A Little "Welcome" Goes A Long Way

A ‘Welcome’ email is a prime marketing opportunity many are missing. Your audience found you and is interested in hearing from you. The small effort of sending an appropriate welcome email can have a huge impact.

Jordan Ayan of MediaPost recently wrote an article detailing the results of two studies which showed that few companies take advantage of the welcome message opportunity. The article, “Missing The Chance To Say ‘You’re Welcome’”, stated that a ReturnPath study found that 60% of brands surveyed failed to send welcome messages. A MediaPost study surveyed email marketers, “40% of whom readily admitted to not sending a welcome message when a new subscriber signed up for their email program.” These are astonishing numbers considering the simplicity of the act.

“Missing The Chance” goes on to say that of those who do send welcome messages, many are not well written and are often too brief. Some aspects that make for a good welcome message, according to the article, include:

• It should thank the recipient for providing the required information. It should also reinforce the value of your emails, reminding them what to expect in terms of frequency and any other information that reinforces relevancy to the recipient.

• It should include the information recipients need to add you to their white or "favorites" list, including the "from" address for your message.

• It should reinforce the value you place on the relationship and reinforce your privacy commitment, including a link to your privacy statement. If you don't plan to share their email address - restate that fact clearly.

• A little something special. The subscriber has expressed a high-level of interest, so this is the time to offer something extra as a thank-you: a coupon, a percentage off, free shipping, a bonus download of a white paper or a free webinar. Just let subscribers know that you appreciate the fact that they supplied their email address, and the trust they are placing in you by signing up for your message. You can test offers to see which ones are most effective.

• If you use a double opt-in process, you have an opportunity to double-dip. The initial confirmation message can include a promotional message. This should be muted from whatever you would send in your welcome message once they confirm.

• The issue of timeliness: A welcome message should appear in the subscriber's inbox within minutes of when they sign up. Wait too long, and recipients may forget who you are or why they subscribed.

A separate, independent study done by Linda Bustos evaluated the welcome emails she received after signing up for a number of various accounts. Of 89 accounts registered, she received 33 welcome emails within 24 hours. Listed below are some of the recurring aspects of these emails.

• 88% used branding in the headline
• 66% used the words “Thank You” in the headline or body
• 61% used the word “Welcome” in the headline or body
• 52% included multiple links back to the site
• 52% included login details
• 42% used HTML layout
• 33% provided link to privacy statement
• 9% provided unsubscribe options

These guidelines and statistics are the tip of the iceberg, but the major point is that a simple welcome message can go a long way and is a crucial opportunity to reach out to your audience.

Cultural Cues to Effective E-mail Marketing

How does culture play a role in Internet Marketing? Since the Internet has a global scope and people from any country can access immeasurable amounts of information from other countries, does culturally formatted marketing apply online?

Six International E-Mail Marketing Challenges, an article by Derek Harding on Clickz.com says you can bet your money on it! In fact, when it comes to email marketing, marketers must have an elevated awareness of cultural factors in order to truly target the user that goes way beyond language translation.

According to the article, here are key points to keep in mind when engaging in effective international email marketing:

Message form. The amount of content that works well in messages varies from country to country. In the United States, when we send newsletters, it's common to only include article overviews with links to the full articles online. However, in some countries the expectation is the full content will appear in the message.

Personalization and salutations. In some countries, use of personalization and salutations (e.g., Dear Derek) can improve results. In others, it's seen as hackneyed or even a privacy invasion.

Send time. When to send is also a regional and cultural question. Clearly, the local time zone must be taken into account. So should variations in when people work. Which days constitute the weekend vary across the globe. Holidays vary from country to country, as does when people commonly take vacations.

Local norms. There are many local norms that can be entirely unexpected if you don't have local knowledge. For example, in the U.S. it's quite common to post prices exclusive of tax. In some other countries, this is simply not done and may even be disallowed by local law. In France, it's common to ask recipients to print out a form and fax it back, whereas in many other countries this would be considered absurd.

Local laws. While anti-spam requirements are the most obvious laws that apply to international e-mail, some countries may have additional laws and requirements for doing business electronically, especially related to privacy and use of personal information.

Language. The language selected does matter for international communications. However, the choice of language isn't necessarily clear-cut. Many countries use more than one language, and which languages you support can be very important. For some cultural groups, using their language may be essential; for others, it may have little effect. Some audiences may even prefer to receive communications in English rather than their native tongue. This is often the case for more technical audiences.

In today’s globalized business world, it is so important to truly have a keen awareness of our audiences when it comes to online marketing. With such diversity, standardized marketing may not always make the cut. These tactics can reduce costs, improve consistency; and since it’s easier to target online than any other form of media, the matter of true importance is to remember that people are looking for relevancy.

When Crisis Looms, Make a Video!

In recent years, companies worldwide have implemented many branding techniques and strategies to create awareness and gain recognition. From television advertisements to newspaper ads and free samples, companies have continuously tried to communicate their superiority over other brands to consumers.

But what happens when a branding strategy goes wrong? Past mishaps in branding have led to information leaks and plummeting stocks. If a branding strategy goes from a process to a fiasco, what is a good way for companies to redeem the message they’re communicating to consumers?

Video Marketing and Brand Management Online, by Andreas Roell of Clickz.com, the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference, shares an idea that will help spread the message to the masses—online video. According to the article, online videos are the best way for marketers to reach consumers, especially when word needs to be spread quickly!

According to the article, these are the top reasons why online videos can ease branding mishaps:

Video content drives news. Journalists and news outlets continue to cover and incorporate popular viral videos into their broadcasts. If marketers post a video in response to a crisis or release a brand-flattering video, they can potentially generate news online that could translate into primetime broadcast coverage.

Search engines can pick up the video. If there's video content posted on the aggregators about your brand, it will be included in search results. Marketers have a better chance of reaching target audiences if they can get their video messages included in search results as it will be evermore important for advertisers to diversify their marketing efforts to attract user's attentions.

It's what people are watching. When it comes down to it, people watch videos online. A December 2007 study by Burst Media found that 76 percent of men and 67 percent of women watch online videos. By spreading pertinent brand messages through online video, marketers have a chance of benefiting from the content being syndicated on other formats. If a marketer can get a message out through video, there's potential it will be distributed on iPods, homepages, mobile devices, and social networking sites. That's good coverage. Video posted on a brand's Web sites will arguably garner more attention than text.

Video goes viral. Every marketer wants their message to be what people are talking about, and utilizing video is a great way to reach this goal. Video is easily dispersed amongst peers and can be accessed and posted on a plethora of platforms. Online video also makes a nice side dish to any news story or blog posting. So if someone is commenting on your event (good or bad), it's easy to include your video along with that commentary. The idea here is to make it easy for others to get pass along your message for you.

After reading the advice from the article above, it is clear to see why companies should utilize this marketing avenue even if there isn’t a branding crisis looming overhead. The old adage “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” has lost it’s luster in today’s business world. Consumers now have higher expectations than ever before, and with so much competition most companies don’t have the luxury of not paying attention to social trends such as viral marketing. Out with the old and in with the new—fix it before it’s broken!

Social Media Helping Corporations Connect with Users

Even in the online forum the focal point for companies needs to be conversations. Being flexible in the use of applications is key to successful dialogues.

Earthlink is showing its flexibility with the use of social media through an application called WebLife, which allows users to store, organize, edit and share photos, according to an iMedia Connection article. These social media will become an important part of Earthlink's future as it will help gauge consumer preferences.

Before a company goes head strong into social media, it needs to understand its own corporate culture and where it wants to take the company in the future. Companies can reap huge benefits from using social media if used correctly, but it can also spell disaster if used just for the sake of using it.

Companies must make sure to have a balance between social media and traditional media, to extend their reach by delivering content in multiple formats.