Don’t Ignore Your Email Marketing Database

Do you have a list maintenance plan for your email marketing database?  There is a temptation that once an email marketing list is built to forget about it.  The only attention it receives is sporadic additions. Don’t neglect database maintenance as a clean list makes campaigns more effective and can save money

I was recently shocked by an example of blatant list maintenance disregard.  A client being onboarded supplied a list of roughly a thousand email addresses that they had been emailing to for a couple years.  When reviewing the reports, we found that the bounces were over 450, a 45% bounce rate!  That means that half the people they thought were on their list, were not.

Ideally, you’d like to see bounce rates at zero, but realistically, if you try to keep them to a minimum (1-2%), you should be OK. If you are 5% or more, and your list is in the thousands and/or you send emails frequently, you may be digging a hole for your email campaigns. 45% is massively high and likely getting the emails labeled as a spam.  This happens because large ISPs register the high percentage of repeatedly trying to send emails to non-existing (expired, mistyped, etc.) addresses.

So naturally the first step was cleaning up the list.  It turns out that just over 400 of the addresses were bad.  The email platform that the client was using charged by the amount of emails in the database.  Removing the bad addresses took them to a lower tier which saved a bit of money on the monthly payment.  More importantly it set the client up with a clean list to see how effective their campaign was with their true audience.
Make a database maintenance schedule. It’s more than just scrubbing bounces.  Have a regular routine for gathering and adding addresses, review opt-outs for trends, monitor automatic replies for address changes, and obviously manage your bounces so you’re not sending emails to bad addresses. Keeping your list lean and clean makes for more productive and efficient email campaigns.

Business to Business (B to B) Social Media

There tends to be two extremes to opinions on social media in the business to business marketing world.

The one extreme is that it’s the same as any other business.  Put in the effort and you’ll see the same result as any other business.

The other extreme is that it’s not a good medium for business marketing.  Avoid the time suck that social media entails.

As with most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Social media can be a valuable marketing channel for trainers, consultants and professional coaches if they offer valuable content while driving clients and prospects to relevant calls to action.  Here are just a few key differences for business to business social media pages:

LinkedIn is the Heavyweight

LinkedIn is a social media site tailor made for business.  People on the site expect to see professional topics. It’s perfect for a B to B environment.  Provide relevant posts to your targeted contacts or groups in LinkedIn and business opportunities will come from it.  LinkedIn tends to outperform other social media sites by 300% for having people click a business to business call to action.

Quality of Contacts Trumps Quantity

Many social media marketing stats revolve around how many people like your page or follow your posts.  For B to B this can be a false metric.  A better metric is analyzing the quality of your social network.  If you are a sales trainer your network should be full of sales people, sales managers, and executives.  If you find that most of your contacts are not business related or the wrong demographic then you need to refocus and restructure your social media marketing campaigns.

Don’t Expect Overly Emotional Interactions

While you might have a big fan that can’t wait to tell the world how they didn’t know what business was before meeting you, those will be few and far between.  Emotion will get toned down.  Rather look for interactions and comments that highlight the business advantages to what you offer.  A sales trainer might get something like, “My revenues increased by 50% and the average time to complete a sale decreased by three months.” This doesn’t speak to how much a client loves their consultant personally but it’s a powerful comment that will get the attention of your target audience.

Always Have an Obvious Call to Action

Every post should include a next step, even if it’s an obvious one.  If you post an article the next step is clicking to read it.  If you post a video then the next step is clicking to see it.  If you have an event the registration link should be obvious.  etc.  Your call to action might have a follow on call to action but the first step should be a no-brainer.  There isn’t a lot of room for random asides in B to B social media posting.  Have a point, make a point, and provide a next step that supports that point.
Of course there are other differences but these are some starters to get a true sense of how B to B social media can be profitable.

Business to Business (B to B) Social Media

There tends to be two extremes to opinions on social media in the business to business marketing world. 

The one extreme is that it’s the same as any other business.  Put in the effort and you’ll see the same result as any other business.

The other extreme is that it’s not a good medium for business marketing.  Avoid the time suck that social media entails.

As with most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Social media can be a valuable marketing channel for trainers, consultants and professional coaches if they offer valuable content while driving clients and prospects to relevant calls to action.  Here are just a few key differences for business to business social media pages:

LinkedIn is the Heavyweight
LinkedIn is a social media site tailor made for business.  People on the site expect to see professional topics. It’s perfect for a B to B environment.  Provide relevant posts to your targeted contacts or groups in LinkedIn and business opportunities will come from it.  LinkedIn tends to outperform other social media sites by 300% for having people click a business to business call to action.

Quality of Contacts Trumps Quantity
Many social media marketing stats revolve around how many people like your page or follow your posts.  For B to B this can be a false metric.  A better metric is analyzing the quality of your social network.  If you are a sales trainer your network should be full of sales people, sales managers, and executives.  If you find that most of your contacts are not business related or the wrong demographic then you need to refocus and restructure your social media marketing campaigns.

Don’t Expect Overly Emotional Interactions
While you might have a big fan that can’t wait to tell the world how they didn’t know what business was before meeting you, those will be few and far between.  Emotion will get toned down.  Rather look for interactions and comments that highlight the business advantages to what you offer.  A sales trainer might get something like, “My revenues increased by 50% and the average time to complete a sale decreased by three months.” This doesn’t speak to how much a client loves their consultant personally but it’s a powerful comment that will get the attention of your target audience.

Always Have an Obvious Call to Action
Every post should include a next step, even if it’s an obvious one.  If you post an article the next step is clicking to read it.  If you post a video then the next step is clicking to see it.  If you have an event the registration link should be obvious.  etc.  Your call to action might have a follow on call to action but the first step should be a no brainer.  There isn’t a lot of room for random asides in B to B social media posting.  Have a point, make a point, and provide a next step that supports that point.

Of course there are other differences but these are some starters to get a true sense of how B to B social media can be profitable.

Consistent Online Marketing Activities Are Required for Consistent Results

There seems to be a common misconception among trainers, consultants, and professional coaches that once you get your online marketing campaigns rolling that it then runs itself.  There is never a time where you should be asleep at the wheel.  Every online communication channel requires consistent activity and a lull in activity will almost guarantee a lull in results.

Online marketing is like any job.  If you stop showing up, you’re not going to get paid.  A relative of mine has been running a blog for several months and is just starting to get some traction.  He was asking about blogs and how difficult it can be to get off the ground.  I commented, “People seem to think once the blog is established that it runs itself.  It’s still hard work creating content consistently and maintaining relevancy.  And try not writing anything for a short period of time and see your stats fall off a cliff.”

He laughed and said, “It’s funny you say that.  I went on vacation for a week, when I checked my analytics my traffic sharply dropped.  By the end of the week my daily traffic was only at 25% of where it had been.  The numbers didn’t rebound to their previous state for another two and a half weeks.”

We’ve not done strict testing on his numbers but it appears to be a good rule of thumb.  If there is a period of inactivity on your online marketing, it will take twice that amount of time to recover.  This isn’t just for blogs.  It applies across the board to websites, social media, and email marketing.

SEO Success Through Market Segmentation

Many consultants, trainers, and professional coaches come to search engine optimizing with overly grandiose expectations without the proper foundation.  When asked what their primary target keywords should be they’ll say something like, “sales training”.  While that’s a great keyword, it’s unlikely, at least in the short term, that the site will rank highly on that search phrase.  It would take a lot of time, effort, and probably money to be a top rank for something so general.  Rather than focus on a general term, break down key words in to segments that define your target audience.

The reason this strategy can be so effective is because it eliminates competition.  More accurately it narrows you down to you true competition so you can outperform their search rankings.  Here are a few examples of common segments.

Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Do you operate in a certain geographic area?  Then limit your terms to that locale.  Rather than a general search term, add the locations near you to the keyword targets.  Something like, “Pittsburgh Sales Training”.  This will ensure that you rank well for a more specific search and increases the likelihood that any leads generated from the term will be a viable prospect.

Service Specific Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Do you offer a specific service that’s a differentiator from other common services?  Try adding that to the search terms like, “Online sales training curriculum”.  Again this limits who will be targeting the keyword to ensure that you are ranking for terms ideally suited to your audience.

Affiliate Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Are you associated with a known quantity that could pull in interested parties?  Use the affiliation for specificity terms like, “CPE Certified Accounting Course”.  Searches for the affiliations invite the potential to be pulled in with top ranked offerings.

Segment For Your Target Market

Segmentation is really a process of identifying your target market and speaking to what makes you an ideal trainer, consultant, or professional coach to that group.

Are Your SEO Strategies Causing User Problems?

There are a lot of ways of manipulating your webpage’s code to improve search engine ranks.  While we want to use all the tools in our arsenal, they shouldn’t be abused.  Make sure that your SEO tactics aren’t causing user experience problems.

If you have a web template specifically set up with SEO in mind then chances are this is a minor or non-existent issue.  But for many consultants, trainers, and professional coaches, their site was set up with a professional look but not necessarily with SEO elements in mind.

Here’s a common example, using h1 or h2 tags can increase the value a search engine places on the content.  Many sites are built with a WordPress, Drupal, or other CMS template that has a set definition to how h1 and h2 tags display.  In an effort to highlight an important keyword one of these tags might be used in the body of a paragraph or across a whole sentence.  That can make the page look bad and create user problems.  Imagine if I wanted to highlight a particular phrase in a sentence:

You perceive traditional marketing strategies as exploitative and even manipulative behavior. It goes against your grain to think of yourself in the role of stereotypical selling. Handle the Pressures of Business Development. Text text text.

Unless it’s a very specific design decision the sentence looks like an error.  Do that several times throughout a page and it will be darn right hard to read.

Make sure that your template is responsibly adding SEO elements.  If the template is not well suited to add these elements, find ways of formatting the page so that it’s easy to read and works well for search engines.  The page needs to be usable to a person because all the traffic in the world won’t produce an ounce of value if people struggle to take in your message.

Social Media and Email Marketing: Your Movie Trailer

trailerI love movie trailers.  I will seek out the trailer for movies I am interested in and take in about any trailer that comes across my path.  I will actually get irritated if I am not in my seat at a theater when the trailers start.  But why seek out or get irritated about missing something that amounts to a short commercial for a movie I may or may not be interested in?  There are two primary reasons, one it’s an exciting sample of a larger offering, and two it provides a quick overview of something I might want to know more about.

Successful social media and email marketing campaigns provide the same two incentives.

Engaging Sample – What you email or post to social media should be your A material.  When’s the last time you saw a trailer with long developmental pieces of dialogue?  Never, because they want to show the most exciting or engaging parts of the movie to provide incentive to see it.  Many consultants, trainers, and professional coaches hold back their best information for fear that if they use it for marketing their audience will “figure out” what they do/teach and never pay for it. That won’t happen, at least not with people that are truly motivated to buy.  No one feels like they saw a movie because they took in the trailer. Make sure to provide samples of your most powerful metrics, insights, and tactics.

Content Summary – Providing quality content in your social media and email marketing is a draw for people that happen across it.  Those people are unlikely to organically take an interest in your products or services because they have not had a reason to look or think it doesn’t apply to them.  However, if they encounter something insightful that is easy to take in, they will pay attention.  Many times I’ve never heard of a movie or assume it’s not something I’m interested in. But if I see the trailer of that movie and it has engaging content, it can alter my perspective.  Your social media and email marketing has the same potential.  If you are providing quality information that grabs someone then they are likely to look further into it and be more receptive to future marketing communications.

Use social media and email marketing like a trailer.  Keep it short but powerful and remember to always provide a next step.  A trailer without a release date letting you know when the movie premiers might get interest but will also breed frustration on when the movie can be seen.  Always provide a next step to more information or a call to action so that the people that like your trailer know where they can see the movie.

Social Media: Quality Over Quantity

Are you abusing your social profiles? A lot of trainers, consultants, and professional coaches don’t think they are but on analysis their profiles contain very little quality information.  Rather it’s a long series of hastily crafted messages or reused content with little or no value add. Social media marketing isn’t about finding and posting anything with relevance to your profession.  The value of viewing or subscribing to your social profile is in getting expert viewpoints on industry or professional topics.   Social media marketing is much more effective when the focus is on quality rather than quantity.

Regurgitating other profiles
Reposting is the most prevalent abuse of social profiles.  There is never a situation where your profile should automatically repost everything from an industry or professional resource.  People can link to that resource’s profile if they want to see everything they post.  Your social profiles should reflect you or your firm’s view on a topic. It’s OK to selectively repost from an industry or professional resource but, at minimum, any repost should have a short note on why you are linking to it.  A follow on commentary can be a nice touch if what you want to say won’t fit the space restrictions in the first post.

Posting low value blurbs
Space restrictions are a fact of social media life.  That isn’t an excuse to post gibberish that no one cares about to fill a lull in posts.  Take some time to write a message that means something to your audience. Here’s a real-life low value message from a sales training firm: “Do your behaviors today!”  That has no meaning to people unfamiliar with their content and little value to those that do know the content.  With a little tweaking it could be more impactful, something like, “Sales success comes from doing assigned behaviors designed to meet goals. What are your non-negotiable behaviors for this week?”

Pawning off other’s Content as their own
Some people ensure that they are “scooped” on everything they post to their profiles.  This happens when they largely plagiarize from other industry sources.  The internet is a big place and many people get away with taking content but it’s never really an original thought.  It’s impossible to steal an authentic consistent voice.  Worst case scenario is that your content is exposed as copies of other’s information which damages credibility.  Best case is that you have an inconsistent set of postings that provide no overarching principles.

Too much one way communicating
The beauty of social media that many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches ignore is the potential for interaction.  Ask questions of your audience.  The above revised post is an example of writing a question that can be rhetorical but invites interaction from dedicated clients or interested prospects.  There’s a fair chance that interaction will be low but the post is designed to add value even if no one responds.  However, if someone does respond then it makes for a quality interaction and encourages others to participate in the future.

Frequent reposting of the same content
It’s ok to repeat an important point.  Reuse can be spawned from calendar recurrences or current events.  Using the example above, the same post might be used at the beginning of the year for a sales training firm, something like, “The new year is here.  Are your sales goals set and behaviors written down?  If not attend our goal setting workshop on ____”.  But it’s important that some time has passed between posts and that reposts have a logical reason for reuse other than a scramble to put something new on the social profile.  For instance, if you have an event or a tactic, don’t use it back-to-back.  If you have to post something similar within a few weeks of one another, at least change the message up to generate interest.  There should never be a time where the same thing is posted more than once in a week.

There are two techniques to avoid quantity over quality.

  1. Set a social media editorial calendar.  A monthly schedule is a manageable amount of time.  At the end of a month, take a few hours and write out all your posts for the upcoming month.  This ensures a balanced calendar and gives some time to write well thought out, quality posts.
  2.  Links are your friend.  Sometimes space restrictions prevent a quality communication going right on the social profile.  Use links to your advantage by creating content on your website and then linking to it.  In that way, the social post just needs to function as a subject line teasing people to view your more robust content.

Quantity is often the focus to “fill up” a social profile.  However no one ever complains if they get higher quality content but it come less frequently.  Better to post once a week with something impactful to your audience, than to post several times a day with content that holds little value.

Is your Value Add Content . . . Valuable?

A content based email or online marketing campaign relies on providing valuable insights to keep the audience engaged.  No insightful content, no audience.  In principle most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches agree.  In practice however, it’s a difficult practice for many to adhere to.  While the goal of online and email marketing is to drive leads and new business, the campaign should be careful not to over solicit.

An example of this happened to me recently when speaking with a sales training company.  I asked how their email marketing efforts had gone to date.  The owner said, “Not real well.  We aren’t generating a lot of leads or attendees for events.” So I asked how often they sent an email for an event or offer.  The owner assured me that  they only did one solicitation a month combined with two content emails a month, one was an article and one was a video feature.

I was surprised that they had so few responses or inquiries on their offers if they were consistently providing valuable content in two of their three communications.  Then he gave me a sample of his article.  To say it was a value add article was beyond a stretch.  The first paragraph touched on a sales topic briefly, in three sentences.  The second paragraph talked about what sales training courses they offered that featured that topic.  The third paragraph was a link to an upcoming event.  In short, it wasn’t an article.  It was a three paragraph commercial.  Upon seeing the article I asked for a sample of the video which primarily talked about why a person might want to attend an upcoming event.

In reality, this firm had three emails in their matrix that were solicitations and none with value add content.  While I have no doubt that the events and the offers had value, people on their lists were simply tuning out because there was not valuable content to keep them engaged.

Take some time and review your value add content.  This should be video, audio, or text that is offering insightful information about your industry or professional expertise.  If you read your value add content and find a lot of references to the work you do, things people can buy, or feature/benefits then there’s a good chance that the content doesn’t provide much value to your client/prospect base.

Blog Comment Maintenance

One of the beauties of a blog is that it provides user interaction.  One of the curses of a blog is that it subjects you to “user” interaction.  Comments are a great way to get feedback and have a conversation with your readers but there will be . . . SPAM.  Maintaining blog comments is vital to making it a dynamic communication tool.

So let’s deal with the positive aspect first, reader comments.  Trainers, consultants, and professional coaches can frequently write about something that not everyone will agree with.  Whether the comments are supportive or critical, it is always a good sign if your readers are taking time to comment on what’s written.  It’s the most direct indication that your blog is connecting with readers.

But comments only fill in one side of the conversation.  Many bloggers treat comments as the “reader review” section.  It has the potential for much more.  If a reader has a question or needs clarification, write a comment that provides the information they need.  If a reader criticizes a point in the article, either acknowledge the criticism or provide follow up clarification.  The point is whether good or bad, don’t ignore your readers.

Now for the negative aspect of comments, SPAM.  SPAM is unavoidable.  There are ways of minimizing it like captcha apps or more in depth SPAM tools like the one I use, SPAM Karma.  However, these are just a first line of defense that will miss some of the craftier comment bots.  The ultimate decision on what comments get approved and what comments get marked as SPAM comes down to the blogger.

We’ll tend to give the commenter the benefit of the doubt.  If there’s a chance that the comment is truly from a person then we approve it.  If you review some of our past posts, you’ll see examples of comments that are likely from a bot, but we’d rather allow a few bits of SPAM rather than mistakenly deleting a reader comment.  Here are our guidelines for approving or denying comments

  • Is it written properly?  Some misspelled words or inarticulate grammar is OK but if it’s so poorly written that a viable point is hard to decipher then it gets rejected.
  • Does it have a message that’s on point?  We just deleted a comment from a “reader” about becoming a creative writing teacher.  Nothing wrong with creative writing but it had nothing to do with the article on SEO.  If it doesn’t relate to the topic then it gets rejected.
  • Is it overly promotional of a product or service?  A lot of comments will come with hyperlinks in the comment or user name.  It’s a ploy by SPAM bots to generate a lot of incoming links to their site.  If we see comments that read as ads, it gets rejected.

Maintaining your comments section by replying to reader comments and scrubbing SPAM shows readers that you intend to have a dialogue with those that engage with you.  This interaction allows for more and better insights about your field of expertise and a feeling of community with your readers.

Blog Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Considerations

One of the most powerful benefits for a blog is its SEO capabilities.  Every single post can provide content to the search engines on a topic catered to your product or service.  This is extremely valuable to trainers, consultants, and professional coaches because it provides a platform to illustrate their knowledge and how they help clients.  However, a plan needs put in place so that the right content is being fed to search engines.  Setting desirable keywords and page structure is critical to maximizing the SEO benefits.

Keywords are phrases that you’d want to rank highly on search engines for.  Make that list and have it handy.  The more you can work those phrases into your articles the better.  Using those keywords in titles or links can add an extra boost to the importance search engines place on it.

A word of warning not to get carried away.  Using the same phrase every other sentence is annoying to read and first and foremost we want to ensure that the posts are valuable to our readers.  Also don’t try to cover every topic all at once.  For instance, in my case, if I write a post about blogging, I shouldn’t be looking to sprinkle in a lot of email marketing keywords.  Mix in the appropriate phrases where it makes sense but don’t force it.

After a post is written with identified keywords, an often overlooked aspect of blogging is incorporating search engine optimization features.  Truly, there is no reason to skip it as there are plugins for blogging platforms that make it easier than ever.  For wordpress, I use All in One SEO Pack  but if you are less familiar with SEO, YOAST provides a visual dashboard to rank how well the page is set up and provides suggestions to improve.

Whatever plugin you use there are 4 major areas that should be filled in.

The first is a category.  These are your overarching topics for the blog.  Using categories serves as a general keyword and on most templates will function as a navigation link that readers can use to sort articles.   Assign a category to every post, nothing should be left on the default “undefined”.

The second is tags.  Every keyword or phrase that is in the article should be tagged in your blog.  This insures that the code includes those keywords directly to the search engine so that it’s sure to be incorporated into the listing.

The third is URL name.  It’s more advantageous to have the URL include the title and/or keywords rather than be a random string of numbers, which is usually the default setting.  Most plugins will do this automatically or let you define it manually.

The fourth is a title tag.  This is an unseen section of the site but very important for search engines.  Most plugins will use the title by default but can usually be modified.  The title is a good start but if you can work in a couple extra keywords here, so much the better.

SEO is often a part of blogging that trainers, consultant, and professional coaches struggle with but it doesn’t have to be daunting.  Once you set up the tools for SEO it’s just the follow up step to writing an article.  The advantage being that it will be visible to more people via search engine and drive targeted traffic to your site.

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