Tony Attwood's Blog

A survey of people who use the internet has shown that they are much more likely to read and act upon articles on web sites that include brand information than they are to take any action over banners, pop-ups, email offers and sponsored links.

The survey from Adfusion says that 51% of respondents are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and act upon relevant material in articles – and the figure gets higher as the salary goes up.

Pop-up ads are least likely to be read or acted upon by all demographic groups and audience segments.

The survey asked respondents to rate their likelihood to read and act upon five types of online advertising: banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers, articles that include brand information, and sponsored search engine links.

The results in terms of likelihood to read…

Articles that include brand information: 51%
Email offers: 47%
Sponsored search engine links: 39%
Banner ads: 25%
Pop-up ads: 13%

Pop-up ads are universally the least liked option for everyone.

The survey focussed on consumer ads, but there is no reason to believe that this is different for B2B advertisements. As an example of how this system might work you might care to have a look at several ways that Hamilton House has used this.

We publish short articles (indeed like this one) as blog reports.
These may be developed into articles and held on our web site, see for example, http://www.hamilton-house.com/marketingminute.html
Whole series of articles can then be brought together onto web sites of their own as at www.theory.bz

If you would like to talk about building up articles in this way, do give me a call on 01536 399 000

EbaseMarketing is an approach to marketing that has been developed by Hamilton House Mailings (HHM) over the past eight years. For the first five years we tested it exclusively as a method of promoting our own businesses. In the past three years we’ve been testing it with a small number of other companies. Now we’re offering it on the open market.

It is very simple, and can be used to market almost any product or service.

Better still, it can deliver your message to each potential customer for as little as 3p each.

Part 1: EBaseMarketing – how it works

a) First, you need to collect together the email addresses of your customers and potential customers.

b) Second, these addresses are loaded into a bulk email program which allows the messages to be administered and transmitted very easily.

c) Finally you email these individuals every week with interesting information and thoughts, plus occasionally offers related to your product. But here’s the twist: you must not try and cut down on the “interesting information” in order to put in more emails that focus on selling. The “interesting information” emails are the key to the whole enterprise.

Part 2: Why does it work so effectively?

a) We all like to receive well-informed “inside” information that is relevant and helpful to our work, and when we receive it we build a bond with the people who send it to us. When looking for a product or service we turn to the source of the “inside information” first of all.

b) Most firms lose customers because they don’t stay in touch with them regularly enough. EBaseMarketing overcomes that problem, and helps you recruit your competitors’ customers, rather than allowing your competitors to steal your customers.

c) EBaseMarketing is very low cost. While a direct mail shot to 2000 customers and enquirers might cost you around £900, this promotion can be undertaken via EBaseMarketing for just £75 – that’s 3p per customer.

Part 3: If it’s that good, why don’t more firms do it?

a) There are a few technicalities to deal with (although we have the know-how and software and can overcome them quickly).

b) Some firms believe (without trying the system) that people won’t read the emails. Others argue that customers will be annoyed by getting the regular mailings. But all the evidence from eight years of research shows otherwise. Indeed just recently we did a mailing for one of our clients and 970 out of 1500 recipients of the email not only read the email but also clicked on a link at the foot of the email to reach a web page which contained more information.

c) We’ve spent most of our research period finding out exactly how best to write the “interesting information” in such a way that it generates sales. Some firms have tried to short-circuit this part of the project and have failed to hold the interest of their readers.

Part 4: How to get started

a) If you have a database we can help export it into our transmission program. If you don’t, we can help you put one together very quickly.

b) Where HHM is doing the email transmission we’ll give you as much free advice as you want on how to write the “interesting information” emails. Additionally if we are transmitting for you regularly, we will write four complete news and information pieces for you free of charge. After that we can continue to write for you for an extra fee, or you can write the pieces yourself.

c) Transmitting the emails. Normally we charge £75 to transmit a message to up to 2000 addresses. This price includes importing the database and giving advice on the text to use. Where extra work is needed, or where we do this for a one-off mailing, there may be additional costs, but we’ll always give you the exact cost prior to any work taking place.

If you would like to explore what I believe is the most cost effective method of marketing that I have seen in the past ten years, just call me or my colleagues on 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood

About half of the companies which I’ve heard from this year that sell by email have told me that they are having a tough time of it.

The other half said that they were very happy with their response rates.

I’ve been trying to work out how it is that some companies are doing particularly well with emails while others are not.

I found four significant points, and these are outlined in the report below, and I hope you find them interesting. If anything is not clear please do give me a call on 01536 399 000, or else email me at Tony@hamilton-house.com

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First, not all email lists are equal. It is possible to buy email addresses for around half a penny per address, and basically as the price goes down, so does the quality. Regularly researched and updated lists cost a lot more – but it is worth checking who you are dealing with and what sort of written guarantees you are going to get.

Second, the way the email is written is hugely important – perhaps it is the most important factor of all. Many of the firms that are failing to get good sales out of emails are, in my opinion, using styles and approaches that are wholly inappropriate when writing to the people they are addressing, and this makes a huge difference. (If you would like to look into this issue, just forward me a piece you have produced, and I will call you back with my thoughts. No charge, no obligation).

Generally speaking I think many people see the bulk of spam emails that come through to them and then simply copy that style. It doesn’t work like that.

Third, the email should be primarily text. People look at emails in different ways – and almost certainly don’t look at the email initially on a full screen. They just see a part of the email – maybe next to the list of incoming emails.

So you need to make sure that they see something that makes sense and makes them want to read on. Lots of illustrations simply don’t work, because they take too long for the brain to log into. By that time the itchy finger hovering over “delete” has hit the key and your message has gone without even being properly looked at.

You need a solid clear headline which can be seen at once and which raises the interest of the reader. Without that the email fails.

Finally – but nevertheless very importantly – email works not just as a way of getting new customers, it is also great as a way of keeping present customers happy.

This means that as well as emailing all potential customers you should take all the people who have purchased from you of late, and email them every week or two, with new offers, new ideas, new concepts, new thoughts.

The key thing here is that you can’t just have a “discount of the week” or write “NEW!” all over the email. You have to be communicating in a way that makes the reader think, “This is written for me, by someone who understands my thoughts, my outlook, my needs, my vision of the world. Even if there is nothing here this week that I want, I’ll read their next email because there’s generally something here for me.”

In other words the email is a communication mechanism as much as a way of selling – and it needs to be used in both ways.

As it happens we are feeling rather buoyant at this end about email because we just got our highest ever open rate on an email of 54.7% with a click through rate of 39.8%. So (at least this week) I am feeling that we are getting this right.

This is of course just a general introduction – if you would like to take this further do…

· Phone my colleagues and myself on 01536 399 000

· Email Tony@hamilton-house.com