Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Response rates and timing

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Here is a simple marketing tip, to help you quickly improve your mail shot, email marketing and blogging response rates.

response rate email mail shotsIt’s all about – Timing.

Even if your marketing message is irresistible, you will only get the maximum return form it, if you get it in front of people at the right time.  This holds true, regardless of what form of marketing you use – though in this post I will focus on; mail shots, email marketing and blog posts.

Mail shot response rates

If you send a business to business mail shot out, which people receive first thing Monday morning, it will typically get a lower response rate than the same mailing would, if it arrived on a Tuesday – Friday morning.  Letters that arrive on Monday morning, have to fight for the reader’s attention, against all the other Monday mail PLUS all the mail that arrived on Saturday.  Equally, Monday morning is usually a particularly busy time for most businesses, meaning the reader often has less time to read their mail too.

In short, by arriving first thing Monday morning, your mailing could be reaching people who have less time to read it and it will have to compete for their attention, against a lot more mail.   Does avoiding the Monday morning post make a massive difference? No, but it will usually give you a better return.  Now, as it costs you the same to send a mail shot, regardless of what day you post it, it makes sense to avoid Monday’s and improve your response rates.

Whether you sell business to business or direct to the consumer, you need to find out when your target audience is most likely to have the time to read your message.  This is why testing and measuring your marketing feedback is so important.

Email marketing response rates

Timing is also important for email marketing.  In my experience, you should get business to business marketing emails out during office hours; again avoiding Monday mornings.

For example, the best time to send my marketing newsletter, is after 9:30am Tuesday – Friday.  I have tested and measured this for almost 4 years and the results are constant.  Think about it and it makes perfect sense.  If Sue gets into her office Monday morning and finds my newsletter in with 30 pieces of spam or junk email, that arrived since she left work on Friday evening, it’s way too easy for her to delete the newsletter by mistake.

It also makes it harder for her to actually see my newsletter, in with all that clutter and junk.

Blog post viewing numbers

I have spoken to many, many business bloggers who have all found that their weekend posts are usually read by far fewer people than their weekday posts. Clearly, a lot of people disconnect from their business or job between Friday evening and Monday morning.

However, a lot of bloggers write their blog posts during the weekend, because it’s the only time they have available to write – Then publish their posts immediately.  In my experience, this is not usually the best way to maximise your reach.

I find that when I publish a post on a Saturday, the post will usually get just 25% as many views as it would have got, if I published the same kind of post during the week.  On a Sunday the numbers are usually a lot higher, but still 50% lower than a midweek post.  So, if you only post once a week or less and you write a business to business blog, avoid publishing your content during the weekend.  It’s fine to write posts whenever you like, but businesspeople read in greater numbers during the working week.

Of course, if you blog 7 days a week like many professional bloggers, this is far less of an issue.

Your experiences?

I would love to know if YOU have noticed any time-related trends, when you send or publish marketing material. If you have anything to add, please share it below.

Inspired marketing

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If someone has a piece of your written marketing in front of them right now, will they feel inspired to take action?  Will your marketing message compel them to call you, email you or visit you?

Written marketing

I am in the process of writing an article for my next marketing newsletter.  It’s all about how to make your written marketing more powerful.  Copy writing is one of the most overlooked areas of marketing within small and medium sized businesses.  They will often invest thousands in a great website, an advertisement, a mailshot or a brochure – only to blow it all by writing their own, uninspiring copy.

A professionally written marketing letter, advertisement or website can out perform one written by a keen amateur by thousands of percent.  I’m not talking marginal differences here.  For example, this blog generates more enquiries in one day, than many sites with more traffic will get in a whole month.

Fortunately, it’s really easy to measure how effective your existing written marketing is; simply by measuring your results.

Unfortunately, a lack of results is not usually enough to motivate a business owner to have their copy written professionally.

I spoke to a web designer recently, who designed a £17,000 website for a client.  Unbelievably, the client was happy to spend all that money on a new website, but refused to pay for a professional copy writer!  Three  months later, his client has had four email enquiries via the site and not a single phone call.  This, despite the fact they have very effective search engine optimisation (SEO) and get a lot of targeted visits each day.  When my friend asked the site’s owner why she didn’t have her new site copy written by a professional, she told him; “the cost would probably be too high.”

Clearly, she can afford the cost of losing tens of thousands of pounds worth of new business though!

When I speak with business owners, who are getting poor results from their marketing, they always blame outside factors.  They will blame the economy (even when times are great), the marketplace, the time of year etc. 

It never crosses their mind that the reason they are going nowhere, is because their marketing is ineffective!

By the way, these are the same people, whose mailshot letters you throw in the paper bin and whose advertisements and websites you ignore.  They honestly believe that YOU are the reason they are failing; not thinking for one moment that their pedestrian copy writing and amateur marketing might be to blame.

Inspirational marketing

We have to remember that our prospective clients are not idiots.  Today’s consumer is better informed than ever before.  They see ‘average’ marketing all day long; it just washes over them.

To motivate someone to become a client or customer, we need to capture their attention and then inspire them.

A letter from Google

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I received a sales letter last week from Google. That’s right, one of the world’s leading email providers contacted me; not via an email, but via a letter.

Email marketing and Google

google email marketingGoogle already has my email address, because I am a user of a number of their services – including Gmail. So, it would have been very easy for them to have sent me the same sales message in an email. However, Google know that they will get a higher response rate from a targeted letter than from a sales email.

If the owners of Gmail are writing letters with sales offers, rather than sending sales emails, there’s a BIG marketing lesson here!

People hate sales emails and spam

People have a VERY low tolerance for emails, which are just sales messages.  The letter from Google was exactly that – a sales message.  However, I did open the letter and read it.  Had Google sent me that same sales offer via email, it would have been deleted, unopened; as soon as I read the subject line (no matter how clever it was!)

The average person hates spam with a passion and many tend to consider all sales emails (no matter how well targeted) as spam. As a result, not only is a prospective customer or client unlikely to respond to a typical sales email, they are very likely to develop strong, negative feelings about the sender too.

Is email marketing dead

No, not at all! Email marketing, when handled correctly, is still extremely powerful and getting more powerful all the time.

If you re-read the above, you will see that I use the term ‘sales emails.’  Sales emails are extremely low leverage and increasingly ineffective.  These are emails that contain a sales message and are often sent to a ‘list’, which the sender has either bought, borrowed or built by harvesting email addresses from business cards / directories etc.

Unless the sender has a good relationship / rapport with the people on that list, the sales emails they send will be deleted before they are read.

Email marketing & sales emails

Email marketing could not be more different. For example, I write a very popular marketing newsletter, which contains a unique marketing article or some valuable marketing ideas / advice.  Most editions have zero advertising.  Occasionally, I will include a single, one paragraph piece to promote something I am involved in.  The response rates are fantastic, because my readers already know me and trust me.  Some of my readers even blog about how much they value my newsletter.

In fact, many of my readers tell me that they have ‘Jim Connolly’ marketing folders on their computers, where they file my newsletters, for future reading.  How many people keep spam email or sales emails on file? No one!

Mail shots, direct mail, marketing letters

The overuse of sales emails is creating a growing resistance to them within the marketplace.  Obviously, with so many businesses mass emailing sales offers to people, the amount of traditional marketing letters being sent has dropped enormously.  As a consequence, marketing professionals are seeing traditional marketing letters, (sometimes called direct mailings or mail shots,) achieve better and better results.

A well crafted marketing letter, with a hand written signature, sent to a small, targeted group, with a compelling offer and a ‘call to action,’ can be extremely effective right now.

Mail shots or email marketing?

This is a HUGE subject.  Here’s a very brief overview.

I suggest you try a professionally handled mail shot IF you provide a service, which is only offered to a relatively small geographical area.  Some examples might include; accountants, commercial lawyers, franchise operators, insurance brokers etc.  Let me be completely clear. I am not suggesting these types of service providers cease using email to market their services.  I am suggesting they STOP using sales emails, START using email marketing AND consider trying a professionally handled, direct mail campaign as an addition to their marketing mix.

Jim Connolly’s marketing

I offer a service, which is sold internationally.  As a direct result, 100% of my marketing is conducted online.  My marketing approach is all about giving away free marketing advice, information and tips, to as many small and medium sized business owners as possible.  Then, when they want someone to look after their marketing, they give me a call.

I don’t sell my services, people hire me instead.  For those of you who provide services or products across a big or unlimited geographical area, I suggest you do exactly the same.  Instead of sending sales emails; emails that just ‘push’ or attempt to sell your services – use email as a way to engage potential clients and provide massive value.  Also, make sure that every person you send your information to has proactively sign-up to receive it.  For example, don’t send newsletters or e-bulletins to people, just because you know them, are a member of the same network or you happen to have their business card.

Use email communication (and your website / blog / FaceBook / LinkedIn / Twitter) as a way to showcase your expertise and encourage potential clients to email you, call you, comment on your blog, follow your Twitter account etc, etc.

The results can be stunning!

Quick marketing tip – Copy what works!

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One of the fastest ways to massively improve your marketing results and sales figures, is to learn how other companies are already getting the kind of results that YOU want.  That’s what today’s quick marketing tip is all about!

Copy what works

The next time you read a piece of marketing, which inspires you to take some kind of positive action; to call a business, email a business, visit their store, click a link etc – keep a copy of it.  Ask your friends to do the same with any marketing material they read, which motivated them to take positive action too.

Collect these powerful marketing pieces and study them.  Look to see what it was that inspired you or your friends to take action.  This is a very fast way for you to identify the key elements required to make YOUR marketing messages more compelling!

Don’t forget to study everything.  Pay particular attention to the following:

  • Was the headline (sometimes called a strapline) eye catching?
  • What kind of words and phrases did they use in order to motivate you?
  • Did they offer any guarantees?
  • Was there a special offer included?
  • Was there a ‘time sensitive’ element?
  • Was the marketing message long or short and to the point?
  • How easy did they make it for you to get in touch?
  • Did the message come via a trusted source?
  • Was there limited availability?
  • Did it arrive at just the right time?
  • Were there any testimonials or quotes from satisfied customers?

By studying what already works, you can develop massively more effective marketing for your own business.

If you found this quick marketing tip useful, remember to share it using the ‘share this’ button below!

Time for marketing

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QUESTION: What does great marketing have in common with great comedy?

ANSWER: Timing!

Marketing & timing

I received an email earlier, announcing the launch, today, of a new website.  If you check the date of this post (20th January 2009) you will see that it’s the day that President Obama was inaugurated.

This international,  mass media event, has received blanket coverage across the news networks and even seen services like Twitter struggle to cope with the huge increase in activity.

In other words, it’s a terrible day to try and launch a new website!

If you are thinking of launching something for your business, make sure you check out what’s happening on that day.

Email marketing and mail shots

Of course, timing is important to many elements of marketing. For example, the day of the week your mail shot arrives, will have an impact on your response rate.  I advise B2B marketers not to have their mailings arrive on a Monday; because Monday’s are typically very busy for businesses AND your letter will also be with all the other mail that arrived over the weekend.

The day and time of day that your email marketing arrives in someone’s inbox, will also impact your results.  An email, which arrives at 7am on a Monday morning, will arrive in an inbox filled with a weekends worth of junk mail and spam.

That same email, arriving at 11am on a Tuesday morning, will arrive in an inbox, which has already had the spam / junk mail removed.  This makes it easier for your message to stand out and increases the chances of it being read and acted on!

Always check out what’s happening in your prospective client’s world before setting a time to take action.

Movement or progress?

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As we move into a brand new year, I would like to share one of the simplest, yet most valuable pieces of advice I know with you.

Don’t mistake movement for progress!

Progress is not the result of hard work. If hard work were the secret to success, our grandparents would have been millionaires!Progress only comes when we work hard doing the right things. However, if we keep rowing that boat in the wrong direction, no matter how hard we row; we will never get where we want to be.

Before you invest your time or money on any marketing activities in 2009, make sure you are doing the right kind of marketing for your business – before you worry about doing it correctly.  For example; you ‘might’ be doing a mail shot correctly – yet by using email marketing instead of paper-based mailings, you can see better, faster results for a fraction of the cost and time of a traditional mail shot.

You might be doing that mail shot correctly, but it may not be the right form of marketing for what you want to achieve – your outcome!

Making progress

I suggest you look at all the marketing activities you currently engage in and then, one by one, find out if there isn’t a better, higher-leverage alternative for you to use in 2009.  There’s a list of marketing ideas here, which are extremely effective, just to get you started.

Over to you

What have you found to be the most effective forms of marketing for your business over the past year? Share your experiences and leave a comment below.