Posts Tagged online marketing
Compliance 101 – Moving to the inbox
The SimplyCast Compliance department “delivers” once again with very important tips on improving your deliverability and overall happiness. Yes, they are that good.
Have you encountered a situation where despite sending to opt-in lists and practicing good list hygiene (removing unsubscribes and hard bounces), your deliverability rates are still low? This is caused by low subscriber engagement.
Low engagement occurs when:
- A client consistently receives low open rates.
- A client receives low click-through rates (not clicking links).
- When subscribers delete emails without opening the message.
- When the client fails to whitelist the senders “from address” by clicking “This is not – spam” if sent to the bulk folder.
- Not forwarding to a friend or replying to sender.
To increase engagement and deliverability rates, both the sender and subscriber can help the process. Below are some tips to help improve engagement which will lead to increased deliverability.
Sender
- Use the same “from address”.
- Add a Forward-to-a-Friend link.
- Remove addresses that do not open emails.
- Have links to click within the campaign, ie: survey or company website.
- Send a re-opt-in email to dis-engaged subscribers and have them reply to you if they wish to continue receiving your mail.
Subscriber
- Whitelist the sender’s email address in your address book.
- Forward-to-a-Friend.
- Check “This is not Spam” if sent to bulk folder.
- Enable images
Have further questions on engagement? Feel free to email us at deliverability@simplycast.com anytime.
SimplyCast’s Interactive Marketing Suite includes:
Email Marketing | Survey Marketing | Event Marketing |
Fax Marketing | SMS Marketing | AutoResponder Marketing
List Management | Online Signup Forms | IP Monitoring Tool
Add comment August 2, 2010
SimplyCast launches free online form software
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, July 26, 2010 – SimplyCast.com, a leading provider of interactive marketing software and services for organizations worldwide, is pleased to announce the launch of its free form design software.
Users can now easily create email contact forms, RSVP forms, survey forms, submission forms and membership signup forms. The software also allows the user to seamlessly integrate professionally designed templates with many custom formatting options.
SimplyCast’s online form software is now available to all clients and trial users for free at http://signup-form.simplycast.com/.
“Creating online forms can be a very tedious and time consuming task, especially for businesses with limited resources. By integrating SimplyCast’s free online form design software into your interactive marketing mix, collecting user information to further grow your business will never be easier.” said Saeed El-Darahali, president and CEO of SimplyCast.
SimplyCast’s interactive marketing platform is a web-based solution designed to create, track and deliver various types of online marketing campaigns such as email, survey, event, autoresponder, fax, sms and link tracking services.
About SimplyCast
SimplyCast.com is a leading provider of interactive marketing software and services for organizations worldwide. The company’s multi-channel marketing platform is a feature-rich solution used by thousands of customers in over 175 countries, including many of the most recognized brand names around the globe in retail, non-profit and hospitality industries. With thousands of organizations using SimplyCast solutions to automate email, survey, event, sms, fax, and autoresponder marketing needs, they now have the power to effectively reach customers on their preferred mode of communication.
For More Information Contact:
Michael Cusden
C: 902.220.7233
michael.cusden@simplycast.com
www.SignUp-Form.SimplyCast.com
1 comment July 26, 2010
Interactive marketing campaign ideas for August
Just because people are away on summer vacation does not mean you should be scaling back on those interactive marketing campaigns. It just means you need to be a little more creative with your campaign themes. Subscribers will be in relaxation mode and need a break from the daily grind, so by using something off the wall, you may just get a few more opened emails at the end of the day.
One easy way to add a little more creative power to your campaigns is to use the calendar as your guide. You can almost find a special reason to celebrate each day of the month, whether it be a legit holiday or a silly event.
The gang at SimplyCast loves helping you out with creative ideas for your next email, survey, event, fax, sms or autoresponder marketing campaign.
Here is a liist of real holidays, sporting events, pop culture happenings and silly days in August that you can use to create a timely interactive marketing campaign.
August 1st – Friendship Day
Reason: Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935. On this day people spend time with their friends and express love for them. Exchanging gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands is a popular tradition of this occasion.
Idea: Become better friends with your customers. Send out an online survey to help your company better understand what current customers and potential new customers like about you and what improvements they want to see. At the end of the survey, include a special offer or promotion as a thank you.
August 2nd – Natal Day
Reason: People living in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia (SimplyCast!!) and Prince Edward Island hold “birthday” parties for their provinces on the first Monday of August. Sure this is not as popular a day as others but I wanted to educate our readers on SimplyCast’s home province of Nova Scotia.
Idea: Birthday parties of any kind are great for a campaign theme. Since this day is a holiday in most of Canada, create an event marketing campaign within your city or community for a good old fashioned BBQ and fireworks evening. Invite all your customers and have special offers ready for those who attend. This is an excellent chance for employees and customers to interact and to put a face to the company.
August 5th – International Beer Day
Reason: International Beer Day is a celebration of all things beer and is an opportunity for the whole world to drink up the culture of beer, bars, and breweries.
Idea: There is no real campaign theme associated with this day, we just did not want to miss out on letting everyone know about Beer Day. Okay, in all seriousness, if you are a pub or bar, you could set up a fax marketing campaign as simple as sending all of the local businesses a fax that includes a cut-out coupon for a free beer with the purchase of a meal. The gang at the office will be more likely to cash this coupon in if they can cut it out and put it in their wallet. Whoever checks the fax machine will be the lucky one in this case.
August 13th – Friday the 13th
Reason: Pretty simple, Friday the 13th does not happen that often and it is regarded as a day of bad luck to those who are superstitious. Also it makes everyone think of Jason!
Idea: If you are a web-based business or operate an online store, send out an email marketing newsletter telling your readers that you will be slashing prices on your website on Friday the 13th. Then on the day, update the discount prices accordingly until a time that you stipulate. This is a different approach to always sending out coupon codes. It will also drive people to your website where they could possibly purchase more than they came for in the first place.
August 15th – National Relaxation Day
Reason: Instead of sapping your own energy by staying stressed out over what to include in your latest newsletter, take National Relaxation Day to heart and relax!
Idea: This means putting your promoting on autopilot by setting up an autoresponder marketing campaign. Customers can signup to receive several mailings from you that get sent out automatically depending on what timeline you choose. You can send out daily tips, monthly updates or whatever you need to grow your business. The point is you do the work once and kick back and relax. Okay, so technically that is not an idea to base a campaign around but I think I did point out a way to take it easy this month (and every other month).
August 25th – Kiss and make up day
Reason: Is a great way to end a spat or conflict. This is a day to end the fight, kiss, and make up. For those doing any kind of online marketing, this is the perfect chance to get your customers to open up and hopefully resolve any issues that are out there.
Idea: Keeping in touch with clients is key to any businesses success. For this day, you could send out an email marketing campaign or a survey marketing campaign to learn what is bugging your clients (hopefully nothing). Then take all of their replies and let your customers know in a followup email, which ones you can fix short term and long term. It will show that you value their opinion and that you are always trying to improve.
Other notable events
August 8th – Return of the NFL. The NFL preseason kicks off with the annual Hall of Fame game.
August 10th – National Duran Duran Appreciation Day.
August is National golf month
The first week of August is National Clown Week as well. Enjoy!
Know of a fun day on the calendar that we missed and think it would make a great idea for a campaign theme? Let us know on Twitter @simplycast.
SimplyCast.com is a leading provider of interactive marketing software and services for organizations worldwide. The company’s multi-channel marketing platform is a feature-rich solution used by thousands of customers in over 175 countries, including many of the most recognized brand names around the globe in retail, non-profit and hospitality industries.
1 comment July 23, 2010
Survey says! How to create a powerful survey
Has anyone asked how you are doing today? If so, you probably gave them instant feedback that will help them better understand your current state. This is no different with your business.
You need to be keeping close tabs on what your customers are thinking in order to grow your business. What do they think of your product or customer service? Trust me, if you ask them, they will tell you the truth. One of the best ways to do this is to invite customers to take a well designed survey.
Effective customer feedback will help you drive your company forward because at the end of day, they are the ones keeping you in business.
SimplyCast provides an easy-to-use Survey Marketing tool that allows you to create pretty much any kind of survey you want.
But how do you properly create a powerful survey that will gather the information you want?
Here are a list of helpful tips to keep in mind when you sit down to create your next survey marketing campaign.
1. Clearly define what you want to know from your customers. Write it down and make sure anyone else involved understands as well. You can’t seek out feedback properly if you don’t know what you want to learn first.
2. Don’t ask customers potentially annoying questions you already know the answer to. For example, anything that you can find out for yourself using the company database or doing a little digging. This shows that you are not in touch with your customers. Only ask questions that gain new information for your company.
3. Which question format will better generate the information you require. Numerical questions (rating from 1 to 10) are better for repeat surveys where you track change over a period of time. Non-numerical (low / medium / high) or categorical (yes / no ) are best for grouping your market. Open Response Questions (do you have suggestions?) are best for exploring. SimplyCast offers all of these question types as well as many others.
4. Make sure that all question phrasing is clear and easy to understand. Don’t ask two or three part questions, making sure it only covers one thing. If you make things too complicated and hard to understand, people will not take the survey.
5. Keep it simple! Read the question wording carefully to make sure it is not loaded with what you want to hear. Feed customers the answer in the question and they will simply give it back to you. That will only give you a false sense of feedback. Also, use the same language as your customers.
6. Understand and remember who you are sending this survey to. Do you know whether each survey respondent will have the knowledge to answer your questions? Ideally if you are asking about your product or service, they have actually used it at least once. That is where having targeted lists of customers can come in handy. Paid users will have much different answers than trial users for example.
7. Include all possible response categories without overlapping categories or your customers will become confused and disinterested. Remember, survey design is about limiting choices without leaving any out. You only want your customers to select the one most applicable response for them. If in doubt, it is always a good idea to include “other / not applicable” to the list.
8. Review the very first point in this list. Have you covered all the things you want to learn from your customers? Have you added too many questions or could you possibly take a few out without losing potential feedback. Remember, customers have lives as well and they won’t spend all day answering your survey.
9. A well designed survey should flow and entice the reader to complete the entire thing. The survey needs a beginning, a middle and an end. That can mean easier questions to draw them in, more specific questions in the middle and personal questions at the end when they are almost done. Adding some form of reward for completing the survey will help as well. Thank the customer for taking the survey by adding a code for a discount on the last page.
10. Give people a chance to make comments at the end. You can add a box for any thing else that a customer wants to share. Give the survey taker a little freedom to add what they may of not been able to fit in within the structure of the survey. If they have made it to the end of the survey, they are very interested in making their opinion heard. This may not be relevant in all surveys but the potential feedback can be incredibly valuable.
By taking these tips into account you will ready to create a powerful survey or questionnaire, especially if you use SimplyCast’s easy-to-use Survey software.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Got some survey design tips of your own? Let us know in the comments section or on Twitter.
SimplyCast’s Interactive Marketing Suite includes:
Email Marketing | Survey Marketing | Event Marketing |
Fax Marketing | SMS Marketing | AutoResponder Marketing
List Management | Online Signup Forms | IP Monitoring Tool
2 comments July 14, 2010
Compliance 101 – Free email addresses hurt deliverability rates
The SimplyCast Compliance department “delivers” once again with very important tips on improving your deliverability and overall happiness. Yes, they are that good.
As an online marketer, inbox placement and increased ROI is key. There are a few tips you can follow to help increase both. If you are sending email from a free email address, such as Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo, your probability of reaching the inbox decreases.
We mentioned before the importance of keeping your “from address” consistent so that the recipients know who you are and can whitelist your email address.
It is also important to use a personalized domain in your from address. This shows professionalism to your recipients and increases company familiarity.
Many spam filters score your from address higher if you use free emails addresses, which increases the possibility of your mail being sent to the junk folder or filtered out completely. To increase the chances of your email not being flagged as junk, the use of a personalized domain is a quick and easy change to help avoid mail being filtered as spam. This in turn will increase the number of subscribers that receive and open your mail.
Using a personalized email address to send to clean opt-in lists will dramatically increase your deliverability results and your overall ROI.
Have a question for us? Feel free to email us at deliverability@simplycast.com anytime.
SimplyCast’s Interactive Marketing Suite includes:
Email Marketing | Survey Marketing | Event Marketing |
Fax Marketing | SMS Marketing | AutoResponder Marketing
List Management | Online Signup Forms | IP Monitoring Tool
Add comment July 6, 2010
SimplyCast Kicks Off North American Launch Party With 5,000 Free Credits
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, July 5th, 2010 – SimplyCast.com, a leading provider of multi-channel marketing software and services for organizations worldwide, is announcing a North American Launch party with a free account for non-profit organizations and small businesses.
Starting on July 12th, SimplyCast will begin daily launch events for its multi-channel marketing platform in each state, province and territory in North America. On the dates listed below, all new sign-ups from each location will be able to secure 5,000 free credits. Those credits can be used on email, survey, event, sms, autoresponder and fax marketing. SimplyCast also provides a powerful list management tool, an IP monitoring service and a free signup form creator.
“We are very excited to be giving back to the community of non-profit organizations and small businesses to help them grow and prosper. The multi-channel marketing platform is a powerful marketing suite of products that is used by businesses of all sizes. The platform is web-based and easy to use with the most flexible pricing in the industry.” said Saeed El-Darahali, President and Chief Executive Officer.
North American marketers can secure their 5,000 free credits by visiting www.SimplyCast.com on the listed dates below.
Listing of Launch Dates for All Locations
July 12 – Nova Scotia, Texas, Washington
July 13 – Rhode Island, Colorado, Oregon
July 14 – Ontario, Wyoming, California
July 15 – New Brunswick, Montana, Yukon
July 16 – Massachusetts, Kansas, Alberta, Newfoundland
July 19 – Connecticut, Utah, British Columbia
July 20 – Prince Edward Island, Pennsylvania, Idaho
July 21 – Virginia, Delaware, Alaska
July 22 – Georgia, Saskatchewan, Michigan
July 23 – New York, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nevada
July 26 – Indiana, Florida, Mississippi
July 27 – Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee
July 28 – Quebec, Minnesota, Missouri
July 29 – Nebraska, North Carolina, Hawaii
July 30 – Iowa, South Dakota, Maryland, New Jersey
August 2 – Arkansas, Vermont, South Carolina
August 3 – New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia
August 4 – Alabama, Wisconsin, Arizona
August 5 – New Hampshire, Illinois, Nunavut
August 6 – Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Maine
SimplyCast’s interactive marketing platform is a web-based solution designed to create, track and deliver various types of online marketing campaigns such as email, survey, event, autoresponder, fax, SMS, link tracking, signup form and list management services.
About SimplyCast
SimplyCast.com is a leading provider of interactive marketing software and services for organizations worldwide. The company’s multi-channel marketing platform is a feature-rich solution used by thousands of customers in over 175 countries, including many of the most recognized brand names around the globe in retail, non-profit and hospitality industries. With thousands of organizations using SimplyCast solutions to automate email, survey, event, sms, signup form, fax, and autoresponder marketing needs, they now have the power to effectively reach customers on their preferred mode of communication.
For More Information Contact:
Michael Cusden
C: 902.220.7233
michael.cusden@simplycast.com
www.SimplyCast.com
1 comment July 5, 2010
