Social media helps test email subject lines to improve open and click rates

If you are looking to improve the open and click-through rates of emails your roofing company sends to out, one idea to increase the likelihood of success is to use social media to test out potential subject lines.

Email subject lines are a major influence on whether or not someone even opens an email in the first place. They can either entice someone to click it or prompt them to delete it completely unread - or even worse, clicking the dreaded SPAM button (for more on preventing people from flagging your emails as SPAM, please see my blog post titled "Reduce Spam Reports of your Marketing Emails").

I recommend before you send out a mass email or newsletter, test potential subject lines with your connections on social media. Using a URL shortening service like bitly, Google or TinyURL, post multiple times in a close period of time to the exact same page but each time have a different description or "title" to the link, and have each one use its own unique shortened URL to the destination page so you can track in your analytics which one got you the most clicks.

For example, here are Tweets for one of my own recent blog posts:

• 5 specific things to do that will help you get new #roofing customers from your social media accounts: http://t.co/kLDg3dNQ
• How you can get new #roofing customers from Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn: http://t.co/kLDg3dNQ
• 5 specific ways to get new #roofing customers from social media: http://t.co/4FSs68cN [blog post]

Each of these links go to the exact same blog post, but in my blog analytics tool I can see exactly how many clicks came from each unique subject line/link combination. The one that ultimately performs the best will be what I base an upcoming RoofPal eNews email campaign subject line and podcast title on.

For your experiment, the one that resonates most with your social media connections in terms of a significantly higher amount of click-through's is going to likely be your best candidate for your actual email campaign.

This strategy works particularly well on Twitter where people are used to seeing Tweets that lead them to click a link, but you can do the same thing on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, or any other social media platforms you participate on.

If you decide to try this out, let me know how it goes for you. If you would like additional help planning this out or even executing it, please feel free to email Chris@RoofPal.com. Best of luck!

Idea: Start a Social Media Recap Newsletter

According to a recent report by Sysomos, the average length of a tweet’s effectiveness is about 3 hours, with 92% of re-tweet's happening in the first hour or not at all. What this means is that if those you are connected to on social media don't see what you post soon after you post it, they likely won't. We are simply connected to too many people on social media. So how do you get more value out of all the hard work you put in to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, blogging, etc.? An email newsletter recapping the best of what you've shared over the past week!

First of all, make sure that you are creating and sharing content of value to your audience. Next, use whatever methods you have available to you to aggregate your social media activities. Once you have a selection of content that’s worth sharing again, set up an email newsletter that is devoted solely to sharing this content. And of course you can use a small amount of space in that newsletter for promotion of your other marketing efforts as well.

Weekly may or may not be the right frequency for you. Depending on how much you share valuable content, try daily, weekly, or even monthly — whatever makes sense. The point is that social media attention span is short and continues to diminish. There are days that no matter how valuable your content is, your audience simply isn’t able to pay attention because they are on vacation, busy doing other things, everyone else is over-posting, etc. But using email to close the loop and get them your content in another way is a simple, easy way to maximize the value of the time you are putting in to social media.

If you have any question about this blog post or would like help creating an email newsletter campaign, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

Why Email and Direct Mail Campaigns Fail (and What to Do Differently Next Time)

Direct mail has the potential to reach people that are difficult to or simply cannot be reached online, but it costs money and the response rates are typically low.

Email marketing is immediate and inexpensive, but open and click-through rates are often low and if done poorly can flag your domain as spam to ISP's. So what do you do?

If you have experienced failure in direct mail or email marketing campaigns, it is likely a result of a combination of factors:

You are targeting the wrong prospects. The most critical factor for successful email and direct mail marketing is targeting people who match the profiles of your best customers. Marketing to people who don't have a strong interest in what you have to offer (or don't have the authority to purchase) is a waste of time and money.

Your message doesn't stand out. When potential customers are sorting their mail, size definitely matters. Small postcards are cheap to print and send, but they are also more likely to be dwarfed by the larger pieces of mail. To make sure your direct mail isn't thrown away without being looked at, think big. Oversized postcards are more expensive to print and send, but they are more likely to get noticed.

Me, me, me! Your message should be focused on what you think they should know about you - focus on what's in it for them and why they should care.

My name isn't John. If you have the recipient's name listed incorrectly (or flat-out wrong), it will immediately be deleted or go into the shredder. Personalization is a great way to make messages more effective, but for God's sake make sure you have the names right!

Boring! Interactive isn't just for digital media. Direct mail pieces can slide, unfold and open to create an experience for the recipient. Interaction gives the recipient a reason to engage with your direct mail piece.

Bad timing. Often, timing can be everything. Receiving your marketing piece just as there is a need for your product or service can significantly impact their purchasing decision. Since you can't always predict when that is, frequency (within reason) is your best bet to keep you top-of-mind and stimulate action. If you send an email or postcard about emergency roof leak repairs two months before a storm hits, there is no urgency. If you have your campaign ready to go out the day before a massive rainstorm, monsoon or hurricane they will receive your message exactly when they have a need.

Shotgun approach (blast messaging). Smart direct marketers know how to target who exactly gets their emails and direct mail pieces by more than just geography or location. Develop and then use real analytics with your list. Everything you know about your current and potential customers should go into a searchable database that you can use to segment your list based on the message you are about to send.

One and done. It takes more than one email or postcard for you to get noticed. Send out different messages with unique offers in different formats to become memorable and non-repetitive.

No sense of urgency. Put an expiration on your offer four to six weeks after they receive it to create a sense of urgency.

More is less. Don't write a novel or make the reader work to figure out your message. Going through the mail and reading unsolicited emails is not the highlight anyone's day. You have an extremely limited amount of time to get someone's attention, so get to the point.

If you have sent out unsuccessful direct mail or email campaigns before, here is the order of importance to figure out what went wrong and correct your mistake(s) the next time:

1. Improve your list. Make sure you are targeting the right people and that names are correct (and spelled correctly).

2. Improve your content. Get to the point with a well-written, easy to read, relevant, compelling, time-sensitive offer that the reader quickly understands what the value is to them.

3. Improve the physical look. Make sure the look of your email or direct mail piece looks professional, is appropriate for what you are communicating, and is well designed.

If you have any questions about direct mail or email marketing, would like feedback on a campaign you are about to launch (or recently launched) or would like assistance planning your next campaign, please email RoofPal@gmail.com. We can help you build and improve your mailing list, actually write the content and/or design and coordinate printing of the physical piece for you.