Email Marketing

Top 10 ways to make your Email Marketing Campaign effective and valuable

Most people don’t fancy opening emails with sales pitches and special offers inside because 9/10 times they don’t find it much of their interest. They are barely eager to get the next email from the same vendor. Yet many companies use their email newsletter to barrage their customers and prospects with offers and promotions.
If you’re selling complex B2B products with repeated offers and promotions on a regular basis without considering the contact’s requirement, you’re more likely to get a very high “always ignore” rate. That’s the proportion of subscribers who got sick of your email offers long ago, but don’t want to bother to open one and scroll down and find the fine print to unsubscribe. This can be reversed if your campaign has content that people will look forward to.
Stop sending offers. Resist the urge to add a promotion to every missive. Remember that the call to action does not need to be ‘buy now’ or ‘try now’. The idea is to send your contacts something valuable which may add value to your brand, spread knowledge and ensure anticipation from the client’s end. Your contacts are more likely to open the next email you send them.
Here are 10 ideas of valuable things to send to your list and make your campaign more effective.
1) Short Webinar (15-20 minute) by one or more of your clients about how they solved a problem your other customers are likely to face.
2) Your own webinars that inform about a common topics of interest to your audience (Hint: your product is NOT a common topic of interest)
3) Invitation and discount to attend an event where you will be present.
4) Summary of big takeaways from a conference that someone in your organization attended 3rd party articles that are relevant to your prospects
5) White papers (your own or 3rd parties) that actually inform rather than advertise
6) Video interview with one of your executives sharing their ideas, views, insights (but NOT promoting your company)
7) Blog entries by your executives, employees, or 3rd parties that are relevant to your audiences
8) Explanation of something happening in the market and about which there may be confusion
9) New ideas or best practices gleaned from your customers and other internal and external subject matter experts.
10) There are countless others, of course. We would like to hear from you about more.

Social Media Marketing

“Average worldwide annual paper consumption is 48 kg per person with North America accounting for over 1/3.” - International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Paper and energy consumption is ever increasing with the population rising by the minute. With every business, NGO, consultant and even consumers stressing on green alternatives, we decided to examine an existing albeit underrated solution; Digital Marketing. Digital Marketing or Internet Marketing for eco-sustenance is a marketing strategy that reduces dependence upon eco-hazardous marketing and exploitation of scarce valuable energy resources. All of this occurs without making an extra effort to promote the eco-friendly advantages of it.
Internet Marketing or integrated social media solutions could replace:
- Visiting cards, promotional brochures and pamphlets with QR codes
- Newspapers, newsletters, magazines with blogs
- Books, publication material with ebook readers, iPads, Kindles etc
- Printed resumes with LinkedIn profiles
- Billboards and banners with Facebook, Website, Google Ads, pop-up widgets
These are just few of the replacements or alternatives. Digital Marketing is widespread and all the users are gathered at one place, ‘the internet’, where marketers don’t have to run around searching for their consumers. With digital marketing taking precedence over most other traditional marketing platforms, every company investing in social media is taking a green turn; knowingly or unknowingly.
With Digital Marketing, you are:
- Saving space
- Lessening the load on energy consumption
- Reducing carbon-footprints by making online purchases
- Cutting back on your traveling expenses and fuel consumption
- Reducing sound pollution
With digital marketing, you’ve stepped into a world of eco-friendly choices. To contribute to the ‘World Environment Day’ this year, all you have to do is go back to the basics; namely, take the public transport, check your taps for leakage, hug a tree and remember to not print this article, subscribe instead. Pat yourself on the back for being an active part of this ‘Eco-friendly Digital Marketing Revolution’.

Database Management

Database Marketing: 10 questions to answer before you choose a list of contacts for your marketing campaign
You have a well versed marketing campaign ready, backed by internal-external research and surveys. You can’t wait to execute your marketing plan and create brand awareness of your product or services. All that you are waiting for is a database of contacts who will be interested. Now this is where the famous quote applies; ‘The money is in your list’.
You know that the money is in your list. As a marketer, you may, undoubtedly be aware of database selection and its effect on your marketing campaign. This is why B2B experts stress on finding the right prospects for your marketing campaign. The success of your marketing campaign depends on 3 things: (a)Focus (b)Quality (c)Price
But before you narrow down on these things, as a marketer, you must answer some questions. These 10 questions will help you determine the type of a contact database that you will require to support your campaign and will help you build it:

1) Who is my Target Group?
2) What is the frequency of communication and number of times I will communicate with prospects?
3) What is my key objective? Brand awareness, selling services or products, Social Media, PR?
4) Will I be using multi-channel communication for the campaign?
5) Will I require customized communication for each prospect?
6) Do I want to track the prospects’ response pattern?
7) Do I want to measure results and improve responses of the recipients personally and not with a tool?
8) Do I want a long-term relationship with the prospects or is it just for this particular marketing campaign?
9) Am I okay with letting a third party tool or agency do my measurement and prospect behavior study?
10) Am I ready to invest in long-term lead generation plans or am I happy with existing relationship?