28. Poor Design &
Bad Content
Users Want
• Applicability to their situation
29. Poor Design &
Bad Content
Users Want
• Applicability to their situation
• A quick loading email
30. Poor Design &
Bad Content
Users Want
• Applicability to their situation
• A quick loading email
• Brevity and the ability to
scan important points of
interest
31. Poor Design &
Bad Content
Users Want
• Applicability to their situation
• A quick loading email
• Brevity and the ability to
scan important points of
interest
• The EASY ability to
unsubscribe
81. connect and follow
• www.FatAtom.com
• www.ToddMuffley.com
• www.TheNakedEntrepreneurs.com
82. connect and follow
• www.FatAtom.com
• www.ToddMuffley.com
• www.TheNakedEntrepreneurs.com
• Twitter - @ToddMuffley and #FatAtom
83. connect and follow
• www.FatAtom.com
• www.ToddMuffley.com
• www.TheNakedEntrepreneurs.com
• Twitter - @ToddMuffley and #FatAtom
enough about me...
questions anyone?
Editor's Notes
Why is email dead? It isn’t. The way some of use email is though. \n\nEmail use in the “new world” is alive and well and will be for many years to come.\n\nDid you know that more than 90% of online consumers check their email at lease one time per day and 77% say that email is their preferred channel for receiving permission based promotion messages. With statistics like that, I know you will agree that businesses will continue to use email to market their goods and services. \n\nBut the days of “set it and forget it” email marketing are over. Performing what I call “check mark email marketing” or the act of email marketing without thought to content, design and your list...is no longer good enough. \n
So today I want to share with you 5 things that will ruin your next email campaign. I want to debunk 4 email myths and then give you 3 tips for running a wildly successful email campaign. Are you ready?\n
The first thing that will ruin your next email campaign is .... Deliverability, or lack thereof.\n\n
Latest stats on delivery - from Return Path - their Global Email Deliverability Report, second half of 2011 - Deliverability a bigger challenge for commercial email senders with only 76.5% of email being delivered to the Inbox. \n\nWhat can you do to help your emails make it into the Inbox of your prospect or client?\n\nPermission - How do you define permission? Simply, it is giving consent or authorization. This is typically done in the email world via the process called - Opt-in and it’s step brother, Double Opt-in. (discuss each)\n\nEmail Address - How many people here have more than one email address? How many have a “junk” address that you use? Asking for “real” or “primary” address versus just asking for an email address is important. You would be surprised by asking for a primary email address that you will get it more than not.\n\nList Maintenance - This is crucial to the health of your email marketing. Just like up keeping your lawn, you need to weed your list from time to time. Don’t be afraid to remove email addresses from your list that haven’t opened an email in over 4 months, or that have had 3 soft bounces over a 30 day period. And always, always always remove hard bounces from your list immediately. \n\nMessage format - Internet Service Providers are more likely to block or move to SPAM emails that are 90-100% HTML based...it is my recommendation to use a healthy balance of Text and HTML. Think of it this way. If you are going to send an email out, make sure it looks good when images are “turned off”... Check out my weekly Hilton email....yuck. \n
Latest stats on delivery - from Return Path - their Global Email Deliverability Report, second half of 2011 - Deliverability a bigger challenge for commercial email senders with only 76.5% of email being delivered to the Inbox. \n\nWhat can you do to help your emails make it into the Inbox of your prospect or client?\n\nPermission - How do you define permission? Simply, it is giving consent or authorization. This is typically done in the email world via the process called - Opt-in and it’s step brother, Double Opt-in. (discuss each)\n\nEmail Address - How many people here have more than one email address? How many have a “junk” address that you use? Asking for “real” or “primary” address versus just asking for an email address is important. You would be surprised by asking for a primary email address that you will get it more than not.\n\nList Maintenance - This is crucial to the health of your email marketing. Just like up keeping your lawn, you need to weed your list from time to time. Don’t be afraid to remove email addresses from your list that haven’t opened an email in over 4 months, or that have had 3 soft bounces over a 30 day period. And always, always always remove hard bounces from your list immediately. \n\nMessage format - Internet Service Providers are more likely to block or move to SPAM emails that are 90-100% HTML based...it is my recommendation to use a healthy balance of Text and HTML. Think of it this way. If you are going to send an email out, make sure it looks good when images are “turned off”... Check out my weekly Hilton email....yuck. \n
Latest stats on delivery - from Return Path - their Global Email Deliverability Report, second half of 2011 - Deliverability a bigger challenge for commercial email senders with only 76.5% of email being delivered to the Inbox. \n\nWhat can you do to help your emails make it into the Inbox of your prospect or client?\n\nPermission - How do you define permission? Simply, it is giving consent or authorization. This is typically done in the email world via the process called - Opt-in and it’s step brother, Double Opt-in. (discuss each)\n\nEmail Address - How many people here have more than one email address? How many have a “junk” address that you use? Asking for “real” or “primary” address versus just asking for an email address is important. You would be surprised by asking for a primary email address that you will get it more than not.\n\nList Maintenance - This is crucial to the health of your email marketing. Just like up keeping your lawn, you need to weed your list from time to time. Don’t be afraid to remove email addresses from your list that haven’t opened an email in over 4 months, or that have had 3 soft bounces over a 30 day period. And always, always always remove hard bounces from your list immediately. \n\nMessage format - Internet Service Providers are more likely to block or move to SPAM emails that are 90-100% HTML based...it is my recommendation to use a healthy balance of Text and HTML. Think of it this way. If you are going to send an email out, make sure it looks good when images are “turned off”... Check out my weekly Hilton email....yuck. \n
Latest stats on delivery - from Return Path - their Global Email Deliverability Report, second half of 2011 - Deliverability a bigger challenge for commercial email senders with only 76.5% of email being delivered to the Inbox. \n\nWhat can you do to help your emails make it into the Inbox of your prospect or client?\n\nPermission - How do you define permission? Simply, it is giving consent or authorization. This is typically done in the email world via the process called - Opt-in and it’s step brother, Double Opt-in. (discuss each)\n\nEmail Address - How many people here have more than one email address? How many have a “junk” address that you use? Asking for “real” or “primary” address versus just asking for an email address is important. You would be surprised by asking for a primary email address that you will get it more than not.\n\nList Maintenance - This is crucial to the health of your email marketing. Just like up keeping your lawn, you need to weed your list from time to time. Don’t be afraid to remove email addresses from your list that haven’t opened an email in over 4 months, or that have had 3 soft bounces over a 30 day period. And always, always always remove hard bounces from your list immediately. \n\nMessage format - Internet Service Providers are more likely to block or move to SPAM emails that are 90-100% HTML based...it is my recommendation to use a healthy balance of Text and HTML. Think of it this way. If you are going to send an email out, make sure it looks good when images are “turned off”... Check out my weekly Hilton email....yuck. \n
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The second thing that will ruin your next email campaign is being labeled a SPAMMER.\n
Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages per day or 45% of our email! And not one person likes it! \n\nAre you a spammer? Someone who sends &#x201C;unsolicited bulk email&#x201D;?\nWhat is your companies email marketing policy? Do you even have one?\n\n< my story - about when I owned &#x201C;Instant Email and direct mail >\n\nWant to see great stats on email and spam? check out www.emailstatcenter.com but remember what Mark Twain said - &#x201C;There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.&#x201D; \n\n\n
Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages per day or 45% of our email! And not one person likes it! \n\nAre you a spammer? Someone who sends &#x201C;unsolicited bulk email&#x201D;?\nWhat is your companies email marketing policy? Do you even have one?\n\n< my story - about when I owned &#x201C;Instant Email and direct mail >\n\nWant to see great stats on email and spam? check out www.emailstatcenter.com but remember what Mark Twain said - &#x201C;There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.&#x201D; \n\n\n
Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages per day or 45% of our email! And not one person likes it! \n\nAre you a spammer? Someone who sends &#x201C;unsolicited bulk email&#x201D;?\nWhat is your companies email marketing policy? Do you even have one?\n\n< my story - about when I owned &#x201C;Instant Email and direct mail >\n\nWant to see great stats on email and spam? check out www.emailstatcenter.com but remember what Mark Twain said - &#x201C;There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.&#x201D; \n\n\n
Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages per day or 45% of our email! And not one person likes it! \n\nAre you a spammer? Someone who sends &#x201C;unsolicited bulk email&#x201D;?\nWhat is your companies email marketing policy? Do you even have one?\n\n< my story - about when I owned &#x201C;Instant Email and direct mail >\n\nWant to see great stats on email and spam? check out www.emailstatcenter.com but remember what Mark Twain said - &#x201C;There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.&#x201D; \n\n\n
The third thing that will ruin your next email campaign is NOT TESTING!\n
Basic testing allows you to proof content and check that your links are working right. Most Email Service Providers have tools that allow you to view how your email looks when it is delivered...if yours doesn&#x2019;t, consider Litmus.com. \n\n
Basic testing allows you to proof content and check that your links are working right. Most Email Service Providers have tools that allow you to view how your email looks when it is delivered...if yours doesn&#x2019;t, consider Litmus.com. \n\n
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Other tests you can perform easily are A/B testing on Subject line, content/messaging/offers, best day to send an email and best time. \n\nEMAIL TEST STORY - &#x201C;what is the best day to send an email?&#x201D;\n\nMusic 44 88K list size - split into 7 random segments - delivered at 7am, 7 days a week to see what day got us the most revenue....Saturday won...BIG\n
I lumped these next two things that will ruin your next email campaign together....Poor Design and Bad Content.\n
Users want:\nSending relevant emails - make sure the message fits the receiver...\nA quick loading email - have you ever clicked an email and waited...waited...and finally hit delete? Load time does matter!\nOn average, most people receive over 75 emails a day. Having an email that is designed in such a way that is brief and to the point, as well as being visually engaging, is more important now than it has ever been.\nLastly, make is easy for someone to say goodbye. Who has had trouble unsubscribing from an email you signed up? I get an email from a company and I cannot get off their list....it kills me to hit delete...about 3 times a week....but I do...and I am frustrated...and I hate them.\nWithout applying these ideas to your next email campaign, users will become frustrated and this frustration can have an adverse affect on your brand.\n\n\n
Users want:\nSending relevant emails - make sure the message fits the receiver...\nA quick loading email - have you ever clicked an email and waited...waited...and finally hit delete? Load time does matter!\nOn average, most people receive over 75 emails a day. Having an email that is designed in such a way that is brief and to the point, as well as being visually engaging, is more important now than it has ever been.\nLastly, make is easy for someone to say goodbye. Who has had trouble unsubscribing from an email you signed up? I get an email from a company and I cannot get off their list....it kills me to hit delete...about 3 times a week....but I do...and I am frustrated...and I hate them.\nWithout applying these ideas to your next email campaign, users will become frustrated and this frustration can have an adverse affect on your brand.\n\n\n
Users want:\nSending relevant emails - make sure the message fits the receiver...\nA quick loading email - have you ever clicked an email and waited...waited...and finally hit delete? Load time does matter!\nOn average, most people receive over 75 emails a day. Having an email that is designed in such a way that is brief and to the point, as well as being visually engaging, is more important now than it has ever been.\nLastly, make is easy for someone to say goodbye. Who has had trouble unsubscribing from an email you signed up? I get an email from a company and I cannot get off their list....it kills me to hit delete...about 3 times a week....but I do...and I am frustrated...and I hate them.\nWithout applying these ideas to your next email campaign, users will become frustrated and this frustration can have an adverse affect on your brand.\n\n\n
Users want:\nSending relevant emails - make sure the message fits the receiver...\nA quick loading email - have you ever clicked an email and waited...waited...and finally hit delete? Load time does matter!\nOn average, most people receive over 75 emails a day. Having an email that is designed in such a way that is brief and to the point, as well as being visually engaging, is more important now than it has ever been.\nLastly, make is easy for someone to say goodbye. Who has had trouble unsubscribing from an email you signed up? I get an email from a company and I cannot get off their list....it kills me to hit delete...about 3 times a week....but I do...and I am frustrated...and I hate them.\nWithout applying these ideas to your next email campaign, users will become frustrated and this frustration can have an adverse affect on your brand.\n\n\n
Email myths...yes, they still exist. But let&#x2019;s &#x201C;debunk&#x201D; four right now....first...ANIMATION use in email.\n
Animated GIF&#x2019;s are universally recognized by all major email clients except for Outlook 2007. Holding true to its reputation as the bane of every HTML designer's existence, Outlook 2007 will only display the first frame of an animated GIF. While this is hardly a deal breaker, it does mean that the first frame of your animation should communicate your intended message clearly for Outlook users. So if you were planning a fancy reveal in the animation's final frames, you may want to think through your animation carefully to make sure the takeaway isn't lost on Outlook users.\n
CUSP - Neiman Marcus email....Also check out Urban Outfitters who is know to use animated GIF&#x2019;s well.\n
Animated GIF&#x2019;s are universally recognized by all major email clients except for Outlook 2007. Holding true to its reputation as the bane of every HTML designer's existence, Outlook 2007 will only display the first frame of an animated GIF. While this is hardly a deal breaker, it does mean that the first frame of your animation should communicate your intended message clearly for Outlook users. So if you were planning a fancy reveal in the animation's final frames, you may want to think through your animation carefully to make sure the takeaway isn't lost on Outlook users.\n
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So be creative...use Animated GIF&#x2019;s to draw attention to something you want to highlight in an email or grab someone&#x2019;s attention...\n
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The second myth I want to debunk is, BIGGER IS BETTER....when it comes to email list size.\n\n
Your list size does not always dictate your success. Now, I have nothing against big lists, but size should never be used as a KPI.\nWhat would you rather have? 300 email addresses of mad raving fans of your brand or 3000 email addresses of people who are ambivalent to your brand?\n\n
Your list size does not always dictate your success. Now, I have nothing against big lists, but size should never be used as a KPI.\nWhat would you rather have? 300 email addresses of mad raving fans of your brand or 3000 email addresses of people who are ambivalent to your brand?\n\n
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As the clip shows, quality over quantity. Like I said, I would much rather have 300 email subscribers who are engaged with my brand than 3000 that are pass&#xE9; about it. \n\nThe key is, you should think in terms of relationships, not subscribers. In my opinion, a relationship is 10 times more valuable over just an email address.\n
Lastly, I bundled these two together. The Myth that you can send email to often and that having people unsubscribe to your list is a bad thing.\n
But how do I know how much is too much?\nThat is the million dollar question with no definite answer. It depends on each customer &#x2013; while 5 emails per month may be an overload for me, someone else may want to read more. Thus, it&#x2019;s important to study the behavior of your audience&#x2019;s interaction with your emails. Here are a few numbers to study:\n\nOpen rate: If you send emails at a higher frequency, does the open rate % increase or decrease? If people aren&#x2019;t opening your message, that&#x2019;s could be a sign of a major problem.\nClick-through rate: If you try reducing your email frequency and load the message with more content, how does this affect the amount of clicks through the email?\nConversion rate: Study the amount of sales your online store directly receives from your email messages. Does this fluctuate as your frequency changes?\n\nFinal thought - RESULTS should dictate your email frequency and nothing else!\n\nWhat&#x2019;s the second best thing a prospective client can say to you on a sales call? Answer = NO ! The same holds true for your email list. It&#x2019;s ok for people to say goodbye...as stated before, just make sure you make it easy for them...they may come back at a later date.\n\n
But how do I know how much is too much?\nThat is the million dollar question with no definite answer. It depends on each customer &#x2013; while 5 emails per month may be an overload for me, someone else may want to read more. Thus, it&#x2019;s important to study the behavior of your audience&#x2019;s interaction with your emails. Here are a few numbers to study:\n\nOpen rate: If you send emails at a higher frequency, does the open rate % increase or decrease? If people aren&#x2019;t opening your message, that&#x2019;s could be a sign of a major problem.\nClick-through rate: If you try reducing your email frequency and load the message with more content, how does this affect the amount of clicks through the email?\nConversion rate: Study the amount of sales your online store directly receives from your email messages. Does this fluctuate as your frequency changes?\n\nFinal thought - RESULTS should dictate your email frequency and nothing else!\n\nWhat&#x2019;s the second best thing a prospective client can say to you on a sales call? Answer = NO ! The same holds true for your email list. It&#x2019;s ok for people to say goodbye...as stated before, just make sure you make it easy for them...they may come back at a later date.\n\n
And lastly, 3 tips for running a wildly successful email campaign. First - SEGMENTATION!\n
One of THE easiest ways to increase your email marketing profits is to segment your list.\nSo what types of segmentation should you be doing?\nI don&#x2019;t know all your businesses, of course, but here are a few you can start with.\nBuyers &#x2013; Every business in the world should have a separate buyers email list. There is NO excuse for not having a buyers email list. Previous buyers, on average, are roughly 7x more likely to buy in the future as compared to first-time buyers. If you&#x2019;re not segmenting your buyers, start tomorrow please.\nDemographic/Psychographic/Geographic &#x2013; This can be done in many ways. For example you can separate men from women, by age group, by political association, by religion, by type of cat they own (for cat supply sites of course), or even by country. The possibilities are endless, depending on your business.\nHow Active &#x2013; Here&#x2019;s a quick promotion you can do to both clean your email list and drive some revenue. It&#x2019;s called a &#x201C;reactivation campaign&#x201D; and it&#x2019;s something direct marketers have used in the offline world for ages.\nHere&#x2019;s what you do&#x2026;\n1) Do a search to find prospects who haven&#x2019;t opened an email in 3 months, 6 months, etc.\n2) Send them something for free, while also asking them why they haven&#x2019;t been active lately and seeing if you can help them in any way.\n3) After the promotion is over, do a search for those who didn&#x2019;t open/click the email and remove them from your list. Yes, actually delete them. These are the non-responders and are clogging up your list. And for the people that did respond and/or download the gift you sent them &#x2013; they&#x2019;re now &#x201C;reactivated&#x201D; and should start opening more emails!\n\n\n
One of THE easiest ways to increase your email marketing profits is to segment your list.\nSo what types of segmentation should you be doing?\nI don&#x2019;t know all your businesses, of course, but here are a few you can start with.\nBuyers &#x2013; Every business in the world should have a separate buyers email list. There is NO excuse for not having a buyers email list. Previous buyers, on average, are roughly 7x more likely to buy in the future as compared to first-time buyers. If you&#x2019;re not segmenting your buyers, start tomorrow please.\nDemographic/Psychographic/Geographic &#x2013; This can be done in many ways. For example you can separate men from women, by age group, by political association, by religion, by type of cat they own (for cat supply sites of course), or even by country. The possibilities are endless, depending on your business.\nHow Active &#x2013; Here&#x2019;s a quick promotion you can do to both clean your email list and drive some revenue. It&#x2019;s called a &#x201C;reactivation campaign&#x201D; and it&#x2019;s something direct marketers have used in the offline world for ages.\nHere&#x2019;s what you do&#x2026;\n1) Do a search to find prospects who haven&#x2019;t opened an email in 3 months, 6 months, etc.\n2) Send them something for free, while also asking them why they haven&#x2019;t been active lately and seeing if you can help them in any way.\n3) After the promotion is over, do a search for those who didn&#x2019;t open/click the email and remove them from your list. Yes, actually delete them. These are the non-responders and are clogging up your list. And for the people that did respond and/or download the gift you sent them &#x2013; they&#x2019;re now &#x201C;reactivated&#x201D; and should start opening more emails!\n\n\n
The 2nd tip is REMARKETING or RETARGETING.\n
Describe how it works....\n\nDescribe why it works....like PPC --- impressions are free!\n\nWhy aren&#x2019;t you using it? Most people dont know about it, and if they do, they use it for website traffic only....\n\nHere is an example....\n
Describe how it works....\n\nDescribe why it works....like PPC --- impressions are free!\n\nWhy aren&#x2019;t you using it? Most people dont know about it, and if they do, they use it for website traffic only....\n\nHere is an example....\n
Describe how it works....\n\nDescribe why it works....like PPC --- impressions are free!\n\nWhy aren&#x2019;t you using it? Most people dont know about it, and if they do, they use it for website traffic only....\n\nHere is an example....\n
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And finally, the 3rd tip for running a wildly successful email campaign...Designing your campaign with Mobile in Mind.\n
Question - What happened in the 4th quarter of 2010 that had never happened before?\nAnswer - Smartphones outsold desktop PC&#x2019;s.\nMore detailed mobile email usage statistic:\n90% of smartphone owners access the same email account on mobile and desktop. ExactTarget &#x2013; &#x201C;The 2012 channel preference survey&#x201D; (2012)\nMore email is read on Mobile than on a desktop email client or via webmail. Stats say 38% of email is now opened on a mobile device, with 33% for desktop and 29% for webmail.Litmus &#x2013;&#x201D;Email Analytics&#x201D; (September 2012)\n\n78% Of US Email Users Will Also Access Their Emails Via Mobile By 2017 &#x2013; Forrester Research &#x201C;Email Marketing Forecast 2012 &#x2013; 2017&#x2033; (2012)\n\n\n\n\n
Question - What happened in the 4th quarter of 2010 that had never happened before?\nAnswer - Smartphones outsold desktop PC&#x2019;s.\nMore detailed mobile email usage statistic:\n90% of smartphone owners access the same email account on mobile and desktop. ExactTarget &#x2013; &#x201C;The 2012 channel preference survey&#x201D; (2012)\nMore email is read on Mobile than on a desktop email client or via webmail. Stats say 38% of email is now opened on a mobile device, with 33% for desktop and 29% for webmail.Litmus &#x2013;&#x201D;Email Analytics&#x201D; (September 2012)\n\n78% Of US Email Users Will Also Access Their Emails Via Mobile By 2017 &#x2013; Forrester Research &#x201C;Email Marketing Forecast 2012 &#x2013; 2017&#x2033; (2012)\n\n\n\n\n
Question - What happened in the 4th quarter of 2010 that had never happened before?\nAnswer - Smartphones outsold desktop PC&#x2019;s.\nMore detailed mobile email usage statistic:\n90% of smartphone owners access the same email account on mobile and desktop. ExactTarget &#x2013; &#x201C;The 2012 channel preference survey&#x201D; (2012)\nMore email is read on Mobile than on a desktop email client or via webmail. Stats say 38% of email is now opened on a mobile device, with 33% for desktop and 29% for webmail.Litmus &#x2013;&#x201D;Email Analytics&#x201D; (September 2012)\n\n78% Of US Email Users Will Also Access Their Emails Via Mobile By 2017 &#x2013; Forrester Research &#x201C;Email Marketing Forecast 2012 &#x2013; 2017&#x2033; (2012)\n\n\n\n\n