Connecting Kickbox + AWeber to Maintain a Healthy Email List

The following is a guest blog post written by Jessica Martinez, the marketing whiz-bang over at Kickbox, a company that helps email marketers improve their email reputation by separating low-quality email addresses from high-value contacts. She is responsible for digital branding, engagement and content creation for the Dallas-based startup. Before Jessica got snatched up by email verification powerhouse, Kickbox, she earned her marketing stripes working at a leading ecommerce beauty brand for over a decade.

Email remains the best channel for getting a great return on investment. According to many digital marketing experts, that’s not going to change anytime soon. That said, if you use email marketing, you’re probably busy strategizing and dreaming up clever campaigns to increase conversions and build your email list.

After all, effective list building is at the core of any good email marketing strategy.

But are you taking it too far?

Signs you might be an email hoarder.

Just as you can collect and save mass amounts of anything, it’s also possible to hold on to subscribers in your email list. Not sure if you’re hoarding emails? Ask yourself these questions: 

• Do you obsess over the number of subscribers on your list?
• Do you find yourself boasting about the size of your email list to friends or colleagues?
• When someone unsubscribes from your list do you cringe and/or feel a sense of pain?
• When you get a new subscriber do you experience a euphoric feeling?
• Does the thought of parting with any of the email addresses on your list make you ill?

If you’ve answered “YES” to any of these questions, then you might be an email hoarder.

While a large subscribe list doesn’t necessarily mean you are hoarding emails, if you are focused solely on building your list and/or have never consider clearing out the clutter, your good intentions can quickly get out of hand. Email hoarding happens slowly over time, and many marketers don’t even realize they have a problem until it’s too late – which occurs when they notice any of the following:  

• High Bounce Rates – Bounce rates approaching 10%
• High Volume of Business Emails – B2B lists tend to degrade faster than B2C lists.
• Old Lists – The older the list, the greater the risk.
• Poor Email Performance – Your emails are not converting like they used to.
• Warning from ESP – Your ESP will suspend or block your account if you have too many bounces or invalid email addresses before putting their own network at risk.

Thankfully, however, there’s a cure.

Kickbox, the cure for a cluttered email list.

No one is pointing fingers. We’ve all been guilty of email hoarding at some point in our marketing careers. However, you should understand that list building without routine list maintenance can have serious ramifications.

All email addresses are not created equal. People change jobs, change names, switch email providers, use fake or disposable addresses, hit the wrong keys or buttons, you name it. But when that happens, it can prevent your emails from getting into the inbox.

Additionally, a list riddled with incorrect data can damage your sender reputation and negatively impact email performance. Here’s the general rule for maintaining subscriber lists for both B2C and B2B business owners:

• B2B lists should be cleansed every 6 months due to high turnover.
• B2C lists should be cleansed at least once a year.

So where does Kickbox fit in?

Kickbox is a list cleaning powerhouse that allows AWeber users to check the health of their email lists and identify the good, the bad and the ugly email addresses lurking in their database. The seamless integration lets you easily pass data back and forth between AWeber and the Kickbox app to help you clear the clutter in a matter of minutes.

Kickbox will provide you with a plethora of data about each email address, letting you know if the address is Deliverable, Undeliverable, Risky – even Disposable, Accept All, Role, and Free.

They also provide an additional metric, called the Sendex™ Score, which allows you to further rank the quality of each email address based on their proprietary scoring system.

Armed with this data, you can make informed, stress-free decisions about which emails to keep, which emails you should ditch, plus you can segment to your heart’s content.

Kickbox + AWeber

To see how connecting Kickbox with your AWeber account can help you easily maintain your email list, check out the video below:

Ready to give Kickbox a try? Log in to your account now to get started.

The post Connecting Kickbox + AWeber to Maintain a Healthy Email List appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

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Why Customer Match is the biggest thing to happen to email since Hotmail

Now available on Google and Facebook, features like Customer Match or Custom Audiences are expected to revolutionize digital advertising, especially within the email marketing sphere.

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Sensei Note

Sensei NoteRelated Articles

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Reasons to Ditch “Batch and Blast” and Get Started with Email Marketing Personalization

We all like to believe we’re special. Or as anthropologist Margaret Mead wryly put it, “Always remember that you are absolutely unique — just like everyone else.”  

That belief (or state of denial) is why so-called “batch and blast” email is usually less effective than email campaigns customized to your unique market. In a recent study of marketing professionals by Experian Marketing Services, 62 percent said a personalized email subject line is crucial.

The study also revealed that personalized promotional emails generated transaction rates and revenue per email six times higher than non-personalized emails. The personalized mailings had 29 percent higher unique open rates and 41 percent higher unique click rates. For triggered email campaigns (in which emails are triggered by a calendar event, a business action or an action taken by a website visitor), personalization doubled transaction rates.

Because today’s email marketing services allow for more detailed data about customers, users can implement some pretty impressive personalization that likely wouldn’t have been possible a couple of decades ago. Logistics like fully optimized mobile applications and time-delayed messaging are now par for the course, as is message micro-customization based on consumer behavior.  

“With so many available tools, businesses of all sizes can now employ the best email strategies for reaching customers,” writes Jayson DeMers in the Huffington Post. “When used correctly, these tools let businesses of all sizes compete with even the largest corporations. As more marketers discover the value of personalized marketing, businesses that don’t personalize their efforts will likely find their campaigns are largely unsuccessful.”

“To get started with such customization, conducting customer research is imperative,” explains Vertical Response Senior Content Marketing Manager, Linzi Breckenridge. “Your success with email marketing lies in understanding as much as you can about your contacts so you can better communicate with the groups of people likely to find your message relevant,” she says.  

Since personalizing messages for a world’s worth of potential customers is probably still out of technology’s reach, here are tips for identifying whom to target in your next campaign.  

• Identify your target market(s), segmenting the groups of customers most likely to buy your goods and services. Think about which segment of the population has a problem your product is able to solve. Narrowing that down keeps you from wasting time and energy, and maximizes your chance of gaining and keeping customers, growing profits and expanding market share.
• The most common ways to segment are by demographics, geographic location, purchasing behavior and/or psychographic segmentation (interests, hobbies, lifestyles, values and attitudes). The most common demographics used are age, gender and income level, notes social media blogger Lisa Furgison, all of which can be collected from your customers and embedded for reference onto your website or blog platform.
• To help you form your messages, some marketing professionals recommend identifying common themes among your best customers and conceiving of actual “personas” that represent them in their various forms — including their shopping objectives and possible objections to buying.
• Further fine-tune your target market by analyzing email data to identify customers who answered calls to action, like clicking to open windows announcing new product arrivals. “Knowing if, when and how contacts engage with your email is useful in determining which contacts find the message relevant,” notes Breckenridge. “You can continue the communication with those who respond, and tweak or completely change the message for those who don’t.”
• Limit your target market to a manageable size. Warns Furgison: “If you overdose on segmentation, you could get frustrated and make your email marketing strategy more complicated than it needs to be.”
• Consider rewarding loyal customers with discounts or special sneak peeks of products. “With a marketplace overflowing with options, repeat buyers are a much smaller segment than they once were,” Furgison notes.
• Identify, target, and maybe reward brand advocates — customers who praise your products on social media or provide you positive feedback.  
• Make an effort to bring back inactive customers, possibly with a promo. Such emails have titles like “We miss you!” or “It’s been a while,” notes Furgison, who also advises that surveys should find out why customers have strayed.  
• Place the customer’s first name or user ID at the top of the message to quickly capture attention, advises Kevin Gao on targetmarketingmag.com. “If the user took the time to register with your business, then there is some implicit trust between both of you,” he says. “Remind them of your relationship by promptly showing their names. This tactic is especially important for consumers on mobile devices as the limited space means brands need logical personalization right away.”
• Ask customers for information so you can provide even more apt customization in the future. “But avoid being greedy,” warns Gao. “Customers don’t want to spend time with a detailed registration page that asks for demographic data or other personal information. Ask for the minimum, use that in personalized emails, and expand your data as the relationship grows.”
• Messages to customers triggered by real-time behaviors — such as reminders that items have been left in a “shopping cart” — can be very effective. “Even if the visitor receives it minutes after leaving the site, it does help the brand to stick in their mind,” states Gao. “Personalization should also be included in standard messages, such as shipment confirmations, where companies can suggest additional products or services, perhaps at a discount.”
• Consider customizing email messages to arrive at the optimal times for your customers depending on demographics and time zone. For example, emails to student customers could arrive in the evenings when they’re most likely to be browsing via computer.

Lastly, always test your email campaign before sending. Having more than one pair of eyes review the email reduces the chance of suffering from an error. After making the effort to boost open and click rates with personalization and segmentation, the last thing you want is to waste it on a typo.

Conclusion:  Move beyond the old-fashioned and ineffective approach of “batch and blast” to get the best results with email marketing.

VerticalResponse has made segmentation and tracking email campaign results a snap. Sign up and start sending up to 4,000 emails per month for free.

© 2015, Vertical Response Blog. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

The post Reasons to Ditch “Batch and Blast” and Get Started with Email Marketing Personalization appeared first on Vertical Response Blog.

4 tips for growing your email list with opt-in

By using these four tips in conjunction with the formula for acquisition conversion rate, email marketers can significantly boost opt-in frequency for subscriber lists.

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Marketing Mania: Lego Slippers

Parents can finally rejoice because the Lego Company has heard their cries of pain and they just created the first ever Lego slippers. Together with French PR firm, Brand Station, these slippers come equipped with extra heavy duty padding in the insoles to protect the bottom on your feet.Related Articles

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Event and Trade Show Etiquette: 4 Tips to Make Your Booth a Success

As the new year approaches, are industry events and trade shows part of your marketing plan? Before you go, make sure you’re set up for success by considering the importance of booth etiquette. 

Here are four tips to think about the next time you’re on the show floor:

1. Be aware of your body language.

Remember you’re acting as host of your booth. Maintain a friendly demeanor with a welcoming stance as booth visitors approach your space. Keep your arms naturally at your sides or fold them behind your back. Avoid crossing your arms as it can be perceived as defensive and might cause people to walk past you.

2. Make sure to have an ice breaker on your signage.

Your signage is usually the first thing an attendee sees. Why not pull them into your booth with a statement about your value proposition or a differentiator from your competition? 

In the picture below, we use our “freemium” model to our advantage by mentioning it on our backdrop. The “Free Email & Social Media For Your Business” statement stimulates a lot of conversations. It peaks people’s interest and allows the booth host to tell them exactly what it is and why it’s something to try.

 

3. Pre-populate your browser with specific pages you want to show from your website.

Many trade shows and events have less than ideal internet service. Whether it’s the free wifi provided by the venue or the portable hot spot you brought along, be prepared for slow loading pages. One way to combat this is to open individual tabs on your browser. This way when showing booth visitors your website, you can easily transition from page to page without dealing with slow load times.

4. Emphasize the benefits of your product or service in an easy-to-digest package.

It’s time-consuming, if not impossible for attendees to hear pitches from every booth. Condense your message to a short overview that leaves visitors wanting to follow up and find out more.

Give them a takeaway like the example below. Anticipate questions visitors might have and provide the answers. 

Conclusion:  Think about your ideal customer. What kind of experience do you want to create for him or her? Then apply these four tips to make the most of your trade shows and events in 2016. 

For more marketing tips delivered to your inbox every Monday, sign up for the award-winning VerticalResponse newsletter.

© 2015, Vertical Response Blog. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

The post Event and Trade Show Etiquette: 4 Tips to Make Your Booth a Success appeared first on Vertical Response Blog.

Name to fame: Strategizing your company title

Plans for your new company are underway, but a great name for your venture still hasn’t sprung to mind.

That’s troubling since it can be daunting to find a catchy, meaningful, attention-grabbing moniker that will stand the test of time and cast your company in an all-positive light.

The criteria for the perfect company name are mind-boggling. It must fit your company personality and bring to mind the right connotations without being too trendy, too complicated or too boring. It must be memorable, easy to pronounce and have initials with a non-controversial acronym. And your new name can’t be spoken for, or you’ll find yourself in legal trouble.

“You really want a name that will get you, your staff and your customers excited and talking about the business,” notes South Carolina-based based startup consultant Peter Gasca in Entrepreneur. “(It’s) a creative platform for telling a long-term story to the world, so it is worth spending some time and effort on finding the best fit. If you are of the mindset your name can be changed down the road, consider how much easier it will be and how much brand equity you can retain if you start with the right name.”

That said, the world history of bad name choices is well documented (and mocked) on the Internet.

FLICKR/JOE MUD

“A bad name will hurt you, and there’s no reason to inflict this damage upon yourself when you can avoid it with only a couple days’ worth of work,” advises Julian Shapiro, founder of domain portfolio NameLayer, on Thenextweb.com. “Never forget your name is the first thing to come out of your mouth every time you pitch your company. You should never underestimate how many choices consumers have. Stand out. It can all start with your name, which people will be typing, clicking on or tapping on every day.”

Check out how these 17 famous companies got their quirky names, courtesy of Steven Brenna and Skye Gould of Business Insider.

Steven Brenna and Skye Gould | Business Insider

Making the right choice could intimidate even the most seasoned entrepreneur. Fortunately, the enormity of the task has attracted a number of experts. Here are some of their ideas for finding the perfect name.

• Consider hiring a professional firm to do the job. It may charge as much as $80,000 and require anywhere from six weeks to six months, says an article in Entrepreneur, but fees usually include other identity and graphic design work.

• Online guides can walk you through the DIY process from inspiration to trademarking. Shapiro advises setting aside a few thousand dollars in case you need it for domain privileges.

• Seek inspiration by perusing online business and startup sites, and listing company names and keywords that strike a chord. Check a thesaurus for keyword synonyms. “Think about your company’s market, what makes your company unique and what your value proposition is,” says Shapiro. “Spend a few minutes converting each of these concepts into keywords.”

• Run your keywords through these helpful websites provided by Shapiro, including LeanDomainSearch.com (for word combinations available for registration; Domai.nr (for general clever abbreviations) and Wordoid.com (for fictitious word derivations.) “The purpose is to study the generated results in order to build an understanding of how your keywords can be branded into company names,” he explains. He also points to domain portfolios like NameLayer.com and Namecore.com for ideas not based on obvious keywords. Finally, avoid irrelevant keyword connotations, mismatched suffixes, unintuitive spelling choices, overused keywords, borderline stealing and names intimidating to your customer base, he says.  

• Finish your DIY search by perusing top aftermarkets for your keywords on sites like BuyDomains.com and Sedo.com, Shapiro says. Then filter results for names available in your price range.

• Your name may not automatically require trademarking if state regulations allow it and you aren’t infringing on another trade name, notes Gasca. But you still may want to hire a trademark attorney or trademark search firm to be sure.

• Opinions conflict regarding whether made-up words are more memorable than real words, according to the Entrepreneur article. Regardless, avoid names that are long, confusing, geographically limiting or made from obscure puns. The article recommends a “comforting or familiar name that conjures up pleasant memories, so customers respond to your business on an emotional level. Choose a name that appeals not only to you but also to the kind of customers you are trying to attract. And the more your name communicates to consumers about your business, the less effort you must exert to explain it.”

• B2C and B2B names should be crafted differently, Shapiro advises. “Many B2C businesses are supercharged by a company name that can be easily communicated, remembered and liked. Conversely, many B2B businesses are grown exclusively via existing partners and connections who couldn’t care less about the company’s brand, but instead focus on the company’s team, pricing and ability to execute on their services.”

• Many successful companies like Apple, Nike, Facebook, Twitter, Dreamworks, Pixar and eBay have two syllables in their names, observes Dave Smith in Inc.com. He points to research showing brevity leads to memorability. 

• Shapiro says the best company names are highly brandable; unique; logical; evoke wonder by triggering emotions; marked by clear and professional word combinations; and unmistakable once heard.

• Consider whether your long-term goals and/or future advances in technology might make your name obsolete, advises Nikolas Contis, director of naming at global branding firm Siegel Gale, in the Entrepreneur article. Slang words or phrases may eventually do the same.

• Instead of flat-out describing your business, Contis says, consider a name that prompts the customer to seek more information. “Great names engage but do not declare, and they evoke rather than explain,” he explains. 

• Before making a decision, spend time doodling your proposed name, reading it aloud and imagining how it may sound in advertising campaigns, advises Entrepreneur.

• Shapiro recommends gathering feedback on your final choice(s) from honest family members, friends, colleagues and employees, asking what the name connotes in their hearts and minds. But others, including Will Mitchell of startupbros.com, believe it’s more helpful to directly approach your target audience by vetting your ideas on easy-to-use sites like LeadPages or Unbounce. Entrepreneur also points to the focus groups or other consumer research.

• Allow at least a week between the brainstorming and the selection to mull options, Smith advises. “Good company names have a certain ‘stickiness’ to them. The best names are remembered without needing to refer to the list.” 

Once you make your decision, advises Entrepreneur, go forth with enthusiasm and get started generating some buzz. Your employees will be looking to you to establish comfort with your new name and making it seem like it’s been around forever.   

“Your name is your first step toward building a strong company identity — one that should last as long as you’re in business,” it says.

Get more marketing tips and how-tos delivered to your inbox every Monday. Sign up for the award-winning VerticalResponse newsletter.

© 2015, Vertical Response Blog. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

The post Name to fame: Strategizing your company title appeared first on Vertical Response Blog.

Quick Tips Video: 3 Ways to Build Your Email List Offline

Your website isn’t the only place you connect with new people.

You interact with others at conferences, your cash register, or even the grocery store (you know the longer those lines get, the sooner friendships and networking opportunities are forged).

With all of these face-to-face interactions you have with prospective customers, leveraging them to grow your email list simply makes sense. That’s why for our latest episode of Quick Tips, Olivia and I address three ways you can encourage people to sign up to your email list offline.

In cased you missed a tip, here’s the transcript:

Monica (M): Hi, I’m Monica.

Olivia (O): And I’m Olivia. Welcome back to another episode of Quick Tips.

When you think about growing your email list, you probably imagine people sitting at their computers, checking out your website, and filling out the form on the homepage.

M: But you don’t have to let your website do all the talking. There are plenty of ways to leverage opportunities when you’re not online too.

O:  One way is to download an email sign up app.

M: It seems like there’s an basically an app for everything these days. And if you want to get people to easily subscribe to your email list from areas outside of your website, well, an app can help you do that too.

O: Email apps, such as AWeber’s Atom App, allow you to turn your mobile device into a sign up form. Simply download the app, connect it to your email list with your email service provider, and add new subscribers directly from the app – anyone who signs up to your emails will automatically get added to your list in your account.

M: If possible, include a brief description about the purpose of your email list. People who sign up to your list want to know what’s in it for them.

O: This is your chance to do some convincing, in addition to simply telling them how awesome it is. Planning on sending a weekly newsletter of company updates? Maybe recipes from your cooking blog? Tell your subscribers!

M: You might also want to add an image of your brand logo or change the colors to create a consistent experience with your brand.

O: If you’re the old school type, a paper and pen also does the trick – simply add columns for name and email address. The downside here is that you will have to manually add each subscriber to your list, hence why many enjoy the convenience of the signup form app. But, to each their own!

M: Once you have your form, it’s time to figure out some opportunities where you can encourage others to subscribe to your list.

O: Networking events or conferences where you have a booth set up are perfect opportunities for asking people to sign up to your list. Just make sure that you mention it at a relevant point in the conversation –  you don’t want to start a discussion by immediately asking them to sign up to your email list.

M: If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can also set up an iPad near the register, and direct customers to sign up to receive future email updates.

O: Or maybe you just happen to strike up a conversation with someone you just met while hiking. You can pretty much grow your email list anytime, anywhere.

M: And before you head out to that next big event, be sure to set up an email to automatically welcome new subscribers to your list. Our Campaigns feature lets you send a message to new subscribers who signed up through the Atom app – this means you can send them a message with info that’s relevant to them.

O: So that’s it for our tips on offline list building, but we wanted to leave you with a Quick Task:

M: Take a few minutes to think about offline opportunities you have to interact with your audience. Are there any upcoming networking events, or do you have a store where you can set up an iPad?

O: Just download a sign up form app, then customize the content and design, and ask people you interact with to subscribe to your list.

M: Now that you have some work to do, we’ll let you get to it. Feel free to leave a comment below with how you plan been growing your list offline.

O:  And while you’re at it, subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you never miss a Quick Tips episode.

M: We’ll see you again in two weeks!

The post Quick Tips Video: 3 Ways to Build Your Email List Offline appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

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Benchmark Email Magento Go Integration: Stay in Touch with Holiday Traffic Year-Round

With the Benchmark Email Magento Go integration, you can add a signup form to your Magento Go pages. Capitalize on your holiday site traffic! Grow your email list with a signup form that lives right on your Magento Go page and synchs with your Benchmark Email list(s). Available free with every email marketing account.Related Articles

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Linked Campaigns 101: What to Write in Your Linked Email Campaigns

This is the third post in our series about the many ways you can use Campaigns, AWeber’s new email automation platform, to deliver AWesome content to your subscribers. Check out our previous posts about creating welcome campaigns and writing email courses.

Has a business ever made you feel really special? One time, my favorite weather app/cat tweeted at me and it made my day. Social media is a great place to start those relationships with your customers, but email marketing can take them to a whole new level.

Linked email campaigns can make each person in your audience feel like a million bucks and keep that spark alive for an extended period of time.

What’s a linked email campaign?

When you link email campaigns, you automatically send your subscribers who have completed one automated email series to another series. (Sometimes this is referred to as a “daisy chain.”) When you link email campaigns, you do a few things:

• You deliver a better, more personalized experience based on where people sign up, which emails they open, or which links they click on.
• You send the right content to the right people – people who are ready for your next email campaign.
• You keep your subscribers engaged over a longer period of time, increasing your chances of turning them into a loyal, long-term customer or advocate.

Linked campaigns provide an easy way to deliver a more personalized experience and create long-lasting relationships with your audience. If you’ve been following along with our series about creating content for your email campaigns, linked campaigns will help you tie your welcome series and email courses together.

There are more than a few ways to use linked campaigns, so I’ll give you some sample linked campaign strategies as well as the kinds of content to include in each.

Link your contextual welcome campaign to your educational campaign.

The term contextual emails is a fancy way of saying personalized, relevant emails. One way to create a contextual experience is to create a welcome series based on where people signed up for your list, and then link those people to an educational campaign teaching them more about you and your business.

So whether people signed up at your business location (like your store or restaurant) or on your website, you can send them a contextual welcome campaign, and then dive into a more detailed educational campaign when they’re ready for it.

Let’s say you’re the owner of a cat cafe, and you ask your in-store customers to sign up for your list using your mobile app. When someone signs up for your list, you can send them a welcome campaign thanking them for visiting, an FAQ about the cat cafe, and a survey asking them about their experience at the cat cafe.

But that’s just your welcome campaign. You probably want your subscribers to come back to the cafe and tell their friends about it, right? To do that, you could send everyone who finishes your welcome campaign a second, educational campaign that dives into more details about why your services are so valuable. Your linked campaigns might look like this:

Campaign #1: Welcome Campaign

Email #1: Welcome email thanking customers for stopping by and signing up, along with a coupon for their next in-store visit.
Email #2: FAQ about the cat cafe
Email #3: Survey about customers’ experience at the cat cafe

Campaign #2: Educational Campaign

Email #1: Get to know the cats in the cat cafe
Email #2: A list of the rescues and shelters the cat cafe works with
Email #3: A list of reasons why everyone should adopt a pet

The content in the welcome campaign was part of the getting-to-know-you phase of your relationship with your subscribers. The linked educational campaign dives into more details about the cat cafe and its mission.

By the time subscribers reach your second campaign, they’re ready for that next level of content and should be well on their way to becoming a loyal customer.

Link your email course to another educational campaign.

Do you use an email course as incentive for people to sign up for you list? (If not, you should – here’s how to create one.) Linking your course to another campaign will keep your subscribers engaged after they finish your course. As a bonus, you can use your second campaign as an opportunity to promote a product or service without sounding too pushy.

Here’s what your linked campaigns could look like if you were a personal trainer:

Campaign #1: (Email Course) 5 Days to a Stronger Core

Email #1: Lesson 1: The best ab workout ever
Email #2: Lesson 2: Stretches for strength
Email #3: Lesson 3: Quick cardio exercises
Email #4: Lesson 4: The most impactful pilates poses
Email #5: Lesson 5: Your recovery regimen

Campaign #2: Educational Campaign

Email #1: Why everyone needs a personal trainer (Use this as an opportunity to promote your training services.)
Email #2: How to fit your training into your schedule (Promote your flexible training schedule here)
Email #3: What’s your biggest fitness challenge? (Include a survey or ask people to reply directly to your email. You can use this as an opportunity to gather feedback and schedule free consultations.)

If you decide to link your email course to your next campaign, be sure to give your subscribers a heads up that they’ll continue receiving emails from you. Here’s the message that Jarrod from Tiny Designer includes in the first message of his second campaign.

Link your contest entry campaign to a related campaign.

This is basically another way to take advantage of contextual emails, except with contests. Let’s say you’re a travel blogger and you’re running a contest. The prize is an all-expense paid trip to New Jersey (exotic!). As part of their entry, you’re asking people to sign up for your email list.

You already know that they’re interested in traveling to New Jersey. You could send them a campaign all about traveling to New Jersey, then link them to another campaign with more travel tips.

So your linked campaigns might look like this:

Campaign #1: New Jersey

Email #1: Thanks for entering! Here are 10 reasons why I ♥ New Jersey too
Email #2: Top 5 beaches in New Jersey
Email #3: Affordable weekend getaways in New Jersey

Campaign #2: Travel Tips Campaign

Email #1: 5 easy ways to save money on your next trip (Link to a popular article on your blog.)
Email #2: 10 trips to take in 2016 (Link to another popular article.)
Email #3: What are your biggest travel challenges? (Survey your readers so you can create content that speaks to their biggest needs.)

When I entered a contest to win a sailing trip to the British Isles from Intrepid Travel, I received an automated email series with information about sailing trips and more details about the company.

The first message let me know that I didn’t win (sad face), but gave me a coupon code for booking my next trip. So if I really have my heart set on this trip, I still have an excuse to book it – and the company can successfully turn me into a paying customer. Everybody wins!

Learn more about what to write in your linked campaigns.

Looking for more autoresponder inspiration? Check out these posts for more ideas on what to write in your linked autoresponder campaigns.

• Welcome Campaigns 101
• Email Courses 101
• How to Write an Autoresponder Series
• 3 Autoresponder Ideas from Real Businesses

Get started with linked autoresponder campaigns.

The examples above are just a few of the ways you can use linked campaigns to deliver a personalized experience to your audience and keep them engaged longer. But you don’t have to stop at linking just two campaigns. With Campaigns, you can link as many autoresponder series together as you want. The possibilities are endless!

Log in to your AWeber account to get started with linked campaigns.

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Polling Benchmark Email Subscribers on Their Black Friday & Cyber Monday Plans

We polled our subscribers to ask if they planned to run promotions for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, both or neither.Related Articles

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3. Announcing Cyber Monday Email Templates

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How to Leverage Digital Channels to Maximize Year-end Fundraising Success

Retail ads begin promoting Christmas sales weeks before Halloween. Holiday decorations appear in stores shortly after Labor Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday bookend the weekend following Thanksgiving. There’s no doubt consumerism spikes in the last few months of the year. But so does generosity.

Year-end fundraising campaigns account for between a quarter and half of total yearly donations for 28 percent of nonprofits organizations, and between 11 percent and 25 percent for more than a third of nonprofits, according to Nonprofit Hub. The Network for Good reports that about a third of the year’s total giving through the organization’s online system occurs in December, and in 2013, 10 percent of all donation dollars came in on the last three days of the year. A study by the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana State University found that nearly 43 percent of charitable donors who earn more than $200,000 annually donate more during the holiday season.

Those statistics likely underscore what you already know to be true: your nonprofit organization’s end-of-year fundraising campaign is the most important one you’ll stage all year. Are you prepared to maximize all your end-of-year opportunities? Do you know how to ask for donations in effective ways that will motivate your donors?

Opening the end-of-year window

The final weeks of the year represent a singular opportunity for nonprofits. In order to throw that window of opportunity open wide, your nonprofit needs to understand the factors driving the increase in donations in the last quarter.

For individuals, who account for the lion’s share of all donations made every year, the giving spirit of the holiday season plays a significant role. During the holidays, people become more aware of others in need and are more willing to include charitable donations in their holiday spending. Some are also looking ahead to tax day in 2016, and know that in order to reap some tax benefit for 2015, they must donate by the end of the year.

Whether you’re seeking individual donations, contributions from businesses or both, your end-of-year fundraising campaign faces some common challenges, including:

• Competition for cash – More than 1.5 million tax-exempt nonprofits operate in the U.S. and most stage end-of-year fundraising campaigns.
• Competition for attention – Consumers have a lot on their minds at the end of the year, including holiday planning, shopping, tax planning, entertaining and more. In November and December, it can be hard to grab donors’ attention.
• Evolving communication – Nonprofits have more communication channels than ever before, and that’s both good and bad. While more ways to communicate with donors can mean more opportunities for winning their hearts and dollars, knowing which channels are best for talking to your donors is key – and not always obvious.
• A need for greater efficiency – Nonprofits have always had to do more with less, and it’s even more critical to optimize efficiency at the end of the year. The less you spend on your campaign, the more you will have to put toward programming that supports your organization’s key objectives.

Effective, relevant and engaging communication is the solution to these challenges. All communication channels must incorporate compelling visuals, clear messaging, a call to action and multiple ways for people to donate. In its e-book “Year-end Fundraising Survival Guide,” the Network for Good says nonprofits should:

• Set specific, measurable, realistic, achievable and timely goals.
• Segment initiatives according to target demographics.
• Craft a strong, specific, simple and personal appeal that shows donors exactly who their donation will help and how.
• Act in a timely manner.
• Be mobile friendly.
• Appeal to emotion rather than intellect alone.
• Provide multiple ways to donate, especially online.

Leveraging digital communications

Your website, email and social media are the most impactful, cost-effective ways to reach the greatest number of donors with your end-of-year fundraising campaign. Depending on the demographic you’re targeting, your potential and existing donors may well give far more attention to an email than they would a direct mail piece or even a solicitation phone call.

Effective email campaigns

All the recommendations Network for Good makes to overall end-of-year campaigns apply to your email efforts. Every email you send should be clear, concise, visually appealing and emotionally engaging. It must contain a clear call to action and give the reader multiple routes to donation.

Additionally, employ these proven tactics to maximize the effectiveness of your email campaigns:

• Segment mailing lists. Different groups should receive different emails based on how they’ve donated in the past, their likelihood of donating in the future and their current life circumstances. Segmentation ensures the message you send is relevant and engaging to the recipient, rather than some type of formulaic email that doesn’t capture attention or tug at the heart strings.

• Create engagement with good visual design. The colors you choose, the images you include and the layout of your email will all affect how donors respond to your request. Your emails should be visually engaging while also clearly communicating your brand identity. It’s important for donors to be able to tell immediately who’s soliciting them. For example, animal lovers will be more willing to continue reading an email if they recognize the logo of a popular animal advocacy group at the top of the email.

• Measure the effectiveness of every email. Look at the open and click-through rates for every email you send. Both numbers can help you measure a campaign’s effectiveness. If people are opening the email but not clicking through to your website’s donation page, your pitch may not be powerful enough. If they’re not even opening it, you may need to refine your segmentation or improve your subject lines.

• Use automation to create consistent follow-up and enrich relationships. Auto-responder emails trigger when a recipient takes a certain action, or no action at all. Automated follow-up emails can boost open rates between 30-40%. Nonprofits can use automated emails to remind past donors of upcoming campaigns or events, prompt people who may have opened a solicitation email but took no action, immediately thank donors for making a contribution and keep them engaged throughout the year by sharing your organization’s progress.

Superior social media

The hugely successful Ice Bucket Challenge illustrated the power of social media in fundraising. The campaign was also an example of how fun and innovation, combined with a great cause, can engage a large number of social media users.

These steps can help you maximize your social media reach and leverage its power to promote your end-of-year fundraising:

• Learn where your donors are socializing and sharing. Just as you segment and tailor your email marketing, it’s important to know where your potential and current donors are on social media – and tailor your messaging for that channel. For example, while Facebook users span all age groups, more than a third of Twitter users are in the 18-39 age group and more than half of those on Instagram fall in that age range, according to Pew Research.

• Personalize and customize your messaging. Establishing a personal connection is key to attracting donations, so be sure your social media efforts are relevant and emotionally resonant with the group you’re targeting. Make it personal by using social media to thank donors, in addition to asking them for donations.

• Focus on making it shareable. It’s important you provide users with content they want to share, and equally vital that you make it easy for them to do so. Social media outlets make sharing easy, but go the extra step and include sharing buttons on your website’s donation page so that when someone makes a donation, he or she can instantly get credit for it and encourage others to join them.

• Use social media to refine your email list. In addition to providing engaging content, social media is an opportunity to grow and refine your email list. You can prompt users to share their email addresses in a number of ways, depending on the social media platform you’re using. Social media can help ensure your email list includes more valid emails of people who are truly interested in your cause.

Winning websites

Most of your digital efforts will funnel prospective donors back to your website where they can make a donation. Your website should feature the donation page prominently or at least make it easy to navigate to from the home page. Text and images should clearly convey your key message.

As you approach your end-of-year campaign, take a critical look at your donation page and ask these questions:

• Is it mobile responsive? A study by the website npENGAGE found that people were 34 percent more likely to make a donation when the website donation page they’d reached was mobile responsive. The functionality should be intuitive, with “donate now” options that are impossible to miss.

• Does it clearly convey your nonprofit’s brand identity? Your logo and signature colors should be featured on the page to help users understand they have reached the right page for donating to your organization.

• Does it make it easy for people to donate? Are you able to accept a range of payment options through your online portal?

• Is it brief yet compelling? If you’ve gotten them to the donation page, people are primed to act. Don’t delay them with unnecessary information.

• Does the donation form include the minimum number of fields required to gather the information you need? No one wants to fill out long forms, not even for a good cause. Gather only the required information, such as name, address, email address, phone number and payment information.

Conclusion:  A lot rides on your nonprofit’s end-of-year fundraising campaign – not only the financial well-being of your organization, but the well-being of all those it helps. Leveraging digital channels effectively can help ensure your nonprofit maximizes donations during the most important giving season of the year.

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