Power of Email Broadcasts

Ron Cates with Constant Contact put on an excellent seminar today!  The first half was a presentation by Network Solutions about search engine optimization (SEO). I'll write more on that later. But I just have to share some amazing numbers Ron shared about email broadcasts. I'm including newsletters, announcements, promotions in that general "broadcast" group.

• On average, you make $55 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
• 25% of all emails change in the course of a year so you have to be continuously monitoring your database.
• 95% read their personal email at the office. So even if you're sending to a home email, it probably won't be read until they get to work!
• Best time to send broadcasts is Tuesday between 10 am and 3 pm.
• 60% say they open the email based on the "From". So if you're using some vague email address you're hurting your open rate. Use your name or the company name very clearly.
• 30% say they open the email based on the "Subject". Again, use your company brand in either company name or slogan. Also put a call to action in the subject line.
• There is a 75% higher open rate if your Subject has 49 characters or less. Subjects of 50+ characters are perceived as sloppy.
• Content is king! People read 25% slower online than they do in hard copy. So your message must be more concise and more clearly presented in broadcasts.

Your Computer Lady has been using Constant Contact for quite awhile for our broadcasts as well as our clients'.  I'd be happy to answer questions for you about their services or about emailing in general. It is a powerful tool that has a very low expense. You can ask questions here by posting a Comment. Or share a broadcast story with us!

Thank you, Carrye!

Thank you, Carrye Walla, for introducing me to http://www.1001fonts.com/  They have some great fonts and most of them are Freeware.

Administrative Support - Patrick Lyons, Realtor

Pat first contacted me about doing some ACT! training since he was switching from Goldmine to ACT!  While he stills calls with an occasional ACT! question, the majority of his calls are administrative support projects. He needs to do a mailing or he wants to do a broadcast email. Pat realizes that there are some computer tasks that just aren't worth his time to learn. He wouldn't use them often enough to justify the learning time or retention efforts. So he'll call me occasionally and we'll take care of a task. Often in less than an hour. We use GoToMeeting since it allows me to work on his computer with his data.

I love that fact that Pat feels comfortable enough with me to stop me when I go into lecture mode and tell me, "Pamela, that's more than I need to know right now! Tell me that later!"   I hope to develop that level of confidence with all of my clients.

To learn more about Patrick and his real estate services, check his web site.

Equipment Upgrade - Centered on Success

No, I haven't started doing hardware work!  I have excellent partners to help you with hardware. However, before you make a hardware upgrade of any type, you need to consider your productivity uses and needs for that hardware.

For example, Saturday morning Sue Kiernan, the President of Centered on Success, and I met via GoToMeeting to discuss upgrading her new cell phone and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).  We talked first about what she wanted her cell phone to do then what she wanted her PDA to do. Included in that part of the discussion was weighing a move from ACT! to Outlook. Which software she was going to use made a direct impact on which hardware she needed.

We worked through her list of needs and prioritized them. Then we looked at some research data I had about cell phones. When we got to the details about the phones themselves, I referred her to her carrier and we made a list of questions for her to ask.

Sue emailed later in the day to let me know she had decided on the Treo wx with Windows Mobile.

Outlook Training - Charity Charms

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to do a 3 hour training session with the staff at Charity Charms. There was a wide range of experience in the group but they were willing to help each other and to learn new techniques to improve their productivity and communications. Each person has the independence to set their own schedule but they have to coordinate for trade shows and special events. Outlook is a great tool for them. We will soon be expanding by linking Outlook in with SharePoint to give even greater capabilities.

If you belong to an organization that needs a clever, innovative fund raiser, check out Charity Charms!

Realistic Search Engine Optimization Expectations

Another Jill Whalen article. October, 2005

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Common Sense Search Engine Optimization

Jill Whalen with HighRankings.com is one of my favorite authors on Search Engine Optimization. This article is from July, 2004 but is still very pertinent.

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