This document provides an overview of best practices for integrated email marketing. It discusses the importance of data hygiene, avoiding blacklists, being relevant, timing, testing, targeting, simplicity, subject lines, retention, analytics, and integrating email with other marketing channels. Integrating email with websites, print collateral, and other media can increase impact, attention, and response compared to standalone email campaigns. Consistency and avoiding conflicting messages across channels is key.

1. 2011 THE DETAIL, ARTWORK AND INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION REMAIN THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF CFL UNAUTHORISED COPYING OR REPRODUCTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, WILL RESULT IN PROSECUTION CFL MARKETING Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice

2. Contents Overview Data hygiene Avoiding blacklists Be relevant Timing Test! Targeting and Segmenting Simple is better! Whets the subject Retention What about after? Now go and Integrate Why Integrate Other Devices Harmonisation New ways to profit About us Clients Contact us

3. Overview - Email Marketing We all know email marketing, when done properly, is a low cost, and effective mechanism to reach your target audience. However email can no longer stand apart. To maintain and increase its effectiveness it must be integrated with the rest of your marketing effort. Your emails must support and contain the same branding and content as other communication channels as well as drawing on other parts of your organisation to become timely and relevant.

4. Email is everywhere. Its tried and tested We use it at work, at home, even while travelling, through the use of mobiles or smart phones and more recently platforms such as social networks and blogs. It has become too big and too important for marketers to get wrong! This presentation will give an insight of best practice of successful integrated email marketing campaigns. Overview - Email Marketing

5. Data Hygiene Data is key to successful email marketing. Make sure your database is relevant, and current. When capturing data online always use email validation systems as over 63% of invalid email addresses are captured this way. Be stringent and delete any bounced addresses, opt-outs or even those who never open your messages. There are many reasons why it’s a bad idea to contact people who haven’t said that they want to hear from you. Permission marketing will achieve a much higher click rate. If you don’t have the agreement of your subscribers, don't send them emails. Simple as that.

6. Avoid Blacklisting! Do not cut corners! Do not use and unauthorised email addresses as you will run the risk of being blacklisted. Senders that are listed on just one of the top 12 blacklists will see a huge reduction of delivery rates by on average 35%.

7. Be Relevant! Take every opportunity to be relevant. Timing is essential (for a specific event or expiry of a warranty for example) Make sure each email is personalised to the recipient and from the sender! Also take the time to utilise different messages to different groups - one size does not always fit all!

8. Timing Consumers face a flood of messages every day, you need to be sensitive to that and be very careful planning the frequency of your emails It can often be effective to establish a regular sending routine, this will build anticipation in your subscribers and have them looking forward to hearing from you. A rule of thumb is sending an email no more than once a week. Any more and it may be regarded as spam.

9. Test!!! Always test your email!!! Then test again!!! Be sure to test your email thoroughly, in as many email classes as possible, not only to ensure that your email looks pleasing to the eye , but also to confirm that it will land in people’s inboxes and not their spam filters.

10. Targeting and Segmenting Use simple database tools or preference options to segment your email marketing, just as you would do with any other marketing channel. Build in other data elements such as campaign responses, purchase history or demographics. Bombarding your whole database with every campaign is inefficient and risks them unsubscribing.

11. Simple is often better! Make your design clear and your point obvious. Don’t rely too heavily on images, as these are often not displayed by default and can cause issues with spam filtering. Keep text concise and include links to your website; people will rarely read an essay in their inbox. Think “worst Case” - Many email clients will disable links or images so make sure even in this scenario a coherent message is still delivered. When sending an HTML email make sure a text version is also available.

12. What’s the Subject? The email subject should be fairly short, not too sales led but be intriguing enough for the recipient to open it You could incentivise or personalise the subject line.

13. Retention Don’t always take no as an answer! Greater customer awareness of Opt-out options can severely erode your email base. You need to fight to retain every subscriber. It is important to use the “opt-out” process to engage with subscribers in order to address the issues causing them to opt-out.

14. What about After? Sending your email is really just the beginning. Once it’s out there you can begin to see how people are engaging with your email and brand. Using simple analytic tools you will be able to see open rates, click through rates, what links were clicked, forward rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates, how many times the email was opened, who opened it and when they last opened it.

15. Now go and Integrate! Email has largely been successful as a solo exercise for the past decade but changing the consumers behaviour and expectations compel marketers to integrate email with other channels. Email is less effective when unsupported by other available media methods. Blindly scatter-gunning the same email to everyone doesn’t cut it anymore, it just tells your recipients they are not considered as an individual

16. Why Integrate? Email is just one of many ways you communicate with customers and they communicate with you. If they “opt-out” or make a comment on your website, via a call centre, or over the counter, your email system needs to know. Even if they don’t want your email they may still be valued customers, ignoring an “opt-out” could turn them off totally! Integration means, no matter what the communication method is, you have a single minded approach that helps you achieve greater impact, attention and response.

17. Other Devices! You may need to consider what's happening in related media and how your message will look and feel on other devices and in different contexts. Decide if your message is informal or action-orientated and chose the media to suit it.

18. Harmonisation Multi-channel marketing brings in the risk of confusing customers - Sending conflicting messages, doubling up, looking or sounding different. Your email should harmonise with what you are saying in other media. Use the same graphics and text as on your website and in your print collateral Consistency is the key!

19. New ways to profit! Integration means going beyond classic email analytics and looking further than basic profile segmentation. Comparing subscribers’ behaviour as customers to their profile as email recipients throws up new relationships. Putting email together with analytics, data and content management creates a powerful combination. Using the totality of your data will ensure new ways to profit.

20. CFL Click through Rates Phil Martin, Marketing Manager, at CFL commented "we are seeing great results, for one of our restaurant chain clients that we recently ran an email campaign for, we achieved a large click through rate of over 22% across their whole estate, I think this is testament to our database expertise and the use of "warm" data coupled with our knowledge of email best practice, HTML template building, analytics, creative and marketing messages. In fact across all of our clients accounts we average over 20% click through rate. Our best result this year was for a racing track which achieved a huge 33% open rate and 51% click through. When this is used as part of an integrated marketing campaign, using different marketing mechanics, it’s where you see a real benefit ".

21. About Us Having been around since 1984, there isn't much we don't know about direct marketing and to the leisure industry in particular. We've seen the industry go through some major changes in our time. CFL have provided unique, effective and relevant direct marketing solutions to our customers, using a product portfolio covering all aspects of direct marketing - from Direct Mail to Digital Marketing. We have developed an extensive client portfolio by adapting our marketing solutions for industries as varied as Recruitment Consultants, Charities and Retail Chains - consistently providing outstanding response. Possessing that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

22. Clients - Pub/bar Chains

23. Clients - Nightclubs

24. Clients - Independent Venues

25. Clients - Leisure

26. Clients - Enterprise Brands

27. Clients - SME’s/Charities

28. Web: www.cflmarketing.co.uk Email: sales@cflmarketing.co.uk Phone: +0044 (0)1225 782699 Contact Us