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“Help! My click through rate is going down!”

November 26, 2013
Small Business Marketing
by Naomi Dunford

Help! My click through rate is going down!

A number of questions came up this week on the topic of open and click-through rates.

If you’re new, open rate refers to the percentage of people who open an email you send.

Click-through rate refers to the percentage of people who click on a link in that email.

First, and you need to be aware of this, both of these numbers are completely unreliable in any kind of absolute way. If your newsletter says your open rate is 50%, that’s not actually even kind of true. It cannot be accurately measured, no matter what song and dance routine your autoresponder software goes through to convince you otherwise.

The only reason we care about open rate and click-through rate is in a relative way. Are your open rates generally going down, going up, or staying the same?

Is your click-through rate is usually 4% but today it was 2%? Well, it looks like you missed the mark on today’s email.

Is it usually 4% but today it was 12%? More like this one, sweetie!

With me so far? Percentage rates = relative. Cool? Cool.

Now that’s all well and good, but it leads to a very natural problem.

If Monday’s click-through rate was 4% and Tuesday’s was 3% and Wednesday’s was 2% – that looks bad, right? Houston, we have a problem?

Well, yes and no.

How Long Until You’re Not Broke Anymore?

September 9, 2013
Small Business Marketing
by Naomi Dunford

ShareSharePinTweetEmailLet us imagine for a moment that you have taken it upon yourself to build a structure. For the sake of this example, let’s assume your structure is a house. Let us also imagine that you are not a professional home builder. Truth be told, you have never once engaged in the activities one engages […]

Click, Clack, Moo: Why you MUST stop dumbing yourself down

August 12, 2013
Small Business Marketing
by Naomi Dunford

ShareSharePinTweetEmail Click, Clack, Moo is a book for preschoolers. It’s a story about a group of cows who are unhappy with the general quality of care in their barn. When they find a typewriter, they take the opportunity to improve their standard of living. They write a note for Farmer Brown, requesting electric blankets. Farmer […]

How To Email Your List

July 15, 2013
Featured, Small Business Marketing
by Naomi Dunford

Today we are talking about how to communicate with the people with the money in a way that does not turn you into:

a.) an irritating pest,
b.) a marketing skeezy pants, or
c.) someone they hear from so infrequently, they don’t remember your name.

I think we can both agree that those are bad things you do not want.

But! Problems! Danger!

If you avoid C, you might end up being A or B. Everyone will hate you and mark you as spam.

If you avoid A and B, you’ll probably end up being C. Everyone will forget you and mark you as spam.

Fun, right?

Hello, rock. And hard place! What a surprise! We really must stop meeting in such close quarters like this. People will talk.

OK. Let’s get on to the good stuff.

How To Write A Better Tagline

June 13, 2013
Small Business Marketing
by Naomi Dunford

How To Write A Better Tagline

For whatever reasons swirl around in the collective unconscious, people freak out about getting their tagline “perfect.” (You’d think we’re naming a baby here.)

Yes, a tagline can be an important part of your brand. But it is not naming a baby. And it’s not make or break for your business. You can survive and grow even if you’ve got the worst tagline in the world.

But because a better tagline can theoretically make a difference, let’s go into how to make yours better.