NEDMA14: Creating Email Awesomeness! - Nirmal Parikh

Digital Wavefront - Your Technology Partner for multi-channel marketing
Creating Email Awesomeness!
Nirmal Parikh
@

Ray Tomlinson
Know who this is?
@
Wired

Wikipedia
1971
@
Ray used this machine, a DEC-10, back in 1971 to send his first email.
And, have we come a long way since!

 3.2 billion email accounts
 838 billion marketing messages (2013)
 3 out of 4 marketers use email marketing for retention
 2 out of 3 consumers have made a purchase as a result of an email
 $1 = $44.25 in email ROI
 400+ marketing messages per month
Source: ExactTarget, Forrester, DMA, ReturnPath
Fast Forward to 2013-14!
@

 Email marketing can be very effective
 It can/does influence purchase decisions and behavior
 Email is context-agnostic (no matter where, what, when)
 Email has control over us. Yes, it’s true!
 We have very little patience & an even smaller attention span
 We make decisions based on FROM names and subject lines
So, What Does All This Mean?
@

@
Modeling
Delivery
Devices
Compliance
Development
Design
Validation
Strategy
@
<HTML>

@
1: Strategy
There are 3 parts to an email strategy…

@
film.vic.gov.au
Part 1. Your Target Audience

@
valuablecontent.co.uk
Part 2 – Your Content.

@
ewaydirect.com
Part 3: Your Offer.

Validation > Syntax Checking
jon’_@gmail.com <valid
[nirmal]@yahoo.com <valid
jenny”o”smith@aol.com <not valid
@
This is the most basic form of validation that
checks email for syntax errors.

Validation > Spam Traps
 Re-activated accounts
inactiveuser@yahoo.com
 Re-activated domains
user@veryolddomain.com
 Classic “honeypot” addresses used for seeding
donotsend@yahoo.com
 Investigative
myemail@mycompany.com @
So, why do we validate?
Well…one of the reasons
is to simply to avoid spam
traps set up by ISPs.

Validation > Better Delivery Ratios!
Use Case A
Start 100
Post-validation 100
Delivered 80
Deliverability 80%
Use Case B (validated list)
100
88
80
90%
@
-12
Validation is the process of “pinging” an email address w/o actually sending an
email; one of the most critical things from a perspective of data hygiene.

Design > Mobile
@
65%
69%
66%
Source: ExactTarget, Forrester, DMA, ReturnPath
Of email is opened first
on a mobile device.
69% delete emails that don’t
display correctly on mobile.
66% of Gmail emails are
opened on mobile.

Design > Email Clients
@
Client Market Share (based on March 2014 opens)
Apple iPhone 26%
Outlook 14%
Apple iPad 12%
Gmail 11%
Apple Mail 8%
Google Android 7%
Outlook.com 6%
Yahoo! Mail 5%
Windows Live Mail 3%
Windows Mail 2%
Source: Litmus
53%
Mobile email
clients have 53%
market share.

 From Point & Click to Touch & Scroll
 Users are accustomed to scrolling
 Long-form content is perfectly OK!
 Single-column layout
 Design for touch accuracy
 Animated GIFs?
 Font sizes
Design > Optimization
@

@
Here are some email designs that were targeted for and maximized for mobile device compatibility. The
common theme across all of them is again “long-form” content and big/bold CTAs.

 Standards-compliant <html></html>
 Email client compatibility
 Device compatibility
 Responsive style-sheets (@media queries, CSS3)
 Image ALT tags
 Plain-text alternative
 Email pre-header or
Johnson Box
Development > HTML
@

Development > Respect the Inbox
@
Consider feature advancements and
developments with different email clients.
Gmail Promotions Tab – List View
Gmail Promotions Tab – Grid View
For example: your promotional emails may end up in the Gmail promotions
tab, but you can maximize that space by designing for grid view.

Content Compliance
 Accurate FROM address
 Relevant Subject line
 Physical address of publisher and/or advertiser
Unsubscribe Compliance
 A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism
 Opt-out requests are honored within 10 business days
Country and Local Legislations
• Canadian Anti-Spam Laws (CASL, Jul 1st 2014)
• EU Safe Harbor Policies
Compliance > CAN-SPAM
@

Devices > Ubiquity
@5-6am 8am 6pm 8pm
We live in a “multi-
screen” and “multi-
context” world,
constantly switching
devices over the
course of the day.

Devices > Context
@
Consider the context – when and
where your emails will be read.

Devices > Form Factors
@
Consider the different form
factors you are targeting.
From smartphones with 4-5”
screens, to mid-sized tablets,
all the way to laptops and
wide-screen monitors.

Devices > Wearable Tech
@
The Next Wave?
It’s wearable computing. Your
emails are going to have to be
“wrist-friendly” in the near future.

 The Subject line is your Elevator Pitch. Master it.
 33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone
 Try special characters ()
 Keep it under 70 characters
 Make it intriguing but relevant
 Avoid spammy words and phrases
FREE, mortgage, insurance, limited time, click now, open immediately, etc.
 And, PLEASE don't!!! USE UPPERCASE, or a lot of punctuation!!!
Delivery > Subject Line Optimization
@Source: ExactTarget

@http://litmus.com/resources/subject-line-checker
Check how your subject line will
render across different clients and
interfaces.

Delivery > Tactical Considerations
 Aligning emails with in-home delivery of direct mail
 Response rates 10% - 30% higher*
 Acquisition costs 25% - 35% lower*
 Time-zone localization
 9am EST, 9am CST, 9am PST
 Time-lapsed delivery
 9am vs 2pm
 Weekday vs. Weekend vs. Holiday delivery @

Delivery > Reputation
@Source: ReturnPath
Inbox SPAM83%
One of the biggest influencers of delivery is your ESP’s and/or
server’s IP reputation (affecting delivery by 83%).

Sender Score
https://senderscore.org
Use this as a resource to check your sender score.

Delivery > Calibrating Sender Score
 No volume = No reputation = No Sender Score
 Sudden influx of email = Potential spam
 30 days of mailing = +46
 Reverse DNS setup = +16
 Complaints > 1.5% = -40
 Target: < 0.1%
 Bounce rate > 10% = -40
 Spam trap = -40
Source: ReturnPath
@
90+

Delivery > DNS Records
 SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
v=spf1 mx ip4:72.19.227.112 a:me-ss2-6qydu7.mailengine1.com ~all
 DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
_domainkey.yourdomain.com IN TXT "t=y; o=~;"
k1._domainkey.yourdomain.com IN TXT "k=rsa;
p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDk2qnamPIxlqH4q44Y3ZHutl
00nv83vl5wuR+/dkrwwFqENtsf1vk68QjbblRZ/mtfwoFeQcLrsqiuqQIDAQAB“
Sender Scores of 90-100 are 42% more likely to pass DKIM - ReturnPath
@

Predictive Modeling > Why?
@
 Send fewer, more targeted emails
 Model after positive behavior and “look-alikes”
 Improve delivery
 Gain a better reputation & SenderScore

@
Modeling
Delivery
Devices
Compliance
Development
Design
Validation
Strategy
@
<HTML>
Recap

And That’s How You
Create Email Awesomeness!
@Digital Wavefront - Your Technology Partner for multi-channel marketing
@

Nirmal Parikh
www.digitalwavefront.com
@BOSMarketer
nirmalp@digitalwavefront.com
@Digital Wavefront - Your Technology Partner for multi-channel marketing

NEDMA14: Creating Email Awesomeness! - Nirmal Parikh

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