Tag Archives: Marketing Advice

December 14, 2015 · 11:16 am

4 Things That Will Guarantee your Emails Don’t Get Opened

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Email marketing can pay off big time—but only if you do it right. And obviously, if you’re spending a lot of money on emails but not getting any of them opened by your target audience—if those emails go directly from inboxes to trashcans, contents unseen—then you’re doing little more than wasting money.

So what can you do to ensure that those emails get read? We’ve shared some email marketing best practices before. Today, what we’ll offer is a set of don’ts—some common email marketing elements that are sure to get your messages promptly deleted.

In other words, these are rookie errors—boneheaded mistakes—that will basically squander whatever effort you put into your email marketing campaign. Naturally, we recommend avoiding them at all costs!

Email Elements it Pays to Avoid

  1. Spelling and grammar errors. Yes, it sounds like common sense—but you’d be amazed at the number of business owners who take time to proof their messages but not their subject lines. If somebody receives an email from you and it’s got a glaring error in its subject heading, that immediately undercuts your authority—and all but guarantees your email gets rejected.
  2. Impersonal greetings. Here’s something else that can wreck your subject line—and thus, your entire email: A greeting that’s obviously impersonal and unspecific. Any message that comes with a title like Dear Sir or Madam will look like spam, and likely be treated as such.
  3. Spammy words. Along the same lines, spammy buzzwords located in your subject line will get your emails buried and your servers blacklisted. Avoid saying click here, % off, order now, sale ends at midnight—anything that clearly marks your marketing email as cheap or salesy.
  4. Bombast. Finally: Remember that a subject line is meant to be short and snappy. If your subject line lacks brevity, it may turn off busy readers who’d rather you get straight to the point.

There is plenty you can do to make email marketing a more effective tool for your business—but also plenty you shouldn’t do. Keep these tips in mind as you strive to achieve email marketing success.

For help crafting an effective email marketing campaign, contact the Grammar Chic team at 803-831-7444, or www.grammarchic.net.

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October 26, 2015 · 9:59 am

5 Reasons You Should Still Be Doing E-Mail Marketing

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Think that e-mail marketing has fallen out of favor, or become old-hat when compared to modern advances like social media and SnapChat?

Think again.

Many marketers still count e-mail among the very best, must lucrative marketing channels in existence. We’d tend to agree. Not only do we send regular e-mail blasts on behalf of our own brand, but we strongly recommend it to all of our clients.

If you’re skeptical of e-mail’s potential impact, we invite you to consider a few counterarguments. Hopefully, these will convince you that e-mail is still a platform your marketing team should be implementing!

Why E-mail Still Makes Sense

  1. It’s simply the easiest way to reach consumers on their phones. We don’t have to tell you that we all live in an increasingly mobile world, and you probably won’t be surprised to know that, statistically, most people check e-mail from their mobile phones at least once daily. By contrast, SMS tends to be unwelcomed by most consumers, and in some cases actually costs recipients money. Not a good way to make a positive impression.
  2. You can send customers mobile offers. With e-mail, you can easily send your customers coupons or discount codes—offers they can store on their phones and pull out when they come into your store or meet with your sales representative.
  3. E-mail is an invaluable content delivery vehicle. Want to get more traction on company blog posts? More downloads on your latest white paper? E-mail the link. Let people who may not follow your company website know that there’s some fresh content waiting their review.
  4. E-mail doesn’t cost much money. Even if you pay for a premium e-mail distribution service and hire a company like Grammar Chic to do the content writing, you’re still looking at a few bucks per month—a pretty small investment, in the scheme of things, with the potential for significant value.
  5. E-mail is actually a lot more effective than social media. Bottom line: If you’re looking to do just one thing to increase conversions, this is the one thing you need to do.

Invest some time in e-mail marketing—and be strategic about it. You’ll find that it’s well worth it—and if you need any assistance, just give Grammar Chic a call. You can reach us at 803-831-7444, or www.grammarchic.net.

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August 1, 2014 · 9:22 am

Not All Marketing is Digital Marketing

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We probably shouldn’t be saying this. Grammar Chic, Inc. is, after all, a digital marketing company, focusing on social media and content creation. It needs to be said, though, that as digital as our world gets, as Internet-addicted as we all come to be, as viral as marketing becomes, there’s still a place in this world for analog stuff. Not all marketing is digital marketing.

Don’t get us wrong. It’s probably fair to say that most marketing is digital marketing. Moreover, there are plenty of old-fashioned marketing techniques that just don’t work anymore. We’re not saying that billboard ads, newspaper placements, and radio jingles are always a waste of money, but they’re certainly a poor investment for most brands, especially smaller businesses. These antiquated formats are getting more expensive but less effective; that’s not the kind of margin you want to see.

With that said, it’s important to us that our readers and clients take advantage of all the marketing tools available to them. Start with our content marketing checklist, but also make sure to augment it with a few traditional strategies and tools—like the following:

  • Face-to-face networking. If your aim is to form meaningful connections and build trust with potential clients or partners, content marketing can go a long way. There’s still something to be said for face-to-face communication, though. Go to conventions in your city. Spend some time in nice restaurant bars and lounges. Talk up your business, and focus on forming value-adding relationships with other professionals. Always have business cards on hand to pass around; old-fashioned though they may seem, they still work!
  • Take advantage of your receipts. Do your business receipts encourage customers to visit your Facebook page, or leave you positive reviews on Yelp? Perhaps they should. People really do look at their receipts, and while this won’t be as effective as including links on e-mailed invoices, why waste that paper real estate?
  • Press releases. Yes, the press release is sometimes used as an SEO tool, and can also generate Google News traction—so you might say that this counts as digital. Press releases can also be great for drawing the attention of local papers, though, and may be a more cost-effective way to get your name out there—online and in print—than taking out paid ad space.
  • Word of mouth. Yes, online word of mouth is important—it’s a big part of content marketing, actually—but plenty of word of mouth goes on offline, too. The best way to generate it? Unflashy though this may be, the best advice we can give is simply to focus on providing value-adding products and superior service.

Again, you don’t want to drop your content marketing for any of these strategies—but neither do you want to ignore them altogether.

To learn more, contact Grammar Chic, Inc. today: Visit http://www.grammarchic.net, or call 803-831-7444.

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