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

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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"

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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)

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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

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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

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Timing

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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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)

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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

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Further Reading

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