If you’re resistant to this idea because you’re afraid you’ll inundate your proprietary audiences with messaging, keep in mind:
JOINERS are always in control and can unsubscribe, dislike, or unfollow whenever they see fit.
Each channel should be doing very different things: email providing convenience to SUBSCRIBERS, Facebook providing camaraderie for passionate FANS, and TWITTER providing timely information to SEEKERS, AMPLIFIERS, and FOLLOWERS.
Cross-channel promotion through all of your Owned Media not only makes sense; it works without costing you a dime.
Resource Recommendations:
Altimeter Group (@AltimeterGroup)—www.altimetergroup.com
Forrester Research (@Forrester)—www.forrester.com
Tactic #13: E-Commerce Checkout
For almost any type of online purchase, the seller must obtain the CUSTOMER’S email address. This is the perfect time to ask CUSTOMERS to also become an email SUBSCRIBER, Facebook FAN, Twitter FOLLOWER, or other type of JOINER. However, in an attempt to avoid overwhelming the buyer and losing the sale, most sellers opt only to ask for email opt-in. Whatever you choose, the checkout process is one worth optimizing to build proprietary audiences.
To Pre-Check or Not Pre-Check, That is the Question
As a shortcut to building email SUBSCRIBERS, many companies include pre-checked opt-in boxes in their online forms. While legal in some countries, this practice adds SUBSCRIBERS to your database who haven’t provided explicit permission to message them. Such people aren’t SUBSCRIBERS; they’re CAPTIVES. Regardless of the law, it’s time to ditch the pre-checked box. Your email performance, engagement, and deliverability rates will thank you for the change.
Tactic #14: Post-Purchase Confirmation & Communications
After a purchase is completed, you have one final moment of consumer attention that you can leverage for Proprietary Audience Development. Word of Mouth author Andy Sernovitz (@Sernovitz) calls it “The Love Moment” because the CUSTOMER may never have as much affinity for your brand again (we certainly hope that’s not the case, but it is possible).
To take full advantage of this moment, use the data you know about the CUSTOMER to integrate relevant AMPLIFIER and JOINER opportunities into your post-purchase communications. These may include CTAs to:
Become an email or SMS SUBSCRIBER (if they aren’t already).
Like your company on Facebook (thereby becoming a FAN).
Follow your company on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, or other appropriate social networks (thereby becoming a FOLLOWER).
Like, comment, share, pin, or review products on social networks (thereby becoming an AMPLIFIER).
Download your mobile app (thereby becoming a SUBSCRIBER).
You don’t want to overwhelm a CUSTOMER with all these options, so test which ones generate the most value for your business and stick with those. Other post-purchase opportunities to acquire new JOINERS include:
Printed receipts with opt-in and engagement CTAs
Emailed receipts from online and physical stores
Shipping confirmations with calls to engage and review
Review solicitations: Amazon (@Amazon) has mastered these—turn CUSTOMERS into AMPLIFIERS (through sharing product reviews)
Resource Recommendations:
Internet Retailer (@IR_Magazine)—www.internetretailer.com
Marketing Experiments (@MktgExperiments)— www.marketingexperiments.com
Tactic #15: Search Advertising
PPC search advertising is the advertising format that built Google. For as little as a penny per click (depending on the keyword), companies can bid for traffic. For Google, AdWords is a veritable golden goose that won’t stop laying very valuable eggs.
However, if you’re going to pay for clicks, you must ensure—as with all your other online advertising—that your SEEKERS land on a page where their interest can be captured (by becoming a PROSPECT or CUSTOMER). Promoting email subscription is a perfect way to do this, and in B2B marketing, it often serves as the point of initiation for marketing automation. When SEEKERS provide email addresses to download a white paper, they become SUBSCRIBERS around whom a company can build automated marketing campaigns.
Unbeknownst to many advertisers, clicks are not the only actions available within PPC search ads. Take the paid search result shown in Figure 23.3 that appears when I search for the company Brooks Brothers (@Brooks Brothers) on Google.7
FIGURE 23.3 A Brooks Brothers PPC Ad Leveraging Google’s Email Opt-In Ad Extension
This ad leverages Google’s Ad Extensions offering, which lets advertisers include more than one CTA in their paid search ads.8 The main and sale links drive SEEKERS, while the subscription form builds email SUBSCRIBERS without ever leaving Google.
Only testing will determine whether this tactic works for you. Regardless, it serves to demonstrate that even Google recognizes the importance of helping its advertisers develop SUBSCRIBERS.