Welcome!
Reaching Customers Through
Social Media & Email Marketing
Mid America Horticultural Trade Show 2013

Overview
• Introduction
• Social Media Strategies
– Getting started with the primary social media venues
– Open discussion about your existing/future tactics
• Email Marketing
– Building and Managing Quality Lists
– Developing Effective Messages
– Measuring Campaign Results

Top Floor Technologies
• Website Design &
Development
• Search Engine Marketing
• Social Media
• Email Marketing
• Web Analytics & Conversion
Improvement
Maximizing Online Marketing Results
for Hundreds of Businesses Since 1999

Social Media
Strategies

Where to begin?

Communications in a Connected World
• Communications has changed from a monologue to a
dialogue
• Consumers trust reviews more than corporate
advertising
– 91% say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying decisions.
• Social media facilitates word of mouth, which is the
most powerful advertising medium
6

• More than 845 million active users globally
• Over 50% of the United States population
• Over 425 million mobile users

Potential Business Benefits
• Branding and Word of Mouth
• Customer Engagement and Loyalty
• Customer Feedback
• Targeted Advertising

Create Your
Facebook
Business
Page
facebook.com/
business/

Build Loyalty with Customers
and let them spread the word!

• Over 465 million accounts
• While over 50% of Americans use
Facebook, about 15% use Twitter.

Starting Strategies
• Sign up and reserve an account in the name of
your business
• Spend time searching on Twitter for:
– Products/services you offer
– Competitors
– Your own company
• Follow people and companies of interest

• Find potential clients, service
providers, subject experts, and
partners who come recommended
• Be found for business opportunities
• Post and distribute job listings
• Get introduced to other professionals
through the people you know

Basic Strategies
• Reserve your business name
• Research competition
• Look up customers and connect with
them
• Encourage customers and vendors to
recommend/endorse you

• 250 million accounts
• Actual use is lower than this

Basic Strategies
• Reserve your business name and setup
your page
• Use keywords in your text
• Encourage people to
follow you and +1
your page

Tools to Help
Manage Your
Social Presence

Basic Strategies
• Sign up and claim your business name
• Create specials
• Offer incentives for repeat check-ins and
“mayors”

Millions of reviews of local
businesses posted by users.

Basic Strategies
• Set up your business on Yelp (free)
• Add information about your business
• Announce special promotions
• Encourage positive reviews from
customers

Closing Social Media Suggestions
• Identify your goals and how you will measure
results.
• If you are new to social media, begin by
observing.
• Don’t forget Marketing 101.
• Social media is not a substitute for having an
effective Website and search strategy.

What Social tactics have you
engaged in?
Any success stories to share?

Email Usage
 210 billion emails sent per day
 2 million emails sent every second
 1.3 billion email users
 516 million business email inboxes
worldwide
 Globally, mobile users have
surpassed desktop users

Marketers Using Email
 92% of all marketers employ some
type of email marketing
 65% of marketers planned to
increase email marketing spending
in 2012, while only 3% planned to
decrease1
1MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report

Key Benefits
 Highly targeted and immediate
(dynamic, personalized content)
 Measurable and Cost effective
 Drive sales and up sell current clients
 Build customer loyalty

The Results
 66% of email marketers surveyed agreed that email is the most
cost effective marketing tool at their company.1
 Marketers said they enjoy an ROI two to three times greater
with email than any other direct marketing.1
 Email marketing delivered a $40.56 return for each $1 spent in
2011 (Direct Marketing Association).2
1Forrester Research, 2Direct Marketing Association

Build Your List Organically
 Existing Customers
 Sales Leads
 Trade Shows & Events
 Sign Up Link in Email Signature
 Social Media
 Leverage Your Website Traffic with Sign Up Boxes on Your
Website

Sign Up Form Examples

Tip: Keep sign up forms simple
and offer meaningful value to
your target audience. Let
them know what to expect
and when to expect it.

List Segmentation
 Reach segments of your list with relevant messages
 Segmentation of your list can yield an increase in open rates of
approximately 14%
 Possible segmentation methods
 Demographics – gender, age, geography, company size, etc.
 Behavior – email response, purchase history, browsing history, etc.
 Customer Lifecycle – buyer vs. prospect, stage of customer
journey, products/services purchased, etc.

Purchasing Lists?
 Not recommended … but if you must:
 Make sure your landing pages are aligned to your list’s interests.
 Don’t mention the fact that it’s a rented/purchased list.
 Test results against your other lists.
 Don’t sacrifice quantity for quality.
 Instead of using large list collectors, consider specialty lists (from trade
publications, associations, trade shows, etc.)
Source: B2B Magazine, E-Mail Marketer Insight

CANSPAM Compliance
 Put your contact info in footer of
emails.
 Use a current email address.
 Have consent to contact your list.
 Offer immediate un-subscribe
action.

When asked why recipients
stopped subscribing to opt-in
emails, more than half said
the content was no longer
relevant, and 40% said they
were getting too many offers.
- Forrester Research

Attributes of Successful Messages
 Timely and relevant to the reader
 Not over-selling
 Clear and compelling calls to action
 Formatted to look good in multiple
email clients
 Effective landing pages

Topics to Consider
 Upcoming events
 Special promotions
 Product reviews
 Insider information
 Free tips, expert advice
 Information that will help your readers

Email Message Examples

Landing Pages
 Clearly related to
message content
 Simple call to action
 Less information is more
 Mobile friendly

Subject Lines
 Keep it simple
 Don’t be overly flashy or pushy
 Clearly and concisely describes the
purpose/content of your email
 Directly relates to expectations you set
with subscribers during the opt-in
process

Designing for Readability
 Keep width to 600-650 pixels
 Test for compatibility with various email clients
 Consider responsive design for mobile devices
 Leverage the preview pane

Responsive Design for Mobile

Responsive Design Tips
 Single-column layouts that are no wider than 500 to 600
pixels work best on mobile devices.
 Links and buttons should have a minimum target area of 44
× 44 pixels.
 Keep your message concise, and place important design
elements in the upper section of the message.
Source: Campaign Monitor

Run Design
and Spam
Testing
Source: Campaign Monitor

Basic Metrics to Track
 How many people you sent the email to
 How many opened it, how many times
 How many unsubscribed
 How many forwarded the email
 What links they clicked
 What they did after clicking a link

Overall U.S. Industry Averages
 Email Open Rate – 19.9%
 Email Click Through Rate – 5.4%
 Remember, the best benchmark is your own results. Analyze
your results and pursue continual improvement.
Source: 2012 Silverpop Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study

Hundreds of Vendors
Good list of vendors at http://www.marketingprofs.com/bg/

Important Closing Considerations
 Running a campaign takes more than just having a platform.
Ensure that you are managing your list well and developing great
messages.
 Don’t forget marketing 101 – understand your target market and
plan your campaigns with them in mind.
 Integrate your email marketing with other efforts.

What Email tactics have you
engaged in?
Any success stories to share?

Thank You
Shane Fell
Top Floor Technologies
262.364.0010 ext. 241
sfell@topfloortech.com