Will email communication really go the way of snail mail?

Posted on by Billy Tucker

I clearly do have strong views ont he subject! As does the ABS who report that only 80% of 17 – 24’s actually have an email address.

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As part of the “Get Schmart” 2012 Marketing Conference Billy Tucker, owner of data consultancy 57 Signals, believes that email will increasingly become a redundant form of communication in the retail world. Despite the incredible penetration of email in our society Billy believes that the under twenties demographic are increasingly using social media as their preferred platform of communication. As he puts it “If you’re in the email business, reaching that audience is going to be hard and getting harder.”  Find out more by watching the video below and checking out more on the website www.getschmart.com.au

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Profiting from the fundamentals of Group Buying: part 1… Focus

Posted on by Billy Tucker

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Group Buying works for a reason, regardless of the service woes plaguing the industry (which have been driven by a combination of greed and inexperience, not the model itself) the principles behind Group Buying are sound. Over the next few posts, I will explain the key mechanics and position them in a series of non-Group Buying contexts.

There are six key mechanics inherent to the category that are designed to illicit an emotional response, such as an impulse purchase.image

This is the first of six posts I will write that describe those mechanics.

FOCUS ATTENTION ON ONLY A FEW OFFERS

Limiting promotional efforts to only 1 – 3 featured offers enhances the perception of those offers and likely uptake, minimising “noise” around those offers will further spotlight the chosen few. Featuring multiple offers on the other hand dilutes the “WOW” and runs the risk of Paradox of Choice effects.

Most email platforms will support controlled tests, such as sending one control group an EDM with multiple offers, one with the three best offers and one EDM with only a single “hero” offer.

Assuming the control conditions are sound, the likely outcome is that the Hero and “three best offers” EDMs will each provide a click through rate that is greater than the “multiple offers” EDM even though the multiple offers email included the featured offers from the other tests.

Finding the right balance is critical, and running controlled A/B and Multi Variant Tests will find that balance.

Come back soon, the untapped power of the Thank You Page.

Posted on by Billy Tucker

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Most transactional websites share a common shortcoming, leaving a significant amount of value up-tapped. The Thank You page is seen as a simple confirmatory page, there to provide certainty to the customer that what they think just happened, just happened. But the Thank You Page is a comma, not a full stop.

You have battled hard to win the customer, fought to provide the right product at the right price, and you have lost many along the way. But once a transaction is complete, you’re done, there’s a tick in the box and the user begins again, <close window>, <new tab>.

But your customer is, at that moment, your biggest advocate – you are in the Golden Window. Your Advocate is brimming with delight at the purchase of that holiday, auction item, or e-book, so why stop now?

Immediately post transaction is the right time to harness their advocacy, and here are six ways to get value from the Thank You Page:

  1. Cross Sell: Have a series of pre-determined product offers, “you bought X, check out Y” – providing such offers pre-transaction is tougher and will result in a reduced conversion rate overall, but it will lead to an increase in the average basket size and may be worth while in the long run. With post transaction, there is less risk and can be used to perfect product matching.
  2. Loyalty Discounting: Reward the first purchase with a discount on an immediate subsequent purchase
  3. Voucher offer: Provide a variety of vouchers, gather opt in to email alerts to grow your email base and encourage redemption
  4. Friend Get Friend: Great time to encourage your advocates to recruit for you, make it easy for them, and provide incentives the purchaser can give away, such as discount on first purchase (people don’t like to profit from their friends, but being able to secure a discount for their friends makes them feel important)
  5. Facebook promotion: simply “click here to Like our Facebook page”, or “share the news with your friends that you just secured a holiday!”
  6. Promote affiliates: (this option is possibly the easiest to execute but the lowest value adding) add a display ad to the Thank You Page which can be sold on a CPM or on a take-over basis.

[check out RockLive in Australia and the many other agencies emerging in this space]