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This article by VerticalResponse CEO and founder Janine Popick originally appeared on The Huffington Post.

If you're running a successful business by your standards, then good for you. But I'm going to drop this bomb: It could be better by leaps and bounds just by asking your customers the simple question, "How did you hear about us?"

You might think I'm nuts saying you could grow your business that much with word-of-mouth, but I'm not.

We tested this out at my online marketing company, VerticalResponse. Any small business can sign up for our service by providing a few pieces of information to get a free account automatically set up. But for this test (which we ran for about six months), we included a drop down menu on the sign-up page that asked, "How did you hear about us?" In the menu, there were answers like "article," "online ad" and "search engine," but the No. 1 way people heard about us was simply, "friend."

Now, I thought my team members had gone off the deep end telling me that many of our new customers probably came from existing customers. We even had the drop down menu dynamically display these answers in random order so people weren't just choosing the first one on the list. And still, the number one answer was, "friend."

To take it one step further, 50 percent of all people who came directly to our website to sign up for our service cited "friend" when asked how they heard about us.

That's pretty powerful stuff. I'm sure that our business isn't that much different from yours in terms of how people get their information and make a decision.

So what can you do right now? 

• Ask the question on your website. Do it directly to your customers and at your location. Look at trends to see if anything changes. You might find that positive changes you make to your business have an up-and-to-the-right effect when it comes to referrals.


• Start a refer-a-friend program. A few of your customers might not mind getting rewarded for the referrals they bring you; some might just like to be your advocate.


• Crank up your remarkableness. Since you're probably already doing some really great things for your customers to refer you, do even more really great things that are worth talking about. Stay open later, have proactive chats on your website, get to know your customers better by using a contact management software program, and engage with them directly through social networks.


• Listen to your customers. If your customers are telling you they want you to change specific things about your business and you take their ideas and put them to work, great! Tell them they've been heard in an email, on Facebook and Twitter.

The bottom line is that spending money on advertising alone just doesn't work anymore. You are not the proud owner of your brand; your customers are. Listen to them and do whatever you can to make them happy, and watch your business grow – by leaps and bounds.

 

Posted by Janine Popick

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @janinepopick, and check out more of her Huffington Post columns.

 

 

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This article by VerticalResponse CEO and founder Janine Popick originally appeared on Inc.com.

Who doesn’t like the word free? I know I sure do. The great thing about being an entrepreneur these days is the huge variety of free or low-cost online business tools out there to help keep everything organized and your company running smoothly. It seems like every day I hear or read about a shiny new app or service promising to save me time and money. It’s hard to resist saying, “Sign me up!” … Especially if it’s free.

Here are seven free (or next to free) business tools that I can’t live without:

Animoto: We’ve all heard how video can increase engagement with customers and attract more eyeballs than just text and pictures alone. But getting a video produced can be pretty expensive. About a year ago, I needed to create a quick video for an employee get-together. I hopped onto Animoto, uploaded a bunch of employee photos, selected a music track from my library and voila! Everyone loved it, and I didn’t need any fancy video editing software. Cost: Tiered pricing, beginning at free

UserVoice: With UserVoice, small businesses can quickly set up a feedback forum and/or helpdesk where customers can submit (and you can track) customer support tickets. This is especially useful if you aren’t at a point in your business where you can have a customer support team or call center. You want your customers to air their concerns in a place you have complete access and control over, versus a third-party forum, as much as you can. Cost: Tiered pricing, beginning at free

Roost: Full disclosure: My company, VerticalResponse, recently acquired Roost … largely because it has a strong reputation for being a super easy social media marketing tool for small businesses. With Roost, you can view and schedule your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn posts in advance. It also provides suggested content, like news articles and quotes, based on your industry and interests – so you don’t have to waste time searching. Cost: Free

Evernote: I admit, until January of this year I was one of those people who still jotted down notes and ideas on paper. One of my resolutions for 2012 was to organize all my thoughts via Evernote, and now I’m addicted. I have it open all the time on my computer, and the iPhone mobile app is a breeze to use whenever I’m on the road and see or think of something I want to follow up on later. Side benefit: I can clip recipes from the Web and have the ingredients list on my iPhone when I’m at the store. Cost: Free for basic version

Join.me: Virtual meeting providers like WebEx and GoToMeeting certainly offer lots of bells and whistles (with price points that show it), but there are others out there that offer similar features – for the cool price of free. With Join.me, viewers just have to type in your code onto the Join.me home page for instant access to your screen, no app for them to download required. Cost: Free for basic version

Instagram and Postagram: Think Instagram is just for hipsters? Think again. The ability for someone to follow, comment or share photos in your Instagram gallery is another way for people to engage with your content – especially if Instagram’s artsy aesthetic reflects your brand. And with Postagram, you can send those cool photos in postcard form – a blend of old-school and new, and another great opportunity to get in front of customers in a pleasantly surprising way. Cost: Free for Instagram, 99 cents per Postagram postcard

Granted, there are countless tools that I’ve tried out and for various reasons, and they just keep comin’. Just like a good pair of jeans, you might need to do some shopping around to find the ones that truly are a great fit for you.

What business tools are in your everyday arsenal, and how have they improved your life?

 

Posted by Janine Popick

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @janinepopick, and check out more of her Inc.com columns.

 

 

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Using videos in your email can be great for engagement; including them can help you achieve higher clickthrough rates and help keep your recipients opening your emails. This might sound complicated (or even frightening) to you technophobes out there, but videos don't have to be like a scary B-movie. Here are some Dos and Don'ts to get you using videos with ease:

Host your video with a reputable company. Once you've created your video you'll need to host it somewhere that's public so that others can see it. There are lots of options out there, but a few ideas are YouTube, Vimeo, or Viddler. Any of these companies will host your video, provide embed code (for your website) and a URL to where the video is hosted. You'll need this URL for your emails.

Use the embed code provided by the hosting company in your email. This type of code is what you'll need if you want to post the video on your website or blog. But most email service providers (ESPs) will either find the code too big or won't be able to read it, so the video will not show up in your email.

Take a screenshot of your video, preferably with the 'Play' button placed on the image. The more it looks like a video, the easier it will be for your recipients to know what they need to do. Use this screenshot as you would any image in your email, and once you've placed it in your email, use the URL of where you hosted your video to link your image. The example below shows you how your video will look in your email: just like an image, but the 'Play' button makes all the difference.

Forget alt text! Including alternative text essentially provides you with backup in case a recipient cannot initially see your images because their ESP is blocking them. Just like any image in your email, alt text can help encourage your recipients to turn on the images, and in this case, watch your video.

 

There you have it, easy tips to using videos in your email, nothing to be afraid of at all!

 

Posted by Jill Bastian.

Jill Bastian is the Training and Education Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter @Jillieb3.

 

 

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If you're a frequent reader of this blog, you may have noticed some new recurring features over the last few weeks. In VerticalResponse Customers We Admire, we take a look at VR customers who are getting it right when it comes to their email, event, and social media marketing. With our The Results are in! series, we take a look at the (sometimes surprising) discoveries we make when conducting split tests.

We have a lot of fun writing these posts and hope that you're finding some value in learning how other marketers are honing their craft - but we can't do it alone. So that's where you come in! At VerticalResponse, we know that our customers are the reason we get to do what we do, so we want to double down on our efforts to publicize the best of you. Here's what we're looking for:

1. Great email, event, and social media marketing examples. Have an email campaign, event, or social media effort that you're particularly proud of and want to be considered for our Customers We Admire series? We'd love to see it! These posts are open-ended in regards to content types (the only requirement is that you must be a VerticalResponse customer), so send us your campaigns!
2. Real-world testing examples. If you've conducted any split tests with your emails, website, or social media marketing, you could be featured in our next installment of The Results are in! Send us a description of the test methodology, the results of the test, and any supporting artwork or screenshots to help tell the story.

If you'd like to submit your company's work to be considered for either or both of these features, please send an email to the VerticalResponse blog team at social[at]verticalresponse[dot]com.

 

Posted by Ellery Long

Ellery Long is the Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @EL.

Company recognized for corporate, product, marketing and customer service achievements

SAN FRANCISCO – May 10, 2012 – VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, online survey and direct mail marketing, is a finalist in 14 categories in the 2012 American Business AwardsSM and will ultimately receive gold, silver or bronze Stevie® Awards.

The American Business Awards are the nation's premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. More than 3,000 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories.

VerticalResponse is a finalist in the following:

• Company of the Year (Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations)
• Company of the Year (Internet/New Media)
• Executive of the Year (Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations) – Janine Popick, CEO/founder
• Executive of the Year (Internet/New Media) – Janine Popick, CEO/founder
• New Product or Service of the Year (Software – Marketing/Public Relations Solution)
• New Product or Service of the Year (Business-to-business Services)
• Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year (Up to 2,500 Employees)
• Customer Service Department of the Year
• Customer Service Executive of the Year – Kristen Hayer, Vice President of Sales and Support
• Business-to-business Marketing Campaign of the Year
• Best Website (Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations)
• Best Video (Public Relations)
• Best Facebook Page
• Best Twitter Feed

"It's such an honor to be a finalist in so many categories for one of the most prestigious business award programs in the world," said Janine Popick, VerticalResponse CEO. "This is the greatest number of categories that VerticalResponse has achieved finalist standing in since we launched 11 years ago. I'm thrilled that so many aspects of the company, from product and technology to marketing to customer support, are being recognized."

Finalists were chosen by more than 140 business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging in April and May. More than 150 members of 10 specialized judging committees will determine Stevie Award placements from among the finalists during final judging, to take place May 14 to 25.

For the first time, The American Business Awards will be presented at two awards events: the ABA's traditional banquet on Monday, June 18, in New York, and a new tech awards event on Monday, September 17, in San Francisco.

Details about The American Business Awards and the list of finalists in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba.

About VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse Inc. provides a full suite of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, direct mail marketing and online surveys. Its mission is to empower small businesses and non-profit organizations to easily and affordably create, manage and analyze their own marketing campaigns. Users can benefit from a wide variety of features including more than 700 free email marketing templates; tools to create, schedule and publish content over social media networks; and robust reporting so that they can understand overall marketing success. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information visit www.verticalresponse.com, and connect on Twitter at @VR4SmallBiz and Facebook at www.facebook.com/verticalresponse.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

Sponsors and partners of The 2012 American Business Awards include American Support, Business TalkRadio Network, Callidus Software, Citrix Online, Dynamic Research Corporation, iolo technologies, John Hancock Funds, LifeLock, PetRays, Primus Telecommunications Group, SoftPro and VerticalResponse.

Category: Press Releases

Many companies across the globe claim to be social. They have a Facebook Page, a Twitter account and they’ve even jumped into Pinterest with both feet. But does all this effort really make a company social?

In today’s crowded social business environment, just having a presence is not enough…you have to walk the walk. Many of the world’s largest brands are taking the bull by the horns and dedicating serious resources to their social efforts, but a major portion of small and medium businesses seem to be getting lost in the shuffle when it comes to the approach and execution of their social strategy. And this is even more prevalent when we talk about independent contractor businesses such as real estate. Some companies, though, are really getting it right when it comes to execution, and one of them just happens to be a Roost by VerticalResponse customer.

Located in Tucson, AZ, Long Realty is not some Silicon Valley startup that has a culture built on technology and social media. It’s a traditional real estate brokerage that’s been in business since 1926. Taking a look at their social strategy rollout, you’ll see why they are experiencing success with their efforts. 

Unlike most businesses that have employees, Long Realty has independent contractors (non-employees), which makes technology implementations even more challenging. That didn’t intimidate Kevin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing and Technology though, when it came time to implement Long Realty’s social strategy. Kevin knows that people need education and training to tackle new technology and his approach to social media didn’t vary from that belief. Kevin devised a plan to educate the 1,300+ sales associates across 37 office locations.

Kevin first started by educating himself and his staff. In regards to the Roost by VerticalResponse product, Kevin arranged for me to do a deep-dive training on the Campaign Creator because he was confident it would be an asset to the social efforts of his sales associates and company. He also wanted his training staff to understand the product inside out so they could do a training road show.

Kevin then visited the offices and met the sales associates directly to train them on how the Campaign Creator social product could help them in their social media efforts. Beyond just providing a tool that would help save his sales associates time, Kevin understood that if he could get a percentage of his agents using the product on a consistent basis, it could have positive implications for the company as a whole.

Due in large part to Kevin’s approach of very specific training and education, his company has the largest percentage of consistent users of our social product of any company that we’ve worked with so far.

So what does Kevin’s approach show us? Whether you’re talking about a large real estate brokerage or a small five-person boutique, education and training is key when implementing any social program. From Kevin’s approach to getting all his sales associates comfortable with using a social publishing platform, to getting your staff comfortable with interacting with your Facebook Page, if you take the time to properly educate and train your associates on proper social strategies, only good things can happen.

 

Posted by Derek Overbey

Derek Overbey is the Senior Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @doverbey.

 

 

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We’re all aware of the usual national holidays and most of us seize the opportunity to send out holiday related email campaigns or blog posts such as this one. But are you aware of all the random, specialized holidays that you could use for your marketing? If you're in a niche industry, these holidays might be right up your alley. Even if you're not, it's a great way to add a little quirky personality to your brand. And by capitalizing on a lesser-known holiday you can stand out in your subscribers' inboxes.

Check out these upcoming holidays to get your creativity flowing:

 

MAY

National Teacher Day – May 8

Dance Like a Chicken Day - May 14

National Chocolate Chip Day – May 15

National Sea Monkey Day - May 16

Artichoke Day – May 19-20

National Waiters and Waitresses Day - May 21

Tap Dance Day - May 25

Learn About Composting Day - May 29

 

JUNE

Hug Your Cat Day - June 4

World Environment Day - June 5

National Yo-Yo Day - June 6

Iced Tea Day - June 10

Red Rose Day - June 12

Go Fishing Day - June 18

Paul Bunyan Day - June 28

 

JULY

Chocolate Day - July 7

Pecan Pie Day - July 12

Cow Appreciation Day - July 15

National Hot Dog Day - July 23

 

Now that you've seen just a few examples, do your own online search and see what kind of lesser-known holidays you can tap into for your business!

 

Posted by Kim Stiglitz

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

 

 

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We've given you quite a few ideas lately on the different components of your email campaigns that you could test (CTAs, Personalization, etc.), but had yet to give you any tips on how to could mix up your copy/content itself to generate better results. Time to remedy that!

 

Tale of the Tape

We run sales promotions on a regular basis here at VerticalResponse, but it's proven tricky to find customers' sweet spot in terms of which offer can be most appealing to them, leading them to pull the trigger in making a purchase. 

Looking back at historical data, we discovered, somewhat surprisingly, that two very different offers had been most successful so far: we'll call them A and B, with A presenting a lower barrier to entry and B being on the higher end of the spectrum but offering a higher reward. For example, offer A would be "buy one, get one free," while B would be something like "buy $100 worth of supplies, and get a year's worth of free service." We had also run varying offers in-between, but for some reason people seemed to respond better to these extremes.

 

And the Winner is...

We chose to conduct an A/B test and to do so, split our mailing list into two segments: one that would be receiving offer A and the other offer B. Groups with offers A and B were sent 2 waves of emails, the first to announce the sale and the second as a reminder about a week later, shortly before the sale ended. The from label, subject line, pre-header text and imagery didn't present any huge variation save for the offer amount (obviously). Here are the combined results:

- Offer A: 8,456 recipients, 9.69% open rate, 0.36% CTR, 10 conversions, $334.61 revenue

- Offer B: 8,627 recipients, 10.21% open rate, 0.34% CTR, 6 conversions, $104.55 revenue

So while the email stats were quasi similar, we can see that offer A generated almost twice the number of conversions and over triple the purchase amount than offer B, despite the lower dollar amount. Version A by knockout!

 

Takeaways

We can see that offer A was more attractive than offer B for this particular audience, which seems logical given its lower barrier to entry. What's more surprising though is how it managed to generate such a higher purchase amount especially given the gap between both offers, and how it led customers to purchase in higher quantities even than what B was offering. 

As always, further fine-tuning will be required. For instance, we could take a look at whether these results apply to all channels, the possible impact of seasonality, the age of the accounts that purchased, etc.

 

What have you been testing lately?

 

Posted by My Truong

My Truong is the Marketing Programs Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter @PtitMy.

 

 

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Image Property of MGM

Imagine that Dorothy, Tin Man and Scarecrow are sitting in on your next email or website marketing meeting. “I don’t like this website, it’s dark and creepy!” exclaims Dorothy, “Do you think we’ll see any wild testing strategies?”  “Some,” says Scarecrow, “but mostly buttons, copy and layout.” “Buttons!” screams Dorothy, “and copy!” yelps Scarecrow, “and layout!” exclaims Tin Man. “Buttons and copy and layout! Oh …not again!”

Wizard of Oz analogy aside, testing aspects like buttons, copy and the layout of your website and/or email is wicked important, but since we’re not in Kansas anymore (disclaimer: Some of you may be in Kansas), there are numerous other tests you may never have thought of that could drastically improve conversion, click-throughs, revenue and lead generation.

Now, not all of us have the time or resources to build intricate multi-page testing campaigns, but we do need to break out of the norm. There are hidden (and easy) testing gems all over your website or email just itching to be picked apart. I recently attended the Which Test Won? Advanced Testing Workshop, and soaked up some invaluable tests we should all be conducting, but probably aren't. Here are the details, let’s not disappoint Dorothy:

To view the following examples/screenshots and more, visit WhichTestWon.com. In-depth details may reqiure registration.

Mobile Site

According to presenters at the Advanced Testing Workshop, 95.6 million Americans check email on their mobile phones, and 61% of customers who visit mobile unfriendly sites are more likely to go to a competitor’s site. Having a mobile site is undoubtedly vital, but test it and you could be a winner, just like Vegas.com.

Vegas.com conducted a mobile site test in which they overly simplified one version, and left all aspects of their regular site intact.  Sure enough, the simplified site (easy for finger tapping too) resulted in a 16% lift in page views, a 14% lift in hotel searches, and a 22% reduction in bounce rate.

Try testing your own mobile site by simplifying or intensifying the amount of information you include, see what works best for your audience. Give the option to remain on the mobile version or switch over to desktop.

 

Fine Print

You may think that no one reads the fine print, but Hallmark, the greeting card leader, quickly discovered that tiny print packs a fine revenue generating punch.

Hallmark tested the wording of their fine print using the terms “About shipping & mailing” vs. “Delivery details & shipping costs.” After a conclusive test, they found out that “Delivery details & shipping costs” increased their click-through rate by 14% and their revenue per visitor by 18%. Fine print for the win!

Try switching up your own fine print, whether it's the wording, length, placement, link, or existence at all (unless it’s required).

 

 Privacy Policy

They say the “Facebook generation” has zero fear when it comes to handing out their contact information for just about anything, however, this important aspect shouldn’t be overlooked. Westwood College conducted a test in which they included or excluded a privacy policy statement (also in fine print) under their lead generation sign-up form. The privacy policy simply stated, “Westwood College respects your privacy and will not misuse or sell your personal information.” Can you guess, “Which test won?” The lead gen form including the privacy policy statement generated 19.1% more leads.

Try including a privacy policy statement on your email, newsletter, or lead generation forms. Including customer reviews or statements could also be a reassuring safety indicator for some. A consumer knowing their information is safe in your hands could place more revenue in your hands too.

 

 

Search Box

A search box, is a search box, is a search box, right? Though you may think that a search box is a universal given, making slight changes to it could do wonders. Dell, the computer corporation, tested theirs by displaying a plain box with a “search” button on the side vs. including the word “search” within the box alongside a magnifying glass. Sure enough, the plain box with a “search” button increased revenue per visitor by 6.3%. Who knew?

Change up your own search box by including or excluding a button or magnifying glass. Change the placement of the search box, or try pre-determined search options vs. manual typing.

 

 

Overlay

You know how certain sites may gray out the page aside from one particular pop-up they want you to focus on? That’s an overlay. iRobot, a company that sells “home cleaning robots” (as if their products didn’t already sell themselves!) conducted an overlay test. Here, they left one page alone; on the other they created an overlay with a popup including information about their upgrade program (with discounted robots!). Sure enough, the overlay created an 18% lift in average order value and a 17% lift in revenue per session.

Try playing with the use of an overlay - Test your page with or without it, the size of it, the gradient, and the timing of when it pops up or disappears. See if it reduces friction and directs customers to your main call-to-action, or if it just annoys them. 

 

 

This equates to just a handful of the seemingly unobvious, but super important tests that we should all consider conducting. Continue testing your buttons, copy, and layout, but remember that there are other testing aspects which could deliver you down that yellow brick road to gold.

Posted by: Colleen Corkery

Colleen Corkery is a Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @youcollme.

 

 

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"VerticalResponse Customers We Admire" is a new series where we highlight a customer and the things they're doing right with their marketing. Below, we discuss a Mother's Day email from Lotus Bakeries, including key lessons and take-aways.

When I was a physical education teacher, one of the first things I quickly learned was that if you constantly tell students what not to do ("Don't talk while I'm talking," "Don't be late for class," "Don't touch your classmates," "Don't swear") they won't actually know what to do. Instead, teaching with examples of what to do instead ("Do raise your hand to speak," "Be on time for class," "Keep your hands to yourself," "Use positive language") is a much more effective method. One of the quickest ways to learn, is when someone leads with positive reinforcement and by example. Many of us know what not to do when it comes to creating our emails. But what's the recipe for creating a successful email? Below is an example of email done right (and by a VerticalResponse customer too!). Check it out and maybe you'll pick up a thing or two to complement what you're already doing with your own rockin' emails!

Lotus Bakeries has been a VerticalResponse customer since 2010. They're headquartered in Belgium and have been focusing on authentic specialties from the biscuit and cake world for over 80 years. According to their website, Lotus' specialties include caramelized biscuits (speculoos), gingerbread, cake specialties, waffles, and pepparkakor biscuits produced in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Sweden. The company is founded and owned by Boone family members who have turned a once-small enterprise into a world-renowned business by honoring a tradition of craftsmanship and personal service.

In this aesthetically pleasing, seasonally relevant email below, Lotus' purpose is clear: to drive recipients to place orders by Mother's Day. They lead readers down a path to purchase with a few distinct strategies. Lotus offers three value propositions or incentives to address the concerns most individuals consider when placing an order online: price, delivery and quality. 

1. Price - Offering free shipping on orders over $50 not only makes people feel like they are getting a deal and saving money, but it also encourages them to place larger orders. Free shipping is always a great incentive to offer, especially on holiday promotions when people are likely to ship gifts/incur unexpected expenses, and are looking to save a few dollars in the process. In addition, placing a purchase threshold to get free shipping is an effective strategy to drive revenue and higher total purchase amounts.

2. Delivery - Giving information about the last day to order to ensure delivery for Mother's Day implies Lotus is both well aware of the Mother's Day deadline and cognizant of the importance of meeting the delivery date. They also provide a sense of urgency here by including the date in which the promotion ends, as well as the last day to order in time for delivery on Mother's Day. Including incentives to order early and calling attention to promotion deadlines encourages recipients to make purchases right away rather than wait, forget to order, or take a competitor's offer.

3. Quality - Highlighting that orders are made risk-free and with 100% satisfaction guarantee not only calls attention to the quality of Lotus' products, but also to the reliability of their service. Including the 100% satisfaction guarantee removes the risk and fear (yes fear, no one wants a phone call from an empty-handed mom on Mother's Day) associated with placing an online order. The statement confirms a confidence in their ability to deliver fresh, quality goods on time. Including customer testimonials as well as satisfaction and money-back guarantees are effective methods for providing evidence and support of your company's excellent service.

Final Take-Away - Think from your customers' perspective to acknowledge common concerns or barriers they may face when doing business with your company. Lotus called upon many barriers consumers face when doing online shopping and addressed them in a visually pleasing and timely email to instill a sense of confidence in their ability to deliver affordable, quality goods on time.

 

Posted by Savannah Stewart

Savannah Stewart is a Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @savannahstewart.

 

 

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As you know, VerticalResponse takes testing very seriously. While we personally make an effort to dissect each and every facet of our emails in order to optimize the effectiveness of our campaigns (be it CTAs or Personalization), we also realize that lack of time and resources or other seemingly more lucrative priorities can be major roadblocks for others. As marketers, we all know testing is important, however not everyone in your company may agree (and/or don't want to be bothered by it).

Colleen and I recently attended an advanced training workshop organized by the good folks over at Which Test Won?, presented by chief evangelist Justin Rondeau. We learned a few tips on how to bring testing to the forefront of your company's marketing strategy, and noticed that this was a touchy subject for a lot of people in the room, as most of them were faced with this very problem in their respective organizations. So here are some of the key strategies that were presented. If you've had some issues yourself getting any testing off the ground, hopefully these will prove useful.

 

1. Get Executive Leadership Onboard

Of course, your first order of business should be to convince the people who are going to pay for your venture (and your bills on a regular basis) of the benefits of running with your testing proposal. There are 4 very simple steps to getting your execs' approval:

    a. Strike fear in their hearts: OK, so maybe not literally, but get a visceral reaction out of them by pointing out that you might have a very serious problem by illustrating your points via numbers (high bounce rates, low conversion rates), graphics (heatmaps, pie charts), or survey results. Not only will this show them you've done your homework (score!), but they also won't be able to deny your rock solid data (double score!).

    b. Show them the money: After cold hard facts come conjectures. Do some forecasting on potential conversions and revenue lifts, but also on increased savings. It is always better to under-promise and over-deliver, but still make it appealing enough to pique their interest.

    c. Stoke their competitive fires: Some executives prefer to play it safe and not be the first ones out the gate, but all definitely don't like feeling left behind. Check out some testing agencies' websites such as Maxymiser or Autonomy (formerly known as Optimost) and scour their 'Clients' section for your competitors. If any of them do show up, show them to your management team and this could provide the final push you needed to get them over the edge.

    d. Mitigate any risks: Finally, alleviate any fears they may have by not just guaranteeing results, but also by convincing them that trusting you won't cost them an arm and a leg. Assure them you'll be performing your initial testing on a small, manageable area, to a limited audience using minimal resources, and even then that you won't hesitate to shift gears or pull the plug if things go awry. 

 

2. Get Engineering to Love You

There's a chance your web development team won't be happy with your initiative because a) they believe the site is already optimized and thoroughly tested, and b) they think they will be carrying the bulk of the work to be done. So, the first thing to do would be to take them out for lunch or coffee and address these or any other concerns they might have. Open communication channels and hammer out a good process to get your testing up and running that involves making their life easier and educating them on the joys and intricacies of A/B or MVT (multivariate) testing if necessary. 

 

3. Uphold Branding Standards

I'd like to preface this by saying that if there is one thing I am (borderline) OCD about, it is branding. Nothing bugs me more than poor or inconsistent branding, since brand awareness and perception are probably the most difficult elements to establish and build over time for a company. So make sure that whatever version(s) you plan on testing is in accordance with your company's brand guidelines and greenlit by your brand management team. As with Engineering, don't hesitate to sit down with them to discuss any potential conflicts between your conversion goals and the current brand rules, as well as possible new directions. 

 

4. Never, Ever Go Covert

In case my headline wasn't clear enough, running a test without prior approval is a big no-no. If, say, your test goes wrong and crashes the company's website (worst case scenario here) because you failed to inform IT or the web developers, the fact that you ran your project without their prior knowledge or approval, will only make things worse. In this case, it is much better to ask for permission rather than forgiveness.

 

5. Make Yourself Look Good

After putting in all this time and effort, you do want to come out of it looking better than when you started, right? Once your testing phase is complete and you have data that you deem truly conclusive, collect these results and present them to all parties that had a hand in or gave you their blessing for this project. Keep an eye on your basic reporting metrics, but most of all, see if there was any lift (i.e., positive variation) in these numbers due to your testing, along with increased efficiency, thus higher profitability and savings.

Remember, there are no "failed" tests per se. If you don't see any lift or even a negative one, maybe it just means you were testing the wrong element, demographic, time period, or that your original solution was already the most optimized possible. Indeed, there doesn't necessarily have to be a serious problem with your email or website to start testing. Tests can slightly or drastically improve your conversions even if these were already good, but can also confirm that your email/website is performing at its best. There is always something to learn, that's why they're called tests!

Following these steps should go a long way towards getting your testing plans off the ground. Have you been seeking support to develop a viable testing strategy? Which hoops have you had to jump through and how have you pulled it off?

 

Posted by My Truong

My Truong is the Marketing Programs Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter @PtitMy.

 

 

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A new report from Michael Stelzner and his team at Social Media Examiner reveals that social media adoption by marketers is growing steadily, but that we still have room to do more and have plenty of questions when it comes to measuring effectiveness. The 2012 Social Media Marketing Report found that and much more after surveying over 3,800 marketers from both the B2B and B2C worlds and from companies of all sizes. You can find the full report here, but I'll share my key takeaways.

 

Social media is important for my business

1) Nearly everyone has integrated social media into their marketing mix, but its perceived importance to their business overall is declining slightly.

While 94% of respondents are using social media to market their business, just 83% of them defined it as important for their business. When the same question was asked in 2011, that number was 90% (with 62% strongly agreeing). It may be surprising to see this slight decline, but I think we are probably looking at a natural progression as social media matures. In the olden days of social media (you know, the last few years), marketers were still getting comfortable with the medium. As the new kid on the block, social still had its shine and marketers were excited just to be using it. As we get more sophisticated about social though, it's only natural that marketers might be getting more skeptical. In other words, the more knowledge you have about something, the easier it is to find its flaws. To be clear, this is a good sign. We can't expect a medium to grow if we're not asking the right questions about how to do so. My prediction is that as we get better at measuring results (see takeaway #2), we'll see sentiment towards social media move back in a positive direction.

 

2) The top questions marketers have about social media point to a need for better results.

The number one question respondents had about social media (for three years running, no less) is how to measure the efficacy of their social media efforts. As discussed in the above point, marketers have moved beyond the learning stages of social media and are ready to start applying the same level of business accountability that we do other marketing programs. The second most asked question, how to best reach your target audience, points to the same growing pains. We've moved beyond just trying to get likes and shares. Instead, we're ready to start making sure that our social audiences represent real business value. To do this, we must be sure that our efforts are focused on connecting with potential customers, not just on increasing audience size. 

 

Social media improves sales

Social media generates leads

3) Experience with social media has a direct relationship with achieving revenue-generating objectives.

The correlation between a marketer's experience using social media and the results they are able to generate is undeniable based on the report's findings. Encouragingly, marketers across the board included improved sales (40%) and lead generation (58%) as benefits they derive from social media marketing. What I find most striking, though, is that both of these figures jump roughly 20% when looking at marketers with three or more years of social media experience. In fact, as illustrated in these two charts, there is a steady growth in the ability to drive revenue-generating results as a marketer's experience with social media increases. What does this mean for you? Well, aside from reinforcing the fact that we are all learning more about how to be successful with social media as it matures, I would also suggest that you think twice about skimping when it comes to hiring the best person to handle your social media efforts. While that summer intern or new grad you're bringing in may spend all of their waking hours posting LOLs and OMGs to their Facebook walls, they might not be the best person to manage your business' social media if measurable results are a priority (hint: they should be). Business experience and judgement is important when looking for leaders in any part of your company; why would you treat social media any differently?

 

4) Worry not, there's still plenty more to do.

Despite the medium's maturation, social media marketing efforts still have plenty of room to grow. When asked how they will change their social media activities moving forward, a majority of respondents said they'll be increasing their use of YouTube/video (76%), Facebook (72%), Twitter (69%), blogs (68%), Google+ (67%), and LinkedIn (66%). This is an encouraging sign for all of these platforms, but I particularly find interesting the number two position of Facebook. For a company that is consistently described by the tech blogosphere as uncool, peaked, or past its prime - some going as far as to describe it as experiencing a midlife crisis - there sure is a lot of interest in doing more with it. In fact, when asked what social media tools they wanted to learn more about, respondents had Facebook coming in at a close third behind the relatively new Google+ and the time-intensive medium of blogging.

 

Social media tools marketers want to learn more about

 

Yes, not only do marketers want to increase their use of Facebook, but they also admit they have more to learn about it. To be honest, these results are refreshing. I think many in this industry have a tendency to get caught up in the hype of what's fresh and new (see Pinterest and Google+ as recent examples). Don't get me wrong, I think it's vital to stay ahead of the curve on these things. I was an early advocate of Google+ (a position I still maintain) and I am actively using Pinterest for VerticalResponse. That said, though, it's important to note that these pursuits shouldn't occur at the detriment of your other efforts. For every company that makes the list of Top 20 Best Brand Timelines on Facebook, there are thousands more that are still getting the hang of it all. For these as much as all of us, Facebook is as relevant as ever, and these results help to confirm that.

Ultimately, I find these results promising. We are past the stage of questioning whether social media is a fad, and have moved on to the more productive discussion of what direction it is going to take and how best to measure its success. That's a good thing for social media marketers like me, and that's a good thing for business.

 

Posted by Ellery Long

Ellery Long is the Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @EL.

 

 

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Every Wednesday we host free webinars to help you learn more about email marketing, social media or events for your business, and much more. The webinars are also recorded and posted on our help site so a wider audience can benefit from them. So, I thought I'd share our top 7 most viewed recorded webinars of this year with you too. Take a look and find something new to learn!

1) 10 Keys to a Killer Facebook Timeline - This is the most popular webinar we've ever done since we started tracking views a few years ago. Any changes Facebook makes cause ripples through the entire marketing world, so it's no wonder this is popular! Last month, Facebook updated its look for company pages. Learn how to get the most out of Timeline for your business with this informative webinar.

2) Delivery Changes - This webinar covers changes ISPs have made over the last few months that could impact email delivery, plus some great email tips from our Delivery Director, Kiersti. This topic is important to a lot of our customers so it's no surprise there were over 1,500 views in one day when we featured it in our VR Buzz newsletter.

3) How to Avoid the Spam Folder - Learn more about email delivery and what you can do to help get your emails to the inbox. This webinar covers tips on how to create your email to avoid spam filters, which is something that concerns everyone.

4) Using Images in Emails  - We always encourage people to use images in their emails, and this webinar shows all you need to know! Learn the ins and outs of using images in your emails, including:

• Best sizes to use in emails
• Using Alt text
• Creating an email from an image

5) 1 Template, 5 Ways to Use it - Our email templates are a starting point for your email marketing, and many are fully editable so you can truly make them your own. Whether you use the Wizard or the Canvas tool, you can create the email look that you want using one of our templates.

6) How To Create a Successful Email  - Perennially popular, we do this webinar live every month and it takes you through the ins and outs of email marketing best practices, tips, content ideas and, of course, lots of relevant examples.

7) Content is King- There is no question that the content of your emails, blogs, websites, and even social media outlets has never been more important for driving engagement and meeting the needs of customers. More than ever, it's essential to provide not just more new content, but content that is relevant and useful to readers.

Interested in learning more? Check out our schedule for upcoming webinars. They're always free and include Q&A at the end of the webinar, so bring your questions for our experts!

What's your favorite live or recorded webinar? Or, let us know what topics you would love to see in future webinars!

Posted by Jill Bastian.

Jill Bastian is the Training and Education Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter @Jillieb3.

 

 

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If you're on LinkedIn, you more than likely have your work history on it. You probably get connection requests from it all the time. Heck, you may even send your Twitter feed to it. But does all this type of activity justify calling LinkedIn a social network?

First, we have to understand what a social network really is. The Wikipedia definition is as follows:

A social network is a social structure made up of a set of actors (such as individuals or organizations) and the dyadic ties between these actors (such as relationships, connections, or interactions). A social network perspective is employed to model the structure of a social group, how this structure influences other variables, or how structures change over time. The study of these structures uses methods in social network analysis to identify influential nodes, local and global structures, and network dynamics.  

But even with the definition fitting the general LinkedIn makeup, would you really put it in the social ranks of Facebook and Twitter? Most people automatically do when explaining what social networks they’re on, but if we take a look at their actual use of the site, they hardly use it in a truly social way.

LinkedIn has tried to bring more social aspects into the site that claims to have more than
150 million users. In 2009, they introduced the ability to bring your Twitter feed into the LinkedIn update stream. Now, a lot of people were happy about this enhancement, but if you look at your own stream today, how many people are interacting with those “tweets” on LinkedIn? I took a quick sample of the last 100 updates in my stream that were directly posted from Twitter and not a single post had any interaction on LinkedIn.

Why do you think this is? Is it because people just don’t interact with content on LinkedIn like they do on Twitter and Facebook? Are they looking for more tailored content that's better suited for the LinkedIn audience? Or do people still think of LinkedIn as a site where you put your resume? I personally think it’s a bit of all three. LinkedIn is trying to integrate social enhancements to the platform, but at the end of the day, it’s the users that'll make LinkedIn truly social.

So how can you leverage LinkedIn in a more social way? We're going to start with three sections of LinkedIn that you can explore to make it a bigger factor in your social makeup.

1. Groups – I have to give credit where credit is due and that would be Groups on LinkedIn. There are a ton of business related topics on the platform and it's where most interaction takes place. When you enter your LinkedIn account, click on “Groups” in the top navigation bar. Here you can search for existing Groups or even start your own.
2. Answers – Another active area, Answers is a section where you build interaction by either asking or answering a multitude of business-related questions. To visit the “Answers” section, go to your top navigation bar, click on “More.”
3. Your Updates – To make it social, you have to be social. Go to your Update feed and interact with people. Give it a shot and see what happens. Many people have their LinkedIn notifications turned on and will get pinged if you leave a comment on one of their updates. It might be fun to see if you start to build deeper interactions on the “business” social network.

These are just three easy sections to dig deeper on what I still consider a very important network. If you’re looking for additional ideas, check out this great article titled 13 Things You Never Knew You Could Do On LinkedIn.

So is LinkedIn really a social network? Maybe not in the form of say Facebook or Twitter, but I’m willing to hang in there to see if it becomes one in the near future. 

 

Posted by Derek Overbey

Derek Overbey is the Senior Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @doverbey.

 

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This is a blog post intended to lay down some foundational design principles in a way that makes sense to non-designers. Hopefully you’ll learn how to create better looking communications that enhance the experience for your audience. The lesson for today is about proportion, and how having a sense of relative proportion can improve your design. 

But we’re not going to start by talking about proportion, we’re gonna start talking about its ugly cousin:

Make Everything Bigger Syndrome!

MEBS is a common illness that can afflict any design. It rears its ugly head most often when we’re subject to the short attention span of our viewers. Textbooks aren’t prone to it, but brochures are. Email design is infested with it. So what's the problem?

MEBS occurs when a designer (or the boss) decides that one item in the layout is too small. Typically, the main offer/call-to-action/photo in an email looks too small or insignificant, and the first inclination is to make this section larger to increase its impact. Upon enlarging the offending offer, the rest of the items look small. So as a result, the other items in the layout must be enlarged. And then you know what? Our footer looks tiny, so we’d better just scale that up too!

Before you know it, you’ve just made everything bigger. Since your email itself is a fixed size, you’ve made the layout more cluttered and hard to navigate. You’ve increased the size of your email without adding meaningful content, and likely harmed your user experience. This is because size, as a design attribute, is a relative feature. If something is much bigger than its neighbors, we know it to be more important. But if everything exists on the same scale, it’s hard to tell which thing I should look at FIRST. 

Okay, now we’re finally talking about proportion. But let’s not talk about how it works in traditional email design. Let’s talk about proportion when we’re scaring children. Eli, Jesse, and Tom are brothers. They’re also monsters, the kind that scare children. They all want to scare the crap out of your nearest toddler when they open an email. And since they’re brothers, they’re all travelling together. You have three seconds to tell me which monster looks scarier than the rest... go!

You know what? Those monsters are just too tiny! Let’s make them bigger. I’ve heard bigger monsters scare toddlers more than small ones, and I want our audience to be terrified!

Huh? I could have sworn if we made them bigger, they’d strike a more terrifying silhouette? What happened?

It turns out that scariness, the quality we’re after, is affected by the relative proportion of each monster to one another. If all 3 monsters are the same size, one is not dramatically scarier than the other. And if they all get larger at the same rate, the relative proportion remains constant. You can tweak one specific attribute or another to increase the effect slightly: kids might be more scared by horns than pointy ears, for example. However in order to really pump the scariness quotient up, we need to make one monster larger than the others and keep the other two small.

 

 

Now we clearly see that Eli is a raging torrent of terrification, and his brothers are clearly less threatening. 

This is how we avoid MEBS. We force ourselves to bring out one key piece of content we want to feature, and make a hard decision to de-emphasize the rest. Two things will remain relatively consistent. The first is the email window of a user’s preferred email client. Cramming it wall-to-wall with big, loud graphics is a sure-fire way to overload our other constant, our customers’ short attention spans. 

In my experience, the best way to avoid MEBS is with a short planning session. I like to sit down before I make any graphics and sketch with graph paper and pencil, blocking out large chunks of a grid to visualize a layout. If you’re not a designer, consider listing your marketing objectives for a given project and ranking them in order of priority. We’re talking 5-15 minutes, max. 5 minutes of planning forces me to figure out what details I really want to communicate, and what’s not quite as important as I thought. Getting a second opinion to spot check your planning is not such a bad idea either. 

So pick one key message that’s important, and let the other messages sink into the background. Don’t panic! If your primary message is relevant enough to draw them in, they’ll naturally want to read more, without feeling bombarded with information. Emphasize the product you really want everyone to buy, and support it with a few smaller product shots in case they’re looking to buy something else. But don’t think users want, or should want, to care about everything you want to tell them. 

I understand this goes counter to about 75% of the marketing world’s instincts. But take a deep breath and learn to let things go. Making everything bigger doesn’t work. It won’t help you engage your customers just like it won’t help monsters scare children. Learn to keep a few things small. 

 

Super special bonus! Download an .eps of the monster drawings! I have no idea why you’d want them, but you deserve something for reading my blog post. I’m very grateful!

F.Y.I. This art is released under the Gnu GPL.

 

Posted by Patrick Leahy.

Patrick Leahy is the Graphic Designer, Interaction Design Team at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @HelloPartick.

 

 

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At the end of the day, we're all using email marketing to accomplish business goals. From growing our subscriber list to generating more sales, email marketing is the workhorse of our marketing plans. So, why is it that we keep making the same mistakes over and over? Perhaps it's because we don't even know we're making them. I've compiled a list of 9 mistakes we make with our email marketing and quick tips to fix them. Read on.

 

1. Buying or renting an email list.

At VerticalResponse you can't use our system to mail to a rented or purchased list. We do this because we know from more than 11 years in the email business, the best results come from lists that are grown the right way. When a customer or prospect opts in to hear from you, it's their own choice to receive communication from you. Think about your own inbox and how you manage it. It's likely that you look at the From Line and see if you know the sender. If not, chances are the message ends up in your trash or reported as SPAM.

2. Frequency - mailing too little or too much.

When a customer or prospect opts in to your mailing list you should have a statement about how often you plan to send email.

For example:

Get The VR Buzz Newsletter

Stay current with email tips and best practices delivered once a week.

If you do this you'll manage your subscribers' expectations about how often they'll hear from you. Now your end of the bargain is to keep that up. If you mail too infrequently, your subscribers will forget about you. If you mail too frequently, you may become annoying. The key is to deliver on what you promised. And, if for some reason that changes, communicate it to your subscribers so they know. Remember, being on your list is their choice and they can unsubscribe at anytime.

3. Having a lame subject line.

Your subject line is one of the single most important components of your email. Did you know that more than 50% of subscribers base their decision to open your message based on the subject line alone? So, you gotta deliver the goods in your subject line. Think of it as the headline of your email. We have countless resources for creating effective subject lines in case you need some inspiration. Check out our short guide, Savvy Subject Line Writing for Success and our under-30-minute recorded webinar, Subject Line Savvy.   

4. Not following best practices.

Being in the email marketing business, I get a lot of email. And, I'm a picky reader/subscriber because of it. There are a few things I immediately scan an email for once I open it.

Is there preheader text? The preheader serves as a secondary subject line to give your reader more context and more reason to open the email in the first place.

Next, do the images have alt text? I can't tell you how many times I get an email and the alt text says something like dog.jpg. Ack! Because many email browsers have images turned off by default, most readers will initially see your message this way. So, don't use the default file name. Instead, replace it with something more compelling related to your content like "25% off personalized dog name plates through Sunday." See the difference? The second example provides relevant information. Every component of your email should be working toward your goal. Waste no space.

Also, is your email optimized to render on mobile devices? Sounds complicated but it's not that hard, and of course we've got some easy to follow tips. Watch our 30-minute Email for Mobile Phones and learn. We also found some great tips from our friends at Email on Acid to ensure your entire email renders by default on the iPhone and iPad.

Lastly, proofread your email from beginning to end. That includes the subject line. Read one word at a time so any mistakes will jump out at you. Recruit a diligent coworker or friend to be a fresh set of eyes for a final edit. Ask them to check for typos and grammar, and to click on every link. Use this handy checklist to make sure all your bases are covered before you hit launch.

5. No call-to-action.

You take the time to build an engaged list of subscribers and then you create an email. But is it crystal clear to your readers what you want them to do with it? Is there a clear call-to- action? What is a call-to-action you might ask? In simple terms, it's what you want the people who get your emails, visit your site or see your ads, to do. Your call-to-action can be as simple as a "buy now" graphic on a web page or in an email, a "Visit our website to get your 20% discount at www ..." in a direct mail piece, or "Call 800...for your free..." Any way you display it, it needs to drive people to act, and act now!

You can communicate your call to action through your copy, your images, and even with web buttons that tell your reader what to do, like Read More, Buy Now, Learn More, Get the Deal. We've put buttons to the test and they got us 26% more clicks than when we used text link calls to action. To learn more read this quick post on 5 Ways to Get More Action from Your Call to Action.

6. Your links stink.

How frustrating is it when you click on a link in an email and it's broken? C'mon folks, we're better than that. You want your subscribers to have a flawless experience so they can help you meet that goal. So test every link, every time you send an email. Also, go ahead, get bold and link your images. People want to click them, so allow them to and have them link somewhere relevant.

7. Target your list

Does every person on your email list need to receive every message you send? Or can you get more strategic and target different offers or messages to different segments, or portions of your list based on location, prior purchases, etc. For example, we recently wanted to invite customers to a special conference that was taking place in Austin, TX. Instead of sending it to every customer, we targeted those that lived in the closest proximity to where the conference was and would have the greatest propensity to attend. You can use our list segmentation tool to build different lists based on fields you have in your list. Learn more here.

8. You're not social.

Adding social to your email mix can do a ton of good. You can expand the reach of your message to your social networks and possibly the people in your readers' social networks when they share or like your message. We know none of our emails get a 100% open rate, so posting your messages to your Facebook Timeline, LinkedIn, or Twitter allows people to interact with your message in different ways. Providing many channels for your message to be interacted with greatly increases your chances of people reading it and following the call to action. In fact, a recent VerticalResponse study showed that customers that used email and social marketing together achieved a 28% higher open rate on their messages!

9. Your content sucks.

Content is king for a reason. Because no matter what else, from your subject line to pretty pictures and perfect links, if your content sucks, no one is going to continue to read, let alone take your intended action. The best messages tell a story and tell it in a compelling way. One of my favorite examples is a winery that shot a video of a day in the life at the winery to link to from their email. The hook? The video was shot from the point of view of the winery's dog! Content marketing is so important we recently dedicated an entire post to it here.

There you go! 9 Mistakes We Make with Our Email Marketing. I'm sure now your emails will have a newfound sense of purpose and deliver great results.

 

Posted by Kim Stiglitz

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

 

 

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At VerticalResponse we try to bring you relevant and valuable content to make your business better. With that objective in mind, we are excited to deliver the first episode of our new video series, Small Biz Social Secrets. In this series, we'll provide interviews with top social media personalities who will share vital information to get the most out of your social media efforts.

In our kickoff episode , we have the pleasure of chatting with Shauna Causey, VP of Marketing at Decide.com. Shauna has an incredible social media background including key roles in developing social programs at such well known companies as Nordstrom and Comcast. Here, Shauna shares insights into what aspects of social media she would concentrate on if starting a new small business or non-profit organization. 

 

Posted by Derek Overbey

Derek Overbey is the Senior Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @doverbey.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" April 23, 2012

We ran three marketing tests-with surprising results. Here's what our data revealed about the clicking habits of customers.

For me, measurability is very important when it comes to marketing. I keep a close eye on how much money we're spending on our marketing efforts and make sure that we recoup our spend-and then some-in return. If the math isn't right, we adjust. I also want to know which leads aren't converting into customers and why, so that we can optimize our performance.

To accomplish this, we do a ton of testing at my email marketing company, VerticalResponse. Because we provide self-service online marketing tools for SMBs, most of our advertising and marketing are online and via email. This affords us a lot of testing opportunities, tracking and data. Interestingly, many of our tests end up with surprising results, which shows you should never assume anything! We tell our customers that they should always be testing their email campaigns and fine-tuning their efforts, and we definitely practice what we preach.

Here's a glimpse at three tests we've done with our own email marketing campaigns. You might find some takeaways that could be useful in your own marketing efforts.

"Download" Versus "Get"

In this test we had an identical offer and message in the email, but we changed the text within the call-to-action (CTA) button. Half of our test recipients got a button that said "Download the Guide" and the other half got "Get the Guide":

We originally assumed that the word "download" would receive fewer number of clicks, since it sounded more formal. Good thing we ran the test, because the button with the word "download" actually performed better than the word "get," resulting in 2 percent more clicks and 43 percent more in revenue!

Incentive or No Incentive?

We put together a list of customers who had signed up for a free VerticalResponse trial but hadn't activated their account. Two emails were sent out. In version A, customers were offered a discount if they activated their account and "liked" us on Facebook. In version B, no offer or incentive was included and customers were simply encouraged to activate their account.

Version A:

Version B:

Surprisingly, version B, with no offer or incentive, received 32 percent more opens and clicks. Perhaps version A required too many actions that weren't worth the incentive? What if we offered 75 percent off?

Placement of the Call-to-action

Usually, you'd find the CTA after you read some sort of description about what the email is about. One day we thought, why don't we make the CTA the first thing the recipient sees when the email is opened, above the so-called fold?

Here's version A, with the CTA ("Save $30 Now!") at the bottom:

And here's version B, with the CTA on top:

By tagging "referred-by-codes" to each banner image we were able to differentiate them in our reporting tool. Our results showed that both versions accumulated the same clicks, but version B acquired a higher click-through rate (the number of clicks divided by the number of times the ad was opened) and brought in more than 33 percent more revenue.

As you can see, testing is an integral part of virtually any marketing campaign if you want to continuously improve the quality of your communications and boost conversions. So try it out; it may do wonders for your revenue!

Have you ran any tests on your marketing efforts? Did you find something surprising?

Category: Articles & Reports

This article by VerticalResponse CEO and founder Janine Popick originally appeared on Inc.com.

When it comes to running our companies, we all get into a rut from time to time. One big rut is not having enough time in the day to really assess all of the ways our customers are interacting with us, whether it’s digital or good old face-to-face. With all the access customers have to products and services other than your own, it’s extremely easy to lose opportunities to make them happy.

Take a look at your business and see if any of these pitfalls could be turning your customers away:

Employee Chatter

How many times have you walked into a store and you hear employees talking to each other about their shifts, the fact that they hate working today, or how they can’t wait to get off work to go clubbing tonight? It happens more often than you think and it might be happening right within your walls. Your customers want a pleasant and positive experience with your business, whether they’re on the phone with your sales team or in your store or office. Let your employees know how important it is for them to focus on the customers and save the idle chit-chat for when customers aren’t around.

Phone Tree Hell

Have you ever called your own business phone number to see what the customer experience is like? I do it all the time. If your phone tree has lots of branches and your customers or prospects can’t get someone to talk to in a quick and easy fashion, you could have lost them forever. Don’t greet your customers on the phone with the “Please listen to the following as our menu has changed” message. That takes a solid five seconds that a customer could be in touch with you faster. Also, assess what most of the calls coming in are concerning. If they’re usually about a specific topic, then that should be the “Press one for … ” option. If you’re selling out of a specific product or you have an issue that your customers might be experiencing, you can set that to be the first thing callers hear. Don’t be afraid to change your phone tree.

Mobile Mania

Have you ever had to wait for someone to get off his/her mobile device before helping you? Think of a customer coming into your business and experiencing the same. It’s maddening. I’ve literally been at a restaurant and waited for 10 minutes before I was asked if I wanted a menu simply because the wait staff was updating Facebook. And it doesn’t only happen at retail locations; it happens in the office environment, too.

At my small business marketing company, VerticalResponse, our employees used to always have their laptops on or type away on their mobile devices during meetings. It was terrible and had to be curbed; no matter how good you are at multi-tasking, you’re going to miss something important if you’re typing away. It shows a lack of respect for your customers or co-workers and it says to them that whatever's happening on your phone or laptop is more important that everyone else’s time. And time is money. Make sure your employees put customers first, before texting and Facebook, and if they want to do those things, then it should be during their breaks.

Inconsistencies

If you’re a customer and you like to frequent a particular business, you expect a certain level of performance that you’ve grown accustomed to, whether it be a website that works properly or the quality of a meal at a restaurant. If you think you have the best pizza in New York, it better be the best pizza every single time you serve it. If your customer service is outstanding, all of your customers need to experience that outstanding service each and every time. Remember that your repeat customers are telling your new prospects about their experience, so make sure it’s always the same stellar experience.

Welcome! (Or Not?)

Have you ever walked into an office building and had no one pay attention to you? Or ever shopped at a store and no one asked if you needed help? My husband walked into a local store, shopped for an item for about 10 minutes and none of the four employees (who weren’t busy) asked if he needed help. He then brought his purchase to the counter and gave the check-out person his credit card. The entire transaction happened without a word. Really? The Gap makes it someone’s job to welcome people into the store. Restaurants have hosts that greet you and get you seated. Offices should have some way of knowing when a visitor has arrived. Make sure you and your people are smiling and welcoming newcomers into your place of business; you never know who they might be.

These five things may sound very simple to avoid, but they could be happening right under your nose!

 

Posted by Janine Popick

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @janinepopick, and check out more of her Inc.com columns.

 

 

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Company recognized for outstanding work environment and management practices

SAN FRANCISCO – April 20, 2012 – VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, online survey and direct mail marketing, today announced that it has been honored as one of the top 125 best places to work in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. The company placed No. 45 in the 101 to 500 employees category.

The eighth annual Best Places to Work awards recognize the top employers in five categories based on number of employees. Winning companies were evaluated based on employee responses to an extensive survey on topics such as work satisfaction and recognition, organizational leadership and management practices.

"The culture we've built here at VerticalResponse is one of our greatest assets, and every single employee contributes to making this company a fantastic place to work," said Janine Popick, VerticalResponse CEO. "We work hard, but we play hard, too. It's a tremendous honor to be recognized by the Bay Area business community."

VerticalResponse prides itself on a fun, diverse and open work environment where employees all share a common mission: To help small businesses and non-profit customers succeed. The company's downtown San Francisco headquarters, which supports more than 105 full-time employees, house all of the organization's functions, including product development and engineering, marketing, finance, customer support and sales. Employee benefits include:

• 100 percent paid medical, dental and vision coverage
• Stock option grants that begin vesting on date of hire, plus a generous 401(k) plan with employer match
• Health and wellness programs such as acupuncture and chiropractic coverage, subsidized gym memberships and the occasional on-site massage therapist
• Weekly bagel breakfasts and organic fruit and snack deliveries, on the house
• Various community service and environmental sustainability initiatives, such as quarterly volunteer events, donation drives and offsetting 100 percent of the company's carbon emissions
• Quarterly company-wide off-site happy hours and on-site hosted events

For career opportunities, visit the VerticalResponse Jobs page.

About VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse Inc. provides a full suite of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, direct mail marketing and online surveys. Its mission is to empower small businesses and non-profit organizations to easily and affordably create, manage and analyze their own marketing campaigns. Users can benefit from a wide variety of features including more than 700 free email marketing templates; tools to create, schedule and publish content over social media networks; and robust reporting so that they can understand overall marketing success. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information visit www.verticalresponse.com, and connect on Twitter at @VR4SmallBiz and Facebook at www.facebook.com/verticalresponse.

  Category: Press Releases