Poppy Thorpe is Social Media Manager for VerticalResponse, an email/direct mail marketing firm.
Bryan: What tools do you offer at VerticalResponse that an online business should be using?
Poppy: VerticalResponse is primarily an email marketing company and we have tools for our users to reach their customers via email, direct mail and though surveys. In addition to our product tools, we have a ton of resources to help our customers build relationships with their customers. We provide free guides with topics ranging from Getting in the Inbox to Getting Started with Social Media, we host weekly webinars to educate our customers about using VerticalResponse and even writing good subject lines. And we have an award-winning blog that is full of great information from our CEO, Janine Popick.
Bryan: How does VerticalResponse differentiate itself from the plethora of other email marketing firms?
Poppy: VerticalResponse is a small business, so we definitely understand where our customers are coming from. We find that many of our customers credit our affordable pricing and Pay-as-You-Go option as the biggest draw to VerticalResponse. Plus, we have 7-days a week U.S. based Customer Support and are the only provider that has email, direct mail and surveys.
Bryan: How does VerticalResponse make use of social media to market their marketing tools?
Poppy: Social media is a big part of how we get the VerticalResponse name out there, but from a simpler perspective, it is really the way in which we build customer relationships. I manage all of the social media channels for VerticalResponse and I see customers tweeting about how much they love us, which is really valuable content for us to pass along to our followers. I also see some not-so-positive things that people say about VR. This is a really good chance for me to step in and either clear up a misunderstanding about how to use our product or get some feedback about how we can improve it or better educate our users. Social media is an indispensible tool for us to listen to our customers and a great way for us to keep them informed about VR, industry trends and marketing best practices.
Bryan: How is social media integrated with your product offerings?
Poppy: We believe that email marketing and social media are a great team. The Director of Retention and Conversion calls them the “It Couple”, and I find that is an excellent way to look at it. We are working on developing products to make connecting the two easier and faster, especially for the time strapped small business owner. Right now, customers can use our Social Sharing Feature to post a hosted link of their email campaigns to their Twitter and Facebook accounts. One click and their emails are shared to all of their social media followers. This is a great way for our customers to save time and get into social media by using the content they have already produced for their emails.
Bryan: Your position at Vertical Response is an interesting one, as Social Media Manager for an email marketing company. Do you find the increased use of social media has had a positive/negative effect on your business? Please explain.
Poppy: My position is interesting! I am constantly learning and must adapt to all the new innovations in social media. Without a doubt, I find that increased use of social media has a positive effect on our business. I think email marketing and social media work so well together; when people use social media to promote their email marketing messages they can grow their email list and reach customers and prospects like never before. When people use email to promote their social media presence, they can give it a big boost by connecting with people that already engage with them via email.
Bryan: Which online tools do you recommend for businesses just getting started?
Poppy: I live by Hootsuite. When your job is to manage several different social media channels, it really is essential to have it all in once place. I can search for what people are saying about VerticalResponse and respond to customer questions, update profiles and schedule tweets all in one place. It saves a ton of time. Plus, other members of the team can log in to the same account and update or respond to individual tweets. Also, I find that services like Backtweets and Google Alerts help me to stay on top of what people are saying all over the web. Those are the baseline items that help me everyday. I also use Tweetreach and Trendistic to see what is trending and who our biggest influencers are.
Bryan: Many people feel that social media is too complex to master. What advice would you give them?
Poppy: I always say that the hardest thing about social media is getting started. It also requires a lot of patience to get the kind of engagement you might expect, so that is a crucial element to success. I recommend starting with two social media channels: Facebook and Twitter and staying on top of those rather than trying to have a presence on all channels and spreading yourself too thin. Start by promoting your email marketing messages and go from there. Once you get over the initial nervous feeling about getting started, you will find that you have much more to promote than you think you do.
Bryan: Social media can be addictive. How can businesses keep it from taking over the workday?
Poppy: I think businesses should adopt a social media policy that is fair and reasonable for their employees. I also think it is important to educate people about how to use privacy settings and to remind employees that their personal social media profiles represent themselves professionally and in turn the brand. If you are going to have content that you do not want your boss to see, be sure to set your social profiles to private. That’s probably the most important thing to remember.
