1. Use the subscriber’s name. Start with the subject line: ‘Welcome Scott’ or ‘Welcome Sara’ goes a long way. And in the body copy, start with a personalized salutation. Thank you, Scott, for joining us. Thank you, Sara, for joining us.
2. Say ‘thank you’ and include the method of subscription. It can be useful to remind the new subscriber how and why they signed up for your email database; this buttresses their decision.
3. INCLUDE A THANK YOU OFFER…persuade the new subscriber to start buying right away by giving them an irresistible offer.
4. Frequency. Let the subscriber know how often they will receive emails. One proven tactic is to offer the subscriber the opportunity to change frequency.
5. Gather more data. To encourage opt ins, you may have asked for just the first name and email address. That’s fine, but it can be extremely valuable to start gathering some additional demographic and psychographic information in the welcome email. You may need to provide an additional incentive to gather this additional valuable information. It’s worth it: by segmenting your database, you gain additional marketing horsepower.
6. Make it easy to leave the list. “Are you serious?” you may ask. “Yes. Absolutely.” Make it clear that you’re completely fair and ethical when it comes to your email marketing.
7. Safe sending. Include an easy way for new subscribers to ‘white list’ your emails. This helps to ensure delivery of emails and also helps to make sure that images get through.
8. Please tell your friends. New subscribers will encourage friends and family to subscribe—especially if you provide them with an incentive.
9. Take your time. It’s better to send several shorter thank you emails than one behemoth welcome email.
10. Make it timely. If it’s the holiday season, then make sure the content is for the holiday season. If it’s summer, then make the content complement the season. You can also build welcome email marketing content around events.

All email marketing is important. The welcome emails provide an opportunity to make a great first impression. Use the proven methods above and you’ll be more likely to keep those all-important new subscribers engaged with your email marketing. And when subscribers are engaged, they’re more likely to buy your products and services.

Whatever it is, all of the big players in the space had that moment when their platform crossed over from "I’m going to create an account and check it every once in a while" to "this needs to be part of my daily communications routine" – Is Pinterest there?

It just might be.

A quick update for those of you who still may be a tad late to the party on this one: Pinterest is a network currently in invitation-only beta. Users are provided an easy-to-use platform that enables them to take images from around the web, or their own, and "pin" them to their "board" as a way of visually telling their community what they are eating, watching, reading, listening to, thinking about… "Interested In."  Users can then follow the activity of their friends and comment on it, Like it, Tweet it, etc. across the social web.  The company describes its purpose as "Connecting everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting."

What I find particularly encouraging about Pinterest right now is that it seems to be answering the call for curation.  Avid social media users are now receiving information faster than they know what to do with, or maybe more importantly, tell others about. Pinterest provides a visual snapshot to your friends of everything you "like" all in one place.

But what about Pinterest for business? 

 As we see the gradual disappearance of more and more Facebook stores, and brands still struggle with figuring out how to tie engagement to purchase, that has to be the next logical question, right?  In a recent survey of businesses that described themselves as "active" in the social space, when asked: Is your business using Pinterest? They responded in the following manner:

• No, and we’re not considering it - 40.38%
• Yes  - 30.77%
• No, but we’re considering it  - 28.85%

Currently, Pinterest claims over 13MM users, and having attained them in 10 months, makes them the fastest social media platform to surpass the 10MM mark.  Of those, domestically 83% are women and 3% report an income above 100K. Specifically, Pinterest’s sweet spot appears to be women aged 18 to 34 living in households with incomes between $25,000 and $75,000 per year.

The site has a very feminine look and feel about it. The opening page is predominantly wallpapered with images of women's outfits, DIY craft projects, recipes and wedding dresses. But while this may be where they are best at driving engagement and sharing, they recently got beat to the e-commerce punch by Fancy.  Fancy allows users to participate in many of the same activities as Pinterest, but they also enable users to make purchases of these same products and services that that enjoy "pinning"…. directly on the platform.  This is major step towards fusing curating and commerce

It should come as no surprise then that two of the brands on Pinterest that caught my eye immediately were Bergdorf Goodman and HGTV. Pins from the former are a mixture of products from bergdorfgoodman.com as well as web images chosen to appeal to their customers. Images for the latter subscribe to HGTV's self-described Pinning strategy of "creating a team atmosphere and being inspirational."

It looks like both brands, like so many others right now, understand the importance of a coordinated cross-channel approach for retail within social and also understand that building brand affinity leads to intent to purchase.  But, also like so many others in the space, they have not solved the final piece of the puzzle: "Why should I buy what I Pin?"

So Pinterest is definitely picking up speed like a locomotive. Most insiders have already signed up.  Probably because they are afraid to miss the next big thing (see Google+).  Those who have not, are probably afraid to ask the "what is Pinterest?" question aloud. 

Initially, I think Pinterest has a chance to own two niches:

1) It could be the social media platform of choice for foodies. Pinterest seems to lend it itself to easily posting food pics, sharing recipes and giving recommendations.

2) It could establish itself as the de facto "scrapbooking" platform. With Pinterest, you can easily display all of the National Parks, Baseball Stadiums, or Bruce Springsteen concerts you’ve been to or are interested in.

Additionally, businesses that have multiple destinations (hotels, chain restaurants, amusement parks) or that have a visually distinct/appealing product should at this point consider setting up an account and participating at an entry level.  But they should do so in a unique manner without over-committing resources…yet. 

Using Pinterest to mirror your Facebook or Twitter activity will just segment your audience and show the early adopters that you’re not in for the long haul.  Show value, earn trust, and then refine your strategy.

For more information on integrating Pinterest into your marketing programs, be sure to register for StrongMail’s April 11 live webinar: "Put a Pin in It! Leveraging Pinterest to Drive Email and Business Results."

Facebook has access to lifestyle and demographic information on over 800 million people worldwide. That’s more than most traditional data providers will ever have. When you combine this information with data sourced from listening platforms and social data providers like Fliptop and Rapleaf, you can start to build rich subscriber profiles based on this high-value, self-reported information. StrongMail offers a proprietary tool that enables you to append and then query off of this data, which is currently returning a 70% match rate simply using name and location. The match rate is even higher if you’re appending off an email address as the primary key.

In addition to these tools and services, brands can also be direct and ask their customers for assistance in pairing the data. This can be accomplished with campaigns sent out from email and social media. Email subscribers can be asked to connect with your brand on Twitter, Facebook and other networks. Similarly, members of a brand’s social networks can be encouraged to opt-in to their email communications.  Enabling Facebook Connect and Twitter Sign-on capabilities, as well as promoting Facebook applications can be another way to access this data. Chances are your social media team is investing in building Facebook apps to drive brand engagement. Are you getting access to the data that they receive through that process?

Instead of leaving social media marketing to the brand marketers, email marketers need to collaborate with their brand counterparts and look for opportunities to leverage the massive amounts of data on the social web to learn more about their email subscribers.  By collecting social data, appending it to your database and leveraging it to increase the relevancy of your messaging, you can exponentially improve the performance of your campaigns across every channel.

1. The Economy is in Bad Shape… but Social Media Continues to Grow. According to Jordan Rohan, Managing Director of the Internet and Digital Media practice for Stifel Nicolaus, most of the world is still digesting the fact that the US GDP is growing around 1% and Europe is flat. China’s growth is also slowing because it is so dependent on US consumers, whose spending has dipped dramatically. We are entering a bear economy, but social media is one of the few sectors that will continue to grow in the coming years. In fact, Forrester Research predicts that social media will rev at a 26% CAGR over the next five years to become a $4.4 billion industry by 2016. (Source: US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2011 To 2016)

2. Facebook Rules Social Media. Facebook currently has 50% of the U.S. population as active members, and the average Facebook user visits Facebook 38 times per day. These are astounding metrics, and yet many brands are still struggling with their monetization strategies on Facebook. Most experts agree that you need to build a strategy around the fact that engagement takes place in the news stream – not on the brand fan page. In fact, Starbucks is currently generating 156 impressions in the news feed for every 1 visit to their brand page.

3. Twitter is One to Watch. 92% of US Consumers have heard of Twitter, but only 8% use it. There is huge growth potential for Twitter and marketers should keep an eye on them as they begin to monetize their traffic. Some analysts think that a Google acquisition of Twitter could pose a significant challenge to Facebook’s market dominance. As for your marketing strategy, keep in mind that Twitter is all about breaking news. Therefore it’s important to keep your content strategy fresh. The #1 reason that people stop following a brand on Twitter is because the content became repetitive over time.

4. Google+ Has Built It… But Will They Come? Google+ is suffering from a chicken-and-the-egg syndrome. While they’re adding new members at the rate of 1 million a day, many of those people aren’t actively using it. Meanwhile brands are taking a “wait and see” approach because they’re concerned that Google+ might go the way of Google Wave. Part of the problem lies in the fact that Google launched its viral go-to-market strategy with a fickle group of technologists, whereas Facebook spread virally via college students at Harvard. If Google wants to drive adoption as quickly as possible, they need to go straight to the consumer. One way to do this would be to give brands the ability to send Google+ invites to their email lists and enable consumers to easily connect with the corresponding brand pages (when available).

5. Build Facebook Apps to Grow Your Database. Facebook currently has 50% of all social market share, according to Justin Kistner of WebTrends. That is a massive amount of data that is waiting to be tapped. American Express built an application called “Link, Like, Love” that delivers deals, access and experiences based on card member “Likes” and interests on Facebook. Users of the app can get rebates at checkout, access location based offers via mobile check-ins, and share offers with other friends. The app has been so popular, that the site crashed on July 19 from too much traffic. But the real genius of this program is that, as the creators of the app, American Express gets access to Facebook’s rich social data profiles for anyone who uses the app, which they can append to their cardholder database.

6. Use Facebook’s Self-Service Ad Marketplace. If you’re going to buy Facebook Ads, here’s a tip… don’t call their ad sales department. You will pay a $10 CPM if you buy directly from Facebook’s Ad Sales and only a $.70 CPM if you buy ads through their self-service marketplace. And when creating your ad targeting strategy, don’t forget to target your fans. You'll see a .35% CTR instead of a .1% CTR.

7. Tap Social Media for Customer Acquisition. Only 18% of people believe paid advertising; however, 80% of people believe word-of-mouth. Harnessing word-of-mouth for new customer acquisition can be an extremely powerful tactic. Discover Card presented a great case study on how they’ve integrated social referrals into their transactional process for registering new cardholders. Each card member is offered $50 for referring a friend who is approved for a new card, and the new applicant also receives $50. The program has been so successful that Discover is looking to expand its multi-channel acquisition program into additional channels such as mobile.

8. Humanity is More Important than Being Perfect. Authenticity is the key to a successful social media marketing strategy. Keep it human and get your message out on time before getting it perfect. When you’re crafting your creative, you should also keep in mind that people are 5X more likely to click on an image if it has a human face on it.

9. Social Media Marketing is Taking a Page from Email Marketing’s Playbook. Many of the social media marketing best practices shared during the summit could have easily been plucked from an email marketing conference. The many guidelines and tips about how to reach the right influencer with the right message at the right time, communication frequency and the best day to post sounded all too familiar. The good news is that responsibility for social media appears to be moving out of the house of PR and into the hands of marketers where it can be monetized.

10. Old School Marketers Still Have the Best Advice. There were many great sound bites floated during this conference, but the best had to be a timeless quote from David Ogilvy: “The consumer is not a moron… she’s your wife.” If you can effectively grasp that, you’ll go far in any marketing field. 

For a detailed recap of what transpired at the event, check out the #mpsmis Twitter Stream or follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kristinhersant.

And tune into our blog to stay up to speed on the newest social media marketing trends.

Discover Financial Services & StrongMail Entry for Forrester Groundswell Awards

Company: Discover Financial Services
Type: B2C
Category: Energizing

The Objective

Discover Card's New Cardmember Acquisition department was tasked with launching a simple, cost-efficient, effective refer-a-friend marketing program that would facilitate cardmember brand advocacy to enhance its brand and drive new cardmember acquisition.  In order to achieve this objective, Discover partnered with StrongMail to leverage its Influencer word-of-mouth acquisition solution. Working together, they identified the goals, designed the campaign and proceeded with a soft launch in May 2011.

The highly effective social-media powered referral marketing campaign offered cardmembers $50 Cashback Bonus for each friend that they could entice to become a cardmember via a reciprocal $50 Cashback Bonus. The offer is introduced via an online ad to cardmembers logged into the Account Center or recently redeemed.  Once they click, the Influencer experience enables them to share the offer via email, Twitter, Facebook and other social channels. Since launch, they have realized a 25% click rate with 3X and 10X sharing multiple through social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter respectively. Through this program Cardmembers have referred those within their social graph.

The Challenge

Discover Financial Services was looking to drive new cardmember acquisition in a way that attracted quality applicants as well as strengthened its brand. While traditional refer-a-friend programs are fairly common within the financial services industry, Discover Card wanted take a more innovative approach that allowed them to carefully target who would receive the offer and then leverage the power of social media to facilitate the referral. Equally important, Discover wanted to generate this brand advocacy with a cost-efficient and effective program that could be launched in a relatively short time-frame. It also wanted a way to identify their biggest social influencers and brand advocates, so they could leverage and nurture this community more effectively.

The Solution

In order to achieve its objectives, Discover turned to StrongMail's Influencer word-of-mouth acquisition solution and its accompanying social media marketing services.  Working together, Discover and StrongMail developed a compelling, social-media-powered refer-a-friend program that carefully targeted cardmembers during relevant online experiences. 

By offering a Cashback bonus to both the cardmember and the referred cardmember, Discover was able to effectively tap two powerful motivators: self-benefit and altruism. While rewards are important, Discover understood that ease-of-participation was also essential for success.  Using Influencer, Discover made it possible for the account holder to easily refer friends via a range of social channels, including Facebook, Twitter and email.  Without leaving the Discover Account Center, they could share to social networks or access email addresses via their webmail accounts to send personalized invites.

Further motivating participants, Influencer sends participants regular updates on the success of their sharing activity, including who has signed up for accounts, who has only clicked, and who has yet to respond.  By providing this information, the account holder is able to remind individuals to participate, or invite more friends to increase their reward potential.

Discover also benefits from being able to identify their biggest brand advocates by volume of sharing activity and the number of new accounts that activity generated. Using Influencer, Discover can drill down on the sharing activity of each referrer, including the reach achieved through multi-generation sharing, as those referred turned into brand advocates. With this data, Discover is able to gauge the influence of its customer base to drive new accounts, as well as develop programs to nurture relationships with its brand advocates.

The Results

Discover was able to successfully energize its best customers to share the referral offer with their friends, and the results have been impressive. The program been successful in generating new accounts and has become very popular, generating a 25% click rate among the targeted users who see the online offer.  The program has also succeeded in generating social media activity around their brand, as Discover has seen a 3X and 10X sharing increase on Facebook and Twitter since its launch.  Finally, the program met their budget and timing goals, moving from concept to reality within 3 months.

Castrol & StrongMail Entry for Forrester Groundswell Awards

Company: StrongMail
Type: B2C
Category: Energizing

Strategy

Taking care of automobiles and maximizing car performance is what Castrol knows and does exceptionally well with leading-edge technology and a careful attention to quality. 

But what Castrol really wanted to know was to how to build an ongoing conversation and ultimately loyalty with key influencers – car and racing enthusiasts. 

Our strategy was put together with the following in mind:

• Create a unique brand experience that drives participation across multiple social and user communities
• Develop unique personas with social technographics overlay
• Building a targeted email communications program that encourages sharing, engagement and purchasing

StrongMail helped Castrol not only learn more about their customers’ needs, interests and behaviors but also developed an innovative communications and community strategy that rewarded participation and drove loyalty, sales and brand advocacy.

Castrol’s “Liquid Engineering Crew” (LEC) loyalty website (www.castrolcrew.com) was developed to ignite conversations, cultivate relationships and drive commerce across the social internet. 

Execution and Use of Media

Working closely with Castrol’s research team, StrongMail surveyed existing subscribers and customers to better understand their interests, needs and behaviors including what they do online – their social media profiles

StrongMail built a robust content and communications program that included the development of several unique social communities (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr) and an innovative loyalty website that integrated these communities to create a unique experience for key influencers.  The free membership loyalty website encourages users to participate by accumulating “Castrol Credits," which can be redeemed for Castrol merchandise, racing memorabilia and tickets to racing and sporting events.  Credits are accrued through participating in forum discussions, signing up for racing alerts and LEC newsletter emails and signing up for Castrol’s Engine Warranty Program.

The aim of the integrated marketing program is to nudge customers beyond discussions about “motor oil” and toward a conversation around their true passion – cars and racing. 

With more than 2.1 million auto-related conversations taking place online each month, a twenty-five year relationship with John Force Racing and a recently announced partnership with Major League Soccer and the NFL, Castrol has quickly expanded their presence beyond traditional car and racing enthusiasts.

Through our joint efforts, the program was not only able to align to corporate objectives and consumer needs, but has also been successful in driving participation, sharing, advocacy and sales.

Results ROI

LEC users’ engagement is evaluated through quarterly reviews, focused on increased performance in targeted criteria including:

• Number of registered users and fans across social media profiles.
• Number of forum posts and comments.
• Number of monthly Castrol blog views and comments.
• Overall increase in delivery, open and click rates of monthly LEC newsletter email.

Through this program, Castrol has seen large increases in activity across all areas of the LEC, including membership, traffic engagement and participation.  As the most active user areas, discussion forums and Castrol blogs each saw an increase of 400% between Q2 and Q4 2010, with activity continuing to increase daily. Castrol sweepstakes and product promotions have seen an increase as well, with LEC banners and buttons typically contributing anywhere from between 8% to 21% of the total clicks and entries to a typical promotion.

In addition, Castrol’s social communities grew an astonishing 2,000% in just nine months and received 5 out of 5 stars for post quality from Facebook.  The Facebook rating compares engagement across similar fan pages of similar size.  Perhaps most significantly, Castrol’s email and social media effort now leads all other media in conversation and represents one of its most successful channels for driving rebate conversations and, ultimately, purchases.

Since implementing the LEC, Castrol has taken over discussions.  Our monthly reports have shown that Castrol has since gone from being on par with competitors in terms of discussion mentions, to consistently leading all competitors in discussion mentions in mainstream media, online forums, Facebook and Twitter.

In conclusion, with StrongMail’s help, Castrol took the time to understand its customers, built a strategy that supported corporate objectives and leveraged the right tools, technologies and techniques to facilitate participation and purchasing. This concentrated effort has resulted in steady increases across all of Castrol’s social profiles as well as increases in participation and activity on Castrol’s LEC website.

Creative Samples

Liquid Engineering Crew loyalty website
http://www.castrolcrew.com

Castrol USA Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/castrolusa

Castrol USA Twitter
http://twitter.com/castrolusa

Castrol USA Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/castrolusa

Castrol USA YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/castrolusa

StrongMail Forrester Groundswell Awards Entry

Company: StrongMail
Type: B2B
Category: Supporting

The Challenge

In 2010, business was booming, but StrongMail began to feel the limits of its existing support infrastructure, which wasn’t effectively scaling with its growth. 

Part of the problem was that customers had only a couple of paths to talk to StrongMail – technical support and their account manager. While customers had additional access to forums and a self-service portal to open support cases, customers preferred to pick up the phone. To most of StrongMail’s customers, a call to its customer support number seemed the easier path for just about any question they had, technical or otherwise. Often, the questions revolved around best practices and strategy, which then needed to be routed to StrongMail's account management team.

Additionally, like most companies, the size of the staff needed to provide customer service at StrongMail was driven by a formula: as you grew your customer base by “x” you needed to add "y" headcount, which has a significant impact on the cost of providing service.  This was exacerbated by StrongMail's rapid growth. In order to overcome these challenges, StrongMail began looking for an effective social business solution to power an online customer community. 

Customer Community Goals

StrongMail had five goals it wanted to achieve with its customer community:

• Cost-effectively scale its existing customer support model
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Improve quality of support information
• Improve communication with customers on an ongoing basis
• Receive feedback on desired features and product direction

After reviewing available solutions, StrongMail selected Jive Software to power its new customer community. StrongMail also opted to take a social CRM approach and integrate Spark with their support case logging process in salesforce.com, providing customers with a single, centralized resource to meet all of their support needs.

Implementing a Social CRM-Powered Customer Community

Working with Jive, StrongMail deployed "Spark" in April 2010. This external, customer-facing online community integrated directly with StrongMail's formal case management processes, enabling collaboration with other customers, promoting self-service, and giving StrongMail a platform for engaging more broadly and more frequently with its customers.

The Right Approach Fuels Rapid Customer Adoption

Three months after implementing Spark, the interactive community had already attracted 78% of StrongMail customer's base.  A year later, that number is now at an impressive 95%, with over a thousand users. Of all Spark members, 56% log-in on a regular basis to find answers to their questions and 50% report using technical support less as a result of having Spark available to find answers.

StrongMail achieved these engagement levels by investing in the right technology and implementing an effective strategy developed in conjunction with Jive experts. They also formed a cross-departmental steering committee that was led by Marketing and included representation from Support, Services, Account Management, Product Management and Sales. Working together, StrongMail was able to structure the community in a way that provided quick access to information and that encouraged collaboration with other customers and internal StrongMail experts.

The cross-functional team enabled StrongMail to successfully integrate Spark into every customer touch point – from the customer onboarding process through to monthly account management meetings, support interactions and the StrongMail product suite. The marketing team also used an effective combination of email marketing, Twitter, Facebook, an evangelist program and offline events called “Spark Ups” to foster and drive ongoing engagement with the customer community.

Qualitative Results

Spark has had a huge impact on increasing customer satisfaction and interaction with their customer base.  

• Customers are quick to answer questions from other customers.
• Educational materials are being viewed and discussed widely on a regular basis, which has a direct impact on reducing support calls.
• Internal StrongMail experts outside the official Support team are interacting with customers, which plays a role in strengthening connections with the company’s customer base.
• Product management has received valuable feedback for enhancing future product versions.

Quantitative Results

Spark has exceeded company goals with the following quantitative metrics:

• 95% adoption rate amongst StrongMail’s active support customers
• 56% of those users log into Spark regularly to find answers
• 97% of Spark users find it to be a helpful resource
• 57% of Spark users report that they first visit the community to find answers to their questions
• Only 6% of customers visit Spark to log a Support case *only*
• 50% of customers report that they have reduced their use of technical support by using Spark to find answers

In summary, StrongMail’s Spark community has been a great company success that has increased the quality of service delivered to its customers, fostered a sense of community between StrongMail customers and employees company-wide, and enabled the company to scale its high-quality support in a more cost-effective manner.

It has become common place for consumers to Like and Follow popular brands in search of offers and other information to tighten the consumer-brand relationship. And now brands are looking at ways to tap the social networks of their biggest fans to acquire new customers.  This has played out most obviously in the daily deal sector, with companies like Groupon, LivingSocial and HauteLook offering to reward their members for successful attempts at converting friends in their social networks into fellow customers. As a result, the member base for these companies has grown like wildfire.  However, convincing a friend to join a company that can get them 70% off their favorite brand doesn't seem like such a difficult proposition.  The real question is how this strategy plays out with more traditional companies without a sexy business model or the promise of deep discounts.

When asked to describe their favorite brands, it's not very often that consumers offer up their bank, credit card company or broker – and even less so after the financial bailout.  So, how successful could an established financial institution be at leveraging its customers to acquire new customers? The answer, it turns out, is "very."  Last month, Discover Card launched a social-media powered referral marketing campaign that offered card holders $50 for each friend that they could entice to become a card member via a reciprocal $50 incentive.  The targeted online ad is introduced to cardholders when they are redeeming their points.  The friend can deliver the offer via email, as well as their Twitter and Facebook pages.  Discover seems to have gotten Refer-A-Friend right.  They are introducing the offer within the positive context of getting value from using the credit card, and they are allowing the customer a choice in sharing methods.

In case you're thinking that one successful example doesn't validate the power of referral marketing for financial services (and other vertical markets in general), how about two case studies?  Zecco Trading, a popular online investing site, also sought to motivate its members to recruit new ones. They were smart and realized that their most passionate and loyal customers were likely hanging out in the customer community that they set up for members to ask questions and exchange information with each.  After testing a number of incentives, they standardized their offer on $75 cash back for every friend who opened and funded a new Zecco Trading account.  As a result, they saw a 14% increase in new account acquisition. Even better, 9% of those who reviewed the campaign became influencers, resulting in 1 new member for every 2.2 referrers.

The point is that if Financial Services firms can be successful with word-of-mouth customer acquisition, then nearly any company with a subset up of passionate customers can take advantage of this powerful tactic. The trick is to target the right audience and offer the right incentive.  When done right, customers will respond.  And while social media channels like Twitter and Facebook are important for getting the word out to your customers – and for empowering them to share – email also plays a critical role.

Email should not be overlooked when executing a word-of-mouth referral marketing campaign.  While announcing your new referral program on banners or a purchase or form confirmation page is a good way to get the attention of an engaged user, welcome emails can also be an effective way to target new customers and clearly explain the benefits of your program. It should also be noted that when people do reach out to their friends, they choose to share the offer via email 80% of the time. 

Social is not killing email. They are not natural foes, but rather complimentary channels with their own strengths.  Email allows marketers to more specifically target loyal customers at the right time, including those not currently active on social networks.  Giving targeted recipients the opportunity to share via email also allows them to be more targeted, rather than extending a referral marketing offer to every one of their friends on Facebook.  Social media has made us all more connected, and with the right incentive, you can motivate your brand advocates to tap their social networks to acquire new customers in a way that makes both parties look good – regardless of what business you're in.

Social media marketing can improve company visibility and customer relations, but if it’s not done well, it will cause confusion and turn customers off. Here are 9 common social media marketing best practices that help companies and customers alike.

1) Have a clear, measurable goal. This doesn’t have to be something related to money – in fact, brands are still struggling with how to best quantify social media marketing in ROI terms. All of the following are reasonable social media marketing goals, and can be measured:
   • Improved SEO
   • Prospect list growth
   • Increased contact with existing customers

2. Be consistent in your communications. This takes more work than you might think. Decide what your tone will be. Know what should and shouldn’t be emphasized online. Also be sure to have a quality check for tone and messaging before anything is published in a social media channel.

3. Be conversational. And brief. People expect online communications to be informal and short. Link to longer material like a web page or a whitepaper.

4. Go where your customers are. Search for topics related to your business on LinkedIn and Facebook. Or search for your business on Yelp or Insider Pages and other such resources to see how people are talking about your company. Your customers will likely be willing to share their social behaviors, so don’t forget to ask them.

5. Make it easy to find more information about your company. That’s the point of all marketing, isn’t it? It’s perfectly acceptable to include links back to your site in social media communications. Just remember the goal is to participate in conversations and not simply self promote.

6. Share relevant links. Social media is popular because it enables people to find and share information that they value. By all means, link to your company’s whitepapers, but also show that you’re engaged in a wider conversation by sharing:
• Blogs
• News Stories
• Other relevant information

And always, always link to sources. There are few social media no-no’s bigger than not acknowledging a source of information.

7. Listen and respond. The “social” part of social media is its greatest – and most often unexplored – potential. Not too long ago, most marketing was about talking to your potential customer. Most people these days rightly expect that you will talk with them. If you don’t, you’ll be perceived as, well, unsocial.

8. Be active. There is no hard-and-fast rule about too much or too little social media communication. It depends on the setting, the industry, and others involved in the conversation. Be prepared to participate daily, even if that just means responding to comments or adding to a conversation.

9. Don’t give up. Go back to #1 above. If you’re not getting the results you want, try new ways to engage your intended audience. The web makes it easy to reinvent your message and try new social media marketing strategies.

Learn more from our website about email marketing and social media marketing. You can also join us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The numbers from eMarketer suggest that “everyone is doing it:”

• Two-thirds of U.S. e-mail marketers are integrating social media into their campaigns.
• A majority of small businesses plan to allow users to sign up for emails directly from social media sites like Facebook.

But should you integrate your email and social media marketing? Yes. Here are five reasons why:

1. The early numbers back it up. One study noted that click-through rates improved from 7.2% to 8.7% when a social sharing option was included. Another reported that a clear majority of email marketing firms found that marketing results were better after integrating social media and email.

2. Integration expands an email list to interested parties. People sign up for e-mails from Facebook and other social media sites, which of course increases the chance that they will read your material.

3. Integration expands the ways people can interact with you. The goal of most marketing is direct interaction with a potential customer. With integration, the reader of your latest email can go to Facebook and join a conversation, and someone else in that conversation can find out more about your product via email. And both are just one step away from your website, which is where most conversions happen.

4. Integration helps refine your message. When you have to make sure your Facebook posts, emails, and website complement each other, you are more likely to stay “on message.” In other words, it’s a good communications strategy.

5. Integration fulfills two key marketing needs at once. As an article in Direct Marketing News recently pointed out, email engages potential customers directly while social media nurtures brand advocacy. Integrating them helps customers seamlessly pass from the one to the other.

It will be interesting to see what numbers come out in 2011. Although there’s little doubt that email and social media integration will become the norm (some would say it is already), no one (to my knowledge) has come up with really compelling statistics to back up its effectiveness. The industry as a whole is, for the most part, still in “anecdote mode” when it comes to integrating email marketing and social media marketing.

Learn more from our website about email marketing and social media marketing. You can also join us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Find out how to embrace new tools like social media and 2D barcodes, as well as tips for improving the performance of proven tactics like remarketing campaigns and search advertising.

You can read the eM+C article below, or at eM+C at:
http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/blog/maximize-holiday-sales

eMarketing & Commerce (eM+C)

Maximize Holiday Sales
November 4, 2010
By Michael Della Penna

As the holiday season kicks into high gear, brands are scrambling to maximize sales and results. The growing use of social media and smartphones adds enormous complexity, along with many opportunities for today’s digital marketing gurus. But fear not! With a little preparation and integration, double-digit sales increases are possible. Here’s how to get the most out of your Q4 digital efforts to drive sales and grow lifetime value for many years to come.

Community tagging. Tag existing offline marketing efforts with Facebook/Twitter tags. Integrate “Like” opportunities at key touchpoints, such as your homepage and product pages. A recent study from Syncapse and Hotspex found the lifetime value of a Facebook fan is about $136 to top brands. Consider offering an incentive to encourage consumers to become a fan of your brand, such as making a donation to a cause/charity for each sign-up. And remember to stress the value of being a fan or follower. Adding a “Like” button or "Join the Community" call to action only makes return on investment sense if you have a strategy and communication framework established to engage the community once you’ve converted them.

Belly up to barcodes. It’s estimated as much as 70 percent of all purchase decisions are made at the point of sale (POS). Therefore, it's critical to stand out on store shelves and to offer some extra value. How about integrating new 2-D barcodes, which enables consumers to use their smartphones to “Like” your brand or product at the POS? Also, pay close attention to mobile applications like Foursquare, which now boasts more than 4 million users. Mobile will increasingly become a critical channel to not only acquire new customers, but grow the community and drive sales via the serving of location-based offers.

Segment and socialize. Implement sharing capabilities on banner ads and email marketing efforts. For existing email efforts, segment your audience based on engagement and social profiles. By targeting best customers and testing various incentives, you can encourage your best customers to get actively involved in the promotion of your brand, thus extending your marketing efforts’ reach and effectiveness. Remember to not only identify who shared the information, but flag them as an influencer for future campaigns.

Email, social and loyalty. Lots has been written about the integration of email and social media. But the importance of coordinating efforts across channels cannot be underestimated. Coordinate socialized email deployments with Facebook and Twitter posts. Furthermore, for those of you with established loyalty programs and sites, don’t forget to sweeten the deal for loyalty members.

The old rule still applies: With proper pampering, your best customers will become your best advocates. Studies and data also show that they buy more products and purchase more often, so remember to treat them extra special. Integrate offers into loyalty websites and statements, and highlight additional benefits for your best customers.

Remarketing/targeting. If you’re a direct response marketer, you likely have access to lots of data. Start with the basics this holiday season by implementing a remarketing strategy for key efforts. With average open rates hovering around 20 percent, look closely at open/click activity and resend offers based on observed behaviors and actions. Consider sweetening offers when and where appropriate. Implementation of a remarketing strategy can lift overall conversion rates anywhere from 50 percent to 200 percent.

However, be careful not to annoy your customers. Be conscious of the law of diminishing returns. Also, look closely at website data and leverage cookie/pixel technologies to target users both onsite and offsite via ad networks with relevant, targeted offers based on their profiles and behaviors. Don’t forget to review your privacy policy, always be transparent and offer users the opportunity to opt out.

Search and destroy. Search remains an effective and efficient vehicle to drive desired behaviors as consumers are actively in the market for your products/services. But search remains underleveraged. Think carefully about corresponding landing pages, and look to integrate data-capture opportunities that offer relevant value to encourage subscriptions. Doing so will allow you to continue the conversation. Also, pump up your search marketing efforts by adding social links to paid search terms to increase visibility and “Likes” for your social efforts.

Earlier this month, the National Retail Federation forecasted holiday sales to increase 2.3 percent, slightly lower than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent. While this year’s estimate represents a significant improvement over last year, marketers must continue to look for operational and marketing efficiencies. That means working smarter, not harder. While paying close attention to supply chain management, inventory control and minimizing markdowns is a must, marketing must over-deliver as well. Marketers must learn to better leverage data, their best customers and emerging/efficient channels like mobile, social media and email to drive sales in today’s difficult market.

Building Your Facebook Community
By Michael Della Penna
September 09, 2010

In July, 2010, Facebook announced that more than 500 million people worldwide were actively using the social media site to connect with family, friends and, yes, increasingly, brands. While Facebook continues to evolve as a marketing platform, a growing number of marketers are looking to leverage this channel to engage consumers and build communities. But what are some of the secrets to success, and how can you leverage these best practices to build a powerful community of brand advocates?

Listen. Understand. Then frame the conversation.
Before attempting to develop a full Facebook fan page for your brand, first determine the nature of the conversation between your brand and its customers. When it comes to framing the conversation, the brands that build successful Facebook communities take their cues from their customers and don’t try to dictate or dominate the relationship. They do this by listening. Follow these tips to tap into multiple listening sources to uncover shared passions:

Brand audit. Type your brand name into Facebook's search bar to take a pulse of the nature of the conversations already taking place about your brand.

Leverage traditional market research. Collect information about how your customers use social media, and what kind of content and conversations are important to them. Survey your customer base through database marketing, website intercept surveys and third-party research panels. Use focus groups to drill down into the attitudes and particular content, features and functionalities that will set you apart.

Listening tools. Use powerful monitoring tools to filter the immense amount of discussions and activity surrounding your brand, and to identify opportunities and key areas of interest.

Acquire and grow: Build your fan base. So you’ve identified a shared passion that will underpin your general community framework. Up next: building your base. The best acquisition strategies leverage existing customer touchpoints as well as opportunities within Facebook's ecosystem. Take the following steps:

• secure a vanity URL and make it easy to be found;
  
• clearly define the benefits of joining your page;
  
• invite existing customers via email;
  
• offer something unique or exclusive, giving those who like your brand a reason to visit, engage with and
  
• recommend your page;
  
• test different placements of the “Like” button across your existing digital touchpoints;
  
• include Facebook links on relevant paid search terms;
  
• include Facebook URLs/tags on traditional advertising efforts (e.g., print, TV, radio);
  
• favorite related brands; and
  
• test Facebook advertising.
  

Stir the pot: Engage your fan base. Once you've acquired fans, create a compelling experience that keeps them engaged and actively participating. Keep in mind that engaging your fans is a journey, not a destination. Do the following to keep fans engaged:

• provide them with unique access to special content and/or offers;
• create and test applications like polls, trivia, simple games and widgets, making sure the underlying subject of those applications syncs with the shared passion of your community;
  
• shower your fans with public recognition;
  
• encourage user-generated content;
  
• rotate and target content (e.g., geo-posts) to keep it relevant;
  
• think internationally; and
  
• adjust your content strategy accordingly.

Build trust. Being open isn't always easy. Many brands shy away from social media out of fear that their fans and followers may say something negative or turn on them. Deal with issues and problems in an open, transparent way. In fact, if you’ve done a good job offering value and engaging those who like your page, you may find they're your biggest defenders. To build trust with your fans, do the following:

• post a comment policy;
  
• remove spam;
  
• be transparent and authentic;
  
• remain calm and think before you act (i.e., respond/post);
  
• train and communicate your goals with those responsible for managing/engaging fans; and
  
• build a corporate policy and communicate that policy internally so employees understand how to engage consumers in a transparent manner.
  

Have fun: Analyze and optimize. So, how do you know if you're doing a good job? Tracking and analytics will help you get a handle on your page performance. Try the following tracking tactics:

• use unique tracking codes for Facebook posts;
  
• leverage Facebook Insights to understand activity and usage;
  
• identify brand advocates and tag them in your database — you may even want to consider rewarding them for their support with bonus points; and
  
• communicate your learnings and institutionalize them.
  

Finally — and perhaps most importantly — don’t lose sight of the fact that Facebook is an evolving platform. No one person can keep up with all the developments, so make sure you partner right. Find an agency and/or support system that's well versed on Facebook best practices and your brand, and has a proven ability to engage consumers.

You can read the article below or click on the following link to read it at eM+C.

http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/blog/social-crm-starts-with-best-customers

eMarketing & Commerce (eM+C)

Social CRM Starts With Best Customers
July 29, 2010 By Michael Della Penna

I’ve been reading a lot about social CRM recently. Lots of talk about combining data and intelligence from multiple channels, how to merge and understand structured and unstructured data, and the critical role algorithms play in helping brands anticipate a consumer’s next move. But what struck me most while reading through the numerous articles and analyst reports was the apparent lack of focus on identifying and catering to best customers.

If best customers — approximately 20 percent of your customer base — account for 80 percent of sales, then one would think identifying and striving to create a unique experience for those shoppers would be the goal of nearly every marketer on the planet.

While I’m not suggesting brands abandon their efforts to leverage social media to connect, engage and influence all consumers, I am suggesting they think more strategically around identifying best customers and creating unique and special experiences for those customers. So, how should brands approach such efforts? Start with the following basics:

1. Listen: To build a unique and engaging experience, listen to and understand the kinds of conversations customers are having and, specifically, what they're saying about your brand. Insights gained through listening can often identify a shared passion (be it travel, sports, music, finances, etc.) that's essential in engaging best customers in ongoing conversations.

2. Learn: If your brand has a loyalty program and robust data, you’re already a step ahead. If not, you’ll want to conduct some proprietary research across your best customers to understand how they use the social web, and to inform your segmentation and marketing strategy further. This research will also be critical in developing enhancements to your existing programs and developing new social programs that not only appeal to your segments, but offer value.

3. Engage: By now you’ve gained a good understanding of your key customers and influencers. The next step is to build a truly unique and special experience for them, leveraging all touchpoints: website, email, customer service desk and presence on social networks. Take the time and effort to build a lifecycle communication program for every segment, paying attention to community management. Rethink your loyalty programs — perhaps shift your focus from promotions to rewarding best customers for participating with your brand — be it their community contributions, social network activity or brand advocacy.

4. Influence: As you begin to engage your best customers, don’t forget the “social” in social CRM. Leverage social tools to facilitate and encourage sharing and brand advocacy. Flag and thank active customers, and reward them for their advocacy.

Finally, track and anticipate what’s coming next. The greatest benefit of focusing on your best customers is the ability to manage and execute based off the data. Amazing things begin to emerge when you not only know who your best customers are, what segment they fall in, what products they like and how often they use them, but also their email activity, loyalty/purchase activity and social activity.

By analyzing this data, leading brands can build algorithms that drive lifetime value and improve campaign and marketing performance across channels. So for all of your thinking about social CRM, remember that the first group you want socializing their experiences with your brand are your best customers. Make their experiences with your brand memorable, and arm them with incentives and tools that enable them to participate and advocate for your brand.