Posted by:
David Dittman
October 20, 2007
Issue #260
Hello and welcome back to another installment of Working IT Out! Today I’d like to take some time and discuss one of the most important issues you’ll come across during your e-mail marketing.
Now, we’ve all been there before … I just finished writing a killer sales letter.
The copy is sparkling with tasty quips and glorious phrases that outline and emphasize the unbelievable deal that I’m orchestrating. You would be a fool not to buy after perusing my persuading work of art.
But alas, many will never see my masterpiece because the powers that be have declared that my magnum opus of sales letters is flagged as spam.
AAARGH!
So what we need to do as copywriters, marketers, and business owners is ensure that our message actually gets to the potential customers just chomping at the bit to receive our message.
In this issue we’ll talk about:
- The difference between opt-in e-mail, double opt-in e-mail and opt-out e-mail.
- What whitelisting is and how to use it.
- What some of the experts are saying about e-mail deliverability.
- Several different resources to test your e-mails through, to give you the best chance at eluding spam blockers.
- And much, much more!
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Posted by:
David Dittman
October 6, 2007
Issue #248
Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance you must keep moving.
– Albert Einstein
Hello all and welcome to another installment of Working IT Out! I’ve got a fun little brainteaser of an article for us today… It all started one lonely, rainy day, when I said to myself “Yea, Flash is cool and all, but does it really produce enough of an extra response to justify the poor SEO off-shoots?”
As I sat, pondering this and many other complicated questions, I thought well, maybe other people wonder this very same thing. And BAM! Out pops this article …
In this issue:
- Some of the Negatives of Using Flash …
- Some Benefits of Using Flash …
- How much Flash is too much Flash…
- And much more!
Why do people like Flash sites?
Or more to the point what’s the big deal about Flash?
Well, to answer those questions, we must first lay some ground rules and define exactly what Flash is.
I’ll start by saying movement or animation on a webpage or banner is not always Flash.
There are several different ways to accomplish motion on the web and Flash is just one popular way.
Another popular way is using an animated gif.
Usually, animated gifs are far simpler than Flash in terms of the design. For example, if you see one or two images repeated over and over again to produce movement, it’s probably an animated gif.
Something like this:
Animated gifs have been popular because they are simpler for most websites that sell space ads. One major reason that ad vendors like animated gifs better than Flash is that they can control the links better.
In the case of Flash, all links must be created within the file itself, thus if you have several different promotions using the same graphic, but you need a different link for each ad, you will have to have a separate file for each individual ad with its corresponding link embedded inside it.
With animated gifs you only need to have one graphic and then you can specify the different links as they correspond to the different sources you promote with.
So in short, if you are promoting the same animated banner to 10 different sites, with Flash you need 10 files and if you are using animated gifs you need 1 file.
Now, from the vendor’s perspective, animated gifs can be more convenient if they embed your links into their own ad tracking system. It’s not impossible for them to do so with Flash, but it’s more complicated and requires someone with knowledge of Flash.
This is important to note because some websites don’t allow Flash banners, but do allow animated gifs, so if you have a great idea for an animated banner, it is a good idea to have both versions in case the site you are promoting with doesn’t allow Flash.
So what’s the big difference between animated gifs and Flash?
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Posted by:
David Dittman
September 22, 2007
Issue #237
Issue #237
Hello all and welcome back to another issue of Working IT Out! Today’s issue is great! Greg Marsden from Smart Marketing has allowed me to pick his brain about PPC and the secrets to the success he has been having.
Now, you may not have heard of Greg or Smart Marketing yet. They are the unsung heroes behind countless successful PPC Campaigns. They’re out there getting it done.
Greg and his crew have had numerous success stories in direct marketing. They have experience managing campaigns that have generated well over 7.5 billion ad impressions and 23 million clicks to date (in some of the most competitive markets online).
They have the confidence and experience to develop wildly successful, self-capitalizing lead generation models for several different companies.
Now enough of my jibba, jabba – on with the show …
David: Greg, we’ve been working with your company for about four weeks now, and we’re impressed. Could you explain a little bit about yourselves and what unique skills you guys bring to the table?
Greg Mardsen: Well, I’ve been creating and managing paid search campaigns for about five years now and have been doing Internet marketing since 1997, so experience is a big part of our success. Most recently, I’ve focused on mastering Google AdWords marketing, and in the last two years alone I’ve generated and managed over 25 million Google AdWords leads for my clients. In that time, I’ve also had the freedom to experiment a lot and really boil down things to a system that works. And when you’re spending in the 25-30k a day range, you’d better know what you’re doing or you’ll go broke in a hurry.
I’ve also spent a lot of time studying direct response marketing and have recently teamed up with a professional copywriter since getting a click from an ad is only the first part of a successful campaign. Success or failure is always dependent on converting that click into something worth more than you paid for it on average, so we also look at the bigger picture when working with clients and advise them as to what can be done on their end to make the entire effort as successful as possible as well.
David: So if I’m new to the PPC game, what are some general principles I need to take into account?
Greg: First, don’t be fooled by how simple Google or the other search engines make it seem to get up and running. It’s true that anyone with a credit card and the ability to use a mouse can create a campaign and have traffic going to their site in minutes, but unless you invest some significant time learning what to do, you’re just going to pour money down the drain. People don’t just buy in at a poker game without learning the basics, but every day eager advertisers jump right in thinking they’ll make quick and easy money simply with more traffic to their site. It’s more competitive now than ever these days, so take the time to learn the game well before you get in, or it’ll hurt.
If you have done some homework and are ready to give it a shot, I’d stress that one of the biggest keys to success is being able to clearly distinguish what’s working and probably will work from what isn’t and not likely to. To do this, you need to break campaigns up into distinct units so you can adjust your strategy quickly based on how these units perform. Using smaller groups of closely related keywords, separating true search traffic from “content” traffic as well as separating broad vs. exact keyword match types are all ways you can group these units to see how they perform in comparison. If you can’t see a difference in performance you can’t adjust for it, so being able to see that clearly is critical. If everything you’re bidding on is all jumbled together, you’ll have a real hard time trying to get more of what’s working and getting rid of what’s not.
David: So let’s talk nuts and bolts … Can you give me a generic layout for a starting point of successful acquisition campaigns? For example, Google Ad -> Squeeze Page -> Sales Page …
Greg: That’s the basic formula, though often it works better to soften up your leads first with some free information via e-mail before you hit them up with a sales offer. One important thing to keep in mind is that the Google ad is the starting point and really the first line of your sales pitch, so it needs to be consistent with the copy of the squeeze page and sales page. It should hopefully set up people to be receptive to your headline. If the message of your ad conflicts with your headline on your landing page, your conversion rate will suffer, so keep that in mind when writing your Google ads. Try to keep the full conversion path in mind – ad to landing page to sales offer – so that each part of it fits well together.
David: What are some of the biggest mistakes people are making during acquisition campaigns?
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Posted by:
David Dittman
September 8, 2007
Issue #225
Hello again and welcome to another installment of Working IT Out! The good news is that Microsoft didn’t shut us down after my last anti-Outlook article. That article had some great response and I’m encouraged to hear that there are so many out there who share my frustrations.
Well, here at The Total Package, it’s been a great two weeks of power-packed issues. I’ve been inspired by all the issues explaining the importance of tracking and how to actually use the information when dissecting the effectiveness of your marketing plan or individual ad campaigns.
In keeping with this mindset, I would like to take some time today and discuss the nuts and bolts of how to track a campaign. By now you should be sold on tracking and how it is essential for any real marketing endeavor, but “how to track?” is another issue entirely.
In this issue:
- How to track a basic lead generation campaign …
- How to project a 60-day lead value for your prospects …
- An example spreadsheet to use for your tracking …
- And much more!
What Should I Track?
So when it comes down to tracking, the
obvious first question is, “What should I track?”
Well, you can make this as complicated
or as simple as you like and, of course, this will depend on your goals as
a marketer or business owner.
If your goal is lead generation then your biggest concern is going to be your lead cost.
Lead cost is determined simply by taking the cost of the campaign and dividing it by the number of leads.
So if you spend $200 and you get 25 new leads your cost per lead is $8.00.
Now in order for this number to be useful to you, you need to know just how much a lead is worth to you. When you hear people talking about the lifetime customer value, this is the number they are referring to.
Clayton goes into a great explanation of lifetime customer value in his issue, Direct Response ‘Rithmatic: The Third "R".
I’ll put in a disclaimer here … There are a lot of different considerations to take into account. For some businesses, PPC leads cost a lot more money than co-registration leads – this is a whole article in itself. The point is your customer value can be broken down several different ways and should always be refined once you have actual hard data.
But … If you don’t already have a calculation for your lead value, you can use this simple calculation for a rough ball park figure.
Now we are going to get a rough estimate of our 60-day lead value. Take your net sales in the last 60 days and divide it by your total subscribers from the last 60 days. So if you brought in $3000 in net sales and you have 250 subscribers then your average lead value is $12.
It’s important to note that the lead value and customer value are not the same. Taking our above example, if you only have 10 clients out of your 250 subscribers, then your customer value is much higher, $300 per customer.
So in reality only 4% of your file is active and purchasing your products. These kind of statistics are important and extremely relevant when planning your overall marketing strategy, but for purposes of this article we’re going to keep it simple and just use our lead value.
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Posted by:
David Dittman
August 25, 2007
Issue #213
Welcome back to another installment of Working IT Out! Let me start by saying, I use to be a big fan of Microsoft.
I have had a love hate relationship with them for years but, I’ve always been careful about presenting the best face for Microsoft when I discus it in public.
I have long been of the mindset that everyone uses Microsoft so they have to be the best.
Well, last Monday ended my delusions once and for all.
In this issue:
- How Microsoft has reversed five years of programming progress in one fell swoop.
- How you can be ready and overcome the issues that Microsoft presented for you.
- And much, MUCH more.
The Debacle That Is Outlook 2007
Anyone who is sending out mass e-mails lately has probably run into the issues that Outlook 2007 has so generously supplied us with.
Now, I try my best to keep in the loop but for some reason I completely missed the articles about Outlook 2007 and the problems it has caused.
For me it all started on a bright and sunny Monday morning, 6 days ago to be exact.
I was sitting at my computer feeling pretty good about myself and all the work our team was accomplishing.
Graham had just finished up an e-mail blast that we were going to send to our subscribers …
Now this was no ordinary e-mail blast.
No, no, this e-mail was spectacular!
We had taken the time to create a true piece of technological wonder. We had background images that had notepad backgrounds that not only displayed a great notepad background but, also had a background color that was similar to the notepad so that people didn’t have to download images to get a similar experience.
We also had four testimonial boxes that were neatly spaced throughout the copy that all had nicely formatted divisions so that they stood out.
Then Gates laughed a diabolical laugh as Outlook 2007 received my gorgeous e-mail and promptly destroyed all the formatting.
Graham said to me, “That’s odd because in my Outlook 2003 as well as my web-based browsers from Gmail and Hotmail all display perfectly.”
I sneered a little and replied, “Now Graham why would a new version of Outlook not work correctly? Clearly, you have made an error on your coding because as we know, Microsoft does not make errors …”
So then we poured over the code finding little potential problems, each time saying “Well, this must be the problem, although it really shouldn’t be a problem.”
Finally, after we had pristine code that Steve Jobs himself would be proud of, we said “Clayton, we don’t know what the problem is” to which he promptly responded “I don’t care how just fix it”.
With my reputation on the line, I decided to finally concede defeat and consult the foremost authority on all things, the Internet.
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