InTouchCRM

Did you find Love this Valentine’s Day

We do our upmost to love every single customer we have and to go and find the answers if needed.  We admit we don’t always get it right, who does every single time?  But we have a strong support system set up that forms the backbone of our service orientated business.  Is your customer service defined and clear, does everyone in your business understand what standard they must deliver to in this crucial area? Is it clearly communicated at every stage – on your website, in your emails, face to face with customers?  Just a few questions to ask yourself and do some mental checksSo here we are again, another Valentines Day just done, the sun is shining (well kind of), the birds are singing and the postman has delivered all those notes of love to your door.  But how many of those were for you and your business?.

Good customer service is a thing of the past

A bold statement I know but sadly for many businesses it is true.  And we all know that the point of difference between one business and another down the road selling the same thing is customer service. Show your customers the love and they will show it back, tenfold.

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends.
If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.
JEFF BEZOS, Founder of Amazon.com

So, without sending each customer red roses, how can you show them that they are loved? More importantly, how do you get them to love you?

Well, there are millions of things that you can do, but here are 3 that I think are pretty key

Give a personal service

If a customer walks into your show, calls you up, emails you, however they communicate with you – they are still a person, a human being so treat them as such. They have a name – use it! Don’t send faceless unpersonalised emails or letters, use your email marketing and CRM system to personalise your communications and insert their name or a personal greeting.  It certainly ain’t rocket science but it’s surprising how many people don’t do this. You should be creating a rapport with each customer at every point so they feel they trust you, your business and brand.  Using personalised communications which can be created at the click of a button are a no-brainer.  If you need proof of this why not try a test on your next email campaign?  Send one version without personalisation and one with and see what results you get.  Or click email personalisation for more on personalised  campaigns.

Over-Deliver

Anyone can do just enough to get the job done, but that is not about creating customer love. Going over and above the call of duty is what builds that bond and that customer love, you have to manage expectations and make sure that first and foremost – you get the job done! At InTouchCRM we follow this maxim.

To my customer.
I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.
I may not have the time, but I’ll make it.
UNKNOWN

Finally, BE A REAL PERSON

Customers are people and should be dealt with as such……and…..shock horror…..So are you!, It really is as simple as that. Treat others as you would want to be treated and you can’t go to wrong.

Writing effective emails – a guide to email marketing

Whether you love it or loathe it, email marketing is a crucial part of any businesses marketing strategy.

But although we all send emails to family and friends, sending a business related email is a very different animal that requires some planning and knowledge.  But once you know the tricks of the trade, it’s easy! Read on for our top tips on creating the most effective email message for your business.

Step 1: Get ‘em hooked

Just like a piece of bait on the end of fishing line, the title or subject line you give the email is vital to hooking the reader in.  You have maybe 1 or 2 seconds at the most to make that first impression  count and to ensure the reader opens rather than bins.

Don’t be too clever - don’t be tempted to be too clever with puns, innuendos or clever plays on words.  I can guarantee that the recipients of your email are just as busy as you are and want to be able to scan their inbox for messages that are either crucial or interesting to them.

Top tip: Ask yourself  ‘so what?’ when reading your own text. Does it clearly communicate the benefit or does the reader have to work it out? For example, instead of having a subject line of;

February Newsletter

Try…

Our guide to surviving Valentines Day as a singleton in this month’s newsletter

Step 2: Reel ‘em in

So you’ve hooked them with the subject line. But to reel them in and keep them reading the first few lines of your first paragraph are just as crucial.  Be very clear on what they’ll find in the email – the topic or item that was mentioned in the subject line plus one or two other bits too.  That’s it.  Nothing more, be obvious, succinct and clear.  Remember also that many people will see your email in a preview pane and so the top part is the only part that will be seen until they either scroll down or open it.

Top tip: Using bullet points, a list or short text highlighted in some way, will help.  Something like this;

In Our Newsletter this month:

• Win a Valentines weekend break
• 10% off all products in our new Spring range
• Spotlight on XYZ

Step 3: Be concise, clear and succinct

Better to write too little than too much when it comes to email marketing.  Ever heard of the term visual noise?  This is the marketing equivalent of not being able to see the wood for the trees, so don’t be tempted to cram in too much information just to fill space.

Break up your main text and avoid long paragraphs of copy.

Don’t be too clever - don’t be tempted to be too clever with puns, innuendos or clever plays on words.  I can guarantee that the recipients of your email are just as busy as you are and want to be able to scan their inbox for messages that are either crucial or interesting to them.

Top tip: Make use of;

• Bulletpoints,
• Lists,
• Subtitled Sections, or
• Box off sections of short text that you want to highlight

Step 4: Testing, testing

You probably won’t get it right first time. Email marketing systems like InTouchCRM help by providing a wide range of information on each campaign you send – how many opens, bounces, unsubscribes and crucially click throughs to your website.  This is where the really clever stuff happens.  The information you get from these reports is instantaneous and helps you to tweak and improve future email marketing.

Top tip: Try different subject titles or layouts to different groups of customers and see which one gets the best response (open rates).

Watch out for part 3 of our Email Marketing Effectiveness Guide which will be out soon – the do’s and don’ts of email design and layout.

See our website for more tips on email marketing success – www.intouchcrm.co.uk/resources

For more details on InTouchCRM’s campaign reporting features, click here

Make sure you avoid the spam folder

New Year, New Email Marketing Campaign? Make Sure you Avoid the Spam Folder

One of the key factors in email marketing is deliverability i.e. your emails reaching inboxes, not junk or spam folders. You probably wouldn’t keep a sales person who never made it to client meetings? Would you use a courier to deliver your products to customers who had a history of only delivering 50% of shipments? Well that’s where we come in for your email campaigns.

We’re constantly working in the background to ensure your emails are delivered. ISP feedback loops, throttling, MTA, bounce handling are just a few amongst the many things we take care of on your behalf and we won’t bore you with the details. We just want you to know we’re fighting your corner on a daily basis. But we can’t do it alone so here are just two simple ways of helping us to help you get all your emails to exactly where you want them – into inboxes

Step 1 – Send less emails!

I know it seems strange for a company providing a system that enables you to email your customers to say this, but yes, we think most people send too many emails. Or to maybe be more specific, too many emails that aren’t relevant enough to the recipients interests and needs. Research has shown that 75% of respondents say a lack of relevance is the biggest reason they choose to opt out of receiving regular emails, followed closely by being sent them too frequently at 73%. (Merkle Interactive Services 2009).

So how often is too often and how do you ensure relevance?

Well clearly it will depend on the type of business but a good rule of thumb is once a week if you are sending customers a promotional offer or a way of saving money/purchasing something new. Or for general company updates and “staying in touch” purposes, probably once a month is all that’s needed. To work out what’s best for your business, try a few different approaches and keep an eye on your open rates – if they start to fall, you can start to work out is it the content of the message that is the problem or the frequency.

Content is King

It’s just as vital to consider content. 41% of US internet users threatened to stop buying from companies that send them irrelevant messages (CMO Council & InfoPrint Solutions, 2010) so it really is a turn off for them. Unfortunately we see this happen a lot – if a customer signs up to receive your restaurant business newsletter and you then use that same customer’s details to also send them communications about a completely different business venture, you are effectively spamming them and they will complain and potentially unsubscribe.

Instead, include a link to your alternative business venture in your restaurant newsletter, invite them to actively sign up to the new communication or contact you for information and then you have a separate group of customers that you know are actively interested in your new product or offer. This means you can then segment that group and send them emails containing content that is timely but relevant to them.

Let a CRM system such as InTouchCRM do the hard work for you

Remember, the InTouchCRM system helps you manage all your email marketing communications and will track and report on open and click through rates as well as giving you the low down on delivery & bounce rates, unsubscribes etc. So the system will do a lot of the hard work, you just have to act on the information it gives you.

Step 2 – Keep your email list up to date

Let’s make this very simple. If someone receives your email and did not want it, that is spam. Even if they purchased from you in 1986 or told you at a trade show they would be happy to receive emails, if they click that junk button, its spam. That’s bad for you and bad for us. Once someone has unsubscribed from your emails InTouchCRM will not send them another email. However, what if you’ve sent someone 10 campaigns and they’ve not opened or clicked a link in any? Do you think they’re really interested? Do you think ISPs don’t notice this? We can assure you they do. Too many unopened emails and complaints will eventually lead to the ISP blocking you….and unfortunately this affects us too so we do everything we can to prevent it getting to that situation. But a regular check of your own email contact list and making sure all your permissions are up to date and current is essential. If you don’t, at best you’ll look unprofessional and at worse the emails just won’t get there. Make it a new year’s resolution to check your list once a month!

That’s it for now. Nothing too strenuous whilst we all ease back into work mode. We’ll have some more tips on improving email effectiveness over the coming weeks so watch this space for more information soon. Happy emailing and for more help or advice visit us at www.intouchcrm.co.uk