Based on experience implementing email marketing strategies for B2C and B2B organisations, this deck provides 15 actionable rules for email marketers to help them: (1) Plan their email strategy and measurement framework (2) Exploit on-site opportunities to drive email sign-up (3) Improve email performance through segmentation, targeting & testing Any questions please ask.

1. 15 rules to improve your email marketing
Presented by James Gurd, Owner – Digital Juggler
@jamesgurd
james@digitaljuggler.com

2. Rule #1: Start with goals & KPI framework
01/11/2017
What are your goals/levers?
 I want to maximise new customer acquisition
 I want to maximise revenue?
 I want to drive stock turnover
 I want to maximise the total active customer base?
 I want to maximise profit?

3. Think: what outcomes do I want from email?
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REACH
Awareness &
Visits
Opens
Click
through rate
Unique
visitors
Repeat visits
ACT
Interaction &
Leads
# Leads # Baskets # Events # Sign-ups
CONVERT
Sales & Profit
#
Transactions
Average
order value
Conversion
rate
Total
revenue
ENGAGE
Loyalty &
Activity
% active
customers
Margin per
user
NPS
Lifetime
value

4. Rule #2:
Build
your email
strategy
aligned
with KPIs
01/11/2017

5. Rule #3: Whatever you do, don’t forget GDPR!
01/11/2017
Compliance with GDPR is a legal requirement in the UK from 25th May
2018.
You must:
 Be fully opt-in
 Store customer preferences (and be able to prove them)
 Let customer update their preference and store the change history
 Enable customers to retrieve personal data
 Enable customers to delete the personal data you hold.
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/
Do you have a
compliance
policy &
process?

6. Rule #4: Use your website to drive email subscription
01/11/2017

7. Find smart ways to capture email sign-up
01/11/2017
You can drive email sign-up
by offering customers value-
add services and features.
Example: Shopstyle.com:
 You can sign-up for sale alerts
 Register your email and receive
an alert if the item is reduced
 Can get alerts at category level
 Great way to capture emails!

8. Rule #5: Find sign-up hooks
01/11/2017
To be opened, you need to offer
something useful that prompts people
to tune-in:
 Daily digest works well for publishers
 Value-add content e.g. Moz WhiteBoard
Fridays.

9. Rule #6: Exploit all opportunities
01/11/2017
Every automated email is an
opportunity to provide personalised
content:
 Order confirmation – items you might like
 Account sign-up – new brands, latest
blogs, new stores
 Order cancellation – custom offer to
encourage new purchase
 Review confirmation – invite to review
other purchased items OR others who
reviewed this also bought

10. Rule #7: Value customer insight
01/11/2017
To retain customers you first need to understand what value means to
them and what makes them ‘satisfied’ vs. ‘happy’
Retention isn’t one size fits all; there are different motivators depending on
customer type.
 I want the best price at all times
 I want to get items fast and for free
 I expect free returns
 I want excellent support
 Delight me with content
 Make it fun to shop with you
 Surprise me!
Do we give them
regular, easy
feedback loops e.g.
polls, surveys?

11. Rule #8: Segment and personalise
01/11/2017
Don’t treat all customers the same
Mass marketing CRM campaigns don’t perform as well as targeted
campaigns based on customer profiling.
 What’s is an accurate segmentation criteria e.g. age is inaccurate – do all Millennials want
the same thing?!
 Behavioural segmentation is better e.g. 1,000 customers only browse our Garden pages, so
focus marketing on these ranges
 Make sure your email marketing programs are flexible – people’s needs and habits change
over time, move with them
 Don’t be afraid to create a tiered system where people are rewarded differently based on
spend
 Technology supports 1-to-1 personalisation e.g. product recommendations

12. Case study: The Wine Society
01/11/201701/11/2017
Level of wine knowledge (experience)
Wine Passionistas
(Amateur enthusiasts)
Safe & Reliable /
Best Deal
Wine Buff
Dormant Experts /
Long Term Loyalists
Uncorked
my passion
Rekindled
expert
Sommelier
in training
Levelofwineinterest(passion)

13. Case study cont… Knowing what motivates people
01/11/2017
Help me to…
• Not be intimidated and overwhelmed – I want to feel relaxed
about my membership
• Understand what services are available to me & connect with
other members
• Feel confident navigating the range & experimenting
• Find good value deals with expert & peer to peer advice
• Understand what co-op/society really means for me
• Share my passion/pleasure of drinking wine without feeling
embarrassed because of my knowledge levels
• Use you as my ‘go to’ for all things wine.
Don’t make me…
• Go elsewhere to gain wine knowledge
• Turn to seemingly more accessible retailers /
sources for help to purchase & experiment
• Feel that I have to navigate the List on my own &
that I have to stick to what I know
• Join local wine groups
• Attend tastings elsewhere
• Attend meetings where everyone else knows far
more than me
“There’s not a lot of
resources for beginners,
just background info on
wines in an overview kind
of way.”
“I wasn’t a complete
novice I had an
interest in it before”
“I don’t really feel aware
that I’m part of a community
as such, I do enjoy looking at
your tweets”
“It is quite a daunting booklet if
you don’t know much about
wine. How would a person
choose from 10 NZ Pinot
Noirs?!”
“I like discovering new
wines at tastings, but
prefer these events to be
informal

14. Case study: M&Co
01/11/2017
Hyper personalised email
recommendations
Episerver captured and isolated browsing
behaviour over a 40 day period, and data
matched to email addresses collected.
Customers who bought products were removed
to focus on non-buyers.
Results:
1. Email re-opens increased by 20%
2. Email conversion increased by 55%

15. Rule #9: Don’t think conversion is ‘job done’
01/11/2017
Retention starts as soon as
you acquire a new
customer.
The service they experience
shapes their feelings towards
your brand:
 Delight new sign-ups with a
welcome series
 Use activation techniques to get
people using your
website/products more actively
 Segment non-responders and
test ways to engage
 2nd time buyers make an
interesting segment to isolate

16. Education / training
organisations
do welcome emails
well
01/11/2017

17. Rule #10: Don’t forget lapsed high-value customers
01/11/2017
Segment your highest value customers, those who have a good
lifetime value.
Campaigns can be tailored to people who indicated a propensity to be high-
value but are now at risk of lapsing.
For example, for ecommerce:
 Talk to customers who haven’t purchased in last X days/weeks/months but have spent more
than £Y over lifetime
 Tailored email to ‘risk of lapsing’ customers based on visit/purchase inactivity
 Unique promotion for potential lapsers.

18. Rule #11: Use persuasion
01/11/2017
Convincing people that you’re trustworthy and the product is good
quality are important campaign elements.
 Reviews and ratings = find out what other people think of us
 Social proof = people like you also like us
 3rd party accreditation = we’ve been assessed and endorsed
 Guarantee & warranties = you’re protected if there’s a problem
 For ecommerce: returns & refunds = if you’re not satisfied, we’ll give you a full
refund

19. The art of persuasion: use reassurance + trust
01/11/2017
Apply online learning to email: psychological levers to influence behaviour.
Urgency Scarcity Popularity

20. Rule #12: Find ways to push new content
01/11/2017
Retailers use different levers
to encourage people to shop
across their product range
Free samples are used successfully
in home & garden (e.g. carpet) and
beauty.
Do you use these techniques in your
email campaigns?
e.g. Publisher offering ‘paywall’
content for free to entice people into
paid trial.

21. Rule #13: Create data buckets for triggered campaigns
01/11/2017
Map out the relevant data points you
can use to automate email
campaigns.
For example, ecommerce product
recommendations:
 Product replacement
 Product upgrade
 Product maintenance
 Important event e.g. birthday
 Unexpected treat e.g. member for 1 year
And align paid media e.g. remarketing to these
people.

22. But make sure you integrate your systems!
01/11/2017
This email was received 4 days
after making a purchase on Wicked
Uncle.
– The order even had George’s
name included
– And it was placed after clicking on
a previous email letting me know
about his birthday.

23. Rule #14: Use a fit for purpose test for each campaign
01/11/2017
Who’s the gatekeeper for your emails?
Audit your email and ask questions like:
 Does the subject line make sense?
 Is it clear what the email offers customers?
 Are campaigns obvious and clearly articulated?
 Are promotions accurately described?
 Do all CTAs work properly?
 Is the onward journey clear and consistent?

24. Rule #15: Use a test + learn approach
01/11/2017
There’s no bullet proof ‘right’ way to do email marketing:
You need to embed a culture of test + learn to ensure that you optimise your
campaigns to learn what works best. This includes testing:
 What brand messages to communicate
 What service elements to promote
 How to use reassurance and persuasion messaging
 What type of product placement to use
 What landing page strategy to adopt
 Where to use product cross and upsell associations
 How to be creative and innovative.
Make sure your email marketing tool supports A/B split tests.

25. Example: embedding testing into email marketin
01/11/2017
Example: embedding testing into email marketing

26. 01/11/2017
Example: send time optimisation
Based on the engagement
data (opens, clicks) of a
recipient and their timestamp,
algorithms optimize sending
time to increase the probability
that the email is close to the
top of the inbox at a time when
the recipient is likely to
interact.
 Enables 1-1 personalisation
 Fallback time for data gaps
 Increase open rates by up to
25%

27. Presented by James Gurd, Owner – Digital Juggler
@jamesgurd
james@digitaljuggler.com
Thank you!
Any questions?