From Our Clients and Friends
The next 5 or six blog posts will include tips for improving email newsletter and email marketing programs. If you have additional tips, please email me at chip.martin@bmpr.com. I'm quickly learning that one of the fun aspects of blogging is that my fans, friends and foes can all be involved in the process. So email me or comment on my posts. In fact, I've started a new section on my posts titled "From our Clients and Friends" which highlights some of the feedback, information and jokes that I receive from my readers.
So that my blog posts don't become a bother by filling up the emails of those of you who clicked on the "join" button, I've decided to make posts every Wednesday and Friday. I've worked a bit ahead and can tell you with all modesty that posts 8 and 9 will be hysterically funny, yet useful. Communication doesn't get better than that!
Improving Email Newsletters and Email Marketing Efforts - Part 1
Email programs should never be on autopilot. Now is the perfect time for you or those in charge of your newsletters to map out plans for improving things in 08.
For email marketing efforts, what percentage of your list has not opened or clicked on a message in four to six months? For many companies this is a significant number. Put a plan in place to re-engage them. Ask recipients to update their preferences, make special time-sensitive offers, and text or HTML-lite messages (to overcome potential delivery or image-blocking problems).
Find out the percentage of emails that are being blocked or diverted to spam folders and get the problem fixed. Some companies are surprised to discover that even internal employee newsletters are not reaching all of their employees.(Next - Test New Email Features)
Dip Once
It's always a good idea to tie your press releases to current events. That's one reason B&M got more than 150 press releases for Wisconsin Professional Insurance Agents (WPIA) picked up by state newspapers last year. All of the releases we wrote on behalf of the PIA were tied to a current event or a seasonal topic.
In the same vein, Super Bowl-related press releases are already on the loose. First up is from the Hass Avocado Board, which claims that on Super Bowl Sunday, consumers will scarf down 49.5 million pounds of Hass Avocados, presumably in the form of guacamole dip. That's enough to "cover Arizona's University of Phoenix Stadium football field, end zone to end zone, 19.1 feet deep in Hass avocados," they claim (Man, SOMEONE has too much time on their hands...). More info can be found at Avocado Central.com, where you can check out their "Field of Guacamole" in the "Tailgating" section. Which is a good reminder that these days the purpose of most press releases is to get readers to log on to your company web site.
Prison Shells
The number of activities that are felonies in Texas: 2,324. The number of those involving or requiring oysters: 11. I don't explain things, I just report them.
From Our Clients and Friends
From Steve Klopp of NCL Graphic Specialties
A recent study found the average American walks about 900 miles per year. Another study found Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of beer a year. That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.
On a side note I recently read an article detailing the dangers of drinking. It scared me. So that's it. No more reading.