4 Big Tips for Restaurant Marketers

It’s summertime and visitors and tourists abound. Hooray! But there are a lot of restaurants competing for those same customers, so we’d like to offer some tips to help you bring them into your place.






Now, of course, we want you to continue your best email marketing practices through the summer. But it’s always useful to double-check your plan for improvements − consumer tastes are constantly changing, right? So whether you need a refresher, or a major ramp up, we’ve got you covered. Now let’s get those hungry travelers to taste your cuisine!

4 BIG TIPS

1. Prepare your sign-up forms

2. Cook up your newsletter

3. Bake your coupons

4. Spice it all up with some specials

   
   

Ok, that’s the recipe, now let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work, starting with:

1. Sign up forms

The magic ingredient for attracting clientele is your email list. And this summer the recipe asks for more “multi-channel”! No problem! Make sure you add one to every web touch point − your web site, menu pages, social media page, even Yellow Page or banner ads. Same thing goes for offline – include in your comment forms, guest book, surveys, coupons, newsletters, even your take-out bags! Make sure to tell them, if they sign up they’ll receive special offers and coupons (more about that later).

2. Your Newsletter

If you don’t have one, now’s a great time to start! Pick one of 300+ knock-out templates from the GetResponse gallery – no special skills required. Use your entire subscriber list all at once, or segment by preferences. Don’t forget, you can set up and automate delivery according to your schedule, if you’re flat out busy. Next, create your message(s), but focus mainly on weekly specials, new menu items, juicy pix and videos, and perhaps a message from the Chef. Create a visual feast, but also give readers useful tips on how to save money at your restaurant, and how to cook healthy and eat well.

3. Coupons

Did you know that it’s become “savvy” for people from all income groups to use coupons? Sure, now it’s totally acceptable to drive up in a Mercedes and pay with a coupon! Use this trend to maximize your traffic every single day of the week.  Now let’s talk about how:

Know who comes into your restaurant and when by collecting names, addresses, and perhaps some dining preferences in a guest book or comment card you can leave with the check. Include an invitation to your newsletter. Tell them every new subscriber will get a discount coupon sent directly to their email! Then collect the info from all your sources and plan your coupon strategy.  A good place to start is to map out which days attract which customers and set up a coupon campaign for every day of the week! Here are a few fictional examples:

• Mon-Wed – older crowd, looking for bargains, buffets, package deals.
• Thurs-Sat – professionals and working folks interested in having a cocktail or 2, and maybe an appetizer from 4 pm – 7 pm (think Happy Hour).
• Sunday – Got some great brunch ideas? Make this a tradition no one wants to miss and they’ll come back (and bring their grandkids) for years to come.

Now these are just examples, so map out your own best daily coupon strategy, then create a multichannel distribution plan:

• Newsletters – Make sure to include a big ad or video clip of the daily special on the front page, then include a calendar of daily special coupons. Or… offer a separate “Chef’s Table” newsletter to a high-value opt-in list with even deeper discounts and specials targeting the gourmands among them.
• Website – This is a no-brainer, and we’re sure you’ve got this covered, but make sure your coupons are easy to find and download – and keep it current! We’re talking about daily specials now… so kick up the pace a bit. How many times have you visited a website and the coupons were out of date and the menu was 2 years old? Or the restaurant had moved! Yikes!

• Social Media – I know, you’ve heard more hype about social media than you can “digest”. But there’s good reason for that. If you launched a social media page and started asking visitors to become Fans, then you’d have an even “hungrier” coupon crowd hitting your specials. And those Fans can add up fast!

According to eMarketer, 41% of Facebook Fans sign up to share product reviews and 37% sign up to receive coupons! If there are approximately 500M Facebook users and each has about 130 friends in his/her network, imagine the buzz you could create! Two more tips here: You can easily expand your audience by including social sharing options in your messages. It’s a totally under-used and FREE way to market your restaurant virally across the Internet.

4. Summer Fun Specials

Moms and Dads are looking for cheaper ways to have family fun this summer, so why not offer something especially for them. Just use the same email marketing tactics as #1. Here are some ideas to get the party going:

• Kiddie Day – Don’t cringe! There are loads of out-of-work teens who could manage the youngins’ while Mom and Dad dine in peace. Offer a safe ride or two, games, contests and, of course, hot dogs and hamburgers. The kids will make sure they return!
• Wine and/or Beer Tasting – Combine your tasting event with free hor d’oevres, a menu of 2-3 elegant specials, and a brief lecture from a local wine expert or brewer. You might even think about adding newsletter – “The Vintner’s Cellar”!
• The Workaholics Special – Everyone needs a break, so why not offer a luncheon special that’s healthy, delicious, and FAST.  Mix it up and take suggestions. Get the “leader of the pack” on mailing list, so he/she brings the whole gang every time!

We had some fun with this, but seriously, we hope you see that our Big Tips are simply a matter of emphasis, or “focus”. You’re using the same great tactics, just taking them online and “on the road”!


Good luck and tell us what you’ve tried of the above, or send us some new Big Tips. Just keep them rolling in!

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Some “refreshing” tips on growing your email marketing list.

The basis of any business is its customers. Whether you interact with them in a store, online, or by email, it’s about building trust and relationships with qualified prospects in order to sell your products and services. It’s not phony − it’s “sales”! For email marketers, the likelihood of closing sales depends largely on the quality and size of your permission-based email list. If you build a list of contacts and subscribers that are interested in your offerings and trust your brand then you’re halfway there – the rest is up to you.
Developing and maintaining a responsive, opt-in email list is challenging, even for the most experienced marketers. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the beginning of your list-building journey or you already have millions of contacts, list management is hard work, but well worth the effort.
Addresses change, subscribers become inactive, and some unsubscribe, chipping away about 20-30% of your total list every year! However, consider the alternative: studies show that low-quality lists waste tens of millions of dollars annually, and no business can afford that. Quite simply, small investments in list management can
reap huge returns in marketing efficiency and campaign ROI.
As our aim is always to help our customers, we’d like to provide some “refresher” tips on growing high-quality email marketing lists. Simply choose what works for you!
•    Add a sign-up form everywhere prospects go
Sign-up opportunities should be easily accessible on every page of your website. Make sure they “pop” visually and clearly indicate what visitors are signing up to receive, and perhaps how often.
•    Add sign-up forms to your social media fan pages
Nowadays it’s a must! If you’re not sure how to do it, feel free to follow our advice and social media tips.
•    Offer incentives to sign up
The most popular incentives are free articles or reports, e-books, “thought leadership” papers, etc. They increase your reputation as a subject matter
expert!
•    Create a great squeeze page
Make sure it’s compelling and convincing. It should feature a powerful headline and a few of the “juiciest” benefits to get visitors salivating to sign up to your list! Entertain your visitors with an audio or video message telling visitors why they should subscribe.
•   Include testimonials in your squeeze page
Customers giving their opinions about your product or service can be the most powerful conversion tool of all! Put one or two strong testimonials in multimedia format from satisfied subscribers on your squeeze page.
•   Include a “Sign Up” button in your e-newsletter
This enables readers who are not your subscribers, but found the newsletter shared on social pages, to sign up to your email campaigns.
•    Add sign-up forms to blog updates
Place a sign-up box on your blog to keep your readers notified of new posts. To help you with it, GetResponse has recently integrated with WordPress.
•    Promote your GetResponse Email Campaign Archive
It’s much easier for prospects to decide if they’d like to sign up when they can review your offers and newsletters from a single brand web page. The more informed they are, the more likely they’ll open and respond to your email messages. Need some help?
•    Use a co-registration service to build your list
Co-registration is a great way to build your email list. Your newsletter ad or link appears on other related websites and those additional visitors are able to sign up on the spot to your list!
•    Contact other newsletter publishers
Let publishers of complementary content know that you’d be interested in promoting their newsletters or offerings, if they’d do the same for you.
•    Advertise in ezines and other newsletters
Use newsletter directories to find other newsletter and content publishers that target your audiences.
•    Be active on similar websites
Post relevant, helpful comments with a trackback to your blog or squeeze page, including, of course, your newsletter signup form! Visit discussion boards, forums and similar sites to provide helpful comments and information, while including a link to your subscription page in your signature.
Use sign-up forms along with value messages everywhere you come into contact with prospects and customers. You can vary the content or the design, but if you make it quick and easy, your list-building engine will generate new contacts 24/7!
We’ve highlighted a few useful techniques, and you can much more information in our “How to grow your email marketing list” white paper.
If you have your own proven list-building tips, we’d be delighted if you’d share them with us and other users! Your ideas are always welcome!

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CM Summit Round Up

 Hi All,
The CM Summit managed to surpass all expectations this week, as part of the Internet Week schedule. Before the event, the list of speakers and topics was enough to get excited, but what the agenda materialized into was much better! The digital A-listers included Dennis Crowley, Dick Costolo, and Arianna Huffington, and the presentations and discussions were insightful and practical.
One of the main focuses of the event was the challenge of how to engage customers.  This is something everyone struggles with, no matter what business you’re in. Email Marketing is a great tool for doing this for many  reasons, mostly because it’s digital so you can capture customer behavior and use it to engage.
From the very first “touch”, there are multiple reasons to engage with a prospect or even a casual contact. If the person has shown an interest in your business or organization, you need to capitalize on that first introduction. In other words, assume that they could become a customer. At the very least, invite them to be part of your community, your blog, and social network, so you have other opportunities to engage them in the future. Sure, it’s email marketing 101, but do you remember to follow up every time?
The other side to this is ongoing customer interaction.
With digital marketing, you can survey, track, record, and capture the “voice to the customer” to deliver the services and products they want. Okay, sounds great in theory, but do we do it in practice? For instance, when was the last time you surveyed your subscribers? They’re all heading out for vacation now… do you know if their preferences will change over the summer? So the key word here is practice. A great quote from the event was, “If you haven’t failed then you’re not trying hard enough.” So don’t be afraid to ask subscribers what they need and want from you. But there are 100s of methods of engaging customers, and not all of them will work for you, so you have to experiment, survey and test until you find what fits.















Let’s dig a little deeper into some of the tactics brought up at the summit. They’re not rocket science, but reinforce how important these practices are to your email marketing success. You can, as we mentioned, use your GetResponse newsletters to link to your social media pages or your forum and engage your clients there. That’s great, but your “front line” of action should be to engage them directly from your emails. According to a 2010 Marketing Sherpa study, over 78 percent of respondents said they still preferred email as their primary channel of communications, with social media coming in a distant second at 22 percent.
First of all, let’s look at your From address. It should be a real, monitored email address, specific to your campaign or newsletter. Even if you think your email shouldn’t require feedback, always give your readers the option to respond. So dump the noreply@xxxx.com for welisten@xxxx.com. Within your message, mention that readers can provide feedback by just replying. Even if customers don’t reply, it will tell them that you’re interested in what they think.
Secondly, spend as much time as you need on your subject line… it’s that important. Think “bait”. Keep it short, to the point, but titillating. Include enough to give them an accurate summary of what’s waiting for them, but try a question or command format to generate curiosity. A question within the subject line will tell them that the answer to that question is valuable and they can find it somewhere in that email.
Third, use your Email Marketing Tips Blog statistics as an investigative tool. Here’s what I mean. If you have complementary products or services, insert links to these “value-added solutions” in your email, then track the actions taken by your readers to get a clear indication as to what they want to buy, see or do.
At present, a lot of you do this, however your readers may not be aware that their choices are molding your brand and what you deliver to them in your promotions, newsletters, and campaigns.  Let them know this. Customers respond positively when they know their choices matter.

I’ll finish up our engagement discussion with an example that may spark your creativity. This is a case study from Paramount Pictures.
You’ve heard of the movie ‘Paranormal Activity’, right? If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. Well, the film was produced for $15,000. It was aimed at the cult horror audience initially and wasn’t planned to go out to mass audiences. So Paramount gave the marketing team a budget of $0 to build awareness… sound familiar?  Anyway, what they did was put it in the hands of the fans. They set up basic HTML web pages with ‘Demand It’ options. You could watch the trailer of the movie and demand that they bring it to your town.
Enough demands = A one-time showing in your area.
This way they knew that the cost of showing the film would be covered by the demand. Then they asked attendees to give feedback on the website, which created awareness that led to more requests in other areas. The result?
A worldwide gross of $193,770,000 driven by the fans of a $15,000 movie with a $0 marketing budget! Genius.
Paramount didn’t stop there. To thank all the folks who made it all possible, they offered the chance to be included in the movie credits for the DVD release. How cool is that! If you’re curious how many people decided to engage in that offer, check out http://www.paranormalactivityproject.com/ and take a look. Yikes.
The take away from this is that every brand has the ability to engage their audiences – without spending zillions of dollars. Once you take the time to find out how to communicate with them and when, you’ll be breaking all your old campaign records, fast!
Until next time.
Mick

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3 Easy Steps to Boost Summer Bookings – Without Blowing Your Budget!

With pocketbooks tightening, and no sign of a let up, how do you keep the “No Vacancy” sign out all summer long? We wanted to help so we researched your industry to see if there were any changes in consumer behavior that would give us some clues to help you create a winning summer strategy. We hit pay dirt!
Did you know that people are doing more online research before booking their summer vacations? They’re searching an average of 22 travel websites (Google), communicating with friends and family via Facebook and Twitter, reading blogs and destination review sites, etc. What does this mean for your summer email marketing plans? If potential clients are visiting more online sites, then you need to be there. It also means you need to “orchestrate” all these marketing channels so they complement each other.
Let’s look at some tactics and tools you can use right now – at no added cost – to generate bookings and online buzz multichannel style!
3 Steps to Attracting Summer Visitors − Wherever They Are!
1.    Socialize your summer campaigns! According to Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HEBS)*, multi-channel marketing should be the norm for 2010. You’ll need to reach current and future guests at multiple touchpoints to get to them before the competition. Most of those touchpoints include social media, so you need to be where the buzz is!
For example, did you know that 49% of Twitter users said they made an online purchase because of an email, compared to 33% of all email users?* So…if you launch an email campaign to your hotel’s opt-in list, make sure to:
* Publish it on Twitter
* Promote it with tweets
* Add the full complement of social sharing icons (5)
* Promote it on your website (this is a must!)
* Promote it on your blog – or start one now!
* Make it easy for Fans to follow you.
* Include sign up forms on your social media pages!
To make each touchpoint truly multichannel, include links to all other related channels for easy access and maximum conversions!
2.    Energize your website − Most hotel websites still read like online brochures. While our focus is email marketing, everything must be integrated, right? So if this is you, here are some ways to make your site interactive, engaging, and fun to visit and share. Most of all, your website should be Grand Central Station for online bookings and incoming and outgoing hotel news.
Here’s a short list of interactive/social options you can implement quickly and at no added cost. Let’s start with your homepage, as that’s where you’re going to lose most visitors if it’s dull. The rest of your site will go into more detail and depth based on the landing page, so it’s critical to get it right:
* Add video tours of your hotel on your homepage.
* Promote specials with video tours, coupons and one-click bookings.
* Include 1-2 video testimonials on homepage, with links to more.
* Start a blog and invite everyone to contribute from your homepage.
* Include a graphic promoting a contest, sweepstakes, or other time-limited campaign, and don’t forget to show the prize!
* Include an online gallery of clients’ favorite vacations pics and clips.
* Add customer loyalty programs, with links to gifts and coupons.
* Add music and text-to-speech options to maximize the experience!
3.    Grab their attention with video and voice − You know that the competition for consumer dollars is ferocious this time of year, so your emails need to be more compelling, relevant, and engaging than ever. And the best way to increase engagement is with video! Remember the GetResponse study showing emails with video returned 96% higher CTRs than those without! Why? Two reasons: consumers crave more personal, “face-to-face” communication; and the hotel business is VERY visual, correct? So while your traditional video tours are still important, create some media fun with summer promotional videos that can be enjoyed and shared anywhere. Here’s some ideas to get you started:
* Clips of events, parties, BBQs, poolside fun and games.
* Favorite client vacation videos. They can use your webcam and account!
* Give them a tour of your restaurant cuisine with close-ups…yummy!
* Let them explore the locale, from parks, to lakes and streams, to the best galleries and shopping.
* Does your hotel allow pets? Everyone loves animals, so include some pet flicks!
Summer’s also the perfect time to try a brand new multimedia feature from GetResponse! The kids are out of school, and everyone’s more active, so why not make catching your marketing emails safer and more convenient with the new, industry-first Email-to-Speech. With a single click, E2S automatically converts text into a natural-sounding, high-quality human voice, so recipients can listen to emails “hands free”− at the beach or on the road. It’s also great to use with autoresponders – it makes them more personal and friendly. Wow, friendly, automated, messages, what a concept!
We hope we provided some ideas we could call new media “best practices”. But the takeaway is that consumer behaviors are changing and you need to keep up by “showing up” at every customer touchpoint to maximize your bookings. So remember to get “social” this summer! Once they’ve chosen your resort, we know they’ll come back again and again.
And as always don’t forget about:
4.    Customer Testimonials −Want to get even more responses from your multimedia messages? Ask happy customers to tell your story, customers that reflect your typical visitors or target audiences. Once you’ve created your testimonial with Email Marketing Tips Blog Multimedia Studio, post it on your website, blog, social media pages, and newsletters. And don’t forget to thank your clients with a discount coupon or free dinner. You’ll be surprised how powerful testimonials can be − and how much fun for everyone!
5.    Personalization – Your industry is quite personal already, if you think about it. Families trust you to make them comfortable, safe, and entertained, while far away from home. So whenever possible, add the “human touch” to your marketing emails. A 2009 Email Marketing Tips Blog study showed that personalized subject lines averaged 26% higher open rates and 130% higher CTRs than emails without. Most importantly, you’ll get better results if you personalize your message and your offer, based on data collected from surveys and campaigns, which brings us to…
6.    Segmentation & Targeting − This is probably one of THE most important engagement practices in your industry. Visitors on vacation want to enjoy themselves; that means spending time on the sports, hobbies, and indoor/outdoor recreational activities they prefer over any others. So the best way to get their attention (and their bookings) is to appeal to those preferences and interests. Use notes from previous stays, email analytics and surveys to capture and organize the data, then use it to target your messages and offers.  Sure, it takes time and effort, but the fact is, you’re not going to attract and retain visitors without it. Plus, they REALLY appreciate it!
7.    Autoresponders – Retention AND Repetition is the mantra in a down economy! Stay in constant touch with existing clients through e-newsletters, blog updates, special offers, and personal interest articles. Schedule and send greetings on holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries. Automate responses to online and phone inquiries, then use a series of follow-up messages according to the data collected. Remember, it can take 5-7 contacts to get a new booking, and the competition is fierce, so automate, automate!
* HEBS, Hotelier’s 2010 Top Ten Internet Marketing Resolutions
*    Marketing Sherpa, 201

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Summer tips for keeping fun-loving subscribers engaged.

Summer’s almost here! Everyone’s getting ready to take a break and have some “fun in the sun”.  But sometimes that means NOT reading marketing emails from you. To help keep your audiences engaged, we came up with some tips and best practices on bringing summer fun INTO your campaigns so subscribers look forward to your emails − even when they’re at the beach!
Come to think of it, http://justmfs.blogspot.com/2014/09/lets-talk-segmentation.html is so easy to use, YOU could create your summer campaigns at the beach! Just decide what types of campaigns and contests to run, choose your themes, and you’re off! And don’t forget to start recording and collecting the videos and testimonials, graphics, and pics NOW you want to use. After all, you have a ton of storage in your http://justmfs.blogspot.com/2014/09/lets-talk-segmentation.html Multimedia Studio, so why not use it! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Let’s begin with how to use summer themes, then we’ll talk about the types of campaigns and contests you could run to generate interest in what your brand is doing to contribute to the summer fun!
* Summer themes
* BBQs
* Beach fun
* Eating out
* Fishing, boating
* Fairs, festivals
* Hiking
* Games
* Travel
* Water sports
* and… feel free to add your own!
Pick a summer theme and create a multimedia experience around it − From the title and subject line, through the offer, message, graphics, media, and calls to action – make it a total experience! Include one link or media file solely for entertainment value, like a link to an online game, puzzle, music or “cool” summer video.  Need video content? Attend as many local fairs and festivals as possible, not just to get your brand noticed and to network, but to record the event and share it with your readers.  And why not let your customers be creative with a video testimonial recorded at the amusement park or the pool?! Finally, make your campaigns even more fun and convenient with Email-to-Speech! They can listen while they’re at the “barbie”!
•    Choose the perfect design from 300+ Email Marketing Tips Blog templates, then customize with your pics, videos, music, summer recipes, jokes, whatever you think will make the email engaging AND relevant.  Wrap it all up in sunny summer colors, with attention to your brand image, and it’s like a “party in an email”!
* Just make sure not to over-do it and hide your CTA buttons, links, or offer with too many special effects. Remember, the key to good email design is balancing text, graphics and media without losing sight of your goal – sales and sign-ups!
Contests & Giveaways
•    Wow, more than half of all Americans participated in a sweepstakes in the past year.(1) Almost everyone loves a contest… and everyone loves something for free, right?  So let your creativity run wild and plan at least one contest per month per target audience. In other words, try using a different contest theme and prizes for each unique segment to increase response rates.
Now we’re pretty sure you’re pros at contests, but please take care to follow these basic rules:
­ * Identify your business clearly and provide your contact information.
­ * Be crystal clear about the contest rules, terms and conditions
­ * Offer customers an obvious and easy way to stop further solicitation (opt out).
­ * No “pay to play”, in other words, no one has to purchase anything to participate.
•    Contests and giveaways offer the perfect opportunity to use your summer themes to have some fun!  Here are a few ideas to get the creativity flowing:
* Best BBQ recipe
* Best summer cocktail
* Funniest beach video
* Backyard antics video
* Best games for long car rides
* Silliest “fish story”
* Most amazing view photo contest
* Any summer-related “best use of product” video (ask a customer to record it!)
Really, the list is endless. But don’t forget to make the grand prize part of your summer theme, like the winner of Best BBQ recipe would get dinner for 2 at a famous local BBQ restaurant. Or tickets to a local festival featuring a BBQ competition, and so forth.  Throw in a gift certificate for your products or services, so they’ll come back for more… or send their friends! And of course, you KNOW you need to follow up with autoresponders every step of the way. Remember, your audience is focused on having fun, not responding to email campaigns!!
Multi-channel it!
Because your target audiences are often on the road, literally, make sure you use a variety of channels to cover all the bases. For example, they may not be working online while sunbathing, but could be tweeting, right? And you know they’ll ALL have their cell phones with them! So here are few tips to make it easier to reach these audiences – and for them to reach you!
* Design your campaign for small mobile phone screens.
* Use short videos to grab attention and for social sharing.
* Ratchet up your tweet campaigns to keep the conversation going.
* Post outdoor pics and videos on social media sites of your product in action.
* Run your contests and giveaways on every popular social media site.
* Use Email-to-Speech for the beach! Seriously, what better way to reach mobile, fun-loving, multi-tasking families while they’re on the go. It’s safe and easy − and you can put it on speakerphone!
Frequency & Timing!
This is better left to your discretion, as you know your audience better than anyone. However, there are major factors that come into play in the summer that you need to consider, mainly:
* Target audiences are probably checking their email LESS frequently, so you may want to survey in early summer to find out how often they want to hear from you.
* Subscribers aren’t thinking about spending MORE money, so proceed with caution! No “hard sell” tactics!
* Families and singles are usually off early Friday afternoon, so not a good day for your marketing messages. But what about Sundays?! It’s always been a good performer, and in the summer, it could be the perfect day of the week to launch your latest “fun” campaign. So stay on track with your newsletters, etc. Tuesday – Thursday, but save the Big Fun for  the weekends.
* As always, test, test, test. Consumer behavior during the vacation months is hard to predict, but if you split test everything, you’re sure to plug into exactly what they need and want!
So happy sailing, or hiking, or whatever you’re doing, but most of all, “happy emailing”! This is where we ask for your comments, but seriously, we REALLY would like to hear what kind of fun you’re planning for your subscribers this summer. Write and tell us!
1(FTC, 2009).

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Successful email marketing tips from GetResponse customers. Part 2.

 We continue our customer tips campaign with John Helfrich, owner of East End Toronto Homes based in Canada, and a satisfied Email Marketing Tips Blog user with some great email marketing tips to share. We asked John what’s his priority when planning a new campaign or newsletter. Curious what he said?

Focus on quality over quantity.
When times are tough, it’s common for marketers to focus on reaching as many people and getting as much website traffic as humanly possible. If they’re using pay-per-click (PPC ) advertising, for example,  the goal is a low cost/click ratio and high number of conversions. So they’re trying to get as many clicks and conversions as they can, without too much concern about the actual conversion rate.  In other words, the focus is on quantity. We take a different approach.
* Quality is what grows every aspect of our business. Our high-quality landing pages provide useful content and attractively designed pages that not only encourage sign ups from high-value prospects and improve our conversion rates, but they’re interesting enough to motivate recipients to open our email messages and read them through. So our response rates are particularly high…that’s one example of quality over quantity.
* We spend a lot of time researching the topics of greatest interest to our target market. Once we figure that out, we develop a marketing campaign around it that uses different channels to present those topics.  It’s been proven time and again that people respond to messages that are relevant to them. So far it’s working really well for us!
* We don’t send out a lot of useless emails. We send only what our subscribers asked for. Once they agree to get more, we send them related info when it becomes available. I think people can smell a lazy email/newsletter from a mile away! That’s when they hit “SPAM”!
“Email Marketing Tips Blog email marketing tools let us target our campaigns and grow our mailing list in lots of creative ways, while we learn about what our prospects want and need. I think the fact that we pay close attention to that is a big part of our success. But we couldn’t do it as well without Email Marketing Tips Blog!”, said Mrs Susanna Miles, responsible for online marketing at East End Toronto Homes.

John Helfrich and his East End Toronto Homes has helped clients buy, rent and sell East end Toronto homes for over 25 years. Years of experience means that John can help you find the right home in the right district, make sure you’re on ‘the right side of the tracks’, help you avoid buying a home next door to what might be poorly maintained Public Housing, can also help you make better tenant choices for your rental properties, and have smoother transitions when it’s time to sell. Find out more at East End Toronto Homes website.

Would you like to share with us and other readers your email marketing tips? Please fill in this short survey:

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Successful email marketing tips from GetResponse customers. Part 1.

Helping Email Marketing Tips Blog customers is our top priority and we’re always searching for useful tips and ideas to help you market your business more effectively. Sometimes the best ideas come from you! So we recently asked users with the highest OR and CTR rates to share with the rest of us their keys to success.
We begin our customer tips campaign with Khanh Tran, owner of Sienna Home Loans based in Australia, and an enthusiastic Email Marketing Tips Blog user with some great experiences and email marketing tips to share. We asked Khanh what approaches he uses when planning a new campaign or newsletter. What are the priorities?
Visualize your audience.
Before you do anything, think about who will be reading your message. Visualize yourself as the typical reader of mortgage newsletters when crafting your message. That will help make it relevant.
Always have a goal.
Think about what you want to achieve with your message. You want to be on top of readers’ minds  for the right reasons, e.g. we are a business they trust and want to deal with, an agency they would recommend to friends, family and co workers. Keep that goal in mind with every word you write.
Use quality (not quantity) leads.
Like many others starting out, I added anyone and everyone to my list. Now I’m very selective who I add to my email database. Some email addresses are like seeds − nurture them and they will flourish. Some are like weeds. So, ask yourself when sorting your database, is this the type of person I want reading my messages? Then, if they deliver high response rates, cultivate those contacts!
Get in the “zone”.
When I’m starting a big project, I like to create a rough draft first. I create an environment or find a place where I feel comfortable, then take to pen and paper. It’s got to be a plain white A4 paper, no lines, no border, no boundaries to restrict the creative flow. When the mind starts filling up with ideas, you want to capture the good, the bad, and the ugly, and worry about culling later.
Use media.
Words are fantastic but there’s something about adding a photograph, image, or even better, a video to your work that creates substance, as long as it’s relevant. For instance, when I’m doing testimonials, I use either a picture of myself and the client or a short video of the customer giving the testimonial. I uploaded one testimonial to my phone to show prospects what customers think of my service. It’s a great elevator pitch…a mini commercial in your pocket!

Keep your content organized:
•    Create a title that captures your readers’ attention. With Email Marketing Tips Blog, I like to personalize my titles e.g. “Hi (name), come to our seminar and learn how to buy a home!” There’s something about using people’s names
that makes a positive and lasting impression. In sales, we are taught to use the prospect’s name at least three times to build rapport. I don’t know exactly why, but it works!
•    The introduction is the most important part of your message. Keep it short, and so interesting and exciting that they’ll have to read on. Link it to the objective of your message: for example, the goal of my messages is usually to find clients via referrals, so I might say, “John, you were referred to us by your co-worker Jane, a loyal and long-term client of ours.” This helps establish credibility right away.
•    It doesn’t matter if you are providing a service or a product − you are almost always solving a problem – so illustrate it with lots of details, make it totally realistic. Check out “Use media “for some tips!
•    Offer solutions. Make a big deal about your solutions! “If you don’t blow your own horn, no one will!” Generate some emotional fireworks, some “aha” moments, a sign of relief, or jump for joy! After all, you can solve their problems  − and that’s HUGE!
“In email marketing, like everything else, if you want to be good at it, you need to have an open mind and keep learning and trying new things. Email Marketing Tips Blog is a great platform for being creative and customizing your marketing to your business. There are so many rich, easy-to-use features. And they really listen to SMB customer feedback. Like Lance Armstrong says “Feedback is what champions have for breakfast”!”, said Mr Tran.

Sienna Home Loans is a boutique Mortgage Brokering firm, helping many customers achieve the dream of owning their own home. With a modest panel of lenders, the team at Sienna Home Loans ensures that every experience is tailored to each individuals needs. At Sienna Home Loans service excellence applies “now, next time… always”. Find out more at Brisbane First Home Buyers website.
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