Everything You Wanted to Know About Email Marketing Silverpop

Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About Email Marketing

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You have email marketing questions. So do we.

We also have some answers. Lots of them.

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How to use this document:

1. Browse from the start; or2. Go to a specific section of interest.

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Permission

Permission is the foundation.

You are correct. The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act

does not require permission to email.

See number 1.

Permission IS required by law in the EU, Australia,

New Zealand, Korea, Canada.

The theory that relevance trumps permission is just

that – a theory.

Recipients will punish you hard with SPAM

complaints if you don’t have permission.

Recipients will still punish you with SPAM complaints

if they don’t remember giving you permission.

ISPs tell you to gain permission. They monitor/block by engagement and

complaints.

Single, Double or Confirmed

Opt-in?

Yes. Any approach will do.

Single opt-in = higher completion rate; lower

quality.

The vast majority of companies use the single

opt-in method.

Double Opt-in = An extra step, fewer opt-ins.

Use Double Opt-in when you use aggressive

acquisition methods.

Confirmed Opt-in sends an email notifying the

new subscriber they’ve opted in – and to

unsubscribe if in error.

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List Rental/Buying

Simple really. Don’t EVER buy email lists.

List rental? Work with a list broker

with a stellar reputation.

Yes, there’s a difference in the meaning of the

words “buy” and “rent.” Learn the difference.

Buy = someone sells you a list that you send.

DON’T DO IT! You are a spammer.

Rent = a third-party sends your email to people that

have given permission. You must then convince them to

opt-in to your program.

Don’t expect huge growth from list rental.

Focus on deeply qualified leads that will drive a

higher percentage of opt-ins.

Map your offering to the original reason for opt-in. Contest entrants probably

don’t buy $200K timeshares.

Never risk your primary sending IP address with

outside names.

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Welcome Emails

Use a Welcome Email. Better yet, a Welcome

Series.

Better yet – an onboarding program.

No welcome email? Then you are leaving to chance

the new subscriber experience.

Explain your value. Link to preferences. Provide

an incentive.

Welcome emails help set expectations. Can solve

problems.

Ask progressive survey questions during the

Welcome Series to build your database.

Don’t lead with a coupon. Let full-price buyers act

first!

Classify new users into active and inactive, and try incenting inactives with a small discount.

Clearly outline your return, shipping and other key policies.

Ask for the first order in your final email of the

series.

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Deliverability

Email marketing is NOT Direct Email. ISPs are NOT

the same as the Post Office.

You the marketer are responsible for your email

deliverability – not your email service provider

(ESP).

Your ESP helps you with infrastructure and

strategies – but there is no magic bat phone to the

ISPs.

Permission is the foundation to high engagement, low complaint rates.

Even the best email marketers receive spam complaints. The key is to keep the complaint rate

LOW.

Why do I receive spam or abuse complaints?

Your recipients think you send too many emails; they are irrelevant; or they don’t remember

subscribing.

Most ISPs will block/filter your emails if you receive more than 3 complaints

out of 1,000 they receive from you.

How do we reduce spam complaints then?

Don’t Hide the Unsubscribe Link. Make it

Easy to Unsubscribe.

Use a highly recognizable “from” name.

Use a consistent “from” name.

Don’t use spammy or potentially deceitful

subject lines.

Authenticate your emails. DKIM. SenderID.

Shared/Pooled or dedicated IP addresses?

Companies that send infrequently and low

volumes should probably be on a shared IP.

Like your toes in winter, your sending IP addresses

need to be ‘warmed’.

A tiny percentage of your messages will be

‘blackholed’ by ISPs.

Non-responders will slowly and silently kill

your deliverability stats. Manage them proactively.

Test deliverability statistics of each new

template using a deliverability monitoring

service.

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Opt-in Forms

Capture the data required to deliver relevant emails.

Move opt-in forms on the bottom of your home

page to the top/above the fold.

Do it now. We’ll wait. Oh, IT, Ecommerce, etc.

doesn’t want to give up that real estate?

Tell the roadblockers this: Companies that move their opt-in forms up typically see opt-in

conversions increase 50% to 500%!

Allow users to opt-in with existing social network

credentials, and capture that rich data!

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From and Subject Lines

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Yes, from or sender names matter? A lot. So

choose wisely.

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Use your most recognized and trusted brand name.

Don’t veer.

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Yes, use different sender names for different email

streams. But always incorporate your brand

name.

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Brand X (newsletters@brandx.com

)Like that. Wasn’t that

easy!

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Resist the urge to use a person’s name.

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But I see everybody doing that these days. Is that

your reason for doing it – everybody is?

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Do you know who John Doe is? I didn’t think so. So why use a person’s

name?

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Yes, there are exceptions. If the person’s name is

also a recognized brand in itself.

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Personal names are also okay if you're automating email streams on behalf

of a salesforce.

Subject lines can make a huge difference. But your brand/sender name is still the most important thing.

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Subject lines drive opens – AND clicks and

conversions.

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Short. Medium. Long. Any length subject line length

works.

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Research studies suggest that longer subject lines

outperform short and medium length.

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But, keep the key information within the first 40-50 characters.

“Free” Use it. It works. Look in your inbox if you

don’t believe us.

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Test subject lines all the time. It is the easiest

thing to test.

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‘From’ names are just as easy to test, but DON’T.

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Pay attention to automated SPAM scoring

tools.

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Creative

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Use personality and a real human’s voice WITHIN the

email body.

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Feature pictures of actual employees within the

emails.

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Related: Avoid cheesy stock photos of perfect people, shaking hands, lightbulbs, globes, etc.

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Use “alt” tags to provide context when images

don’t automatically load.

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Use “bulletproof buttons” – HTML text and tables behind you CTA image.

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Keep key customer actions in the same

location across templates.

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Show more than you tell.

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Designing Emails for Mobile

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Take a “mobile first” approach. Go ahead,

Google what that means…

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OK, so design your emails and landing pages to be

friendly for mobile devices. Period.

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Smartphones are everywhere, and people

have email in their pocket.

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The finger is the new mouse, just 40 pixels

wider.

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Don’t make a user side scroll or zoom to read

your content.

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How Do We Measure Success?

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Think in terms of “process” or

“operational” and “output” or “success”

metrics.

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Output/Success: Measures against goals

and objectives, i.e., conversion, revenue,

retention, cost savings.

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Process/Operational: Measures email tactics ,

i.e., opens, clicks, unsubscribes, spam

complaints.

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Except perhaps if you are a publisher.

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Open rates DON’T matter

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Are you crazy? People have to open their emails to click and take action.

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You are correct. But just because recipients open an email, doesn’t mean

they’ll take action.

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Opens and clicks are irrelevant, conversion

matters.

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Did more people buy or sign up for your event?

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Focus your email metrics on those that support

achieving key company objectives.

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Ever met someone that got a raise for increasing

open rates?

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I didn’t think so. Focus on: conversion; revenue;

engagement; cost savings. These things

matter.

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Metrics Benchmarks

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There are no average open rates. Industry

matters.

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Still want to know? OK. How does 23% sound?

Happy now?

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Go ahead, tell your boss you are “average.”

We’ll wait.

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Thought so. How’s that raise looking

again?

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There’s average, lower quartile and upper

quartile in each industry. Higher is better.

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Oh yeah, we have a benchmark report. You should grade yourself.

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The real metric: interaction.

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Frequency

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The best frequency is the one that delivers the best combination of revenue,

LCV and acceptable churn.

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The more behavior-based the content, the less you

need to worry about frequency.

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Ignore frequency controls for your most behavior-

driven emails.

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Manage frequency across ALL campaigns from your

brand. See it from the customer’s viewpoint.

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Test frequency. This is your only answer.

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Re-test frequency every 90 days to keep your

approach fresh.

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When to Send

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The best day to send email? Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday.

Friday. Saturday. Sunday.

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Everybody has their own opinion…

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Send based on historical recipient open and click

times.

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Consider multiple time zones within a list.

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Weekends rock for some brands. Give it a try…

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Inactives / Reactivation

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Inactives are a HUGE problem for almost every

company.

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The average company can expect that between 30%-

50% of their email database is inactive.

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So how do you define an inactive subscriber?

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Inactives combine timeframe + email

activity + purchase/offline behavior.

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For example, no email opens and clicks or

purchases for 6 months.

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But every company must develop a definition that

makes sense for their business.

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Determine who your Inactives are. Then target

them differently.

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ISP algorithms are watching whether your recipients are opening

and clicking.

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Sending “we want you back” emails to inactives typically only activates up

a few percent.

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Proactively re-engage or purge inactives while adding new records to

maintain audience.

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Wanna drive your metrics through the roof? Kill inactives mercilessly.

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Reactivate via a 2-3 step program with escalating

offers. No action = purged record or, reduced

frequency.

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Tell the user you're taking them off the list, and give them a way to prevent it.

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Reactivation programs are not the answer. But

do them anyway.

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Preference Centers

Implement a world-class preference center.

Seriously. Implement a world-class preference

center.

Ask for what you need to segment, provide relevant

content.

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Empower new subscribers through choice.

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Step 1) Capture birth date. Step 2) Send Happy

Birthday emails.Step 3) Print Money.

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What’s the right number of form fields?

8

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Just kidding. Use common sense. Test It. Balance data needs with lower form completion rates.

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Be radical. Consider a database keyed on

something other than email.

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Use existing social credentials during sign

up.

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Let users control which communications they

receive and each one’s frequency.

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Support recipient choice, and know that some will opt-out of everything if

you act shady.

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Don’t force a full opt-out. Offer subscribers the

option to pause communications?

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Testing

Test. Test Again.Test everything.Test, test, test.

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But why? Because testing is the only real answer to all your darn questions.

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Where should I start?

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Most email marketers start with subject lines because of the ease of

testing.

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When testing, use your ultimate goal (revenue

and other conversions) to determine winners.

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What else can we test: pre-header text, layout, copy, personalization,

offers, buttons, timing – pretty much everything.

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Only conduct true A/B tests – random splits in

parallel.

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Test 10% of your list with each variant, then send the winner to the other

80%.

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Use A/B testing to prove or disprove pre-defined

assumptions.

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Don’t go crazy testing ‘from’ names. In that

case, consistency wins.

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Misc./Resources/Final Notes

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Stop saying (and thinking in terms of) ‘e-blast’.

ESPs are different. Find the one that is right for

YOU.

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Balance existing need with future plans, and

pick a vendor who works for both.

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Pay attention to 4-5 KPIs send-over-send, week-

over-week and year-over-year.

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Spend less time modifying lists in Excel, and more time building rules-driven programs.

There are no short cuts.

Don’t agree with these Slides?

Then Yes, it depends and test it.

ContributorsLoren McDonald@LorenMcDonaldlmcdonald@silverpop.com

Dave Walters@_DaveWaltersdwalters@silverpop.com

Thank you!

On Twitter: @Silverpopwww.slideshare.net/silve

rpopwww.silverpop.com