E-Blast Checklist
No matter which CRM or e-mail service provider this checklist applies. Here is a quick summary, along with the full article.
- Promise Something Specific in The Subject Line - And Deliver
- Craft a Succinct Header viewable in the Preview Pane
- Make it Mobile Friendly
- Test Timing & Wording Frequently as Visual Design
- Learn What Motivates You to Read Incoming E-Newsletters
- Create One Topic at a Time
Defining the KPI for a Professional Services Firm
On 11/5/2016, I attended a webinar with my peers in the CRM industry. by Ron Baker of the VeraSage Institue. My peers in the CRM industry wanted to learn how to make our practices better, so he suggested we measure our own KPI by looking at it from our clients' perspective not just ours.
For example, instead of measuring how many tech support cases we had to offer at no charge, we should measure our success rate of solving it within 30 minutes.
Check out this indepth article, citing the airlines industry.
Avoid These 5 E-Mail Marketing Mistakes
Citing a columnist for The Huffington Post, we tell our clients to avoid these problems:
- Create periodic changes in graphic design
- Focus on one message per email
- Balance text with graphics
- Clean out the bounced addresses from the mailing list
- Acquire help from a writer. We found sites like upwork, oDesk and Fiver can help at a pretty good price.
Segmenting The Database Increases Open and Click Through Rates
To increase your open and click rates, it's a best practice to use Act!, or whatever CRM system you use, to create a smaller list with greater precision rather than a "spray and pray" approach where one offers goes to anyone in hopes the numbers make up the difference.
I proved this by segmenting the database by "areas of interest" based on a survey I sent along with re-examining my database to see what features of Act! they inquired about. Once I targeted my list, my open rate went from 11% to 64% with two messages sent the same day to Act! users. One list is "Tips and Tricks" if I don't know more about them while the second list contains tips on "Automating Act!" based on my clients' feedback.
In addition to traditional CRM training and support services, we offer a service to help you build proper surveys and to properly segment the database before you send your next e-blast.
Automate Marketing in CRM - First Step
Automating Marketing with CRM allows you to:
- Reach the hundreds of contacts you cannot call today
- Build brand awareness
- Ensure marketing gets done without daily manual intervention
Before any tool is implemented, the first thing to do is segment your database by industry.
Here are some screenshots of various systems. You can change these highlighted choices quickly as you finish each conversation with a client. As you send more targeted campaigns, open and read rates will increase. Here is our evidence from our campaigns.
Act! Example:
Salesforce Example:
Zoho Example:
