Blog + Email = Success
We're always recommending that clients complement their new web sites with marketing strategies that will drive traffic. With online marketing talk focused mainly on the realm of social media, well, call me old school, but it's inspiring to see impressive returns using good old fashioned email.
One of our clients, Rebecca Shambaugh of SHAMBAUGH Leadership, came to us last summer to redesign her company's site. She was open to the idea of blogging. She had just written a book and was no stranger to getting her ideas and experiences in writing. However, her core audiences aren't guaranteed blog readers. So what better way to reach more traditional corporate audience members than by email, a tool they're comfortable and adept at using?
So, whenever this CEO publishes a new post on Becky's Blog, she also sends out a quick email to about 2,500 contacts. The email is usually just the first paragraph or two of the blog post with a link to read the rest on the site itself. Since she started this process in March, she's averaged a 37 percent click-through rate of those emails that were opened; meaning that of the 20 percent (500) or so who open the email, nearly half (250) click through to read the rest of her posts online.
That's about 250 readers who likely don't have RSS readers and who almost certainly would not have received her blog content otherwise.
Email catches flak with spam abounding, but it's still a viable, core component of business online.
I think email is still incredibly important. And to speak a bit off topic, even sending out email campaigns that don’t follow through to a blog post can be great. Very low cost to run one, and even with a somewhat small % of return, if your database is large enough, then it was most likely worth it.
But that’s a very interesting and great way to get non-blog readers to read one! Hopefully they figure out that they can just read the blog online now.
(I’ve always thought there should be more push to tell people what RSS is and how to use it. It’s not that hard, but a large % of people just don’t know what it is.)
Steph, nice post. Hearing you call email “old fashioned” got my attention. I follow several email marketing blogs where the general vibe is that companies need to embrace email strategies over traditional / offline marketing methods. They treat email like it’s still some new crazy idea. I guess its status as a ‘new’ or ‘old’ strategy depends on the business and the audience.
@Ben, I agree about RSS. We need an RSS-awareness day where every blogger spells it out. Surely readers will get the hang of it? Common Craft is always a good resource for explaining: http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
Hey Ben & Em—Thanks for the comments.
I’ve wondered with traditional corporate audiences whether or not RSS will catch on the way email did. I’d say the lack of awareness isn’t so much influenced by poor campaigning for the value of such technologies, but an aversion to anything technology related in general.
But, because they’re so comfortable with what they know—email—I’d say they’re potentially our most valuable audience for email marketing.
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