Reaching the affluent via social networking, is it possible?

The Key is How the Affluent use Social Networking
So, let’s get to the bottom line.  Social media is used by the affluent as it was meant to be used.  It's a great tool for luxury brands to listen to their target audience.  According to this new research, the affluent DO NOT FRIEND luxury brands at Facebook.  Develop a comprehensive online marketing program and use the Online Marketing Funnel approach to develop the relationship at your company website.

In fact, to quote the research from Unity Marketing:

As for the future of luxury brands on social media like Facebook, Danziger advises luxury brands, “Building and maintaining a relationship with your affluent customers is critical.  Brands need to think of the social networking aspect of their own websites.  They don’t need to have a Facebook page to ‘friend’ an affluent shopper.  Brands can friend their customers through positive and supportive online interaction on the company’s primary website.”

Demographics of the Study
In the survey the average age of respondents was 45.9 years and average household income was $239,300.  Nearly 20% of the affluents polled were classified as ‘ultra-affluents,’ those at the top 2% of U.S. households with incomes of $250,000. Virtually all respondents use the  internet for personal uses, including shopping .  Further nearly 80% of affluents are social media users.

The Bottom Line
Utilize social networking as a listening mechanism and a way to potentially draw people to a conversation or relationship with your brand at your company website.  Continue to use standard website marketing techniques to develop rapport.  Measure Facebook Fan Page visits and not number of fans.  The affluent are within the visitor numbers and not the number of fans.

So you're thinking of starting an email campaign?  That's excellent!  Email marketing is cost effective and great for sales people.  It's a great form of lead nurturing. 

Forrester Research has found that subscribers purchase 138% more than your non-subscribers so email marketing is effective.  On top of that email marketing is a great way of developing a cost effective lead nurturing program and can increase your conversion rates to as high as 85 - 95%.

Now, the inTouch Broadcast email service provider offers email marketing which helps you develop, grow and strengthen your Email Reputation.  Email Reputation will get you to the inbox more reliably and more often. 

Firstly, email service providers such as inTouch Broadcast send your email in batch (one at a time) not in bulk (a bunch at a time). 

Secondly, inTouch Broadcast can set up your email sending in a number of ways.  With a little bit of service we can help you define your email service to match your account.  Email reputation is one part technical in that how you have it set up matches how you actually use it.  If it comes from an undefined location, then it doesn't match your defined email habits so it would be considered spam.

So, the first step before venturing into email marketing is to get yourself set up properly.  Choose a solid hosting provider interested in the well-being of your email brand and email reputation and get your Email Path check up so that you'll be growing your email brand, email reputation and landing in the inbox increasingly more often.

The next part of email reputation are the practices you have to acquire and manage your email marketing lists.  Check out our upcoming blog on email etiquette.

Content is the pillar of a good website.  It is the means to getting good search engine rankings.  It appeals to the visitor when they arrive at your site.  It compels them to act by subscribing to email communications, filling out contact forms, requesting information and it can cause them to buy.

While the creative is definitely an important aspect of presenting the right communications, written content compels people to explore further and directs them to our end result - an act to further the communication & sales process.

The industry surveys show overwhelmingly that the right website copy will produce far more results than any other single feature of a website.  In the Marketing Sherpa, Email Marketing Benchmark Survey (November 2006), here's what email marketers thought of landing page copy's value in the overall ROI:

• 43.2% felt it was a High ROI item,
  
• 32.4% felt it was a Medium ROI item
  
• only 24.3% thought it was a Low ROI item.