Marketing For Online Retailers. DELIVERABILITY AND OPTIMIZATION

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1 Marketing For Online Retailers. DELIVERABILITY AND OPTIMIZATION

2 CONTENTS: Introduction 3 Context and Basic Notions 4 Improve Your Campaigns Today 10 Practical Cases of Optimization 17 Conclusion 24 About Mailjet 25 2

3 Introduction Mailjet About this White Paper After getting involved in several events destined for online retailers, the next logical step was to create this White Paper. It reviews the main topics of discussion that attracted our attention during the course of several talks we held. Who is this paper for? This paper is intended for online merchants as well as any person interested in e- mailing: no need for technical knowledge or coding skills! Our purpose is to provide the keys to achieve simple and quick optimizations. Many people are interested in this channel: the main online marketing activities performed by advertisers are ing (used by 88% of them) and sending e- newsletters (used by 74%). Amongst all online tools merchants have at their disposal, is one of the most popular. This is chiefly due to its efficiency, as well as the possibility it offers to closely monitor ROI. How to read this paper? This White Paper is divided into 3 parts: you can read it in order, from the beginning to the end. Alternatively, according to your level of knowledge, you can go directly to the part you are interested in: I. Reminder of the context and a few basic notions online merchants should know in order to be efficient in ing endeavors: indicators, issues. II. A few suggestions to improve your campaigns as of today. It is not necessary to wait for huge volumes in order to start optimizing! III. Understand by example: practical cases of optimization. 3

4 CONTEXT AND BASIC NOTION In order to approach the world of ing, it is necessary to understand the current issues. As we will see, knowing that an has been effectively delivered to its recipient is now a central issue: this is a matter of deliverability. In order to better deal with such challenges, we will then see how to sort sent s into 3 categories: marketing, notification and transactional. Eventually, we will focus on performance indicators: how to measure the success or failure of a campaign? A - ING TODAY: 2 KEY ISSUES 1. Deliverability Deliverability issues have become a central point. On a global scale, 17% of legitimate s sent never make it to their destination inbox. This means that, 1/6 of s sent never reach their intended recipient. ISP blacklist: also known as an marketer s worst nightmare. Landing on a blacklist means that you ve been labeled as a spammer and are blocked from sending. It can be tough to get yourself off the list, affect your reputation with customers and cost you revenue. You can find some information here on how to avoid being put in ISPs blacklist. Return Path Inbox Placement Benchmark Report

5 Every Internet user has experienced waiting for an that would never come, only to retrieve it from the spam folder. The tolerance threshold for advertising has never been so low and the available filtering tools so powerful (and unforgiving): it is a difficult environment. Today s spam filters aren t content with just redirecting s originating from abusive sources. Successfully delivering a message into an inbox has become an art and requires a lot of technique. The criteria taken into account by anti-spam systems are becoming more numerous and complex. Bayesian filters are almost omnipresent. Some of the criteria that should be taken into account are: authentication (SPF/DKIM), image/text ratio, semantic optimization, opt-in, database quality and reputation of the domain used for outgoing messages. Add to this a myriad of constraints specific to the ISP: sending time to comply with (when quotas are established to accept only a certain number of messages between peak hours), maximum number of messages per minute or the choice of the authentication system are all specific parameters to include in your best practices. An algorithm is often the only tool that can make all this manageable. 2. The various types of marketing, notification and transactional Fully understanding and grasping the different types of messages allows one to see more clearly when developing a strategy. The classification into three categories as described by Mailjet fully reflects the entire spectrum of possible scenarios. In each of these 3 cases, the recipient s position is different. This table summarizes the situation; please note the different equivalent designations: 5

6 Marketing The purpose of marketing is to stimulate your clients and leads. It is an informative / incentive message. The target agrees to receive such messages, but does not make an explicit request for a message in particular. Please note that these messages can be sent periodically and to a segment in particular. Nonetheless, messages are sent independently of specific actions from the client. With this kind of , one does not state, such clients will receive such message if they perform such action : it would then be a notification (see below). We would rather state: these clients will receive this message, regardless of their actions. The message is neither related to an event nor to an action from the recipient. Common marketing ing examples: Newsletters Flash sales Sales/promotions announcement Notification s Also known as a trigger, alert or auto-responder, it allows the user to be notified each time a particular event happens (or has happened). More generally, the notification e- mail may be used in order to celebrate and/or mark an event. It is either the recipients themselves, or the sender that will establish criteria for an outgoing message to be triggered by an event. From an online merchant point of view (= sender), it can prove to be very relevant to encourage one s clients to opt in to receive notifications about the services being offered. Think of an such as Mr. X is now following you on Twitter ; this motivates the users to check their accounts. But it has to be up to the recipient to choose what they will receive in the end. Online merchants may also decide to create notifications by themselves: these are then related to events occurring after a client s action. The purpose here is to mark a significant event and capitalize on it. 6

7 Common notification ing examples: - Getting in touch a few days after registration - Congratulations after a status change (first purchase, subscription...) - Birthday - Incomplete basket - Goods back in stock - Discounts on recently browsed products - Greetings after a purchase - Feedback request after a purchase (product, service...) - following up a purchase and suggesting other items - Series of greeting messages and/or hands-on account management messages. Transactional ing This is an expected message, the content of which is information the client wishes to check or confirm, and not discover. This type of is not intended to optimize the customer relationship but to define it and mark it out. It is a point of reference in one s CRM. Strong attention should be paid to this kind of ing. These s must be specifically and carefully dealt with: incorrectly delivered newsletters might impact leads, but an undelivered transactional will result in upsetting the customer. Common examples of transaction ing: - Welcome message / Account opening - Shipment tracking and order status - Order shipment confirmation - Account termination - Payment confirmation - Invoice REMINDER: Nowadays, clever online merchants use tools at their disposal and optimize interaction scenarios, while making sure the message is successfully delivered to its recipient. They combine the different categories of in the most beneficial way and act wisely when dealing with different priorities. 7

8 B - PERFORMANCE INDICATORS IN ING Such indicators are the heart of one s strategy. One should know one s strengths and weaknesses so as to be as effective as possible. Preliminary remarks in 3 points: - One should always set objectives prior to the campaign - Indicators do not have intrinsic values: one should work by comparison - During a campaign, one should note everything that is not optimal, summarize it, keep record, and refer to it in order to measure progress Open Rate This is a two-sided indicator: it is indispensable for measuring the success of one s campaign, but it can also be quite misleading. This rate is calculated in relation to all s the recipient has accepted. Due to the nature of the process, calculating this rate cannot be done if a given contains only text (rather than graphics). In addition to such constraints, some clients allow users to scan contents without displaying graphics on screen. Hence one s metrics will have a certain degree of inaccuracy. Finally, the true open rate should not be mistaken for the rendering rate, i.e. the rate of s for which images have been downloaded. Users may indeed read the without displaying the pictures it contains. The open rate is a relative indicator, which means it will be very efficient to make comparisons. It is primarily useful over a long period of time; by measuring the rate s evolution, one is able to draw insightful and productive conclusions from it. Click Rate The click rate is also calculated from the number of accepted s. This is a second step in your sales funnel: the target acknowledges the message and only then may or may not show interest. The click rate is therefore very important as it measures the audience s reactivity. Moreover, contrary to the open rate, a click can always be accurately tracked. 8

9 Soft & hard bounce rate This rate is expressed in regards to the number of s sent. There are two types of bounce: soft and hard, the first being less problematic than the second. A hard bounce means that the problem is a dead-end: either the address does not exist anymore, is incorrect, or the recipient refuses any type of request. A soft bounce is more temporary. It may be the result of a technical problem, or an inbox over its capacity: it is not permanent, but concerning nonetheless. Such indicators are calculated with regard to the total number of s. Spam / Complaint rate This rate should be kept as low as possible: of all s sent, it represents the number of people who clicked on the flag as spam button. All in all, this indicator is always accurate: if it goes over 0.1%, you can be sure that there is an issue with your campaign. As we will see, the problem may be with either the list, or the content or form of the message. Unsubscribe rate The unsubscribe rate is calculated according to the number of s opened. Often considered as somewhat painful, this act of self-cleaning should not be seen as an entirely negative metric. On the contrary, it reveals a lot about the recipient s perception of your s. Use this occasion to take a hard look at oneself. Always ask yourself: is it my message or my targets that are inappropriate? It is not necessarily just one or the other, but this question will free up areas for improvement. If the message can be optimized, new content should be tested. If targets could be optimized, new segments should be tested. REMINDER: One should aim for the highest opening and click rates possible, whereas bounce, spam and unsubscribe rates should be kept as low as possible. 9

10 IMPROVE YOUR CAMPAIGNS TODAY We are now going to tackle the practice more closely, and examine point by point the elements we can easily act on to get immediate results. A - OPTIMISE DELIVERABILITY Your List A bad list is a vicious cycle you never want to sink into. If you are already caught in one, you have to find a way to break out of it by any means. Therefore, the first recommendation is to work from a clean list, by restraining yourself from resorting to third parties. It is vital to produce the list yourself: not doing so might damage the reputation of your domain (and your brand), which would inevitably affect your deliverability and ROI. Choose efficiency over ease: having many subscribers is of no use if they are not defined. For instance, how can you expect to be relevant in your message if you do not know to whom you are talking? Where do your contacts come from? When did they subscribe? Through what channels: website, Facebook, affiliation? You should be able to answer all of these questions. This information is the key to your productivity: it is what allows you to make simple yet effective changes! If you do not have a minimum amount of information about each contact on your list, it is impossible to have relevant cleaning and maintenance criteria. Maximise on the information provided in your data list. Personalize and segment your data to produce better results through your campaign. Plan ahead for cleaning up your list It is also essential to have access to statistics on sent s. This will allow you to crosscheck your data in order to identify dead segments. Example: delete contacts who have not opened your messages for a given period of time. This will undoubtedly result in increasing your reputation as a sender, while limiting the impact on your revenue. 10

11 If you do not want to dispose of these contacts, at least set aside the idle ones and set up a specific reactivation plan (change the tone of your message, make a promotional offer...). It is up to you to define what you consider to be an idle customer: this characteristic changes according to the core of your business. However, you can use your common sense: if a customer has not opened your s for more than a year, that is a problem. Determine alert thresholds for unsubscribe, opening, click and bounce rates: you will thus identify what does not work and set limits in which to act. Example: an address that causes one or two hard bounces should be removed from the list. A soft bounce can be tolerated three or four times. Maintain your list every day Feedback Loops It is important to know in real time who reports you as spam. To gather this information, you should use feedback loops. Instead of having all your s blocked by the ISP after being reported several times, this system will warn you as it happens. Of course, the first thing to do is to remove the person who reported you as spam from your lists. To do that, you need to have access to this feedback. The easiest way to do this is to use an ing service provider such as Mailjet: it will gather all this information for you and make it actionable. Otherwise, in order to be able to get these feedback loops, you will need to approach the ISPs one by one, which represents a very long and tedious process! Ubsubscribe Link Make sure you always include unsubscribing links in your s: it is the law! In addition, it is a good way to maintain a quality list. Most ing service providers will provide this type of link automatically. The same applies to unsubscribing management: it will often be taken into account and applied directly by your service provider. 11

12 B - SPF / DKIM AUTHENTICATIONS Authentication certificates have become indispensable for ISPs: publishing them should be automatic. Your ing solution has to offer this type of basic function; otherwise you will not get anything done. However, using the SPF or DKIM that your provider offers by default may cause some trouble. For example, since the certificate is not issued by the same entity as the sender, the mention via provider s name can appear on the interface used by the customer. It is therefore necessary to issue your own certificate; this will ensure that the final user does not witness what happens behind the scenes. An ing service such as Mailjet will provide the necessary information, as well as the procedure. It will thus be allowed to sign outgoing s on your behalf. The process is very simple and only consists of copying/ pasting a few lines of codes in the DNS files of your server. C - THE TEXT/IMAGE RATIO Images are commonly used by spammers and as a consequence, anti-spam filters take this parameter into account. Therefore, you must be careful when using images: they must not overwhelmingly dominate the text. It is useless to try and restore the balance by adding some text. That is already what spammers do. It is important to bear in mind the following rule: keep content as light as possible. You do not have to respect a particular ratio, but you must strive not to use too many images in your s. Most customers (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.) systematically block images anyway (therefore always make sure you include legends to explain what may not be visible.) Please note that attaching an image to your should be avoided at all cost: anti- spam filters hate that. Additionally don t forget the importance of Alt Text when adding images to your s. 12

13 D - SEMANTIC OPTIMIZATION Anti-spam filters scan the content. Some words are considered to increase the likelihood of an being spam: Viagra, cash, sex, free, rich and so on. Unfortunately, there is no exhaustive list and each anti-spam filter uses its own rules, which change over time. A coefficient is associated with each word: Viagra surely penalizes more than free. Points are summed and added to the other elements that are taken into account. The important thing to bear in mind is that some words can activate barriers. In 95% of cases, common sense is enough to optimize the semantics of your . For more information on this subject, check out more words that can trigger the spam alarm. E - OPTING IN As discussed previously in the clean list section, one must ensure that recipients are relevant. Regardless of whether opting in is a legal obligation in one s country, it is above all a best practice for someone who wants to be efficient. It is even recommended to offer a double opt-in: the subscriber enters his address in a registration field, and then has to click on a confirmation link that is sent to him. This process is very efficient and has some virtues: Ensuring the reliability of the data Defining the subscriber and checking his interest Involving the customer and getting him to act However simple it may be, studies in social psychology show that he will thus remember you better and that he will be more inclined to repeat an action that you are requesting from him (a purchase for instance). Finally, you are not interested in wasting time sending unwanted s and that is a win-win situation. Implicitly, this means that the content you will be sending has value and that you do not want it to get lost. This is attractive for the subscriber. 13

14 F - IP REPUTATION Your IP s reputation stems in part from the factors listed above. It never results in a miracle solution; rather, it is a substantive and ongoing challenge. Some advice to bear in mind is to always remember the best practices mentioned above and go through a provider working with Return PathTM. This organization is recognized by most ISPs: it guarantees that you will be able to closely monitor your IP and thus maintain a better reputation. If the latter starts to deteriorate, you can react quickly and take necessary measures. Dedicated IP or shared IP? When you reach a certain volume, it might be prudent to have a dedicated IP. For more modest volumes, shared IP pools represent a powerful solution that enable anyone to benefit from a good reputation, ensuring the best deliverability possible. In this second case, you have to make sure that your ing service provider is highly conscientious of the quality of its customers. Without this, there is a risk of being penalized by other unprincipled senders who might lower the reputation of the shared IP. The true dedicated IP Dedicated IP addresses therefore suit the biggest users who want to work exclusively on their own reputation. This long-term vision is both smart and legitimate. Nevertheless, few ing services truly offer this option. Only Mailjet and a few other ing professionals can guarantee an IP that is always dedicated to your dispatches, whatever the situation is. This ensures reliability and transparency at all times. Ideally, this IP address is followed every day by services that monitor reputation such as Return PathTM (Mailjet s partner). 14

15 Transactional s As discussed, transactional s have a particular status: a key moment in the life of the customer, expected s, sent one-to-one, etc. Therefore, it is logical to deal with this category separately. It is preferable to use different IPs to send this type of . This separation allows one to optimize deliverability as much as possible, while avoiding cases where reporting a newsletter as spam would also penalize the transactional s sent from the same IP. A strict separation prevents much potential confusion. Please note that even without having a dedicated IP, some suppliers such as Mailjet detect transactional s to deal with them separately, with maximum optimization. G - USE OF INDICATORS TO OPTIMISE S Test and Improve Right From Begining Every online retailer has needs that are specific to him or her: according to their section, but also and above all, according to their size. Thus, when sales don t amount to much, it is useless to implement costly and painful CRM processes. On the other hand, it is wise not to remain passive and to strive to find the right balance between an overly complicated solution and the status quo that only postpones optimization endeavors. The idea is that there are very simple measures that can be taken from the beginning. As previously mentioned, ing indicators must not be taken into account as absolute values. In order to make something out of them, they must be put into perspective and compared. Let s have a look at two of the most popular optimization principles: A/B testing and scenario development for notification s. 15

16 A/B Testing During a campaign, one may compare indicators of different client segments: this may help evaluate how beneficial it would be to adapt the content to the target profiles. On the contrary, instead of sending the same campaign to three different groups, one may send three different campaigns to three similar groups. This is what we call A/B testing. This is very simple and can result in powerful optimizations. In order to achieve optimal A/B testing campaigns, please note how important it is to change a single parameter at a time. In this kind of operation, it is of course very important to have real-time data available. For instance, if one of the tests proves very disappointing compared to another, it is useless to complete it. Immediate reaction may help save time and money. One will also need professional tools to accurately measure the different tests that will be performed. Companies like Mailjet are specialized in tracking and statistical reporting of outgoing s, providing a great deal of tools that may help you achieve this goal. Find out more information here about how to set up A/B testing using Mailjet Develop Scenarios With Notification s A scenario based on notification s establishes that according to specific behaviors or events related to the target, outgoing s will be triggered. For instance, a triggering behavior could be a purchase that is not carried out to the end: in this case, information originates from one s e-commerce platform. But it could also be someone opening several s that are all about a special subject: this event would allow you to spot some of the target s interests. Conversely, the non- opening of a series of s may be a sign of indifference: this may necessitate a re- marketing phase. Data available via reporting, as well as research made possible by the analysis of a contact s history, are of great value: one may thus construct scenarios likely to generate new revenue streams, by activating targets which needed a trigger to become active.this kind of practice is a very simple way to improve one s ROI and yield. 16

17 PRACTICAL CASES OF OPTIMIZATION A - BASICS - OPTIMIZING EVERY TYPE OF Marketing s How it works As we have seen, marketing consists of mass s outgoing at a given moment either because of the calendar (Christmas, sales, etc.), or because it was chosen for a specific reason (stocks to exhaust, special offers, flash sales, etc.). The question is always: where to start? Work on three dimentions 1- Act on the offer: this is one of the parameters which is useful to employ with A/B testing. It can be, for instance, the offer you will provide. You may proceed as follows: - 1: -15% on the whole store - 2: -25% for 100 euros or more spent - 3: -40% on the second article We assume here that you have measured these 3 offers and that they represent an equivalent cost for you: it only remains to be seen which one returns the most. It is often advisable to draw the different tests from ideas you already considered but you were hesitant about: should I offer free shipping from 50 euros or more spent, or should I offer free shipping on the purchase of two identical items? Online retailers know these questions well. All of these examples are completely fictitious: actual tests will depend on your margins, your sector and so on. 2- Act on timing: although certain periods are more opportune than others (for instance, an sent on Monday morning has very little chance of being read), it is always interesting to notice what happens with your specific customers. If you target housewives, for instance, the odds are they may in fact read their s on Monday mornings. You should therefore vary days and hours, and in so doing you will learn a lot about which time will the most lucrative. Please note that, although it is often the case, moments with the best open rates might not always be moments that will return the most. 17

18 3- Act on the layout: Decrease the number of pictures, change colors, font size, etc. It is very simple and results in tremendous improvements. REMINDER: remember not to change more than one parameter at a time. Notification s How it works Notification s are sent one-to-one when a particular event takes place. Choose catching points: you should first identify the events you can choose and exploit. Then, build scenarios upon them. Of course, a birthday is the best example. No matter what event you choose, you can try the changes described above: they will also work here. You can carry out most optimizations by seeing what kinds of events are better to work from. Thus, in a B2B context, rather than a birthday, it may be more beneficial to choose the main events in the customer s business: contract renewal, downloading a white Paper and so on. Notification for good management This type of message is a great tool to help customers know better the services available on your interface. Unveil a function: let s imagine you are implementing a Wish list system: the odds are your customers will avoid this function at first, simply because they are not used to it. Web interfaces, whether they be for an online store or service, often offer more functions than the customer can actually use. Implementing a notification scenario is thus completely relevant: you may plan that after a month of use, any new customer who hasn t used his Wish list will receive an e- mail encouraging him to discover this function. Optimization = ensuring a function is useful. The customer is flooded with possibilities. However, perhaps you will be able to flesh out a customer segment rather quickly that uses the Wish list when shown how it works. Whereas, on the other hand, different segments (according to age or involvement), may seem to dislike the function and avoid it, even when walked through it. 18

19 In this particular case, one should not hesitate to stop outgoing mails so as to target only the most responsive segments. REMINDER: Sending fewer and better messages is always the key to good ing. Transactionals ing Fine-tuning Major optimizations you can bring to a transactional concern the marketing section. As seen before, transactional s are indeed s that should be sent in any case the recipient triggers them and their content is predefined. The room for maneuvering is thus limited by the content added to the data to be transferred, and which does not relate to the transaction in the first place. Abuse resulting in an unreadable core message should be banned... and the difference is often subtle. Test several strategies Let s take a random online merchant selling alarm clocks. When a customer completes a purchase, the online merchant will send a confirmation such as: Amongst the few objects that are displayed in the bottom row of the order confirmation , should books similar to the one that was just ordered be visible? Or should more expensive editions be displayed? Here the decision for the online retailer is whether to cross-sell or upsell. A third alternative could be to attempt to generate a new customer: a message about a sponsoring system could then accompany the transactional . Or one could decide to add social sharing buttons. There, a choice needs to be made between gaining the loyalty of customers and social sharing. You re getting it: options that can optimize transactional s are endless! 19

20 Carry out the order Start by picking the principle you want to work on. If necessary, you may perform a test: of cross-selling, up-selling, loyalty programs and social marketing, what is the most relevant for you? Fine-tuning for optimization Once the key perspective is defined, concentrate on it while also ensuring fine-tuning: having chosen upselling does not prevent you from implementing a few unobtrusive Facebook share buttons. Success here is measured in terms of clicks and your transformation rate. Tracking the links with tools like Mailjet will allow you to quickly identify combinations that will prove the best for you in your specific case. REMINDER: It is not necessary to be a big player to optimize one s marketing. A/B testing and scenario crafting are two key elements one should understand and implement from the beginning. B - FOLLOW YOUR INSPIRATION AND GET INSPIRED BY OTHERS Example 1: establish notification scenarios by defining the customer, thanks to analytics. Take for instance a site that sells wine and spirits and sends newsletters. It wants to boost its sales. One of the solutions might be to analyze the customer database, to identify who buys what and to draw the necessary conclusions. However, segmenting through ing might prove to be easier and more productive: I- By reviewing the customer database and the shopping history, it might be beneficial to differentiate between 2 or 3 typical buyer profiles that could serve as relevant models. II- The fact that a customer has not purchased a certain type of wine doesn t necessarily indicate that they are not interested in it: it might be explained by the price, the competition, a lack of trust, habits, etc. On the contrary, using will enable you to run conclusive tests. If a customer opens an about A huge promotion on Burgundy wines, you might learn that, even though this customer does not buy this type of wine from you, he might actually be interested in it. 20

21 However, if a customer only ever opens whiskey offers, it means it is probably useless to keep sending him offers on wines. We were only talking about opening rates here, but of course the links that have been clicked also teach us a lot about customer interests. REMINDER: A click or the opening of an will teach you things that even transaction history cannot. Example 2: notification after successive non openings We have seen that the quality of a list is very important. As outlined, maintenance should not be done by immediately deleting a contact who has not interacted with messages sent. On the contrary, the aim is to first put these contacts aside since, as it is, deleting them is more damaging than profitable. By choosing to do this, you will find yourself with quite a lot of non-responsive addresses in a short period of time. It is then preferable to draw a reactivation plan in order to make sure that these customers truly must be taken off your list. An initial with a 25% discount could be sent. If the reaction is positive, bingo! Otherwise, try sending a 50% discount. See how the customer reacts and if nothing happens still, try one last time with a 75% discount. Of course, these figures are merely estimations and must be adapted according to what your margins allow you to do. However, this practice allows you to reactivate customers at a minimal cost. Practical cases in which this method have been applied show that 20% of customers are reactivated because of the last discount. 80% of customers are reactivated during the first or the second steps. As a result of these three steps, you will have maximized your reactivation efforts. In case these attempts have no effect on the customer, you can either get rid of the contact definitively, or keep it aside just in case and send him one or two messages a year at the most. The gloomy economic context may very well have impacted this target s purchasing power, but this does not mean that it will never improve. REMINDER: An inactive customer is not a dead customer; it is a sleeping customer. Stop bombarding him and wake him up with some clever s! 21

22 Example 3: notification to prolong customer experience Sephora has advanced CRM programs and is often cited as the top of the class. In New York, notification s are sent to customers who buy in store: the online system is there to prolong the customer experience in the real world. The s clients receive entice them to leave feedback on their purchases, rate items with a star system, take pictures and even gather data on skin or hair color10. Here, the notification comes into play by prolonging an interaction that actually happened, which is clearly beneficial to the customer relationship. Each interaction is an occasion to learn more about one s customers while showing loyalty and genuine interest in the quality of the service delivered. Please note that even if you do not have an online store, this kind of notification is still relevant as it capitalizes on each interaction. As a follow up to a transaction, do not hesitate to gather feedback and establish links that way. Finally, such contextual ing may be an opportunity to unveil your other products or services in order to cross-sell. REMINDER: In order to increase the number of transactions, prolong interactions. C - TUTO.COM: INTEGRATE ING AS PART OF ONE S STRATEGY AND TOOLS WITH MAILJET This example illustrates the added value of placing ing at the very core of one s activities, while applying best practices. This allows day-to-day optimization and a routine of daily improvements that will eventually result in a better ROI. Environment and problem Tuto.com is a platform selling online tutorials. It has more than 140,000 members and has already provided over 140,000 hours of training. Targets are both tutorial producers and customers. Despite good opening and click rates, Tuto.com was looking to improve deliverability and thus, profitability. 22

23 Adopted system Preference management: the customer is making the decisions and does not receive unwanted content: he picks each type of he wants to receive and their frequency. This best practice obviously shows that within the framework of a system where the recipient is responsible for his own preferences, sending fewer s proves less costly and allows you to be more relevant. From the marketing team s perspective, a simple click will be enough to achieve targeting by segment: sending relevant s then becomes very simple. In short two measures were implemented: 1 - Adoption of best practices such as: no forced outgoing mails, systematic opt-in, refusal to rent databases or use databases coming from a competitor, etc 2 - Use of Mailjet technology Very few newsletters are sent to the entire customer database at the same time. Segmentation is made as profitable as possible. Results: Nicolas Chaunu, CEO of Tuto.com depicts the situation as follows: Before, we used to have a 12-15% open rate. It was not that bad, but today we are around 25-30%! Note that these rates are going to increase when we will implement an A/B testing strategy on our e- mails! 23

24 CONCLUSION Once the basics are understood, marketing proves pretty simple. It is equally relevant for the big player as it is for the small ones. Should only one piece of advice be remembered, let it be this: it is always beneficial to embark on optimization. Whatever one s ambition or knowledge level, there will always be a lot to be gained. Starting very simply can result in quick and easy improvements: the less familiar one is with marketing, the more one should investigate it! This document was intended to show how to enter the world of marketing: from there, one can make his own way. It is not necessary to implement everything at once. However, simple and basic notions - such as giving the priority to the quality of the list over the quantity of contacts - may help many of you to achieve significant increases in profitability. In any case, we hope this White Paper successfully reflects the role Mailjet plays day after day: making something seemingly complicated a whole lot simpler, and easing people s lives who wisely choose to capitalize on the incredible marketing channel that represents. Mailjet was built on the principle that customers will always look for a service that is tuned towards efficient simplicity. We believe in the long-term possibilities of cloud computing so as to offer simplicity and flexibility to our customers for many years to come. 24

25 Mailjet is an all-in-one solution to create, send and report, both marketing and transactional s. Our technology is cloud-based, highly scalable with proprietary technology that optimizes deliverability. Mailjet can be accessed via an easy-to-use online drag-and-drop interface, through APIs that allow developers to integrate its array of features within their applications or send through its sophisticated SMTP relay. Founded in 2010, Mailjet is now an international leader within the Service Provider space, with more than 60% of revenues generated outside of its native France. To date we have processed over 12 billion s for nearly 200 thousand customers around the globe; and our team has expanded within 5 countries in 3 continents. You can pay us a visit at our local offices in Paris, Berlin, New York, London, Ho Chi Minh City and Toronto. At Mailjet we believe in honest deliverability and dedicate substantial amount of our resources to innovation, as well as fighting the war against SPAM. This is to provide a seamless service, high deliverability and a next generation ing platform with % uptime for our customers. We can do this, because Mailjet is built from the ground up. Be sure to check our blog regularly for how-to guides, posts on optimizing your s, the latest digital marketing strategies, and occasionally just to hear about our awesome adventures! Ready to try out Mailjet? Here s how: