Six mistakes that you just shouldn’t make

In the past two years, I’ve joined dozens, maybe more than 100 online services, social networks and content sites. I don’t generally unsubscribe from their e-mails, as I like to study their marketing strategy. It’s kinda my job.

So, you would figure that I would get a daily deluge of e-mail from these services, eager to help me use their services, make my life better, and, perhaps, become a customer. Nope. I get some, but most haven’t contacted me once. Not once.

I suspect that for most of these companies, a small team of engineers are working on the next set of features and bug fixes and aren’t focusing on converting tire-kickers to loyal users. This is a crucial social conversion I recently posted about.

In their (now free) Marketing Wisdom Report 2009, MarketingSherpa, wisdom #1 is “Young Consumers Want E-mail.” You just let your superstitions keep you from using e-mail to its fullest.

You don’t have to be building a Web 2.0 application to look like a savvy marketer. You just have to take advantage of your notification e-mails.

Here are six mistakes that keep your white paper readers, demo registrants and newsletter subscribers from engaging with your business that crucial second time.

Mistake #1: Not sending notifications and confirmations

What are you doing to continue a conversation with your trial prospects, new buyers and new Web leads? Most likely, your adding them to your house list and expecting someone to “nurture” them at some point with promotional emails or an eNewsletter. If this is all you are doing, you’re missing a chance to experience amazing open, read and response rates.

Transactional email has more priority than promotional or educational email. The confirmation, verification and follow-up messages relate to a specific transaction initiated by the receiver. They pay more attention. Plus, these emails can be sent within 24 hours of the transaction, the time that a prospect is hottest.

Mistake #2: Not sending enough notifications

Consider this scenario: A visitor to your site completes a registration form and downloads your white paper. They receive a verification email and click to verify their email address. SCORE! What additional notifications and confirmations could be sent immediately without pestering them?

1. “Did you have any trouble downloading your report?” This is a courtesy confirmation and would include a link back to the report page. It also serves to remind them to read the thing.

2. “Did you find your report helpful?” This is a request for feedback and may contain a link to a survey. You can expect the survey data to be somewhat helpful, but this email is another reminder to read the report.

3. “Who else should read the report?” This is an offer to ask them to consider who else should read the report. If they find they don’t have the time, they may wish to have a subordinate or colleague take it on. Link to the download page and invite them to simply forward the email. A more aggressive strategy would be to send them to a page in which they type the name and email address of the recipient.

Get creative. What else could you be sending that is specifically tied to this otherwise innocuous lead generating transaction?

Mistake #3: Not helping new users get started

As we’ve begun to understand the complete marketing cycle, we’ve extended the standard marketing funnel — Awareness, Consideration and Action — to include a post purchase process: Use, Opinion and Talk. The implication here is that you have to convert a purchaser to a user.

This is counter intuitive. If they buy, aren’t they incentivized to use the product or service? The truth is that, regardless of how many customers you have, the number of users is smaller, often much smaller. You need users to start the virtuous cycle of opinion and talk that generates word of mouth.

You should have an aggressive and determined process of bringing new customers into the fold. Invite them to read the book. Show them how to become proficient with your power tool. Remind them of how their life becomes easier with your software.

Mistake #4: Not tracking the performance of your notification and confirmation e-mails

Notification and confirmation e-mails are measured the same way a newsletter or promotional e-mail is: deliverability, open rates, and click-through rates. However, your notifications are usually not sent via an email service provider (ESP). Most notification email will be sent by the IT department.

Consider taking your notification and confirmation emails away from IT and using your ESP to give you the metrics you need. The series of e-mails you send can easily be handled by the autoresponder systems provided by ESPs.

At a minimum. Google Analytics and other packages offer a way to measure click through rates using link tagging. If you are a GA business, use link tagging to measure your clicks and conversions. Ask me about my Link Tagging spreadsheet by sending email to bmassey@conversionscientist.com.

Mistake #5: Not sending quickly

The beauty of confirmation and notification e-mail is that it is transactional. You have permission to interact with the new customer or new lead almost as many times as is reasonably required to complete the transaction. However, this permission fades quickly.

Send early and send often.

These emails should be automated. Confirmation and verification emails should arrive within minutes. Follow up e-mail should arrive within 24 hours. After that, the transaction begins to take on a “so yesterday” feeling for the recipient.

Mistake #6: Not offering that next piece of information

Each transaction is just a step in the journey of your new customer or new lead. The new user needs to know how to best use their purchase. The new lead needs the next piece of information that will help them feel comfortable buying from you.

Show them their next step.

Each notification, verification and confirmation e-mail should have additional links to information on your Web site. It is even appropriate to include an promotional ad. Put the white space below the “Click to confirm” language to work for the recipient and for your business.

Conclusion

You can add some immediate BOOM to your marketing by spending some time with your verification, confirmation and notification e-mails. Send early, send often, and make sure each one leads back to your Web site.

Request your copy of the Conversion Sciences E-mail Link Building spreadsheet to track your notification, verification and status e-mails at brian@conversionscientist.com.

Photo courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/profile/k_vohsen