Avenue Z Writing Solutions

Session Overview  trends  It’s all about your audience  Ads, announcements and eNewsletters  Best practices for increasing open rate  Track and KNOW! Statistics  Improve your subject line  Improve your layout and look  Learn how much is too much (or not enough)  Q&A

Introduction  Beth Ziesenis, Owner, Avenue Z Writing Solutions  Education Director for the International Erosion Control Association  Multimedia Education Manager for conference recording company  Journalist, educator and writer for more than 20 years  Newsletter creator before newsletters were cool

Trends  Your competition  Company plans for 2008, compared to 2007 (Source: Datran Media, January 2008): 82.4% to increase use of marketing 15.3% to stay the same 2.4% to decrease marketing expenditures  ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008, more than twice the ROI of other marketing media

Your Reading Habits  How many s do you get a day?  How many newsletters?  More than 8 a month  Read less than 2  Do you have some you always open?  Do you have some you always delete?

It’s All About Your Audience  Take a minute and jot down three messages that you think your audience needs to know  We’re having a conference  We need you to call your legislator  We need more volunteers  Please donate to the ACC PAC  Take another minute and jot down three messages that your audience may say they want to know about  What recent clinical trial results do I need to know about?  How can I manage my investments?  What industry regulations might affect my practice?

Think About Your Audience First  Case Study: dezinegirldezinegirl  Case Study: YugmaYugma  Case Study: Get To The Po!ntGet To The Po!nt

Ads, Announcements and ENewsletters  Ads: California, MichiganCaliforniaMichigan  Promote a product or service  Includes call to action; may give away something to entice  Announcements: GeorgiaGeorgia  For ACC Chapters, perhaps a call to volunteer, a legislative update or announcement, a new benefit, the new board of directors  Similar to an electronic press release  ENewsletters: FloridaFlorida  Generally meant to create a relationship  Informative and focused on how to make readers’ lives easier

ENewsletter Trends  ENewsletter Preferences

ENewsletter Trends  ENewsletter Dislikes  Long articles, long newsletters, too much text  Too much graphics  Old or irrelevant content  Text-only format  Too many ads/promos disguised as news  Links that don’t work

Track and KNOW!  How are you sending things out?  What can you learn?  How many people “open”  How many people click something  What they click  What they don’t click  Best measurement for your communication!  Stats: Behind the Scenes Stats: Behind the Scenes ACC Chapter Stats

About Your Subject Line  Jot down your last couple of subject lines  Topic  Branding  Length  Results:  How many characters are in your subject line?  Do you have branding?  Did it list a topic?

Benchmarking/Improving Open Rates  Stats  Some on survey   Improving your subject line  Add branding  Give content – what do your people care about  Keep it short 49 characters – short enough to be seen in a preview line  Case study: Fish Story What’s your fish story?

Segmenting Your List  How does your database break down?  Number of years as members?  Member demographics: location, age, field of study?  Type of member: FACC, CCA, FIT, practice administrators, vendors?  Go back to the exercise where you wrote down three things your members might want to know about  You probably answered for your largest demographic  Are there universal topics or things you can target, or do you need to segment to increase interest in your messages?  How to test waters with subject lines, etc  Something replicable/measurable

Best Practices for Layout and Look  Case Studies  Carlsbad Marathon Carlsbad Marathon  Constant Contact Constant Contact  GrokDotCom GrokDotCom  The Well-Fed Epub The Well-Fed Epub  ASAE ASAE  AAP AAP  PAII PAII

Characteristics of Good Layout  Clean  Table of contents  Two-column layout  Highlights in the column  Short summaries with graphics  Read More  Graphics Meaningful Consistent look  Think about “above the fold”

Overall Look  Font Size? Color? Style?  Under 10 point is cruel and unusual  Black and white for most text  Some color highlights  Don’t go nuts with the font – simple is best  Graphics  Load well  Are clear and consistent  Nice sizing  Don’t “jump”  Always work!

How to Find Your Look  What do you like? What do you read?  Collect as many examples as you can  Ones you get and actually read  Ones you get and DON’T read – why not?  Your colleagues  Ask your audience for examples of what they like

How long, how often  Depends on purpose  Frequently once a month for newsletters and as needed for others  Are you keeping in touch? Or are you informing of latest developments?  What do people click on?  How long?  More than three scrolls?  How many links?  What do your stats say? ACC Chapter Stats

Additional Resources  Beth Ziesenis   Free eNewsletter evaluation  Content and eNewsletter services  Avenue Z Survey: October issue of FourWayStop  FourWayStop archives and other resources FourWayStop archives and other resources  Improving Open Rates  Constant Contact Constant Contact  Opt-In News Opt-In News

Thank You! Beth Ziesenis Avenue Z Writing Solutions