How many people open your email campaigns? When you first start an email marketing program, you are often quite enamored with the open rates. Seeing the results of your efforts in real time is always a thrill, but I often warn clients about the misleading nature of open rates. It is the most looked at and often the most misleading. Here are two things to consider when looking at open rates:

• The numbers are soft. As much as they look like hard numbers, they aren’t. There are significant numbers of email programs that block the signal that reports back that the email has been opened. The only way to be sure is if someone clicks on a link within your campaign (another good reason to include great links). The good news is your open rate is ALWAYS higher than the “official” number. I would say it’s at least 10% higher.
• The open rate does not indicate engagement. Do you open or click through every email you receive? It really bugs me that most email services will average your open rates. The same people do not open every email. To get a true measure of how engaged your list is, you have to find how many on your list have opened a campaign over a period of time (a year is a good benchmark).

The good news hidden in your stats

Recently I reviewed stats with a client whose email marketing program we manage. The open rate was averaging 47% (more than double the industry average for a consumer list). I was sensing that someone not familiar with email marketing was thinking that if less than half of the list was opening the emails, maybe the program should be re-evaluated. That is not really illogical: If I were speaking and only 47% were listening, I would be disappointed. However, I ran a report querying who on the email list opened a campaign in the last year. The percentage was 83% – That’s one engaged audience! It shows that the open rate of an individual campaign really wasn’t a good measure of engagement.

We really love email marketing at Spire2 because it is the simplest and most cost-efficient way to take advantage of the most basic building block of effective marketing – repetition. Getting stats is like a bonus, but remember that it is wise to look for trends and dig a bit deeper before drawing conclusions.

In this hilarious skit from Bob Newhart he gives his advice straight up. I sometimes feel like doing the same when I talk to small businesses and they bring up the topic of taglines. In the scheme of marketing a small business I would put taglines development pretty low on the list.

Having the “right” tagline will not affect the success or failure of a small business. In fact, putting emphasis on a tagline often contributes to a big waste of time and resources, both of which are valuable commodities for a small business.

Here are three things to remember as you consider a tagline for your small business:

1. Being cute or fun is not the goal.  A key function of a tagline for big businesses is trying to make an emotional connection between a large faceless organization and a consumer. As a small business, you have a lot going for you – your business has a real face behind it and probably a story that will engage consumers.
2. There is no such thing as a memorable tagline. Big businesses spend millions of dollars drilling their tagline into the consumer’s head. So the fact that you remember a tagline has little to do with its memorability, but a whole lot more to do with the psychology of repetition.
3. It is about what you do. Think about a tagline as explaining what you do in as few words as possible. Yea, it can be that simple!

As you can see, big businesses need taglines because the brand lacks humanness, and they have the financial means to drill them into our heads through mind-numbing repetition.

• Manage all delivery settings — like from name and address, delivery style, scheduled sending time and more — on one page.
• Change delivery settings at any time without hitting the back button.
• Set up mailings to groups or searches, or based on a triggered event, simply and quickly.
• Confirm delivery settings at-a-glance in the Mailing summary sidebar.

Log into your account and give the new sending process a try. If you notice any trouble, make sure to clear your browser’s cache or hard-refresh the page before continuing.

Without the right reasoning, rebranding is not the best marketing investment

I see really poorly executed logos all the time. At times I loathe using a client’s poorly designed logo, but as a marketer I recognize that offending my design sensibilities is not a good enough reason to rebrand.

A story of rebranding
When I had our first meeting to discuss the Transforming Center brand, they communicated that they were open to changing everything, including their logo. They were surprised when I recommended that we don’t pursue a new logo. What designer would pass up an opportunity to design a new logo?

Two things to consider before rebranding
A good rebranding is built on a foundation of strategic thought.  Consider these two facts:

1. Rebranding sends a powerful message to your audience — “something is fundamentally different about us.” If there isn’t anything different, you will be losing brand equity (defined as repeated exposure resulting in recognition and trust) and confuse people because they will subconsciously be thinking that something is changing.
2. Rebranding is very costly to execute because it touches every aspect of a business (from invoices to signage and about a billion little things in between). It seems obvious, but often people underestimate the amount of change required to rebrand.

When is a bad time to rebrand?

If you have no new message, if your mission is unchanged, your strategy is the same, and there is no organizational change (new leadership), then rebranding is an extremely costly way to tell your audience that nothing has changed!

So are you stuck with that bad logo?
Many things can be done to improve a poorly executed logo. The Transforming Center’s identity had some problems, though I would not put it in the “horrible” category. It did not reproduce well in small sizes, and the image was so abstract (sea grass) that it looked more like a flower. Spire2 recommended the logo be updated to fix these problems and ensure that the logo will handle the future growth of the brand (including brand extensions).

The goals of the update:

• Make sure the logo reproduced well at small sizes.
• Improve recognition of imagery.
• Bring more movement to the logo.

What we love about electronic communication (web development and email marketing) is that one gets real data on what is happening. If the strategy is working, it can be seen. If it is not working, the numbers don’t lie. The Downtown Wheaton Association is great to work with because they are open to new ideas, they trust Spire2, and have been committed for the long haul. We were more than pleased when they asked us to provide them the numbers for their annual meeting. If you hear a horn tooting in the background while reading, we apologize.

• Downtown Wheaton Association’s website traffic increased 37% over the last year (20,000 eyeballs).

The Shoppers’ Club email marketing program continues to flourish:

• The last 5 campaigns had an average open rate of 52% (national average open rate is 19%).
• Membership in the club has grown 190% in the past year.
• Merchant participation increased with more than 27 merchants making submissions.

So how did we get these results? There are no shortcuts. It takes, time, effort and creativity. Growing a good list is hard work, but if one takes the time, it will deliver the results. Are we totally satisfied? Nope. I want better results. We are working on some ideas to bring more attention to all the good things that are going on in Downtown Wheaton. Stay tuned.

So are you getting the inside scoop on what is going on in Downtown Wheaton? Are you getting exclusive deals and offers from local businesses? Join the Downtown Wheaton Shoppers’ Club right now!

I have been asked a couple of times recently on tips for writing blogs for nonprofits. Thirteen doesn’t seem like the best number, but I am not superstitious, so here they are:

1. Make it personal. Pretend that you are writing an email to a friend. Your tone and manner should be friendly and not “corporate sounding.”
2. Stories are great. Sharing the impact of what you are doing is powerful and builds trust with your audience. Who doesn’t want to support an organization that is making a difference?
3. Have a focus. You don’t want the blog to be too general or broad. Be really sporadic about updating us on the office manager’s cute new dog
4. Write about one thing per post. If you have multiple topics, write multiple posts and schedule the other posts for different days — just change the publish date to the date you want the post to become visible. It is like getting a buy-one-get-one-free deal when you discover you are writing two posts instead of one!
5. Engage your audience. It is great to ask opinions and feedback and get others to share. Until you build an audience, encourage your supporters and friends to leave comments.
6. You don’t have to write a lot.  A paragraph or two is just fine.
7. Make it scannable if it is long.  In email marketing, I am always telling people to keep it short. A blog can be longer if you have good content, but make sure you use subheads. The goal is for someone to be able to scan your subheads and get a gist of what you are writing about.
8. It is great to have a summary in the first paragraph or a subhead that has some punch.
9. Have a great title. Your title is important. “July Update” is not going to get me to continue reading.
10. Pictures are great. Even a couple of shots with captions can be effective for making a point.
11. Videos are great, but keep them short. A 10-minute pan of the sun rising is not too exciting. A one-minute testimonial is better.
12. Encourage people to take action. What would you like them to do after reading your post? Don’t assume they will know: tell them.
13. Link to other things. Of course, linking to other places on your website is great, but don’t limit yourself.  Just make sure links open into a new window so they don’t leave your blog.

What would you add to the list?

Spire2 was nominated for the Wheaton Chamber of Commerces 2011 Gammon Awards for the work we did for the Downtown Wheaton Association.

As part of our Spire2’s redevelopment of www.downtownwheaton.com Spire2 recommended that the association start an email marketing program. Spire2 created the Downtown Wheaton Shoppers’ Club program. This free club with a monthly newsletter creates a channel for the association to communicate on behalf of membership while enhancing the image of Downtown Wheaton. The club is also critical in driving traffic to the website to learn more about upcoming events and news from stores.

The results have been incredible. The first five campaigns averaged an open rate of 61.9%. The club grew almost 400% in the first 12 months and continues to grow with new members joining on a daily basis. “As other forms of advertising continue to be less effective, developing a house list has become a strategic move in helping us stay connected with Wheaton residents and those who are passionate about the value of shopping locally,” says Noel Wiedman, manager of the Downtown Wheaton Association.”

Along with creating and managing the program for the Downtown Wheaton, we helped the Downtown Wheaton Association develop some strategies to promote the club. The most visible and unique was the creation of the sidewalk decals (shown above). These proved just as effective in building awareness for the Shoppers’ Club to merchants as it did for residents. Thanks goes to The Sign Authority for their help in finding a material that lasted well beyond the manufacturer’s guarantee – making these a very cost-effective promotion.

The awards are chosen by the public, so I will post the link for voting as soon as it goes live. If you shop in Downtown Wheaton and you are not part of the Downtown Wheaton Shoppers’ Club, sign up and you will be automatically entered to win a $100 gift certificate.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE : I am the third option under the “Nathan Lewis Best Marketing of the Year Award” You don’t have to live in Wheaton to vote!

Website development that ignores design is doomed to fail. There – I have said it, and it is off my chest. I was thinking it the whole time when I was listening to the presentation on how a new site will solve all the problems and make everything easier and better.

The site was purchased from a hosted web solution that promises all the functionality you could dream of. The fees to get the site up and running were negotiated down to an amazingly low price. The site was not designed, but assembled. The home page is cobbled together with bad photos and a variety of clip art images, but who cares because we have all this functionality.

Before you say I am a bitter designer, I will give you three reasons why hosted solutions that don’t include a signficant investment in design customization fail:

1. First impressions matter. We live in a branded culture, and if your home page looks bad then you are sending out a very strong message, and I can assure you it is not a good one. Would one go to and meet a prospect in grubby old clothes and tell them, “Yeah, I look bad, but I do my best work in these clothes.”
2. Functionality-driven development always lacks usability. It is just as important to consider how a website works as it is to consider what the website does. If it is difficult, confusing, or annoying for site visitors, they will not stay, and they will not return. Websites are brand experiences: if it is not a good experience, do you expect people to come again?
3. Functionality does not build traffic. When people focus on functionality, they often get most excited because they believe they can please everyone with all the functionality they will have. This one-size-fits-all approach leads to one thing – mediocrity. Do something well, really well, and then people will notice.

I am sorry to break the news, but if you are looking at web-based service, and you think it is “too good to be true,” then it most likely is. Some of the off-the-shelf functionality is really great, and I do think it can work, but make the investment in design and usability.

Good web development is going to focus on doing something really well. You can build on success. The only thing you can build on with mediocrity is, well… nothing.

It is an exciting time. How people communicate and connect, not to mention any ever-changing landscape of communication tools, forces a marketer to constantly challenge assumptions about communication.

To stay current I listen to podcasts, read books (yep, started reading on an iPad this year), and monitor blogs and feeds. My clients depend on me to weed through the ocean of marketing options to decipher how best to use print and electronic communication to reach prospects, donors, and customers.

I share insights, ideas, and inspiration here and through my quarterly email Inspire. If you have never received Spire2’s Inspire, it’s because I only send it to those who give me permission (I practice what I preach about permission marketing).

To start 2011, I am entering all Inspire subscribers into a drawing for a $100 gift card to Amazon. My way to encourage you to grow and learn. That will almost buy you a Kindle or make a dent in your book wish list. The way to win is to add yourself to sign up to receive Inspire.

My big advice for 2011 is the same as 2010 — Build your house list. Mass marketing is dying quicker than you think. If you aren’t actively building and communicating with your own house list, you are effectively shrinking your market.

Happy New Year!