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.
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