Are You Keeping in Contact? – Part 3

Over the past two weeks I’ve talked about a few methods of keeping in touch with your contacts and database you’ve cultivated in Part 1 (http://ow.ly/Wfw0) and Part 2 (http://ow.ly/Z2Wb).  In Part 3 I’m going to touch on some ways of dispersing your messages, email, newsletters and offers to your contacts and database.  Some of the methods are very low tech and low cost (free other than your time spent), and other methods are quite expensive, but quite a bit more high tech and supply you with data about your email “blasts”.

Let’s take a look at three general methods of getting the good word out:

Blind Carbon Copy Email
Sending an email and putting your entire database in the “bcc” field is, by far, the easiest and least expensive method of communication.  It’s also the lowest tech and receivers can tell when you’ve sent an email by this method, since they will see that there is not a contact in the “To:” field of the received email.  If you are going to send out “blasts” via your email client (i.e. Outlook or Thunderbird) or via your webmail (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc) make sure you use the “Bcc” field.  If you send out the email by placing everyone in the “To” field, they will see your entire database, which you do not want.

You can still use HTML-based communication and formatting, if you’re so inclined, by creating the email or template in something like Adobe Dreamweaver, which allows you to use HTML formatting.  You can then open the file in your web browser, hit CRTL+A to select all, hit CTRL+C to copy, and then paste it into your open email.  Note that this cut and paste method of HTML will only work effectively in Outlook.

This isn’t a bad way of sending a simple communication or message, but if you need to have a more professional look (read, not just an email) sent, or you need to send out a newsletter or offer then you should move to method 2.

Email Blast Service
This method is also an email service, but more than just an email client or Webmail service.  Prior to Voyage moving on to method 3, we used a service called Streamsend.  A Streamsend competitor is Constant Contact, but there are plenty of other services out there if you search.  These services typically price based on usage (on a “per email sent” basis), and have a few choices, but starting around $20 per month for approximately 2000 emails available to send.  You can decide which program is best for you, depending on the size of your contact database and how frequently you want to touch them.

These services allow for quite a bit of customization and also help you to setup your “Blasts” for both HTML and Text.  They give you the ability to create an HTML email in a “Design View,” meaning you can add your pictures and text boxes and layout your email with images and links without having to truly understand HTML coding. I personally preferred to build them in Dreamweaver and then paste the code into Steamsend, but Streamsend does give you the choice.  Furthermore, you can create lists for your database and segment how you send your “blasts.”

The true benefit of these services is analytics. They track who opens the email, who clicks the links, and which links are clicked.  This lets you see how your database is responding to your email blasts and what they are interested in.  So, for example, if Suzie Smith clicks on a “Contact Me” link in your email, but doesn’t actually contact you, you could reach out to her proactively with a simple check-in call or email.  It also lets you monitor who is reading your newsletters or is click offer links, but not requesting the information or completing the offer.  Again, it allows you to manage your list and be more proactive with your contacts that are just dipping their toe in the water.

This is a great option and I suggest you make the monthly investment as it allows you to email in a more professional fashion, create lists and templates that you can reuse over time, and analyze how your database is reacting to your emails so you can modify your approach if necessary.

Nurture/Drip Marketing Services
These services are the big boys of the marketplace as they are all inclusive.  The problem?  You’re going to pay for the all inclusivity of the products.  These services include, Marketbright, Eloqua, Silverpop and Leadlife, but there are others out there if you search.  These services all price differently.  Some are based on email usage, others are based on the size of your database, but all are not cheap ($1500+ per month).

Beyond the “Blast” capabilities of Steamsend, there are a few other features of note:

• The ability to setup drip and nurture campaign flows that react differently to each contact based on the actions taken (or not) when receiving your email messages.
• Lead scoring based on your contacts’ actions.  You can set score increases based on individual actions and you can set a threshold where the system will alert you when a threshold is surpassed as there is probably a heightened level of interest in your services or products at that point.
• Integration with your CRM.  If you use Salesforce.com, it’s done with all the services noted above, but these companies can also integrate with whatever you’re using (this will generally cost more).  The integration allows for pushing and pulling of your leads and contacts between your CRM and the Nurture system.
• Tons of reports and analytics.  These reports can get crazy.  I remember that Eloqua had over 1500 reports and they had reports for reports.  Overkill?  I think so, but these systems track all actions of your contacts and some can even note how long they spent on certain pages of your site or sites linked.
• Landing Pages can be setup to collect survey information and for lead capture.  These landing pages can also be the start of a campaign and the “Thank you” email for filling in the information can contain the link to download your Information Premium or other offer.

This may be a good solution for a larger shop, but is probably not the best for a small operation or one-man show.  The tools to build HTML emails (Design View) also are richer in their functionality than Streamsend, Constant Contact or other blast tools.

By keeping in contact and “nurturing” your database, you will keep impressions of you in front of your contacts regardless of whether or not they open the email or just delete.  There are plenty of ways to stay in contact and it isn’t has hard to be creative with touches, you just have to keep your eyes open for opportunities and create a few yourself.  To disseminate the message there are a few options from the very inexpensive to the extreme, but pick the one that makes the most sense for your needs.

I’d love to hear some feedback about methods, experiences, campaigns, use of services to send or items you’ve used to generate interest.  Finish the month strong!

Ryan Lucia
recruitment@voyagemtg.com

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