Email growth hack: 4 Tips to Increase Engagement in Your Email Newsletter

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by Rishi Shah on January 22, 2013

This guest post is by Elizabeth Yin, CEO and co-founder of LaunchBit and NewsletterDirectory.co, an ad network for high quality email newsletters.

Email marketing is one of those activities you’re told to do, but you never really know how to do it effectively to increase engagement and/or sales for your company. Here are 4 tips to increase engagement in your email newsletter:

1) Assess exactly what you need to improve

NewsletterDirectory.co | Infographic

NewsletterDirectory.co | Infographic-1

NewsletterDirectory.co | Infographic-2

There are so many different email stats you could be improving — your open rate, your click-through-rate, etc… Trying to improve all of them is too difficult and time consuming. Get a free assessment of your 2012 email communications with the Email Newsletter Report Card to see specifically where and how to improve. Check out what a full sample report card looks like here.

2) Optimize your layout for engagement

Email layout is one of the most ignored aspects of email marketing. Marketers spend far too much time thinking about creative and split testing content. Yet, just like on the web, you need a layout that makes it easy for your subscribers to click on your call to action.

In general, you should use:

  • CSS buttons so that people who do not display images can see them
  • 1 column to reduce clutter and confusion
  • Use tables and inline styles (email styling is old-school)

Consider more best practices for mobile email if you have 30%+ mobile subscribers.

3) Reduce the number of links

My friend sends an email newsletter to 250k+ subscribers. I looked at her latest newsletter, and she had 40 links in her latest send!

“Why so many?” I asked.
“Because I want people to click and come back to my site!” she said.

It turns out that having more links doesn’t actually help with your click-through-rate. Having more links merely distributes the clicks. This brings me to my 4th tip.

4) Move your call-to-action up

When we looked at publishers who have < 5 links, it turns out the most clicked links are links #1 and #2. You can get a greater concentration of clicks on your key call to action by moving it to the second or first link.

women 2.0

For example, in this newsletter, you should expect the bulk of the clicks to be on these two links.

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Restaurant Distribution via Highways… The Story of Cracker Barrel

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by Rishi Shah on January 16, 2013

Cracker Barrel Logo

If you have ever been on any highway in the United States you will recognize the Cracker Barrel logo (see above).

I recently came across their Wikipedia page and discovered that their entire strategy was to open restaurants near highway exits. This makes a ton of sense! Open restaurants along the highway. Imagine driving for miles and not seeing anywhere to eat until you come across a Cracker Barrel. This is similar to a water stand in the middle of the desert.

Cracker Barell along the highway

I did a little more digging and found out the founder Dan Evins use to work at a Shell Oil gas station! He borrowed $40,000 and opened his first Cracker Barrel in 1969 right by the Tennessee State Route 109. They now have 600 stores nation-wide and $2 Billion in revenue.

first-cracker-barrel-original-store

The first Cracker Barrel store

I remember thinking on long road trips “What is the Cracker Barrel, I see it everywhere!” My parents would never take me there even though I would beg for it, I know now because we are vegetarian and most dishes on their menu are meat based. Till this day I still have yet to make it into a Cracker Barrel – will someone please tell me what’s inside?

…

From the Comments by Tom Parnau

Trusted and Recognized Symbol Representing Security… it works!

Cracker Barrel Logo is a trusted and recognized symbol representing security for those in unfamiliar surroundings. This same strategy is recognized more obviously at McDonalds. Another example, to a lesser extent would be The Machine Shed. This icon targets Farmers and truckers from the Midwest,with reputed expertise in the home cooking arena,now refered to as comfort food. Make no mistake,this same strategy is quite effective today and employed with regularity by the Kwik Trip Corporations. Your own comfort level,sense of security and of knowing exactly what to expect when you enter, is why you will drive in to the Kwik trip in lieu of the other convenience stops. It works !

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4 Powerful SEO Browser Extensions

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by Rishi Shah on January 12, 2013

Peter Meinertzhagen - Google+This is a guest blog post by Peter Meinertzhagen, an SEO Consultant based in Oxfordshire, UK. Having come into the industry from teaching he’s passionate about training, development, and dispelling the myth that SEO has to be complicated.

The browser is the window to the world of the web which those of us working in online marketing use as a our primary and most used tool – and as an SEO, a tool through which you can gather vast amounts of the data and information you need to do your job. I will be covering my four most used FireFox and Chrome extensions and detailing just what makes them so darn useful!

1. SEOmoz MozBar

MozBar toolbar Screenshot

The MozBar is provided by SEOmoz and has useful functionality whether or not you’re a paid subscriber. As a free user, it can give you a toolbar which shows you the domain authority, mozRank and page authority of the page you are on, but it will only tell you the amount of links and linking root domains if you’re a subscriber and signed in. At the click of a button it can take you straight to Open Site Explorer to look more deeply at the backlink profile (and link/social metrics). You also get a nice SERP (search engine result pages) overlay giving you the same information, underneath each result in the SERP. It is available for both Chrome and Firefox.

2. Redirect Path

redirect path screen shotRedirect Path is a Chrome extension from Ayima which is an HTTP Header and Redirect checker. It’s incredibly useful for discovering all of the redirects that happen on a page. The image above shows the Redirect Path when visiting gettingmoreawesome.com – a 301 redirect occurs taking us to the www version of the URL.

3. Google Ordered Lists

Google Ordered Lists is a very simple extension which puts a number to a result in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page) so when you’re looking up the ranking of a page for a specific query you don’t have to waste your time counting! SEOQuake below provides this functionality also, but I don’t always have SEOQuake enabled (there’s only such information a man can handle) so this unobtrusive plugin finds a use. It is available for both Chrome and Firefox.

4. SEOQuake

seoquake

SEOQuake is like a more extreme version of the MozBar, giving huge amounts of information on a web page (both in a toolbar and in the SERP’s). The screenshot shows a small selection of the information it can provide: from PageRank, to domain age, to the number of indexed pages, SeoQuake gives you an immediate peek at really valuable information which you’d have had to fetch from a number of different sources.

These are four that I use most often – what others would you recommend? Let me know in the comments below.

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Walgreens using “Most Liked” as a buying signal

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by Rishi Shah on December 10, 2012

 It only makes sense for Walgreens to start using “Most Liked” as a buying lubricant (see image below). It is easier to build trust in a product if it is “Most Liked”.

Retail stores should take their online reviews and likes and display them in-store. I constantly find myself looking at Amazon reviews when I’m inside a Walgreens or Best Buy. I actually end up buying a more expensive product after reading reviews (convincing myself to buy the 5-star more expensive model).

Bringing the online world doesn’t have to be that complicated. It can be as simple as posting a sign up right next to the product.

What do you think of displaying Facebook “Most Like” stickers in retail stores? Let me know in the comments below.

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The new “Sharing Size”

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by Rishi Shah on December 2, 2012

Next time you go into the grocery store pay special attention to the word “Sharing Size”. This is pretty smart wording, it does a few things:

  1. You don’t feel bad about buying a “Larger” sized bag of candy (even though you are probably going to eat it all your self)
  2. Gets you to think about sharing and introducing the candy to others

This is how Mars explained the launch of the new size name:

Research suggests that consumers want value, portability and portion control with their candy, and larger sized confections are gaining popularity.

What are your thoughts on the new size name, do you think it is deceptive or smart marketing? Let me know in the comments!

 

Great comment by Tom below: ”It ain’t about the candy or the pack size,It’s about selling!”

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The Sale is Never Over

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by Rishi Shah on November 20, 2012

Keeping customers is more important than getting new customers.

After a customer pays you it is your duty to make sure your product works for them. A lot of times, I pay for a product, it just doesn’t work, and I give up. Also the amount is so low (under $30) that I don’t want to go through the hassle of getting a refund. There is absolutely no way I will sign up again for your product.

I’m a big believer in SaaS so recurring customers are built into my business model. However, almost all businesses rely on repeat business. For example coffee shops (Starbucks), lawyers, big box retailers (Best Buy), iPhone games (Tiny Wings), and almost any business that wants to stay in business needs repeat business.

Some companies do this really well. They follow up with you and ask about your experience. They ask simple questions like “Did you like our service?” or sometimes even more specific questions like “Did your file send successfully for your last campaign?”

Even generic survey/question asking for feedback is better than nothing.

Other companies (most) don’t even think of asking. They think that the sale is over as soon as the first sale is over. Time to move on and impress the next customer. NO!, the sale is never over. Ask for feedback, improve your products, keep that customer coming again, again. That is the key to building a successful customer focused billion dollar company.

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SEO Growth Hack: Piggy-Back For Fast Rankings

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by Rishi Shah on October 29, 2012

This guest post is by Pete Kennedy – SEO and Adwords Coach at Main Street ROI. Pete has personally taught me everything I know about up-selling, SEO, conversion funnels and Sales Copy. I invited him to GMA to teach my readers about growing with SEO.

The Myth

You’ve probably been led to believe that it takes months to get a first-page Google ranking, but this simply isn’t true. In this post, I’m going to share a simple SEO tactic to get first-page rankings in as little as 1 week.

When most people think about SEO, they typically only think about getting their own website to rank in Google. But when you publish content on high-authority websites, you can get ranked in Google much faster.

What is a high-authority website?

A really big website that gets a lot of traffic. Like YouTube, Facebook, and Scribd.

Here’s why leveraging high-authority websites works:

It takes a lot of time and effort to build up your website’s reputation (attracting links, etc). But when you publish content on a high-authority website, you piggy-back on that site’s reputation.

Follow These 2 Simple Steps

Step 1. Identify your target keywords

You’ll have the best luck if you target 3-5 word “long-tail” keyword phrases, so you face less competition for the top spots in Google. Use Google’s keyword tool to identify these phrases. You can also use this “piggy-back” strategy to dominate the first page for your personal name or company name keywords.

Step 2. Publish content on high-authority sites

It’s really easy. All you have to do is include your keyword early in the title of your content, and you’ll often start ranking in Google in a matter of days. Here’s a list of high-authority websites where you can publish content:

Video websites

Press release websites

Social networking sites

Doc sites 

In addition, you can publish guest posts on high-authority blogs, get interviewed on internet radio shows (e.g. blogtalkradio.com), and the list goes on and on…

Example #1: Google Adwords Checklist

We wanted to get ranked for the long-tail keyword Google AdWords Checklist. So, we created a post on our blog, and we also created a YouTube video. As you can see below, the YouTube video ranks #1 in Google, and our blog post ranks #2:

The video started ranking on the first page of Google in a matter of days.

Example #2: Main Street ROI Brand Reputation

We’re also using this “piggy-back” technique to establish our brand reputation. When you Google our company name, Main Street ROI, our content fills up the entire first page of Google’s results.

I recommend you create branded pages on authority websites ASAP, so dominate the first page of results when prospects, customers, partners, and journalists are checking you out in Google.

I’m assuming you provide top-quality products and services and you have a solid reputation. But as you grow you’ll probably have some disgruntled (or outright crazy) customers. And you’ll probably get some complaints and bad reviews online at some point or another. It’s almost inevitable. And that’s why it’s never too early to start establishing and protecting your brand reputation.

This “piggyback” tactic is the sort of thing that reputation management companies charges hundreds and thousands of dollars for, but you can easily do it yourself for free.

Days not Months

The bottom line: Stop buying into the belief that you have to wait months to get ranked in Google. Go publish content on high-authority websites and you can crack the first page in a matter of days.

Pete Kennedy is co-founder of Main Street ROI. Want more free SEO tips?  Register for Main Street ROI’s free SEO teleseminar: The Death of “Old-School” SEO.  You’ll learn about the 3 “old-school” SEO tactics to avoid, plus the 5 new SEO rules you must follow to get ranked in Google and stay on top over the long-term. Sign up here: http://www.mainstreetroi.com/the-death-of-seo

Rishi’s note: if you want to learn more about SEO. I highly recommend Pete’s SEO teleseminar. There are a ton of people that claim to know SEO but have no clue. Pete is the real deal. I have worked with him closely and highly endorse his products.

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6 Pivots to a Billion Dollars: How a Soda Shop Owner Did It

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by Rishi Shah on October 11, 2012

One of my ALL TIME favorite entrepreneurs is JW Marriott. I wanted to share how he evolved a simple soda shop into the hotel empire!

1927 – The Great Idea is Born!

JW visits Washington D.C. on a hot sunny day and thought he could get rich by serving cold drinks. So, he opened up a A&W Root Beer franchise to do just that!

1928 – The Invention of the “Drive Thru”

More Americans had cars and so he invented “Service In Your Car” or as we know it now as a “Drive Thru”. The core idea was serve customers faster and make it easier – why make people get out of their cars?

1934 – Family Restaurant & Expanding

JW Marriott converted his A&W Root Beer stand into a low budget family restaurant and did a complete rebrand, calling it “The Hot Shoppe”.

JW and his wife/business partner, Alice Marriott, focused on opening more restaurants across the east coast.

1937 – Invented in-flight food services

JW noticed customers were “Driving Thru” and getting on a flight. He thought why not make things easier on his customers and just provide the food directly on the flight itself.

1955 – Food Catering

Started providing food catering services to government buildings, public schools, and hospitals. If you can’t get the customer to come to you why not just go to them – serve them food right where they work!

1957 – Opens First Hotel

All those people traveling on planes have to sleep somewhere. So they conveniently opened their first 365-room hotel right next to the airport.

Fun Fact: Daily Rates were $8/night

1958 and Onwards

Hotel expansion domination.

… and the rest is history. By constantly looking at where the customer is and how to make their life easier Marriott was able to transform a small time soda shop into a multi billion dollar corporation.

If you want to learn more checkout this awesome 45 minute documentary on JW Marriott.

The reason I love this story so much is Marriott makes creating a multi billion dollar company really easy, all you need to do is listen to your customers!

Special thanks to Priya Sheth for editing this post.

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The Art of Negotiating an Online Media Buy

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by Rishi Shah on October 2, 2012

Rishi’s Note: I invited Jana Fung the marketing manager behind MixRank to talk about the art of negotiating a media buy. This is the perfect guide to go through after you have discovered a site that is sending you high converting traffic.

About Jana and MixRank: Jana Fung is the Marketing Manager of MixRank. MixRank is a competitive intelligence tool for display advertising.  You can learn more about scaling your display campaigns by downloading MixRank’s free eBook “Scale Campaigns with Profitable Placements.”

So you’re running a display campaign through an ad network (for example Google’s Display Network or BuySellAds.com).  You have found an amazing site is sending you really valuable converting traffic.  You’re already targeting the placement and increasing the bid to dominate on impression share through your ad network traffic… but you want more. So you ask yourself:

Is there any other way to optimize this campaign further?

The answer: Yes!

Direct media buys are a great way to get impressions at a bulk discounted rate, rather than paying per click or impressions through an ad network. Publishers will want to work with you as well, because they will reap the full payment for the ads, not having to pay commissions to an ad network. However, you should be wary that the publishers listed pricing isn’t always guaranteed superior, as it’s the price the publisher wants, but is not necessarily in line with demand.  Marketers can and should negotiate for the best pricing that’ll suit business goals.

Step 1: Evaluate the pricing options

Visit the “Contact Us” or “Advertisers” page on the site of interest to obtain their ad prices. Publishers can list prices by cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or at a monthly flat rate fee.

If the site only has CPM pricing, you can proceed to step 2.  If the site has both types of pricing (or just monthly flat rates), you’ll need to dive deeper and ask for more data regarding how many unique visitors and page views the site gets per month.  If the ratio of visitors to page views is low, CPM may not be a good option as your impressions may all be shown to the same visitor.  However, this all depends on what your ad copy is and how much you’re willing to spend on a customer.

Evaluate both pricing models and determine which would be better for your business based on the amount of impressions you believe you’ll get in a month versus how much you’d pay for the same amount of impressions via CPM.

Step 2: Analyze your campaign’s performance metrics

Figure out how much your current (CPM) is on this site.  Obviously, you’d want to get a lower rate with a direct media buy.  If you’re doing a monthly flat rate, ask how many impressions they can guarantee at that price and measure that against what you’re already currently paying. Is it higher or lower?

If you’ve never advertised on this site before, figure out the customer lifetime value (CLV) for your business to determine how much you’d be willing to pay for a customer (CPA).  From there, you’ll need to ask for the publisher’s average click-through rate and have your landing page’s conversion rate handy.  With CTR and conversion rate, estimate how many new customers you would get from this media buy.  Is it in line with your ideal CPA?

Step 3: Negotiate like a pro

Now that you have all of your bargaining chips, you’ll need to point to the publisher why their listed price is too high.  Even if their price is lower than what you’re currently paying, they really don’t need to know that. You still can and should negotiate! Here are some things you should put into play when negotiating:

For advertisers who have displayed ads on this site:

  1. If their price is too high, simply state what you’re currently paying and that you’d want a discount for buying in bulk.
  2. Always ask for a discount for a long-term commitment. Since you already know this placement performs well for you, a longer commitment should get you some additional savings
  3. Find out if you could get specific ad units for your ads.  This may not result in monetary savings but could get your ad above the fold for every impression!
  4. Ask for an additional discount if you pay in full upfront (rather than month to month).
  5. Get some add-ons! Ask if they could include an email newsletter feature for the first month as a test. If it performs well, you’d be willing to pay for more newsletter ads.

For advertisers who haven’t done any ads on this site:

  1. Point to reasons why you think the cost is too high – maybe their CTR is poor, or their unique visitors to page view ratio is too low.
  2. Try to do a test or trial with them at a discounted rate.
  3. Ask about remnant inventory and if you could buy that at a discounted rate

Whenever you negotiate, don’t give up all your data at once.  You’ll want to see what their response is to each point before you move onto the next.  This gives you more chips for bargaining and allows you to get the best rate and reach possible.

If you liked this blog post, you can get even more tips with MixRank’s FREE EBOOK called “Scale Campaigns with Profitable Placements.” Claim your free ebook here.

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DocuSign’s Simple Messaging

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by Rishi Shah on September 25, 2012

I love looking at billboard advertisements because you can only say 5 words. The entire company comes down to one simple messaging statement. I’ve been seeing DocuSign ads everywhere and I have to say their messaging is awesome.

DocuSign Ad on the BART 

“Close Deals Faster”

They could have said “Easy Document Signature Technology” or even “Sign Documents on your iPad while on the Go”. But instead the focused on the maximum benefit they can provide their customers – simply closing deals faster. Who doesn’t want to get more deals closed?

Overall Docusign is starting to become one of my favorite companies. They have figured out where their customers live… on Salesforce!

DocuSign is the highest rated app on Salesforce!

They have 500 reviews and using my super estimation guide (where each review equates to 100 paying customers and average company pays $200/mo) they are making $10M/mo from their Salesforce integration alone.

DocuSign is a pretty brilliant product + marketing driven company. They integrate with companies where their customers are and they focus on the maximum benefit their customer gives them.

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