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Hello everyone, welcome to another Digitize Your Firm webinar – with me, Stephen, your host! Today, it’s all about improving your marketing strategy when it comes to sales, regardless of your industry.
For anyone joining us is a sales master or for those who are just starting out, I welcome all comments and questions, simply click the green speech bubble at the top of the screen to open the chat and either type out your comment or ask to speak. If you haven’t already, be sure to click the ‘phone’ icon next to it the chat icon to ensure your audio is connected.
As with all Digitize Your Firm webinars, this will be recorded for later playback in case you wanted extra time with a certain section or for listening on the go. If you haven’t already, please visit the Weekly Webinar Schedule on our Digitize Your Firm page to check out our past webinars.
Now, let’s go over today’s agenda.
We’re going to start today by talking about the importance of looking back at your previous campaigns, where the past can help direct your future. We’ll also get into A/B split testing and why it can be integral to a good promotional campaign, and then talk about CTAs and where social media fits in. As usual, we’ll review at the end and of course tease the topic for next week and take questions.
Sounds good? Let’s start!
Whether you’re getting ready for a summer sale, or Christmas is around the corner, a good sale is a great way to get more foot traffic into your store and more visitors to your website.
Before any seasonal change though, make sure your marketing strategy is in place.
When it comes to planning, the earlier you start, the better. With that in mind, we have collected some of our favorite marketing tips to share with you!
From social media campaigns to email optimization tips, as well as important introductions you should make, we’ve got you covered!
Today, it’s all about the sales!
Before you start in on this year’s campaigns, take time to review what you did last year and determine what can be changed. Keep these questions in mind when reviewing your previous campaigns:
Taking time to answer these questions will give you a good idea of what worked, what didn’t work, and what you should avoid doing this year.
Not sure where to start? Consider thanking your best customers.
Every day is a chance to celebrate and appreciate those that. If you have a list of your top clients, now may be the time to thank them for supporting your business. For your best customers, consider trying these appreciation tips:
You don’t have to limit yourself to “salesy” content all day, every day. Instead, provide your subscribers with some cheer! Here are a few ideas on what you can do to get your subscribers in a good mood:
You want messages that are going to resonate with your contacts and the easiest way to find out which message works best for your audience is A/B split testing.
Create your different marketing messages and then divide them evenly between your audience and gauge how well each perform. After a week or month of testing, you should have a clear idea of which message generated the best results and then you can continue using the best message moving forward. Here are a few things you can use A/B split testing for:
It’s important to note that you can use A/B split testing for more than two options at the same time and they don’t need to be evenly distributed. If you’d like to send three different emails, you can send one to half of your audience and the other two to 25 percent each. This way, the first email works like a benchmark for the other two.
Trying to be a bit more personal? Try merge tags!
Merge tags are an easy way to add personalization to your automated emails. Merge tags make text, names, offers, and images more personalized for each individual recipient. Here are a few examples of how merge tags can be used:
Adding personal touches like this makes your emails read as if they were written specifically for the recipient even if the email is automated or if the email content is being re-used.
Review your email clicks
Click through rates are important to see how engaged contacts are with your email. Review your click rate and then compare it to the location of the links in the email to see if location may play a factor in which links perform better. Reviewing your click through and click location can provide the following information to help optimize future emails:
Links are a big part of email campaigns and knowing how yours perform can help in campaigns during the promotional period and afterward.
Always have a strong CTA.
No matter what time of year or what type of email you’re sending, never leave your readers hanging at the end. Direct them to an article to learn more, send them to a signup form, or even just include a link to your website at the end. Try out some of these CTAs:
The end of the email is where most of your conversions will come from since those who read that far are the most engaged. Have a strong call-to-action (CTA) so these readers can stay engaged with you.
Do you know where else you need a strong CTA? Social media.
Is your business keeping up on social media? Getting more customers through your door or on the phone can always be a challenge – as a result, social media posting can sometimes be neglected. To avoid a barren social media presence, try these tips:
Take the time now to plan your social media posts and schedule them to post automatically through the busiest times of the year. This way, your social media presence stays consistent even when you don’t have time to manage it every day.
Not all your email subscribers will be active on Twitter and Facebook. Be sure they don’t miss out on the content you post by including it in your newsletter as well. What you include in your newsletter may be:
The idea is to get your information in front of as many people as possible and cross-promoting between channels is a great way to accomplish that.
Use images
People want to see the products you offer. Let your audience see the products by posting photos of them on social media and including images in your newsletter. Seeing is believing after all. For social media, consider sharing photos of:
• New products that are new for each season
• Complementary products in the same photo
• Photos of your office decorated for the season (to show your festive side!)
Photos are a great social media tool to display your products and put a human face to your company for your social media friends and followers.
1. When it comes to planning your promotions and sales for the year, the key to success can often be found in the past. Look at previous campaigns you’ve run (both successful and unsuccessful). What subject lines did the best? Did you get a strong response to an SMS campaign? Where is your website traffic going?
If you’re stumped, consider starting by thanking your best and loyal customers with an exclusive sale or promotion for them. You could let me know about a sale before it happens, or even send swag and provide store credit or a percentage off.
Don’t forget that you don’t always have to be ‘saley’ too – consider pushing out educational content when you have a sale, such as why it is important and how customers can use it. Start a fundraiser for a charity by selling a specific item, with a good amount of the proceeds being donated.
2. Are you A/B Testing your content? If not, now is as good a time as any to start! A/B Testing allows you to test your promotional emails to see what resonates more with your audience by sending different emails to sections of your contacts. The emails can be different in small ways, such as a sender address, subject line, or different CTAs. It can also different is big ways, like content structure, visual layout, or products shown. By seeing which email snags you a high open, clickthrough, or response rate, you can better plan your promotions for the future.
You can also use merge tags to get personal with names and locations for a more informal touch, such as using their first name, or sending sales targeted at their specific area. You should look at where your customers are clicking on your emails, how hyperlinks compare to buttons, and if there are some parts of your newsletter that are getting clicked a lot (such as the header) when nothing is linked to it.
3. When closed off with the importance of CTAs, as they are one of the key elements that will get customers to clickthrough. Always have a strong, clear, and visually appealing CTA at the end of your communications, regardless of the channel. If it is a newsletter, have a nice button, if it’s SMS, providing a link, if it is a phone, have a button they can press for more info. Sending out a communication without a clear CTA is like giving someone a phone with no buttons.
You also need a strong CTA for your social media, and when it comes to social media, always come prepared. Pre-write your sales for the channels you want to advertise on, and don’t be afraid to recycle email content for social either. Always have images ready that really grab attention and have a direct connection to the sale or promotion itself, so make sure you take the time to plan ahead and get all the collateral ready.
We’re serving up another industry-aimed webinar – this time for any restaurant or eatery owners we may have out there. We’ll talk about where digitization can start your restaurant, how you could use SMS, and more!
