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All contributions by Karen Talavera
Three Holiday Retail Email Marketing Lessons for Non-Retail Companies If yours is a services business, B-to-B firm or solo-entrepreneurship, this time of year it can certainly seem like all the marketing focus is on retailers. Yet just because retail eclipses other industries during the holidays doesn’t mean non-retailers can’t take a few lessons from retail marketers and employ similar strategies... [Read more]
It’s probably the number one rookie mistake in advertising and marketing copy writing. It can tank an otherwise exceptional sales offer to the exact right audience. It’s guaranteed to bore readers and listeners to death, and it’s a downright sin in direct response. What is this ill? It is writing or talking about – or to – ourselves rather than our potential and current customers. In... [Read more]
With email inboxes more crowded than ever before, simply arriving successfully is half the battle. Assuming you routinely have good deliverability, the second half of that battle is standing out in a crowd. The majority of email users (more than 70% by some estimates) view the lineup of email messages in their inboxes via preview panes, so only a snapshot of each message is visible either to the... [Read more]
The Number One Way to Connect Your Email and Social Media Marketing by Karen Talavera @SyncMarketing
With so many ways to integrate email and social media we have almost unlimited options for leveraging connection between these two powerful conversation marketing channels. Still, for those at the beginning of the process it pays to know where to start. I’m often asked what the number one way to connect email and social media marketing is, so whether your presence on social media is brand new... [Read more]
In Part 1 of this series, I explained that marketing is not simply about hawking your wares. Certainly it’s about communicating what you have to offer, but how you do that is what makes the difference between feast and famine. Whether we know it and like it or not, most decisions in life are fueled at least in part by emotion, and that goes for buying decisions large and small. Our brains are equipped... [Read more]
You might read that title and wonder what in the world emotional connections have to do with online marketing or any marketing for that matter. Isn’t marketing simply about telling people what you have to offer and letting them know how to buy or work with you? Certainly it’s that, but much more. Whether you realize it or not, most decisions in life are fueled at least in part by emotion,... [Read more]
This question was recently posed in a private online marketing group I belong to called Only Influencers: “If I can tweet five times a day, why can’t I email five times a day?” Keep in mind Only Influencers is an invitation-only group of highly experienced and savvy digital marketers (most of the industry’s “big names” in email already belong) from established and... [Read more]
I’m often asked what I believe to be the number one way to connect email and social media marketing. Last month I tackled that question from the starting point of email. This month I’m addressing it from the perspective of social media. Both connecting email to social and using social to strengthen and grow email matter because linking email and social media both ways is important. So... [Read more]
One of my recent April 2011 posts made the case for opt-in over opt-out marketing. I realize that’s all well and good until it becomes time to convince people to say yes, right? So this month I want to share four insights into what psychologically motivates people to say yes when given the opportunity to take action: Invitation It’s universally human that we would rather be asked than tricked... [Read more]
It’s easy to bore your customers to death with email: just send them the same type of message repeatedly and you’ll succeed. We’re often guilty of this when we send our e-newsletter and little (or nothing) else. And while a newsletter absolutely has a place as a staple in your email marketing program, it should be far from the only type of message you send your customers on a regular... [Read more]
The U.S. Census Bureau releases the results of its 2010 census this summer and marketers are advised to prepare for some major demographic shifts. In a recent interview I read of Peter Francese, consultant to advertising megalith Ogilvy & Mather and author of the research report 2010 America, I was surprised to learn: There is no more “Average American”. Fifty years ago the concept of John... [Read more]
What You’ll Learn: - Why a thank-you process needs to be part of your email marketing message stream - How thanks and non-promotional greetings add a human dimension to your brand - The marketing value of a well-timed thank you Unless you were raised by wolves in the wild, at some point you’ve learned it is polite to say “Thank You”. Not... [Read more]
2011: Year of Marketing Alignment by Karen Talavera A little over a year ago, I theorized that 2010 would be the Year of Conscious Marketing. And while I do think it has taken us more than a year to become conscious of how to use the increasingly fragmented and multiplying online marketing avenues available to us, 2010 certainly was a year in which the “what-how-which” and “why” finally... [Read more]
If you’re just tuning into this series, Part 1 explored the difference between broadcast and triggered-email, explained the role of trigger-based email, and defined the fundamental characteristics that make it so powerful. Part 2 took a deep dive into the first two of four must-have triggered-email campaigns no email marketing program should be without: welcome and re-marketing campaigns. Here... [Read more]
6 email marketing design tips for recognition, trust and engagement by Karen Talavera @SyncMarketing
6 email marketing design tips for recognition, trust and engagement Thankfully, the days of silo-ed email marketing run by two techies hunched in a shared cubicle wedged into a forgotten corner far from the marketing department are largely over at most companies. However, marketing email can still suffer from “forgotten stepchild syndrome” when it comes to design. It’s a fair enough question:... [Read more]
Why and how you should be using triggered email (Part 2 of 3) What you’ll learn: The two most under-utilized types of triggered email and how using them can increase revenue The high value of welcome emails – for both marketers and recipients Tips for improving onboarding and re-marketing trigger campaigns If you’re just tuning into this series, Part 1 explored the difference between broadcast... [Read more]
I love this definition of leverage: Power or ability to act or to influence people, events, or decisions; sway. and this one: The use of a small initial investment, credit, or borrowed funds to gain a very high return in relation to one’s investment, to control a much larger investment, or to reduce one’s own liability for any loss. Both definitions are downright defining digital... [Read more]
Editor’s note: Karen was our guest on eMail Radio today! Listen to the show here! Sometimes we get so caught up just keeping our email programs running that we get tunnel vision. We forget that email is an essential tool in the marketing toolbox, an ingredient in the marketing mix, and not a channel to be kept unto itself. There’s been plenty written about integrating email and social media... [Read more]
On any email list, there will be a percentage of subscribers who signed up and never again showed signs of life. They may have opted-into a specific offer, and once they obtained the coupon, free content, or other benefit you promised, they disengaged. Or, they joined your list while in the market for your product or service but soon afterward their needs were met and they never bothered to unsubscribe. In... [Read more]
Figuring out whom to follow on Twitter can be time-consuming. With over 75 million accounts, how on earth do you figure out who you have anything in common with? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed before even getting started. Twitter, however, is all about engagement, so it pays not to dilly-dally but instead, jump in and begin making those connections. Here’s a three-step process to instantly... [Read more]
