Getting the Most from Email Marketing

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Getting the Most from Email
Marketing presented by Rick
Vaughan Senior Vice President Metropolit
an Tucson CVB rvaughan_at_visittucson.org
Ryan George CEO simpleview,
inc rgeorge_at_simpleviewinc.com
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Introduction
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Overview

• Email is by far the most widely used application
  of Internet technology today and there is little
  question as to whether it should remain a
  critical component of your marketing efforts.
  However, spammers and junk mail have given this
  immediate, inexpensive and effective
  communication tool a bad name in recent years.
  This comprehensive session will help you

• Write and design great messages that increase
  response.
• Test and calculate email campaign ROI.
• Strengthen customer relationships and generate
  new leads.
• Understand personalization and dynamic campaigns.
• Distinguish yourselves from spammers as
  conscientious email marketers.

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Agenda

• Email Marketing Response Rates
• Deliverability
• BE RELEVANT
• Revenue generation opportunities
• Integration with other forms of media
• List management and growth strategies
• New technologies and rich media

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Email Response Rates
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Email Response Rates

• Why the decline?
• Image blocking technology OPEN RATES ARE
  OVEREMPHASIZED Focus on ENGAGEMENT (see
  attached)
• List fatigue
• Combat list fatigue by developing re-engagement
  strategies and keeping your lists segmented and
  clean
• Better click to open ratios
• If a user opens the email, they are more likely
  to click on an offer
• Who the email is from and the SUBJECT LINE play
  a crucial role
• Personalize senders
• Test different subject lines for the same email
• Pay attention to the rest of this presentation

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Email Response Rates

• Friday has the best open rates
• Strong open activity strong click activity
• Sunday had the highest click-through rate BUT BE
  CAREFUL
• Sunday varied wildly
• Study showed this was highest amongst BtoC NOT
  BtoB
• Study also showed higher click through in winter
  than in summer on weekends, presumably due to
  people spending more time outdoors on weekends in
  the summer and more time indoors in the winter

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Deliverability

• If you cant get in the inbox, you will FAIL very
  efficiently To avoid this, you must consider
  three variables that contribute to performance
• REPUTATION
• TECHNOLOGY
• DESIGN

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Deliverability

• REPUTATION Our sending reputation is based on an
  analysis of who youre sending to, what youre
  sending, and why youre sending it.
• Legal compliance (CAN-SPAM, EU, Canada, AU)
• Unsubscribe Request Vigilance (10 days)
• ISP Whitelisting and Complaint Feedback Loops
• Low Spam Complaints
• Avoiding Spamtrap Hits
• Hidden email addresses planted by ISPs for email
  harvesters
• An address that has been invalid for 18 months or
  an email address that bounces continuously for a
  period of time

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Deliverability

• TECHNOLOGY The case for Email Service Providers
  like ExactTarget, Constant Contact, iContact.
• Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
• Which IP addresses can send from which domains
• Domain Keys
• The authentication standard that signs each
  email with a private key matched to a public key
• Your IP Address
• Getting blacklisted can affect more than just
  marketing emails
• Sending Domain
• In name_at_domain.com the domain.com part is the
  domain. Since spammers jump around, the age of
  the domain plays a part in reputation
• Content Checkers!

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Deliverability

• DESIGN Security issues have caused software
  companies to limit the use of images, inline
  style sheets and other coding techniques that
  make emails pretty, so we must consider
• Handheld devices
• HTML vs. Text 50 of users have images blocked
  in emails by default
• Use ALT Tags
• Design Without Forms
• AVOID Rich Media and Animated GIFs
• Test, Test, Test
• Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Comcast, Mac, PC

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DeliverabilityDesign
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DeliverabilityDesign
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DeliverabilityDesign
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BE RELEVANT

• RELAVANCE is the most important aspect of email
  marketing. ANY time you send a mass email, you
  should consider the question, If I was the
  person receiving this email, would it benefit me
  in any way? Or, put another way, has the
  recipient expressed interest in the message you
  are delivering?
• Consider that relevance will increase NET
  campaign profits by 18 TIMES!
• It is not easy to be relevant. You must possess
  strong technology, real customer insight,
  timeliness and marketing expertise.
• Personalization of the recipient AND the sender
• Emails with centralized distribution and sender
  personalization for a sales person
• Use CRM, Web Analytics, and Profiling to be as
  RELEVANT as possible.

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BE RELEVANT
The WRONG way!
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BE RELEVANT
The RIGHT way!Tucson as a case study
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BE RELEVANT
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BE RELEVANT
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BE RELEVANT
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BE RELEVANT
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(No Transcript)
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BE RELEVANT
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BE RELEVANT
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Email as a revenue opportunity

• Given the strategies used to develop lists, the
  value brands place on these lists, and the target
  market information about customers contained
  therein The lists will become assets with value
  beyond their marketing uses. Again, BE CAREFUL!
• Uses of the list should not conflict with the
  products/ services you are offering
• Cannibalizing the list will lead to more opt-outs
  and degradation of REPUTATION
• In addition to being a trusted keeper of customer
  information, be leery of list acquisition
  programs where best practices are not followed

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Integration withother media

• While an email campaign in and of itself will
  drive results an integrated strategy that
  engages the market through at least three
  different channelswhile focused on one campaign
  message responsewill always out perform email
  alone.
• In the majority of cases, when three or more
  channels of communication are used, the response
  rate will increase by 500. This has also been
  true with traditional direct mail campaigns. The
  integration with broader awareness channels,
  builds an expectation/anticipation in the target
  markets for future direct (email/mail)
  communications.

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List management and growth strategies

• The average list one that has been developed by
  opt-in has a turnover rate of 25 annually due
  to unsubscribes and email addresses going bad
• One study by Jupiter Research stated that 40 of
  the people who use email change their email
  address at least once every six months
• Because of this, you must stay engaged in the
  process of list growth and when developing
  campaigns, you must make sure to address
  long-term strategies
• Co-registrations and list purchases are most
  effective when tied to the a relevant and
  specific promotion that goes hand-in-hand with
  the registration or originating purpose of that
  list
• Create opt-down vs. opt-out strategies using
  Preference Centers

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New technologiesand rich media
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Measuring ROI
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Measuring ROI
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Summary

• Know what to expect in terms of response rates
• Use appropriate technology to craft and send
  emails
• TEST, TEST, TEST
• Be RELEVANT
• Use CRM, Web Analytics and Profiling to segment
  your list
• Use new technologies where appropriate
• Questions?
• THANK YOU