Donna Rougeau commented on Are people getting tired of email and online marketing?
WOW… tough crowd!
Email Marketing when done properly is EASY to optin and optout of and that is mandatory in most reputable email marketing platforms. There is an optout at the bottom of every email sent – whitelisting and meeting any CanSpam regulations requires it… if you are recieving emails that don’t show that / offer that/ it causes me to wonder where and what you signed up for? it is not a reputable business email if it is hard to optout of.
On the other side of that coin, we have said for years now at our seminar and training events that we would happily pay to send you an email because so many others would not!
I think the bottom line here, is don’t sign up for what you don’t want… and if you think you want something do your research before signing up by right clicking on your browser and seeing if a legitimate email management tool is being used to gather email address… if you don’t know what those are here are a few for you:
Aweber
MailChip
iContact
Benchmark
if your doing any amount of decent business online, your collecting email optins and you know about email management systems, how they work and which ones get good whitelisting…. AND which ones give the best metrics to you as a user!
Social networking is excellent yes – email marketing converts more still and at higher $$ dollars so be informed and don’t let your personal bias get in the way of fact.
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Tags: Analytics, conversions, direct sales email, email conversions, email management, email marketing, increase traffic, Measuring Results, Sales Statistics, small business, website results
Donna Rougeau commented on Hi, I am hoping to get some intelligent ideas on how to gain Facebook likes for my daily deals website. Contests? Any special tricks you…
@Michael Torkildsenis absolutely spot on! Regardless of the medium be it facebook, twitter or whatever else… People who think un-targeted traffic or connections count more than results like conversions are unfortunately a dime a dozen and sorely mistaken – they are also probably just out of school and don’t know what they don’t know yet there is innocence in that BUT it will cost you money for their ego’s and learning curve… The only true measure of anyone or anything is results, often harsh yet always fair… more achievable with experience. Conversions are a good results Traffic is just traffic without them not much intrinsic value.
The time you spend / waste on dealing with 50 potential leads that are NOT convert-able is the exact same amount of time you could spent on 1 or 2 leads that convert into $$$ and a lifetime of customer value + referrals… how do you want to spend your time, money and energy? With 50 tire kickers that go nowhere or with 1 or 2 leads that WANT what you offer?
So given that you want leads that convert not just traffic for traffics sake…
1) Ask your friends to send a personal invite out to their friends – make it easy for them by doing the copywriting for them that is easy for them to personalize and feel good about sending out… give them a followup or 3 over a 3 week period – it takes on average 7 online experiences to make a decision to purchase fyi. This is affiliate marketing 101 with a little twist.
2) Take number 1 and customize it for your current customers that HAVE purchased previously and give them an incentive … perhaps you can automate the messages they share by auto inserting their previous purchases and the value they won in that decision… little bit of db scripting to produce that goes a LONG way. This is how loyalty card companies exist and profit… and they do!
3) Paid advertising that promotes acknowledgement of what your searchers WANT not what you are SELLING has proven to keep costs down and profits up… get a good researcher to give you that info and then use it in your sponsored advertising.
4) Content, Content, Content brings Traffic, Traffic, Traffic… done correctly you achieve highly convertible traffic with LOW cost and HIGH returns!
Look at what is being done offline in the brick and mortar world and then see how that converts to online which means one person sitting alone in front of their computer having a momentary intimate exchange with whatever you are portraying yourself to be… because ultimately – thats the deal, thats all it is… one buyer, one moment, one computer to choose you or not to choose you – ughh like dating!
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Tags: facebook, facebook likes, facebook marketing, likes
Question:
Hi! In trying to determine the right customer care strategy for an insurance company, I’m trying to determine what is important for the insured. How does your insurance company add value for you?
Answer:
Donna Rougeau • @Jacob – great points I agree with that and Geico has done a great marketing job all around… and seem much more success in the US than in the rest of North America for those tools – we just don’t seem to have much like that available here in Canada.
I am making an assumption Omran that you want to add value to the customer when they are visiting your site or receiving messaging from you so based on that assumption…
Having spent a good part of the last year with my nose in governance, compliance and regulatory requirements and changes for the financial sector it would seem that TRUST and Customer care go hand in had along side customer experience. That said perhaps open and easy access to information about HOW you are protecting your clients and their information and getting that information out there in an exciting way would add value… Being that your in Canada I know that there isn’t very much information like this readily available FROM your industry…
Known Packaging or service bundles based on need / charted with a version based on price – clearly stating strategies to get from one to the other over a timeline would be unique and add value to customers as well.
Most financial institutions in Canada anyway outsource the Insurance piece and do a good job of brick and mortar marketing and messaging in their physical locations – VanCity is an excellent example of this… I haven’t seen a Canadian company take that online yet – if your independent this won’t matter to you however if your affiliated with a financial institution you can look at some joint online marketing strategies including social marketing.
Email marketing is also something that I KNOW Canadian insurance companies are weak in performance around – Direct Marketing has been weak in recent years too … sometimes in an industry as difficult as Insurance perhaps revisiting what worked before and got shelved for some reason will lead you towards re-purposed success ideas/tools…
Now another area that is gaining a lot of momentum is corporate insurance – especially a search for solutions as enterprises work towards cloud strategies for storage and managed services… not sure if this is beyond the scope of your focus however there sure is a demand and not much awareness of anything available IF there is anything available.
Good luck to you Omran, its a tough position your in geographically for your market space. I am looking forward to following this conversation further and please share back what you test or learn with us all!
Tags: Insurance Canada, SEM Insurance, SEO Insurance, Social Marketing Insurance
