An Accountant’s Guide to
Email Marketing
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An Accountant’s Guide to
Email Marketing
294 billion
emails sent each day
92%
of adult internet
users maintain at least
1 email account
72%
of email users check
theirinboxes 6 or more
times each day
3x
as many email accounts
as all of Facebook and
Twittercombined
92
72
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Why Use Email, And What
Response to Expect
• Cost effective, versatile,
immediate, personal,
trackable
• Consumers who receive
email marketing spend
83% more when shopping.
Theirorders are 44%
larger. They order28%
more often
• 77% of consumers prefer
email promotions and
offers over any other
marketing channel
• Forevery £1 spent, £26
is the average return
on email marketing
investment (Experian)
• 95% of online consumers
use email
• 91% of consumers
reported checking their
email at least once a day
(ExactTarget)
• Email open rates are the
highest they’ve been since
2007 growing year-over-
yearand month-over-
month (Epsilon)
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How best to use it
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How best to use it
Do
introduce new content
frequently
Do
Answer questions, give
advice, tips, how-to’s
and helpful info
Don’t
bombard readers with
messages. Only send
relevant, important
info/updates
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Do watch yourwords
• This year, about 84% of all email traffic will be spam
(The Radicati Group)
• Avoid the spam filter:
– Checkyour spelling and grammar
– Don’t over-use capital letters
– Don’t use too many images
– Don’t use spammy phrases such as
‘Once in a lifetime opportunity’
– Choose a subject line that relates
to the email content
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Do include social sharing buttons
to yournetworkprofiles
• Emails that include social
sharing buttons have a
158% higher click-
through rate
(GetResponse)

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How best to use it
•38% of email is now opened on a
mobile device, with 33% for desktop
and 29% forwebmail. You must
consider this in yourdesign/build.
•Test youremail on a mobile device.
Can you easily read the text?
Is everything in order and
appearin the right format?
(Source: Litmus)
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How to target effectively
• Use a clean list of targeted
opted-in recipients
• Avoid impersonal
email addresses like
info@company.com
• Keep subject lines 50
characters or less
• Always personalise –
personalised emails
improve click-through
rates by 14% and
conversion rates by 10%
• Give recipients control
over opting in or out –
69% of subscribers cite
“too many emails”as the
number one reason
they unsubscribe
• Test, monitor, analyse
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Howtostructureyourmessages
• Breakit into sections
– it needs to be
easilydigestable
• Don’t add too
many messages.
Keep it clear
• Always include social
media buttons
• Subject lines that
contained terms
such as ‘ROI,’ ‘asset,’
and ‘industry’
perform the lowest
• Choose a subject line
that describes what’s
inside, make it short
and snappy as you only
have a few words!
• Give yourreader
an action early on
• Put yourmost
important info early
on in the email
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How long they should be
• Brevity is key. Askyourself,
would I keep reading?
• People will want to access
the info quickly, and digest
it easily
• Get theirattention,
and get to the point
• On mobile devices, long
emails will require more
scrolling. How long will they
scroll for?
• Simplify your text,
spend more time
writing content that
relates to where the
customer is on their
journey
• Make your actions
(links/buttons)
standout, and
don’t put too
many in
Source
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Using yourbrand’s voice
• You want to adhere to your
brand’s voice so that all
marketing is consistent
• Am I speaking as I wish to be
spoken to? Find a ‘voice’ that
makes sense to your customers
and business. Checkwhether
you’re talking in a way that
reflects your brand
• Long pieces of writing do not
equal effective. Get someone to
proof-read and ifyou need to, cut
it down.
• What do I do next? Having a call
to action is something you should
aim forin every email. Keep it
simple and direct
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Effective call-to-actions
• Before creatingyour
campaign, decide exactly
what action you want
your subscribers to take
as a result ofreadingyour
message.Whetherit’s
signing up foranother
newsletter, downloading
a file or purchasing a
product or service, your
campaign’s message has
to be simple and easyfor
the readerto follow
• Ifthe people readingyour
emails aren’t sure where
to click,what linkto follow,
orwhere to order, the
campaign’s results will
likely be disappointing
• Ideally, the call to action
should be contained within
the first few paragraphs
(oreven the subject line)
ofthe email.You don’twant
to make subscribers read
through the entire email
before letting them know
whatyouwant them to do,
and what value your email
holds forthem
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Jargon buster
Above the Fold
Above the fold refers to anything
that can be seen on screen without
the user having to scroll down
Body Copy
Body copy is the text that is within
the email
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate refers to the number of
people in your email list that didn’t
receive the email and had it returned
by their email server
Call to Action (CTA)
A call to action is used to encourage
the recipient of the email to take the
desired action, this might be “Call
Now” or “Add to Basket” depending
on the purpose of the email
Click Through Rate (CTR)
Click through rate is the number
of people who clicked within your
email and is usually measured
as a percentage
Click to Open Rate (CTOR)
Basically measures how many clicks
have been made by recipients who
have opened the email
Clicks
Clicks demonstrate where recipients
have clicked on an email and how
many times
Unique Clicks
The best way to define unique clicks
is by an example, if the reader clicks
on a link five times this would be
counted as one unique click, but as
five total clicks
Conversion Rate
A conversion rate is based on the
percentage of recipients who clicked
in the email and completed the
desired action whether this is filling
in a form or purchasing a product
Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is content
that changes according to the
recipients criteria
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Email Client
An email client is the application that
the recipient isviewingwithin, for
example Outlook, Hotmail orYahoo
Email Filters
This software filters emails based on
sender address, subject line and the
body copy of the email
HTML
HTML actually stands for“Hypertext
Markup Language”, but you don’t
really need to know that. All you need
to know about a HTML email is that
it provides the platform fora better
designed email with more elements
such as fonts and background colours
Open Rate
The open rate is quite simply how
many people have opened youremail
Personalisation
Personalisation is feeding personal
details into the email, making the
one received by each recipient
unique to them
Received
Received is quite simply the number
of people who received the email
Segmentation
Segmentation in email marketing is
usually to do with email analytics. By
splitting the data pot you’ll be able to
see how each segment reacts and be
able to make conclusions from this
Sender Address
The sender address is the email
address that the email comes from
when it lands in your inbox
Subject Line
A subject line is the first thing a user
will see when they open their inbox
along with your sender name
Tracking Links
Tracking links are links which are put
into the email to record the customer
journey of the recipient if they click
through to the companywebsite
Unsubscribe Rate
Unsubscribe rate is how many
people have opted out of
receiving emails from you
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Sources
http://www.sociallystacked.
com/2013/07/infographic-of-
the-day-email-marketing-facts-
stats/#sthash.73J7USIS.dpbs
http://emailcritic.com/2013/05/
complete-guide-email-
marketing-stats-part2/
http://www.smartinsights.com/
email-marketing/best-time-of-
day-to-send-email/
http://unbounce.com/email-
marketing/emails-your-
customers-will-love/
http://www.redcmarketing.net/
blog/online-marketing/an-email-
marketing-jargon-buster/
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