Break the Addiction of Being a Stats Junkie: Take Action.

Google Analytics, page visits, referrers, facebook insights, email open rates and click-thrus - so much data! Stats are awesome if you do something with the information besides getting excited when the numbers go up! 

Are you obsessed with stats from your website, social media and email marketing?

You know the open rates, the click-thrus, the google analytics -- telling you how many visitors you've had on your website, new likes, followers, etc?

Be honest - you're a stats junkie.

But what do all those stats mean?

We can tell you one thing! They mean absolutely
NOTHING
if you don't do anything with the information!.

Yes, it's wonderful to watch as the numbers go up - all those email marketing opens and click-thrus the LIKES, SHARES, RETWEETS on social media, and even the visitors to your website. To make it all worth while however, you have to analyze the information and create an action plan to turn those clicks, likes, shares, and visitors into SALES.

Action Steps You Can Take from the Data and Analytics

Honestly, you could spend all day, everyday planning, putting more systems in place and tracking results, and we could literally write a book on what those plans and action steps should be. But, we're not going to write a book. We are going to give you a few simple suggestions for getting better results from your email marketing campaigns. And by better results we mean LEAD GENERATION and ultimately more SALES. 

Email Marketing Results:

Open Rates: 

Open Rates for the average small business is 18%. (membership driven organizations will normally see a higher rate). That being said, you can increase the number of opens by:

1. Making sure the from line is easily identifiable: Jane Doe | ABC Company or ABC Company | Jane Doe.
2. Use an email address associated with your website rather than gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc: yourname@yourdomain.com. 
3. THE BIG ONE: Ensure your SUBJECT LINE compels your reader to open your email campaign. Use Constant Contact's 2-2-2 Rule: 2 seconds, 2 words, TOday.  
4. Take advantage of the pre-header. This is a short sentence that shows up in the preview panes of many email platforms including mobile. Back up your subject line with a strong statement to entice the reader further to open your campaign. 
5. If you're certain all of the above is 'great' consider your email list: Is it current? Did the people in your list opt-in? Or, did you add them from an event or contest (where you were granted permission to do so)? Try segmenting your lists to better suit the content you are sending. 
6. Refrain from spammy phrases and words that may land your email in the spam folder. 
7. Remember to design for mobile-friendly viewing. 
9. Next, look at day and time you are sending your email campaigns. Try different times or days of the week. Your readers may be more prone to reading at night than during the day, depending on your business.  
10. Monitor your results over the next few campaigns to see if your numbers have increased. 

Click-Thrus: 

The ratio of click-thrus versus opens is usually low. An average click through rate for most businesses is about 12% from those who opened. To entice readers to click-thru to your bigger message, here are a few suggestions:

• Use a video to get your message across. Videos statistically are viewed more often across most platforms. 
• Have one major call to action and story line. Having other information is okay, but keep your important message at the top with the call to action easily found. It wouldn't hurt to put the call to action in more than once as well. 
• Have no more than 3 links to follow. Less is more.  People are extremely busy. If they see one or two links they may read and follow through. More than that, often they will decide to come back to your email at a later date, which in many cases never happens. 
• Use images but ensure the ratio of text and images is at minimum equal with more text being preferential.

We could keep going, but really we are here to give you insight on the email results reports. 

Consider the following to generate more leads and sales:

1. One to two days after the campaign has been sent, export your 'all opens' list to an excel file (not unique opens, but all opens). Now sort the file by email address, then date and time opened. From this list you can see how many times an individual opened your email. Pay attention to when the majority of opens occurred. Note this for future reference in determining when the best time to send is. Next look at the individuals who opened your campaign two or more times (Disregard multiple opens that are seconds apart - this is usually due to a scroll over). As these individuals were interested enough to open your campaign more than once, they were interested in your topic to some degree. Export these people to a new list in your email marketing account and create a follow-up email to these individuals with more detailed information than in your first campaign. Don't forget your call to action.  
2. Also export your click-thru list. Also send these people more detailed information about your original topic, with a stronger call to action. If you're familiar with autoresponders, you might have already done this step by creating a secondary email that goes to those who clicked-thru automatically because of their initial action. 
3. From  your second email campaign, analyze in the same way. We bet you find your phone has rang, a few have followed up with your call to action, or you have received email requests. 
4. At this point, you could call the others on your list as a follow up, or send a third campaign. Either way, you have your potential customer's attention. Don't drop the ball and hope they get in touch with you. 

Oh -- and if you do call, refrain from saying 'I saw you opened my email 5 times and clicked on all three links'. This usually scares the bejeezers out of people.. Most people know the technology is there, they may even use it themselves - but, generally people do not want to be reminded you can see what they do with your emails.  

Instead try something like: "I'm calling as a follow-up to our email campaign sent out on Tuesday. We find many people have had questions not covered in the email campaign. Is there anything I can answer for you today?"   Hopefully, you get a sale, but if not, you've opened the door.  

There are many more ways to engage with your list through follow-up, autoresponders and cross promotion through your social media campaigns and your website -- but then, we would be writing that book. 

Email marketing is more than sending a pretty message by email. It truly is an effective means of communication, lead generation and sales -- if you follow through. 

As a Constant Contact Authorized Local Expert, we have many resources, training and even email marketing campaign management available should you require more information. 

Contact Us Today.