Better Email - Combine Segmentation and Personalization

The following notes are from an article written by Chris Daniels in a recent special report for Marketing Magazine.



- Canadians receive more Spam or unsolicited email than they ever have. We receive 130 emails per week, up greatly from the 86 on average received per week in 2005.
- Respondents to an independent study done by GOT Corporation revealed that 84.4%
wouldn't open an email unless it was relevant to them.
- This gets to our biggest telling point. Consumers today view spam as any email that they don't view as relevant to them.
- Using email as a touch point is no longer enough. It is crucial to segment and personalize emails, this makes you a relevant retail partner and not just a spammer.
- Some current retail example have introduced and utilized past purchases when sending future email offers. When you understand how your best customers or loyalty club members think, you will be able to make relevant offers.

Use your history to set your path. Stay current and move with your customers.

Email Marketing - Improve your success

Are you getting the most out of your email marketing? As we continue to use more and more accurate methods of understanding which offer was received by our prospects and customers. It is very important to keep detailed notes about all your blasts. A good idea for keeping track of your results is to print a copy of the blast and right on it which links were most clicked on. This will let you know what is most important to your client base.

An example of this might be how green you have made your outfit. Put a small link in your emails, if this gets a better than average click through rate - it may be very important to your customers how you dispose of waste. As a result, giving them more information will enhance your relationship with this group.

In the body of your email you should always place hyperlinks back to your site, where readers can get more information. This is something that many marketers on the level forget to do. Spammers have mastered this skill. Deep linkage into your site will make it easier for prospects to find the additional information they seek. Sending them to the home page, is really not the best way to make this happen.

Good luck in your email efforts.

www.westlists.com

The Bounce Factor - How Landing Pages Can Increase Conversions(SEO)

Given the options of information sources and interactivity that you can place on a landing page, from blogs to online video to podcasting to RSS Feeds. How do you ensure that you are pulling people into your site and providing them a reason to search into the site.

The most important of your webtrends or analytics is the bounce rate. This is the number of visitors who immediately hit back or go no further in the site and don't click a link to another page. Depending on the banner campaign your running you want to ensure that there is consistency when the clickee makes their way to a page inside your site. If they are looking for a deal on an IPOD an you send them to a page that sell Apple Accessories - then your probably going to have a high bounce rate.

Keep your offers and links straight and easy to understand, make it simple for the consumer/shopper to find the product or service they are looking to reach.

List Review: Independent Small Business Canadian List

There is a heavy demand for many marketers to reach the Small Business Owner. Listdata has a list they may fit your needs. Remember, that all these lists can be purchased through West List Co. - we aim to provide you with more options in your list buying process.

The file boast 1.1 Million names, records were compiled through recent business filings and web site registration. From past experience with List Data, their records are pretty clean. There is postal and telemarketing available on the file only. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to request a count.

www.westlists.com

Electronic Direct Marketing - EDM - Reaching those on the move

As we just discussed SMS marketing - Another way to market to affluent upwardly mobile professionals is through EDM. Nokia recently launched a program called the 'Circle of Excellence' - they were looking for a way to motivate their sales professionals while they were in the field. The Program has been running for 7 years and acted as a reward system for giving the top earners regular feedback on how close they are to reaching their goals/targets. The method of communication traditionally had been to send out printed reports and digital brochures, along with promotional items.

Using mobile devices - PDA's has meant a vast reduction in printing costs and has allowed for more frequent feedback to the sales force. The Flash presentation gave the recipient several options to explore and know how close they were to attaining that prize level. This form of internal marketing is a great way to build enthusiasm amongst front line sales professionals.

Text Message Marketing - List Provider - SMS

If you are looking to reach tech savvy consumers - than Text Message Marketing may be the method for you to reach your target audience. With email and direct mail being so widespread - We have seen that using an alternate method can be a great trigger in direct response efforts. The most important part of this is to remember than many people feel it is intrusive. Offers that are provided must be sent to recipients who have indicate an interest in knowing more about this type of offer or product. The leaps that we make in direct mail is not suggested.

Short Message Service has been used to keep a group of past or current customers in direct contact with your latest offering. Some possible marketers that this may work best for include - Travel Companies, Specialty Child products, Event Planners and Seminar Mailers could all benefit from updating past customers/attendees with a reminder of future events and possible solutions. Done in a way that you know they will receive.

List Review - Able Farming List

ABLE FARM MASTERFILE - 1,000,000 Farming Masterfile - $80/M

This list is meant for anyone looking to reach segments of the farming community. The great advantage of this file is that it provides tremendous segmentation and the ability to reach your specific client or target. If you would like counts please contact us at www.westlists.com


Category:
Amphibious Animal Farms 74
Animal-Boarding 8,688
Services Breeding Services 4,704
Hospitals - Pets & Animals 14,409
Specialty Services, Excluding 38,895
Veterinarians Specialty Services 37,786
Training Services 4,304
Aquaculture 966
Beef Cattle Feedlots 23,582
Excluding Feedlots 59,556
Berry Crop Farms 2,042
Bird Sanctuaries 338
Bracing & Surgery Services 315
Broiler, Fryer and Roaster Chickens 2,366
Bulbs and Seeds 583
Cash Grains 32,884
Cattle Services 2,110
Cereal Crop Farms 4,328
Chicken Egg Farms 1,000
Citrus Fruit Groves 2,171
Corn Farms 122,598
Cotton Farms 8,972
Cotton Ginning 1,087
Crop- Cultivating Services 789 Harvesting 2,203
Harvest - Primarily by Machine 67
Planting & Protecting Services 4,202
Preparation Services for Market, 4,325
Excluding Cotton Ginning
Dairy Farms 42,395
Digging of Shellfish 151
Domestic Animal Farms 967
Farm Equipment- Dealers 9,639 Manufacturers 3,427
Farm- Labor Contractors & Crew 497
Leaders Management Services 2,251 Veterinary 4,773
Farms- General - Primary Crop 66,876
Farm Supplies Wholesale 24,507
Feed Dealers 13,314
Feeder Crops 29,856
Feeder Grains 11,395
Fertilizer Dealers 2,454
Fields Crops- Excluding Cash Grains 34,501
Fish Hatcheries & Preserves 1,121
Fishing- Finfish 1,255 Shellfish 1,074
Florists' Greens and Flowers 3,767
Food Crops- 2,930
Grown Under Cover 1,124
Forest- Management Service 842 Products 623
Forestry- 9,630
Services 3,608
Fruit Crops Market Preparation 730
Services
Fruits & Tree Nuts 684
Fur-Bearing Animal & Rabbit Farms 410
Game Services 263
Garden Services 2,460
General-
Livestock 2,865
Farms, Primarily Animals 8,114
Grain & Bean Brokers & Dealers 7,933
Grape Vineyards 3,364
Gum and Resin Extraction & 7 Distillation
Hog Farms & Feedlots 16,238
Horse & Other Equine Farms 7,488
Horticulture 691
Hunt, Trap & Game Propagation 1,436
Landscape-
Contractors 31,406
Counseling & Planning 33,464
Lawn & Garden-
Equipment Dealers 7,156
Services 90,091
Lettuce and Leaf Vegetable Farms 576
Livestock-
Dealers 6,848
Reproduction Services 1,143
Services, Excluding 5,735
Oil Grains 994
Orchards- Deciduous Tree Fruit 7,101
Orchard Trees & Vine Svcs 427
Ornamental Nursery Products 14,423
Pea and Bean Farms (legumes) 5,468
Plants-
Foliage & Shrubberies 4,951
Pruning & Trimming Service 2,818
Potato Farms- Irish 1,779
Poultry & Egg Farms 723
Poultry Hatcheries 1,515
Rice Farms 2,862
Rooted Vegetables Farms 951
Sheep and Goats 3,904
Soil Preparation Services 2,242
Soybean Farms 86,174
Sprout and Twig Services 21
Sugarcane & Sugar Beet Farms 1,763
Timber Tracts 7,473
Tobacco Farms 7,557
Tractor Dealers 4,997
Tree-
Nuts 3,266
Nut Crops Preparation 183
Shrub Services - Ornamental 17,232
Turkey & Turkey Egg Farms 1,020
Vegetable-
Crops, Grown under Cover 819
Crop Market Prep 573


Melon 10,758 Veterinary Services- Animal Specialties 27,933

Services for Livestock 2,166

Services 26,916

Whaling Fishing & Whale Prod 60

Wheat Farms 39,387
Worm Farms 134

Consumer Mailing List - How to select the best list

Given the choices of consumer lists available on the open market - there are many different ways to reach consumers. Do you use a file that has people with interests or the ones with buyers on it. Which works best - how important is recency in the equation? Should I be looking at an ethnic file for my business or does it matter as long as they have an interest in antique african head dresses.
Lists are an incredibly delicate part of the DM industry. Mailers spend years performing tests on files to ensure that they get the best selection for their offer. It takes time and effort and no how to determine which files you should test and then which files performed.

Process:
Test Orders - Don't put all your eggs in one basket - you need to spread your dollars over several files and see which reaps the best results. A consumer minimum order will most likely be about 5 thousand names or about 600 - 800 dollars. Be sure to have your mailhouse keycode each file so that you know where your leads/sales are coming from on your mailing/fax/telemarketing efforts.

List Review: The Associations Leadership List

The Assoc. Leadership list from Merit Direct is a very impressive file for US marketers looking to reach the top executives in Associations around the country. The File provides you with the ability to reach them via mail, phone and or fax. File is updated twice per year - which is above average. Data is pulled from the Associations Yellow Book - after being verified by the Leadership Directories Staff.

Cost per thousand is $160/M with phone costing an additional $60/M - Job Function selects provide you with incredible abilities to target your ideal contacts.

For more information about this list - contact our List Brokers at www.westlists.com

Guthy Renker Mailing lists - 150,000+ Buyers

If you are looking to get a Canadian list for Health and Wellness buyers - This file might be for you. It reaches an 85% women list base and is competitively priced at $110/M - a great way to target via hotline, gender, fsa or product category. Guthy Renker is a very reliable name and represents a quality group of products.

Drop us an email if you are looking to get more information about this file.

www.westlists.com

Zoom Information - Search Engine Compiled File

Zoom Info - recently made there house file available for rental - the file boasts about 1 million Canadian Business Professionals and almost 10 million US of the same. The advantage of the file is that it is activily compile pulling directly from business websites, press releases and other online information for the purpose of compiling very accurate data.

Cost for mailing addresses are reasonably costed at $120 a thousand with more selects available. Feel free to send us an email to request a datacard. For list brokers - you can obtain more information from Walter Karl.

Japan Mailing Lists - Sun and Moon Mail Order Merchandise Buyers

I have received numerous emails from looking to target the Japanese market. Here is a great way to reach health conscious individuals who have purchased natural supplements, restorative and energy remedies. All buyers did so direct mail and the mosaic of interests or select available to pull from is very impressive. The Japanese Market is booming and with disposable income going through the roof in this region. If you have the ability to offer a product or catalogue to this group, I would incourage you to do a test at a minimum. For more information about this list or to look at a datacard, please email us.