Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’. The featured article by Troy White is titled “42% of E-mail Marketers Are Misusing or Ignoring This … Are You?”. [‘Entrepreneurship’ Article]


Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’.

The featured article:

42% of E-mail Marketers Are Misusing or Ignoring This … Are You?

by Troy Whit

Fellow Business-Builders,

The U.S. Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the major buying season is upon us.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, e-mail marketing was highly visible during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Hot deals were everywhere!

… And they aren’t going away.

For the next 24 days people are ready for special deals and offers (in Canada we have Boxing Day on Dec 26th ““ much like Black Friday in the US).

Granted, not everyone sells products and services that are hot sellers for Christmas, but the principles of profitable e-mail marketing apply to anyone, and everywhere.

According to Media Post:

A major travel site generates 45% of its e-mail profits from triggered messages that make up only 3% percent to 5% of its total message volume.

An online specialty-products retailer found that 40% of its e-mail revenue comes from transactional/triggered messages, which make up only 4% of volume.

Birthday e-mail messages generate 25 times the revenue as a regular broadcast e-mail for a uniforms retailer.

Forrester Research has also reported that the average cost per order from an e-mail marketing campaign was only $6.85. When you compare that to $12.27 and $19.32 for affiliate and paid search campaigns, you start to see some of the potential profits in your e-mail list.

But it isn’t all profits if done wrong … the same Forrester study showed that within the companies using e-mail in their marketing, only 58% segment their lists. 42% of e-mail marketers are misusing or abusing this.

So you would immediately start to think about the potential with a properly segmented list, right?

Imagine if your list was categorized based on:

– Birthdates

– Gender

– Purchase frequency

– Geographic purchase differences

– Average purchase amount

– Inactive buyers who haven’t bought in xx weeks or months

– Categorization of purchases

– Types of campaigns they responded to (fact based or story based?)

– Favourite day of the week to buy (and/or time of day)

– VIP categories for buyers who buy $xxx in products in xx period of time

– Special interests or hobbies

– Specific types of e-mail delivery companies (ex. Gmail, Comcast)

– Social media users ““ or not

– Physical product buyers ““ or digital

– Do they like white papers and special reports?

– Specific charities they support

– Do they buy gifts for others ““ or strictly for themselves?

– Preference for teleseminars, webinars, or mp3 downloads

– The amount of different ways you can categorize and segment your lists are incredible, but does it make a difference?

Mail Chimp did some studies within their own community to see how segmentation helped (or hindered) the response rates:

– General open and click rates were >14% higher than non-segmented lists

– When segmented based on one or more criteria (zip codes, geography, etc) ““ the open and click rates grew by 18-22%

– Signup frequency (and recency) grew open and click rates by 10.5 ““ 11.6%

– Specific interests and hobbies grew open and click rates by 1.7%

– Think about the collective difference just those 4 factors made.

So get segmenting will ya?

… Next, what do you send to them?

Relevant things, of course! With your recent mastery of segmentation, it gets much easier to send them things they care about.

But, here are a few ideas to crank up your creativity for e-mail marketing this shopping season:

– Quick and easy gift ideas (special gift wrapping or bonuses).

– Support for your favorite cause (or theirs) ““ why you support this cause ““ tell your story (much like I did here).

– Promote Early Bird Specials if they order before _____.

– Exclusive sale for VIP buyers (based on your segmentation).

– Showcase gift ideas by their interest, hobbies, gender, and more

Deal of the day campaign like J Peterman does with their 12 days of Christmas.

Have some fun with holiday horror stories, favourite (clean) jokes.

Stories ““ your favourite Christmas memory ““ what excites you the most about this Christmas, etc.

Provide Valuable, Holiday-Related Content

Holiday-themed recipes (much like the Amish recipes we share for my Amish Furniture customers).

A “how to stay healthy this holiday” guide.

Guide to a stress-free holiday.

Travel tips for those with young families, or for those who are not exactly excited about their strip search at the airport security line.

Party planning ideas.

The list goes on. The key is to have some fun with it and give them reason to read, act, and continue to look forward to your e-mails.

Of course, I have to end with a story from my own experience in list-building and segmenting.

Quite a few years back, I was starting to help a local restaurant with some of their marketing. Until then, they had done next to nothing for marketing so our first step was building up a database (it amazes me how many businesses don’t collect customer data!).

We put together a simple signup form with a few checkboxes for segmentation. Within a few weeks we had built up a database of a couple thousand people (did I say how much it amazes me how many businesses ignore building a customer database? Thought so!).

Valentine’s day was coming up so we did a mailing to their newly created and segmented list.

We wrote it to the men, who were married or with a significant other. And we offered them something unusual, something unique, and something that made them look like a prince.

A total package (pun intended) of four-course meals, wine, roses, chocolates and body creams.

They LOVED it!

I was there that night and it was a great evening, full of fun, laughter and romance.

The best part?

It was the FIRST TIME in their 10 year history they had a line up out the door and had to turn people away. People who showed up without reserving … “sorry, can’t help you tonight … we are full up!”

That is the way a restaurant like that SHOULD be operating … over capacity.

All thanks to a simple database and some decent segmentation.

Based on all this ““ don’t you think it might be worth a few hours of your time to think through ways to further segment your own list for the coming year?

Thought so.

Me too.

The more ways you can categorize and segment the list, the more power you have in your hands for effective marketing.

Have a great week and weekend.

To your success,

Troy White

Editor, Small Business Mastery

Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Troy White is a top marketing coach, consultant & direct response copywriter based in Calgary, Canada. He has a powerful approach to growing small businesses and entrepreneurial run ventures on a budget. His FREE Cash Flow Surges newsletter shares tons of great strategies.

He also publishes the incredibly powerful Cash Flow Calendar system that gives you daily, weekly and monthly marketing ideas to promote your business and stand out from the crowd. Click here to get your free tips for growing your business!

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The Total Package

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.

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