Secrets To Email Marketing Success

Slide 1: Secrets to Email Marketing Success Stephan Spencer President, Internet Concepts sspencer@netconcepts.com www.netconcepts.com

Slide 2: Get Permission • Opt-in, not opt-out. Get recipient’s consent in advance! – Opt-in: recipient volunteered to receive your email – Opt-out: recipient didn’t 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

Slide 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 don’t misconstrue your message as spam

Slide 4: Distance Yourself from Spammers • Remind recipients that they’ve 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

Slide 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?

Slide 6: Privacy Policy • Builds trust • Address what you’ll be doing with the user’s 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 • Don’t revoke or weaken it once you’ve published it (Remember the hot water Amazon got into?)

Slide 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

Slide 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

Slide 9: 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 audience’s online community

Slide 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 forum’s non-commercial nature • Don’t blatantly advertise – Add value by answering questions in a vendor-neutral manner, then soft-sell solely through your \"signature\"

Slide 11: 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)

Slide 12: 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

Slide 13: Measure Success • Unsubscribe rate • Bounce rate • Unique open rate • Total open rate • Clickthrough rate – Can separate HTML vs. plaintext clickthroughs • Conversion rate

Slide 14: 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 recipient’s preview pane as he selects it just to delete it

Slide 15: Frequency • Depends on expectations of target audience • Email newsletters tend to be weekly or monthly • Monitor number/variety of contacts to avoid burnout

Slide 16: Timing • Tuesday through Thursday • 10am to 2pm • Varies depending on your audience

Slide 17: 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?

Slide 18: Spam Filters • Spam filters built in Outlook, Hotmail, AOL etc. • Corporate email firewalls • Don’t trip the spam filters – “Free”, “opt-in”, “!!!”, “forward to a friend”, etc. – ‘Bcc’ – ‘To’ line doesn’t include recipient’s email address – Scripts – Attachments

Slide 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 can’t 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

Slide 20: 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 don’t have enough differentiation to them

Slide 21: HTML Emails • Tables - to control placement & avoid long lines • Graphics - <30k, will cause the recipient grief if reading email while offline, increases download time • Color - color text or color a table background, doesn’t 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!

Slide 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

Slide 23: 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 recipient’s 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

Slide 24: Segment Your List • By demographics, psychographics, clickographics (visiting behavior and transaction history) • Target who’s most relevant, most profitable, or most likely to respond

Slide 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?

Slide 26: 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

Slide 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

Slide 28: 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

Slide 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)

Slide 30: 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

Slide 31: Further Reading • Successful Email Marketing by Debbie Mayo- Smith • Marketing With E-Mail by Shannon Kinnard • Permission Marketing by Seth Godin