You’re much more likely to buy a product or a service that you hear about from a trusted source such as a friend.  Your friend has no reason to lie. When a product or service is offered to a customer it’s only natural for someone to consider the source before taking the plunge. The more positive experiences that a customer hears from their peers the more likely they are going to be swayed toward a similar course of action.  Face it.  There’s no sales pitch that’s so great that it hasn’t been heard before in some form or another.  After all we live in the information age. People are inundated by messages coming from every direction.  Audiences have gotten a lot smarter and a whole lot less trusting of messages that come directly from the marketer. Word of Mouth Marketing is an umbrella term for a number of marketing approaches such as buzz, viral marketing, influencer marketing, blogging, loyalty programs, and leveraging social media.  They all rely on word of mouth to some extent and they take advantage of existing networks to facilitate exponential growth.

Networks begin when people form connections with others.  The strength of a network is based on both the reputation of the members in the network and the sphere of their influence.  For word of mouth marketing to work in an organization’s favor they must earn respect through instituting transparent policies that eschew anything that can be perceived as deceptive or manipulative.  Word of mouth can work both ways.  It can be positive or negative.  Transparency is important because it establishes trust by showing your customers that you have nothing to hide.  If you are perceived as being deceptive or manipulative then you will not be brought into any network with any considerable amount of influence because the mere inclusion of you lessens the value of that network.  Permission based Email Marketing is an ideal way of generating good word of mouth because you begin with a network in the form of a list of opted-in subscribers. The key words here are permission based.  They are already receptive to your message or else they would not have opted in to your list.

Word of mouth marketing in emails often relies on viral components such as forward to a friend links at the end of a message.  While viral marketing may sound scary its actually a good thing.  In marketing its any strategy that encourages people to pass along a marketing message to others in their network.  The term viral is unfortunate because people often associate that word with computer viruses.  Computer viruses are bad.  Viral Marketing is good. A message goes viral when it creates exponential potential for exposure by taking advantage of your subscriber’s existing networks. Like a virus… For a message to go viral however it is not enough to simply add a forward to a friend link to the bottom of the message.  The message must be worthy of being forwarded.   Think about subjects or material to use in your mailings that are likely to get people to want to forward your material to their friends.  Also think about what is likely to get people to talk.  The great thing about forward to a friend is that it is trackable.   You could include a forward to a friend link through your email marketing software and then use A/B split testing to test multiple campaigns to see which one generates more word of mouth.

Keeping risk factors low is essential for positive word of mouth.  This includes offering incentives such as discounts.  For example you could send out a mailing that includes a discount for your subscriber and for the person that they forwarded your mailing to.  Just be sure to cap off any incentives that you offer to prevent a customer service nightmare.  Avoid rewarding people based on how many people your subscriber forwarded your mailing to.  Such practices lend themselves to abusive handling of your mailing.  It also gives your message the unsavory perception of being spam.  You can avoid this by capping off discounts at a fixed rate such as 15% off for all parties involved.  Another incentive is offering something that is free and therefore poses no risk to potential customers.   Free 30 day trials or free versions of software that contain links to your product are both examples of things you can do to generate word of mouth.  As are the policies that you use.  A positive customer service experience is essential for positive word of mouth. A 60 day money back guarantee gives you good word of mouth because it lets people know that you are willing to let them try your product risk free.

What you need to do to generate positive word of mouth extends well beyond email marketing. You should make it easy for your customers to contact you by providing a phone number, address of a physical location, support area, and possibly even live chat.  How easy it is to contact you is something that people will talk about.  You should also offer ways for your customer to leave you feedback in public and private.  People listen to what their peers have to say.  Allowing people to leave comments on blog posts, documentation, and forums can give you a vehicle for generating word of mouth.  Ultimately, however, it comes down to how well you match appearance with reality.  Its one thing to have good policies but its another to follow through on them.  You will ultimately be judged on how responsive you are in handling the good policies that you put in place.

The order in which questions are asked in your web surveys can influence the results of your survey.  For this reason you should group your questions into logically coherent sections.   Grouping questions that are similar together will make your survey easier to complete for your respondent.  As will grouping questions with a similar format. Your transition from one question to another should be smooth. A poorly constructed survey will confuse your respondents,  bias their answers, and jeopardize the quality of your work.

The following are some guidelines for  sequencing questions for a research survey:

• Introductory Questions – These questions should stimulate interest without being difficult to answer.  Make the first question related to the stated subject matter.  This should be simple and straightforward.  Pretend you’re having a conversation with someone for the first time and you do not want to offend or bore them.
• Sensitive Questions – Place these late in the survey.  If rapport is established then there is a greater likelihood that the respondent will be willing to answer these questions.
• Related Questions – Grouping related questions together gives the respondent a chance to concentrate on specific issues without being distracted.   At the same time remain cognizant of arranging consecutive questions that evoke reflexive (given without adequate thought) responses together.
• Logical Sequence – There should be a clear logical order to the particular series of questions that are being asked.  Questions should be arranged in a sequential or temporal order.

Context effect describes the influence of environmental factors on one’s perception of a stimulus.  Context effect in surveys involve how responses can be shaped by the order of questions, format of responses, and any visual images. Respondents rely on their own unique evaluations, impressions, values, and beliefs when formulating answers.   The context of a question influences what a respondent considers as they answer that question. A question’s context can affect a respondent’s answer by suggesting a standard of comparison.

The use of images in web based surveys may affect respondent’s answers.   One study measured the effect of showing respondents an image of a healthy woman exercising versus a sick woman in bed and then asked them to rate their own health.  When shown the healthy woman respondents consistently rated their own health lower than when exposed to the image of the unhealthy woman.  Three different surveys were used with varying factors such as size and placement of the image and also the location of the question in the survey.

In marketing segmentation the total market is divided into submarkets that share characteristics that cause each group to share distinct needs.   If done properly each segment will respond in a similar fashion to a given marketing strategy.  When applied to email marketing this concept will allow you to build relationships with your subscribers so you can then send targeted mailings that are relevant to each group of subscribers.    By treating your subscribers as distinct groups with distinct needs your email campaigns will yield higher response rates.  You will not only get more results from your existing subscribers but you will lose a lot less subscribers if your mailings are relevant.

But what data should you use to divide your subscriber list into segments?   Previously we discussed how your newsletter should have a purpose that leads your subscriber to a clear call to action.  What is that purpose and what action are you calling on from your subscribers?

If the mailing you are sending is not relevant to all of your subscribers then they should not be included in your mailing.   This is a key principle of email marketing writing and one of the things that makes email marketing more powerful than other one-to-many advertising mediums. If you run a pet store you would not want to bother dog owners with coupons for cat food unless of course they owned both a dog and a cat.  Your job here would be to identify which of your subscribers had cats or dogs, owned cats but not dogs, owned dogs but not cats, or owned both.    In this example it’s safe to assume that your subscriber is not going to buy a cat if you send them a coupon for cat food.   Why bother your dog only subscriber with a mailing if you know they are not going to buy cat food?

Three areas to consider when breaking your list down into segments are:

• Demographic data – Consumer statistics regarding socioeconomic factors such as age, income, sex, education, location, marital status, and occupation.   This could be a good starting place for observing marketing trends.   People from similar backgrounds will often act a like and you can begin to observe patterns emerging.  While this is valuable for lending insight into general behavior, it cannot be relied up on as a predictor for individual behavior.   If the pet store coupon is for a premium pet product then someone with more disposable income may have more interest in your product.  Then again a single adult may be more indulging to their pet.   You never know when it comes to people and their pets.
• Preference and Opinion Data – Information usually collected by surveys, polls, focus groups, or through conversation.  This information can sometimes be biased in some way or another. There are many people that will tell you what you want to hear or what they want to be true rather than what is actually true.
• Behavioral Data – Using past behavior to predict future behavior is usually the most reliable data to collect.  Unlike preference and opinion data you are relying on someone’s actions and not what they say.   If your subscriber has used coupons to buy cat food in the past then this is the best indicator that they will actually use your coupon to buy more cat food.

Philip Kotler, an S.G Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, suggests that to be effective and useful to your business a market segment should have the following characteristics:

• Measurable – You need to find out its size, key characteristics, purchasing power, and preferences
• Substantial – Is the segment of interest large enough to be profitably served by you.
• Accessible – There is no purpose to segmenting if you already know that there is no practical way to access a segment’s members.
• Differentiable – Segments have to respond differently to different marketing programs.    If there is no difference in whether men or women buy certain cat foods, then there is no effective segmentation.

Once you have effectively segmented your subscriber list you can then target each segment.  When each segment is differentiated on the basis of their needs it allows you to send mailings that address those needs.   When you address those needs your mailings are relevant to your subscribers and they are more likely to respond.

Your relationship with your individual subscribers will change over time as you learn more about them.  Email Marketing provides you with metrics for your subscriber such as how frequently your subscriber opens your mailings, how often they click on your links, and you can also gain insight into their purchasing habits.

In client based marketing strategies individuals are treated as separate entities.   In marketing circles a widely held maxim says that 20 percent of your clients will come up with 80 percent of your revenue.  Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when it comes to segmenting your subscriber list. When developing your marketing strategy you are going to want to identify which of your subscribers make up the top 20 percent of your list and you will then want to pay special attention to them. 20 percent of your revenue comes from this group so they will deserve special recognition.   If you do not then you risk alienating them and losing a core segment of your business.   Find ways of showing your appreciation like thanking them over email while at the same time targeting them with incentives to purchase more.

Everyone must deal with bottom feeders that cost businesses profitability.   Those at the bottom 20 percent will often cost you business.   You will need to consider strategies for bringing this segment up to a profitable level.   The middle 40 percent is often high to marginally profitable.   By understanding their needs you can map out strategies for convincing these customers to invest more heavily into your company.   Always keep an eye on the middle.   These customers can move between marginally to highly profitable depending on how well you market around their needs.   Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when segmenting your list.  A good marketer will know how to use this rule to enhance their profitability.

We are planning on making some changes and updating some areas visually for ActiveCampaign Email Marketing Software.

What section would you like to have looked into? Do you think a rework is needed for reports? Email template management? How about the sending process? Let us know any areas that you or your clients currently find confusing or that could be improved. Lets keep all suggestions to design/usability items at this time.

As always – your feedback will be taken into great consideration.

In June 2002, around the same time an asteroid barely missed hitting the earth [ ? ], the first version of 1-2-All was released. In January 2003, 1-2-All became a part of ActiveCampaign, Inc and has prospered ever since as the company’s flagship product. Four years to the date of the first incarnation of 1-2-All we look back at the evolution of this product, to put the past into perspective, and celebrate the anniversary of our most popular software product to date. 1-2-All Broadcast E-Mail, as it was exclusively referred to back then, began with a simple, colorful, and easy to use interface. There was nothing terribly distinguishing about this version, just a good mailing list manager at a low price. A commitment to adding more features with enhanced usability allowed 1-2-All to evolve into a much more dynamic application with a friendlier interface.

In August of 2003, a new user interface was implemented along with a scheduled mailing feature that required the setup of cron jobs. In February of 2004, version 3.82 introduced time sensitive auto-responder features, allowing you the ability to set auto responders for each list. A new branding file allowed you to easily modify brand settings by opening a single file. Around the same time a US federal appeals court gave scientists the right to study the 9, 300 year old remains of Kennewick Man, denying the request of American Indian Tribes who sought immediate burial. Also, scientists found what is believed to be the fossilized head of a 400 million year old fly, making it the oldest known insect. [ ? ] Following the release of 1-2-All, development was ongoing and client feedback was expressly used in the product direction. Updates were frequent and the list of features for 1-2-All Email Marketing continued to grow.

1-2-All once again underwent a face lift with version 4.0 which was released in January of 2005. This new version featured an improved sending engine, enhanced subscriber viewing page, enhanced administrative control, and more error checking. As far as the file structure was concerned the admin files were now separated from the public file (you had to go 12all/admin to access the control panels whereas before you just had to go to 12all). The biggest improvement in this new version, in terms of usability, was the introduction of the advanced importer. In previous versions there were quite a few people who ran into problems when trying to import a .CSV file because their format was rejected. 1-2-All Email Marketing now had a user friendly import interface that made it easy for anyone to import .CSV files. Many people upgraded to 4.0 solely for the advanced importer.

In May 2006, ActiveCampaign Email Marketing as it is referred to these days, underwent its most dramatic stage of evolution. The new version’s extensive list of added features and improvements include: restructured code; central authentication format; new language file format; smarty template system; attachment, sending filter, send to a friend, web version, and multi format options for auto responders; unlimited options for sending filters; new reporting options; reason for unsubscribing option added; subscriber, forward to a friend, and auto responder statistical tracking; enhanced custom redirects; branding settings editable from browser; more message personalization options; subscriber notifications that include subscriber field data; better email design capability; and much more. Elsewhere in the world, a 1,500 year old tattooed mummy of a woman in her late 20s is found near Trujillo, Peru. [ ? ]

Its been an amazing four years. Email Marketing has prospered because of its commitment to enhanced functionality and usability. There is no telling what ActiveCampaign Email Marketing will look like in another four years. That’s pretty exciting.