Transcript Emails & Enewsletters, Media Trust Nov 2011

EMAIL MARKETING
Sue Fidler
Sue Fidler
• Why do email newsletters?
• How to send emails
• Audiences – building lists
• Getting Delivered and Opened
• Design
• Content
• Reporting
• Objectives?
• Planning
Sue Fidler
Why?
More than 80% of UK population have email
Email is 99.9% unique
Sue Fidler
Why?
Great for fast communications,
- nearly all opens are within first 24rs
Good for repeat/follow up messages
Good reporting
– who and what
Good for calls to action
- campaigns and appeals
Forward to a friend
Sue Fidler
How?
The mechanisms used to send and deliver bulk emails
Three methods:
• Outlook/Eudora/Lotus/other PC/pop3 based
email system
• In-House bulk email broadcast software
• ASP bulk email broadcast software
Sue Fidler
Address Book
Address Management/history/export/import
Subscriptions
Subscribes and unsubscribes
Bounces
Hard (email not there) and Soft (unavailable)
2 part send
HTML and Text versions
Templates
Design, look and feel management
Reports
Open rate, Click throughs, bounces,
unsubscribes
HTML
HTML email with WYSIWYG editor
SPAM
Being blocked
Bandwidth
Internet Pipe size
IT
Department
Sue Fidler
OUTLOOK
In-House s/w
Purpose
X
Address Book
X
Subscriptions
X
Bounces
X
2 part send
X
Templates
X
Reports
X
HTML
X
SPAM
X
X
Bandwidth
X
X
IT
X
X
Fit for purpose
X
X
Sue Fidler
ASP s/w
Who to send to?
Any audience – however large or small:
The key is not how many audiences you have
but whether you have something to say...
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Sue Fidler
Supporters/donors
Campaigners
Clients
Users
Staff
Job Seakers
Names: where do you get them?
• Building your own list gets higher open and click through
than any bought list
• Swap names with peers
• Get article in press or other newsletters
• Buying lists – don’t without expert help
Sue Fidler
Building Lists
• where are you asking
• ask on every page of your website,
• on all on and offline forms,
• on fundrasising, marketing, campaiggns, membership asks
• target landing pages to offer relevant emails
• what are you offering
• ONLY ask for what you need
• give an example of content
• can you offer multiple options to type or frequency?
• ask them to help you save money and the environment..
Sue Fidler
Building Lists
• thank you email
• cross sell
• thank you landing page
• cross sell
• give them options to move onto next thing
• opt out practice
• send a goodbye email and confirm opt out
• don’t forget Forward to A Friend Opt in
• do you represent trust? – privacy policy link
ALWAYS CHECK ENTRANCE AND EXIT POINTS
Sue Fidler
Data Protection
• are you registered with the IPO?
• only costs £35 pa and makes you look professional
• where is your data?
• who can see it?
• who can use it?
• how do you manage?
• hard bounces (spam)
• soft bounces
• unsubscribes
• you should be able to track and keep history of
subscribes and unsubscribes
Sue Fidler
Getting Delivered
• SPF
• Sender ID,
• Registered IP address,
• Google, hotmail, yahoo white listing
Spam check
• Subject Line:
• don’t use symbols, capitals and FREE OFFER WINNER
• Content avoid:
• key spam words, large fonts, too many bright colours.
Sue Fidler
Checking delivery
• seed names into the address books
• create gmail, yahoo, hotmail accounts
• check design in different browsers
Sue Fidler
Getting Opened
• FROM address
• branded
• clear
• friendly
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Subject lines
• Keep it Short 50 characters or less - 10 words- preview pane only.
• Make them curious - ask a leading question
• Avoid spam filter words
• Create a benefit. "What's in it for me?“
• Create a sense of urgency - stress urgency and timeliness
• If relevant make it personal "thank you for your gift to..."
• reinforce brand, be honest, be relevant, be timely
• do not mislead
Sue Fidler
Content: Design
• 600-650 pixels wide
• Always have "read this in your browser“
• As short as possible - above the fold
• Headlines to catch the eye, brief copy, few strong images
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Email Formats
• HTML
• Text Only
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Sue Fidler
Sue Fidler
Email Formats
• HTML
• Text Only
Critical you do both
Sue Fidler
Content: Copy
• assume that most people have heard of you before they get your email
• once they open it they have expectations based on FROM, subject
and who you are
• remind people of threads.. like events and campaigns.
• highlight "attention nodes" - highlights, callouts..
• be less formal and more personal
• dynamic content - adding personalised content beyond contact details.
• don’t use forms, they don’t work in most browsers
• using video or audio - in the email or onsite
Sue Fidler
Content: Personalisation
• best if you cab have Dear Firstname
• add as much personalisation is relevant:
For example if you know corporate name and company:
Dear John,
Its great that Dixons is supporting our campaign…
• add more if it is pertinent –
• last donation, action,
• conection/attribute or interest
• personalised content –
if you know their interests produce stories to match
Sue Fidler
Segmentation
• split openers and clickers into groups
• by location
• geographic area of interest
• subject
• lurkers, just get general enews..
• can test pushing them one way or another to convert
• specialists - donors, campaigners, job seekers, events attendees etc
• accept what they want to engage in,
• send them specific emails with subtle cross selling
Sue Fidler
Content: Call to Action
• click through - to where?
• tailored landing pages
• must match branding, font etc of destination - consistent user experience
• either a single very clear message or a small range of options
• "vote here" should just have that,
• "support our campaign" might have donate, petition, contact MP
• tell readers the benefits of their actions
• forward/tell your friends..
Corporates now recon 2/3 sales are influenced by shared opinions
Sue Fidler
Content: pass it on
• forward to a friend
• would you recommend us?
• testimonials
• ask people to reply with comments and feedback
• linking to blogs - ask people to comment
• social networking - ask people to join facebook, twitter etc
Sue Fidler
Integration
• where are you inviting people from..
• offline, website, facebook and twitter
• here comes our enews
• sign up for our upcoming enews
• get our latest campaign here..
• read more on our enews
• use facebook updates and tweet the same stories
• drive traffic to enews from all available source
• and from enews to the web
Sue Fidler
Content: Bells and Whistles
• surveys/polls
• objectives,
• target audience,
• questions clear and concise,
• don't use acronyms,
• don't ask negatives,
• make sure answers are mutually exclusive ie 18-24 24-35.
• no leading questions
• be brief
• if it is long have pages to show completion
• always send thank you email
• always follow up with results
Sue Fidler
Content: Virals
• have an idea
• short and sweet or clever/funny
• make it easy to forward
• show the benefit
• build into bigger picture
• measure it
• send out press releases to influencers who will blog and tweet
• integrate with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc
Sue Fidler
Reporting
• opens, click through,
• bounce, unsubscribe and replies
• who clicked on what
• don’t forget who didn’t open or didn’t click.
• integrating data into other databases
• integrate the email links to analytics.
• can you track actions in other mediums?
• should you clean your list?
Sue Fidler
Sue Fidler
Why?
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What are the objectives
Set Goals/KPI’s
Can you place a value on emails, how will you measure?
Develop acquisition, retention and reactivation plans
Focus on behavior
Tailor landing pages
Optimise content
Map out ongoing campaign plan
Email Ladder
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welcome
- very high open rate, don’t just say thank you for joining
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awareness
- purpose: brand awareness bridge media and identify interest
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development
- purpose: develop involvement ,confirm interest/engagement
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conversion
- purpose: online action
thank you
– purpose: cross sell other actions reinfoce engagament
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loyalty
- purpose: broaden and deepen relationship
improve lifetime value
Sue Fidler
Planning
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Why are you doing it? – set objectives
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Who are you sending to? – identify audiences, capture names
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What are you communicating?
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What are your outcomes? actions
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Set you targets
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Plan your resources – content, links etc
Sue Fidler
Q&A
Sue Fidler
Demo
Sue Fidler
Sue Fidler
[email protected]
07889 350285
www.suefidler.com
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twitter.com/SueFidler
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