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Secrets to Email Marketing Success

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'Flames,' i.e. hate email. Harassment from spam vigilantes. Badmouthed in discussion forums ... Surveys - give free report or enter them in a draw ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Secrets to Email Marketing Success


1
Secrets to Email Marketing Success
  • Stephan Spencer
  • President, Internet Concepts
  • sspencer_at_netconcepts.com
  • www.netconcepts.com

2
Get Permission
  • Opt-in, not opt-out. Get recipients consent in
    advance!
  • Opt-in recipient volunteered to receive your
    email
  • Opt-out recipient didnt have the opportunity to
    avoid receiving your first email, only to avoid
    receiving subsequent ones
  • Hand-raisers are a lot more likely to not only
    tolerate receiving your emails, but also to
    respond favorably
  • Read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

3
Spam
  • Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE)
  • Typical spam has a bogus sender address, bogus
    unsubscribe instructions, and bogus offers
  • Spam is in the eye of the beholder
  • Ensure recipients dont misconstrue your message
    as spam

4
Distance Yourself from Spammers
  • Remind recipients that theyve given you
    permission to contact them
  • Provide an easy way to unsubscribe
  • Be sure reply works
  • Have it signed by a real person
  • Publish and abide by a strict privacy policy

5
Improve the Odds that a User Will Join Your List
  • Provide numerous opt-in opportunities all with
    low barriers to entry
  • Make sure the amount of work required to sign up
    is minimal
  • Many sites only require the email address and all
    other personal information is optional
  • Place the email list sign-up on all forms on your
    site, including inquiry, order, and feedback
    forms
  • Ok to have the sign-up checkbox ticked in advance?

6
Privacy Policy
  • Builds trust
  • Address what youll be doing with the users
    information, both now and potentially in the
    future
  • Post it in an obvious place on your site
  • Link to it from your email campaigns
  • Abide by it, no exceptions
  • Dont revoke or weaken it once youve published
    it (Remember the hot water Amazon got into?)

7
Consequences of Spamming
  • Flames, i.e. hate email
  • Harassment from spam vigilantes
  • Badmouthed in discussion forums
  • Blacklisted (SpamCop, etc.)
  • You may even have your Internet privileges
    revoked by your ISP
  • Remember, perception is 9/10ths of reality

8
Deliver Value
  • Email should be relevant, timely, and beneficial
  • Value" can take the form of
  • newsletters, discounts, contests, last minute
    availability, event reminders, invitations,
    prizes, memberships, bonuses, coupons/discounts,
    exclusive sales, free samples, or demos.
  • Surveys - give free report or enter them in a
    draw
  • Go paperless - specs, price lists, statements

9
Types of Outbound Email
  • Newsletters
  • Regularly scheduled messages that deliver timely
    and interesting news, tips, and other
    informational tidbits
  • Promotional messages
  • Inform recipients about special offers
  • Discussion forum posts
  • Soft-sell marketing strategy for becoming an
    accepted and trusted member of your target
    audiences online community

10
Discussion Forum Posts
  • Discussion forums include Usenet newsgroups,
    email discussion lists (listservs), and web
    forums
  • Often overlooked by e-marketers
  • Key is to respect the forums non-commercial
    nature
  • Dont blatantly advertise
  • Add value by answering questions in a
    vendor-neutral manner, then soft-sell solely
    through your "signature"

11
Signature Line
  • At the bottom of your discussion post
  • Should be short - no more than 4 lines
  • Your name
  • Your company name
  • Your email address (include mailto in front)
  • Link to your site (include http// in front)
  • Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

12
Components of an Email
  • Subject line
  • Most important 35 characters of the email. Focus
    on it!
  • From line
  • To line
  • Message body
  • A promotional message should contain a compelling
    offer and a call-to-action
  • An e-mail newsletter should contain a header, a
    table of contents, a welcome, and multiple
    departments
  • Privacy statement, Disclaimer, and Unsubscribe
    instructions

13
Measure Success
  • Unsubscribe rate
  • Bounce rate
  • Unique open rate
  • Total open rate
  • Clickthrough rate
  • Can separate HTML vs. plaintext clickthroughs
  • Conversion rate

14
The Bane of the Email Marketer the Delete Key
  • The split-second decision - keep it or delete it
  • The basis of their decision the From and Subject
    line
  • Your open rate may be overstated
  • Your message may be getting displayed in
    recipients preview pane as he selects it just to
    delete it

15
Frequency
  • Depends on expectations of target audience
  • Email newsletters tend to be weekly or monthly
  • Monitor number/variety of contacts to avoid
    burnout

16
Timing
  • Tuesday through Thursday
  • 10am to 2pm
  • Varies depending on your audience

17
Length
  • In general, keep it short and sweet. Use links.
  • Weekly newsletter should be no more than five
    sections, with three or fewer paragraphs each,
  • Monthly newsletter can be double or triple that.
  • Promotional messages should be significantly
    shorter than a newsletter.
  • Include whole articles or just abstracts with
    links to the rest?

18
Spam Filters
  • Spam filters built in Outlook, Hotmail, AOL etc.
  • Corporate email firewalls
  • Dont trip the spam filters
  • Free, opt-in, !!!, forward to a friend,
    etc.
  • Bcc
  • To line doesnt include recipients email
    address
  • Scripts
  • Attachments

19
HTML vs. Plain Text
  • HTML emails typically have twice the
    clickthroughs
  • HTML offers more control over layout
  • HTML looks more polished (could be good or bad)
  • Some old email clients cant do HTML, e.g.
    Outlook 95
  • Sniff for HTML open or send multiple versions
    multi-part
  • Old versions of AOL only support a crippled form
    of HTML

20
Plain Text Emails
  • Precede URLs with http// and emails with
    mailto
  • Limit the line width to 65 characters
  • Headlines in ALL CAPS
  • Reading text in caps is very slow, because people
    read only the tops of letters. ALL CAPS letters
    dont have enough differentiation to them

21
HTML Emails
  • Tables - to control placement avoid long lines
  • Graphics - if reading email while offline, increases
    download time
  • Color - color text or color a table background,
    doesnt impact download speed
  • Font - face, size, and color
  • Forms - embed in the email to make it easy for
    the recipient to respond to an offer, e.g.
    seminar registration
  • Auto fill-in as many form fields as possible
  • Scripts, Flash, Streaming Video - not recommended!

22
Your Database
  • Collect more than just the email address
  • Name (first name should be a separate field)
  • Zip code, interests, and other relevant
    demographics
  • What else?
  • Also ask for info that you plan to use in the
    future
  • Text to Columns feature in Excel
  • In-house lists typically perform much better than
    purchased or rented lists

23
Personalize
  • Tailor the offer to the individual. Beneficial
    offers are relevant offers
  • Provide customized content specific to recipient
    location and interests
  • Greet the recipient by first name. Perhaps even
    in the Subject line too.
  • To line should specify the recipients email
    address
  • Let the recipient control the contact frequency
  • Increases the likelihood of being at the right
    place at the right time with the right value
    proposition

24
Segment Your List
  • By demographics, psychographics, clickographics
    (visiting behavior and transaction history)
  • Target whos most relevant, most profitable, or
    most likely to respond

25
Buy or Rent Lists?
  • Avoid the use of purchased lists
  • Many have actually been harvested from web
    pages, newsgroup discussion posts, or domain
    contact information (from the whois database)
    without the knowledge or permission of the
    affected individuals
  • Rented lists from reputable list brokers may be
    worthwhile
  • Is it double opt-in, fastidiously clean of
    unsubscribes, and finely segmented?

26
A Veritable List Goldmine
  • Email addresses of prospects, potential
    distributors and business partners, journalists
  • Member lists - associations, clubs, etc.
  • Find them with Google
  • Introduce yourself. Be personal and informal.
  • Careful! Potential spam territory

27
Test, Test, Test!
  • Treat your email campaigns like experiments
  • Have a control group
  • Vary only one thing at a time
  • What to test?
  • The offer, the Subject line, the From line, the
    message copy, the layout, the message length, the
    timing, the contact frequency

28
Test, Test, Test!
  • Track response rates of each test by making
    call-to-action URLs e-mail addresses unique for
    each test group
  • Special attention should be given to the
    frequency
  • don't allow recipient burnout, particularly with
    a regular mailing such as an e-mail newsletter
  • Test and refine, test and refine

29
Software and ASPs
  • Reduce the administrative headaches - the bounces
    and unsubscribe requests, the tracking,
    reporting, segmenting, and personalizing
  • Do-it-yourself software. e.g. WorldMerge
    (www.coloradosoft.com)
  • Or outsource to an e-mail service bureau, e.g.
    MessageMedia (www.messagemedia.com) or
    GravityMail (www.gravitymail.com)

30
In Summary
  • Now you know how to get permission, build your
    database, personalize,segment, test, measure
    success
  • Newsletters vs. promotional campaigns
  • Frequency, length, content
  • The intricacies of HTML

31
Further Reading
  • Successful Email Marketing by Debbie Mayo-Smith
  • Marketing With E-Mail by Shannon Kinnard
  • Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
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