The Cardinal Sin of Email Marketing

So your campaign has been sent out successfully. You'll have received some out-of-office replies, a general enquiry or two and the odd bounceback. Great... time to put your feet up and wait for the money to start rolling in. Right? Wrong!

This is the cardinal sin of email marketing. You spent all that time creating your list of dream clients and a sweet email campaign, then gazed smugly at a couple of pretty graphs on your reports page, but the next couple of days are crunch time... this is where the real work begins. This is your business, and this is your marketing, you have to work your leads to create new business, there is no other way around this. I am Gillian the Promos Girl at Bikini Lists and this week’s blog is all about how to make email marketing work for you.

Following Up Your Leads Get into your reports. Live them, breathe them. These contacts are your life blood for the next few days and beyond. Starting with your clickers, view details on every contact and use the BikiniNotes feature to store your notes for future reference. e.g. "Nick Turner clicked Nov 12 campaign" Warm up your telephone voice and begin calling your clickers and openers. Have an idea of what to say beforehand but learn to go with the flow of the conversation: “Hi this is X from Y Photography, I recently sent you an email with some images of my latest z projects. I'd love to show you some more of my work and discuss any photography projects/requirements you might have coming up...when might be a good time to do that?” Please, please, please for the love of all that is good and pure do NOT say something like: "Hi, you opened my email and clicked through to my site, so I'm phoning to..." Most people will be blissfully ignorant to the fact that many emails in their inbox will be tracking opens/clicks in some way. They'll think you are Mr George Orwell himself, or that you broke into their office in the night to install hidden cameras...

Get Creative You may also want to send follow-up postcards to your clickers a week or so after your email campaign. Your postcard should be approx 6 x 8 showing several images. Save your openers/clickers as lists from the "recipient activity" page, then use the "Create Avery label File" option on your list output page to print all the address labels for you. Easy peasy! There is also nothing stopping you sending something memorable to your clickers. Try and think of something seasonal or quirky that will make your contact stand out from everyone else. In my previous campaigns I have sent everything from a miniature haggis, to recognise my companies Scottish heritage, to a firework “put a spark into your next campaign” don’t worry it wasn’t a large TNT firework just a little candle sparkler for indoor use. The point was I got creative and when I called the contact they knew who I was immediately and the creative postal campaign gave us something to talk about from the outset.

Make the chain Why let go of subscribers who missed out opening your email? You can focus on increasing your open rate by creating a follow-up campaign for subscribers who didn't open your previous mail. Modify all that you need - Subject/Email Content or both. Don’t restrict yourself to just one follow-up campaign - create as many you wish until you get the response or open rate you are expecting.

Keep the Ball Rolling Legend has it that sending an email campaign roughly every 6 to 8 weeks yields the best results, but feel free to experiment. Got a job or two from your first campaign? Excellent, but please remember that's no reason not to keep up the effort with your marketing. Good luck!

As always, I’m here to support you in this process so if you have any questions about your next campaign you can contact me at  promos@bikinilists.com

If you’ve come across this blog post because you want to improve your email marketing, then why not take out a BikiniLists Freebie account here - Get the free trial...

Email Marketing 101

   

Email marketing is all about Open and Click rates. The higher your rates are the more successful your campaign will be. Sounds pretty easy right? Unfortunately like my grandmother used to say, “Anything worth having doesn’t come easy.”  However, that doesn’t mean to say you can’t break it down and figure out how to make it that little bit easier. I’m  Gillian the Promos Girl at Bikini Lists and this month’s ‘How To...’ blog is all about improving your Open and Click rates on your next email campaign.

So let’s break your email down into sections and look at where you can make improvements to maximise your reach.

Your Subject Line – Here’s my three simple rules for cracking your subject line;  the triple S – Short, Smart, Specific.

Keep your subject line short. No more than 50 characters is my rule of thumb, that way it can be easily read by the recipient. The job of the subject line is to grab the attention of the recipient and incentivise them to click through.

You are talking to creative people, so be creative!  A great example of using a creative subject line successfully comes from photographer Tom Broadbent and his recent email campaign detailing his work photographing the somewhat unknown subculture of  ‘Furries’. His clever subject line ‘At Home with the Furries’ received a 32% Open rate and an 8% Click rate.

Keep your subject line specific but don’t make it sound boring. Try to give your recipient an idea of what the email is about while engaging them creatively. If you’re not sure what to write, brainstorm a few ideas on paper or even better, with friends or colleagues. You’ll be amazed at what you come up with. This simple exercise will also generate a number of other ideas for subject lines that could come in handy for future campaigns.

Your Image – Hurrah! You’ve successfully secured a good Open rate by conjuring up a killer subject line. Don’t waste this opportunity by selling yourself short when choosing your image. Choose the image(s) that reflects the style of your work best and will help you stand out to buyers. Again, a good technique is to choose a handful of images and run them past your friends or colleagues and see which ones they like best.

Your Body Copy – With email body copy, less is always more. Think about your audience and what they need to know, not what you want them to know. Creatives are busy folk, if they've opened your email it’s because you got the subject line right. Don’t give them a long-winded biography, they won’t have time to read it! Displaying your work should always be the priority, that’s what they clicked through to see.  On top of seeing your work, Creatives want to know are who your previous clients are, where they can see more of your work and how they can get in touch with you. That’s pretty much it! Don’t tie yourself up in knots with the copy, just keep it simple and to the point.

The same rule applies to your links; one or two links is sufficient. Multiple links to blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and different parts of your website can often cause confusion and you run the risk of losing your precious openers. We've carefully designed our email templates to feature your image, copy, links to ‘View more’ and your contact details because we know that is all your audience are interested in.

When To Send – There’s no such thing as a perfect time to send your email campaign. In the age of smart phones it’s become increasingly easier to access email on the go. For some this could be early morning or late at night, for others during the working day. The key is to experiment and change your send times to see what achieves the best open rate for you. At Bikini Lists we can send your campaign any minute of any day, of any month, of any year, so the email world is your oyster!

Finally the simple things are just as important and can sometimes be overlooked.  Check and double check your spelling and grammar, because a sloppy email campaign reflects very badly on your business!

As always, I’m here to support you in this process so if you have any questions about your next campaign you can contact me at  promos@bikinilists.com

If you’ve come across this blog post because you want to improve your email marketing, then why not take out a BikiniLists Freebie account here - Get the free trial...

At Home With The Furries

Hello,

Two weeks ago I photographed a Jedi tiger called Fangorn in Wales for my on-going personal project, At Home With The Furries.
This series, which is an exploration of the furry subculture, has been featured in The Sunday Times Magazine and Wired Magazine (Italy) as well as having huge online exposure.

Also featured in this newsletter are portraits of Mo Coppoletta, owner and tattooist at Family Business Tattoos, London. The sculptor, Malcolm Poynter in his studio and Viktor Wynd, owner of the Hackney curiosity Little Shop of Horrors.

I am a London based photographer specialising in eye-catching offbeat portraits and feature stories. More images can be seen on my website : tombroadbent.com

To discuss your photo project or commission me, I'm on +44 (0)7813 774 609 and tom@tombroadbent.com