20 Quick Tips for Improving Your Marketing Programmes

Transcription

1 20 Quick Tips for Improving Your Marketing Programmes June 25, 2008 Presenter: Paul Bates UK Managing Director, StrongMail Systems 1

2 Agenda Introduction Best Practices Overview 20 Quick Tips About StrongMail Q&A

3 What Makes a Best Practice for ? Industry Trends Customer Feedback Testing & Refining New Technologies Defining our strategy is the #1 top challenge of marketers. JupiterResearch, 2007 Executive Survey

4 Tip 1: Solve a Problem Identify the business problem first > Conduct offline research or hire strategic marketing firm Consider non related metrics > e.g. increase number of units per transaction > Verify that offers and content solve the business problem Example: Effect of Shopping Frequency on Rention Rates 2x Month Retention Rate 1x Month >1x Month 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

5 Tip 2: Optimise Subject Lines Keep them direct, relevant, timely and impactful Insert program name at the beginning or make it the entire subject Know whether to recycle or refresh Avoid ALL CAPS Consider Initial Caps Use action words It s okay to be free Use the right personalisation did you know? It s the subject line that tells recipients whether or not to open an ? When measuring open rates, look to subject line copy as a primary indicator of success.

6 Tip 3: Pay Attention to Your From Name Recipients use From name to determine whether or not gets deleted Use the name your customers know Keep it consistent Don t bait and switch Tip 4: Improve Rendering Add more right hand white space Place grey boxes under image cells Avoid XHTML and out of line CSS Use the HTML evaluator at Consider Campaign Preview Tools did you know? AOL does not render broken image tags, so your recipients won t know what they re missing unless you show them graphically

7 Tip 5: Test Your Template Code Use an code expert to review templates Test your templates with a rendering tool Keep master copies separate Avoid XHTML and out of line CSS Tip 6: Fine Tune Frequency Number of messages/time period/mailing category Continually test to optimise frequency Set standards and frequency caps Determine the value of an address to enforce limits recipients 53% unsubscribe when the offer or content is not interesting to them* 2007 JupiterResearch Consumer Study

8 Tip 7: Know Your Metrics and Apply to the Right Audience Identify the metrics that matter to your differing audiences > Boss: metrics on the problem your program was designed to solved (revenue, site traffic, etc.) > CRM Mgr.: address attrition (churn sources and drivers) > Web Team: size of campaign, type of offers, deployment time > You: evaluate what metrics are most important, and avoid useless ones like opens/clicks over time in a mailing

9 Tip 8: Monetise Service Based Higher opens and clicks than marketing Introduce HTML into your transactional Make the template similar to your marketing Keep information and offers relevant Allowed under UK and intl spam laws Test offer placement during the roll out

10 Tip 8a: Upgraded Transactional Branded & personalised Customer service & acct info Up sell message by sku or product purchase history Dynamic order management Loyalty or special cross sell offer

11 Tip 9: Leverage Customer Data Effectively & Responsibly Segment lists to improve relevancy, reduce list churn Create message categories, preference centers and based on requested content Employ behavioral targeting Establish and abide by privacy policies Protect customer data from security breaches Tip 10: Keep Your Lists Clean Dirty lists affect: > ISPs increases blocked and filtered > Recipients increases mail to junk folder > Marketers skews send/open/click metrics Marketers who 40% are unsure if their marketing practices protect personal information* 2008 Ponemon Marketing and Privacy Survey

12 Tip 11: Test to Maximise Results Insist on having proper tools to manage and test your programs Regularly test core marketing elements Run A/B tests on subject lines, segments or queries Review reporting in real time and make adjustments Keep up to date with new technologies, regulations and recipient behavior Percentage of ers who believe a provider s testing 19% capabilities are their most important product feature.* 2006 JupiterResearch Marketing Executive Survey

13 Tip 12: Improve Deliverability Reputation Check blacklists and blocklists regularly Track your key performance indicators Throttling Determine your top 5 10 domains Set throttling rates to meet ISP requirements Follow best practices to improve delivery Feedback Loops Sign up for feedback loops immediately Auto process complaints

14 Tip 13: Integrate with Other Marketing Channels Send on the date your catalog is expected to drop to encourage catalog usage Send on day before direct mail is expected to drop to encourage open and read Hosted landing pages should be SEO friendly and incorporate key words and phrases did you know? Marketers using integrated tactics can generate nearly four times more revenue, compared with marketers using broadcast mailings. JupiterResearch, Road to Relevance, 2007

15 Tip 14: Integrate with Web Analytics Measure the impact of marketing campaigns from click tracking to purchase and beyond Compare ROI across marketing programs Launch campaigns based on visitor demographics, behavior and preferences Leverage shopping card abandonment programs and other remarketing strategies Increase in net profit for targeted s that leverage Web site click 32x stream data vs. undifferentiated broadcast campaigns.* JupiterResearch, Road to Relevance, 2007

16 Tip 15: Accommodate Mobile Users Develop a strategy for handheld users > Identify and send text messages to mobile users > Host and link to an html version of your message. Expose link in the header Handheld users 16% that triage on their handheld device. Up from 8% in 2006.* Tip 16: Time s for International Markets Plan ahead to accommodate translation, coding, testing, etc. Test and schedule delivery for optimised times in each local market Stick to your timing schedule 2007 JupiterResearch Consumer Study

17 Tip 17: Leverage Partnerships to Build Your Lists Carefully choose the right partner Drive opt in through list access Temper partner data into lists over time to better manage deliverability reputation Tip 18: Evaluate Appends appends can improve segmentation Demo/psycho data append for more data points Be wary of reverse appends Don t settle for less than a 20% match rate

18 Tip 19: Keep It Legal is regulated internationally Inventory programmes and research applicable legal requirements Maintaining compliance protects the channel Check out spamlaws.com for foreign country policy links. Tip 20: Double Check Before Hitting Send Establish a pre send checklist and follow it Double Check: > Data sources, queries > Links, unsubscribe, naming and content rendering > Final count, start and end dates > Legal compliance Get the full pr ing checklist at strongmail.com

19 StrongMail Systems Founded 2002 and headquartered in Redwood City, California 100+ employees with account and service representatives across the US 50 full time engineers dedicated to technical and functional innovations across StrongMail s entire product line Six pending patents in outbound technology 300+ customers representing large organisations across multiple verticals Chair and participate in industry standards bodies, driving innovation and new standards.

20 Who is StrongMail? The leading provider of commercial grade on premise solutions for marketing and transactional Enable businesses to better leverage and messaging to interact with their customers A more powerful and cost effective alternative to service based products > Superior control > Tighter integration > Complete security and privacy A more complete solution than home grown or point products > Intuitive marketing application > Enterprise class infrastructure > Comprehensive services

21 Comprehensive Services StrongStart Services Administration Support Services Deliverability Services Professional Services/Consulting 24x7 Product Support

22 Questions? > 20 Quick Tips > The Maturation of > MarketingSherpa Survey > Case studies > Webinars > Marketing Insights Blog Or call: +44 (0) (650)