Email Marketing

Improving Email Campaigns Getting Results from Email Marketing

Agenda
Why Email Marketing?
Best Practices for Email Design
Testing Tools
Building HTML Emails
Campaign Examples
Discussion

Why Email Marketing?
Improve E-commerce
Target specific areas of a site
Increase conversion (sales)
Time Offers
Offer subscriber only discounts and benefits
Increase Brand Awareness
Build Trust
Relevance
Target specific groups through segmentation

What’s Measured?
Delivery Rate
Total number of emails sent
Does NOT mean “delivered to inbox”
Bounces
Hard and soft bounces
Open Rate (20-25%)
Total number of HTML emails opened
Excluding text emails, very misleading metric
Unique Click Through (3-7%)
Percentage of unique clicks on an email
Good metric to use
Conversions
Ultimate metric, with help from web analytics

Subject Lines
Very important
Influence open rates
Open rates decline (average 20-25%)
Declining open rates increase importance
Attention Grabbing Creative
Avoid spam key words
Buy, Sale, $, !, ALL CAPS
40-50 Characters

From Lines
Also important
Signify a trusted source
Branding important
Good: Rosetta, Rosetta.com

Examples: From / Subject Gmail Yahoo Webmail

HTML Design
Trust is a major factor
Logo identity placement important
Personalization is a plus
Ex: Dear Jane Smith,
Message must be discernible even if images are disabled

HTML Design
Layout Tips
Avoid long message with scrolling
Keep design within 650 pixels wide
Keep total email including images around 100k in file size
Optimize Images
JPEG : 40-50 compression
GIF : 32-64 colors
“ Call-to-action” above the fold and generally in the center or to the left of the email

Where is the Fold?
Depends
Generally 300-400 pixels down from the top depending on individual email viewer settings
Web mail can increase width and height slightly
Test designs to improve results

Content
Message and Links
Use links within body copy as a backup to buttons
Use white space effectively
Think billboard advertising
Keep subject, headings and copy consistent with message
Avoid Flash or audio inside emails
Move Flash or rich media to a landing page

Design Challenges
Outlook 2007
No Longer uses IE as a rendering engine
Word 2007 as a rendering engine
Lacks good CSS support
Lotus Notes
Strips out most CSS
Requires strict HTML 4 coding
Gmail
Removes most CSS
Strict SPAM filtering

Building Email HTML
Browsers / Viewers
Outlook
Yahoo Webmail
Gmail
Hotmail
AIM
Free Email Testing Services
http://www.campaignmonitor.com
http://www.litmusapp.com

Building Email HTML
More Robust Service
http://www.exacttarget.com
Capabilities
Dynamic Content
Templates
Team Development
Segmentation
List Management
Advanced Web Site API

Building Email HTML
Why not just slice and send?
Relies too much on ALT text for "call-to-action"
Many recipients never enable images
Decreases total delivered emails
Flagged as spam

Building Email HTML
Code email as “old school” HTML
Use strict HTML 4 coding
Avoid CSS formatting
Use short “call-to-action”
ALT tag “call-to-action” for images and buttons
Use spacer images for specific pixel layout
Break design out into HTML as much as possible
Optimize images for best delivery results

Building Email HTML
Markup Tips
HTML Layout
<table>
Specify widths, image sizes
Avoid cellspacing and cellpadding
Use spacer images
Fonts, Colors and Styles
<font>
<i>
<strong>

Branding Personalization Call to Action Spacer?! Banner?! [comp]?! Site Service, Spam Compliance Example Email (open)

Example Email (w/ images enabled) Personalization Call to Action Site Service, Spam Compliance Branding

Email View on Click (1024 x 768)

Email View w/ Images Enabled (1024 x 768)

Crate & Barrel in Gmail

Sanjaya-ize Viral Campaign Released on August 20th 494 Senders (Forwards) 772 Friends

Discussion / Sources
http://www.emaillabs.com/tools/
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/
http://www.clickz.com
http://www.exacttarget.com
http://www.forrester.com

Email Marketing

by shecking on Nov 11, 2008

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Email Marketing — Presentation Transcript