Email Monetization for Publishers

Many publishers struggle to monetize email since there are more constraints compared to the web. As a result of deliverability issues and list exhaustion, CPM rates continue to fall, as advertisers demand more performance from the dollars they invest. Aside from the typical monetization avenues, there are, however, some new ways publishers can deliver results to advertisers while demanding high CPM rates.

Publishers must explore ways other than traditional display ads to deliver the extra value that advertisers are looking for.  Just as clicking editorial links on a website signifies interest or intent, so too do links in an email.  Publishers often ignore the opportunity to make sense of these clicks and monetize them accordingly.  Often times, these clicks not only signify interest but also purchase intent of related products and services and can be immediately monetized at higher rates.  For example, clicks from email editorial mentioning an increase in interest rates can be converted to leads for loans or mortgages.  Or, clicks from email editorial about identity theft can immediately be converted to free trials of credit monitoring services.  Conversion rates for these types of actions are higher because the subject matter is top of mind and a person’s curiosity has peaked.

In addition to publishers overlooking the monetization of these types of email behaviors, advertisers often insist that conversion happen on their microsites or landing pages.  In time, marketers will realize that this age old tactic is wrong for the simple reason that the advertiser has failed to establish trust and often results in abysmal conversion rates. Therefore, in order to circumvent missing trust, advertisers should consider placing conversion forms, etc. on a publisher’s website, within the ad unit, where trust has already been established. Follow up email can then be used to move the newly converted prospect through the sales or marketing funnel.   

Companies like RegReady are currently testing proprietary lead gen ad units that specifically use contextual relevancy in an email in combination with piggybacking off the established trust between publisher and subscriber.  This combination between trust and relevancy are yielding higher conversion rates and command greater returns to the publisher. 

RegReady is currently seeking publishers with proprietary editorial that would like to join our beta testing efforts. 

Benefits include:

1.     Eliminate ESP Costs – free and unlimited access to Gold Lasso’s system.

2.     New Found Revenue.

3.     Use Zero Existing Real Estate.

4.     Keep Visitors On Your Site.

5.     Profession Top-Tier Support & Proactive Deliverability Management.

For more information about our beta testing please download our information sheet here: http://bit.ly/1cS4lbg

Conversions either in the form of sales or in the form of lead generations are the lifeblood of most e-commerce sites. Conversion rates vary by industry but it is generally agreed upon that 2% is an average for most e-commerce sites. Unfortunately, most business get lost in the small percentage numbers and fail to realize that raising a conversion rate of 2% by a mere 1% can improve profits by a whopping 50%! That 1% can be a definite game changer for an e-commerce site, therefore conversion optimization of your site should be a top priority.

As such, we’ve created a list of the top five conversion optimization tips, which if implemented even partially, should result in an improved ROI. These are not in order of priority but instead we’ve placed them in the natural order of a typical e-commerce transaction.

1. Relevant Traffic – Relevancy is a word you will see consistently in any e-commerce marketing discussion. As it applies to internet traffic it refers to visitors that are actively interested in what you have to offer. This means your traffic should be focused and targeted, two traits delivered by Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click campaigns. Purchasing generic traffic will generally result in extremely low conversion rates, if any at all. For optimal conversion optimization you should use targeted traffic, though more expensive, is actually more cost effective and will generate more conversions.
2. Intuitive Navigation – Assuming you managed to get relevant visitors to your landing pages, you want to make it easy for them to find what they are looking for. Your product or service offerings should be divided into groups, each one with an easy to find navigational link. Your site should have an easy to use search option and don’t forget to enable breadcrumbs, so visitors know exactly where they are within your site.
3. Unique Content – Visitors looking for specific products will most probably have already visited a few of your competitors. Make sure your product descriptions are not the same OEM descriptions your competitors are using, that will only cause your visitor’s eyes to glaze over. Instead use unique descriptions with a different angle or twist not covered in OEM descriptions. If you can provide more information about a product, a visitor is more likely to become a customer.
4. Focus on Benefits – List your product specifications and features, those are always useful. But forconversion optimization you need to have your visitor imagine the benefits of owning that product. They need to see themselves using it, and reaping its benefits. This is why a test drive is so important in car sales. Take them for a drive and the sale is almost in the bag.
5. Third Party Trust Seals – The last item you need to focus on is consumer confidence. Your potential customer needs to feel safe passing personal and financial information to someone they’ve never met. Third party trust seals are those logos and icons found on checkout pages designed to instill trust. Examples include logos issued by the Better Business Bureau, SSL certificates from your hosting company and Verified Seller logos from credit card processing companies.

There you have it. Implement these five conversion optimization tips and your revenue as well as profits should soar. Remember that some of these changes will result in instant changes, while others will definitely take longer. Should you have any questions about implementing some of these tips, feel free to shoot us a message and we'd be happy to chat with you.
 

Is your brand in desperate need of a strategy to engage its customers, cultivate a stronger brand-to-customer relationship, create a more talked about social buzz, and drive repeat sales and returning customers?

Acquisition marketing can help significantly in each of these areas, and can improve upon your overall online marketing efforts.

But if you're like the majority of sales-based companies trying to navigate their way through the sometimes intimidating waters of digital marketing, you've probably missed valuable opportunities to acquire new email and mobile subscribers. It's important to keep in mind that each one of these missed opportunities leads to one less conversation, and one less purchase.

To determine how effective your brands acquisition marketing is, ask yourself the following:

• Are you asking for the customers email address at the exact point of sale, as soon as they land on your website, or not at all?
• Does your website have an email opt-in form that is easy to locate and simple to fill out?
• Most importantly, what are you doing with the analytical data you're collecting? 

Knowing exactly what you are doing with the data your brand is collecting allows you to push forward a more personalized, relevant customer experience. Choose to ignore data in your acquisition marketing efforts and you miss the biggest opportunity of all.

Permission marketing is all about getting your hands on a targeted marketing list that will give your content a competitive edge. You're striving to reach the email inboxes of people who could soon become some of your most valuable customers, if they're not already. However, a problem that continues to plague many businesses is how to move beyond permission marketing in a way that will reach out to those who might not ever get the chance to hear about your business otherwise.

Social media has answered that call for many businesses. The answer lies in being able to produce excellent content for your blog or your website that your visitors will deem as shareable. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about whether or not you have created a website that prompts your visitors to share your content with their network of friends and family members.

Social Sharing Buttons
Of course, if you have worked with a professional website developer, you probably have social sharing buttons on your website now. However, many business owners are taking advantage of the multiple free website options that are available to them, which don't always include social sharing features. Being able to share your blog posts on Facebook and Twitter gets your content out into the world. You never know who you might reach, and social media has helped take many businesses far ahead of their competitors.

Create Visual Content
One look at the expansion and popularity growth of sites like Pinterest will tell you that social media is taking a swift curve toward visual content choices. The saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words" holds a lot of weight in social media these days, and if your business produces a product or a service that is deemed to be valuable to the public, you'll do well to include graphics and pictures in your content.

Consider Using SlideShares
The SlideShares website has increased in popularity tremendously over the past few months. SlideShares will help you take advantage of your customers' partiality to visual content by generating a slideshow presentation out of a blog post. These can then be used to grow your business even more.
 

Digital marketing is all about reputation, and unfortunately reputations are fragile. It does not take many complaints for an ISP to block a sender. To prevent this, the percentage of messages reported as spam should be well under 1%, and should actually be closer to a tenth of a percent. In addition to professional design, good opt-in practices, and strong segmentation, feedback loops are invaluable to protecting your credibility as an online marketer.

The Unsubscribe Link Is Not Enough
Most professional marketing email designs provide an “unsubscribe” link. This would seem to be the most courteous and clean way to allow people to opt-out of a campaign. However, no matter how well the email presents the unsubscribe link, many users are likely to regard the message as junk. You cannot rely on such a link to protect your reputation.

Feedback Loops Tell Us More Than Just Who Marked The Message As Spam
When a service provider gives you access to a feedback loop, you will receive a fairly reliable, automated stream of messages that your recipients regarded as spam. The level of sophistication involved in dealing with these messages is up to you, but the wisest course of action is to take them in bulk, parse out all of the useful data, and truly treat the mechanism as a way to get constructive feedback.

There are many subtle reasons why recipients perceive messages as spam. Use the loop as a way to correct errors and hone messages so that they do not damage your sender reputation.

Not All Providers Offer Feedback Loops
Feedback loops are restricted to the most trustworthy email service providers (ESP). They are available with Yahoo, Hotmail, and most of the recognizable names in email service. However, Gmail offers the functionality in a different manner - the List-Unsubscribe feature. This approach embeds the option for the receiver to “unsubscribe and report spam” via the email header.

As a rule, marketers should not overlook complaints or consider them irrelevant retaliation from an unruly subscriber. They should instead use feedback loops and the data they provide as tools to better their message content and improve upon their sender score.