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Similar to SGDelivered2014TransactionalEmailTransactional emails are important for:- Customer engagement and retention - Driving key metrics like activations, conversions and referrals- Facilitating transactions and keeping customers updated- Having high open and click-through ratesThe presentation emphasized optimizing transactional emails by: - Improving templates, personalization and call-to-action buttons- Implementing A/B testing for continuous improvement - Leveraging analytics to understand email performance- Integrating emails with the user experience and product workflowIt also provided a case study of how uSell enhanced their transactional emails to
Similar to SGDelivered2014TransactionalEmailTransactional emails are important for:- Customer engagement and retention - Driving key metrics like activations, conversions and referrals- Facilitating transactions and keeping customers updated- Having high open and click-through ratesThe presentation emphasized optimizing transactional emails by: - Improving templates, personalization and call-to-action buttons- Implementing A/B testing for continuous improvement - Leveraging analytics to understand email performance- Integrating emails with the user experience and product workflowIt also provided a case study of how uSell enhanced their transactional emails to (20)
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SGDelivered2014TransactionalEmailTransactional emails are important for:- Customer engagement and retention - Driving key metrics like activations, conversions and referrals- Facilitating transactions and keeping customers updated- Having high open and click-through ratesThe presentation emphasized optimizing transactional emails by: - Improving templates, personalization and call-to-action buttons- Implementing A/B testing for continuous improvement - Leveraging analytics to understand email performance- Integrating emails with the user experience and product workflowIt also provided a case study of how uSell enhanced their transactional emails to
- 2. 2 • Wireless=Impressionist Room • Password=impressionst • Social Media: @sendgrid #SGDelivered • Sales Rep = Tina • Happy hour!
- 3. 3 RyanHarris Manager, Compliance and Email Strategy ryan.harris@sendgrid.com JillianWohlfarth Senior Manager of Content jillian.wohlfarth@sendgrid.com
- 4. 4_________________________ IF YOU SEND EMAIL WE’LL MAKE YOU BETTER AT IT. _________________________
- 5. 5 ABOUT SENDGRID Founded July 2009 TechStars Graduate 180+ Employees Office locations in: Boulder | Denver | Anaheim San Francisco | Europe
- 6. 6 Angel investors include: Scott Petry Founder, Postini Matt Mullenweg Founder, Wordpress $27M venture capital raised (Series B closed January 2012) INVESTMENT
- 9. 9
- 13. 13
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- 15. 15 The Road to the Inbox? Your Server
- 16. 16 The Challenges Of Sending Email At Scale…
- 17. 17 Inbox Obstacles ISPs (Internet Service Providers) Blacklists Spam traps
- 18. 18 ISPs
- 19. 19 Blacklists
- 20. 20 Spam Traps
- 21. 21 The Real Road to the Inbox AOL Yahoo Google Live .edu Etc… ISPs Spam Folder Your Mail Server SORBS BSB CBL PSBL SPAMCO P Blacklists Etc… Google McAfee Mail Trust Spam Assassin Cloudmark Etc… Spam Filters SPAM
- 23. How Does SendGrid Help? 1. Technology 2. Analytics 3. Customer Support
- 24. 24 Sender 1. Email content passed to SendGrid via API or SMTP 2. SendGrid processes and queues messages 3. Messages delivered to recipients’ inboxes Recipient Powering Email Via APIs 4. Analytics captured by SendGrid and passed back to customer
- 27. 27 200 Billion
- 28. 28 Today’s Agenda… Your roadmap to becoming an email superhero
- 29. 29 Learn How To… • Master email deliverability • Leverage APIs • Understand success metrics • Build an engaged subscriber list • Optimize your content
- 30. Ryan Harris Nick Quinlan Jillian Wohlfarth Ali Frusciano Paul Kincaid-Smith
- 32. Ryan Harris Ali Frusciano How to Be Awesome When Sending Email
- 33. 33
- 34. 34
- 35. 35 • Right Person - at the • Right Time -with the • Right Frequency • Right Message -to the
- 36. 36 Let’s take a moment to talk about prerequisites…
- 37. 37 • Opt in • Define Engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No Reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation What is Opt In? How does Opt In cover your ass?
- 38. 38 • Opt In • Define Engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No Reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation • What is an Unengaged User? • How do you identify Engaged Users? • Create a Sunset Policy
- 39. 39 • Opt In • Define Engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No Reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 40. 40 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No Reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 41. 41 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation No-reply to Address
- 42. 42 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 43. 43 Unsubscribe • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 44. 44 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 45. 45 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation List-Unsubscribe www.list-unsubscribe.com
- 46. 46 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 47. 47 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 48. 48
- 49. 49 • Opt In • Define engagement • Separate Marketing and Transactional Email • Branding • No-reply • Warm Up • Unsubscribe • Reputation
- 51. 51 • Right Person - at the • Right Time -with the • Right Frequency • Right Message -to the
- 52. 52 • The Right Message • The Right Person • The Right Time • The Right Frequency
- 53. 53 • The Right Message • The Right Person • The Right Time • The Right Frequency
- 54. 54 • The Right Message • The Right Person • The Right Time • The Right Frequency Let’s get beyond “Hey [fname], how is [geolocation]?” Profile your messages for meaningful content Segment your lists based on your user’s profile: • Geolocation • Products Purchased • Links clicked • Pages viewed
- 55. 55 • The Right Message • The Right Person • The Right Time • The Right Frequency Let’s talk about Spam Traps…
- 56. 56 • The Right Message • The Right Person • The Right Time • The Right Frequency Send messages when they need to be sent!
- 57. 57 • The Right Message • The Right Person • The Right Time • The Right Frequency
- 58. 58 • Right Person - at the • Right Time -with the • Right Frequency • Right Message -to the Key Takeaway
- 59. Things you need to know about CASL
- 60. 60 • Clear Identification • Addresses • Unsubscribing • Consent You should clearly identify yourself in the email… This also must be done at the point of consent!
- 61. 61 • Clear Identification • Addresses • Unsubscribing • Consent CASL Requires… You must provide a functioning electronic address as well as a physical address where the recipient can contact you!
- 62. 62 • Clear Identification • Addresses • Unsubscribing Rules • Consent You must store the following information for each address: • The type of opt-in (paper, landing page, sign up) • An example of the webpage (if applicable) • When they opted-in • Their connecting IP (if applicable)
- 63. 63 • Clear Identification • Addresses • Unsubscribing Rules • Consent Your Unsubscribe method… must be functional for 60 days after the message is sent and must process a request within 10 days.
- 64. 64 • Clear Identification • Addresses • Unsubscribing Rules • Consent Expressed Consent vs. Implied Consent: • Expressed consent is required for email messages • Implied consent is only valid for a 6 month window
- 65. 65 CASL allows implied consent for the following: • Messages send within a business (they must be related to your business) • Messages sent in response to a request • Quotes or estimates • Receipts • Security info (recalls, warrantees, etc.) • Ongoing usage with your business (ongoing purchases) • Service upgrades or updates • Deliveries of a product • Recipients choose to provide their electronic address online without specifying that they do not want to receive CEMs (SendGrid does not allow this) • Recipients provide their electronic address to the sender without specifying that they do not want to receive CEMS (SendGrid does not allow this)
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- 74. 74 SERVER SAYS: 220 some_mailserver.net ESMTP Sendmail 8.13.8/8.13.8; Tue, 6 May 2014 12:34:07 -0700 YOU SAY: helo localhost.localdomain SERVER SAYS: 250 some_mailserver..net Hello ???? [???.???.???.???] (may be forged), pleased to meet you YOU SAY: MAIL From:example@example.com SERVER SAYS: 250 2.1.0 example@example.com... Sender ok YOU SAY: RCPT To:someone@example.comSERVER SAYS: 250 recipient <somone@example.com> OK YOU SAY: DATA SERVER SAYS: 354 enter mail, end with line containing only ".” YOU SAY: Loons sure are cool. YOU SAY: . SERVER SAYS: 250 message sent YOU SAY: QUIT SERVER SAYS: 221 goodbye
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- 120. Email and Your Product: A Magical Journey in Delighting your Customers
- 121. Matt Harris Co-founder and CEO matt@sendwithus.com @mrmch Linley Faulkner Product Marketing linley@sendwithus.com @LinleyJena
- 122. About Sendwithus ● Founded January 2013 ● Based in o San Francisco, California o Victoria, British Columbia ● Control + Optimize Transactional Email
- 123. Sendwithus is for marketers Easy template management and analytics without a developer. • Template Management • Drip Campaigns • A/B Testing • Segmentation • Analytics
- 124. We are an API for • Templated emails • Drip Campaigns • Segmentation • Analytics Sendwithus is for developers …for your SendGrid Account
- 125. Let’s Talk Transactional Email ● What is it? ● Why is it important for growth? ● How do you improve? ● Case Study
- 126. What is Transactional Email? Any message in which the primary purpose facilitates an already agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer about an ongoing transaction.
- 127. ● One-to-one messaging ● User actions and engagement ● Critical for customers What is Transactional Email?
- 128. Sometimes… you get this:
- 129. Tension – Who owns email? Marketer owns landing page Developer owns email
- 132. Example: Payment Receipt ● clear call to action ● good presentation of information ● AirBnb has clearly put effort into this email
- 133. #1: Critical for Growth.
- 134. Pirate Metrics Model (AARRR!) Dave McClure
- 136. Activation: Welcome Email (Drip Campaign)
- 138. Revenue: Abandon Cart Email
- 140. Measure Everything
- 141. #2: A Missed Opportunity.
- 145. #3: Your Customers Want Them.
- 146. Welcome emails experience a 49% open rate.
- 148. Recap: Transactional Email Matters • Critical for growth. • A missed opportunity. • Your customers rely on them.
- 149. uSell: Case Study
- 150. Who is uSell? ● Marketplace for used cell phones and gadgets ● Make it easy for customers to sell their used gadgets, by connecting them with professional buyers
- 151. Focus: Improve Customer Experience ● Wanted to improve the customer side of the marketplace ● Particularly concerned with increasing revenue generating conversions ● Want to test new ideas and measure results.
- 152. Goal: Increase “Send-in” Rate ● Optimize an offline revenue metric ● Customer had already agreed to sell phone ● Email used to remind them to ship their device -> a “send-in” ● How could they effectively remind their customer to take action?
- 153. Test 1: Increase Open rates Sample subject lines: ● “Your old device is saying, only 1 week left!” ● “Two Reasons You’re Missing Out: Easy. Money.” ● “Don’t let this be the one that got away!”
- 154. Result: 25% more opens Winner: “Your old device is saying, only 1 week left!”
- 155. Test 2: Increase Send-In Rate Sample subject lines: ● “We still haven’t received your {{ device_name }}” ● “One week left to send in your {{ device_name }}!” ● “Two reasons you’re missing out: Easy. Money.”
- 156. Result: 8.6% More Send-Ins Winner: “We still haven’t received your {{ device_name }}”
- 157. Lessons ● Huge opportunity that could have been missed (+8.6%) ● Best subject line isn’t always what you expect ● Keep it personalized ● Know which metric is most important, and test to that
- 158. How to Improve ●Granular Analytics ●Visual Identification ●Measure Everything
- 160. SUBJECT YAY Everything BODY CTA Open rate ClickRate High High Low Low Granular Analytics, per template
- 161. SUBJECT YAY Everything BODY CTA Open rate ClickRate High High Low Low Granular Analytics, per template
- 162. SUBJECT YAY Everything BODY CTA Open rate ClickRate High High Low Low Granular Analytics, per template
- 163. Ask yourself: ● Is it clear who this email is from? ● Is it clear what my next step is? ● Is there an opportunity for me to engage further? Visual Identification
- 164. From Name (RED), Subject line (Green), Intro text (Orange) In the Inbox
- 165. Inspect the Content
- 166. Pro Tip : Test Everything! ● Don’t assume. Test. ● Treat email like a landing page ● Email is complicated, you can test o subject line o intro text o body style o headings o call to action o and more!
- 167. Wrapping up ● Email is an extension of your product ● Email experience has to match product ● Put your customer-focused team in control ● Dead end email = missed opportunities ● TEST EVERYTHING!
- 169. RECIPIENTS 101 What can we learn from 200 billion emails?
- 170. 170 Paul Kincaid-Smith VP, Email Delivery paul@sendgrid.com
- 171. 171 2% OF THE WORLD’S WANTED MAIL
- 172. 172 SendGrid: Email at Scale 100 Billion Total Sent 1 Billion Total Sent 200 Billion Total Sent March 2011 March 2013 March 2014
- 173. 173 SendGrid’s Volume & Speed …all while keeping deliverability over 99% 450 million delivered per day At 1 million messages per minute To countries all over the world
- 174. 174 Right Message Right Person Right Time Right Frequency
- 176. 176 SendGrid Stats • On-the-go • Mobile first • Own a smartphone • Likely Gmail user • Likely in North America
- 177. 177 From 2012-2013: Takeaway: Responsive Layouts Matter. A lot. Device Trends: More Screens in More Places Desktop: 94% Increase Mobile: 105% Increase Tablet: 157% Increase
- 178. 178 Recipients Love Gmail TOP 5 ISPS SENT TO TOP 5 ISPS BY OPENS TOP 5 ISPS BY CLICKS Takeaway: Monitor how you perform at Gmail.
- 179. 179
- 180. 180 *Based on clicks Takeaway: A big year for Chrome, a bad year for IE It’s Hard Out There For IE
- 181. 181 TOP BROWSERS 1. IE 2. Chrome 3. iPhone 4. Firefox 5. Android Phone 6. Safari 7. iPad 8. Opera 9. iPod 10. Blackberry TOP BROWSERS 1. Chrome 2. IE 3. iPhone 4. Android Phone 5. Safari 6. iPad 7. Firefox 8. Opera 9. iPod 10. Blackberry Always Test! • Chrome • Safari • IE • Firefox • iOS / Android A Deeper Dive: 2012 vs. 2013
- 182. 182 RECIPIENTS: WHAT ARE THEIR EMAIL HABITS?
- 183. 183 • SPEED DEMONS • INBOX SANITIZERS • INBOX OVERWHELME D
- 184. 184 • SPEED DEMONS • INBOX SANITIZERS • INBOX OVERWHELME D
- 185. 185 • SPEED DEMONS • INBOX SANITIZERS • INBOX OVERWHELME D
- 186. 186 SendGrid Recipient Breakdown Speed Demons & Inbox Sanitizers Inbox Overwhelmed This is where timing matters!
- 187. 187 Takeaway: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday *Based on opens When Are People Opening Mail?
- 188. 188 am12 am am am pm 3 pm 6 pm 9 pm 12 am Come on, tell me more! Takeaway: In general, morning emails get higher opens
- 189. 189 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS
- 190. 190 Mobile-optimized emails are worth the investment.
- 191. 191 Know and optimize for your biggest locations and ISPs.
- 192. 192 The better you know your subscribers, the better your emails.
- 193. 193 Right Message Right Person Right Time Right Frequency
- 194. 11 Ways to Build and Nurture Your Subscriber List
- 197. 197 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 198. 198 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 199. 199 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt-in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 200. 200 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt-in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 201. 201 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 202. 202 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 203. 203 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 204. 204 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 205. 205 REASONS PEOPLE UNSUBSCRIBE • 56%: Email came too frequently • 49%: The content became too repetitive or boring over time • 22%: I signed up for a one time offer *source = HubSpot • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 206. 206 • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt- in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 207. 207 Quality over Quantity • Create opportunities for sign up • Optimize opt-in pages • Send a confirmation email • Create opps for opt out • Create a preference center • Create stellar content
- 208. 5 Ways to Keep Your Subscribers Engaged
- 209. 209 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything “Reply to” Addres s Subject Line HeaderBody Copy CTA Landin g Page
- 210. 210 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything
- 211. 211 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything
- 212. 212 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything
- 213. 213 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything
- 214. 214 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything Are you being motivated by what YOU want, or by what your customers are asking for?
- 215. 215 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything Demographics/Loc ation
- 216. 216 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything Purchase Behavior
- 217. 217 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything
- 218. 218 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything
- 219. 219 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything EMAIL A
- 220. 220 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything EMAIL B
- 221. 221 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything A RECEIVED 31.6% MORE CLICKS! Email A Email B
- 222. 222 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything EMAIL A
- 223. 223 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything EMAIL B
- 224. 224 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything B RECEIVED 83.1% MORE CLICKS!
- 225. 225 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything Subject Line Test Subject Line (A): The Power of Email APIs Subject Line (B): Discover the Power of Email APIs
- 226. 226 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything Subject Line Test Winner! Subject Line (A): The Power of Email APIs Subject Line (B): Discover the Power of Email APIs
- 227. 227 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything Subject Line Test Subject Line (A): Your Toughest Email Infrastructure Questions Answered Subject Line (B): [Webinar] Your Toughest Email Infrastructure Questions Answered
- 228. 228 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything Subject Line Test Subject Line (A): Your Toughest Email Infrastructure Questions Answered Subject Line (B): [Webinar] Your Toughest Email Infrastructure Questions Answered Winner!
- 229. 229 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything 1. Never assume, test TESTING TIPS
- 230. 230 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything 1. Never assume, test 2. Test one element at a time TESTING TIPS
- 231. 231 • Maintain consistent messaging • Create a welcome email • Segment for success • Deploy reactivation campaigns • Test… everything 1. Never assume, test 2. Test one element at a time 3. Iterate TESTING TIPS
- 232. 232 TAKEAWAY S • Don’t buy or rent lists • Create opportunities for sign up • Segment your lists • Provide preference centers • Engaged users are your goal • Maintain voice and brand consistency • Test!
Editor's Notes
- JILLIAN Since email is the backbone of the social web, let’s talk about what affects its effectiveness and how to get it delivered! 22% of all email sent never arrives as intended. 22%! For context, our co-founder Tim Jenkins likes to posit, if eBay were to lose 1%, just 1% of their email, they would lose $14 million in revenue per year.
- JILLIAN
- If you drive revenue from email, you can directly quantify a 22% financial loss. If you have softer goals like new user acquisition or engagement, you miss out on a huge segment of potential users who can extend the viability of your brand. According to our survey, web apps rely on email: 80.5% for signups and subscriptions 79.5% for password recovery and account changes 49.8% for order and shipping confirmations 28% for friend/follower requests and confirmations Imagine 22% of these valuable communications going undelivered.
- RYAN The road to the inbox is not linear—not an easy A to B. Who employs an email deliverability expert in house?
- RYAN Sending email actually looks a lot like this. Most never hit the target. Your email encounters many obstacles from the server to the inbox. They are: ISPS, blacklists, spam traps. Let’s take a look at them.
- Ryan starts off preso for Housekeeping and Company Overview.
- RYAN Here’s the real road to the inbox. Jillian ask Ryan: And where is “delivered??” RIGHT BEFORE THE ISPS!! 250 response code. So “delivered” is at the gateway of the ISPs, not actually the inbox!!
- RYAN SENDGRID TECHNOLOGY
- RYAN SENDGRID TECHNOLOGY
- JILLIAN So, how has SendGrid scaled? 200B + emails Representing 2% of the world’s non-spam email What does 200 Billion look like? 100 Billion = Number of hamburgers sold by McDonalds form 1940 to 1994—non0spam emails 200 Billion = 2 (!) emails for every person that has lived on this Earth in the last 50k years Through sending over 200 billion emails and traveling to 15+ cities on this tour in the last year, we have a lot of tips to share. So, today, we’re going to share how you can get to the inbox quickly and how SendGrid can help.
- JILLIAN So, how has SendGrid scaled? 200B + emails Representing 2% of the world’s non-spam email They send as many emails per minute as there are Tweets on Twitter What does 200 Billion look like? 100 Billion = Number of hamburgers sold by McDonalds form 1940 to 1994—non0spam emails 200 Billion = 2 (!) emails for every person that has lived on this Earth in the last 50k years Through sending over 200 billion emails and traveling to 15+ cities on this tour in the last year, we have a lot of tips to share. So, today, we’re going to share how you can get to the inbox quickly and how SendGrid can help.
- So let’s take a look at what we’ll be covering today…
- JILLIAN Here’s who you’ll be hearing from today. Leverage us, we’re here to help. So, let’ get started. Ali and Ryan are going to teach you how to master your email deliverability now. Over to you Ryan and Ali.
- Ali – you’ve met Ryan, i’m ….. How to Be Awesome when Sending Email
- Ryan talking today about best practices to make you an email bad ass http://justincaseyouwerewondering.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/dont-suck.png
- Ali - not much talk - If you don’t understand why your emails are not performing as planned, we are here to help http://jbarrineau.com/2013/06/12/think-before-you-hit-send-how-not-to-suck-at-email/
- Ali - our Mantra here at SENGRID Concentrate on the Right Message – to the Right Person – at the Right Time - with the Right Frequency and you will stay on the good side of the ISPs and have little trouble getting to the inbox of your customers before diving in, there are some pre-reqs
- Before we get into RM RT TF jkfdjkls...Let’s go over some pre reqs http://www.theprospect.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/one-does-not-simply-skip-a-step.jpg
- ryan Single, Double, Confirmed Opt In Don’t assume opt in, Facebook and purchasing goods and auto-adding emails Disgruntled employee and single opt in Don’t assume opt in Facebook example with client hitting spam traps
- Ali is DA BOMB! -engaged users are one of the most important metrics in email today -you want to look for people that are opening and/or clicking your email -If they are NOT opening and clicking the email, you need to take them off your list. You can remove them completely, or send a re-engagement campaign. If they don’t respond to the re-engagement campaign...remove them...FOREVER. -How is it painful to not do this -Aaron has a graph to show sweet spot of engagement -Encourage people replying to email
- Ali Using different IP’s is one thing, but who separates by sub-domains or root domains - Gmail announced that these should be as separate as possible good better best
- Ryan Don’t just brand your marketing emails but brand your transactional emails as well. People overlook this and send lame transactional messages. Companies like send with us help optimize your transactional traffic
- Ryan No-reply showing up as the sender in Gmail Don’t want your clients to talk to a wall
- Ali
- Ali - have a visible unsubscribe link.
- ryan
- ryan HAve you ever experienced this…. http://www.psdgraphics.com/file/hand-pointer-icon.jpg
- http://tigerlilytoph.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/table-flip.png Preference page, to unsub from marketing and not from transactional message 10 days is the legal requirement a real email sending removes someone in seconds Careful not to unsub from transactional
- Ryan Have u ever been to a small town? Where everyone knows your business? The Anti-Abuse community is just like that Elaborate on Insider lists, entire abuse community fits in one hotel in San Fran (MAAWG). IP Domain Ali - Email service providers do the same - we had difficulty influencing the client. they abandoned us, we have great relationships with them, we reached out to them, here is what we advised, here are the struggles, ESP very thankful and it set them up for a better talk.
- Ryan Concentrate on the Right Message – to the Right Person – at the Right Time - with the Right Frequency and you will stay on the good side of the ISPs and have little trouble getting to the inbox of your customers
- Ali - our Mantra here at SENGRID Concentrate on the Right Message – to the Right Person – at the Right Time - with the Right Frequency and you will stay on the good side of the ISPs and have little trouble getting to the inbox of your customers before diving in, there are some pre-reqs
- Ali - its easy as a marketer to assume all communications are relevant, but it’s important to to understand the needs of your recipients and what they are really interested in. http://mattgivenstudios.com/images/uploads/main/relevance14.jpg
- Ryan Profile your user New Jersey deals to someone in Colorado
- ryan - Get beyond [fname]. This format is expected and your challenge as a business is to add more personalization for your recipients
- Ali - Spam Traps - Facebook addresses beware -Dive into a story - had a client they got all their addresses through facebook, this was a disaster because FB doesn’t reconfirm this is affecting deliveraiblity , confrimed opt in - spam traps disappeared
- Ali - another gross slide Daily deal’s on the day Knowing the time that your users engage (should we reference Embarke) - consumes your data, tells you the exact time a recipient opens an email. Either from 8 - noon, or at 8:30 specifically. Reputation, if you have to send a message that day, don’t want surprises - think about this with your warmup. warm up. Don’t position your company where you have to send a bizzalion messages tomorrow!
- Ryan Are you sending 80 messages in a day to one user? Preference page, let your users decide how much email to receive. Don’t force ppl to log into a preference page Temptation: Batch and blast - Fatigued users become unengaged -Unsubs going up? Opens and clicks going up or down? - Ask aaron about visual on email fatigue
- You know who else is awesome!? Guest speaker is AWESOME!
- Ryan Are you sending 80 messages in a day to one user? Preference page, let your users decide how much email to receive. Don’t force ppl to log into a preference page Temptation: Batch and blast - Fatigued users become unengaged -Unsubs going up? Opens and clicks going up or down? - Ask aaron about visual on email fatigue
- Ryan Are you sending 80 messages in a day to one user? Preference page, let your users decide how much email to receive. Don’t force ppl to log into a preference page Temptation: Batch and blast - Fatigued users become unengaged -Unsubs going up? Opens and clicks going up or down? - Ask aaron about visual on email fatigue
- Today I’m going to talk about Email and Your Product
- My name is Linley Faulkner, and I work on the product marketing team at sendwithus I’m here today with sendwithus co-founder and CEO, Matt Harris AND Wesley Yu, our Extraordinary marketing coordinator **wave** A little [slide]
- A little bit about us, We have been around since Jan 2013, Our headquarter is in SF and out engineering team is based in Victoria, British Columbia Canada where the company was originally founded. Pictured here is some of our engineering team. We are committed to helping our customers control and optimize transactional email. We are graduates of Y Combinator’s recent winter batch. … But who are we?
- For Marketers, we are Easy template management and analytics without a developer. Our dashboard lets marketers and product teams run things like drip campaigns and segmentation.
- For developers, we are an API for templated emails, drip campaigns, segmentation and analytics for your SendGrid Account. Today [slide]
- I’m going to talk about Transactional Email. First, I’m going to talk a bit about what it is, and why it’s hard. I’m also going to share a reasons why transactional email is important for your product Then, I’ll share some of our tips and tools on how to improve your existing transactional email. And Finally, I’m going to share a quick case study.
- So what is Transactional email? SendGrid has a great definition. Transactional emails happen after a user has taken an action with your company. They can take the form of welcome emails, payment receipts, subscription renewals, password deliveries, product/account updates, alerts, and social notifications. Basically, transactional emails are sent when a user is engaged with your product or service.
- We also describe it as one-to-one messaging that closely ties to user engagement and actions. For example, you may get a facebook notification email saying “Linley has sent you a message” Or a Linked-in notification that says “Linley wants to connect with you” These email contains information that the customer needs right away. Most Importantly, transactional email is the email your customer actually likes. They have asked for this information. But just because the user has asked for this information, it doesn’t mean that’s it’s a pleasant experience every time.
- Worst Case Scenario… How often do you get emails like this: This plain text email has no call to action, wayyy to much text in the body and zero branding. This is an example of a “dead end email” Definition: dead-end email “An email that does not contain a clear call to action or next step for your user.” You’ve likely seen this in your own email inbox. If you are a marketer, it is likely that you want to improve this email, but don’t prioritize it because it’s trapped in source code. If you are developer, you probably hate coding HTML emails, so you are probably ignoring this email as well. At sendwithus, we find that [slide]
- Sometimes there is a bit of a tension. Over here, we have two examples of customer experience. On the left, we have a landing page – owned by the marketing or product focused team. Optimized for engagement Customer-centric On the right, we have a non-branded, plain text transactional email. This email is owned by a developer, bc the trigger is baked application behaviour or user behaviour As a result, the Focus is information – not necessarily consistent user experience. We’ve found that sometimes there is no easy way to get a developer to prioritize updating a transactional email. ... On the other hand, Because it’s typically trapped in source-code, marketing or product focused teams lack control over what happens to their transactional email. … This is a pain we solve, and we encourage teams to give transactional email to those who care about consistent customer experience. Let’s look at at couple examples
- This is an example of a notification email We have Frank and Oak on the left, and Linked in on the right. At first glance, both emails look like nicely branded HTML emails. Digging a bit deeper, Let’s look at the Frank and Oak Email, It is a lot of text. It is too hard to tell what the purpose of the email actually is… There is NO CALL TO ACTION THIS IS A DEAD END EMAIL. Meaning there is nothing the user can do to engage further. On the right, Linked In has a clean notification email You know exactly what to do. The CTA is direct, “Confirm that you know Linley” Our favourite example [slide]
- Is the payment receipt! We love the payment receipt, because this is when your customer is most engaged. They have just willingly given you money. On the left, it’s just a bit of a mess. There is no branding. I was looking to see the details of my recent SXSW payment, and it was not easy to spot. This did not make me excited to go to SXSW. Our favourite example is AirBNB There branding is similar to the rest of the customer experience of Airbnb Let me zoom into the top
- Clear call to action, I know exactly what I can do next. If anything, this makes me excited to use AirBnB. So those were just a couple of great examples of how large recognizable brands are doing this really well. Now let’s talk a bit about why transactional emails are so important
- At sendwithus, we know that it’s important for startups to do things that drive growth. Email is an extremely useful tool no matter the stage of your company.
- You’ve probably already heard of Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics Model This is your customer funnel. It represents the major stages of the user lifecycle for nearly every business. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral What I think is interesting, transactional emails bridges the gap between different stages of the Pirate Metrics model. I’m going to give some examples. These aren’t the only examples that could be included in this funnel, but it’s a start. Also, all of these emails can be tested, which I’ll speak a bit more about later on.
- Traditionally, we think of the acquisition channel in relations to other inbound tools. The welcome email falls somewhere in between acquisition and activation. Your first welcome email is critical for completing customer acquisition. They may have given their email through a landing page, but they may not have consented to anything further. Like this example of Vimeo, you can see that in order for a user to fully be acquired, they have to complete the registration. We’ve already talked a bit about why it’s important to have a consistent user experience for your transactional email as your landing page. Jillian will speak more to this, but the welcome email is that first impression. And we all know that first impressions matter.
- After your customer is acquired it’s time to activate them. That initial drip campaign letting them know what to do next is an easy way to get your customers started. Quora has three steps to get a new user up and running and loving their product.
- Engagement emails are great for user retention. It really depends on what type of engagement is important for your product. It may be further social media engagement, or emails reminding unengaged users that you miss them, or even something more interesting that is important to your own product goals. Here, Rdio is noting that I was listening to Mother Mother, and that I should check out more music. These emails are triggered within the application. I already love the product, and they are giving me another reason to come back.
- There are many triggered emails which could be optimized to drive revenue. This one is really exciting to us because this is where our customers get creative. But, emails like abandon cart, trial or subscription expiring, or other drips related to your product can actually drive revenue. I’ll explain how one of our customers optimized this type of email later on. Here, udemy noted that I had some courses saved in my wishlist that are one sale for a few more hours. This one actually worked on me, and I bought a couple $19 courses last night… because I’m a sucker.
- You can get creative with the content of your triggered emails. Referrals can be embedded within a notification email, like the classic Dropbox example. Depending on your product’s goals and audience, you can experiment with different content within your transactional emails. You can make an email you already send, a tool for retention or referral.
- The most important part about using transactional email in your customer funnel is measurement. You can run multivariate or a/b tests on various email components AND track the results. By making smart, data-driven decisions in your transactional email, you have a better idea of how to grow the right areas of your product. The second reason transactional email is important, is that
- As you saw earlier, not every email in your inbox has been well thought out. We described earlier that many emails we see are “Deadends” and have no call to actions. When you think of low cost, high volume and conversation marketing channels, top of mind blogs, SEO/SEM, and landing pages. But, there’s one everyone forgets: Automated emails, or ‘transactional emails
- Unlike regular marketing emails, transactional emails are a missed opportunity for optimization These emails are sent to your all customers – Everyone who interacts with your company gets multiple transactional emails while they’re using your product or service, so they’re high volume.
- I know I’m repeating myself, but I can’t emphasize testing enough! I’ll speak a bit more to some tools you can use to decide what email components to A/B test The great thing about transactional email and testing, is that it’s automated and easy.
- Lastly, are you even tracking your transactional email’s performance? You are likely tracking your landing page’s performance, why not extend that to your transactional email. …
- Not only to your customers and users want these emails, they expect them. They’re only sent when people are engaged with your company, so they’re more likely to open and click on them. At sendwithus, we have been diving into our customer data and figuring out various trends. We’ll be releasing a series of blog posts, so stay tuned. But one fact I’d like to share, is that Transactional email is important because people want them and they actually open these emails. In fact, we’ve found that
- Welcome emails alone generally experience almost a 50% open rate. That’s pretty exciting to us! This means that our customers on average are seeing extremely high open rates for their welcome emails.
- Like we talked this about earlier, welcome emails bridge the gap between acquisition and activation. But what we know, is that transactional email matters because it’s the emails people asked for.. And it’s the emails they want to open.
- So just to recap quickly. Transactional email matters. They are critical for growth! They are a missed opportunity for optimization, testing and analytics. And, your customers rely on them. So. Now. I’m going to talk about one case study that we’re excited about.
- Usell is a customer that used the sendwithus platform to identify transactional emails that weren’t working. They wanted to make all their customer engagement a delightful experience.
- uSell is exciting, bc they take away challenge of reselling old devices We were excited to work with uSell, bc they wanted to do something interesting with their transactional email.
- Not only did they want to improve the customer side of the marketplace, but they also wanted to improve a revenue generating conversion They wanted to test new ideas and measure results. After signing up with sendwithus, they were excited to run some a/b or split tests on their customer facing transactional email.
- Their goal was to optimize an offline metric they called a send-in rate. uSell customers, looking to sell their devices, received a ready-to-ship package in the mail. All they had to do, was to put their old phone in the package, and send it back The send-in rate, is the percentage of customers that did just that. This was the last step required to successfully convert a customer. The uSell marketing team wanted to increase the number of customers shipping their devices. And they wanted to use transactional email to do that. They decided to run TWO separate tests to see if they could improve customer send in rate.
- They first ran a subject line test in hopes to increase open rates. Their team brainstormed subject lines that they thought might work better – as you can see here And they used sendwithus to test them out. We are SUPER excited about their results.
- Through split testing, they found AMAZING improvement in open rate – specifically one of the subject lines they tested saw 25% more opens than the original. Also, they saw 7.5% more customers sending in their devices than ever before. This was great, and they wanted to see if they could do even better. So they came up with a second test.
- For their second test, they decided to specifically focus on increasing the send-in rate. Remembr when we talked about the Pirate Metrics? This is an example of a mutli varient test that is used to drive REVENUE They brainstormed more subject lines that spoke directly to customers wanting to sell old devices. They also wanted test putting the device name directly in the subject line, as you can see in the first two examples. Let’s look at their results.
- They saw 8.6% percent more customers sending in their devices. This is exciting because these emails were driving more revenue – all from a subject line test!
- Let’s talk about what they learned. The transactional emails they were sending before, were plain, boring and a missed opportunity. It’s important to brainstorm with you team about what content would perform best with your customers. It is not always what you expect. Most importantly, TEST it. What I love, is that they found a metric that is important to them. It’s critical for your team to decide what goals and metrics are important for your own company’s growth, and optimize that. Now let’s talk a bit about some tools you can use to improve your existing transactional email.
- We’ve created a couple tools you can use to better understand your email better.
- This is a matrix for analytics at a granular level, let me walk you through it. On one axis we have open rate The other we have click rate If you are experiencing high open and click rates! You are in the yay! Section. You are doing awesome.
- And you see a low open rate, and high click rate, your subject line could use better attention.
- If you see that your email is experiencing a high open rate, and low click through rate, then you could probably look at your body text, Or check your headings, improve your branding AND MOST importantly, improve the clarity of your CTA Also, be aware of the scroll
- If you see a low open and click rate, Then your email could use a make-over. Improving your subject line, body, CTA, branding… would go a long way. But maybe most importantly, you might want to revisit on why are you sending this email at all. We call our next tool “visual identification”
- So, Visual Identification This is easy Look at the email as though you were your own customer. And then ask yourself some really simple questions. Is it clear who this email is from? Is it clear what my next step is? Is there an opportunity for me to engage further? Think back to…. Airbnb email reference payment receipt
- Another step to visual identification, check out how your email looks in your inbox. Notice things like: Where is this email from? It’s hard to see on this slide, but this email highlighted in red shows it’s from Twitter. Second, in green, you can see the subject line. Third, notice the intro text. This is highlighted in orange. This is the first few characters in your email that shows up in your inbox. By improving these components, you have the opportunity to increase your open rates.
- Similarly, look at your email in an inbox. Jillian will speak more to this, but looking at making your branding consistent alongside ensuring your CTA is clear, will make your emails a better experience for your customers.
- So, Pro Tip: Test everything Don’t make any assumptions. In this day of age, it’s critical to quickly give your customers the information. Once they open your email, your customer wants to have a consistent experience and know exactly what to do next. Give your emails the same attention as you would your landing page There is so many things you can split test! Start simple, and figure out what you want to measure. You can measure: subject line intro text body style headings call to action and more!
- Wrapping Up! Treat Email as an extension of your product. Also, Your customers want a consistent experience Your customer-focused team wants control over email interactions, so let them have it. sendwithus makes that easy. We get your emails out of source code, and let your product and marketing teams take control. Also - Don’t miss an opportunity to further customer engagement by sending out dead end emails. And lastly, When in doubt. TEST EVERYTHING
- Sending millions emails / day Cool trends from data
- 2% - what does that mean in absolute numbers?
- 1 Billion in 2011 100 Billion in 2013 200 Billion in 2014
- Adding in more dimensions – speed, volume Industry delivery rate is 96%, we’re sitting nice at 99%.
- Now you know the numbers you’re dealing with Ali / Ryan As a sender – important to segment, so you can target
- We all know that it’s important to reach people wherever they are, but here are some concrete numbers from the past year. See this trend continue to increase as younger email readers drive the change of how content is consumed
- Gmail is top by long shot – 35% + 13% Important to know how performing at Gmail Just announced FBL – SG first tester Gmail sends aggregate report of worst offenders
- Gmail unsubscribe link in header = good Gmail promotions tab new feature – grid view
- Upward mobility for Chrome and iPhone browsers. IE declines Young adults disliking IE gaining purchase power
- We also saw Firefox fall down a couple slots Testing emails – top browsers to check Chrome, IE, Safari, Firefox, iOS / Android
- Covered where they are / technology they’re using. How do they approach email? Engagement data – put into different buckets
- Open as soon as it arrives Make actionable and easy to read when on the go.
- Comb through inbox and methodically clean it out. It doesn’t matter what time you send, will open it up regardless.
- The opposite of Inbox Sanitizers… If you have a lot of these types of recipients, benefit from send time optimization. typically only open a few emails from the top of the pile
- The first two – timing doesn’t matter Messy inbox timing matters – top of inbox Takeaway: listening to email gurus online matters less than you think. Smarter & harder thing to do is-
- Now look at the when Many people are logged in at work desktop opens decline over the weekend but mobile/tablet
- Open rates climbed rapidly after 4 AM, and peaked at 9 AM, then decline In general, emails were more likely to be opened during normal business hours
- Who’s actually reading your email? The answer – they’re just like you or me.
- Know what your top ISPs are and stay up to date on policies / new features What browsers they’re using – check out how your mail looks
- Who are your users? When do they check their email, and on what device? In school? Working? Optimize your sending for the lifestyle they lead. Segment your customers and give them personalized content engage
- At the end of the day, you want to solve your customers’ problems – and your emails should serve that purpose as well. More leverage info to help them do what they want = the better they’ll feel about your brand.
- PAIN POINT: Quality list building and maintaining strong, relevant communication with your list Intro ourselves! - We are both super excited to be here! Both from Jersey... Ali - Talk about Pain point...how do you build a good list? and retain and keep engaged? - we’ll talk through suggestions and things that will help you. Session Flow: 1) What not to do: buy/rent lists (ALI) 2) Explain how to Create Opps for Sign Up via good content and placement (JILLIAN) 3) Present Opps for Opt Out (ALI) 4) Remember: QUALITY OVER QUANTITY (JILLIAN) 5) Confirmation Emails (ALI) 6)Welcome Emails (JILLIAN) 7) Preference Centers (ALI) 8) Customer Segmentation (JILLIAN & ALI) 9) Re-Activation Campaigns (ALI) 10) Testing (JILLIAN)
- PAIN POINT: Quality list building and maintaining strong, relevant communication with your list Intro ourselves! - We are both super excited to be here! Both from Jersey... Ali - Talk about Pain point...how do you build a good list? and retain and keep engaged? - we’ll talk through suggestions and things that will help you. Session Flow: 1) What not to do: buy/rent lists (ALI) 2) Explain how to Create Opps for Sign Up via good content and placement (JILLIAN) 3) Present Opps for Opt Out (ALI) 4) Remember: QUALITY OVER QUANTITY (JILLIAN) 5) Confirmation Emails (ALI) 6)Welcome Emails (JILLIAN) 7) Preference Centers (ALI) 8) Customer Segmentation (JILLIAN & ALI) 9) Re-Activation Campaigns (ALI) 10) Testing (JILLIAN)
- ALI --Speak to some bad examples here: purchasing/renting lists, OLD lists, sharing lists with partners etc. - Speak to black slide or an image? (ali to look for images) http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5379284-trashed-spam-emails.php?st=080d540 http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-13264496-firewall.php?st=d22dbdd
- JILLIAN Ali and I are going to go over 6 tools to help you grow your list. The first is: Create Opportunities for Sign Up Make it easy and TRANSPARENT to opt-in 1) Homepage, throughout your site: Navigation Bar 2) “Thank you” Pages
- JILLIAN 3) In your blog (like HubSpot) 4) Current landing pages 5) Promote sign up via social media 6) lead nurturing emails
- ALI - SECOND TIP - Optimize Opt in Now that we’ve discussed how to create opportunities for sign up, you need to make sure that your opt-in pages are holding up their end of the bargain. USE A DIFFERENT EXAMPLE, this is a placeholder—ONE THAT SAYS YOU’RE GOING TO RECEIVE EMAILS!! HAMMER HOME: BE TRANSPARENT THAT YOU WILL BE SENDING EMAILS Be clear on what they are signing up for Test placement of signup Avoid having too many fields Capture the data needed to make targeting effective Provide incentives Provide credentials Be transparent -Being transparent that they are signing up -Capturing in fo is OK, it can you target -you can see here it has credentials and privacy policy - more trustworthy -don’t trick people into receiving email from you
- ALI Clear description of offering details content and frequency Includes a sample issue Testimonials Privacy policy
- ALI -Conclude how to get users the right way - Make sure people want your email even after they give u their email address. It could be a mistake, or they didn’t realize they were signing up for emails. If these people don’t confirm…don’t send.
- ALI - TIP 4 Create opp for opt out -general unsub -preferences -maybe re-engagement? Create opportunities to opt OUT—make it easy to unsubscribe unengaged users
- ALI cont. - great way to learn more about your user Preference Centers: -Reduce Unsubsubcribe rates -reduce spam/complaint reports -showcase your email offerings -help you learn more about your customers
- ALI cont. - great way to learn more about your users - ALI TO GET NEW PREF CENTER EXAMPLE INSERT NEW EMAIL EXAMPLE HERE - have pref center on same page as reasons people opt out Image: Keep in—PP guy can clean
- 1) Make sure you have enough content 2) Content is also a great way to get people to sign up for your list. Thought leadership development. JILLIAN Our last tip is to create valuable content that you gate in exchange for an email address. This is a value add for you and your users. If you offer a preference center make sure that you have enough content to make it valuable for your users. Like: Develop content people want to sign up to get Whitepapers, webinars, research, newsletters, etc. We’ve had a lot of success with this at SendGrid. Be transparent and educate your users. Content is KING People are hungry for quality content Helps you develop trust with your subscribers http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-33497698-content.php?st=2c304b5
- JILLIAN Quality over Quantity. List building takes time, but take the time to do it right and it will reap rewards. Example: How I used to buy lists at old company. (Example of extreme use case.) -if the list is bad and people dont engage, the people that do want the email wont get it cause it goes to spam http://easywayapartments.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/quality-over-quantity/ http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-37105700-quality.php http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-27772252-select-quality.php?st=79375e5
- JILLIAN Transition slide: Now that we’ve covered ways to gain interested subscribers, let’s talk about 5 ways to keep them interested and engaged. And how you should tell your customers’ story. Include Matt Harris quote here? Customer centric landing pages and information-centric emails? It’s important to remember that: Email is a conversation Maintain your brand, voice consistency somewhere circle back about no-reply Subject line --- Header ---- Body copy--- CTA ---- Landing Page
- JILLIAN WHAT’S YOUR STORY? (Give examples here: Uncommon Goods, YouSendIt) As we talk through thes tactics to keep your users engaged and interested here’s what you should keep in mind, You should know your audience now and how they like to be talked to--keep that consistency throughout.
- JILLIAN: The first step in your communication with your customers is a WELCOME EMAILThis is your first interaction with your customer, make it good! You never get a second chance to make a first impression Take advantage of future ways you can interact Cross sell/cross promote other meaningful content or products There are 6 things to keep in mind when sending a welcome email: 1) Make it personal 2) Deliver it Right Away 3) Say Thank you! 4) invite engagement: CTAs 5) Provide Incentives 6) Additional information (i.e. preference center)
- JILLIAN CONT. Breakdown email TALK ABOUT CTAs (Call to actions) -purpose -#s to use
- Welcome email, cont. Branding consistency with Kate Spade Notice TESTING of different welcome emails--one serves as a combination welcome/confirmation email Green email: NO CTA???? (this is what Matt from sendwithus would call a dead-end email!)
- Use this opportunity to teach your customers about your product Event Spot--learn more about product--if your product needs more hand holding, this is a good opportunity
- ALI: SEGMENTATION just because they all sign up in the same way, doesn’t mean they all fit in the same category If you want to send email that your subscribers will engage with, you need to customize it to their needs. Customer segmentation is all about the customer, not what you ASSUME the customer might want. Take the time to learn about user preferences (through preference center, surveys, etc.) http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-3709786-colorful-sweets.php?st=0a0a329
- ALI - Provide examples - don’t send New Jersey daily deals to people in Colorado -if possible, depending on product, separate your list by age and demographic. young demographics will be more willing to share on social media etc. Know your audience. -Occupation/Industry - manager level, entry level. Goals are different -We here send different emails to developers then we send to marketers because they care about different content.
- JILLIAN Craft your emails looking at previous buying history, has clicked/opened – has not clicked opened of your customers. Segment by: Activity Email Stream/Type EVENT WEBHOOK Flash-sale site Gilt Groupe sends more than 3,000 variations of its daily e-mail, for example, each tailored based on past user click-throughs, browsing history, and purchase history http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_marketers_should_keep_sending_you_emails home-goods retailer Williams-Sonoma reported a tenfold improvement in response rates by adopting personalized e-mail offerings based on individuals’ on-site and catalog shopping behavior. RIGHT MESSAGE RIGHT PERSON RIGHT TIME RIGHT FREQUENCY
- ALI First, identify subscribers who have not opened, clicked, shared or interacted Send an email encouraging them to remain on your list or opt out In the end, remove anyone on your list who is not active. Quality over quantity. J: ask how often do you send these?
- JILLIAN Now that we’ve covered how to gain subscribers the right way and how to tailor your messaging to them, let’s take a look at another way to fine-tune your messaging. Through testing. What kind of testing are we talking about? --Subject lines --Body copy --Imagery --CTAs --Much more. We’ll go through some of these examples. With testing always keep 3 things in mind: 1) don’t assume, test 2) test one element at a time 3) iterate, testing is an ongoing process. TESTING: There are various aspects to test but no tried and true rules Aspects to test depends on your audience Results are different for all industry Sample size Pick ONE variable at a time!! One test at a time! Be RADICAL in the variations of content and have fun Test out personalization and dynamic content Try different amounts of text to see what resonates with your audience Experiment with various offers or call to actions Experiment with amount of images vs. text Move your call to action and test image vs. text buttons Pretty isn’t always better Try out different designs depending on the purpose of the email Test animated gifs Test to see what works for your audience Test 2-3 at a time Try drastically different types of subject lines at first The old rules don’t necessarily apply: Shorter may be better, may not be. Could affect how much your subscribers see Key words like “free” are okay to use ALL CAPS CAN WORK Try out the new symbols
- Copy A got 31.6% more clicks than Copy B Ask the audience for winner photoshop out old logos
- Copy A got 31.6% more clicks than Copy B Ask the audience for winner photoshop out old logos
- Copy A got 31.6% more clicks than Copy B Ask the audience for winner photoshop out old logos
- Copy (B) saw 83.1% more clicks than copy A. This is a good example of focusing on the goal of the email, which is to get a click. "Preview the Agenda" is much less of an ask than "Sign Up for Free Webinar". The goal of the email is to get a click, not to convert, so as a result the second one performed MUCH better than the first.
- Copy (B) saw 83.1% more clicks than copy A. This is a good example of focusing on the goal of the email, which is to get a click. "Preview the Agenda" is much less of an ask than "Sign Up for Free Webinar". The goal of the email is to get a click, not to convert, so as a result the second one performed MUCH better than the first.
- Copy (B) saw 83.1% more clicks than copy A. This is a good example of focusing on the goal of the email, which is to get a click. "Preview the Agenda" is much less of an ask than "Sign Up for Free Webinar". The goal of the email is to get a click, not to convert, so as a result the second one performed MUCH better than the first.
- Split each into new slides for Q&A--draw out Importance of messaging consistency in subject line, header, body copy, CTA
- Winner: Subject Line A saw 7% more opens than Subject Line B
- Split each into new slides for Q&A--draw out Importance of messaging consistency in subject line, header, body copy, CTA
- Subject Line A saw 15% more opens than Subject Line B