For small online retailers in a competitive market, running a successful email marketing campaign can be the key to acquiring a large enough share of the market to stay competitive. But how can you measure the success of your email marketing strategy? Here are our top four suggestions:

• Deliverability

Deliverability measures how many of your emails make it past spam filters and into your customer’s inbox. Returnpath.com (2015) found that only 79% of commercial emails worldwide were making it into users mailboxes, 21% were being blocked by spam filters. That means over 20% of potential customers are not even receiving your message. Spam filters are programmes that use criteria to decide whether an email is unwanted or unsolicited, and then prevent these emails from reaching the customer’s mailbox. Some of the criteria that spam filters use to identify spam emails, include: subscriber relationship, quality of the contents and title of the email, the security of any links included in the article and the reputation of the source’s IP and domain.

If your company’s emails aren’t reaching the customer’s mailbox, the campaign has no chance of succeeding, which can be costly for a small online retailer. However, these criteria used by spam filters are under the sender’s control, and if you discover your emails aren’t being delivered, maybe these are the factors you should look at first.

• Open Rates

Once you have ensured your emails are reaching your customer’s mail box, the next step is to make sure your emails are being opened and read by your customers. The way to measure your open rate is to divide the number of emails opened by the number of emails sent minus the number that bounced.

Open Rate (%) = Emails Opened/(Emails Sent – Bounces)

If you don’t do so already, make sure you have access to an email programme that measures how many emails are opened, and how many are not. Although this is common in most email programmes nowadays.

Why are open rates important? A study by Biloš, Turkalj and Kelić (2016) found that of their sample, consistently between 25-36% of commercial emails were being opened, showing that even though achieving very high open rates may be tough, a good email marketing campaign can make your open rates more than 10% higher than some of your competitors’.  If you have a low open rate, just as with deliverability, the customer is not reading your email, and is not receiving the message you are trying to show them. Furthermore, if you have a low open rate over a long period of time, there is a chance that your emails are actually annoying your customers, and putting them off buying from you in the future.

• Click-through Rates

Once your emails are reaching your customer’s mailbox and being opened, it is important to measure the click-through rate to see how many of them are actually following the links to your website. The click-through rate is simply the percentage of people who click on links in the email. This is also a feature present in most email marketing programmes.

It is important to maximise the number of customers who are following links in the emails and arriving on the landing page. If your click-through rate is low, there may be a number of reasons, which are all easy to fix:

• Not enough links! It is important to give the customer as many chances to visit your website as possible.
• The links are hard to find. It is fine to hide links in pictures and behind certain headlines, however make sure you include links that are more obvious as well!

Link placement on the page can also be important, a study by Kumar and Salo (2016), found that for online newsletters, links on the left had side of the page were clicked more often than those on the right. Similarly with links in the top half of the page, compared to the bottom half.

• Conversion Rates

You have successfully got your email in to your customer’s mailbox, they have opened it, and followed a link to your website. Next, it is important for the customer to perform the action for which you directed them to your website. This may be a purchase, a download, or the completion of a survey or form. The conversion rate shows the number of people who completed this action, if 100 of the 500 people who received the email completed the survey you included in the email, the conversion rate would be 20%.

The conversion rate is the measure that will ultimately decide whether an email campaign is successful or not. A high conversion rate may not just increase the desired outcome – sales for example, but would show that the customer is happy to receive emails from you, and that there is a high level of trust between the customer and the company.

If you are experiencing high click-through rates but low conversion rates, there may be an issue with your landing page. Try to make your landing page as simple as possible, with no other distractions on the page. The customer followed the link for a reason, don’t give them reasons to click off the page too early.

References:

Biloš A, Turkalj D, Kelić I, 2016, Open-Rate Controlled Experiment in Email Marketing Campaigns, Market-Tržište, 28(1)

Kumar A, Salo J, 2016, Effects of link placements in email newsletters on their click-through rate, Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(3)

Returnpath.com (2015)

URL: http://returnpath.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-Deliverability-Benchmark-Report.pdf

The use of keyword search terms as an online marketing tool is crucial for online retailers in a competitive market. The sale of products through keyword search usage relies on the effective selection of keywords, and how they translate to what the company offer (Xianghua L, Xia Z, 2014). In a competitive market where firms are fighting to secure every possible customer, appearing at the top of web searches can be the deciding factor when customers are choosing who to purchase from. For that reason here are some tips on how to ensure that you attract every possible customer for your online business.

1)  Longtail Keywords

Identifying what the customers are searching for is key to selecting the correct search terms to use. For small online retailers it may not be possible to acquire the most common key word search terms, as these will be very expensive, and may not be affordable for a smaller businesses. However the use of longtail keyword search terms is a way to aim the ads directly at your target market, while keeping costs to a minimum, which is important in a competitive market.

A longtail keyword term, is one which is longer in length and more specific in nature. Using longtail keywords, will make your ads appear to customers when they are closer to the time of purchase, as they are more likely going to be searching for exactly what they are looking to purchase. For example, the customer may be searching for the cheapest place to buy a particular model of shoe, and will include the model of shoe in the search, whereas someone who is further from the point of purchase may just search for ‘cheap trainers’, or ‘best deals on shoes’.

2) Keyword Grouping

Secondly, grouping keywords is an important strategy for small online retailers, and often one that gets overlooked, however it is extremely important and can help a business secure customers. A good keyword grouping strategy should cover as much of the core goods and services that the company offer, and aim to build off a number of core words relating to the main purpose of the company. It should then cover as many more specific searches branching off these core words. For example, a small online retailer of sports shoes could identify a core word as ‘trainers’, or ‘shoes’, as these are some of the words that relate closely to the core service of the business, and words which customers are likely to build their search around.

(https://www.wordstream.com/adwords-keyword-grouping)

Once these core words are identified, you should look to identify possible searches around these core words. For some of these it may just be including the most popular brands the company offer. For the previous example, this may be ‘Nike trainers’ or ‘Nike shoes’, building off the core words we have already identified. Notice that ‘Nike’ is not the core word, even though a large part of the company’s sales may be of Nike trainers. This is because core words should be the actual product or service and, usually a noun rather than a word like Nike, which acts more like an adjective in this situation. This is because if a customer was to search using the word Nike as its key identifier, it would come up with a wide range of Nike products rather than Nike trainers, which is what we are hoping to appear.

3) Keeping Up To Date

Finally, it is extremely important to keep your keywords relevant by keeping up with the changes in your business, and the changes in the market. By keeping your keywords current and relevant, you are saving money on irrelevant out of date keywords, which is extremely important for a small online retailer facing a highly competitive market. To do this, it is important to tie keywords to new products or services the company the company may be offering, while losing keywords that relate to older, out of date products and services. Also, when new promotions and sales start and, old ones finish, it is important to adjust any keyword that relate to these. In a competitive market it is important to keep costs at a minimum, and by keeping up to date with your keywords, you are putting your business in the best possible position to be as competitive as possible.

References:

Bigfin.com

URL: https://www.bigfin.com/blog/importance-keywords-keyword-research/

Li, Hongshuang; Kannan, P. K; Viswanathan, Attribution Strategies and Return on Keyword Investment in Paid Search Advertising, Marketing Science, 11/2016, Volume 35, Issue 6

Lu, Xianghua; Zhao, Xia, Differential Effects of Keyword Selection in Search Engine Advertising on Direct and Indirect Sales, Journal of Management Information Systems, 04/2014, Volume 30, Issue 4

Wordstream.com

URL: https://www.wordstream.com/adwords-keyword-grouping https://www.wordstream.com/long-tail-keywords

Social Media – The Landscape

According to socialmediatoday.com (2017), teens and young adults spend up to nine hours per day looking at social media, and that 30% of all time spent online is now allocated to social platforms. Companies are quickly becoming aware of this growth, and how it is quickly becoming one of the largest and most important points of contact with existing and potential customers. Companies who aren’t making use of this as a marketing tool, even small local businesses, are running the risk of being left behind if they don’t invest soon!

(smartinsights.com, 2017)

Social Media Marketing – Why?

If the sheer size of the audience on social media nowadays isn’t enough to persuade you to invest in it, then here are 3 reasons why social media marketing can improve your company’s brand:

1) Brand Validation – A company’s regular activity and presence on social media will provide consumers with reassurance that the brand is focused on communicating with consumers, and are likely to be putting similar effort and care in to the service they provide, whether it is selling a product or providing a service. It also provides new customers with reassurance that the company is authentic, this becomes more credible as the company gains followers and spreads brand awareness.

2) Meeting New Customers – Posting on social media gives a company access to a whole pool of customers that may not otherwise come in contact with the brand. Once the company has a following on social media, any post that gets liked or shared by its followers will be seen by all of their friends and contacts on the platform. As the social media following grows, the number of people seeing the posts, who are not customers or followers, also grows exponentially. Even if these new customers don’t click on the posts, or decide to follow the company online, it is widening the brand image online, and making more people aware of the company who may become customers in the future.

3) Customer Feedback – Social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter, provide an excellent point of contact between customers and companies. It gives customers the ability to talk directly to the company, if it is to provide criticism or praise on to a product or service. The company can use this to improve the service in the future, or to identify successful aspects of the service they provide. Also, it gives the company an excellent platform and opportunity to respond rapidly and publically to feedback. This will give the impression to other potential or existing customers that the company listens to customers and acts quickly to any feedback.

If you would like more information about social media statistics, and find out exactly where online your company can position itself to meet new customers, check out this website for more:

https://www.socialmediatoday.com

References

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic

https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/attachment/top-social-network-sites-by-number-of-active-users-2017/

Email marketing is an extremely useful tool that companies use to connect and engage with customers in a multitude of ways. This can range from a simple confirmation email after an online purchase, to information about upcoming sales and events and even online newsletters being sent to customers. The Radicati Group (2017) found in a study that there are more than 3.7 billion email users worldwide, which is nearly 54% of the worlds population! This just shows how large a market there is for companies using email marketing as a strategy, and that if they can get it right it can be one of the most influential channels to use. In this blog we will be looking at 5 dos’ and do nots when it comes to email marketing.

NUMBER 1 – Personalise the sending account

Try not to use “noreply” email accounts. If you can convince a consumer that there is a real person on the other end of the mail they receive, rather than a computer, they are far more likely to respond in a positive way. Whereas, receiving mail from a “noreply” email account, will cause customers to lose interest quickly, and get fewer responses.

NUMBER 2 – Test your emails first

When you send an email out, first send it to a small portion of your mailing list to test the recipients’ response to it. If you get a positive response, and a high clickthrough rate, go ahead and send it out to the full list. If that’s not the case, and you get a negative response and a low clickthrough rate, try to find and fix the problem before sending it to everybody.

NUMBER 3 – Only send to those who want to hear from you

Stop sending emails to lists that have a low response rate! These emails are not achieving anything, and may be damaging your domain reputation, which will not help you find new customers. Put yourself in the recipient’s shoes and really think about what they want to receive.

NUMBER 4 – Send every email with a purpose

Make it clear what message you are trying to convey, whether it’s a short-term offer or a membership renewal reminder. If you aren’t sure exactly what response you are looking for, nor will the recipient, and it will likely be overlooked and forgotten. This will also help to measure the success rate of what you are trying to achieve.

NUMBER 5 – Avoid clickbait titles

When you are creating the subject line of an email, make it representative of what is included in the email itself. Clickbait titles raise the expectation levels of recipients, only for them to be disappointed or let down by the contents. This will likely lead to them responding negatively to further communication in the future. Try reading the subject line out loud before sending, this will help you avoid clickbait titles.

When it comes to email marketing, you are bound to come across barriers that block your goals. Don’t be afraid to take risks and try new techniques. If you would like to delve further in to the world of email marketing check out this slideshow by Tom Monaghan: https://www.slideshare.net/INBOUND/tom-monaghan-13-things-to-stop-start-or-keep-doing-only-better-with-your-email

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