Give Thanks Everyday!

This week is Thanksgiving, and as I think about everything this holiday means, I begin to realize once again how much for which I have to be thankful. It’s easy to remember this when there’s a holiday that spotlights the idea of giving thanks. I just wish I could remember to be thankful each and every day.

You know how life gets in the way of actually being present in the moment? Work and family life gets hectic. It’s not that I don’t stop through out the year and count my blessings. It’s just that I to take what I’ve been given in this life and embrace it with gratitude more often.

Everyone here at Morse + Harris Marketing hopes that you can find thankful moments in your “everydays” more often as well. May each and every normal moment be the chance for you to be grateful. Let us all say thanks a little more and remember how lucky we are each day.

Let’s all give it a try - starting today.

Happy Thanksgiving and may the gratitude of this holiday follow you throughout your new year.

E-Messages

Did you know that at least 50% of readers check their e-mail on their mobile device? Think about how that small screen space affects your message.

We know that we have 8 seconds to capture our audience’s attention. With the increasing percentage of mobile device readers, it’s a good idea to add buttons – yes colored Buttons, not just links – to your e-messages. Buttons are more powerful than links and will bring a larger click-through rate. 

Most readers only scan the preview pane so OWN THAT GRAPHIC! Try different subject lines and conduct your own survey to see which subjects tend to be opened the most. “Breaking” and “Alert” are the most opened subjects, but we can’t all pretend to be CNN. So the idea here is to experiment, research and craft your own message so that it can be read quickly.

E-newsletter Eight Second Challenge

Take a look at your watch. Now count off 8 seconds. That’s all the time you have to grab

someone’s attention.

In today’s marketing world, it seems that many companies want to write long elaborate messages in their e-newsletter campaigns. More is better, right?

According to the email marketing company, MyEmma.com, our e-mail attention span is approximately 8 seconds. After that most readers hit DELETE!

So act quickly with your message and let readers know what you are saying and what you wish them to do ASAP.

Here’s another tip for your e-newsletters. Because the eye processes a photo 60,000 times faster that words, uses images to enhance your verbal message. For an added bonus, go ahead and add your link to the graphics!

Take our 8 second challenge and see if you can tell your story and leverage it. E-mail is not dead – it’s thriving when it’s not clunky!

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Poofreading – We mean Proofreading 

Oh, the importance of proofreading. How many times have you been in a hurry to get that brochure off to the printer or that ad sent to a publication, and you JUST SEND IT! Oh no!

We have all made those mistakes which take the form of a transposed letter or another simple sentence misstep or grammatical error. Most of the time it happens because we’re all in a hurry.

So allow Morse + Harris to say what you’ve told yourself dozens of times. Stop! Resist that urge to send that item off, and get it off your plate in a hurry. Have someone else read the content. We always say at Morse + Harris Marketing that “a new set of eyes will see the errors.”

Some of the typos we make are just funny AND some will cost you money. If you don’t proofread, you just might end up paying for a client to receive 2,000 new Annual Reports – and no one wants that.

Case in point, we received this in an email and had to share. Apparently in Lake Zurich, they need to specify that you can't actually donate your kids and pets to rummage sales. Did anyone even read this ad before they printed it? There's another typo in the ad too, can you find it?

E-mail Campaigns in 4 Steps

E-mail marketing is an effective, budget conscious medium to reach your target audience. While one email is not the best for lead generation, a drip email campaign can be very effective. To create a simple, effective email campaign, start with these four steps.

11. Email Software

While you could use your regular email like Gmail to send e-newsletters, it is limited in templates, scheduling, analytics, and database storage. Therefore we suggest using professional email software. Now we know what your thinking, “Email software, that’s out of my budget.” On the contrary, many email services offer both free and monthly plans; email campaigns can be created within any budget.

Here are a few services to consider:

• Mail Chimp 
• IContact 
• Constant Contact 
• Emma

22. Build Your Email List

Now that you have selected a software program, you need to build a database of your business contacts. You need their first and last name, name of business and e-mail address. So how can you gather emails?

• Contact form on your website
• An email subscription on your blog
• Social media sign-up
• Business cards of individuals you or your team have met

These are all effective ways to get your audience’s information, just make sure the people giving you their information understand that you’ll be emailing them newsletters, offers, etc. 

Continuously compile all of your contacts into one database on your new email software. Getting into the routine of adding your contacts into your database will increase your e-newsletters reach as well as keep your database up-to-date.

33. Decide on a Schedule

The right email schedule has a few variables including sales cycle and audience. If you have a short sales cycle you might consider sending two emails a week with sale updates. On the other hand if you have a long sale cycle, monthly or bi-monthly would be best.

44. Decide on the Right Content

Your email campaign has two major components: The subject line and the message itself.

•  Subject line
  Your subject line needs to standout from the numerous other emails your audience is receiving. If it sounds like an advertisement, it’s going to be deleted or sent to the span folder before it even gets opened. So, create an engaging subject lie that is both personal and informational.
  
• Message
  Your audience is probably getting 100 or more emails a day, meaning that a successful email-marketing campaign shouldn’t include big blocks of text. So keep it short, simple, and fun by utilizing bullet points and images to make it easier to read.

So as a recap, get a budget supported email software, build your database, decide on your schedule and start creating content for your audience. Your audience doesn’t need to know everything at one time, leaving you the opportunity to break up your messages with fresh creative and varying angles throughout your campaign.