Assignment: Automated Membership Emails
Client: Western Independent Bankers
Making marketing easier for our clients is something we especially like doing. For Western Independent Bankers, we created a set of triggered emails to be automatically sent in response to particular membership activities; a new member joining, a membership coming up for renewal, a member cancelling their membership, and so on. Once created, these required minimal maintenance from the internal team.
The key to remember with triggered emails like these is that you're not replacing customer service – you're simply increasing your communications with your audience in ways that are helpful to them. In the Welcome email pictured below, we provided helpful links to member resources to make it easier for members to get the most out of their membership.
Assignment: Weekly Digest Email
Client: Wells Fargo Foreign Exchange Services
One of the nice things about email is that recipients can receive large amounts of information right in their inbox. This also turns out to be one of the drawbacks of the modern age. Information demands our attention, which is finite. Too much information, therefore, creates an attention deficit.
Wells Fargo Foreign Exchange Services sends out data snapshots to their constituents every week. The intention of these emails is to provide a quick glimpse of the current state of the FX market, while being sensitive to the vast quantities of information their constituents are already receiving.
Large, clear numbers and simplified charts allow readers to absorb the information with just a quick glance, without requiring them to wade through text or tables. If readers need more information on a particular data point, they know where to get it.
Assignment: Daily News Email
Client: Streetwise Reports
Designing the email newsletter format for a news organization is mission critical - since the email is the product, a subscriber's experience of the email design will shape their perceptions of the product itself. Streetwise Reports recognized this coupled relationship between product and design when they called us in to overhaul their entire system right down to the company logo.
Design conderations that needed to be factored in at the highest level were readability of large quantities of text, clear hierarchy of information with several levels of headlines, body copy, photo captions and credits and text hyperlinks, and finally, balancing the placement and weight of advertising to pay the bills.
Assignment: Internal Sales Bulletin
Client: Wells Fargo International
Designing a set of email campaigns for Wells Fargo International to send out to the sales team, we looked into how their folks in the field were already getting the information they needed to run their businesses, and we set about doing the task of information gathering for them.
By providing a service which saved time for the sales team, we gained a loyal following of highly-engaged raeders. To make it even easier for the sales team to quickly access this information, we created an email design with clear, oversized text and very brief descriptions. The goal was to help readers decide right away whether a story was of interest to them without requiring them to spend a lot of time reading.
Assignment: Email Marketing Template Library
Client: Western Independent Bankers
When we worked with Western Independent Bankers to improve how they used email campaigns to communicate with their members, we identified a dozen common functional categories such as announcing a conference, a webinar, a new product, sending a press release, and so on, and we created a template for each of these categories. Our goal was to make it as easy as possible for the internal team to quickly send out an email.
The email templates were loaded into their CRM so that they were ready to go, making the process of creating and sending a new campaign as easy as creating a Word document.
Assignment: Template for Daily News Email
Client: Streetwise Reports
Assignment: Monthly Newsletter Template
Client: Elaine Bell Catering, Napa
Assignment: Email Newsletter Template
Client: Unified Color
Assignment: Promotional Email
Client: San Francisco YMCA
Assignment: Internal Sales Bulletin
Client: Wells Fargo International Financial Services
Designing a set of email campaigns for Wells Fargo International to send out to the sales team, we looked into how their folks in the field were already getting the information they needed to run their businesses, and we set about doing the task of information gathering for them.
By providing a service which saved time for the sales team, we gained a loyal following of highly-engaged raeders. To make it even easier for the sales team to quickly access this information, we created an email design with clear, oversized text and very brief descriptions. The goal was to help readers decide right away whether a story was of interest to them without requiring them to spend a lot of time reading.
Assignment: Email Stationery and Signatures
Client: Brookside
When designing fact sheets and data sheets, one of the things to pay attention to is making the information easy for the reader to consume. We do this by first defining a layout that best supports the information being presented, and then creating a clear heirarchy of information. This may sound elementary, but it's surprising how frequently we are tasked with bringing order to an organization's marketing system. Creating a sense of order isn't just good for your audience, it also adds authority to your voice, and reinforces your brand.
Assignment: Email Marketing Template Library
Client: Western Independent Bankers
When we worked with Western Independent Bankers to improve how they used email campaigns to communicate with their members, we identified a dozen common functional categories such as announcing a conference, a webinar, a new product, sending a press release, and so on, and we created a template for each of these categories. Our goal was to make it as easy as possible for the internal team to quickly send out an email.
The email templates were loaded into their CRM so that they were ready to go, making the process of creating and sending a new campaign as easy as creating a Word document.
Geek With Me a Moment
Want to geek out with me for a few minutes over some numbers? Ok, according to a 2014 study of 1.5 billion emails sent across all industries, the open rate (percentage of emails being opened) is around 23%, and the click-through rate (the percentage of emails that contain a link that is clicked on) is around 4% (if you're in the hobbies industry, you'll have the highest click-through rate at 6.5% and if you're in restaurants and events, you'll have the lowest at around 1.5% - although, I suspect that if you're in the funeral biz, it might be even lower). Meanwhile, the response rate from direct mail (across all industries) is around 4%. This sounds like they come out about even, until you consider that direct mail campaigns cost more than email campaigns. How much more? A lot.
Sit tight, there's more. Triggered email response rates, that is, the response to emails that are automatically sent in response to some specific action, for example, a special message or discount coupon that is sent to a subscriber on their birthday, are twice those of business-as-usual (BUA) email response rates. In terms of ROI (that's Return On Investment for all you beautiful people who never took a marketing class), according to a study by the Direct Mail Association, email generates $28.50 for every dollar spent, compared to $7 for direct mail.
Email marketing is personal, it's customizable, and it's effective.
The New Email Marketing
Just so we're clear, we are not talking about spammy emails peddling dodgy pharmaceuticals that do strange things to your unmentionables (with the rather inconvenient possible side effects of blindness, heart attack, stroke and death). This is about publishing quality content that engages your readers, keeps them interested, and makes them want to keep reading your content. Email marketing is a distribution channel for your content, an extension of your brand, and it is also much more – it is a way to nurture your leads, meeting them whereever they are in the sales process, and helping them along. Email marketing is personal, it's customizable, and it's effective.
Email marketing is glorious! Want to know the BEST thing about it? One word, my friend – Automation. Yep, email marketing can be automated. That means if you're a small company with a limited crew, your email marketing, your lead nurturing, your monthly newsletters ... don't have to place a burden on your internal team. Beautiful!
Automation and Inbound Marketing
There are many ways of using automation with email marketing. Your evergreen content can be sent out automatically on a timed basis when someone signs up for your newsletter. Your ebooks which have diminished in download rates can be turned into a weekly educational e-series, keeping you top-of-mind every week, and which link to new content on your website. Do you like to send discount offers after someone makes an inquiry? Email Automation. Your timed email content can be written to lead readers further along the sales funnel, first providing high-level informational content, then more technical info and how-to tips, and then perhaps product comparisons, trial offers, or promotional discounts. Whatever your industry, we'll help you craft a content strategy.
Content Strategy.
Cracker, What?
Good question, you! This is the big hurdle for many companies. A well-planned content strategy is based on solid user personas, deftly anticipating the information your prospects are seeking at every point in the process, beginning from waaaay outside the funnel (which may have more of a keyword focus), all the way down to your reader becoming a repeat customer. The content you write should lead the reader along a pathway, or at least provide pathway options for the reader. Scattershot content which blasts readers with random information – a BUY NOW at the very beginning, for example – is not just ineffective, but it will most likely turn your readers away. Remember: this all happens in your audience's inbox. Your readers will not tolerate having their time wasted.
59% of B2B Marketers say email is the most effective channel in generating revenue.
What's the Process?
Depending on your specific needs, we can help you create user personas, define your audiences, and craft a plan. We'll design and code your email templates for you and map out a content strategy. If you need us to, we can write your content, including keyword research, and even manage the ongoing content creation on a monthly or weekly basis. It really depends on your specific business.
