John Hayes, EMEA Business Development Executive at email marketing firm iContact, gave a talk on email marketing and social media marketing at an event in London on January 26th 2012. The presentation explores the best ways for SME to leverage email and social media marketing in order to successfully reach out to current and potential customers.

1. A Crash Course in Email & Social
Media Marketing for SMEs
John W Hayes
@john_w_hayes
January 26, 2011

2. Agenda
2.00pm–2.20pm – Introduction: Let’s get social (networking exercise)
2.20pm–2.40pm – How can I grow my business with email marketing?
2.40pm–3.00pm – Inspirational campaign ideas (workshop)
3.00pm–3.20pm – Break
3.20pm–4.00pm – Email Design Best Practices with Tony Leatham
(Egghead Design)
4.00pm–4.40pm – Building strategy around content, email and social media
marketing
4.40pm–5.00pm – Q&A
5.00pm–onwards – Drinks

3. Introduction: Let’s Get Social
John Hayes
• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• What do you want
from today’s
session?
• Tell me something
interesting about
your businessEmail: jhayes@iContact.com
Twitter: @john_w_hayes
Tel: 0203 178 4505

4. Introducing iContact
iContact is a purpose-driven company that makes email
marketing and social media marketing easy, so that
small and medium-sized companies can grow and
succeed.
•Founded in 2003
•Software as a Service (SaaS)
•Headquartered in North Carolina, United States
•London office opened in February 2011
•Rolled out UK sales + support in May 2011
•300 employees
•70,000+ clients globally, 3,100+ clients in the UK

5. What we don’t do
What we don’t do
• Sell lists
• Allow the use of purchased lists

6. Question
@
What is this?

7. Clue

8. Answer
@mbassador
jhayes@icontact.com + @john_w_hayes =

9. Stats
Average number of followers = 126
ROI from email marketing = 43:1
Average number of friends = 130

10. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
The 10 Rules of
Successful Email
Marketing

11. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #1 – Be relevant
A monthly email to your entire list is not a
strategy – it’s an afterthought. You need to
build a strategy based on relevancy to
your target market and the quality of your
message. If you’ve got nothing to say,
don’t say it – even if it is the second
Tuesday of the month.

12. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #2 – Less is more
Select just one offer per email and
segment your list accordingly. If you have
a range of complementary products,
choose a hero product to focus on and
add simple links to promote the additional
items. Think of your email like a menu in a
restaurant – too many dishes to choose
from and nothing looks appetizing.

13. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #3 – More is more
Now that you’ve made your campaigns
more relevant, it’s time to increase the
frequency of your emails. Keep your
emails relevant and interesting and your
subscribers will welcome the increased
touch points.

14. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #4 – Headline news (subject lines)
Your subject line should scream benefits.
Think of it in the same way a newspaper
editor writes a headline. It should tell the
full story and entice the subscriber to read
more. Give your subject line as much
thought as your body text. Your subject
line is your first line of defense between
your subscribers and the delete button.

15. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #5 – Automate
Set up auto-responders to automatically
deliver a predefined series of messages.
These could include welcome messages
to new subscribers, online courses or
carefully crafted sales messages delivered
over a specific period of time.

16. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #6 – Take time for text
Make good use of real text (not graphics)
at the top of your email. A graphic-heavy
email will appear blank until the subscriber
has selected to download the graphics.
Real text in the message will remain
visible even in HTML emails and entice
subscribers to open the complete email.

17. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #7 – Get social
Use your email campaigns to encourage
subscribers to engage with your social
media activity on Facebook or Twitter.
Social media will not replace your email
activity but will allow you to build your
brand across your subscribers’ social
networks.

18. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #8 – Test
Whenever possible, test your subject lines
and creatives and then optimize
accordingly. Split testing does not have to
be complicated. Hit 20% of your list with
two different emails and monitor the
response. Hit the remaining 80% with the
most successful email.

19. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #9 – Cleanse
Take the time to cut the deadwood from your
list. Remove bounced email addresses and
any names that have not opened any of your
mails over a significant period of time.
Remember, you are paying to target a list of
people who want to receive your emails. Old,
dead and unwanted emails are expensive
and can damage your reputation.

20. A Crash Course in Email Marketing
Rule #10 – Understand your ROI
A client once told me their email campaigns did
not yield a great ROI. He said a single,
untargeted, monthly email to a list of 15,000
names generated only 18 sales (with an average
spend of $48). That meant for every dollar he
spent, he saw more than eight dollars back or a
692% ROI. I suggested he compare this to his
ROI from paid search and then start getting
strategic about his emails campaigns.

21. A Crash Course in Social Media
The What, Why,
When and Where
of Social Media

22. Social Problems
•Time consuming
•Disruptive
•Nothing to say
•Who’s in charge it?
•Lack of visibility
•ROI?
•Don’t want customers posting
negative feedback

23. A Crash Course in Social Media
Four reasons why an SME should want to engage in improving
their social media activity:
•To distribute information about their company, products, service
and wider industry as a whole and perhaps build their reputation as
the go-to person or thought leader in their particular field of
expertise.
•To engage socially with existing customers and prospective clients
in their own environment, field customer service issues and
humanize your approach to business.
•To recruit an army of virtual (unpaid) brand ambassadors who will
not only help you sell your products or services but also field
customer service issues.
•To monitor sentiment towards your brand (and your competitors’
brands), glean new ideas and stay ahead of the game in terms of
new developments in your industry.

24. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #1 - Content is Still King:
Concentrate on producing great blog posts,
white papers, product-related landing pages,
YouTube videos, etc. etc. before you begin
trying to broadcast your opinion socially. There
is a place for re-appropriating other people’s
content via the social networks but it is only by
broadcasting your own content that will validate
your position as a thought leader.

25. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #2 - You Are NOT a Salesperson:
Even if you are a salesperson, take off your
sales hat when you get social. Offer advice,
strategy and opinion but don’t push for the sale.
It’s all about building trust. When your audience
trusts you, they will ask for the sale.

26. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #3 - Ignore Rule #2 (Very
Occasionally):
Of course you’re a salesperson. It’s OK to throw
in the occasional sales promotion. Your
followers will expect it. But try and add some
value with some good conversation points
around your offer or simply a great deal

27. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #4 - Reward Your Friends and
Followers:
You don’t need to offer a financial incentive.
How about giving them a first chance glimpse at
your content giving them the (perceived)
opportunity of first-mover advantage.

28. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #5 - Endorse Your Friends and
Followers Opinion:
If you like what is being said about you, tell the
world about it. Re-posting your friends and
followers comments will be them feel important,
connected and respected. The Follow Friday
(#ff) hashtag on Twitter is an excellent
mechanism for showing your social media
contacts that you respect their opinion.

29. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #6 - Engage in Conversations
It’s called social media for a very good reason.
Get social and enjoy the conversation. You
should also be careful not to ignore any
negativity towards you. Try and turn it around
and show the world (a) you are human and (b)
you are dedicated to ensuring the best possible
customer experience for all your customers.

30. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #7 - Automate:
Social media can be like quicksand, it can suck
you in and before you know it, you have lost the
day. Software (including iContact) can help you
line up and schedule your posts so you can get
on with more important tasks.

31. A Crash Course in Social Media
Rule #8 - Cross Pollinate:
Integrate your social media strategies with
everything else you do. Email marketing,
SEO, landing page optimization, content
marketing and even offline marketing
techniques can all benefit with a little
social input.

32. Voucher Code
UKSEMINAR25 – Save $25

33. Q&A
?

34. Contact
John Hayes
jhayes@icontact.com
+44 (0)208 099 7855
@john_w_hayes