Dan Galante

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Many people ask, what is the best day and time to execute an email campaign?

Instead of trying to get the best day and time to execute an email marketing campaign, I would instead focus on developing compelling content that includes visuals.

Before starting you should be able to answer the following questions when creating the content for your email campaign:

1) What message do I want to send?

2) What action do I want my customers and prospects to take?

3) Is the content of my message relevant to my customers?

4) Will customers see the email campaign as a value message or just another solicitation?

For example, I write a blog on the topics of sales, marketing and social media. My readers can choose to follow me through my RSS feed, through email, Wordpress,Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I use my blog to do my email marketing. As you can see my blog is seen by those whore receive it through email and the other ways I mentioned as a value message. In fact, when you enter your email address to subscribe to my blog, you will receive a confirmation email. This is known as an opt-in.

It is important to note that when building an email list that you get the recipients consent through an opt-in. If you are building a list from your website you can use services such as Constant Contact. When executing an email campaign, make sure to protect the privacy your customers by blind copying them. When the customer receives the email, it should say sent to undisclosed recipients.

To answer the original question, I would say that any day and time is a great day to engage consumers through email marketing; especially in today’s digital world. Consumers are on different schedules and have different needs so it is hard to predict which day would be best to send out emails. If you wanted to obtain concrete data on which day would be best to email consumers. You would need to develop and implement a survey that asks consumers what day they opened and received your messages.

Services such as SurveyMonkey can be used to create the surveys. I use a widget on my site to obtain feedback on what content people want to see from me. This information could then be compared with the customer’s date of purchase to see how long it took them act on your message. (The sales cycle)

If at first you get a low response rate to your survey, you may need to offer an incentive like a gift card for each completed survey or a chance to win a gift card in a drawing; this would be dependent on your budget.

Social Networks are places where people congregate; making them great sources of Market Research and Revenue. As a result, Social networks are looking for new revenue streams. The latest revenue channel for them is E-commerce.

Facebook is partnering with Shopify to launch Facebook shops. The social network is the latest to get in on the E-Commerce business.

Last year at SMX East, Google and YouTube shared how they are allowing people to shop online for products. Google also shared people’s buying behavior. I have included parts of the article below.

In Google’s Keynote, I learned how businesses can get an edge during the holidays. I also learned of Google’s plan to use Google Images and YouTube for E-Commerce. Google is also allowing businesses to use location-based Ads in Google Maps.

The key insights of the presentation were:

1. According to Google most shopping visits start online.

2. When diners search for a great place to eat the searches are probably happening on a smartphone.

3. When people are online in cars, more than half of them are searching for information on a mobile device making localization and targeting important.

4. 2/3’s of shoppers say that online video has given them insight and inspiration to make purchases.

5. Shoppers use at least 3 channels or more when shopping.

6. Brands need to provide an omnichannel channel experience all year, especially during the holidays.

7. Sales are happening online and offline. As a result of this shift, Brands need to serve customers on the channels of their choice.

Would you shop on a Social Network? Share your thoughts.

Free or Low-Cost Trials

When creating a new offering, I would offer a free or low-cost trial of your product to both end-users and industry experts. Consumers look for social proof before they buy a product. If the product is new, then none exists. To lower buyer resistance, you need to make the buyer feel comfortable about their purchase. Offering free or low-cost trials of your product is a great way to build trust and gather feedback. You can conduct market research and product testing using surveys to ask potential customers about their experience.

If your product helps to solve a customer’s problem, they will be happy to share it with others; increasing the chance of converting prospects into paying users. Product testimonials and endorsements help to address product reliability and usability. Customer testimonials build loyalty, brand recognition, and sales for your product.

Loss Leaders

If free or low-cost trials are not something that you can offer, you can use loss leaders. A loss leader is when you offer a product at a loss or break-even point to gain future business. Supermarkets and e-commerce businesses do this when a new product is rolled out.

Another place I saw loss leaders was in dental field sales. Certain customers were loyal to certain types of equipment. When I asked why, they said that these were the tools they used in school and they were comfortable using them. As a result, they did not want to switch. When I called on dental schools and hospitals, I found they were in contract with larger competitors. My larger competitors sold the equipment at cost; practically giving it away. Why would they do this? My competitors were creating life-long customers trained on certain tools who refused to switch.

Connection, trust, and advocacy are essential for customer acquisition. It is your job to turn your customer base into evangelists.

Free, low-cost trials and loss leaders help to increase sales and customer loyalty. The decision on where to offer a trial or use a loss leader is dependent on the specific product, business, and industry.

How have you used trials or loss leaders?

Share your thoughts.

Additional places to find my content and blog

WordPress: https://dangalante.me/

Tumblr: http://www.askdangalante.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/DanGalante

Medium https://medium.com/@DanGalante

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/trendsettingsm

Anchor https://anchor.fm/dangalante

About Me

I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skill-sets using Marketing to drive Sales/Growth.

As a Marketer, I’ve worked with Start-Ups, a Political Campaign, and a Digital Marketing Conference.

I’m certified in Inbound Marketing with classes in Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, SEO, SEM.

Before teaching, I was an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep. selling and marketing dental products to Dentists using consultative selling, trade show marketing, field marketing, and market research.

I publish Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today a blog covering industry events and trends.

I’m seeking a full-time role in:

Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Product Marketing, Demand Generation, Social Media Marketing, Sales Enablement Enablement, Sales Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Employer Branding, Recruitment Marketing.

Open on title, industry, company, location, and level. Reach out on LinkedIn or at dan@dangalante.com to start a conversation.