Email Marketing

Movable Ink founder Vivek Sharma points out that when people receive email newsletters, they come up with one-on-one emails, which is not the case with social media. If the recipient is interested in the material, he will not consult with anyone, but simply follow the link to get more detailed information.

According to Mr. Sharma, adding certain social tags to a mailing list can significantly increase its power of suggestion compared to traditional mailings.

Robert Cialdini, author of the famous monograph “The Psychology of Influence. Convince, influence, defend ”, introduces the concept of such a phenomenon as“ social proof ”. Its essence boils down to the fact that people tend to build their behavior with an eye to the behavior of others. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why marketers consider social media to be an effective channel for disseminating information.

Many marketers consider email to be the most powerful communication channel. Since through it you can master  prospect management system and it helps a lot in marketing. Through  getprospect.com/crm prospects open up for finding clients through e-mail. It is very profitable for the company because fewer resources are wasted in order to reach more customers. Next, we'll look at six tactics for using it to influence clients through social proof.

Tactic trick # 1. Choose a worthy target

Of course, the social reinforcement effect will not work for every advertising campaign and not for every product, but if you have a worthy goal, social networks can be a powerful help.

Don't rely solely on social media. Don't sit back

GroupVine co-founder and president Darren Lancaster argues three reasons why social media success should be reinforced with social media email newsletters. So, you need this if:

• you are trying to improve the targeting ratio and the degree of attention to your messages;
• you need not only to bring certain information to the attention, but also to learn about the ideas that arise in connection with it;
• you aim to reduce your risk while achieving lasting results.

Oregon wine company Raptor Ridge Winery sends interactive emails with social media links only to those who have joined the so-called Flight Club . These customers have paid a certain fee and enjoy a number of privileges, in particular, they receive information about new batches of wine earlier than others and they are given a discount on the delivery of wine from batches that are not yet on sale.

“In the process of preparing materials for the members of our wine connoisseurs club, allowing them to influence the fate of their own club, we ourselves have become much better versed in the intricacies of production and the range of our products,” says co-owner of the company Annie Schall. "But personally, I am far from thinking that this can replace our Facebook page."

Winemakers carried out eight advertising campaigns using social media resources. As a result, 12.3% of the participants responded and answered the questions asked. And among those who read the email newsletter, the response rate is 22.5%.

The lowest response rate for email campaigns was just under three percent. But even if we take only those who opened emails, the response rate is only 5%.

The highest response rate for email campaigns was 33%. Of course, 50% of those who opened emails responded.

Build Your Clients' Learning Curve

When it comes to technical goods, then thanks to the interactive links in the contact letter, customers can quickly navigate and avoid disappointment.

An email that gives customers the opportunity to ask questions and share their first impressions of a product is reminiscent of an Internet forum. The advantage of this kind of contact point emails is that they save new customers the hassle of searching the web. Having opened the received letter, they immediately see the comments received from the moment of the previous viewing.

Clients can exchange experiences and learn from other people's mistakes. The company remains to monitor such correspondence in order to respond quickly if someone asks a question or expresses their dissatisfaction.

Encourage Dialogue

The effect of social reinforcement is determined by two components: explicit attempts to persuade someone and hidden influence. Explicit attempts at persuasion include email notifications of new messages on Twitter or customer reviews posted on your site. The latent influence lies in the fact that you kind of withdraw yourself and create a situation where the actions of certain important clients (or someone connected with them) speak for you.

Groupme's mobile group chat follows a second strategy. At one point, you simply receive an e-mail request to join someone's group. If you agree, the content of this email is dynamically updated.

It would seem that if a person joins someone's group, this clearly does not encourage anyone else to use this service, but the very fact of accepting the invitation already influences the decision of those who are still thinking.

Tactic Technique # 2. Mitigate Risks

Marketers have the power to control these types of email conversations, and this is where this communication channel is fundamentally different from social media. If a company decides to use the social reinforcement effect, it automatically decides to become more transparent. And transparency carries with it risks.

Vivek Sharma advises marketers not to hold back the dialogue. “You are also a party to this dialogue,” he says. "And as a participant in the dialogue, you want to understand what is being said about your brand or product."

Darren Lancaster echoes him: "Before deciding to increase your own transparency, you should have a pretty clear idea of where the dialogue might go beforehand."

He also notes that in the case of email correspondence, the company is at lower risk, since this communication channel is still not completely open to outsiders. However, if it suits your purposes, you may well be able to publish the content of the email.

Basically, by opening a discussion via email, you can protect yourself from the escalation of negative reactions if you see participants in the conversation responding to a message with which they disagree. At the same time, each participant in the dialogue can express their opinion, and you will not come across phrases like: "I think so, but no one asks me ...".

Another fundamental question is whether to allow anonymous comments. Often, the ability to speak anonymously allows people to behave a little more relaxed (sometimes, however, they even go beyond the bounds of decency).

Tactic Technique # 3: Decide How You Will Get the Social Reinforcement Effect

Here are just a few examples of social proof sources that can be leveraged in email marketing campaigns. The list, of course, is far from complete, but it gives an idea of three completely different approaches to this issue.

The ability to share information with friends on Facebook

From the point of view of a marketer, Facebook is much more than a collection of linked web pages. This resource is a source of the most diverse information about people. At the same time, it is possible to simultaneously post information on Facebook and any other Internet site. As a result, you gain access to demographic information, personal data of users and information about their consumer behavior.

For example, if you send a daily mailing with the terms of special offers, then in your letter you can insert a special program code that allows recipients to see which of their Facebook friends have already taken advantage of this offer. As soon as the recipient opens the letter, he will immediately see the latest data.

By opening the letter ten minutes after it was sent, the recipient can see that none of his friends have yet taken advantage of the offer sent. However, having opened the letter six or more hours after it was sent, he will already see that about twenty of his friends have already taken advantage of the offer sent.

Include interactive elements in your newsletters

You can include in your email the ability to view comments that visitors leave in real time, either on your website, on Twitter, or elsewhere. If a topic has sparked a heated discussion, recipients will be able to see a variety of comments each time they open an email from you.

“We are working with one publisher,” says Vivek Sharma, “which included the ability to quickly view comments on Twitter in the email newsletter. As a result, in two and a half months, the number of their supporters in this social network has increased by 54%. "

Update content by adding replies to emails

If you ask recipients to reply to a letter or respond to an event, then you can promptly update the content of the letters every time you receive a response. The letter will display not only all the comments, but also the statistics of responses to your questions.

The forms of displaying statistics can be very diverse: from the simplest figure showing the number of people who accepted the invitation to a detailed chart showing the number (or percentage) of people who have chosen one or another option to answer your question.

Darren Lancaster believes that thanks to these technical capabilities, the client gets the opportunity to speak out, and the company significantly increases its social capital. At the same time, he says, you do not distort the voices of your customers, allowing them to sound completely organic.

Tactic Technique # 4. Encourage Participants

This technique is only suitable for when content is updated with direct responses to email questions.

Sow the seeds of answers

Few of us like to be the first to leave our comments and responses in response to relevant requests. Darren Lancaster is often faced with the fact that his customers primarily send letters to those who, according to their information, will definitely respond. In this case, all other participants in the mailing list will receive letters already with comments.

“This helps people get used to the idea that a full-fledged dialogue can be developed in e-mails and can participate in discussions,” the businessman shares his observations. "However, soon we will all get used to it and the need for this trick will disappear."

Street Yoga, a nonprofit organization, covers barely a dozen cities, but this has not stopped it from finding supporters throughout the United States. The employees of this organization wanted to create their own community and understand why people are willing to donate to those with whom nothing connects them. As a result, they sent out their first interactive email .

The dynamics have shown that as content is added, the number of responses also grows.

Here are the results six hours after the mailing:

• number of views: 17%
• number of responses: 1%
• response rate among recipients who opened emails: 5%

And here's how the picture changed 14 hours after the mailing:

• number of views: 20%
• total number of responses: 7%
• response rate among recipients who opened emails: 35%

Final results:

• views: 31%
• total number of responses: 9.7%
• response rate among recipients who opened emails: 31%

Start with simple and risk-free questions.

Darren Lancaster found that people are less likely to answer confusing questions than simple ones like, "How did you hear about our event?" In addition, people are more willing to answer questions if they only have to choose the answer options and do not need to speak out on their own.

The aim is to create the most comfortable conditions for responding and expressing their opinion for the maximum number of recipients. Darren Lancaster suggests that by answering one or two multiple choice questions, users are more likely to agree to answer questions that require detailed wording, to share their feelings and thoughts.

Track and respond

After receiving answers to your questions from users, thank them in a separate letter - this will facilitate their further involvement in email correspondence. This act is not just a tribute to politeness, it shows that you are paying attention to the recipients of your mailing list and you are not indifferent to their opinion.

Tactic # 5. Take Action Based on Your Answers

As part of one of its eight interactive promotions, the wine company Raptor Ridge asked attendees to indicate which of its wines would appeal to them. Blended wine was indicated as one of the answers. As a result, winemakers opened up a whole line of direct sales, although before they were completely sure that the members of their wine connoisseurs club prefer unblended wines made from grapes harvested in one area rather than blended ones.

Then the winemakers invited the members of the wine connoisseurs club organized by them for a tasting, where they were invited to taste three different varieties of blended wines. During the tasting, video filming was carried out and several interviews were taken, then the processed materials were sent to community members, who were invited to express which of the proposed blends they liked the most . Winemakers will make the most voted blend, bottle it and offer it to club members as one of the top three varieties in November 2011.

Tactic trick # 6. Don't be afraid to resend emails.

Of course, in most cases, re-sending emails is highly discouraged. However, if there is a social reinforcement effect, this step may be justified. Even if the text of the message is completely repeated, the content will still differ from what was sent out initially.

Darren Lancaster calls this "intentional forwarding." As a result, recipients have another chance to take part in the dialogue or see someone else's response that will be relevant to them.

Darren Lancaster gives three examples of his clients re-mailing emails:

• move one or more questions (and a visual element) to a new letter;
• Forwarding the same letter with the same subject line to those who did not open it when they first received it;
• change the subject and forward the abbreviated version of the original letter to those who did not open it when they first received it.

Raptor Ridge has incorporated one of the visuals from its very first interactive newsletter into the body of a brand new email. This letter was opened by 49.6% of recipients, of which 16.2% answered the proposed question. Compared to the original letter, the overall response rate increased 58.7%. The share of new responses was 37% of the total number of responses.

Street Yoga, a non-profit organization, forwarded its interactive emails to those who did not open them, changing the subject of the message as follows: “Are you really not with us anymore? Tell us what connects you with our organization. " Some general information about this non-profit organization was also added to the text of the letter . Almost 12% of recipients opened this letter, and the response rate was 34.1%. Thus, the overall increase in the number of responses was 29.4%, while the response rate to the forwarded message was 41.7% of the total number of responses.