Email Marketing Life Cycles
Better Results from Email Marketing:
Some ideas, experiences and examples
Sam Michel
sam@chinwag.com
http://www.chinwag.com
Eturundus! 5
Tallinn, 13th April 2006

Chinwag
• Chinwag was founded in 1996
• uk-netmarketing
– UK’s oldest forum for new media marketers
• Operates in three areas:
– Email-based community forums & resources
– Chinwag Jobs - specialist recruitment website
– Digital Marketing Consultancy
• Consultancy clients:
– MSN UK, BBC, Arsenal FC
– Focus on email marketing & eCRM
2/17

Email Marketing Activities
Direct Marketing Association UK
http://www.dma.org.uk/content/Rsr-Introduction.asp?grp=8
3/17

User Journey
• Opt-in/Subscribe
• Receiver
• Responder Analyse
– Newbie
Roll Out Plan
– Mature Subscriber
• Unsubscribe Test
– Or worse, ‘ignore’
4/17

Little Changes Add Up
• Micro-Persuasion
• Resource always an issue
• Don’t tackle too much
Call to Action
by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg
http://www.grokdotcom.com
5/17

For example?
• Email subscription form
– Easy? Obvious? Informative?
– Is it on your homepage?
– This is FREE MONEY!
• And the “Thank You” page?
– Cross-sell
– User feedback
– How did you hear about us?
6/17

MSN UK Example
• User benefits
• What & when
• Example copy
• Prepares user for Microsoft
Passport sign-up
• Result:
– 10% increase in sign ups
7/17

No Spam Thanks
• Why Permission is Important
– Trust
– Brand/customer loyalty
– Legal issues
– Deliverability
– Blacklists & collaborative filters
– Poor conversion
Permission Marketing by
Seth Godin
http://www.sethgodin.com/permission/
8/17

Subject Lines
• Think like a tabloid headline writer
9/17

British Tabloid Headlines
10/17

Subject Lines
• Think like a tabloid headline writer
• First 50 characters most important
• Fight for attention
• No open = Wasted Opportunity
• Playboy TV Newsletter
– Funny Subject Lines = Better open rates
11/17

Some UK Examples
– Lastminute.com (quality editorial)
• http://www.lastminute.com
– Game (integration with website)
• http://www.game.net
– Innocent Smoothies (brand extension)
• http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk
– Holy Moly (email-driven & editorial)
• http://www.holymoly.co.uk
– Rocking Vicar (long text-only quality)
• http://www.rockingvicar.com
12/17

Testing & Segmentation
• More testing = better results
• Advanced testing = even better results
• Test, test, test…
– From address
– Subject lines
– Copy: length, links, style
– Layout: single column, pictures
– Frequency: hourly, daily, weekly monthly
– Day-part: time, day of week, day of month
– Behavioural: response, purchase, recency
13/17

Knowing Your Audience
• No pics, sorry
• Advent calendar
– Right time, right place, right hand?
– Daily email from Playboy Bunnies
– Drive trials and paid subs
• Stats from campaign
– 98% open rate
– 45% click-through rate
– 30% free trial offer
– Trial converts @ ~35%
– On Christmas Day!
14/17

Is It Working?
• What should I measure?
– Focus on the right statistics
• Long-term vs. short-term
– small clickthrough now
– but lifetime value?
• Audience surveys
– easy with email
http://www.sherpastore.com/c/a.pl?1047&p.cfm/1976
15/17

The Future…
Or at least some guesses on my part…
• RSS – not an email killer…yet
• Delivery/spam still a big problem
– Goodmail/Habeas/Bonded Sender
• Very sophisticated testing
– Multi-variate/Taguchi method tests
– Better data = better, testing = better results
• New email readers, new challenges
– E.g. Hotmail Live
16/17

Thanks
Any questions?
…or email me later if you prefer.
sam@chinwag.com
17/17