Dunhill International List Co., Inc.

(by Lisa Martino, Marketing Director) 

You never know when a customer is ready to make a purchase. Therefore, it is important to develop a consistent marketing communications plan and stick to it.   

With a combination of direct mail and email, you can set up a schedule that keeps your brand in front of your clients. Segment your communications by customer type (Prospects & Buyers) and create compelling call-to-actions that is unique per customer type. i.e. customer: special offer for our preferred customers; prospect: try us out, you won’t be disappointed. 

Communicating with prospects and customers 12 times per year is the minimum I recommend. This may sound like a lot but consider this works out to only once a month.   

If you are ready to expand your list, the best way to obtain new names is from a list broker. Dunhill will help you reach the best prospects for your service or product via postal mail or email. Call us at 1-800-DUNHILL (386-4455) or email us at dunhill@dunhills.com.

(By Robert Dunhill) 

Testing is something you never want to stop doing. Testing will give you answers an how to improve your message. Consider putting a process in place for testing and be sure to test only one element at a time.

This month we will cover items number 6 through 10 to test in your email marketing campaigns. To review the first 5 – please use this link.  

6. Text link vs. Button: Buttons tend to be clicked more often than text links. This is not to say don’t use text links but a mixture of both will be better than text links only. Buttons that say click here, or sign up here or social media buttons stand out over a text link.

7. Color of Your Button/Call to Action: Since you are testing other attributes already, you might as well see if people click more or less depending on color. The human eye wants what the human eye wants. Check out some insights as to what colors mean to the average American. 

8. Placement of Call to Action: Our testing shows that on average there should be three call to actions especially on messages that require scrolling to view the whole message; one at the start, one in the middle, and one at the end. Where do you place your call to action? Test where you put your Call to Action in your email and how many you include throughout. Use the click-through rate on each link to help determine what worked and what didn’t.

9. Client testimonials: Often testimonials from current customers help others to decide to use your service or product. Test to see if customer testimonials help your emails perform better. If you determine there is no gains by doing this, use the space for something that provides more value to the reader.

10. Images: Test the number of images and placement of your images in your messages. You should not always use the same images as you don’t want your emails becoming stale looking to your readers. Don’t forget to use the alt tab text area to describe the image or offer since many people will scan your email without images turned on.

Bonus Tip- Template review: The overall design of your template should always be reviewed and tweaked to fully optimize it. This can be a time consuming task but the better optimized your template the better results you will have in getting your message to the inbox. if you have tested out the previous 10 items and are still unhappy, it may be time to look at the big picture and that may mean redesigning your template.

There is always room for improvement no matter how well open rates and click through rates have been in your recent campaigns. Test one idea at a time to see how it affects your campaigns. Once you determine the best option for that item, move on to the next. Hopefully you find that these top 10 items to test will improve the results of your next email marketing campaigns.

(by Robert Dunhill, President) 

Testing is something you never want to stop doing. Testing will give you answers on how to improve your message. Consider putting a process in place for testing and be sure to test only one element at a time.

This post we will cover the first 5 elements to test in your email marketing campaigns.

1 – The ‘From Name’ – also known as the sender’s name. In general, the most effective name is what your subscribers will recognize. If you don’t know, testing will help you find out. Try using the company name, the company president’s name, the name of the sales person they work with or whatever you think may work. Monitor the open rates to see which alternative works best. 

2 – The Subject Line. To test between two different subject lines, send your message with one subject line to 5% of your database. Then send out the message to a different 5% using the second subject line. The subject line that received a better open rate is the one you should use to send the message out to the remaining 90% of the file.  

3 – Pre-Header. Your pre-header will support the subject line. It should give more details on what the subject line has stated. For example, your subject line reads ‘Limited Time Only - 50% Off Sale’. Then pre-header would explain what items are on sale ‘Save on All Star Brand Baseball Equipment’. 

4 – Headline. The headline is where you grab the reader’s attention and clearly explain what the message below will offer them. Think about how a newspaper or Magazine article headline grabs your attention and lets you know what the story is about. 

5 - Explain your offer. Even when you believe you have explained the offer clearly, someone will not understand it as you intended. Are you promoting half off? Buy one get one free? Two for one? The way you say it can affect the success of your campaign. Ask others in the office to read it and see how they take it. Especially ask the sales staff or customer service as they are the ones who know your customers best.

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Target your perfect market via email with Dunhill’s millions of opt-in email addresses. Call your account executive at 1-800-DUNHILL (386-4455) or email us at dunhill@dunhills.com.  

Next Post – Tips 6 -10 plus a bonus idea.

(By Robert Dunhill, President) 

It seems that renting a direct mail list should be easy; however, if done right, obtaining a list that matches your exact target audience takes some planning.

Here are 5 tips on things to consider when renting your next direct mailing list that will help to ensure your list rental will pay off.

1. Use a Good List Broker

There are a lot of list brokers available, and in most cases you will pay the same for your list no matter which broker you choose. The difference in price generally comes from the quality of the data in each list. So, look for a broker that has years of experience in compiled and response lists.

2. Reduce the Risk

Consider using several list sources when you have your list compiled so that if any single source performs below expectations, the other sources will act as an offset.

3. Use Updated Lists

Make sure the lists you are using have been updated within the past 90 days. All presorted mailing lists are required by the Postal Service to be cleaned using the National Change of Address (NCOA) directory within 95 days of the mailing. If you are using a mailing house they should run the list through the NCOA directory for you before the mailing goes out. If you are not using a mailing house, then be sure to obtain a NCOA certificate from your broker.

4. Perform a Merge/Purge

If ordering from more than one list, be sure your broker will perform a merge/purge on the combined data. This will remove any duplicate names that may be on multiple lists. You most likely will want to perform a merge/purge of your final rented list against your house list in order to remove your existing prospects and buyers.

5. Check the List Before Mailing

Check the list to make sure the data contains what you requested. Is any information missing? Does the list contain male names when you ordered females? Are there duplications? Catching obvious errors before the list is used will save you money.

Taking care to use a reputable broker who understands how to target prospects and works with you to follow these tips will help you obtain a high response every time. Dunhill is the oldest specialty list compiler in America and has been in business for 75 years. Our list specialists will help you pinpoint your exact target market and work with you to ensure your list is the best possible list available within your budget.

(By Robert Dunhill)

We all know that the stronger the password we create, our website accounts are safer from unauthorized access. However, not every website you sign up for requires you to choose a strong password. Everyone understands the value of protecting their information but oftentimes we are careless in our password choices because we fear not remembering them. You should always choose a powerful and secure password that you can remember and would be hard for others to figure out. Here are some tips for choosing a powerful password and keeping it secure:

•  Create a password that is between 8 and 14 characters long.
•  Use a mix of numbers, letters and special characters.
•  Never use the USER or ID name as the password or any variation of the ID name.
•  Don’t use common keyboard sequences, such as abc123 or dfgh!@#.
•  Don’t use names or nicknames of people, pets, places or personal info about you, family or friends.
•  Don’t use a word from any dictionary, be it Spanish, French, medical, etc.
•  Don’t use full words with a number appended to the beginning or end.
•  Don’t write your password down or store it on your computer where others can find it.
•  Modify at least 3 characters when changing an old password.
•  Don’t tell anyone your password.