Anatomy of an Email Newsletter--Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read

1
Anatomy of an
Email Newsletter
Getting Your Emails
Delivered and Read
http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com

2
Email Marketing
– According to 2011 Marketer’s Agenda by
Aberdeen Group, 74% of organizations with
less than 100 employees use email marketing
– Experian Marketing Services 2012 report
states that 61% of marketers reported that they
will pilot or increase their email efforts this year,
as well as 53% and 47% who will pilot or
increase social advertising and mobile app
efforts respectively.
– Who here sends email newsletters?
– How? service provider or regular email?
– Who is your service provider?
Source: 2011 Marketer’s Agenda by Aberdeen Group

3
Email Providers’ Sites
Great resource for white papers and e-seminars
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

4http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com
– Easy to Use and Saves me Time and Money
– Constant Contact user get
• 36% higher open rates (Aberdeen Group)
• 60% greater click-through (Aberdeen Group)
– Industry leader, serves 450,000+ small organizations
– They keep up with regulations, let me know about them
and customize their tools for compliance
– Templates professional and work across all platforms
– Spam ratings tools are included
– Social media is integrated
– Can track metrics for each email campaign
– Reasonably priced
– Wealth of training materials in their learning center
Source: Designs for Growth and : 2011 Marketer’s Agenda by Aberdeen Group

5
Regular Email vs.
Email Service Provider
Email marketing services
automate best practices
– Provide easy-to-use templates
– Reinforce brand identity
– Email addressed to recipient only
– Manage lists – add new
subscribers, handle bouncebacks,
remove unsubscribers
– Improve email delivery, track
results and obey the law
Source: Constant Contact, Inc.

6
Types of Email Newsletters
– Educational Answer question or solve problem
– Informational Short and don’t require recipient action:
webinar reminders, why someone should follow your
company on twitter, or wish "happy holiday”
– Promotional Get the recipient to take some action
around a new product, service, event, or special deal
– Lead Nurturing Correspond to the sales cycle, are
content-rich and try to get leads to take action
– Newsletter Sent once a month and includes a couple
of pieces of content you published
Goal: Build Relationships!
Source: HubSpot, Inc.

7
Retail
Educational, Informational, Promotional, Lead Nurturing, or Newsletter?
http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: Designs for Growth

8
1. The top left of an email is what
your customer sees first. It’s
where your logo should be.
2. The viewer’s eye then moves
right, in the direction we read
3. Product categories available is
listed underneath
4. Promotional offer is in the center
5. Offer time-sensitive sale
6. Free shipping included
7. Social media is included, many
brand put this at the top right
8. Bottom has address, disclaimer
and other store brands
Anatomy of
Promotional Newsletter
3
1 2
4
6
7
8
Source: Designs for Growth
5

9
Design Your Emails And Your Website in a Consistent Manner
Email Web
3
1
2
4
1
2
2
2
3
4
5
5
6
6

10
Your Email is Laid Out Now Let’s Get it Delivered
Decrease the Odds of Your Email Being Marked as SPAM
– Words to Avoid
– Subject Lines
– From Lines
– Spam Is in The Eye of the Receiver
• Recipient
• Email Service Provider
Source: Constant Contact, Inc. and Designs for Growth

11
Avoid Spam Trigger Words in Subject Lines
#1
100% satisfied
4U
Accept credit cards
Act Now!
Additional Income
Affordable
All natural
All new
Amazing
Apply online
Bargain
Best price
Billing address
Buy direct
Call
Call free
Can’t live without
Cards Accepted
Cents on the dollar
Check
Claims
Click / Click Here / Click
Below
Click to remove
Compare rates
Congratulations
Cost / No cost
Dear friend
Do it today
Extra income
For free
Form
Free and FREE
Free installation
Free leads
Free membership
Free offer
Free preview
Free website
Full refund
Get it now
Giving away
Guarantee
Here
Hidden
Increase sales
Increase traffic
Information you requested
Insurance
Investment / no investment
Investment decision
Legal
Lose
Marketing
Marketing solutions
Message contains
Money
Month trial offer
Name brand
Never
No gimmicks
No Hidden Costs
No-obligation
Now
Offer
One time / one-time
Opportunity
Order / Order Now / Order
today / Order status
Orders shipped by priority
mail
Performance
Phone
Please read
Potential earnings
Pre-approved
Price
Print out and fax
Profits
Real thing
Removal instructions
Remove
Risk free
Sales
Satisfaction guaranteed
Save $
Save up to
Search engines
See for yourself
Serious cash
Solution
Special promotion
Success
The following form
Unsolicited
Unsubscribe
Urgent
US dollars
Wife
Win
Winner
Work at home
Source: Mannix Marketing, Inc.

12
Use Power Words in Your Email Text
Management
Built
Demonstrated
Developed
Enhanced
Facilitated
Generated
Impacted
Implemented
Negotiated
Revitalized
Sales and Marketing
Closed
Collaborated
Delivered
Drove
Established
Generated
Increased
Presented
Prospected
Retained
Technical
Analyzed
Built
Consulted
Created
Escalated
Formatted
Integrated
Maintained
Programmed
Supported
Troubleshot
Academic
Applied
Authored
Counseled
Developed
Educated
Evaluated
Mentored
Nourished
Researched
Taught
Tutored
Healthcare
Assigned
Assessed
Assisted
Cared
Charged
Provided
Monitored
Nursed
Secured
Accounting
Analyzed
Audited
Justified
Verified
Prepared
Processed
Reported
Researched
Reviewed
Source: Mannix Marketing, Inc.

13
Yale University Identified 12 Words That
People Responded To The Most
1. Health
2. Money
3. Love
4. Safety
5. Save
6. New
7. Discovery
8. Breakthrough
9. Easy
10. Guarantee
11. Proven
12. You
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Marketing-the-13-Power-Words&id=140638
• These five words are basic
human desires.
• They register with peoples
emotions to cause
attention and response.
• Desires are junctions in our
deeper places that are
always ready to respond
to something.
• Any of these words, used
to describe benefits in a
promotion will draw
attention because they
“strike a nerve.”

14
1. Health
2. Money
3. Love
4. Safety
5. Save
6. New
7. Discovery
8. Breakthrough
9. Easy
10. Guarantee
11. Proven
12. You
• These three words help
basic human yearning in a
number of potential clients
to experience something
new.
• The first cause is boredom
• The second is a result of
self-image- wanting to be
perceived as “hip.”
• These terms should be
placed in an opening
statement or at an angle
for emphasis.

15
1. Health
2. Money
3. Love
4. Safety
5. Save
6. New
7. Discovery
8. Breakthrough
9. Easy
10. Guarantee
11. Proven
12. You
• These three words
instills a sense of
security, trust and
credibility.
• They imply that
people will not have
a problem with your
product or service,
nor will they be
disappointed.

16
1. Health
2. Money
3. Love
4. Safety
5. Save
6. New
7. Discovery
8. Breakthrough
9. Easy
10. Guarantee
11. Proven
12. You
• Because it’s always
about the customer

17Source: Experien The 2012 Digital Marketer
Top 25 Words Used in Email Subject Lines

18
Good Subject Lines
– Action-oriented Include action verb such as
learn, download, or sign up. Use an active tone.
– Compelling Include the email’s offer
– Consistent Because of preview, people see
subject line and the first sentence or two in the
email. Make both match.
– Short Keep under 45 characters
so viewers see entire subject line.
Put most important info first
in case subject line does
get cut off.
Source: HubSpot, Inc. and Constant Contact, Inc.
Emails with shorter
subject lines significantly
outperformed emails
with longer subject lines.
– MailerMailer (2008)

19
From Name & Email Address
– Use a name your audience recognizes
– Include your organization name or brand
– Refer to your business the same way as your audience
– Be consistent
• The “from” name and email address should be
consistent.
• Example, “from” name is: Christine Labate – Designs for
Growth
• “from” email address is christine@designsforgrowth.com
• Both match

20
Bad Email Subject Lines
Can get your emails caught by spam filters, not opened, or get
people to unsubscribe from your list.
AVOID:
X The words: free, guarantee, spam, credit card etc.
X ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
X Excessive punctuation !!!, ???
X Excessive use of “click here”
X $$, and other symbols
X No “From:” address
X Misleading subject lines
X Generic addresses like noreply@, sales@ and marketing@

21
Let’s Rate These

22
Email I Send Regarding
This Presentation
From: "Christine @ Designs for Growth”
Email: christine@designsforgrowth.com
Subject: Learn How to Get Your Emails
Delivered, Opened and Read
Better Subject Line?

23
Stats

24
Stats

25
Test Your Emails to Determine What Elements
Need to Change to Generate Better Results.
Why test?
– Increase your click-through rate
– Decrease your unsubscribe rate
Method–A/B Testing
– Send one email to 10% of your email list
– Change one element of this email and send to a
different 10% of your email list
– Determined which email performed better
– Send the remaining 80% of your list the better
performing email

26
Email Elements You Can Test
“From”➤ Name and From Address
• Remember to keep consistent
Subject Line
• Personalization, line length, call to action or wording
Email Design
• Bolding, capitalization, font size and color or images
Email Content
• Headlines, placement of content, call to action, type
of content, placement of social media links, number
of images (if any), number of links or length of email
Timing
• Day of week and time of day

27
When to Send, Day and Time
What day and time do you get the most emails?
– Monday mornings
When is your audience most likely to read it?
– When they get less email
• Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday
• 10am–3pm
• Sunday, mixed reviews
Test to confirm your audience is consistent with
industry standards
Source: Designs for Growth, Benchmark Email, HubSpot, Inc. and Constant Contact, Inc.

28
Formula for When to Send, Day and Time
The formula consists of four variables
– Recipient factor, Delivery duration, Queue factor and
ISP factor
• DOT – (IF + DD + QF) = ST
Where
• DOT = desired open time
IF = ISP factor
DD = delivery duration
QF = queue factor
ST = scheduler or send time
Example: 1 p.m. – (1 Hour + 1 Hour + 0.5 Hour) = 10:30 am
Source: G-Lock Software

29
Conduct an Email Send Frequency Test
A recent study from Constant Contact and Chadwick
Bailey reports that 69% of consumers who unsubscribe
from an email list do so because they're receiving too
many emails from the business.
– Let users know how often you will send emails when
they sign up
– If you are sending an extra email, let them know it won’t
be happening all the time
– The best way to stop guessing and start feeling
confident in your email schedule is to conduct an email
send frequency test.
– HOW?

30
How to Conduct an Email Send Frequency Test
Establish Baseline Metrics: Determine the metrics necessary to
determine success: open, deliverability, unsubscribe, or click-
through rates.
Create and Schedule Your Test Emails: Create a handful of test
emails to rotate through the list sample. Once you've created
the emails, schedule them for the sending frequency you
outlined in your hypothesis.
Measure and Analyze Results: Measure your results against
the hypotheses you established in the beginning and the
baseline results you recorded.
For a more in-depth explanation of how to conduct a test like
this, check out Hubspot’s five-step guide to determining your
optimal email frequency, which elaborates on the steps above.

34
The ROI of Video in Email Marketing
Tactics to Increase Email Marketing Revenue
by Forty Percent
Written by David Daniels, The Relevancy Group, LLC
Research Sponsored by StreamSend
Executive Summary
Consumers are flocking to online video, watching more than four billion
videos on YouTube each day. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, smartphones
now match desktops and laptops as a video delivery device, facilitating the
ability to stream video in email and other message formats.
In a survey of 266 marketing executives, The Relevancy Group found that
twenty-five percent of email marketers are currently utilizing video in email.
Our survey found that marketers that utilize video in email have increased
their click-through and conversion rates, and are generating forty percent
higher monthly revenue than those that do not use video. To execute video
in email effectively, ensure that videos have the ability to be configured
with call-to-action links, sharing mechanisms and auto-responders.

35
Marketers Who Plan to Use Video
in Email Marketing
Yes
No

38
Marketers who Plan to Use Video
in Future for Email Marketing
Not Likely
Likely
Very Likely

39
Case Studies
from Which Test Won

40
Which Landing Page Increased Sales – Video vs Copy
http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: http://whichtestwon.com/webroot’s-landing-page-test

41
Actual Test Results:
VIDEO significantly increased sales.
Other Factors: Credibility: Badges icon
above the fold are more visible and have
higher-impact. Cleaner Design: A lot of the
clutter that was caused by all of the
descriptive text

42
Which Landing Page Increased Sales –
Guarantee vs no-Guaranty

43
Version B, the header variation with
copy reading ‘100% Satisfaction
Guarantee’ increased sales by 15.11%
at a 96% confidence rate. This was a
remarkable gain given both how busy
the header already was, and the lack of
contrast between the color of guarantee
copy and the background color.

44
Brand Authentication vs Price Guarantee:
Which Version Got 107% More Online Sales?

45
Version A, the brand authentication
element, increased sales over the low
price guarantee by 107% at a 95%
confidence rate. This was a clean
A/B test; no other aspects on the page
were changed.
This test gave insights into what shoppers
believed to be most important. If you’re
optimizing sales for an ecommerce site
where the product brands are more
famous than the site brand, perhaps you
should be touting the product brands more
than your own.

46
Ecommerce Store Page Template Radical Redesign Test
http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: http://whichtestwon.com/thundershirt’s-product-page-test-results

47
Version B resulted in a substantial
increase in purchases because of
removing extraneous navigation,
increasing image size and clarifying the
order process.
http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: http://whichtestwon.com/thundershirt’s-product-page-test-results

49
Version B, with the marketing-style
header lifted unique purchases by
22%, total revenue by 9% and
average order value by 7%.
Nitro PDF, a provider of software to
create, edit, sign, and secure PDF
files, conducted this test in-house
using their ecommerce provider
Cleverbridge’s MVT lab. All traffic to
this page were trial users who had
already downloaded and been using
the software. At the 14-day mark of
their free accounts, the software
prompted them to buy a license key…
so they wound up in this cart.

50
Who Has a Question that
May Apply to Everyone
in this Group

Anatomy of an Email Newsletter--Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Anatomy of an Email Newsletter--Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read

Similar to Anatomy of an Email Newsletter--Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read (20)

More from Christine Labate

More from Christine Labate (7)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Anatomy of an Email Newsletter--Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read