This is a guest post by Claudiu Murariu - Co-Founder of PadiAct - (a website that uses behavioral targeting to get people to subscribe to email lists)
Have you ever wondered why everybody uses Email Marketing to generate more customers?
Photo: Net-a-Porter
The answer is simple: email marketing is one of the most profitable and efficient marketing channels available, that allows you to connect and communicate with both clients and thus increase traffic and sales on your website. It’s direct marketing in the online world, at its best.
No surprise here, but some do it much better than the others.
We've invited Caudiu Murariu, Co Founder of PadiAct (a website that uses behavioral targeting to get people to subscribe to email lists) to speak about the email marketing methods that deliver great results and those that don't.
What’s your strategy for collecting subscribers? We've put together Do's and dont's to help you better leverage the email marketing strategy for your design business.
1. No, thank you!
“Thank you! You have successfully been added to our email list”. It’s funny how many websites send this message after people subscribe when it should be the other way around: people should thank for the added value offered by the subscription.
Photo: PadiAct
That doesn’t mean you need to stop saying Thank you. What it means is that you really need to drive people to say: “No, my pleasure!” They need to feel they are getting a lot out of the emails they are going to receive from you.
The perfect email campaign is the one that gets people to refresh their inboxes or hit the Send & Receive button till they get the newsletter. It’s tough to get there but it’s worth the ride.
In order to get people realize you have a great newsletter you need to prove yourself with great content. Otherwise, why should they believe you when you say you have the most awesome newsletter in the world?
2. Target and simply ask
We do this a lot. After all, we built a whole product that focuses on targeting people with the right message, based on their behavior and asking them to subscribe.
In the offline world, you enter a shop, you look at a few products and a shopping assistant has his eyes on you. Based on your behavior, he will approach you and he will know what to say to raise your interest.
In the online world you need to look at the clues left by the user on your website in order to display him a personalized message and convince him to offer his email details. That’s why targeting different segments of traffic with different messages and asking them to subscribe brings way better results than just using a generic message.
3. Live up to your promises
Photo: GAP.com
One of my favorite newsletters out there is the one from Kissmetrics. They promise the world and they deliver it via email. Every single email they send contains before any marketing message, amazing content that is truly helpful. I always have the feeling that I am the winner from the
“subscribe to newsletter” deal.
4. Use dedicated landing pages
Sending your visitors to well designed landing pages will improve your chances at a higher conversion rate instead of simply inviting them to your homepage, where they can get lost and quickly lose interest. Targeted landing pages mean you control where your visitors are “landing” next.
That means no distraction! Keep your landing page simple (fewer images and text), use keywords and make the call-to action visible, state the benefits of subscribing to the newsletter and make sure the “close” button is not at reach.
Do landing pages scare you? Solutions like Unbounce.com make it really easy to build and manage them. It's mostly drag and drop.
Photo: PadiAct
5. Thank you for your order! Let’s keep in touch
One of the least used pages on a website for marketing purposes is the “Thank you for your order” page.
Picture this: the user is happy to finish the purchase, looking forward to receiving his order and he’s already thinks about how he’s going to use the products. In other words, he’s in a very good mood and he likes you. It’s the perfect moment to get him subscribed so he can repeat the purchase experience in the future as well.
6. Make the subscription form or link visible
We've often noticed that website owners treat subscribe forms as they are ashamed of them. They hide them in the least visible places on the website.
Photo: Net-A-Porter
A study we did on call to actions for newsletter subscription on 100 top online fashion retailers revealed that most websites did not make it easy to subscribe: visitors are missing your subscription forms. Each time an element on the website makes the user say to himself: “Hmm, I like this website” a subscription call to action should be next to that element.
Net-a-porter uses the message: “Subscribe for more updates about XYZ designer's products”. Make sure to personalize the message every time you can. Some suggestions are: “If you want to learn more about our products, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter” or “If you like this product, wait until you find out what we’re bringing next. Be the first to find out by subscribing to our newsletter”.
7. Make use of transactional emails
Transactional emails are probably the least used method to increase email lists, but I dare you try it. You might be surprised by the results. Transactional emails are those emails sent after a customer interacts with the website. This interaction can mean signups, messages, purchases, delivery notifications, receipts and so on.
Photo: PadiAct
Since transactional emails are driven by actions on the website and their purpose is to offer information/confirmation about something you did, they can be great opportunity to further interact with your clients. At the end of each such email, feel free to tease with some engaging content and offer people the opportunity to subscribe to an email program so they can be even more in touch with you.
It’s an ace up your sleeve, with high open rates so you better use it.
This is a guest post by Claudiu Murariu - Founder of Padicode.
He also wrote about some common mistakes that you have to avoid. Find out what are top 3 mistakes to avoid when setting up your email marketing campaigns.
This week, we've interviewed Claudiu Murariu, founder of PadiAct.
1, Please, tell us about your project
PadiAct increases your email leads by targeting your website visitors that are most likely to become future customers. Leads are sent directly to your CRM or email service app, ready to be followed up.
2, Who is your main competitor?
There are many products like Unbounce, KISSinsights or Olark that help you increase email leads but we consider them as complementary and not competitors.
3, What’s the single most challenging thing you have to deal with at the moment?
PadiAct is created with the mindset of helping websites increase conversion rates by learning the behavior of the visitors. The challenge is to find the best strategy in helping our users do that.
4, Who’s the most important person on your team?
We are not that kind of team. Members take different roles at different time with the sole goal of making customers happy. The whole team works like a super hero.
5, What works for you in terms of getting users?
Sending the email leads directly to the CRMs or email service providers of our users is really appreciated by our customers. The freemium model also works really good for us.
6, What's the hottest startup these days, and why? (your personal opinion)
I am a big fan of Airbnb, KISSmetrics, Dropbox. I love startups that are contributing to the internet world, develop new technologies and bring a positive attitude towards other fellow startups.
Thanks again to Claudiu from PadiAct for doing this interview!
