An astounding 95% of US consumers use email and 73% of consumers have set up a Facebook profile.  So it’s not surprising that one of the most popular methods or marketing to today’s consumer is online.  Many businesses are eager to join the Facebook revolution and create Facebook fan pages or gather up customer emails and press the ‘send’ button in a frenzy.  But untrained business owners  just shooting from the hip when it comes to updating their Facebook fan page or sending out E-blasts could actually be doing their business more harm than good.

An insightful study called ‘The Social Media Breakup’ released from ExactTarget (www.ExactTarget.com) gives more detail on how consumers are ‘breaking up’ with businesses through social media.

Here are some important figures from the study:

* 91% of consumers have unsubscribed from opt-in marketing e-mails.

* 77% of consumers report being more cautious about providing their e-mail address to companies versus last year.

* 81% of consumers have either “unliked” or removed a company’s posts from their Facebook News Feed.

* 71% of consumers report being more selective about “liking” a company on Facebook than they were last year.

* 51% of consumers expect that a “like” will result in marketing communications from brands, while 40% do not believe it should result in marketing communications.

* 41% of consumers have “unfollowed” a company on Twitter.

Email Marketing Breakups- You’re Coming on Too Strong

With 91% of consumers saying that they have unsubscribed at some point from email marketing that they had previously opted-in to, it’s important for businesses to understand why.  An opt-in email list does not give us carte-blanche to blast daily messages to a list.  When asked why, consumers said the #1 reason they opted out of receiving emails from a company they once were interested in was because the company sent too many emails.

Overuse of the email channel is the biggest reason SUBSCRIBERS pull away. 54% of consumers say they unsubscribe when emails come too frequently from a particular brand.

Photo courtesy of ExactTarget.com

Facebook Friends….Or Not?

How effective is your Facebook marketing? You’ll be surprised to know that most consumers (51%) say that after ‘liking’ a business fan page, they never visit that page to check for updates, sales, etc.  According to the ExactTarget study, “More than half of consumers (55%) have “liked” a brand, only to decide later that they no longer want to see posts from that brand. Of that group, only 57% bother to formally “unlike” the company. The rest either ignore unwanted posts or delete the posts from their newsfeed. So more than half the time, the company receives no direct feedback about the consumer’s desire to stop seeing their posts.”

So, makes you wonder….who is hearing your message…if anyone?

Can we be friends on Facebook?

Photo courtesy of ExactTarget.com

Social Media Marketing–Show You Care

In conclusion, the most important aspect for businesses to remember about marketing to consumers, whether through Email, Facebook, Twitter or anything else, is to care about their customers.  Businesses must show that they actually care about their consumers and not just market mass messages to them. Here are a few tips to making the most of your marketing campaigns:

• Follow Through: Don’t create a Facebook page if you don’t have time to respond to people who leave questions or comments.  Show you care by responding to inquiries from your fans promptly.
• Engage: You don’t just have to talk about the new $100 jeans that just arrived at your boutique or the latest scarves on your shelves. Your ‘fans’ have other related interests like ‘fashion’ in general.  Give tips and ideas for great fashion looks instead of just trying to sell your products. Engage your fans to learn more by coming to your page.
• Don’t be too self promotional: This relates to engaging your fans.  Fans expect some level of self promotion, but they don’t want it forced in front of their faces 24/7.  Talk about more than just yourself and your business.
• Show restraint: Especially with email marketing.  Don’t send more than 2 emails per month and make them relevant and different.  With respects to your Facebook fan page, I usually recommend 1-2 updates per week and NO MORE.

For help with your social media marketing, give us a call at 732-757-7944 or refer to our contact page to get more information.

In the world of email marketing, there are many do’s and many don’ts, I won’t list them all, but here are a few recommendations I would like to make after following the email campaigns of 4 salons/spas.

Do’s:

1)      Hire a professional graphic artist to create you a beautiful, branded template that can be used in all of your email marketing (it’s a onetime fee and well worth it).

2)      Send at least 1 email every other week.  Anything less and your campaigns will lose momentum.  You want to keep the content fresh, relevant and exciting to your readers so they look forward to receiving your emails and will actually open them

3)      Include pictures in your email. If you are having a sale on any service or product, show a visually appealing picture, it will drive people to take an action.  You can join istockphoto.com and download professional stock photos for as little as $3 each.

4)      Change the subject of your email every time you send it, and make it interesting.  Don’t send out every email with the subject of ‘Special sale and savings’.  First of all, this is boring, second of all, the subject is not specific enough to generate reads, and lastly, it gets old.

5)      Offer amazing deals in your email blast.  If you want them to take action, reserve your steepest discounts and sales for announcing in your email blast.  Keep them guessing what type of crazy savings for your email announcements. You want them to look forward to receiving your email and not just delete it when they see it in their inbox.

Don’t:

1)      Don’t over abuse your email marketing.  Sending a few messages each week will turn off your recipients who will eventually send you to their junk folder.  1 per week is probably the maximum amount of times you should reach out to your customers.

2)      Don’t send emails with spelling and grammar mistakes. It makes you look unprofessional and sloppy.  Take the extra time to review for accuracy.

3)      Be careful what you send, you can’t take it back. If you really don’t want to offer 50% off ALL of your services, be careful how you word it. If you only are offering 50% off one particular service, be sure to state it. Once you send it, you have to honor it. You will have an army of madmen outside your door if you take back an offer.

4)      Don’t send the same thing each week. Again, this gets boring. Been there done that…next.  Readers will stop opening your emails and the next time you really do have something important to say, it won’t get any attention.

These are just a few small pointers….most of this is common sense but many business owners are sometimes too busy to pay attention to the small details.  For professional copywriting services for your email marketing and other ad campaigns, email Stacey@tcr-marketing.com for a price quote.