Avionics News December 2022 - 42

DIGITAL MARKETING 101
Continued from page 41
unfavorable way. It's a sad but all-too-true fact that there are
a lot of people online with nothing better to do than search
and destroy other people's postings.
" Be aware and prepare for the negative postings; you are
going to get them, " Randa continued. " If someone posts
something negative, you have to respond to that post with a
minimum of an acknowledgment of the issue. Maintaining
an underlying goal to be helpful is important whether it's
successful or not. "
A case in point was a recent Facebook post on one of my
client's social pages. A customer was upset about a problem,
and instead of following regular channels, he went straight
to the company's page and posted some rather rude (and
incorrect) comments.
When the company's vice president of marketing saw
the post (he checks their social media channels a couple of
times a day), he responded to the post, saying that the vice
president of product support would contact the customer.
To make a long story short, with little fuss, the issue
was resolved to the customer's liking. So much so that he
went back on the site and not only thanked the company for
rectifying the situation, but also apologized for overreacting
in the first place.
That's just one example of the requirement to stay on top
of your social media channels. When it comes to the online
world, what you don't know can hurt you.
While we're on the subject of postings, don't fall into
the trap of concentrating your online efforts on your own
social media pages. It's a clever idea to frequent the various
aircraft-type clubs' pages. You can share photos of recently
completed panels, interesting aircraft, or your thoughts on
recent industry news.
If you're unsure what is a relevant post on that site, flip
through the most-recent updates to see what the other visitors
are talking about. This isn't rocket science.
Again, and I can't stress this fact enough, it can't be a
sales pitch. That will do you more harm than good. You
are having a conversation with like-minded people. The
" selling " part comes when they contact you. This is about
building relationships.
You've got email
Fun fact: There are over 3.5 million emails sent every
second. Unfortunately, over 85% of them are sent unsolicited
or spam messages. But don't let that scare you. Email can
be a successful and cost-effective marketing tool when done
correctly.
" The great thing about email is you control who receives
your message and when, " Burns said. " It's not a broad42
avionics news * december 2022
sweeping message like with social media. Email is targeted
to the interests and needs of the recipient.
" Segmentation is key to success. You have the email
addresses of your customers, and you know what kinds of
airplanes they own so that you can tailor the message to their
wants. You need to work your CRM (customer relationship
management) tools to ensure your emails are segmented and
targeted to the right recipients using the right message. If
you're not doing that, you're wasting your money. "
While tightly controlling who receives what email and
when is a great strategic benefit to the medium, another is
how easily you can keep track of its effectiveness.
" All of the various email tools have metrics working in
the background so you can see who is opening the email and
which offers are most effective, " Burns said. " Opens, clicks
and how long they stay on any page of your website - you
can see it all. If you invest the time to review it all, it can
give you valuable information at a very granular level. "
But what if I don't have all my recent customers' emails?
How do I create a mailing list?
The one thing you don't want to do is rent or buy an email
list. Statistics show that over 31 billion emails are bounced
every day, and you can bet that a great many of them are
from purchased lists.
As tempting as they may be, those commercially available
email lists are full of nonexistent addresses and spam traps,
and they quickly inform legitimate mailbox providers that
you are breaking the rules by sending unsolicited emails.
Most of your messages will end up in the junk folders, and,
worst of all, you might even be marked as a spammer, which
can put a stop to future email efforts.
But what about the email lists that the well-known
aviation publications rent? While those lists may be more up
to date, again, the recipients don't know you and didn't ask
for your information, which means most of your messages
will probably end up in the digital trash.
What's the best way to get a list? You can always use
the e-addresses of your current customers. Another way
to collect them is to ask those visiting your website for
permission to send them promotions and offers. You've
undoubtedly run across pages on various websites where you
can opt-in to receive information.
It may take a while to develop a deep list of recipients, but
that's not a terrible thing. Starting small gives you a chance
to fine-tune your messaging.
While we're on the subject of lists, don't forget to add a
line on every promotional email that gives the recipient an
effortless way to opt-out from future mailings. And if they do
ask, make sure they're removed immediately.
While no one likes to be " unsubscribed from, " there can
be an upside. Add a survey to your opt-out or unsubscribe
page to collect feedback on why people are no longer
Avionics News December 2022

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