EMail MarketingIain Davenport 2008
92%of all marketers
employ email marketing
Why E-mail?
“E-mail is the fastest, most flexible, cost efficient, personalized and targeted communication medium in the world today.”
– Peppers & Rogers Group
“E-mail is not something you read, it’s something you do.” – Jim Sterne, Target Marketing
Challenges For E-mail Senders
The Benefits
Marketers face Marketers face tough competitiontough competition
126average number of emails received per day by corporate users in 2007
20%of all emails are ‘Junked’ by spam filters
Maintaining lists:
• Keep it clean – bounce the bounces
• Opt in vs. double opt in
• Let them unsubscribe
• Don’t become spam
Email Reputation Score
Definition:The general opinion of the ISPs, the anti-spam community, and your own subscribers towards a sender’s IP address, sending domain, or both.
If the sender’s score falls within the ISP’s thresholds, a sender’s messages will be delivered to the inbox; if not, the sender’s emails may arrive in the bulk folder, be quarantined, or be bounced back to the sender.
Email Reputation score
Control your score
•ISPs offer various sender authentication standards such as SPF (sender policy framework) and DomainKeys.
•Keep the list clean by removing hard bounces after 3 deliveries (ISPs don’t like e-mail broadcasters who have a high bounce rate)
•Respond to complaints and unsubscribe requests
•Educate users about whitelists
These could be affecting your reputation score
Email users savvier than you think
83%: Used the Report Spam button
80%: Use it without opening the message
73%: Base decision on the "from" line
69%: Base decision on subject line
20%: Use the spam button to unsubscribe
So what makes a campaign successful?
Planning
Who are your target audience?
grow a targeted database
Genuine opt-in Explicit permission granted Information can be gathered over
time
Growing your list:
Use every available interaction
• Incentives to sign up (white paper, gift voucher, music)
• Subscribe options during retail process
• Viral marketing
• Offline interactions and promos
Acquisition TechniquesOffline
In-storeCall centresCustomer eventsWarranty cardsDirect mailContests and mail-insWeb address on marketing material
Use Offline Ads To Drive Sign-ups
Instant Win – Offline to Online
Announcement
Direct Mail
Intake Instant-win
Show Them What You Offer
What are your objectives?
2 types of commercial emails
• Promotional– Entice immediate action
• Retention based emails– Newsletters– Build long term relationships
Promotional emails
Immediate goal for user
Action taken by user Purchase Download Request information
Retention emails
Longer term goalsKPIs important
Open Rate Click-through rate ROI
Product Newsletter
Expertise Newsletter
Customer Interest Newsletter
Promotional Offer
Promotional Offer (B2B)
Sell Something!
Cross Sell
Up-sell
Replenishment Notification
Your database
Only one entry required: prospect's email address
but
more information can lead to improved customization
Retention based emails: information of value to create a long term relationship with the
reader
CHOICE
Targeting
Segment
Personalize
Un-targeted broadcast emails
Open rate: 20%Avg. CTR: 9.5%Avg. conversion rate: 1.1%
User-triggered campaigns
Open rate: 27%Avg. CTR: 9.3%Avg. conversion rate: 2.3%
Life cycle messaging campaigns
Open rate: 26%Avg. CTR: 9.3%Avg. conversion rate: 2.3%
Clickstream-based campaigns
Open rate: 33%Avg. CTR: 14%Avg. conversion rate: 3.9%
Source Marketing Sherpa 2007
Increase customer value
relevance
• Identify communications you make with customers in a batch fashion.
• Ask what events could trigger these communications to make them timely.
• Prepare a distinct message for each customer situation
• Increase involvement by adding a call to action to each message
• Prepare a message for each possible response to your previous message.
Avoiding the ‘Pitfalls’
Assuming Assuming images images
will work!will work!
Not designing forpreview panes
Over selling and cheap tricks = SPAM
SHOUTDON’T
DON’T OVER ‘EMPHASIZE !!! ’
AVOID HARD SELL
Too many imagesnot enough textCertain spam filters place the "image vs. text ratio" criteria even higher than the "spam keywords" criteria
Subject lines
Creating subject lines
• It’s not rocket science, remember K.I.S.S.
(keep it simple stupid)
• The best subject lines are not ‘Flashy’ or ‘Pushy’.
• Your subject line should simply, clearly and concisely
describe the purpose/content of your email - its that simple!
• Its a process, and it starts with the opt-in always set your
subscribers’ expectations during the opt-in process regarding
the type and frequency of the emails they will recieve.
How your email marketingmessage is structured willdetermine 50% of its success
In just one-twentieth of a second, less time than it takes to blink, people make aesthetic judgments that will influence their experience of your landing page.
BEST PRACTICES
Customer Centric
Integrate
3.Creative execution
Two types of email
Plain text emails
HTML emails
Plain text email
Text only No hyperlinks or
images Smaller file size Looks the same
across all platforms
HTML email
Contains images, different fonts and hyperlinks
File size is much larger
Can render differently
Parts of an email
• Header• Subject line• Personalized greeting• Body• Footer• Unsubscribe link• Adress (canadian law)
Platform testing
Video in email?
Increase click-through rates up to 25%.
Florist’s conversions jumped from 1.35% to 2.8%.
Remember:• include a link, host outside message• Remember that many viewers watch videos for the “entertainment” value. Keep videos short, light and relevant.
Sources: https://www.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.html?ident=30200http://inspireaction.mindandmedia.com/index.php/2007/11/15/hey-its-got-video-it-must-be-cool/
4. Integrate campaign with other channels
• Reinforce brand’s message
• Increase responses
5. Personalization
Mass customization
• One to one marketing on a macro scale
• Simple personalization can improve results
• Segment database
• Give consumers what they want
• Send different content to different people
• Insert ‘dear first name’ greeting, where
appropriate
• Personalize forms within email/landing
page – only ask a question once
6. Deployment
When should I send?
Try and be action based.
Common sense and testing.
Regularly…like the milk man
7. Interaction handling
Show you’re on top of everything.
Utilize all touch points for calls to action / up-sell
Generate emails in response to actions
What Do Marketers Track?
What To Test?
To From Subject Offer Core message Selects Link attributes Day of week Time of day Frequency
Next Week
Permission and Government Read Chapter 7November 4th Julian SmithNovember 11th Kathleen Jean Pierre
