Email Marketing: The Best and Worst Times to Send Out a Campaign

The success of an email marketing campaign can be influenced by various factors. While access to a profiled and managed opt-in database ranks as one of the most important factors, other smaller things can actually play a bigger role in a campaign's success than marketers realise. One of these factors is timing; sending the right email at the opportune moment can help your brand see a big improvement in email open and click-through rates and ultimately sales.

The best times to send

Of course the best sending times may vary according to the kind of customers you will be targeting and may even be influenced by your local laws regarding direct marketing. But, general statistics have given email marketers a pretty clear idea of which time slots work best for certain industries. By looking at a breakdown of the day and how it is spent by the average consumer receiving your emails, you can determine the ideal timeslot that works for your campaign.

Email Marketing: The Best and Worst Times to Send Out a Campaign

Morning

The 9AM time slot has many benefits. This is usually the time most people actively check their email and plan their day and are therefore quite receptive to all manner of marketing emails received at this time. After 10AM however, most people start buckling down as work demands increase, a fact that makes this a slightly trickier timeslot to manage, especially if you are targeting professionals or high LSM groups.

Afternoon

The lunchtime spot is usually used by consumers to catch up on news and to catch up with their contacts on social networking sites. Studies show that people are less open to marketing messages at this time. After lunch most workers get back to it, however email offers related to financial services have shown to be successful during this time of day. The hours after 3PM have shown to be very successful for both financial as well as property services, as the work pace slows.

Evening

After 5PM, email marketers have noted a dramatic rise in holiday promotions being opened. As the work day draws to a close, people start putting their affairs in order and can easily be tempted by email marketing that promises to whisk them away. However, focus seems to still be on work at this time as there is also a steep increase in B2B emails opened in this timeframe. People become susceptible to consumer promotions as they begin to unwind. This is especially true for companies that cater to niche interest groups as people are most likely to be thinking about their hobbies and interests at this time. After this last buzz of email activity, it is ill-advised to send out further emails. Most countries, including South Africa has regulations such as the Consumer Protection Act that prohibit email marketers from sending emails after a certain hour - and these restrictions should always be respected. Campaigns that are sent out "after hours" not only do badly, they also reflect badly on your business.

Email Marketing: The Best and Worst Times to Send Out a Campaign
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About Digital Fire

Digital Fire, an email marketing and digital media specialist with a head office in Cape Town. Digital Fire specializes in full service opt-in email marketing, email data rental, email database management, social media consultancy and management as well as Search Engine Optimisation. We provide cutting edge digital marketing and advertising solutions for our clients locally and abroad. Contact us today for digital marketing success http://www.digitalfire.co.za/contact/

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The Psychographics of a Fashion Marketing Campaign

We talked last issue about the "oh my god" effect that happens between like-minded people upon recognition of each other, and as promised in a previous article, I'll elaborate.

Profile of Shattered Girlz

I met the designer of a fantastic t-shirt brand the other day that operates under the label "Shattered Girlz." She has a gripping personal story that instantly inspires one to root for her success. She suffered betrayal from men into whom she poured her heart and soul, and who in one case left her for another woman while she was caring for her terminally ill parents. This designer has an avatar, Dolly Tatume, a tattooed cartoon beauty whose life and loves are chronicled through the various t-shirt designs in the line. Dolly has also been involved in some dead-end relationships with men that have caused her a lot of pain, to the point that she refers to the men in her life as "Piggys." There are several female tattooed characters in the line that represent different examples of female empowerment, like a dancer, a corporate lawyer, a college student, even a soldier. Shattered Girlz's tagline at the moment is "Shattered Girlz: I can't be broken!"

The Psychographics of a Fashion Marketing Campaign

Psychographical Analysis of Shattered Girlz

Wikipedia's definition of psychographics is as follows:

Psychographic variables are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles. Some categories of psychographic factors used in market segmentation include Social class, Lifestyle, Behavior, Opinions, and Values. Psychographics can also be seen as an equivalent of the concept of "culture" as used most commonly in national segmentation.

Let's analyze the various aspects of this product line in terms of psychographics. Here's what I come up with:
Social class: young, college-aged urban women, perhaps in a street counterculture Lifestyle: goth and tattoos Behavior: searching for self-expression and empowerment Opinions: a negative attitude toward men in general, however fleeting Values: Women can rise from the ashes

Now, I don't know about you, but whenever someone tells me their story of heartbreak, I'm instantly captivated. However, it would be the wrong move in this case to market this product to all women, even though we can all relate. Instead, we need to find a smaller subsection of all women, in this case young women. But can we drill down any further? I think so, and the next subset would be young women who are into the tattoo lifestyle.

Though I myself don't have one, tattoos are interesting because they provide a deeply personal expression of the wearer's soul that mere words cannot transmit. Many people get a tattoo after the birth of a child, after the loss of a loved one and other such life-changing events. These are people who find expression in the visual arts; in fact, many of today's coolest tattoo artists come to the field with technical and fine art training. There are even shows about tattoo studios, like Inked and Miami Ink and LA Ink.

The Plan

Because of tattoo art's strong graphic element, my suggestion to this designer was to start a comic book. In fact, the plan I built for the beginning stages of her email marketing campaign includes the following: Concentrate on certain keyword themes that resonate with young women who get tattoos: feminine tattoo designs, female ink, lower back tattoos, tramp stamps, broken heart tattoos, girl genius, lost girls, girl's club, just to name a few.

Turn her blog into a subscription-based, free comic book. Create a pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign based on the keyword themes to promote the comic book. Create a landing page for a subscription to the comic book. Make sure it uses the keyword themes as well. Ensure that the comic book site advertises the Shattered Girlz t-shirt line. Invite comments or questions about each installment of the comic book. This can spark a dialogue with the readers, inspire suggested storylines or characters from them, thereby creating a rudimentary online community (aka: captive marketing niche). This also appeals to the "goth" community, since they can sometimes trend toward the clannish. Create an excuse to email these subscribers regularly via comic book teasers, contests, etc., while also including a sales message in each of these emails.

I am very certain that this sort of targeted activity, which is also very process oriented and methodical, will garner her lots of results. I should point out for the record that this type of list building will take some time, perhaps even as much as three months or more. We're not talking about get-rich-quick schemes here.

But consider what will happen once she does build a list and eventually markets to it successfully. Sooner or later there will be flocks of beautiful tattooed college-aged young women who sport a Dolly Tatume t-shirt and who, upon crossing paths, will instantly exchange knowing, sympathetic looks. They may even engage each other in conversation, talking about the emotional wreck that used to be their lives and how Dolly and the gang really speak to them. They may even talk about the Shattered Girlz items they each have (ohmigodyouhaveadollyshirttoo!), and if we've played our cards right, they'll even recommend certain Shattered Girlz products to each other.

And this is exactly what we want to happen.

I'll keep readers posted on the results of this campaign on my blog. Until next time!

The Psychographics of a Fashion Marketing Campaign
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Are you an independent fashion designer who struggles with the need to promote your brand but who doesn't have the money to pay a full-service marketing agency? Learn how to reach out to the consumer to generate sales and strengthen brand recognition by signing up for The Email Diva's weekly marketing newsletter at [http://emaildiva.net] EmailDiva.net is led by Andrea Merida, a long-time small-business consultant with particular experience in helping scrappy independent fashion designers break out into the fashion world. Sign up for the Email Diva's newsletter TODAY at [http://emaildiva.net]

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