1 Secrets of Successful Email Marketing Presented by: Don Mennig dmennig@asicentral.com 800-546-1350 ext. 3866 ASI Education
2 Goal & Overview To make you comfortable with the basics of email marketing. Be able to send an effective email with RatePoint.com. Introductions Email essentials Secrets to success Useful Web sites
3 A little about us Don Mennig ASI s Executive Director of Marketing Started with ASI in 2004 heading up the ESP Online marketing program 15+ years marketing experience Tom Serani Co-founder RatePoint and VP of Worldwide Sales 15 years of sales management experience at established and startup technology companies
Email essentials What s the purpose? Drive leads, increase sales, educate/inform Web and/or landing page traffic Email & phone Formats Text (RTF) More personal when used intermittently HTML HTML has images/ fonts/ layout & design 4
Anatomy of an email General flow for an email Email opens on a computer (Outlook, Entourage) Email has compelling content/ offer Email links to landing page Thank you/ acknowledgement page link to main site, other products etc Every click to your point of action hurts 5
6 Secret 1: It s still about your Web site! Make sure your site looks great! The recipient is already online or mobile Consistent look and feel with email Done well your Web site distinguishes you Done poorly it makes your competitors look better Look at your customer s Web sites that is what they are accustomed to seeing
Secret 2 Don t try this at home Visit www.ratepoint.com/asi for a free trial Spend 30 minutes playing with the program and familiarizing yourself with the tools. They are great for design, analytics, managing lists and SPAM. 7
Secret 3 Garbage in. Garbage out. Your database is a major key to success Create a contact database in Excel Export from outlook or other program First/last name, company, email address minimum.csv file List building/ acquisition Ask your contacts for referrals Read the paper, local business journals Start a personal correspondence first when possible Do not purchase lists (third party) Expensive/ lower results 8
Secret 4 Compelling Communications Have a reason for emailing Clearly state What s in it for Betty! Make sure it is compelling Be consistent with your brand image 9
Secret 5 - It s all Subjective Subject lines 50/35 characters? 3 words? Subject line = email? Personalization backlash? First names must also be included in body copy Improve open rates by 5% Not included in body copy decreases by 8%! The sender relationship is key Spam Don, ASI announces enhancements to ESP Online Avoid other terms you see in SPAM: discount, ALL CAPS,!, (Free) 10
Secret 6 Forget everything you know about print design Body copy/ Design Keep vital information and offers above the fold Like a newspaper story your first paragraph should include all vital information In general, shorter is better Use relevant images photography is best Flash, audio,.exe etc are all stripped out by email servers Animated.jpgs work Fake video works 64% on mobile devices (text left, image right) 11
Secret 6 Forget everything you know about print design (continued) Personalize your email body copy First name, company name, industry Give them one thing to do (if you re trying to land sales/ leads) Put offers at the top, as links in the copy, and at the bottom. Make sure your offer is close to the strongest visual image on the email The more the merrier? Think PONG 12
Secret 7 Email is getting social Syndicate your emails Email marketing providers like RatePoint work with social media tools such as Twitter (www.twitter.com) Allows you to post your emails to your Twitter account Benefits of syndication Increased visibility: Displays emails somewhere other than your customers inboxes Viral effect: share email campaigns with followers/ peers on Twitter 13
Best Practice 1: Determine your ROI What to track Open rates (Successful sends / unique opens) CTR (unique opens / unique clicks) Soft leads Conversions (unique clicks / action) Hard leads Delivery/ bounce/ SPAM complaints 14
Best Practice 2: Testing A/B splits What should you test? Subject lines Sender (From) Content Offers Day of week/ hour Landing pages 15
Best Practice 3: When to drop? Best days/ times to send It depends Monday = highest open and clicks Sunday = high open but low clicks Only 3% of all email traffic Friday has lowest metrics Test your audience You ll know in 96 hours how well your email has done! Typically we can predict the total number of leads an email will provide within one hour of its drop 16
Best Practice 4: Customer Reviews Using Feedback to Your Advantage Growing Your Business Proactively manage feedback to strengthen valuable customer relationships Boost sales and consumer confidence with testimonials How it Relates to Email Marketing Use email marketing as launching pad to request reviews Promote reviews/testimonials through email Differentiate your business Customer endorsements motivate consumers to take action Industry Statistics 77% of online shoppers use reviews and ratings when purchasing 68% of consumers trust "people like me" first for product advice 17
Exclusive - New Affiliate Benefit! Ratepoint ASI discount approx. 17% 30 day free trial 500 contact rate $8.46/ month or $84.26/ year Compared to Constant Contact = $15/ month 1000 contact rate $15.26/ month or $151.99/ year Compared to Constant Contact = $30/ month ASI will be building industry templates over the next several months 18
Most important secrets to remember Don t do it yourself Email is the means, sales are the goal Your content as well as your website has to be impressive Email is becoming the new Pong Measure & track results 19
Resources RatePoint www.ratepoint.com/asi Research www.marketingsherpa.com www.mediapost.com (email insider) Analytics Anlaytics.google.com 20