Email marketing gets results but for the kind of results that marketers rave about it's essential to develop targeted email marketing campaigns - campaigns that identify and reach the people most likely to respond.
Without effective targeting, your email campaign - any marketing, for that matter - will be a hit and miss affair resulting in low response rates and wasted marketing dollars. It will also be a complete waste of the key strength of email marketing: that it can be targeted more effectively than any other marketing.
It simply doesn't make sense to broadcast to all and sundry when you can focus your efforts - and your dollars - on the people most likely to buy.
Identify your target markets
To identify your target markets, first break down or "segment" your market into groups of people likely to have similar needs and wants. Segmentation can be along any lines you like. For instance, by age group, gender, employment status, location, lifestyle, attitudes, concerns, ethnicity, skill level, and so on.
The idea is to recognise that there is no such thing as an "average" customer. Different types of people have different needs and wants. Consequently, some groups will find the particular (and ideally, unique) benefits of your products and services more appealing than others. These are your target markets.
Because email marketing can reach very specific types of people you can take segmentation to some lengths, for highly-targeted email marketing campaigns. There will almost always be an email list/newsletter to match.
However, target markets must remain large enough to justify the time and effort if not the expense (targeted email marketing is cheap) of a dedicated email campaign.
Ideally, you will hit on market segments that are a good size and also underserved by competitors - a niche marketing opportunity. This is why it is worthwhile spending some time on segmentation.
Create a targeted email marketing message
Having identified your target markets, don't drop the ball with your message.
You will need to develop a separate email message or "creative" for each target market, focusing on their particular needs and wants, and how your particular products or services can fulfil them. Bring your "unique selling proposition" into play, to demonstrate how you can fulfil them better than your competitors.
It's also important to speak your target market's language. Use an appropriate style and tone, and words which have the greatest impact with that market. For example, "affordable," "stylish," "durable," "easy-to-use," "honest," "fast."
In short, create an email that is highly-relevant and therefore highly-interesting to your target market.
Write an effective subject line
There is plenty of advice available on writing marketing email subject lines. In summary, they should be straightforward, contain your business name, be both informative and relevant, and as short as possible. They should capture the essence of your email. For this reason they are best written after not before the message.
An excellent side-benefit of targeted email marketing is that it is much easier to write with specific types of people in mind than for mass audiences. Great news if like most people you hate writing promotional copy.
Select targeted email marketing lists
The next step in your targeted email marketing campaign is to find email lists that reach your target market. For most small and home businesses, the most affordable option will be email newsletters (ezines) with a subscriber profile matching your target market. Solo ads - emails sent to subscribers separately from the newsletter - are highly-affordable.
Most email newsletters are listed in directories, such as FindEzines, Zinester, EzineHub and the Directory of Ezines. (Search for "ezine directory".)
Target the right time
With the key elements of your targeted email marketing campaign in place, there is one more factor to consider before you send: timing.
An advantage of email marketing is that campaigns can be timed to the minute. Think about your target market's lifestyle to choose the best time to send. Ideally, it will be a time when they not only check their email but also have time to give it their attention.
For moms this might be late in the evening when the kids are in bed. For young professionals with an active social life, it might be lunchtime, when they are neither working or out on the town. Trust your common sense on this one. Statistics on the most popular email opening times are misleading.
Test your targeted email marketing campaign
My piece of final advice on targeted email marketing is to test your campaign. Ad testing is standard procedure for large companies. Thanks to the affordability of email, it's an option for small businesses too.
Once you have perfected your targeted email marketing campaign you can invest in more expensive lists and roll out your campaign with confidence.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Some 'Golden Rules' of logo design
While the variables are infinite (that's a good thing - it means that every logo can be unique) there are certain benchmarks (I hesitate to call them rules) that if you follow, will pretty well insure that you'll end up with a decent and workable logo. While whether or not a logo is 'good' remains completely subjective, following these pointers will give you a logo that's usable, practical and promising a long shelf life.
1) UniquenessYour logo should be able to stand out as completely 'yours'. It's surprising how many times we get asked to 'copy' logos - we've even had clients request a 'version' of my brand. Not a good idea. On top of the potential legal complications nothing screams 'unprofessional' like a logo that's looks even remotely like someone else's. Do not copy. I'll say it again. Do. Not. Copy.
2) TimelessEvery few years there's a trend, or fad, that new logos seems to embrace. A few years ago it was the 'swoosh' - made logos all hi-tech and 'internety'. Trouble is, everybody jumped on that bandwagon and the treatment rapidly became hackneyed and trite. Few years hence, and we've got lots of people stuck with out of date designs. The latest design logo trend is so-called 2.0, a technique that (like a lot of design trends) can be traced back to Apple Computers. Take your logo, add a 'gel' treatment, give it glassy reflection at the bottom and you're all set. (hey - the 3D version of our house could qualify). Web 2.0 is still going strong, but I'll go out on a limb and say it will be yesterday's news by end of summer.
3) Gimmick FreeSpecial FX and filters are usually applied, by inexperienced designers, to logos that are 'missing something'. Trouble is, what the logo is generally missing is any design integrity, and adding bevels, lens flares and drop shadows is the logo design version of 'putting lipstick on a pig'. While it certainly shows how cool the latest design software is, it doesn't do much for the professionalism of your mark. Such treatments are fine for glamour shots (used as display pieces on brochures and the like) but are only going to cause grief down the road, especially when it comes to application of your new logo on standard business material. Your logo should be as technically simple as possible for adaptability, which just happened to be number 4 on our list...
4) AdaptabilityOver the life of your company, you'll want to plaster your logo over everything you send out. That's the point of having a logo in the first place. In order to do this, you'll need a logo that's adaptable to every occasion and while they may look 'pretty' , the design gimmicks we just talked about render your logo impractical for many of these uses. Some of these uses - checks, FAXes, embroidery, newspaper ads, invoices, letterheads, etc. Your new logo has to work on all of them. You'll also need a quality black and white version that can reproduce as a halftone grayscale, or in the cases of low-resolution BW reproduction, a linear version.
5) ScalabilityWhen using your logo, you'll need to be able to use it small. Real small. Postage stamp size. Classic example of this - over the years, I've designed a load of sports event posters that feature logos from dozens of event sponsors. Space only permits the logos to be featured as very small images and it's always the simpler logos that stand out when viewed from a distance. The cluttered logos aren't recognizable to any great degree and the sponsors are probably wasting their money, especially if inclusion on the poster is the only benefit of their sponsorship. When it comes to scalability, the text portion of the logo is the most important, as that's the piece you want people to remember. Scrawny, sickly text doesn't read very well at half an inch high.
6) Color is SecondaryColors are extremely important. Using consistent corporate colors will become part of your brand - that's understood. However, when it comes to the design of your logo, color must always be secondary. A logo that requires color to 'hold' the design together is fine when reproduction is optimal - websites, 4 color process printing and what have you - but even then only if the size is appropriate as well. Logos that rely too much on color tend to blend together when used small (see above) and unless the contrast between the two colors is pronounced, will be a grey mess if used in black and white. As for low-resolution reproduction (FAXES, checks, etc) you can forget about readability completely - logos that use color as a design cornerstone usually come out as black blotches on a FAX transmission and with all their money, banks still haven't figured out how to print a decent check.
7) Appropriate Aspect Ratio & FootprintThe aspect ratio of a logo is the relationship between a logo's height and it's width. Bottom line, you don't want a logo that's too tall, or too wide. Square'ish' is always best as this allows the maximum adaptability of a logo, especially when it's being used in conjunction with other artwork. The 'footprint' of a logo refers to the amount of physical space that's required to place a logo on any page. If the footprint is 'wonky' - trailing design elements 'poke' outside the footprint - it can greatly affect the size that the design can be used at, as well as the visual impact of same.
Like most 'rules' of design, not all of these will apply in every situation, and in many cases, we'll toss them out completely. However, they should give you a road map that will help you navigate the sometimes frustrating creative process to design your new logo.
1) UniquenessYour logo should be able to stand out as completely 'yours'. It's surprising how many times we get asked to 'copy' logos - we've even had clients request a 'version' of my brand. Not a good idea. On top of the potential legal complications nothing screams 'unprofessional' like a logo that's looks even remotely like someone else's. Do not copy. I'll say it again. Do. Not. Copy.
2) TimelessEvery few years there's a trend, or fad, that new logos seems to embrace. A few years ago it was the 'swoosh' - made logos all hi-tech and 'internety'. Trouble is, everybody jumped on that bandwagon and the treatment rapidly became hackneyed and trite. Few years hence, and we've got lots of people stuck with out of date designs. The latest design logo trend is so-called 2.0, a technique that (like a lot of design trends) can be traced back to Apple Computers. Take your logo, add a 'gel' treatment, give it glassy reflection at the bottom and you're all set. (hey - the 3D version of our house could qualify). Web 2.0 is still going strong, but I'll go out on a limb and say it will be yesterday's news by end of summer.
3) Gimmick FreeSpecial FX and filters are usually applied, by inexperienced designers, to logos that are 'missing something'. Trouble is, what the logo is generally missing is any design integrity, and adding bevels, lens flares and drop shadows is the logo design version of 'putting lipstick on a pig'. While it certainly shows how cool the latest design software is, it doesn't do much for the professionalism of your mark. Such treatments are fine for glamour shots (used as display pieces on brochures and the like) but are only going to cause grief down the road, especially when it comes to application of your new logo on standard business material. Your logo should be as technically simple as possible for adaptability, which just happened to be number 4 on our list...
4) AdaptabilityOver the life of your company, you'll want to plaster your logo over everything you send out. That's the point of having a logo in the first place. In order to do this, you'll need a logo that's adaptable to every occasion and while they may look 'pretty' , the design gimmicks we just talked about render your logo impractical for many of these uses. Some of these uses - checks, FAXes, embroidery, newspaper ads, invoices, letterheads, etc. Your new logo has to work on all of them. You'll also need a quality black and white version that can reproduce as a halftone grayscale, or in the cases of low-resolution BW reproduction, a linear version.
5) ScalabilityWhen using your logo, you'll need to be able to use it small. Real small. Postage stamp size. Classic example of this - over the years, I've designed a load of sports event posters that feature logos from dozens of event sponsors. Space only permits the logos to be featured as very small images and it's always the simpler logos that stand out when viewed from a distance. The cluttered logos aren't recognizable to any great degree and the sponsors are probably wasting their money, especially if inclusion on the poster is the only benefit of their sponsorship. When it comes to scalability, the text portion of the logo is the most important, as that's the piece you want people to remember. Scrawny, sickly text doesn't read very well at half an inch high.
6) Color is SecondaryColors are extremely important. Using consistent corporate colors will become part of your brand - that's understood. However, when it comes to the design of your logo, color must always be secondary. A logo that requires color to 'hold' the design together is fine when reproduction is optimal - websites, 4 color process printing and what have you - but even then only if the size is appropriate as well. Logos that rely too much on color tend to blend together when used small (see above) and unless the contrast between the two colors is pronounced, will be a grey mess if used in black and white. As for low-resolution reproduction (FAXES, checks, etc) you can forget about readability completely - logos that use color as a design cornerstone usually come out as black blotches on a FAX transmission and with all their money, banks still haven't figured out how to print a decent check.
7) Appropriate Aspect Ratio & FootprintThe aspect ratio of a logo is the relationship between a logo's height and it's width. Bottom line, you don't want a logo that's too tall, or too wide. Square'ish' is always best as this allows the maximum adaptability of a logo, especially when it's being used in conjunction with other artwork. The 'footprint' of a logo refers to the amount of physical space that's required to place a logo on any page. If the footprint is 'wonky' - trailing design elements 'poke' outside the footprint - it can greatly affect the size that the design can be used at, as well as the visual impact of same.
Like most 'rules' of design, not all of these will apply in every situation, and in many cases, we'll toss them out completely. However, they should give you a road map that will help you navigate the sometimes frustrating creative process to design your new logo.
Using Testimonials for Maximum Effect
Anyone who's been in marketing for more than a day understands the value of customer testimonials. Better than any other form of proof (logical argument, data, endorsements), they can prove particular claims that the marketer wants to make about his product.
But, like any marketing tool, the strength of a testimonial is greatly related to the effectiveness of its presentation. If you give your customers typical testimonials in a typical way, they will have very little effect, because they will neither attract attention nor deliver an emotional message. But if you can find a way to make the testimonial new - either with the language itself or with the presentation - the effect can be powerful.
When I teach young copywriters the power of proving their claims, I stress the importance of not using testimonials that "sound like" testimonials. When a customer tells you that your product is "far and away the leader in its field" or "the best thing since sliced bread," you may be thrilled because it sounds like something you might have written yourself. But that's precisely why you shouldn't use it.
The best testimonials are those worded in a way that catches your attention, conveys a positive message, and does so with credibility. "Damn good eatin' fish!" is a testimonial I'd much rather use than "Succulent and tasty." The "damn" arrests my attention, the choice of words is believable, and the effect of making "eating" an adjective conveys an immediate benefit. It almost makes the mouth water.
So that is one thing - selecting, finding, or creating language that meets these criteria:
* attracts attention* conveys a benefit* achieves credibility
But that's not all. To make your testimonials do their job, they need to be presented in a format that supports those three objectives. In a sales letter, for example, testimonials are typically presented as one- or two-sentence quotations that are placed either in the text itself or at the margins. If you have a bunch of one- or two-sentence testimonials, it doesn't hurt to use them that way.
But if you have a really good testimonial, one that's distinctive and believable and strongly conveys the chief benefit of your product, you should find a more creative way to present it. You can, for example, turn it into a big bold headline and bolster it with an eye-catching photo of the customer enjoying the benefit.
Perhaps the best way to achieve both powerful, unique language and a captivating presentation is to show actual customers in their natural environment speaking their own words. Infomercials selling wealth-building programs often present real customers talking about their success, but they are usually in a staged setting - in front of the beach or a swimming pool - and their comments seem to have been coached out of them. A much better approach would be to have these people walking around their homes or businesses, interacting with other people and talking candidly and in an unrehearsed way about how their lives changed by following the system that is being sold.
Home Depot just released three commercials that do a very good job of this. So good, in fact, that I'd recommend you study them to get an idea about what is possible - particularly nowadays, when just about every business should be working in mixed media, incorporating video into their advertising program.
Home Depot's new commercials feature documentary-like accounts of customers who have fixed up their homes. One features an African-American mother, her sister, her daughter, and her son. Seated in front of her children and beside her sister, the mother is obviously proud of the painting and spackling job she did on the living room. She says something like, "Now my kids say Mom did this and Mom did that"... and is interrupted by her daughter saying, "At first we were, 'Mom, you're messing up the house.'" The commercial flashes back to the mother getting tips on spackling at Home Depot and features impressive before-and-after shots. It ends with the mother saying, "This is a building that I made into a home."
Another one begins with a young mother saying something like, "I'm going to try to tell this story without crying." And then, "Two weeks after I bought my house, Dad died. He remodeled every house we ever lived in." And then she starts crying.
According to a review of the ad series by Stuart Elliott in The Wall Street Journal, the commercials were directed by Jeff Bednarz, a documentary filmmaker. "We started with the notion that nobody can tell a home-improvement story better than the customer can," said Gary Gibson, creative head of the Richards Group, the ad agency handling the Home Depot account. "They tell them better than we write them."
I agree. The message of these little films is empowerment and the effect is sentimental - but that sentiment is successful because it comes without a script and without professional actors. The cinema verite style that Bednarz chose to depict the customers' stories makes them at once dramatic and believable.
The bottom line is this: Testimonials work well if they are true - and the closer you can get to truth, the stronger your sales message will be. When working with testimonials, ask yourself, "How can I show this customer experience as dramatically and truly as possible?" You'll get a much better response.
But, like any marketing tool, the strength of a testimonial is greatly related to the effectiveness of its presentation. If you give your customers typical testimonials in a typical way, they will have very little effect, because they will neither attract attention nor deliver an emotional message. But if you can find a way to make the testimonial new - either with the language itself or with the presentation - the effect can be powerful.
When I teach young copywriters the power of proving their claims, I stress the importance of not using testimonials that "sound like" testimonials. When a customer tells you that your product is "far and away the leader in its field" or "the best thing since sliced bread," you may be thrilled because it sounds like something you might have written yourself. But that's precisely why you shouldn't use it.
The best testimonials are those worded in a way that catches your attention, conveys a positive message, and does so with credibility. "Damn good eatin' fish!" is a testimonial I'd much rather use than "Succulent and tasty." The "damn" arrests my attention, the choice of words is believable, and the effect of making "eating" an adjective conveys an immediate benefit. It almost makes the mouth water.
So that is one thing - selecting, finding, or creating language that meets these criteria:
* attracts attention* conveys a benefit* achieves credibility
But that's not all. To make your testimonials do their job, they need to be presented in a format that supports those three objectives. In a sales letter, for example, testimonials are typically presented as one- or two-sentence quotations that are placed either in the text itself or at the margins. If you have a bunch of one- or two-sentence testimonials, it doesn't hurt to use them that way.
But if you have a really good testimonial, one that's distinctive and believable and strongly conveys the chief benefit of your product, you should find a more creative way to present it. You can, for example, turn it into a big bold headline and bolster it with an eye-catching photo of the customer enjoying the benefit.
Perhaps the best way to achieve both powerful, unique language and a captivating presentation is to show actual customers in their natural environment speaking their own words. Infomercials selling wealth-building programs often present real customers talking about their success, but they are usually in a staged setting - in front of the beach or a swimming pool - and their comments seem to have been coached out of them. A much better approach would be to have these people walking around their homes or businesses, interacting with other people and talking candidly and in an unrehearsed way about how their lives changed by following the system that is being sold.
Home Depot just released three commercials that do a very good job of this. So good, in fact, that I'd recommend you study them to get an idea about what is possible - particularly nowadays, when just about every business should be working in mixed media, incorporating video into their advertising program.
Home Depot's new commercials feature documentary-like accounts of customers who have fixed up their homes. One features an African-American mother, her sister, her daughter, and her son. Seated in front of her children and beside her sister, the mother is obviously proud of the painting and spackling job she did on the living room. She says something like, "Now my kids say Mom did this and Mom did that"... and is interrupted by her daughter saying, "At first we were, 'Mom, you're messing up the house.'" The commercial flashes back to the mother getting tips on spackling at Home Depot and features impressive before-and-after shots. It ends with the mother saying, "This is a building that I made into a home."
Another one begins with a young mother saying something like, "I'm going to try to tell this story without crying." And then, "Two weeks after I bought my house, Dad died. He remodeled every house we ever lived in." And then she starts crying.
According to a review of the ad series by Stuart Elliott in The Wall Street Journal, the commercials were directed by Jeff Bednarz, a documentary filmmaker. "We started with the notion that nobody can tell a home-improvement story better than the customer can," said Gary Gibson, creative head of the Richards Group, the ad agency handling the Home Depot account. "They tell them better than we write them."
I agree. The message of these little films is empowerment and the effect is sentimental - but that sentiment is successful because it comes without a script and without professional actors. The cinema verite style that Bednarz chose to depict the customers' stories makes them at once dramatic and believable.
The bottom line is this: Testimonials work well if they are true - and the closer you can get to truth, the stronger your sales message will be. When working with testimonials, ask yourself, "How can I show this customer experience as dramatically and truly as possible?" You'll get a much better response.
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