TA "Vendors-Only" Advice Column

Getting Better Results From Email Newsletters

Ten years ago the whole email newsletter concept came of age and anyone that could send out an "ezine" seemingly had a license to print money. All of a sudden any business seemed to have direct, cheap and unlimited access to their audience of customers and prospects. Small businesses had a lot to say and their audiences had an insatiable appetite for the "How To Succeed" stories their business partners had to share. But sometime over the past several years many email newsletters stopped telling a story and started just showing a headline and a picture.

The "picture" email newsletter came about as email newsletters went from straight text documents to text with pictures. Unfortunately the text with pictures email newsletter quickly gave way to just pictures and a headline. All too often many email newsletters today are nothing more than a company's magazine print ad converted to a static JPEG file and then shot into their newsletter recipient's email inbox. Sure, it's nice eye-candy but it rarely tells much more of a story about your company than does a Revlon print ad in a Ladies Home Journal featuring Hollywood starlet selling lip gloss. The only time such simple picture/headline email newsletters are appropriate is when the headline is a clear "call to action" inviting the reader to dial an 800 number or click through to a web page (so the caller or clicker can be identified and followed up on).

Email Statistics that Matter

For vendors who ask, TA sends them the statistics associated with their recent email newsletter blasts. The main statistics vendors are interested in are "delivered", "opened" and "clickthrough". The statistics of course are somewhat meaningless without a benchmark against which they can measure them. The following statistics are for all industry email newsletters distributed through TA's email blast vendor www.Bronto.com. 

It's worth noting that most Bronto email newsletter clients send out "real newsletters" that are full of classic newsletter content as opposed to the single subject/picture email blasts sent our by many TA vendors. Even with that being said though, many TA vendors will see that their own email blast statistics sent through TA are not far off the industry average.

Following is a delivery report of recent email blasts sent for specific TA vendors.

How Delivered is "Delivered"?

"Delivered" really means "not bounced". A bounce means the email server that acts as guardian to your recipient's email inbox flat out didn't like your email, didn't deliver it to the recipient and had plenty to say back to you about it. A "hard bounce" usually indicates that the email address you are trying to send and email to simply doesn't exist. A "soft bounce" usually means the email recipient's inbox is full or the server is down. Several years ago an email bounce was "bad". Today bounces are almost good in that at least you're getting feedback you can do something about - usually calling your subscriber to see if you can do something to solve the deliverability problem.

The big nightmare for email newsletter publishers today is the "unresponding black hole". Too often we may get a false sense of security from a high delivered rate. Unfortunately, particularly when email recipients have their SPAM filters set unreasonably high, many email newsletters simply get eaten by the email server without notification to the sender or receiver. The sender thinks the receiver got it (since there wasn't a bounce message) and the receiver never knows that they didn't get anything. Instead of focusing on high delivery rates email newsletter publishers need to focus on raising opens and click-throughs.

How Good Are "Opens"?

An "open" is just what it sounds like - the "from" or "subject line" of your email blast inspired the recipient to open your email or at least peak at it through their email program's preview window. 

An important thing to consider when reviewing the open statistics is change and variation. Do you always get the same number of opens regardless of your subject line or newsletter content? And who's opening your newsletter? Don't be shy about calling those who open your emails. Just let them know that you're calling your newsletter subscribers to see what they like and how you can improve the newsletter. You'll quickly get a lot of appreciative feedback.

Also look for recipients that opened your email multiple times. This "multiple open" statistic is a sign that they've forwarded your email newsletter around not using the Bronto forward feature but the forward feature of their own email program. The extra opens are the original recipient opening the email but the opens from the people the original recipient has forwarded the email to. A definite indicator of some sort of interest and worth a phone call.

Click-Throughs are King

Few actions in the world are as profitable and as exciting at the simple click-through. Google has created an empire around the click-through and email publishers define their reason for being on the click-through. As one would guess, a click-through means, "I'm interested". As interest is the usual prerequisite to purchase, a click-through means if you have scarce sales resources they should be expended first on people who click a link in your email newsletter.

But what do they have interest in? What do you say when you call? The answers to these questions come from the email newsletter you sent to them that they clicked on. Properly created email newsletters have multiple links within different parts of your email newsletter. You email blast click statistic will tell you specifically which link was clicked. Just go back to that link and see what the link was all about. That's what they're interested in. When you call the clickers simply say that you're "following up with all your newsletter subscribers" and let them tell you they were just clicking on your latest email newsletter. (If you tell them you're calling because they clicked you'll likely creep them out and discourage future clicking).

Five Steps To Better Click-Throughs

1. Make "Clicking" Your Call-to-Action - If you want your email recipients to click you have to tell them to click!  Single subject email newsletters are the same as most direct mail pieces in that they are designed to get specific prospects to take a specific identifiable action. This of course assumes you know "who you're trying to get to do what". An appropriate "click call" might be, "If you currently sell $3,000 of new VoIP services every month click here to see the special bonus commissions you're eligible to receive as a high producer".

Most email newsletters have no click call at all. those that do simply suggest "click here for more information" which is still better than simply publishing the URL address of your web site. Before sending any email newsletter ask yourself, "Who do I want to do what?", "Are my click-calls specific obvious & appropriate?" and, "What have I set up to measure my click response and follow up on my clicks?"

2. Only Tell Half The Story - What's sexier, a singles bar or a nudist colony? While your email subject line needs to be specific enough to get the recipient to open your email, the content within the email should never tell the email recipient the whole story. Remember, unless you're only interested in receiving calls from prospects begging to buy your email newsletter needs to be a lead generation device. If the email tells the whole story you'll only get calls from those ready to buy today and you won't generate any leads from those who were interested but unable to buy today. You'll get your immediate sales but you'll be left with no one to call tomorrow.

The secret to filling your prospect funnel is to tell only half the story in your email newsletter and suggest they "click here" to get the rest of the information. When an email newsletter subscriber clicks on anything they are adding themselves to your prospect list of whatever they clicked on. those that want to buy today will still likely buy but then tomorrow you'll have something to do - call those that clicked but didn't buy.

3. Tell Your Story Better - Too many email newsletter publishers develop a sort of arrogance for their audience with a subliminal message that seems to suggest, "We're the best.  If you want the best, call us.  If you don't call us, screw you!"  While this sort of message might be best if you're trying to winnow your response to ex-Marine drill sergeants it certainly doesn't tell you whole story to the rest of the world.  Everyone's busy with the deals they're doing today but if you're serious about filling your prospect pipeline with deals for next month you need to take a deep breath, put your Garrison Keiller hat on and pretend for a minute that your email newsletter subscribers have a choice about who they do business with.

It's really quite insufficient to simply say "this is what we sell". A lot of other people sell that too. What your customers and distributors want to know is "Why do people buy from you?" and even more important, "Why do the become repeat purchasers?" Your "story" has to answer these simple fundamental questions and others like, "Why are you in this business?", "How do you compare to your competitors?" and "How many customers and distributors have chosen you over your competitors?" Assuming that your prospects will eventually choose to purchase or distribute your products and services or your competitors', it's safe to say that if you at least tell your story as well as your competitors tell their story that you'll at lease get your fair share of business. 

Unfortunately many email publishers get a bad case of writer's block or stage fright when it comes to telling even the most basic parts of their company story. That's where audio and video publishing can make it easy. Ask TA how TA can help you simply interview with TA and get the above questions answered to the point that your story is easily associable to your email audience in a media format that's easy and fun for your audience to access.

4. Provide Appropriate Premiums - Remember being a kid choosing breakfast cereals based on the toy in the cereal box? Not much has changed. What's in your email cereal box? What do your email recipients "get" if they "buy your cereal" by opening your email? Effective email premiums usually include a link that will get the clicker to a useful report or an audio or video clip that will be educational or entertaining for the recipient.

The best email premiums are those premiums that allow the recipient to profit in their own business. If you're trying to recruit more productive VoIP distributors then produce and distribute a premium that helps them sell your VoIP service. Provide them a VoIP prospect list for their state. Offer to do a co-operative direct mail push. Create a VoIP demonstration module that they can put on their own website. This document you're currently reading is an example of a premium. Only those who are properly registered with TA can access it.

Obviously you want your premium to be appropriate though. "Click here for a 1 in 5 chance to win a car does nothing to properly filter your leads if you're looking for successful VoIP distributors. An easy and very successful premium to offer is web-based sales and  product training. Your vendors will often produce and pay for the training session. You simply need to record the session and make the web-accessible recording available as a premium for your email newsletter clickers. If you don't know how to create a good webinar recording contact TA. We'll show you haw or do it for you!

5. Use Your Testimonials and Case Studies - For better or worse, some vendors simply have nothing new to say as they occupy a unique niche and have little need to change their service or product.  If this describes you you're only half right.  Your product or service may not have changed but if you're still in business month after month it's probably safe to say that you continue to sell new accounts month after month and create new happy customers and clients.

Email publishers with no new product or service news need lead with testimonials and case studies. Let your new or existing customers tell your prospect audience why they love you. Make your best sales person write up a summary of their best case study of a new customer you earned this past month.

Testimonials and case studies do three great things. First, they're a consistent reminder for your clients and distributors that they're on the right bandwagon. Second, you're enduring new newsletter subscribers hear the story they haven't heard yet. And, third, you're letting everyone know you're not getting arrogant in that you're continually doing what it takes to get new testimonials and develop successful case studies every month.

Sorting Through the Universe of Prospects

Out of the big barrel & into the small or the trash

Effectively Telling Your Story Using Rich Media

Tell them the way they want to hear & see it

Tools of the Story Telling Trade