Transcript Email Marketing

Getting Started with Email Marketing
by Stephan Spencer,
Founder & President of Netconcepts
© 2006 Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Poll Question #1
 What is your level of experience with email marketing,
on a scale from 1 to 5?
 (1=Never done it, 5=Expert)
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Poll Question #2
 What are your most pressing concerns about email
marketing? Check all that apply:
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Getting and keeping permission
Getting the right offer
Targeting the right audience
Copywriting
Design
Tracking & reporting
Getting it to “go viral”
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Why Market via Email?
 Critical mass: reaches 93% of internet users
(Jupiter Research)
 Response rates: 10x greater than direct mail
(DMA)
 Lower costs: 1/10 the cost per communication
(Andersen)
 Relationship builder: 80% of visitors never return
(eMarketer)
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Reaching Today’s Consumer
 Corporate scandals erode trust
 Growing marketing resistance
 Receives 100 emails a day
(10-20 from people you know)
 Want to be treated as people, not a mass market
 Spam is in the eye of the beholder
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Coping with the Deluge
 32% of email messages are official SPAM
(Radicati Group)
 Costs $8.9 billion in lost productivity annually
(Ferris Research)
 Spam filters in Outlook, Hotmail, AOL etc.; Anti-spam
tools at the ISPs; Corporate email firewalls
 15% of permission-based marketing messages are
wrongly blocked (Assurance Systems)
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(Nothing
reeks of
SPAM
more than
a message
claiming
not to be
SPAM.)
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Define Business Objectives
 Audience
– Prospects, customers, advocates, partners
 Goals
– Registrations, Signups, Sales
 Content
– Newsletter, Promotions, Reminders, Invitations
 Metrics
– Click through, Registration, Visits, Booking/Purchase
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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 don’t misconstrue your message as
spam
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Get Permission
 Opt-in, not opt-out. Get recipient’s consent in advance!
– Opt-in: recipient volunteered to receive your email
– Opt-out: recipient didn’t 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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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?
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Privacy Policy
 Builds trust
 Address what you’ll be doing with the user’s
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
 Don’t revoke or weaken it once you’ve published it
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Distance Yourself from Spammers
 Remind recipients that they’ve given you permission to
contact them
 Provide an easy way to unsubscribe
– Unsubscribe urban legend
 Be sure reply works
 Have it signed by a real person
 Publish and abide by a strict privacy policy
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
(Thanks United.
You make it oh-soeasy to unsubscribe.)
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Be REAL!
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Develop a voice and unique personality
Relate to their problem
First few lines are key (WIIFM)
The ‘gift of education’
Be honest. Full disclosure - No hidden advertorials
Avoid ‘chest pounding’ and promotions
People trust people, not marketing speak
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
(Lands’ End’s
relaxed tone
and voice
match the
brand.
Newsletter
delivers
entertainment
value – not just
product
promotions)
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Attention to Detail
 Shoddy workmanship in your email campaign reflects
poorly on your business
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Typos & grammatical errors
Getting the facts wrong
Formatting problems
Otherwise illegible (font size too small etc.) or unintelligible
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(Typos AND broken links –
in a newsletter from an email
marketing agency, no less!)
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(Jupiter should have tested
on multiple email clients.)
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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
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© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Above All, 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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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 audience’s online community
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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 forum’s non-commercial nature
 Don’t blatantly advertise
– Add value by answering questions in a vendor-neutral
manner, then soft-sell solely through your "signature"
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Signature Line
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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)
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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 & 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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Measure Success
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Unsubscribe rate
Bounce rate
Unique open rate
Total open rate
Clickthrough rate
– Can separate HTML vs. plaintext clickthroughs
 Conversion rate
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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 recipient’s preview
pane as he selects it just to delete it
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Frequency
 Depends on expectations of target audience
 Email newsletters tend to be weekly or monthly
 Monitor number/variety of contacts to avoid burnout
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Timing
 Tuesday through Thursday?
 10am to 2pm?
 Varies depending on your audience!
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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?
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Spam Filters
 Spam filters built in Outlook, Hotmail, AOL etc.
 Corporate email firewalls
 Don’t trip the spam filters
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“Free”, “opt-in”, “!!!”, “forward to a friend”, etc.
‘Bcc’
‘To’ line doesn’t include recipient’s email address
Scripts
Attachments
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Check Your ‘Spam Score’
 Do it BEFORE sending
 Built into some email services (like GravityMail)
 Or, free tool available from
www.gravitymail.com/spamscore.php
– Aim for < 5 SpamAssassin points
– Note: This tool is only indicative. Not everyone’s using
SpamAssassin to filter spam. Other filters will interpret your
campaign differently.
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Name that SPAM!
 Play our email filter game!
 The Rules:
– Point out things in the email campaign that caused it to be
unceremoniously junked by SpamAssassin
– Must be something that’s displayed on the slide
– The thing must be worth at least 0.4 points
– See how many problems you can find
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© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
6.2 / 5.0
2 things
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9.9 / 5.0
3 things
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5.5 / 5.0
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2 things
HTML vs. Plain Text
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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 can’t do HTML, e.g. Outlook 95
“Sniff” for HTML open or send multiple versions multipart
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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 don’t have enough
differentiation to them
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
HTML Emails
 Tables - to control placement & avoid long lines
 Graphics - <30k, will cause the recipient grief if reading email
while offline, increases download time
 Color - color text or color a table background, doesn’t 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!
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Your Database
 Collect more than just the email address
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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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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 recipient’s 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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
(Oops! That’s
not my name!)
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Segment Your List
 By demographics, psychographics, clickographics
(visiting behavior and transaction history)
 Target who’s most relevant, most profitable, or most
likely to respond
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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?
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Test, Test, Test!
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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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Test, Test, Test!
 Track response rates of each test by making call-toaction 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
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
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. GravityMail
(www.gravitymail.com)
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
In Summary
 Your subscribers listen to WII-FM
 Regular contact is required to stand out
 A lot of variables to get right
– Such as frequency, length, content
 Now you know how to get permission, build your
database, personalize, segment, test, measure success
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Further Reading
 Successful Email Marketing by Debbie Mayo-Smith
 Marketing With E-Mail by Shannon Kinnard
 Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com
Thank You!
 It’s time for some Q & A!
© Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com