I have just spent some time trawling the net looking for some statistics on the benefits of an email newsletter. To my suprise I haven't found anything to report back on.
"Hang on." do I hear you say, "There are tons of stats out there."
Yes indeed there are, but none are specific on the benefits of just a newsletter. No sales, no offers just a business talking about what they have been up to. This might be that some of the largest email senders are retailers. Hardly suprising as there are stats that offer figures like $50+ per dollar spent (sorry for the dollars). Impressive figures.
But what about the humble enewsletter? I have worked with a company who, on launching their site, sent out a newsletter talking about the site launch and the what they had been up to. The response was 2 enquiries from a cold (first email) list of 400. The numbers are low, but then they aren't in retail.
I will shortly be launching a round of newsletters from my own business and will be looking to report back on the response. I will continue to look round to find the stats but there are the obvious benefits:
1. Keeps the customer up to date with your industry developments, this can be useful as it proves that you are adding value to your services, which they can benefit from.
2. Keeps them informed of what you are doing in the market.
3. Reminds them that you are there. Which in todays market is vital.
The other point is that some businesses don't suit a sales letter, as the customer base probably wouldn't accept it. Some work with a fine wine company revealed that their customers expect the personalised phone service that the business has been built on, to switch to a swarm of marketing emails would downgrade the brand.
Let me know if you have any feedback on the newsletters.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Online backup - Store your mission critical data with confidence
Online back up has many benefits, over the more traditional inhouse facilities. If you are not already storing your data, why not, but... there has never been a better time to start. There are plenty of online backup facilities available www.Carbonite.com,www.SquirrelSave.co.uk www.mozy.com to name a few found with a Google search.
I have used one recently that requires a simple piece of software on your computer. It then organises the files to backup and does the rest for you. Its low cost and the great thing is that you don't have to take the tapes off site.
There are some rules that need to be followed in order to make it cheap and lower risks.
1. Ensure everyone saves their data on to one computer (the server) on your network. This helps to reduce the cost as a number of providers charge per computer.
2. Make sure everyone saves work on to the server at all times or at least whenever possible. One of my employees lost 2 weeks work because he had been working on a piece for some time and not storing it on to the server. The hard drive went and so did the work.
3. Check that you can retrieve the data from your storage facility. No point storing if you cannot get it back.
4. Don't assume the software will capture everything, they typically have a configuration process which may need a little tweak. What you consider important may not be automatically backed up.
Storing it off site through the internet also means that you can access the data from elsewhere and very worst case, should a major disaster (fire, flood etc) happen at your office people can all access their work remotely. Which reminds me, do you have a disaster recovery plan?
Hope some of that makes sense.
I have used one recently that requires a simple piece of software on your computer. It then organises the files to backup and does the rest for you. Its low cost and the great thing is that you don't have to take the tapes off site.
There are some rules that need to be followed in order to make it cheap and lower risks.
1. Ensure everyone saves their data on to one computer (the server) on your network. This helps to reduce the cost as a number of providers charge per computer.
2. Make sure everyone saves work on to the server at all times or at least whenever possible. One of my employees lost 2 weeks work because he had been working on a piece for some time and not storing it on to the server. The hard drive went and so did the work.
3. Check that you can retrieve the data from your storage facility. No point storing if you cannot get it back.
4. Don't assume the software will capture everything, they typically have a configuration process which may need a little tweak. What you consider important may not be automatically backed up.
Storing it off site through the internet also means that you can access the data from elsewhere and very worst case, should a major disaster (fire, flood etc) happen at your office people can all access their work remotely. Which reminds me, do you have a disaster recovery plan?
Hope some of that makes sense.
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
What's the best time to send an email?
In a previous post I mentioned that you shouldn't believe what you read about Tuesday's being the best day to send a mail. I have been looking at some recent email stats from emaillabs and Tuesday's is the most popular day to send an email with 25.4% being sent on Tuesdays, yet Wednesday is the most popular day for people opening the emails. This is confirmed by stats from the EmailStatsCenter.com.
But, just to prove my point I then found the following information from emailcenter that says Thursday is the most popular day. Their view is that this is the best day for consumers as they are just starting to think about the weekend.
Adding my own comments to this I would say that the most popular days are probably best avoided and your email could be lost in the sea of emails that arrive in peoples in boxes. Further to this as most people are already doing it is best to avoid early Monday as all people do on a Monday morning is delete the emails they don't want to deal with. Ultimately, the only way to tell the best time is to either ask your customers or keep trying until you find the best time. You might find that this becomes one way that you choose to segment your customer base.
But, just to prove my point I then found the following information from emailcenter that says Thursday is the most popular day. Their view is that this is the best day for consumers as they are just starting to think about the weekend.
Adding my own comments to this I would say that the most popular days are probably best avoided and your email could be lost in the sea of emails that arrive in peoples in boxes. Further to this as most people are already doing it is best to avoid early Monday as all people do on a Monday morning is delete the emails they don't want to deal with. Ultimately, the only way to tell the best time is to either ask your customers or keep trying until you find the best time. You might find that this becomes one way that you choose to segment your customer base.
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
What is pay per click?
In the web world people are always going on about pay per click and its benefits, yet for most small businesses the opportunity is passing them by.
Well what is pay per click?? This is a way of advertising on a search engine, where you only pay for the advertising if someone clicks on your advert.
Why all the fuss? Pay per click or PPC for those that like the acronyms allows you to try advertising on the web for next to nothing, with the option to spend as little or as much as you like without committing to future spend. It also has the added bonus of being easy to measure return on investment unlike some more traditional forms of advertising.
What do I get? If you perform a search on Google for a formal shirt you will notice that there are up to 3 listings at the top of the page and a number down the side that are titled sponsored links. These adverts have been "paid for", or at least they will be if you click on them. You don't get much for your money, a title of 25 characters and two lines of 35 characters, plus your URL (only up to 35 chars). Based on this you need to think carefully about your wording which I will cover soon.
How much will it cost? It depends. Unfortunately if you are in a competitive industry it could be quite expensive, take car insurance, rumour has it each click costs the company something like £10. If you are selling bottle widgets you may find it is as little as 5p. You will need to set up an account on Google (about £5) and run a few tests. You can bid on as many keywords and phrases as you like and you can set a maximum budget for a day. So if you have a budget of £1 a day and this gets you 5 clicks at 20p a click Google will then take down your ad. No massive bills to pay and if it isn't working for you, switch it off tomorrow.
You mentioned return on investment? Because Google tracks who clicks what in its search engine, you have a report on how many times your advert has been displayed and how many people have clicked through to your site. If you combine this with an analytics package there is a wealth of information that can be reviewed.
So with not much wording to work with you need to try a few variations to see what works best. At the end of the day you want to qualify your leads so that you are not wasting money, but on the other hand scaring people off before they get started isn't good either. You need to get your customer hat on and decide for what they search for. The great things is though, if it isn't working then change it.
I am just starting some PPC work for a small clothing company in Guildford. With a website that isn't built with SEO in mind this is a way to traffic. It doesn't require vast amounts of effort to get in place and once I have them setup they can do most of the work themselves.
Well what is pay per click?? This is a way of advertising on a search engine, where you only pay for the advertising if someone clicks on your advert.
Why all the fuss? Pay per click or PPC for those that like the acronyms allows you to try advertising on the web for next to nothing, with the option to spend as little or as much as you like without committing to future spend. It also has the added bonus of being easy to measure return on investment unlike some more traditional forms of advertising.
What do I get? If you perform a search on Google for a formal shirt you will notice that there are up to 3 listings at the top of the page and a number down the side that are titled sponsored links. These adverts have been "paid for", or at least they will be if you click on them. You don't get much for your money, a title of 25 characters and two lines of 35 characters, plus your URL (only up to 35 chars). Based on this you need to think carefully about your wording which I will cover soon.
How much will it cost? It depends. Unfortunately if you are in a competitive industry it could be quite expensive, take car insurance, rumour has it each click costs the company something like £10. If you are selling bottle widgets you may find it is as little as 5p. You will need to set up an account on Google (about £5) and run a few tests. You can bid on as many keywords and phrases as you like and you can set a maximum budget for a day. So if you have a budget of £1 a day and this gets you 5 clicks at 20p a click Google will then take down your ad. No massive bills to pay and if it isn't working for you, switch it off tomorrow.
You mentioned return on investment? Because Google tracks who clicks what in its search engine, you have a report on how many times your advert has been displayed and how many people have clicked through to your site. If you combine this with an analytics package there is a wealth of information that can be reviewed.
So with not much wording to work with you need to try a few variations to see what works best. At the end of the day you want to qualify your leads so that you are not wasting money, but on the other hand scaring people off before they get started isn't good either. You need to get your customer hat on and decide for what they search for. The great things is though, if it isn't working then change it.
I am just starting some PPC work for a small clothing company in Guildford. With a website that isn't built with SEO in mind this is a way to traffic. It doesn't require vast amounts of effort to get in place and once I have them setup they can do most of the work themselves.
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