Social Email Marketing: Growing an Email Newsletter using Social Media #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. StartupDigest has grown from 22 subscribers in November 2009 to 67,000+ subscribers today. Chris discussed how social media was used to grow the subscriber base providing actionable strategies to integrate social media into sign up process, pairing blog posts with social media, and using different content types.
Chris was very energetic, and I appreciated his casual presentation. It was a loose case study of what how he grew his own business, so you know the methods work! The speaker was:
- Chris McCann, Co-Founder, StartupDigest (@mccannatron)
Bullet Point Review!
- Make it really easy and clear that you want people to sign up for a newsletter.
- We love newsletters because:
- Brand recognition.
- Only need to get the subscriber once.
- Trusted source (quickly).
- Push vs. Pull.
- Highly targeted niche audience.
- Use social proof on landing pages.
- Introduce share into sign up process.
- Simplify your landing pages.
Here’s Chris’ slide presentation:
Social Email Marketing: Email as the Hub of your Social Media Interactions #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. In this session, Mark shared insights from small business owners and provided real world examples of how social media marketing delivered the best results when combined with email marketing.
I loved that real examples were used of small companies that no one on the national scene has heard of that used social media locally for their business. It was some thought-provoking stuff! These small businesses made email and social media work together to maximize their results. The speaker was:
- Mark Schmulen, Director of Social Media, Constant Contact (@mschmulen)
Bullet Point Review!
- The typical small business has less than 20 employees.
- Instead of asking “Should I be using Facebook?”, small businesses are now asking, “How do we get business results from this?”.
- Traditional marketing focuses on the acquisition. The emphasis is put on finding, then converting, then keeping.
- Interactive marketing focuses on the customer service. The emphasis is on keeping, then converting, then finding.
- There’s 5 categories of people when it relates to your business:
- Disinterested
- Suspects
- Prospects
- Customers
- Raving Fans
- Don’t waste your time on the disinterested and focus on the rest.
- 14% of people trust ads, 78% trust recommendations.
- 51% of people made a purchase based on a recommendation.
- Turn your email subscribers into Facebook fans.
- All the channels matter – it’s about the customers and their choice of how they want to interact. Be wherever they are.
- You need to collect people’s emails because that’s longer lasting than some social media sites will be.
- Putting a share feature in emails clearly increases sharing, but it also decreases people reporting your email as spam. This helps your reputation with the ESPs in the future.
Here’s Mark’s slide presentation:
Social Email Marketing: Email for the Generations #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. In this session, we learned how to use social tactics to trigger responses from the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials effectively.
I loved this presentation, not only because it was packed with useful marketing information, but also because I learned a bit about myself. I had no idea that I was Generation Y and not Generation X. I enjoyed hearing the characteristics of people in these generations and thinking about people I know who follow the characteristics to a T! The speaker was:
- Jennifer Neeley Lindsay, Host of The A-List on Blog Talk Radio (@jennifered)
Bullet Point Review!
- Characteristics of Millennials (born between 1977 and 1994):
- Real Time communication is key.
- Visually oriented.
- Need immediate gratification.
- Friends=family (they make decisions in groups).
- Share information they consider valuable easily.
- Most likely brand advocates.
- Empathetic.
- Calls to Action for Millennials:
- Prefer to share via text or Twitter.
- Impulse buyers.
- Will share deals as well as valuable content.
- Internet or mobile coupons are ideal.
- If you hit a sweet spot, they’ll create content for you.
- Characteristics of Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976):
- Time considered a precious commodity.
- Actively use Facebook, MySpace, Twitter.
- Shop and price compare online.
- Use email and text interchangeably.
- Self reliant & individualistic.
- Mistrust institutions.
- Calls to Action for Gen X:
- More than 80% text or email deals.
- Reduce their pressures of everyday life.
- Communicate ways to keep kids engaged.
- Deliver quick hit info.
- Help with their work/life balance.
- Characteristics of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964):
- They’re a squeeze generation, taking care of both their parents and their kids.
- 1/3 are actively online.
- Need to feel catered-to.
- Regular online shoppers and big spenders.
- Like spending recognition (rewards, points, etc.)
- Comfortable with email.
- Twitter is an untapped outlet.
- Calls to Action for Baby Boomers:
- Reach all of them.
- Cash back or savings programs.
- Up-sell areas of interest:
- Prescription medication
- Insurance
- Gifts for grandkids and kids
- Entertainment
- Travel
- Discount wines by the case
- Characteristics of the Greatest Generation (born before 1946):
- Value-oriented – want to discuss areas of interest.
- Spend most of their time online with email and message boards.
- Their Baby Boomer children influence their adoption of technology.
- Actually asking for more social features on their phones
- Calls to Action for the Greatest Generation:
- Emails & messages boards are good for targeted messages about senior discounts.
- Messages need to be in a large enough font size to be seen.
- Message about ways you cater to the age group.
There were some good questions after the presentation about the different email providers, such as AOL, Gmail, etc. She said that the different providers definitely cater to different generations with their levels of difficulty. Older folks tend to like the simplicity of things like AOL, wherase younger folks enjoy more optimization and personalization with Gmail. Link shorteners also matter – older generations are less likely to click a weird looking link (bit.ly, tinyurl, etc) whereas younger generations know what they are and are more likely to click.
Jennifer was kindly enough to put her awesome slideshow online, so check it out here:
Read MoreSocial Email Marketing: How to Use Rewards? #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. Now that your email subject lines and user targeting have optimized your open rates, what’s next? In this session, Mani explored new ways to engage users with branded in-email polls, quizzes, social shares, and opt-ins.
I really got some good actionable tips from this session! I had never thought about some of this, though offering rewards and incentives for people to click through their emails seems like a no-brainer now. The speaker was:
Bullet Point Review!
- It’s a social world. It’s a real-time world.
- Smart email marketing engages users in their inbox.
- Remember your goals are to (1) Engage, (2) Qualify, (3) Convert.
- SMART Email Marketing
- Social
- Multi-channel
- Adaptive
- Real-time
- Template driven
- Increase user engagement with smart polls.
- Trigger social sharing with in-email smart quizzes.
- Social sharing jumped 33% when an incentive was offered.
- Keep polls and quizzes short, 3-5 questions.
Here’s Mani’s slide presentation:
Social Email Marketing: Concept of Email Social Media #SMMSF
This session was the keynote for the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. Unfortunately, I was a bit late and didn’t hear all of what Brian had to say, which is a shame. I know that he’s incredibly knowledgeable on this topic and I’ve heard him speak before and it was a treat. I did manage to take some notes for you though.
- Brian Solis, Principal, Futureworks (@BrianSolis)
Bullet Point Review!
- Content Context is King
- 1+1= Many
- Remember that ROI doesn’t mean Return on Ignorance.
- KISS = Keep it Simple Significant, Stupid & Sharable.
- You have to have a desired outcome and it has to be sharable.
- The new messaging value system:
- Connection
- Empathy
- Conversation
- Engagement
- Listening
- Adaptation
Overall, I wish I had more! But I have much more from the other speakers of that day. Stay tuned! Here’s Brian’s slide presentation:
Internet Marketing From The Real Experts
I’m excited to say that an article I wrote is included in the book Internet Marketing From The Real Experts
My article on Affiliate Manager Communication Strategies appears on page 15. Unfortunately since I wrote that article towards the beginning of FeedFront’s publication, it says I’m the marketing manager for PsPrint.com, which if you follow my blog you know that’s not true anymore. Oh well! I’m excited to be part of the gang of 88, and look forward to reading the entire book (well, the articles I haven’t already read in FeedFront).
From the back of the book:
What do Jay Berkowitz, Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, Jim Kukral, Ted Murphy, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Mari Smith have in comment? They all walk the walk when it comes to their Internet marketing expertise. And they also have joined dozens of innovators and thought shapers to share their ideas, advice, and insight.
Internet Marketing from the Real Experts is a collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social network rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.
Their voices, their ideas, their action items, and their lessons learned from mistakes – all for you to grow your business the day you start reading Internet Marketing from the Real Experts.
I know that all those flattering words are really meant for the caliber of people listed on the back cover, but I’m honored to be among them in print! Better yet – all proceeds are going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Maybe now I will write that book I’ve been thinking of!
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