Email Marketing Strategy - Stephan hovnanian pt.1

hi and welcome back to on track tips my name is Jason wiser and you're listening to get on track stay on track we're helping your small business one expert at a time and this week are expert is stuff on have Ninia and Stefan's going to come and talk to us about email marketing but we're not just going to talk about tips and tricks we're going to talk about email marketing strategy and for those of you that don't know stuff I'm stuff I don't show be web sites and it's a web design email marketing company is located just outside a Boston and he works best was so open yours and small businesses and he's a volunteer organizations who need a website and they need professional-grade support now in addition to creating armies in content for its own website stefan is often featured as a guest blogger in fact he's appeared on guest blogs a like pig Fitzpatrick's 12 most Denise Wakeman social media hat and most recently he's been featured on MarketingProfs dot com regulations to vote well industry times he likes to hang out with urs kids he likes to play cards he's getting ready for p90 axe 3 little-known fact about stuff on he met his wife at Summer church camp when he was 12 they were married 10 years later they've been married for 13 years now so far as a family man he's a hard worker he's one of the greatest guy as you can ever me Google+ a real really anywhere sold I'm really honored to have stuff on on the show welcome stuff on to contractor screed area thanks so much chase and appreciate it well and and and I like I said guys I am so thankful for everybody that's let's come to the attractive showing you guys have made this such an incredible program I week after week you show up for the Google+ events now for the YouTube so wherever it is that you are right now go ahead and start making your comments of course macomb short macomb simple and we'll bring them up on the show if you're over on Twitter use the hash tag on track tips thats pound on track tips and I help us get some action going over there also we just launched on our web site today so go ahead at and where embedded in our website for the first time so I want you to go over there and check that out maybe Jr type in a comment let me know if that experience what how their experiences and you can find that going to on track tips da cops okay hey we spent a lot of time so far no but you guys are ready for some content right so it's degrade into it today we're talking about email marketing not just tips but strategy the first place we're gonna talk a let's first I'll understand what is permission-based marketing stuff on well its essentially Pakistan opted right so you know there's ok lot of time to get at it to an email us we'll talk specifically about an email list could that's why I think most people make the Association Park you know there's there's a couple ways to get onto an email list one is to say yes I would like to be on your email list think think thats permission-based I gave you permission arm in globally the rules are a little bit different no work in Canada for example you have to have a couple of 10 which means I'm gonna say yes I would like to be on their email list and you're gonna send me an email saying are you sure and I would have to click on something or respond in some fashion to actually be on the email list in you know the that also ensures that the email has gone through in you know and I can cause Spam Filter sup there's benefits so that but it is a little clunky and I know a lot of people don't always get you know 100 percent of the ones who say they want to be on the email list to actually be an active user so arm but you know that's permission-based that's double locked in particular often I'm sorry in a nutshell is it in a nutshell is a pretty much fair to say that this relationship based marketing I you've given me permission to enter into your space with my messaging and we're gonna have a two-way conversation ideally right yeah ideally you know what that the other the flip side to that as I get your email somehow and I add you to my list which isn't necessarily permission-based but there might be some context in which the person is not going to be like who is this you know if you got it from a trade show or if you conducted business with the person you know that's though you still have the relationship but not necessarily its explicit permission church okay so %uh the next big question then a before even bothered just talking about email tips and strategy and how it applies to our business what's the what's to talk about this %uh statement email is dead is it dead ball does not it is not update their art studies after studies after studies that show email marketing as being though the channel that delivers the highest Rooy dollars per you note the dollars in return current dollar invested arm in a part part of it is that you know marketing is a relatively inexpensive channel so the denominators look for those you know that no other path works but the other part of it is you have a very intimate relationship with somebody when you're in the area inbox and if you're doing email right then you have a really amazing chance for high conversion and to be able to arm that it to build loyal followers were looking for it and we're going to act on it because it's nice to have an email sitting in your inbox with a long life span raises a post on a social media a channel that you saw and five seconds later you go back to it when you want to actually buy and you missed it you missed the chance critic tryna I think anymore know who can who can benefit from email market we can have a business can you just give us two or three types of businesses that can benefit from it well obviously retail anybody who sell stuff online you know you could suit your deals you could send out up so there's that there's retail I'm anybody who a blogger's you know people who from who producer a fair amount of content sometimes its sometimes people would prefer to actually have I'll maybe a recap of things that they can go back to later so anything where you need a longer life span definitely consider email re: from I would say it was if I could pick a third it's always nice to do things %uh threes are who fundraising is another one so people who who arm any type of organization that's evolved in fundraising and others the same as retelling away in Oct looking for money bike to any type of fundraising is is really really I'm for email you know conducting price yeah okay great so I I know that I work with a lot of churches nonprofits and they also use it as a communication network not just for marketing a little bit different topic we probably won't get into it but just throwing it out there cuz I know there are people watching this call right now a what we can talk about that more so are many marketers they say that you're list is your most valuable asset in fact many people will say it even more valuable the sale itself what are your thoughts about that well both things are true I'm you can take an email list and move it from you know platform to platform if your needs become different or for getting into a different type of a strategy or maybe just need portion of your email list you know for at least certain type campaign that's going to work on you know certain that platform you have you can do all of that if it's in an email list if you're if you're saying well there's you know my 10,000 followers on Facebook I really owe a ton and now sisson their six hundred up on that I want to tap into for this campaign as a lot harder till then just taking a at that excelled on of your email lists and putting it to some other platform for being a book you know communicate with those people so you know that's that's why I feel it's way more I'm not the only one but that's why I feel so much more valuable and it's such an important asset because the other thing is that the the you know your email address your list in the mail addresses main you can repurpose their you can use that time and time and time again people may fall off or use social media differently were you know not have their the may have they look at different marketing channels arm you know to consume like you know marketing talk to her arm but per you know the fact is you may not be always reach them and so knowing that you can do that in an email know you can do it I'm a time time again and have a fantastic day to the supporter because its specific to that person is extremely extremely powerful I know in a sense I know just before the show we had a really good at discussion arm and I'll in the comments discussing what's the difference between your connections and say social media verses your list and the discussion pretty much said that it seems as though social media trumps your email list and if I could summarize that will quickly new of course jump in here so fun the thing that i think is so key is what you just said being able to reach them see with social media I can hope to reach them or there's I might be able to reach them but with email I'm well guaranteed more so than any other way to reach them like even with these events when i send out invites stuff I wrote a fantastic article going look to the though the stream you'll see this incredible article he wrote about how to use your circles on G Plus to curate these invite lists and there's a number of other marketers alter their doing that but I personally still don't even feel like that is as granular or at has as much connective idi as your email list %um speak to that Stephan yeah I mean you hear on Google+ we have the option to notify a circle which is essentially sending them a notification up they may have that sort of that type notification turned over they actually getting email or could just be the little mister jingles notification up in their in on their other Trauner on the I'm website but its one other more unique features of Google Plus and it's cool because you could say you be treated like an email list six up to usually up to about a hundred people when you can guarantee that it'll work I'm and so you could have for free about a hundred people are so on a on an you know email less like a not notification list where you could some people a message in there's a really good chance they're going to get it but it also could just be that people don't wanna miss stuff because they don't check into often you know I think with when you talk about you doing ascending and email an email campaign is a message for invite or something like that you know your delivery rate is a lot higher a pic when you work specially when you work with a service provider and you know you're not listening about by copying everybody and you know in Gmail or Outlook I'll when you're using a service provider the delivery rate usually well over ninety seven percent um and so you can't get and you can get that kinda reach on any social networking show me a social network that says ninety-seven percent of the people that are following you are gonna see your message every single message yeah and that's that that's another really important point there I kept no way of measuring in my metrics up who who's coming to these events I mean I'm doing it manually waiting down how many shares likes comments plus et cetera but with my email marketing I can see who opened it when they opened at what time so I can get real granular and start to be more targeting and more specific what are the topics is I'll email systems there's a lot of different ones out there a name of a couple love them and all its kinda just hit real quickly some things you like or don't like about them in no particular order sold there is a Weber male chip I contact constant contact you of course have mentioned a couple more for me active campaign hadn't heard of them Infusionsoft of course there for them and Mar caddo the big ones that we know love of course are a Weber and Mail chaps let's just look at those two real quickly pluses and minuses other a Weber if you had experience with them you know what I mean I had experience with a Weber years and years and years ago i mean they are I'm sure they've evolved a lot more I know them as a in autoresponder service that's how I know them best I'm not sure that's entirely inaccurate title for the many more up I'm sure they've evolved since then but I know that they have a very very good reputation in that you know when though in the the industry arm I really don't know for sure I'm sorry I don't know too much more I guess that's what I I mean I know a lot of marketers you'd like specially internet marketers you know people who sell for products and work in a blogger's and and coaches and stuff I know the like that no it may not be the best solution for somebody who's in you know into sending newsletters or into sending our um things that might be a little more highly designed so yeah that's it that's it that's a great point there so I'll jump in with my opinion and nurse I use a waiver for mind but for most my clients again churches nonprofits small businesses I prefer male champ and the reasons why I prefer male chimp over a Weber is because the UI the user interface on the responsive tends to be really nice that the fact that you get rich to send up to about 12,000 emails to 2000 people for free using MailChimp a Weber costs I think the other reason in my opinion why all the internet marketers love a Weber and you know I'm just gonna say it it's because they've got an amazing affiliate program on there that's for life and once you get your list built you know who's gonna try to migrate your list its extremely laborious but if if the person that's recommending a Weber find out and are they working menu because of an affiliate program or because they're really taking you down the right path those are my two thought to a jump on a Web erbil chipper mood the next one well just real quick I i've worked at active campaign for seven or eight years now maybe arm they're very similar to MailChimp in constant contact and up Campaign Monitor insensitive to do yourself platform um where I think personally and an I can speak specifically to MailChimp haven't used them but I know a lot of people who do and I think that them an active campaigner a very close comparison are those of you who want to do a little more integration a a little bit more developmental psych oath with with the with your you know your your marketing program and a some people who want to do more on on the analytics and marketing automation side I know for a fact X active campaign is a much better solution i mean they have some really really sick tools for marketing automation which you know that's like a higher level thing I mean that that's like certain okay I'm gonna send you an email and if you don't open the email I'm gonna send you a different email than if you opened it you know and if you clicked on a certain type a link I'm gonna send you this particular thing and it's doing all of that without adding you to like fifteen hundred different lists which are knows kinda how the world works you just keep getting out at two different was which is a lot of overhead so there's a a bunch of marketing automation that can extend even to your website I'm words like even if people were complete a transaction or to go to a certain page on your site you can update their their contact record and active campaign to help this person has an interest n you know this particular service so the next time i send out an email I'm 10 maybe focus on that service for them apart from traditional content in their I mean it's all like I said it's a higher level stuff but the levels let's play a little I'm gonna cut you off right there those two fine because arm I'll what I think's really should have a pretty but let's listen to the call right now if you want to hear more about male chipper a way ever give me a call after this come over the web site send me an email I be glad to talk with you about you want to hear more about active campaign go over talk was tough on he knows up more about that if you want to learn more about email marketing in general I completely defer to stuff on the guys an expert i've seen what he does I've signed up for his list I know he knows what he's doing in fact I wanna mention right now for the worst that makes comments on this call and sticks around go over make a comment on the website that's on track tips dot com make a comment any the streams YouTube Twitter wherever we're gonna make sure that you get a free bonus product at the end of the show I talked tough on into it I told them that everybody comes on the show you can't come on the show unless you get my guess something for free well get some for free at the end at the so stick around make a comment and let us know that you what freidy's if you wanna okay so a lets move on then to a what's the next question why do some people just send tax base emails and other people send image heavy emails soul our readers again most of them %uh to describe the demographic many of us are small business owners I'm micro entrepreneurs open doors a break-in mortars we're just now getting used to the digital space speak to that group if you would please stuff I will you answer the question yes so you know the question is really whether there's a a benefit to doing something that looks just like a regular email more tech space you know maybe for your mess had on their nom or something more heavily design I mean obviously the heavily designed ones that they look really cool you know they can grab your attention but you not getting anybody attention until they open it and so you know I know that that's like all different section of the conversation how to get people to open the email there's stunned and understudies that we can help you guys out with that stuff but arm touch it up subject lines and from messages all but the fact is this you get what you want to do miss answers the question in both ways right so what you want to do to get people to connect with people remember us at the beginning the goal is to not somebody gives you access to their inbox you're getting up like you're going keys to the front door you know don't screw it up ok I'm gonna make a mess at the place so what you want to do is really be able to hit people you know the or on on a very personal level when you when you email them arm that can be done with with claim tax I think it's very attractive when it's done as like regular tax just because it looks like a regular email in fact I mean I doubt there's a few lists that I'm on that even though I send emails to them back forth just personal ones and yet when I get one other regular emails I swear I think that they're sending this specifically to make like third that good and it's because they're all tax in this because they have on you know they just have the right show well you know they just take the they know that their respecting the fact that I have I'm taking my time to go read their email now you can do the same thing with an image every email it just has to be super relevant you know I would say try and stay away from the things that are better the extra you know do you need all that stuff do you need five or ten different menu items you know do you need oliver social follow buttons maybe you do maybe you don't you can test a lot of that stuff but just think about it what do I need to accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish in this email just text though it does image do it and to test it was if I can tried not to run both see what happens yet right there let's let's talk about that real quick what do I need to accomplish in this email I mean how important is that before you even write the email we talk about that all the time with business strategy brand strategy everything have a purpose right totally it's all about and Ted again you have you know whether it's a social media posts whether to email campaign you know what or or a quarter page ad in our in a chamber commerce block you know you have very limited about a time to grab somebody's attention what are you gonna do with that time in a stuffed with this goes back a long time right this this kind of conversation people cut for eons but you have even less time now you know you can and I think at least in the case have you know your inbox somebody's given you that extra step you know your this is all 121 communication so it's just me and nobody else I've got you in the corner her room at a party what are we talking about that you don't just kinda stuck on like this and see an awesome a doctor yeah so let's talk about about conversions then I mean a some if if ives i've seen maybe you can't make in we were talking about this earlier too so I'm kinda repeating what you already told me so jump in whenever interrupt its okay but we were talking about how if you only had one or two call the action links like you see with the it network marketers like you see with a the tax base they really have one link its good highlighted a couple different ways but it takes you to the exact same place whereas the image heavy things though maybe try to take you to three different blogs to some social media to and and those did those really convert as well arm all depends on what your port your colours you know if you want somebody to buy something I think you could send them into a bunch of different places if you want to buy like an e-commerce store I think you can send people to a bunch of different places cuz all roads lead to e-commerce all roads lead to the checkout screen maybe that's the bigger question to all roads lead to the where you want them to go it was from your email you know if if I wanna send people adapters are actually there's an article on this too if I can put it in the comments stream it's in the thing that we're going to give away later arm and so you know you set out at let's say an email campaign for for an upcoming event and maybe there's you know information about the event has an agenda there's a wiling to register you know when you get to that registration page people might want to find out a little more information well when you take them over to the agenda page to all roads lead back to the you know the check out the registration page or is that on your blog where they can get lost you know you don't want to do that don't let people get lost so I would say ask around about way be answering a question but it's still all points to the same point here if as long as people all roads lead to where you want them to lead for as many likes as you want it's more stuff you can track and quite honestly sometimes that's a good thing me in case a registering for a weapon or whatever that's it weapon or link that's it in adults a gory disco check out all such a stuff I want you to read register for this webinar that's the end of it hmm and so stuff our coming to the very end of our show only got so many more question so what I'm gonna do is going to say this is part 1 we're gonna come back for a part two so I'll so I want to say thank you to stuff I have nine and for stopping by for this week for I get on track stay on track helping your small business 1 expert at a time in our expert for this week was stuff on have ninety minutes to find where is that the people can come and find you easiest places step on hope dot com has links to all my stuff you know or my Google Plus page some super active there a man that's you know you can find out more about me and what not but %uh that stop on hope dot com is kinda like %uh personal landing page which has contact information from numbers emails all the post yep perfect so that we're going to put knows links in the sidebar in the description if you're watching us on YouTube will make sure those links are also on the web page if you're over there and that's on track tips but dot com I want to thank you and goodbye to our special guest this week stuff I have Ninian it's been great having you and now we're gonna see you real soon for part two I