For the e-newsletter, HP has sign-up pages on its website, so the program is permission-based with some email recipients added to the list through sales reps’ recommendations for active prospects.

The portion of the email database that receives targeted dynamic content receives email that includes static elements everyone on the list receives along with special highlighted content that is based on that person’s behaviors and interaction with HP.

Read on to find out how they overcame their challenge here.

Top 5 tips for Effective Landing Page A/B Testing

Friday, January 13, 2012 by Altaf Shaikh

Our platform has implemented an amazing new A/B Testing feature in each account in the past year. This feature has helped our clients decide which email campaigns are doing the best - from subject line comparison to send time, this feature gives tracking information you can use. In addition to testing your email campaigns, it's also a great idea to test out your landing pages. B2C.com has compiled a short list of the top tips for effective testing---

A/B testing is one of the best ways to raise your landing page conversion rates and overall online marketing ROI. A/B testing or split testing is a testing method where a control landing page is compared to a variety of test pages. Testing landing page experiences against one another with A/B testing offers the opportunity to create and test wildly different things – think in terms of testing apples and oranges.

Here are five tips to help you effectively plan and run landing page A/B tests:

1. Know your testing type

Just like how investors have varying degrees of risk tolerance, marketers and organizations tend to have predispositions or cultural norms that affect testing. Do you just want results, or do you want to know exactly where those results are coming from? The upside of testing two widely different landing pages is that you can find big winners, but you can also find big losers. If the two pages are completely different however, you won’t know for sure why a page won or lost. There isn’t a right or wrong answer, but deciding whether you want that knowledge or just the results will affect your testing plans.

2. Create a test plan

The best results and insights come from tests that are carefully planned and hypothesized. This doesn’t mean that you should spend forever planning out a test; it just means you should fully understand what you’re testing and, even more importantly, why you’re testing it. Getting a plan in place that defines objectives, traffic, baseline results and your next steps will help keep your testing program on target even when results get crazy.

3. Statistical confidence

Run tests until they reach statistical confidence. Even though you may have what looks like a clear winner right out of the gate, wait until a test reaches statistical confidence before declaring any victors. Landing page testing is typically tested to somewhere between 80-99% confidence, depending upon a variety of factors. With LiveBall, ion’s landing page management platform, you can choose your level of confidence and let LiveBall automatically declare a winner, or you can evaluate real-time testing gauges to declare winners yourself.

4. Be bold

Beware of the never-ending A/B test! Alternatives that are too similar may not deliver a statistically significant result within a reasonable period of time, sending your testing into a state of paralysis. When you find yourself in a test wave that appears to be a statistical draw, call it as such and move on. Every time you form new test idea, take a step back to look at the alternatives and ask yourself whether you are testing something of significance.

5. Innovation then iteration

A/B testing is a powerful method for increasing conversion rates, but you can get even better results if you plan a test with two phases: innovation then iteration. Start by testing bold, innovative landing pages with A/B testing and then refine the winning page with multivariate testing (MVT). Think of A/B testing as a way to find diamonds, and MVT as a way to polish them.

Using these five tips, you’ll be ready to plan effective, valuable landing page tests. Happy testing!

Image: piyato / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Email marketing will have a strong 2012

Saturday, January 7, 2012 by Peter Hayman

With the marketing mix becoming much more varied - as online technologies mature - and previously separate marketing channels become far more integrated, it easy is to get caught up in the latest trends and lose sight of the things that make business to business marketing successful.

2011 saw social media rise to new heights and it was inevitable that it would soon be adopted as a core business tool. Social media marketing in many ways reinvigorated firms' online marketing efforts and allowed them to refocus their aims on producing far-reaching campaigns that spanned a plethora of different platforms. It was this 'all inclusive' attitude towards social interaction that set the pace of marketing in 2011, which is why we saw firms returning to tried and tested methods - like B2B email marketing - but using them in fresh, integrated and innovative ways.

While there were a number of new tools also pushing their way into the mainstream - such as online video and the rapidly growing platform of mobile marketing - it is clear that underpinning all this innovation were familiar techniques and methodologies. While content was to remain king for 2011 web-based marketing strategies, data was the cornerstone of B2B marketing - in particularly, segregated, up-to-date, highly-organised business lists.

It is this underpinning of sound business data and insight that meant so-called 'traditional' marketing platforms - like email - remained extremely popular. This looks set to continue in 2012 with email marketing is set to undergo something of a resurgence and staying high on the agenda for digital marketing specialists.

Interestingly, one of the key reasons that email will have such as successful 2012 is because of the rise of new methods of communication which were previously seen as rivals - namely social media and mobile. Far from undermining email as a rock solid business to business marketing tool, social media and the rise of smartphones and tablets have, in many ways, made it far more useful to the marketing professional.

For starters, access to email has become both instant and continuous. People can check there emails 24/7 using any number of new technologies - you can even gain access to it through your TV and mp3 player. This 'always on' view of email has cemented its reputation as the all-pervasive communication tool of choice. Its benefits over and above social media marketing are clear. It is targeted - if you have the right business data to underpin it - it can be easily personalised and it is easy to measure the success of it. What's more, with the clever use of new technologies, it can be far more responsive than it has been in the past.

So what will the key goals be for the email marketing professional in 2012?

First up, businesses need to get the targeting of their marketing messages right. Email marketing is ubiquitous and millions of messages will simply go unread or be blocked by spam filters - particularly as a result of poor email design. This means the data used for your mailshots needs to be high quality. It is no use going into 2012, spamming potential clients and customers from lists that have out-of-date information on them. Businesses will need to start using their B2B marketing data lists more intelligently if they are to boost email penetration rates.

Secondly there is the design. Many messages are deleted because they don't display properly or cause inboxes to malfunction. Email design will continue to be a hugely important factor when it comes to business to business marketing. With the rise of mobile technologies you must also consider smaller screen resolutions if you intend to run mobile email marketing campaigns.

Read more here...

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Job Opening: Email Marketing Specialist

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 by Altaf Shaikh

ListEngage, an interactive marketing agency based in Framingham, is seeking a technology-driven specialist to implement large scale email marketing campaigns. Applicants should have at least 6 months experience with a major Email Service Provider, preferably ExactTarget. This role will help onboard new clients onto the ExactTarget email marketing platform and will involve a complex understanding of data management, automated programs, and 3^rd party SaaS applications.

The ideal candidate will have:

· In depth knowledge of Email Marketing and SaaS platforms including automating programs, creating triggered emails, managing data.

· Proven track record of working with large teams to provision and implementation email marketing software.

· Working knowledge of HTML beneficial. Experience with SQL and relational data is a plus.

· Ability to manage multiple projects at a time and demonstrate great time management skills.

· Excellent problem solving skills coupled with great interpersonal skills (verbal and written) and an ability to explain complex technological projects to marketing and non-technical teams.

· A team-player attitude and a willingness to take on projects that land in lap and may not always fit your standard “job description”

· Experience with API programming, and/or programming languages (MS.NET, JAVA, PHP) is welcomed, but not necessary.

Candidates with experience with ExactTarget will be given special consideration, however, candidates with other ESP experience (Cheetah Mail, Silver Pop, Constant Contact, Responsys, Vertical Response, etc.) and candidates with a web/technological knowledge and an enthusiasm to learn and adopt the appropriate skill set in “record time” should not hesitate to apply.

Will consider remote candidates if extremely well-qualified.

What should you do to apply?
Please provide cover letter, resume, references, and salary requirements to: jobs@listengage.com position will be considered on a rolling basis.

Want to connect and learn more about us?
Follow us on Twitter @ListEngage
Become a fan on Facebook.com/ListEngage
Read our blog (ListEngage Blog)

Image: Kittikun Atsawintarangkul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Internationalizing Your Marketing Efforts - Takeaways from Connections 2011

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 by Altaf Shaikh

Earlier this fall I was invited to speak on a panel at ExactTarget's Connections 2011 User Conference entitled "Bridging the Divide: Internationalizing Your Marketing Efforts" where I presented a case study of how ListEngage has helped Parametric corporation with their monthly international email sending needs in 9 different languages and solved some specific challenges. Collectively the panelists offered some great insights. Charlie McAtee from ExactTarget summarized them well. Here they are:

1. Make training easy. Sean Mattson of Hitachi Data Systems stressed that robust training is a key. When rolling out a global email marketing initiative, Mattson found the best training tool was to create short video clips to build a robust library of “how to” videos that marketers across the world could turn to for answers. At Hitachi Data Systems, new features are constantly being rolled out and employees can easily lose their familiarity with the software if they don’t use it for a period of time. Constant training to update employees on new tools and to refresh their memory on previously learned tasks is an integral part of the training process.

2. Establish a support system. Whether you establish a 24/7 support system or encourage local marketers to connect with one another when they have questions, it’s important to offer a way for them to get their questions answered. Gina Mencias of Roche Diagnostics explained the advantages of creating a culture that empowers the local marketing employees to turn to one another, regardless of geography, with questions – whether they’re technical questions or inquiries about what types of content is working well for each market.

3. Listen to subscribers, and look for ways to automate their requests. For a global client, Altaf Shaikh of ListEngage shared an example of how they were able to automate a frequent request from their international email subscribers. Because the global marketing campaign delivered email messages to subscribers in their preferred language, it was difficult for subscribers to forward the content they found valuable to their colleagues who spoke a different language. ListEngage developed a process to create a Language Bar where the intended recipient’s language could be selected and thus receive the message in their preferred language, not the original subscriber’s language.

4. Keep messaging simple. Not only will simple messaging keep translation costs down, but it will eliminate the possibility of a subtle nuance or a mistaken play on words that doesn’t resonate across all local markets.

5. Provide a framework. In order to develop a turn-key global email campaign, Gina recommends providing global teams with a framework from which to structure their email marketing programs. One item in particular she’s found very helpful to share with her international email marketers is an international calendar of holidays. These will provide timely ideas for content that will be relevant to subscribers. Suggested design templates and sharing content that’s performed well in other regions are also part of the framework she provides.

Thanks to Charlie for his insight and great breakdown of the session! Have an email dilemma of international proportions? Email us and we'll share our thoughts.

The Team Tackles Connections 2011

Wednesday, October 5, 2011 by Altaf Shaikh

This past September the ListEngage team traveled to Indianapolis to be part of one the largest interactive marketing conferences in the world - ExactTarget's "Connections 2011" user conference. The event was host to email and digital marketers from around the globe and touched upon online marketing techniques, email campaign tips, social media marketing and B2B marketing.

All in all it was a week of learning for our dedicated team of ListEngager's and at the end I took this shot of the team at the airport before we flew back to Boston. If you look to the far right of the picture, you might be able to make out the adboard "Two Too Good", which I saw after I took the shot and thought was rather fitting -- after all, in my opinion, our team here is "too too good." Thanks guys!

Getting Targeted As The Dog Days Dwindle

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 by Altaf Shaikh

It’s the end of August, one of the traditionally slowest months for productivity and growth for many industries — and maybe you found a little dip in your email marketing ROI this summer? All of those “Out of Offices” and clicking latencies are precisely the reason it’s time to restructure your email goals — and plan to hit your targets dead-on once “school’s back in session”.

So this summer, as the dog days dwindle – why not swing back into action with

3 Fool-proof Ways to Deliver Targeted Email Marketing:

Send Emails Based on Attributes: Your “Master List” is a living database of all of your many, and uniquely different subscribers. If you’re a sporting goods store who knows their customers favorite sports you can pre-determine that while Joey the runner from Chicago, IL may want nothing to do with your “Fall Footbal Blowout Sale”, Coach Bill in Plano, TX might be looking for all new padding for his defensive line. By sorting on the “Sports” profile attribute and sending the email to Coach while avoiding Joey, you’ve made one football fanatic ecstatic and saved another customer the grief of deleting another email from his inbox!

Drip Campaigns: Someone shows up on your circuit board website and asks for a quote, but certainly isn’t ready to buy. They leave their name and email, and you send them a series of emails based on what you know about your buying cycle. Day 3 after quote, a handy “What to Consider When Buying Circuit Boards Email”; Day 8 after quote, a reminder email; Day 11 after quote a discount coupon worth 10%; and if they happen to buy somewhere in between the mailings stop.

Dynamic Content: Don’t want to make 50 emails with varying content for the 50 states you send to from your Daily Deal website? With dynamic content, a feature that ListEngage is fully versed in, you can create one email and define what content you want to go into a template based off of what data you have on the subscriber. With dynamic content you can send one email and simultaneously feature the daily “Lobster Roll Deal” in Boston and the daily “Wine Tasting Deal” in San Francisco! It’s easy enough to pull together and a tremendous time-saver that delivers targeted results.

Can you think of other ways that have helped your business target your subscribers? Do you have a targeting problem you think ListEngage could help you with? Send us a note and let us know!

Effective Customer Engagement Means Real-Time, Cross Channel Service

Monday, August 15, 2011 by Altaf Shaikh

My friend Joel Book is a very smart guy. As the (handsome) face of ExactTarget, he often has some great research, products, and ideas to share. In a recent article on the ExactTarget blog, he shared the need for marketers to be able to view all of their cross-channel integrations in one, real-time manner and dropped some great marketing 2.0 nuggets in there as well.

Joel’s Article: Effective Customer Engagement Means Real-Time, Cross Channel Service
Marketers have long relied on multiple channels to drive engagement, but today marketing requires a new approach – one built on a single view of the customer that values real-time interaction over static channel-focused campaigns. The antiquated one-to-many monologue of mass marketing has given way to the one-to-one digital dialogue of engagement marketing that is fueled by customer data and enabled by interactive marketing technology.

In “The Age of the Individual,” the most successful marketers are using a carefully integrated mix of Email, Mobile, Social media to attract, engage and retain customers. This “triangle offense” strategy is enabling brands like Scotts Miracle-Gro, Belk, and Papa John’s to accelerate their ability to engage customers in real-time and dramatically improve marketing and sales performance.

From “Campaign Management” to “Interaction Management”

The days of the “single-channel” customer are gone and they’re not coming back. Today’s customer interacts with a brand through multiple online and offline channels. Every conversation, every interaction a customer has with a brand – whether it occurs face-to-face, through Email, on the phone, on the website, on Twitter, on Facebook, or SMS – shapes the customer’s opinion and influences how he or she talks about the brand.

When these channels operate independently – instead of cohesively as one – messages often conflict, offers are not consistent, and the customer’s perception is that the brand is dysfunctional and totally unprepared to anticipate and respond to his or her needs. Not exactly a positive brand experience.

On the flipside however, when a brand creates a single database of knowledge about that customer and uses it to deliver consistent messages and timely offers across multiple channels, the customer’s brand experience is quite different.

This is the fundamental difference between “Campaign Management” and “Interaction Management.”

Customer Data is an Asset. Manage it Accordingly.

A company’s customer base should be managed like an investment portfolio, and like a good investment advisor, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service all share responsibility for maximizing the performance of that portfolio. And that requires a single source of reliable customer data that fuels the operations of each department.

That’s why it’s so important to manage information about each and every customer interaction in a shared business system that all customer-facing employees can access and use to communicate with and serve the customer. This way, the customer is treated correctly and consistently because Marketing, Sales and Customer Service are all aware of his or her needs and interests, previous purchases, and value.

Not only does this single view of the customer make it easier for employees to make smarter marketing decisions and interact with customers more effectively, it also creates a better experience for the consumer. Integrating cross-channel data in a single database creates an invaluable corporate asset, and accelerates the ability to interact more effectively with individual customers in real-time.

Serving has become the New Selling

To truly serve customers better, companies must learn to market to a “segment of one” because today’s customer wants more control over the content that is being delivered through Email, Mobile, Social Media and Website channels.

No longer is it appropriate or acceptable to guess what information or offers the customer wants – in fact it is destructive to the customer relationship. The recent Subscribers, Fans & Followers research conducted by ExactTarget revealed that 90% of consumers unsubscribe, unfan, or unfollow when the communication received from brands is too frequent or the content is irrelevant.

In the “Age of the Individual” consumers expect to be served, not sold. When companies make the commitment to understanding individual customer needs and interests, and using that insight to deliver content that is timely, relevant and useful, they not only sell more, they create a community of “brand advocates” who become some of the company’s most effective marketers.

Read More of Joel’s Insight on the ExactTarget Blog

image: ExactTarget blog

Job Opening: Software Developer w/ ExactTarget Experience

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 by Altaf Shaikh

ListEngage is seeking a technology-driven software developer with at least 6 months experience working with an Email Service Provider, preferably ExactTarget. This role will help on-board new clients onto the ExactTarget platform and/or will facilitate projects that enhance already established ExactTarget accounts.

The ideal candidate will have:

• In depth knowledge of Email Marketing and SaaS platforms including automating programs, creating triggered emails, and managing data (or demonstrate a desire and willingness to learn quickly).

• Solid experience with programming languages (MS.NET, JAVA, PHP)

• Experience with API programming

• Experience with SQL and relational data

• Front-End web development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, etc) a plus.

• Ability to manage multiple projects at a time and demonstrate great time management skills.

• Great interpersonal skills (verbal and written) and must be able to explain complex technological projects to marketing and non-technical teams.

• A team-player attitude and a willingness to take on projects that land in lap and may not always fit your standard “job description”

Candidates with experience with ExactTarget will be given special consideration, however, candidates with other ESP experience (Cheetah Mail, Silver Pop, Constant Contact, Responsys, Vertical Response, etc.) and candidates with a web/technological knowledge and an enthusiasm to learn and adopt the appropriate skill set in “record time” should not hesitate to apply.

Will consider remote candidates if extremely well-qualified.

What should you do to apply?
Please provide cover letter, resume, references, and salary requirements to: jobs@listengage.com by 8/26/11 – although position will be considered on a rolling basis.

Want to connect and learn more about us?
Follow us on Twitter @ListEngage
Become a fan on Facebook.com/ListEngage
Read our blog (ListEngage Blog)

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Catering to Subscribers Using Dynamic Content

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by Vimi Mirchandani

Since we’ve already talked about Data and Content in this newsletter, it seems fitting to combine them both here and discuss how email marketers can integrate them both into specific and targeted messages that vary content based on list demographics, and can make for some very happy subscribers (and marketers too!). In laymen’s terms, a feature called Dynamic Content.

Dynamic Content is a feature that seamlessly combines data and content and results in a deployed email that features content to a specific user based on their data set.

So, if you’re Cindy and you live in Minnesota and it’s January, and you receive emails from the National Outdoors Warehouse you will get a lovely email featuring winter jackets, tips to avoid frost bite, and a coupon code for 20% off Cross Country Skis.

If you’re John and you live in Southern California (and it’s January) you’re email will feature wet suits for surfing, information on bike tune-ups, and a 20% off coupon for deep-sea fishing gear.

How would either of these subscribers feel if they received an email about “Staying Active and Healthy in Winter”? Probably not as pumped.

But Dynamic Content isn’t just for B2C users, it’s also valuable for B2B companies who may be setting up emails to sent based off of past purchases, notes from specific sales contacts, or who may vary part of their internal newsletter content based on an employee category such as HR, Sales, Development, Marketing Dept., and beyond.

So how would you use Dynamic Content, or do you use something similar now? Tweet us and let us know, or drop us a line.

Want to learn more about Dynamic Content – read more here…

A/B Testing Takes the Guesswork out of Email

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by Stefanie Uglevich

Who hasn’t heard the phrase “Test, test and test again” when it comes to email marketing? Smart marketers have always understood the power of A/B testing their campaigns but the process has been cumbersome, and time consuming. Checking to see which emails perform best when, or with different subject lines and offers has always been a challenge that emarketers have had to take on manually.

Send one email at 10:03 am and one at 2:07pm with separate subject lines and then spend the next 3 days poring through the data, analyzing the results trying to incorporate the findings into your next campaign.

A/B testing has been inefficient to say the least—and most importantly, marketers have really only been able to view their insights in the rearview mirror in the past… but not anymore. Now, leading ESPs like ExactTarget have made A/B testing easy for marketers providing real-time emails, real-time testing and real-time results. Now email marketers can send 2 versions of a campaign simultaneously, measure open rates in real-time, pause sends and decide which campaign to launch to their “master list”.

What does real-time A/B Testing mean for email marketers then? Less guesswork and more results.

A/B split testing allows you to put your best campaign forward in Real-Time by monitoring various versions of the same email, and determining which is performing best. Users are then capable of evaluating test results and sending the “winning message” to subscribers.

The way that is works is simple:

A user can go into the system and choose a campaign to set up in A/B Testing.
The user can then set up their test variables, like:
- From Name
- Subject Line
- Send Date/Time
Users then decide their “test audience” say, 20% of their master list
Once the test has been sent, users can then evaluate the test results and…
Voila! Send the most successful campaign to the remainder of their subscribers on that particular list/campaign.

At ListEngage we’re helping our client get the most from their campaigns with features like A/B testing which in turn helps clients implement these new features for better overall email marketing campaigns and ROI. Email us today and let us show you what A/B testing can do for your overall marketing plan. Now, let’s starting testing… or should we say A/B testing?

image:
http://viralogy.com/blog/ecommerce/ab-testing-your-ecommerce-site/

How to Make your Opt-In emails Gmail’s Highest Priority

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 by Vimi Mirchandani

Oh no, here it comes! We’re all gonna dieeeee! It’s… Gmail Priority Inbox!

(This article is part of a 2 part series – learn more about Gmail Priority Inbox here or watch Gmail’s video)

Don’t worry, this isn’t the end of email marketing as we know it… it just means that companies need to provide VALUE in their emails more than ever! No more “Dino-digs November Dinosaur Newsletter” – but rather “Dino-digs finds Rare Dinosaur – and wants to name it after you!”

Businesses that want to “make the cut” need to promote value to their subscribers, and the easiest ways to do this are through targeted messages that make your subscribers want to open, read, click, reply, share and beyond. Here are several ideas to make any email a high-priority for your subscribers and Gmail’s Priority Inbox:

- List Segmentation: Segment your lists based on subscriber values: if a subscriber liked a certain product, what are other similar ones they may like? Then, use some ridiculously excellent dynamic content and populate a few options that may interest the individual based on past purchases.

- Killer subject lines: customizing subject lines with the subscribers name is not enough these days (but it’s a good start!). Tell the subscriber what they’re going to get by opening this awesome email!

- Clear and urgent call to action: Simply telling your subscriber to “purchase now” leaves them thinking they have all the time in the world to grab your offer: change it to “purchase now – expires in 24 hours”. Not only will you increase urgency, but your click-through rates will go through the roof!

- Number of email marketing messages: Don’t over-send emails – optimize your 1 message and its perfection will drive your readers “click-happy”. Over-sending can dilute your value proposition.

- Remember what you promised: If your readers signed up for discounts on clothes sold in your store, make sure they get just those. Don’t get tempted to blast an unrelated email.

Create, Automate & Engage

Thursday, April 9, 2009 by Altaf Shaikh

Clients often come to us for advice on how to engage their customers more, create relationships, and ultimately turn their “leads” into conversions.

We offer this sage advice: Create! Automate! Engage!

When it comes to email marketing, you can spend all the time in the world blasting out blanketing emails and flooding customers’ inboxes with little to no result, or you can get smart: send automated, targeted messages to the right people at the right times in your sales cycle.

The newsletter attached here offers our “Automated Drip Marketing” approach to email marketing, and we think you’ll find it extremely valuable.

Not only will you waste less time with “batch and blast” messages to all your clientele (and save yourself some resentful unsubscribe responses as well!), but you and your recipients will find much more value in the info you provide in the first place.

So skip the SPAM and treat your customers to something savory; they’re sure to digest your message much better when they know you made it especially for them.

Check out this month’s newsletter for more information on drip marketing >> click here