At our Digital Marketing Trends Summit, customers learned tips and tricks for improving their digital marketing including best practices for email, web advertising, social media, and engagement across channels.

1. Digital MarketingTrends &
Best Practices
Detroit Marketing Trends Summit
March 2018

2. Email
Deliverability
and Rates
AGENDA
Testing
Email Best
Practices Testing
Email Engagement
Rates
• Industry
• Peer Groups
• K-12 vs. HE
Device Usage
1 2 3 4
Days of the
Week
Time of Day
5
BONUS
Display
Advertising

3. The Data Set
398,152,458
Delivered Prospecting Emails
19,906
Unique Campaigns
1,302
Clients

4. Definition of Metrics
Delivery Rate: The recipient received the email but you
don’t know if it went into the inbox, spam or other folders.
Totals: Reflects all activity with the email. Recipient opening
multiple times, forwarding, looking at on different devices, etc.
Unique: 1 recipient, 1 open, 1 click. This metric is valuable to
measure the engagement of the individual with email
marketing.

5. Email
Deliverability and Rates

6. Delivery Rate
What is It and Why Should I Care About My IP Reputation?
Your reputation is directly connected to your deliverability, without good IP
reputation you cannot expect good deliverability.
Check it here: https://www.senderscore.org/
What Impacts My IP or Email Sender Reputation?
• How much you email (volume)
• The consistency of your sending patterns
• Bounces (unknown user rates) / Spam Reports
• Note: Unsubscribes DO NOT hurt your reputation!

7. Avg. Campaign Size Delivery Rate Total Open Rate Total Click Rate
Less than 2,000 96.48% 15.56% 2.67%
Less than 8,000 95.57% 11.61% 1.50%
Less than 13,000 94.02% 10.92% 1.31%
Less than 18,000 92.82% 9.08% 1.18%
Less than 23,000 92.37% 7.97% 1.07%
Less than 28,000 93.94% 7.81% 1.00%
Less than 33,000 93.52% 8.17% 0.80%
Less than 38,000 93.80% 7.15% 0.91%
Less than 43,000 92.17% 6.40% 0.73%
Less than 48,000 92.34% 6.83% 0.66%
Less than 69,000 86.18% 6.40% 0.64%
Delivery Rate: Size Does Matter

8. Email Engagement
Rates

9. Delivery Rate, Open Rate, CTR by Industry
Delivery Rate Total Open Rate Total Click-Through Rate
K-12 HE K-12 HE K-12 HE
Overall 93.33% 97.05% 6.90% 17.38% 0.87% 3.38%
Association/Non-Profit 95.75% 96.45% 9.10% 18.63% 0.97% 5.93%
Consumer Goods & Services 91.34% 97.16% 5.83% 16.88% 0.95% 1.45%
Institutions/Degree Programs 95.39% 96.78% 8.48% 25.88% 0.90% 2.61%
Publishers 93.60% 97.24% 6.37% 15.54% 0.77% 3.75%
Technology 94.59% 95.73% 6.34% 10.99% 0.72% 0.59%
Other 92.58% 96.31% 6.85% 17.27% 0.67% 2.55%

10. Delivery Rate, Open Rate, CTR by Peer Group
Delivery Rate Total Open Rate Total Click-Through Rate
Higher Education Leadership 97.28% 21.80% 2.61%
Higher Education Faculty 97.00% 16.48% 3.58%
K-12 Education Leadership 94.13% 6.46% 0.46%
K-12 Education Faculty 92.59% 6.82% 0.97%

11. Device Usage

12. Total Opens by DeviceType

13. Total Clicks by DeviceType

14. Use of Multiple DeviceTypes toView an Email

15. You MUST Consider ALL Devices and Platforms

16. You MUST Consider ALL Devices and Platforms
Default setting is to block images. Make sure that recipients will
know the value of the email and how to take action if all images
are blocked
Google has stated publicly that emails with large images are
typically treated as promotional email and are steered away from
the users inbox. Drop the images to improve engagement.
When you test your email always view on a mobile device. Is
the text readable without zooming? Does the button
accommodate a thumb? Do you have to scroll before you see
any text or a way to take action?

17. Best Practices
&Testing

18. Tech & Habits Have Changed
Then… Now…
Then… Now…

19. The 4 Steps ofTesting
Analyze
Your Data
Form a
Hypothesis
Construct an
Experiment
Interpret
Results
Qualitative =
Descriptive Data,
observed, not measured.
(Where to test)
Quantitative =
Numerical Data, can be
measured.
(What to test)
The better defined your
test, the more likely it’ll
be to have a positive
impact on conversions.
“If [Variable], then
[Result], because
[Rationale].”
Content
Design
Technology
TRACKING
You MUST be able to
duplicate results.
Does your test have
statistical significance?

20. A/B & MultivariateTesting
A/BTest (SplitTest)
Comparing two versions of a webpage, email, ad, app, etc. against each other to determine
which one performs better.
Great if you need meaningful results fast. BIGTESTS = BIG RESULTS
Very useful if you are not able to generate a ton of traffic.

21. A/B & MultivariateTesting
MultivariateTesting
Tests multiple variables and how they interact with one another, giving far more possible
combinations for the site visitor to experience.
When you want to make subtle changes to a page and understand how certain
elements interact with one another to incrementally improve on an existing design.

22. Email Best
Practices

23. Email Design Best Practices
Identify the Goal of the Email
Any element(s) that take the viewer away from that goal should be removed from the email’s design.
Don’t Confuse the Jobs of the Email’s Different Elements.
Subject Line: Get viewer to open email
Email Content and Design: Get viewer to click to the landing page
Utilize PreheaderText

24. Subject Lines “The Battle of the Inbox”

25. Subject Line Best Practices
Keep them short (5-10 words)
Vague generally does better
Qs to ask yourself when you review your SL options:
Is it intriguing? Enticing?
Does it stand out from other subject lines that might be in my inbox?
Avoid “spammy” or “salesy” language
Some words might fall into the “spam trap” in some ESPs
I.e.“FREE”, CAPS LOCK,“Enter toWin!”,“Buy one, get one free”,
“Sweepstakes”,“Buy”,“Clearance”,“$”,“Save up to”
Test, test, test!

26. Subject Line PersonalizationTips
If it makes sense to personalize, do it!
Personalization only works if it sounds natural, not forced or fake.
I.e.“CARRIE: Open this for great information!” sounds forced, but “Professor Bova,
this might help your next lesson.” sounds natural
Targeting a specific audience? Use it in the subject line!
Geographic targeting
I.e.“If you teach in Mississippi, you’re going to appreciate this.”
Job title targeting
I.e.“5 Life-ChangingTips for 3rd Grade Teachers”
Subject targeting
I.e.“You love math.You’ll appreciate this.”

27. Email Metric Initial Send Re-Send % Increase
Open Rate 3.03% 10.41% + 244%
Click Rate 0.13% 0.54% + 310%
Unsub Rate 0.13% 0.09% - 27%
Initial Send
From Field: ABC Company
Subject Line: Earn Formal PD Credit with Micro-Credentials
Re-Send (Post-MDR Consultation)
From Field: Jane Doe, Director of ABC Company
Subject Line: TN K-12Teachers: Important information regarding your PD credits
It Really DoesWork!

28. Images Get Blocked

29. Engagement / Read Rate
34% Glanced = less than 2 sec.
23% Skimmed = 2 sec. - 8 sec.
43% Read = greater than 8 sec.
Source: EmailMarketingMetricsBenchmarkStudy by IBM MarketingCloud

30. Email Design Best Practices
Strong headline with UniqueValue Proposition at top of email
Design for simplicity
Emails should be 500-700 pixels maximum width
Use web-safe standard fonts at 16 pixels or more
Arial,Arial Black,Arial Narrow, Comic Sans, Courier
New, Georgia, Impact,Tahoma,Times New Roman, and
Verdana.

31. Email Design Best Practices
Contrasting button color
Custom button text
Button size minimum: 44 pixels x 44 pixels
(Perfect size for a thumb on mobile device)
Make LINKS look like links:
Order Now vs Order Now
Make it easy to unsubscribe

32. Days of the Week
Time of Day

33. Highest/LowestTotal Clicks & Open Rates by Day
Day of Week Average Campaign Size Total Open Rate Total Click-Through Rate
2015
Wednesday 16,812 7.86% 1.30%
Saturday 54,215 5.65% 0.67%
2016
Tuesday 15,549 7.89% 1.33%
Saturday 43,600 5.95% 0.89%
2017
Thursday 14,116 9.12% 1.22%
Saturday 20,054 6.12% 0.65%

34. Total Open Rate byTime of Day

35. Total Open Rate byTime of Day and Device

36. Digital Advertising

37. What Makes MDR’s Digital Advertising
Different
Paid Search Marketing:
When someone does a search
ads appear. Shows intent.

38. What Makes MDR’s Digital Advertising Different
Facebook Advertising: Based
on someone’s interest and how
they identify themselves. Currently
Facebook shows educators in the
United States as a 14+ million
audience in size. Shows type of
content a person is interested in.

39. What Makes MDR’s Digital Advertising Different
Traditional Display Advertising: Ads on
websites that have content that advertiser
believes their audience may be interested in
and visit.

40. The MDR Digital Advertising Difference
Improve the precision and ROI of your
online advertising campaigns by moving
from a guess-based approach to one
grounded in facts.
Target by:
• Job title
• Geography
• Interaction with previous marketing
efforts
• Practically any type of data that is
available in our systems

41. Education Industry
CTR
.73%*
CTR
1.32%
MDR’s Facebook Audiences
How Does MDR’s Social Audiences Matchup?
* Source: WordStream’s “Facebook Ad Benchmarks forYOUR Industry [New Data]”
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/02/28/facebook-advertising-benchmarks

42. Education Industry
CTR
.08%*
CTR
.30%
MDR’s Web Audiences
How Does MDR’sWeb Audiences Matchup?
* Source: Google Display BenchmarkTool

43. Percentage of Impressions and Click-Throughs by Device

44. Average CTR by Campaign Impression Size

45. Average CTR by Number of Ads Used Per Campaign

46. Percentage of Impressions Served

47. Average ClickThru Rate by Ad Size
0.12%
0.17%
1.45%
0.32%

48. Dave Clemen
Director, Digital Marketing
clemenda@dnb.com
203-225-4902
@TheDaveClemen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-clemen
Email Deliverability & Rates
Testing & Email Best Practices
Email Engagement Rates & Device
Usage
1
2
3
4 Days of theWeek &Time of Day
5 Display Advertising