April 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A Chat with Matt: 7 Steps to New Customer Success

We’re continuing our video series “A Chat with Matt” where we talk to Matt Peterson, content training specialist at Infusionsoft, to share creative marketing ideas to help you and your business succeed.

Last week Matt Peterson and I talked to you about the first part of his seven steps to customer success. This week we are revealing the last few steps to help you get started!

As we mentioned last week, when you get a new customer, there are procedures you follow and things you do but, if you incorporate these seven steps into what you’re already doing, you can really ramp up your success.

5-Honest Real Engagement

“The best way to do this is to simply ask them a question: How are things going? This real engagement is going to allow them to express themselves. ‘I’m really happy’ or ‘I’m kind of frustrated- I haven’t gotten my product yet.’ What this does is open the door for that communication that customers are yearning. They love communication,” says Peterson.

If a customer is happy, Peterson says this is the perfect time to upsell or offer different valuable products to those customers.

Peterson adds that customers don’t like to just swipe their card and never hear from the business again. They like to be involved and make sure their purchases are valuable.

6-Tailored Response

“We want to make sure we’re not just sending out a blanket response…We need to focus on what did they say to us- and how are we going to respond?Because if they’re unhappy with their purchase, I’m probably going to want to get on the phone and talk to them or at the very least send a personalized email or letter letting them know I heard their feedback, I did feel that engagement and I want to take care of the issue,” says Peterson.

7- Set the Stage for Long-Term Communication

“We want to make sure that they (our customers) understand we’re in this for the long hall… It may be the only time you purchase a product from us but we want you to be successful for the rest of your life. So we’re going to be in touch with you from time to time. Maybe we have a newsletter to send you. Maybe we have other tips and tricks we can send you from time to time,” says Peterson.

You can spend time organizing a customer appreciation event and by following these seven steps you’ll get to know your customers better.

You can join also the conversation on Twitter @BigIdeasBlog  and @MattinAZ  and leave us your comments.

 

 

 

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April 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A Chat with Matt: 7 Steps to New Customer Success

We’re continuing our video series “A Chat with Matt” where we talk to Matt Peterson, content training specialist at Infusionsoft, to share creative marketing ideas to help you and your business succeed.

Last week Matt Peterson and I talked to you about ways to deal with billing and collections issues for your small business.

This week we decided to take some time and go more in depth into what Matt calls the seven steps to customer success. When you get a new customer, there are procedures you follow and things you do but, if you incorporate these seven steps into what you’re already doing, you can really ramp up your success.

1-Welcome them to the family

“When we’re writing these messages, whether they’re direct mail or as person, whether it’s a speech or a video or an email- however we want to communicate with them we want to make sure that the first thing we do is welcome them to the family. They need to feel like they’re a part of what we’re doing. we want to engage them and make them feel like a family member…we appreciate them coming to be a part of our family,” says Peterson.

2-Take Care of Business

“Put the customer at ease that they didn’t just get swindled by whatever they purchased; we know that you purchased an actual product or service and it’s going to be coming or it’s on its way, or you should’ve received it by now. So, take care of business,” says Peterson.

3-Reinforce the Buying Decision

“We’re not saying they’re going to have buyer’s remorse but we want to proactively make sure that they don’t have buyer’s remorse and there’s a couple of different ways we can do that. We can show them pictures of the product, pictures of how other people are using that product, maybe tell them a success story of somebody that has just come through and used your service and participated with that…We want to make sure they’re super excited to have purchased that product,” says Peterson.

4-Tips and Tricks for Success

“Show them how to get the most value out of the service that they just bought…there are so many ways to show people this; you can send them a link to your Pinterest page, you can send them a video on YouTube, there’s all kinds of ways you can show them how to use the product or service better but the key is to deliver that information to them,” says Peterson.

Peterson also says you can tie some of these steps together in one message or separate them. As long as you include them all at some point, you will become more successful.

For the rest of the steps tune in next week!

We want to remind you that you can find ALL of our videos on our new YouTube channel. Subscribe at Infusionsoft: Big Ideas Channel.

You can join also the conversation on Twitter @BigIdeasBlog  and @MattinAZ  and leave us your comments.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Email Marketing Tagged With: , , ,
April 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Marketing Email: The Right Day at the Right Time

By Madison Jacobs

Part 4 of the “4 Reasons Why Your Emails Aren’t Opened” series

Welcome to the final part on a series of posts on the 4 reasons why the marketing email you send to your list aren’t getting opened by your subscribers.

In part 3 of the series, I explained that emailing dead accounts may be the reason you are seeing low open rates from the emails you are sending. People tend to change their email addresses every few years so you have to make sure you have other ways outside of email set up to remind people to keep their information up to date.

In this post, I’m going to cover about the 4th reason why your marketing email may not be getting opened – you are sending emails at the wrong time of day or on the wrong day altogether.

big clock 300x200 Marketing Email: The Right Day at the Right TimeThe Wrong Day and the Wrong Time

When people are faced with a full email inbox, they tend to make liberal use of the delete key. If you are sending emails at a busy time of the day or on the wrong day for your audience, your open rates may take a hit.

Here are some statistics from Experian, the global leader in providing information to organizations and consumers on commercial and financial decisions, around the best days and times to send emails to your list:

According to Experian’s Q4 2012 Quarterly Benchmark Study, Monday has the highest revenue per mail (good to know if you are promoting the sale a specific product or service), but Friday has a high click through rate (important to know you are trying to get some really important information or content across).

Believe it or not, Experian also reported that sending emails between 8:00 PM and 11:59 PM and midnight to 4:00 AM proved to have the highest response rates in all areas, yet also had the lowest percent of email volume. So, when you are sending important messages to a smaller group of people, consider sending them at the above times. Try to avoid really busy email times like the beginning of the work day, lunch time and late afternoon just before dinner. You don’t want your messages getting lost in the mix.

Lastly, Experian reported that emails sent on Saturdays and Sundays had the highest open rates, unique clicks, transaction rates and revenue per email, yet have the lowest volume deployed compared to other days of the week. This supports the idea that the more targeted and segmented you can get with your email messaging, the more effective your email marketing strategy will be.  Sending several smaller groups of emails versus a large, blast email to all of your subscribers will produce better ROI in your email marketing efforts.

When do you find to be the best day and time to send emails? Let us know in the comments!

How do you craft the perfect marketing message?  Follow the tips in Infusionsoft’s “Anatomy of an Email” to get the best message out to your target audience.

 

Filed Under: Email Marketing Tagged With: , , ,
April 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Ready, Aim, Email: Get Results with Targeted Email Marketing

By Natalie Burg

OffInDistance Ready, Aim, Email: Get Results with Targeted Email MarketingThere’s a lot to consider when crafting an email marketing campaign for your small business: How much content is too much content? How often is too often to send customers emails? What kind of headline will get recipients to actually open it?

And, there’s one question that often gets overlooked: “Who should receive this email?”

Perhaps that’s because the answer seems obvious. Everyone on your email list should receive your campaigns, right?

Maybe not. More and more businesses are finding that the more targeted the email, the more successful the results. That means taking the time to sort through your list and add customer data to each profile, so you have some criteria on which to set your targets. It may be time consuming, but here are three of the reasons why it’s worth it:

Because They’ll Get Opened

Open rates are generally pretty depressing. Even industries with the best average open rates hover solidly below 50 percent. But with targeted emails, the numbers tend to creep up.

According to Inc.com, a recent Bloomberg report found that many larger companies are now sending smaller batches of emails targeted toward shopping habits and interests.

“And if the big guys doing it doesn’t convince you, take this,” the article says. “Bloomberg cited a report from Experian Hitwise, an Internet traffic tracker, which found that customers are 29% more willing to open a tailored promotional email than a general one.”

Because it Means More Control

If you have e-mail list of thousands, you might think twice about blasting a big coupon out to the whole lot of them. That was an issue a bead and jewelry-making supply retailer came across.

“When you have to pay those bills, you run a big batch-and-blast promotion with a site-wide coupon that can bring a lot of money in the door,” Devin Kimura, CEO at Artbeads.com tells Marketing Sherpa. “Then you have to replenish that inventory you just sold, so you have to run another discount campaign. Then your customers start to get hooked on the discounts coming… It’s a very damaging cycle.”

By segmenting his list into segments, Kimura was able to target his big spenders, personalize the subject line based on their spending activity and offer just those customers exclusive discounts.

The result? Artbeads.com was able to reach conversion rates up to 208% higher than their typical email campaigns, as well as increases in open and click-through rates.

Because Amazon is Doing It

And isn’t a Amazon usually doing online marketing the right way?

“Amazon effectively and consistently harnesses its customer data to drive its email program,” says Mashable. This data, which Amazon collects from customer searches and purchases, allows them filter their enormous customer database and send customers only information that truly pertains to them.

“For the customer, this email would likely be a list of recommended products that are based on a recent purchase,” Mashable reports.

Whether your email list is 100 addresses long or 1,000, odds are it contains customers with a variety of interests, habits and spending patterns. Rather than annoy half of your audience with emails that aren’t relevant to them, inspire them to open each targeted message to make your email marketing efforts go farther.

What data could you add to your customer list, and what kind of targeted emails could you send based on that data?

How do you craft the perfect email?  Follow the tips in Infusionsoft’s “Anatomy of an Email” to get the best message out to your target audience.

Filed Under: Email Marketing Tagged With: , , ,
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