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Dear Tayllor,
Happy belated July 4th! One of the best
things about living in a democracy is that we
get to speak our minds. The "democratic" way of
running your email marketing program is to
give the people on your list a chance to
speak their minds, and then
use their valuable feedback to shape the
emails you
send them. Learn how in this month's issue.
Here's what you'll find:
Ask and You Shall Succeed
Using online surveys to improve your email communications
By Gail Goodman, Constant Contact CEO
You've probably heard the saying, "beauty is
in the eye of the beholder." When applied to
email marketing, a more appropriate variation
might be, "relevancy is in the eye of the
reader." You know that your email
communications need to be relevant to the
interests of your readers. But how can you
discover what information they consider
relevant? Open and click-through rates give
you some idea, but that's only part of the
story. There's only one way to get the
specific feedback you need from your
readers—ask them.
Asking your readers for their feedback on
your email communications will give you
valuable insights that help you achieve
better results including more sales,
additional website visitors, and higher open
and click-through rates. You will also show
your contacts that you are interested in what
they think—that you understand your email
communications are about them (not you).
The simplest way to get detailed feedback
that is easy to evaluate is to send a brief
online survey. You can use a number of
services to conduct online surveys, including
Constant Contact.
When you prepare your survey, think about
what aspects of your email communications you
want feedback on. Then, think about the
questions you need to ask to get the insights
that can help you make improvements. Here are
some key areas to focus on:
Overall satisfaction - Before you get
into the details of your email
communications, start out with a general
question that gets a "gut" reaction from your
contacts. Here's an example:
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent,
how do you rate our newsletter?
Most valued sections - Understanding
what your readers value most in your current
emails will help you focus your energy and
effort. If there is a section of your emails
that your readers don't find helpful, you may
want to remove that section. If there is an
area you find they really enjoy, you can
explore ways to expand it and make it even
better.
Get more hints for creating a stellar survey...
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OffBeat Publications
New Orleans magazine uses online survey to improve email communications
The city of New Orleans has had more than its
share of trouble over the past two years.
Constant Contact customer Jan Ramsey knows
this all too well. Jan is the publisher and
editor of OffBeat
Publications, New Orleans'
top print and online guide to Louisiana's
music scene. The good news is that Hurricane
Katrina hasn't stopped Jan and her staff from
doing the work that so many in Louisiana (and
around the world)
value.
One of the ways Jan does this is with her
email newsletter, the OffBeat Weekly
Beat, which
she sends through Constant Contact. The
newsletter has almost 19,000 subscribers.
While OffBeat's main
publication is a monthly print magazine, Jan
says her newsletter is an integral part of
her business. "The Weekly Beat contains
what's going on in the next seven days. We
include some of what we published in print,
but we can enhance it and update it."
Jan had been thinking about using an online
survey tool to get more feedback from her
newsletter readers. "I wanted to
find out what they liked and what they didn't
like, and to get better demographics."
When Jan saw that Constant Contact had a new
online survey product available, she decided
to give
it a try. She sent a satisfaction survey to
her list that also included demographic
questions. She asked questions including,
"How long have you received the Weekly
Beat?", "What do you like about the Weekly
Beat?", and "Please tell us what we can
improve."
Jan was thrilled with her results. "I got an
amazing return, and learned a lot of things
about our readers that we can use in further
marketing campaigns."
With 1,800 responses, Jan now has a much
better understanding of what her readers
think of her publication and because she
included demographic questions, she has a
better idea of who her readers are. These
valuable insights will help her to improve an
already loved publication and make it even
better.
Do you have an email marketing success
story?
Share it with us, and you may be featured on
Constant Contact's website or in Hints &
Tips.
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Speak Your Mind!
Q. Which fields should I put in the
email
sign-up form on our website?
--Ed Horn, Richardson, TX
A. Thanks for the question, Ed. You
want to have
the fewest number of fields possible on your
website sign-up form. The less information
your subscribers are required to give, the
better. Beyond the email address, I would
certainly capture first name so you can
personalize your emails. You may choose to
have a few additional fields that aren't
mandatory. If you do, only ask for
information that you can use, not information
that is simply interesting to know. Make it
quick and painless for people to join your
list! You can always ask them for
additional information later.
--Gail
Goodman, Constant Contact
Do you have a question about email
marketing best practices? We want to hear
from you! Please send us your questions,
feedback, and ideas.
Contact
us now!
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About the Author
Gail Goodman, the CEO of Constant Contact,
is a dynamic speaker and author, as well as an
expert in small business and marketing. She has been
featured in numerous online and offline publications
including Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur, Small
Business Technology Magazine, Inc. Magazine, CNN,
and the Boston Business Journal.
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