An photograph of a laptop with the email icons floating out of the screen.

6 Tips to Create a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

Despite its age, email marketing is still one of the most effective techniques in selling customers thanks to its directness, simplicity, and personal nature. Using the right methods can boost click rates and provide unique opens for your advertising which creates repeat customers.

Here are six effective methods that can help boost your online business thanks to effective email marketing that carries the most impact.

Go Short – OR – Long with Subject Lines… Let me explain!

Studies have shown that subject lines consisting of 60 to 70 characters are the least effective in getting people to open the email. This may not make much sense, but for some reason that length has the least amount of response. So, either go longer or shorter with your subject lines to get more attention.

Personalize. Every. Email.

What really helps your email stand out is having the name of the recipient in the subject line. Seeing their name helps tremendously in getting them to open the email and read what is inside. This helps avoid your leads overlooking the email and staying in contact with them.

Provide Important Information

A hallmark of effective email marketing is providing something of value to your customers for free. This means providing something in your newsletter that gives the customers something that they want. It could be a good discount, important information, or a heads up on a new product that you provide to them at a special price. Whatever it is, be sure to provide something of good value for free in your newsletter.

Design MUST be responsive!

More people than ever use their mobile devices to check their emails and the numbers are still growing. So, make sure that what you send looks good on a small screen. Otherwise, they might be tempted to ignore it. If you want to increase your click rate, make sure that your email is attractive and readable on a small screen.

Send Newsletters in the Evening

The best time to send out your email is from 8pm to Midnight. This is the time that most people are away from work and can open your email to read it. Plus, it avoids many of the “junk” emails that are often sent out during the day, so make sure that you send your messages out at night for maximum effectiveness.

Weekends are Good, Too

It may seem at first that weekends would be a no-no for sending out your emails, but studies have shown that it works well. This is mostly because the volume of emails drops considerably during the weekend, so your email will stand out even more. If the products or services you provide are entertainment or fun-related, then the chances of them being seen and read go up even more.

While social media like Facebook and Twitter are important, emails still garner results for online businesses. The unique opens, increase in click rate, and better sales conversion are all part of effective email marketing. So, don’t lose focus on how email newsletter can work for your online business.

 

The Importance of Branding

One of the most important aspects of building up your business is branding. All the creative design, advertising, and reaching out to customers will not mean much if you cannot effectively boost the brand of your business. Understanding what branding means and how you can increase its potential means improving the bottom line of your business and making it more resilient.

What is Branding?

For decades, this was the use of the business name, slogan, symbol, and logo that provided instant recognition to the customer. Effective branding meant that a person could recognize a business by its logo, symbol, or even the design because it had been effectively advertised. The brand of a business gave identity and separated it from the competition.

Today, the business brand has changed somewhat thanks to the internet. This means that with the changing behavior of customers, so too must creative design be used to alter the brand so that it creates a positive mental picture for those who are interested in your products or services.

How Brands Work

The most important aspect of the brand is to separate you from the competition. To make your business recognizable to the public. However, there is more to effective branding than just letting everyone know about your business.

  • Creates Credibility
  • Connects to Customers
  • Delivers an Effective Message
  • Improves Sales Conversion
  • Imbues Loyalty to the Customer

All of these aspects are part of an effective business brand. However, to make it work you will need to know how to connect your brand to your target audience and get your message across.

Why Branding is SO Important

The better and more recognizable your brand, the better off your company will be in the day to day struggle of reaching new customers. It represents the foundation of your marketing efforts and one that reaches across all advertising campaigns to reinforce your credibility and authority in the industry. Because consumers respect an effective brand, it works for you all the time.

Creating loyal customers is the key to staying in business. This is because they will purchase your products or services again and again. Your brand will also create loyal employees who will see the value in the company and work harder to ensure that everyone succeeds. A good brand offers more than just a recognizable logo or symbol, but a basis for creating long-term benefits that your company will enjoy.

The good news about effective branding is that once it is established, it keeps paying benefits to your company throughout different marketing campaigns and changing times. It can also serve as inspiration in forging new advertising campaigns that help your business grow.

It takes creative design to come up with a proper brand, starting with being simple, yet different so that it is recognizable to customers. It helps if your branding efforts are related directly to the industry you serve so there is no confusion. By separating your company from the rest, the brand creates an instant identity that will serve your business well.

Get in touch with SB Marketing to start building your brand TODAY!

 

 

Responsive Design by SB Marketing LLC

Is Your Website Responsive?

It was not long ago that all websites were designed for computer and laptop screens. That all changed when mobile devices came along. At first, many companies developed second websites designed for the small mobile site screen, but that created the additional difficulty of maintain two separate websites.

Today, the responsive website design has taken over with more companies coming on board. There are definite advantages when using a single, responsive website that pays benefits from search engines to customer convenience.

More People Using Mobile Devices

According to Pew Research, 64% have cellphones while 42% have tablets in the US. Plus, more people are now searching the web on their mobile devices as compared to computers and laptops. For businesses that do not have responsive website designs, they are missing out on a large audience that is only growing by the day.

Search Engines

Google, far and away the most popular search engine on the internet, uses an algorithm that emphasizes responsive website design. This means that when selecting among otherwise equal websites, it will rank the ones that are responsive higher which means that having one is of great benefit to your online business.

No More Mobile Site Website

With no mobile website to maintain, you no longer have to worry about updating the content of two sites. A common issue with many business owners who had two or more sites that offered the same content was keeping up with both. Plus, the SEO made it more difficult because duplicated content drove down search engine rankings, even if the sites were aimed at different devices. A responsive website eliminates having to create similar content for both computers and mobile devices which means that you can focus on other challenges.

Financial

In addition to not having to keep up with two sites, there is also the financial advantage that having a single website brings when it serves computer and mobile site devices. First, a site that is not friendly to mobile device means it gets less traffic, fewer customers, and less income. Plus, if you have a mobile site, that means you are paying for two sites that offer similar content and that increases your overhead. Having a single site with a responsive design is the most economically efficient and will help keep the overhead down.

Improve Experience

When you consider the difficulties in using a mobile site, a responsive website design can really shine. This means that you can view it on any size screen and know whether it is working correctly. This will improve your rankings on search engines and your customers will appreciate not having to bounce between sites as they visit your online business.

Overall, a responsive website design offers many advantages for your business. By accessing larger audiences and providing on a single website, you can save money while reaching more potential customers. Plus, you avoid the expense of having to fund a mobile site and updating with content that cannot be duplicated which only creates more work.