Dinosaurs Rule! Email vs. Social Media Campaigns

Compared to social media, email communication is a dinosaur...or is it? It's an older form of communication, for sure, but statistics show that it still reigns as the most effective form of electronic dialog. In fact, email campaigns have the highest ROI of any marketing channel available.

Consider these facts:

• A click-through email campaign is 6x more likely to succeed than a click-through tweet.*
• Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.*
• Email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel, including search and social.*
• Including a call to action button instead of a text link can increase conversion rates by as much as 28%.*
• A message is 5x more likely to be seen in email than via Facebook.*
• 4.24% of website visitors from email marketing buy something as compared to 2.49% of visitors from search engines and 0.59% from social media.*
• Sending four emails in a month instead of one significantly increases the number of consumers opening more than one email.*

Surprised? Given that email is a more personal form of communication, maybe not. So, how can you harness this personal connection to build your brand?

8 keys to an effective email campaign:

1. Target audience: Who are you sending this email to and why? Use an existing contact lists (or buy one) and build on these through embedded "share" buttons and links to online subscribe forms. If appropriate, use incentives such as free shipping or first-time buyer discounts to encourage people to join your list.
2. Type of campaign: What's the purpose of your campaign? Are you generating new leads for your sales team? More RSVPs for your event? More donations for your cause? Are you providing industry news? Is this a newsletter? A special offer? An announcement? An invitation?
3. Content: What information do you need to convey? This will primarily be dictated by the "Type of campaign," but in any case, compelling and meaningful content will help to captured your audience. Be sure the content is relevant to your target. Statistics show that campaigns sent to segmented lists with specific and relevant information can increase revenue/response by 760%!
4. Brand design: Is the email campaign in keeping with your company's brand and goals? Align your campaign and it will reinforce your customer's consistent experience with your brand.
5. Layout: Email campaigns are generally deliver in HTML format and are no wider than 600px. Keep in mind, you have about 5 seconds to capture your reader, so design the layout to stand out. Also, research shows that 41% of email opens are on mobile devices, so make sure your campaigns are optimized across all devices.
6. Scheduling: Is this a weekly, monthly, quarterly or one-time campaign? Develop a content schedule to ensure timeliness and expectancy.
7. Sending and tracking metrics: Do you have open rates, click throughs, and other key metrics in place to review for improvement? These measurements provide invaluable information for future campaigns.
8. Blog and other connections: Have you linked to your blog and social media? Be sure to include a "share" call-to-action button to encourage referrals.

Need help with your email campaign? Contact: info@hornsbybrandesign.com.

* Sources:

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2014/07/email-marketing-vs-social-media/

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/

http://www.monetate.com/

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2014/08/buttons-email-marketing-campaigns/
http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Email-Statistics-Report-2013-2017-Executive-Summary.pdf
http://agbeat.com/business-marketing/why-you-shouldnt-underestimate-the-value-of-email-marketing/

The 10 Building Blocks of Trust

In any scenario, successful engagement begins and ends with trust. To motivate someone to move forward, go deeper, or reach higher with you over someone else, there must be trust. Below are ten areas where you can enhance your business’ trustworthiness and build your brand.

1. Word of mouth: Recommendations are by far the most effective way to build a trusted business. The percentages are overwhelmingly in your favor and require no heavy lifting on your part. If some third party goes to bat for you, trust is already built into the equation before you utter the first word.
2. Direct engagement: What kind of communication has taken place prior to your engagement? Was it passive or aggressive? This will impact how a prospect will interact with you. There’s a big difference between a response to spam and a response to a mutual introduction. 
3. Visual appeal: For example, when a visitor comes to your website for the first time to learn about you, their engagement is limited to the visual. What does it say about your brand? 
4. Intonation: In tandem with your visual appeal is the tone of your communication…copy, images, video, etc. Your tone should always be set by your business goals, objectives, and strategy.
5. Benefit orientation: Give your prospect a reason to listen to you. What’s the benefit to them if they listen?
6. Emotional Connection: How have you connected with your prospect? What values do you share or interests do you have in common? 
7. Brand awareness: If your logo is recognizable, your name is frequently passed around via hashtag, or you’re regularly in the media, you are not only gaining brand awareness, but trust as well. Public recognition goes a long way in developing trust, even if you’ve not had direct engagement with the prospect.
8. Transparency: Ever been to a site that declares the “Five foods you should never eat”? 10 minutes into their video spiel, you still haven’t found out what the five foods are. It’s deceptive and wrapped in a sales ploy. Declare your purpose upfront, answer the pressing questions quickly, and make sure it’s understandable. Otherwise you are undermining your own trustworthiness.
9. The Prospect’s Investment: What are you asking your prospect to do? There’s a big difference between asking them to “like” or “follow” you compared to asking for their credit card number. The security for each of these requests and everything in between needs to be cradled in care and trustworthiness.
10. Social ranking and search engine metrics: First page Google rankings and a large number of Twitter followers have proven to gain trust among online users.