As Brewer Associates begins its 55^th year of helping clients increase sales and market share, we thank all of you for your business and continued trust.  Especially in these economic times, all of us realize how fortunate we are to be doing work we enjoy for people we like and respect.

 

Many agencies are not so lucky.  BtoB magazine recently reported that the average client/agency relationship these days lasts only two years.  The Brewer average is over 11 years - nearly six times as long.  We think that says as much about our clients as it does about us.

We're especially proud to have worked 29 years for NLB Corp. and 18 years for Velcro USA Inc., Transportation Technologies Division. At the other end of the spectrum is Hines Industries, an Ann Arbor manufacturer of balancing machines who came aboard in November.

 

People making new year's resolutions are usually advised to make them measurable and achievable - e.g., "lose 10 lbs."  That's the best way to set marketing communications goals, too.

Measurable goals help us demonstrate success and ROI.  For example, one client's goal last year was to increase sales leads by 50%, to 7,150.  When our program generated nearly 8,000 leads, no one wondered whether the budget had been well-spent.

Want to make a new year's resolution for your marketing program?
Give us a call.

With so much email clutter today (89% of emails are spam, according to a 2010 report by Symantec), it's a challenge to get a prospect's attention, much less his business.  On average, the chances are less than 1 in 4 that prospects will open your email and just 1 in 20 they will click through for more info¹.

Brewer's job, of course, is to shorten those odds for our clients.  Here are a few of the ways we do so:

Don't be a stranger - People are more likely to open emails from a valued source.  One way to avoid being seen as a company making a sales pitch is to put your message in an industry e-newsletter your prospects read regularly.  Emails with editorial content get higher click-through-rates (7.4%) than those without (5.4%)¹.

Craft your subject line - Subject lines are crucial.  Keep them short, sweet and helpful, e.g. "New seal cuts downtime by 20%."

Keep it simple - As always, tell/show prospects what's in it for them without a lot of fluff.  Pictures are helpful, but remember: not everyone sees images in emails.  Limit images to supporting roles and consider providing a text-only version, too.

Make it easy to respond - Give readers a clear call to action and options for answering it.  Some prefer text links and others like buttons, so use both.

Depending on the size of your list, boosting open and click-through rates by even a percent or two can make a big difference in your ROI.  For details of these and other tactics to improve email effectiveness, give us a call.

¹ DMA/Epsilon study of emails sent by Epsilon for about 150 clients in the third quarter of 2010