The document discusses using lifecycle email marketing to effectively promote products with limited budgets during tough economic times. It recommends segmenting lists based on demographics and behaviors to personalize messaging. Key lifecycle segments include prospects, free subscribers, trial customers, active customers, renewal customers, expired customers, and cancelled customers. Testing different email formats, content, and timing is important to engagement. Analytics like open and click-through rates help optimize the program. Lifecycle marketing allows publishers to craft targeted messages to move recipients through the sales funnel.

1. PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION
PUBLISHING, MEET LOW-COST
MARKETING/
USING LIFECYCLE EMAIL
MARKETING TO WEATHER THE
POST-RECESSION ENVIRONMENT
NICOLE CATHCART/
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

2. many companies have significantly cut marketing budgets over the past year. B2B Magazine (2009) survey data
suggests that 60% of marketers had their budgets cut. Even in 2010, the majority of organizations are looking
at cutting or maintaining their lower budget levels (Exact Target, 2010). Although the worst appears to be over
for the economy, a cautious approach to spending pervades. Many organizations have increased their email
marketing efforts, as the medium remains one of the lowest cost marketing channels. Although both media have
a low cost of entry, competition remains fierce for those relying on email marketing, both inside and outside
of the publishing industry. How can marketers build creative and effective email and marketing programs with
limited budgets?
In an attempt to
survive the recession,
More than many industries, publishing faces unique challenges due to the advent of the information age. While
the internet is a powerful sales tool, its free content is often a direct competitor to those selling information. As
the age of print fades and the digital revolution becomes the standard, publishers must endeavor to evolve their
products and their marketing simultaneously. However, understanding customers and their lifecycle can help
marketers craft effective and powerful outbound marketing programs at the fraction of the cost of traditional
channels, such as direct mail.

3. As of April 25, 2010, Bronto (2009) reported that the publishing industry had the best average deliverable
rate for emails, 99.3%, yet maintained an average 23.9% (23.5% average across all industries) open rate and a
mediocre average 4.2% (5.8% across all industries) click-through rate. The best spent money in B2B email is in
data quality, as segmentation offers unlimited opportunities for personalization--which is only effective if data
is clean. Nothing ruins a personalization and customization program faster than dirty data. However, this data
suggests that many publishers have managed to keep data clean, but have not yet managed to determine how
to engage recipients enough in email to get them clicking.
Implementing Lifecycle Programs
Segmentation is the key to effective email marketing. To take advantage of the personalization that is possible
within email, marketers must segment lists into demographic or behavioral segments that respond differently
to various message approaches. Lifecycle marketing is a key opportunity within the publishing industry. Jeff
Pedone of Incisive Media describes this approach as, “targeting individual customers based upon their previous
relationships with us and anticipating the future needs. Messaging is then crafted for a specific purpose (i.e.,
moving registrants from trial to paid subscribers) and triggered at specific intervals, based upon specific actions
taken by the recipient” (Johnson-Greene, 2008, p. 8).
There is no single answer as to what works best in behavioral or demographic targeting. Frequency and format
of emails depends on several factors, starting with the lifecycle stage of the customer or potential customer.
An initial period of testing, reporting and analyzing data to generalize for an entire email program creates a
foundation that allows for future creativity and innovation.
BUILDING A STRONG EMAIL PROGRAM
TAKES CREATIVITY AND PLANNING
BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTS
Inactives (has not opened an email in the last 6 months)
Actives (opened an email in the last 6 months)
Opens (opened an email in the last month)
Clicks (clicked an email in the last month)
DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTS
Area of Interest
Geography
Function /Title
Level
Organization Size
Industry
{The two most
common
segmentation
opportunities in
B2B Marketing:
Demographic-
Based and
Behavioral-Based

4. Prospects tend to be the largest group of possible email
addresses, and will have the lowest conversion rate
overall. Gathered from conferences, free white papers,
other marketing channels such as telemarketing, and
other lead generation techniques, prospects are a
core part of an email marketing plan. Renting email
lists, utilizing search engine marketing or placing
online display ads that focus on generating leads can
grow qualified prospect lists. They are also one of the
most time-sensitive audiences, with some sources
suggesting those who don’t buy within 30 days are
unlikely to buy at all (Magill, 2009, p. 20). Converting
prospects into first-time buyers means trying lower-
cost items or more substantial discounts towards the
end of the 30-day term.
FreeeNewsletterSubscribersrepresentanunparalleled
up-sell opportunity. Although technically prospects,
Lifecycle
Segments
PROSPECT
FREE ENEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBER
TRIAL
ACTIVE CUSTOMER
ACTIVE/NEAR
RENEWAL CUSTOMER
CANCELLEDCUSTOMER
RENEWAL CUSTOMER
EXPIRED CUSTOMER

5. their familiarity and frequent interaction with the brand
gives them a more valuable categorization. While free
eNewsletters have opportunities for advertising, using
these emails to engage customers in both the email content,
and the landing pages where the stories continue, gives
marketers multiple options to convert free subscribers into
paid.
Trial customers, or those in a limited time subscription
to an online or print product, demand a multi-channel
reminder as to why they should convert to full subscribers
of a product. The attention paid to a trial subscriber is a
preview of the attention paid to a customer, so it must be
personalized, consistent and valuable. Publishers that use
email, direct mail and phone touches to their customer base
can remind potential customers of the value of the product,
and features of the product that may not be obvious. Once
a customer has decided to try one product, marketers
should take care not to bombard that user with other offers
for other products. During an active trial, the focus must be
on closing a sale, not presenting other offers.
Active customers are the most valuable of any other email
subscribers, and marketers must take care to offer products
to this group based on what is already known about their
buying habits. If a customer subscribes to a newsletter
about the Family and Medical Leave Act, for example, it
follows that they might also be interested in forms that
ease compliance or a training on updates to the regulation.
Rather than offer a plethora of options, many that may not
reflect what is already known about the customer, target
the majority of communications to core areas of interest.
Somewhere between an Active and a Renewal Customer,
those within one-three months of renewal should receive
only reminders to renew their subscription--ultimately
where they are of the most value to the organization.
While email renewals may not transcend the effectiveness
of mailed renewal notices, there are cost-savings associated
with starting with email renewal notices. Consumer Reports
sees a 10-49 percent response rate for their renewal emails
(Cooper and Joukhadar, 2006, p. 18). Rather than using a
discount offer or free product to entice renewal, driving
customer loyalty by offering a thank you gift after renewal
strengthens a brand’s service reputation.
Email
Formats
In email, as in most advertising, using creativity
to drive attention is a key to success. The first
step is to weigh three elements of an email
equally:
THE FROM LINE
THE SUBJECT LINE
THE BODY
Often marketers spend hours choosing colors
and images for an email and forget that the
recipient may never see that work if the From
Line and Subject Line of an email are not
captivating.
Varying the From Line, also alias, to include
a person’s name, such as an editor or sales
person, can increase opens. However, building
loyalty also means utilizing your brand name.
Testing between these options for prospects
(as anyone else in your lifecycle stages should
want to hear from your brand name), can
affect open rates and give you a better chance
to convert.
SubjectLines,eveninpersonalcommunication,
can make or break an open. Short, but
informative; direct, but enticing--the options
abound. Personalization in a subject line
can also create an intrigue in the recipient.
For those with fewer resources to test email
creative, the subject line is the easiest and
fastest way to affect response rates through
careful list splits and tests.
The Body of an email drives the user to
click, sometimes direct to purchase, for your
products. Emails made entirely of graphics,
for example, can make it impossible to find
links to purchase. While graphics can grab
attention, business email accounts may block
images or treat images with high-proportions
of images as spam and send them to junk mail
boxes. A mix of attention-grabbing and enough
information to entice the recipient for more
details can be difficult to master, but testing
for your customers can produce the best mix.

6. Customers with only recently expired subscriptions,
considered almost a subset of renewals, are clear
targets for renewal to the publications they once
subscribed to, but may have let subscriptions lapse
because of cost, content or delivery method. Giving
these subscribers moderate discounts to re-subscribe,
or offering comparable products as an online version,
can increase conversion.
Customers with accounts more than six months lapsed
have resisted many attempts to gain their business
back. For these renewal customers, the key is an offer
they cannot refuse. Rather than a moderate discount,
these customers warrant more extreme multi-year
discounted offers or deep product discounts. Because
the conversion rate will be low, these discounts, given
infrequently, can give publishers another chance to
regain the loyalty of a customer.
Cancelled customers have two distinct values to
a publishing marketer. They represent both an
opportunity to listen to customer complaints and
feedback to produce better products with better
marketing, and they give marketers an opportunity to
try again to present a valuable product. In asking for
customer feedback in an online survey, key trends can
be revealed in why customers may not be interested
in a product. In completing the survey, offering the
customer a discount for a future purchase may be
enough to reengage them in your brand.
Metrics 101
Whilecreativitymaybeessentialtothesuccess
of an email program, analytics provide the
foundation for sustainable email programs.
Any email program must be tested, managed,
measuredandreportedonwithafewindustry-
standard performance measures.
Deliverable Rate: The percentage of emails
that are delivered to the intended recipient’s
mailbox. Deliverable rate is the best measure
of your list quality.
Bounce Rate: Bounces can be divided into
two categories: hard and soft. Hard bounces
should be purged from your database, as those
email addresses no longer exist in the receiving
domain’s system. Soft bounces, however, can
be due to full mailboxes or server downtime—
but these may still be good email addresses.
Purge soft bounces after they have bounced
more than three times.
Opt-In/Out Rate: A monthly measure of the
numberofpeoplesubscribingandunsubscribing
to your lists. With a healthy organic list growth
plan, your opt-in rate for prospects should
exceed your opt-out rate.
Open Rate: The open rate measures the
audience that views your email. Although an
open rate is only an intermediate measure of
success, open rates are the best indicators for
subject line and from line success.
Click-through Rate: Measured against opens,
theclickthroughratemeasurestheeffectiveness
of your email format, and the audience interest
in your product. This expression of interest can
be followed up with other channels—phone,
for example, to move an interest to a sale.
Conversion Rate: Measured against clicks, the
conversion rate is the outcome measure for any
email—revenue.

7. email is only one small piece of what can be a successful overall, multi-channel marketing program. However,
unlike some media, it can be a low-cost way to see big return in revenue and customer satisfaction. Email pro-
viders range from free to expansive enterprise-wide solutions, each offering a range of features for segmenta-
tion and analytics. However, to truly recognize the power of email, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work.
In fact, emailing without personalization to your customers or regard for their experience will only damage your
email list size and your brand reputation.
Remember,
References
Bronto (2010, April 25). Delivery Statistics. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://www.bronto.com/knowledge/statistics
ExactTarget (n.d.). Marketing Budgets 2010: Effectiveness, Measurement &Allocation Report. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://
www.slideshare.net/econsultancy/marketing-budgets-2010-report-slideshare
Johnson-Greene, C. (2008). How to deal with email list fatigue. Circulation Management, 23(9), 8.
Joukhadar, K. & Cooper, J. (2006). E-Marketing in an Integrated World. Circulation Management, 21(5), 18-20.
Maddox, K. (2009, November 16). 2010 Outlook Survey shows marketing budgets to grow. B2B Magazine. Retrieved April 19, 2010,
from http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091116/FREE/311169985/1444/FREE