Chris Benkert is responsible for Full Service Web Analytics Reporting and creative review at Lyris. Chris brings more than 20 years of experience in graphic arts, digital and online marketing and web analytics to his position.  In his six year career with Lyris, Chris worked in Tech Support and most recently as a Trainer before assuming his role as business analyst.

During last week’s question and answer session after the webinar, many great questions came up. Here is a sampling of some of the questions that Chris addressed. Have more questions? Join us in the Lyris Digital Marketing Café to discuss.

Q:   We have a small marketing team so I like the idea of gathering more email subscribers from our website. How would I go about determining which pages will generate the most response?

A: As mentioned in the presentation, the best way to do that is to use Web analytics to determine the pages that get the most traffic, and then design an incentive for email sign-up that appeals to the visitors that are likely coming to those pages. Also, try creating intrusive “ads” for those pages rather than just sticking an email opt-in at the bottom of the page in a text link. The more prominent the “opt-in” call-to-action, the better response rate you will get.

For example…if you sell hair products and want to gather more subscribers from your website, you might want to create a subscriber-only “club” or special discount and promote it on your home page, the front page of your ecommerce store and on confirmation pages after a purchase is made. The message would be slightly different on each of these high-traffic pages, but the goal is the same.

Q:  Are there some less expensive ways to use the Supplemental Layer – so I can get big list growth faster?

A: I’ll answer this in two ways….

If you have money to spend, the least expensive way to use the Supplemental Layer is to ensure that you test everything in a small way before you go big. It’s amazing how much you can learn in a pilot program…and how much money you can waste by rushing. But you get meaningful results quickly by doing a small test, seeing what works and then going out bigger with your winner.

If you don’t have money to spend, I think the barter method is best. It can take some time to find a partner, but it’s one of the “free” ways to get your offer out to a highly-qualified list. It’s also possible to purchase small, dedicated email sends to portions of an audience via list rental…and with the economy the way it is, some of these vendors may be willing to work with you on price. Just be sure to work with a reputable company who can prove its compliance with CAN-SPAM opt-in and out-out laws.

Q:  I agree that testing is important, but we just don’t have the time. How can I grow my opt-in list without having to wait around for test results?   

A: Well, all I can say to this is that you don’t have time NOT to test. You can always come up with at least a different subject line…and split one send into a two-cell test that way.  That won’t take you more than 15 minutes.

At Lyris, we don’t send an email – EVER – without a test. It’s such a precious opportunity, we’ve just committed to ensuring we never give it up. Sometimes we even delay a send so that the multiple tests will be ready to deploy all at once. The results we get have proven to us over and over that testing is never a waste of our time because we always learn something useful. By not testing, you give up any opportunity to learn…which is never equal in value to getting an email campaign out sooner.

Q:  You mentioned social marketing. At my company we have wanted to try social marketing but we don’t know how to get started and then maintain it. If you were to suggest one thing for a small company to get started with social marketing, what would it be

A: Without knowing a lot about your company, I’ll need to be pretty general, but I think this information applies to any company that’s getting started with social media marketing. That is, find out where your target audience is spending time and then take a winning offer to them via that one social media site.

For instance, if you sell sporting goods online, you might want to do a quick survey of your most loyal customers to find out what social media sites they use, and how. That information can be marketing gold on many levels. The majority of them might say that they belong to youth sports groups on Facebook. That’s your cue to start a group page about your company on Facebook and start creating connections with some of the larger youth sports groups.

Then start conversations about relevant topics within your group. If you produce an email newsletter or make special offers via email campaigns, start posting links to that email content on your social media page. Before you know it, the social network will organically grow your opt-in list to include names you never would have gotten otherwise…and most of these people will be very loyal to your company if you continue to provide value to them via all email communications. This is all a lot easier to maintain that you might think.

Q: Great information! How do we best manage opt-ins, especially double opt-ins?

A: Most companies use an email solution provider, or ESP, like Lyris to develop, manage, deploy and track not only the email campaign messages but also the email opt-in lists. ESPs generally provide some type of automatic tool within the solution to help you seamlessly and automatically manage the opt-in (and, opt-out) process so that your list adheres to best practices and is easier to keep clean. So use this tool within your ESP…and if you aren’t working with an ESP, you should be.

The other thing you should be doing is routine list hygiene via regular maintenance of your list. Also, it’s your responsibility to make sure opt-outs are handled in a timely manner. CAN-SPAM law and common courtesy dictate this. Meaning, it’s just as important to manage your opt-outs as it is to manage your opt-ins. 

  If you missed it, watch the webinar: Grow Your Opt-In List…Almost Automatically

About the Author

Chris Benkert, Business Analyst, Lyris, Inc.