Transcript Slide 1

Email Marketing 101
Stephen Guerra
Email Communications Strategist
Silverpop
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Objectives
 Email as a Marketing Channel: Sophisticated
Capabilities with Multiple Challenges
 How Email Works
 Practice Hierarchy
• Legislation
• Industry Best Practices
• Organizational Best Practices
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Deliverability
List Growth
Message Design
Discussion and Questions
I Know How To Send An Email…
 Favorite misconception of the new emailer:
I know how to send email. In fact I
just sent one to my Mom five
minutes ago. Let’s rent a list and
get started!
Why Commercial Email is Different
 Just because you know how to cook dinner doesn’t
mean you can run a restaurant
•
•
•
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Different environment
More sophisticated tools
Customers are less forgiving of errors
Regulatory authorities have a say in how you conduct your
business
About Email
45% of consumers say that “email is a great way for
companies to stay in touch with customers.”
– Quris and Executive Summary Consulting, November 2004
Email is a tremendously powerful tool:
 Costs much less than direct mail
 Reveals reader behavior through measurable events
 Enables advanced communication possibilities
Email: Advanced Techniques
 Personalization – Go beyond the name
• From Address
• Subject Line
• Relevant historical data
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Dynamic Content
Timed Delivery
Segmentation
Testing
What can go wrong?
 Poor practices contend with:
• Legislative & regulatory issues
• Recipient impact
•
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Offend recipients
List burn
Deliverability problems
Brand damage
Email Marketing 101
How Email Works
How Email Works
Header data
From:
Text message
[email protected]
<xxx>
From name: Silverpop
HTML message
Subject:
Participate in our list growth survey
Reply-to:
[email protected]
<xxx>
Env-from:
[email protected]
List
[email protected]
Jessica
[email protected]
Kevin
[email protected]
Julia
[email protected]
Mildred
[email protected]
John
….
One message per recipient
How Email Works
Send message to
[email protected]
Outbound MTA
(mail transfer agent)
Where do I send mail
bound for yahoo.com?
DNS
Give message to
[email protected]
Send to
125.46.350.219
Inbound MTA
(“inbound gateway”)
Internet
Here’s a message for
125.46.350.219
Email Marketing 101
Email Practice Hierarchy
The Flaming Hoops of Email Compliance
Legislation
Industry Best
Practices
Internal
Policy
Legislation
CAN-SPAM Major Provisions
 Pre-empts states’ private right of action
 Provides for enforcement by the FTC, State Attorneys
General, ISPs
 Prohibits fraudulent email practices
 Establishes fines up to $2MM and prison sentences up to 5
years
 Segments transactional & relationship email from
commercial email
 Prohibits sending additional commercial email more than 10
business days after opt-out is received.
Provided for discussion purposes only; please refer to your legal counsel for guidance
Legislation
CAN-SPAM Major Provisions
 Requires for all commercial email:
• Clear and conspicuous identification that the email
is an advertisement or solicitation (exception for
prior confirmative assent)
• Working opt-out for a minimum of 30 days after the
date of the message (keep the opt-out site live for
30 days post-mailing)
• Postal address of sender – recommended for both
transactional and commercial messages.
 Requires special labeling and message
content restrictions for sexually-oriented
material
Provided for discussion purposes only; please refer to your legal counsel for guidance
Legislation
CAN-SPAM Key Definitions
 Affirmative Consent:
• The recipient expressly consented to receive
the message
• If the message is from a third party, the
recipient was given clear and conspicuous
notice at the time consent was given.
 Commercial email:
• Any electronic mail message the primary
purpose of which is the commercial
advertisement of promotion of a commercial
product or service
Provided for discussion purposes only; please refer to your legal counsel for guidance
Legislation
CAN-SPAM Key Definitions
Transactional and relationship messages:
 Facilitate, complete, or confirm a
commercial transaction
 Provide warranty information, product
recall information, or safety or security
information with respect to a commercial
product or service
 Notifications
 Provide information directly related to an
employment relationship
 Deliver goods or services
Provided for discussion purposes only; please refer to your legal counsel for guidance
Legislation
Other Legislation
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The U.S., EU, Australia, Japan and Korea have email-specific regulations
• All but Korea and the U.S. are “opt-in” regimes requiring affirmative consent
• All also require easy opt-out, plus identification of the sender
• Korea and the U.S. have opt-out regimes
• Korea has unusual and strict labeling requirements—see your local
counsel
Some South American states use data privacy to address spam issues –
opt-out approach

Sending email to a cell phone in the U.S. is highly regulated by the FCC
• Consider blocking cell phone domains

Incented forwarding in the U.S. is covered under U.S. commercial
regulations
• This has important considerations for viral campaign design
Provided for discussion purposes only; please refer to your legal counsel for guidance
Industry Best Practices
Permission Level
Opt-Out
Recipients added without clear permission
(pre-checked box)
Not Recommended
Brand Damage & Deliverability
Problems
Opt-In
Recipient actively requests subscription
Minimum Level
Some deliverability issues
Confirmed OptIn
Recipient actively requests subscription and
receives a confirmation message
Best Practice
Good balance between
deliverability and marketing
goals
Double
Opt-In
Recipient actively requests subscription then
receives an email which they must respond to
before subscription is complete
Good Practice
Excellent deliverability, limits list
growth rate
email Trivia
 How did the term ‘spam email’ originate?
a) Comparing unwanted messages to undesirable food
b) Reference to a Monty Python skit
c) First ‘spam’ sent by a meat packing company
d) Acronym for Superfluous Product Advertisement Mail
Industry Best Practices
Who Decides A Message Is Spam?
Sender
Inbox Provider
Law
Recipient
Organizational Polices
Considerations
 Branding
 Creative Design
• Font selection
• Image selection
• Tone
 Permission
• House lists
• Partner mailings
• List rental
 Frequency
 Governance
• Decentralized
• Centralized
• Federated
Email 101
Email Deliverability
Email Deliverability Significance
 In a July 2004 JupiterResearch study, over 20% of
online buyers reported at least one instance of opt-in
email failing to arrive.
 "JupiterResearch executive interviews revealed
investing in delivery services/solutions can improve email delivery by 10 percent to 20 percent.“
--Delivery Auditing Tools: Tactics to Improve E-mail
Delivery December 29, 2004
Email Deliverability Definition
Email Deliverability: How successfully a majority of
messages in a mailing will be delivered to a
recipient inbox in a readable format.
 Majority of Messages – any bulk mailing to a variety
of domains will have a certain percentage of
messages that do not arrive in the Inbox
 Inbox Placement – messages can be challenged,
rejected, discarded, or routed to Bulk/Spam folders
 Readable Format – message should retain all
elements as designed
Email Deliverability Challenges
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Anti-spam filters
Blacklists
HTML rendering / Image Suppression
Message element blocking – rich media, images,
links
 Recipient fatigue
What You Can Do
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Find the right partner
Obtain high-quality, memorable permission
Get in the address book
Design delivery-effective messages
Be relevant
Leverage your brand
List hygiene
Email 101
List Growth and
Management
List Growth
Very successful options vs. planned to add
Viral marketing
Online marketing/search
Cross promotions
Co-marketing
Co-registration
Planned
Deemed successful
List appends
In-store/point of sale/purchase process
Offline advertising/direct marketing
Tradeshows
Non-branded list rental
Call center
0%
5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Source: Silverpop List Growth Study, 2006
List Management
 List Hygiene: practices employed to maintain only active and
engaged recipients in an email list
• Maintains list performance - eliminates non-productive records
• Deliverability best practice - addresses major deliverability issues
• Brand best practice – portrays brand in best light
 List hygiene practices encompass management of:
• Bouncing addresses
• Changed addresses
• Inactive addresses
List Management
Bounces
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Bounces: Notice to sender indicating the message delivery failure
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Hard Bounce: Recipient server: “To Address does not exist”
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Addresses that produce hard bounces should be immediately unsubscribed
from lists
Soft Bounce: Any non-hard bounce
(Examples: “Mailbox Full”, “Recipient Server Offline”, “Message Rejected By Spam
Filter”)
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Addresses that produce soft bounces should be unsubscribed from lists
only after two conditions are met
• The address bounces for three or more consecutive mailings
• The address continues to bounce for greater than fifteen days
List Management
Changed Addresses
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Individual recipients often change their email addresses
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Switching companies
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Corporate mergers
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Discard addresses due to high spam reception
Automated email response reply notification of an address change
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These should be collected and the address change should be made in the
customer’s record
Usually will not receive notice that the address has been changed
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May or may not receive bounces
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The address may appear abandoned
Address reacquisition procedures
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Call center
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Direct mail
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Stuffers
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Email Change of Address service
Email 101
Message Design
HTML vs. Text
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Fancy formatting and images require HTML coding, like a web page
• HTML emails have higher response rates and are more measurable than plain text
email
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Experiment with the degree of design present in your email
• “Text-like” formats can perform better for certain types of messages, and can also
perform well as a variant in a longer campaign
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Your HTML will not render the same in all email clients
• Perform periodic “reception testing” to see what your email looks like in various
clients, especially webmail clients like Yahoo and Hotmail
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You will still need to create a text version of your email for recipients that cannot
open HTML-based email.
• Both the HTML and text versions of the email will be sent in the same message
(multi-part messaging), and the appropriate one will be displayed
Message Anatomy
From Name
Header
From Address
Subject Line
Body
Header
 What a recipient sees in their inbox
 Must reassure, compel, intrigue, entice, excite
recipient enough for them to OPEN the message
 Includes
• From Name
• From Address
• Subject Line
Message Construction
Overall Page Design – ‘Above The Fold’
 Portion of the message that is first viewed without scrolling
 Recipient will scan this first then decide to read
 Must engage the recipient immediately
 Should encompass – in an easily scanned format
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Offer
Call To Action
Urgency Indication
Brandmark
Any other important content
 No exact fold demarcation due to differences in email
software, viewing window size, and screen resolution
Sample Message
Strong ‘Above The Fold’ Design
• ‘click to view’ link
• Brandmark
• Offer
Above The Fold
(400 pixels)
• Call To Action
• Urgency Indication
Fold
Sample Message
Weak ‘Above The Fold’ Design
Above The Fold
400 Pixels
• Significant content
(image only partially viewable
without scrolling & quick links below
fold)
Fold
• Significant content
(Most of the offer is below the fold)
• Call To Action
Below The Fold
Color & Layout
 Overall appearance of the message depends on
good design of layout
 Use color and layout to pull reader into the message
and guide the eye to important content
Sample Message –
Strong Color & Layout
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Color Usage:
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Regions of message defined with blocks of
color
Overall color usage unifies the message
Layout:
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Clearly defined regions ease
navigation
• Page header
• Body
• Quick navigation
• Page footer
•
Easily scannable
•
Left justified primary body copy
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Centered footer
•
Message width within approximately
600 pixels
600 pixel width
Fold
Email Metrics
Good News:
Email campaigns produce a lot of data
Bad News:
Email campaigns produce a lot of data
email Metrics
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Tracking generally requires HTML messages
Image suppression can interfere with tracking
Unique message created for each recipient
Identification codes embedded in message
• Codes relate the message to an individual recipient
• Links
• Images
• ‘Envelope’
• Replies
 Many metrics measured either as unique or aggregate (gross)
• Unique: number of individuals who perform the action
• Counts only ONCE per recipient
• Aggregate: number of times the action is performed
• Counts multiple occurrences per recipient
Benchmarks
The average open rate and click-through rates for
email are:
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a) 15% Opens, 0.5% Clicks
b) 30% Opens, 4% Clicks
c) 68% Opens, 25% Clicks
d) 96% Opens, 68% Clicks
Answer: Averages don’t matter
What you need to know is how you compare to averages
for your company and for the type of mailings you send
Open Rate
The percentage of people who render the message in an HTML
environment and don’t have images blocked
Average Open Rates
B-to-B
marketers
34%
Newsletter
marketers
32%
Promotional
marketers
27%
B-to-C
marketers
24%
30%
Overall
JupiterResearch, Email
Marketing Metrics
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Open Rates Dropping
 MarketingSherpa reports marketers finding open rates
decreasing
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
2004
2005
30%
20%
MarketingSherapa Email
Marketing Benchmark
Guide 2006
10%
0%
Decreased
significantly
Not a big
change
Increased
significantly
Open Rates
External Influencers
Image Blocking
Open
Rates
Open Rates
External Influencers
Open
Rates
Inbox Fatigue
Open Rates
External Influencers
Spam Concerns
Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 2005
Open
Rates
Open Rates
External Influencers
Preview Panes
Open
Rates
Open Rates –How to improve
Improving open rates takes time and a commitment to
respecting the lifetime value of your subscribers
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From Address & Name
• Friendly
• Consistent
Subject Line
• Branded
• Short (40 characters or less)
• Compelling, but not mis-leading
Frequency & Relevancy
List maintenance
Request address book placement
Click-through rate
 The percentage of people who click on a tracked link
in a message
• Click-through rates can be measured uniquely or in
aggregate
• Click-through rates can be measured as a percentage of
sent messages, or as a percent of opens (also called the
“effective rate”)
Average Click-through Rates
B-to-B
marketers
14%
Newsletter
marketers
14%
Promotional
marketers
12%
B-to-C
marketers
11%
12%
Overall
JupiterResearch, Email
Marketing Metrics
0%
5%
10%
15%
Conversion Rate
 The percentage of people who performed the call-toaction
 The most common way to measure this is by
passing parameters to a website
EX: If the recipient clicks from the email and makes it to
the target page (e.g., the “thanks for your purchase”
page, then a conversion has occurred
Average Conversion Rates
B-to-B
marketers
4%
Newsletter
marketers
Promotional
marketers
B-to-C
marketers
4%
3%
Overall
0%
JupiterResearch, Email
Marketing Metrics
4%
4%
5%
10%
15%
Bounce Rate
The number of messages that the Inbox provider entity
did not acknowledge receiving (they “bounced them
back”) divided by the number of messages sent
• Bounces can be caused by bad addresses, full mailboxes
or spam blocks
• Bounce rates are notoriously unreliable
Unsubscribe rate
Also known as the opt-out rate:
The percentage of recipients that unsubscribe from a
mailing, or over the course of a period
Quiz
Which measure is NOT useful for evaluating the
success of your email campaign:
a) Bounce rate
b) Unsubscribe rate
c) Open rate
d) Click-through rate
e) Conversion rate
Quiz
Unsubscribe rate is a terrible measure of email
success
 Bounce rate is useful for evaluating appends, list rentals or old
lists
 Open rate is useful for evaluating the combination of your
brand value and your subject line
 Click-through rate is valuable for evaluating your call-to-action
 Conversion rate measures success directly
Getting Started With Email Checklist
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In-house system versus Email Service Provider
Permission policy
List growth strategies
Determine messaging goals
• Promotional
• Sell product
• Drive traffic to site
• Drive Point of Sale traffic
• Informational
• Transactional
 Design messages and campaigns to achieve your goal
 Design test plans to evaluate your design, content, & offer
 Monitor tracking results and modify accordingly
Questions and Discussion
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 Contact Information:
Stephen Guerra
Email Communications Strategist
Silverpop
[email protected]
 Thank you for your participation