DESIGNING FOR YOUR SUBSCRIBERS - Tips and Tricks to Increase Email Marketing ROI

DESIGNING FOR YOUR SUBSCRIBERSTips and Tricks to Increase Email Marketing ROI

PERFORMANCE-DRIVEN DESIGN
Design is the visualization of a business plan. More than a pretty picture, great design requires an actionable plan and measureable goals.
Design should acknowledge the subscriber experience.Put yourself in your subscriber’s shoes and understand how they will interact with your communications.
Design and technology are seamlessly integrated.Emails should be designed and coded to display properly in the various ways a subscriber will view it. A comprehensive testing strategy is essential to ensure success.

AGENDA
Business Planning Checklist
Subscriber Experience
Performance Driven Design
Design Considerations
The Mobile Inbox
General Coding Considerations
What elements are supported in email?
Tools for creating HTML
Email client-specific recommendations

BUSINESS PLANNING CHECKLIST
Why are you sending this email?
Drive leads
Increase brand awareness
Who are you sending to, and what do you know about them?
Internal audience: sales reps and C-suite executives
External audience: subscriber behavior by segment
What do you want subscribers to do once they receive your email?
Register for a webinar
Read an article
How are you going to measure success?
Open/click data
Number of leads generated

SUBSCRIBER EXPERIENCE
Consider the entire subscriber experience – from first impression to final click.
Each individual phase influences the decision to open and engage with your email.
Your email design is experienced in stages – not as a static page.
FROM NAME
SUBJECT LINE
PREVIEW PANE
ABOVE THE FOLD
COMPLETE EMAIL
CLICK THROUGH

It all begins with theFrom Name –
73% of subscribers click “Report Spam” or “Report Junk” based on this field.
*Email Sender and Provider Coalition
FROM NAME
IS YOUR FROM
NAME EASILY
RECOGNIZABLE?

SUBJECT LINE
69% of subscribers click “Report Spam” or “Report Junk” based on this line.*
IS YOUR SUBJECT
LINE RELEVANT
AND INTERESTING?
*Email Sender and Provider Coalition

SUBJECT LINE
69% of subscribers click “Report Spam” or “Report Junk” based on this line.*
IS YOUR SUBJECT
LINE RELEVANT
AND INTERESTING?

Images are disabled by default more than 50% of the time.Isyourkey message visible, relevant and enticing in this space?
PREVIEW PANE: IMAGES OFF
WHAT IS YOUR
EMAIL SAYING
WITH IMAGES OFF?

PREVIEW PANE: IMAGES ON
What’s your open rate? Only subscribers that turn images on trigger an open.Are you giving them a reason to keep reading?
AVERAGE PREVIEW
PANE DIMENSIONS:
300px by 300px

CONSIDER THE SUBSCRIBER EXPERIENCE
Is this the message you want to convey?

ABOVE THE FOLD
Does your content above the fold provide motivation to respond? Are you persuading subscribers to scroll?
DON’T CRAM
EVERYTHING
ABOVE THE FOLD…
INTRODUCE CONTENT
ABOVE THE FOLD

COMPLETE EMAIL
Seconds – not minutes – to view an entire email
Only 11%* of those who open will scroll below the fold!
EVEN IN THIS VIEW
THE ENTIRE EMAIL IS NOT ONSCREEN AT ONCE
*The Nielsen Norman Group

Subscriber experience doesn’t end with the inbox
CLICK THROUGH
Don’t ignore the transition to your website, landing page, or other marketing collateral.
Ensure the products in your email are available on your site - better yet, map the individual products from the email to a product page.

Brand Synergy • Content Hierarchy•Visual Hierarchy Engagement Techniques • Rendering Results •Tested Quality
PERFORMANCE DRIVEN DESIGN

Website
Email
Visual recognition of the brand across all media channels creates a seamless brand experience, creating trust to engage and transact.
BRAND SYNERGY

Wireframe
Preview Pane
Above the Fold
Create a content hierarchy, arranging each content element (text and/or image) and associated call to action with appropriate weight.
CONTENT HIERARCHY

Headlines utilizing size and color hierarchy
Secondary calls-to-action
Primary call-to-action
Maximize response by creating a visual hierarchy, using design techniques to guide the subscriber's eye through your email based on the content hierarchy.
VISUAL HIERARCHY
“Quick Bites” or summaries

Preheader Teaser Text
Forward to a Colleague
In This Issue
Read More Link
Subscriber Q&A
Lifestyle Imagery
Use of Background Color
Link to External Video
Recovery Module
Use design techniques to engage the subscriber through a mix of emotive and rational imagery and content. Smart use of images, borders, buttons, links, charts, colored backgrounds, etc.should be applied and tested.
ENGAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Optimized Design
Non-optimized Design
Main call-to-action in prime placement
HTML text in
web safe fonts
If an email is created primarily with images,
it will not display effectively when images are blocked.
Designed with image-blocking and preview pane viewing in mind.
Ensure your design efforts are viewed as intended once they hit the inbox. Emails that are created with the subscriber experience in mind will have a greater chance of success.
RENDERING RESULTS

*Fingerprint from Litmus, February 2010
Only comprehensive testing will validate successful rendering of design and ensure functional performance prior to sending to the subscriber inbox.
TESTED QUALITY
*ExactTarget via Fingerprint from Litmus, Feb. 2010

NEWSLETTER DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Include a Table of Contents or In This Issue Section
Include a 3-4 sentence teaser for articles with a “Read More” link instead of including the full article
Introduce your main call-to-action within the preview pane and other important content above the fold
Develop a visual hierarchy for headings, subheading, and body copy for easy scan-ability
Use images selectively to eye track to engagement areas

POSTCARD DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Your message should have a singular focus; don’t let your postcard become a newsletter
Make that message the Hero in your design
Introduce your main call-to-action within the preview pane and other important content above the fold
Consider the placement and inclusion of secondary messaging that supports your main focus

TRANSACTIONAL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Position content front and center; keep it simple
Don’t include too much cross-sell information (follow the 70/30 rule)
Use a higher text to image ratio
Use font colors and sizes to create a visual hierarchy
Send a branded HTML email instead of Plain Text

THE MOBILE INBOX
Smartphone users use mobile email primarily for triage
There are no standards in place for displaying emails on smartphones
Most mobile devices display a “stripped down” version of the HTML portion of an email, NOT the plain-text version
Optimizing your emails with HTML text in web-safe fonts will benefit smartphone users as well
Consider including a link in your email to view a mobile friendly version of your email

DESIGN RESOURCES

EXACTTARGET DESIGN RESOURCES
Design Tipsfor Outlook 2007
Email MarketingDesign & Rendering:
The New Essentials
Email Design Checklist
Visit ExactTarget.com
To Download
These Resources
Email Designfor Lotus Notes
CareerBuilder.com
Case Study

EXACTTARGET DESIGN RESOURCES
Design Team Blog
New posts weekly!
blog.exacttarget.com
MarketingExperiments
Maximize Agency ROIthrough testing
Design Team Tweets
@ETDesign
twitter.com/etdesign

DESIGN CENTER ON 3SIXTY
Resources
FAQs
Creative Library
Template Source Code
Free Button Libraries
3sixty > University > Design Center

DESIGN SERVICES

EXACTTARGET DESIGN SERVICES
Performance & Design Assessment
Strategic Newsletter Design
Design Best Practices Training
Program-Specific Template Design
Branded Template Build
Custom Design Packages
Visit ExactTarget.com for more info!

THANK YOU!

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DESIGNING FOR YOUR SUBSCRIBERS - Tips and Tricks to Increase Email Marketing ROI

by ExactTarget on May 11, 2010

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