To come EMAIL The Digital Marketing Heavyweight March 15, 2012
Today s Panel To come Gwen Tomasulo [Case Study: Email Aud Dev & Adv] Gwen Tomasulo is the Managing Director of Audience Development at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Alyssa Miller [Case Study: enewsletters] Alyssa Miller is the Director, emedia and Managing Editor, epublishing at Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association. Moderator Lou Ann Sabatier, Sabatier Consulting [Email: Ten Best Practices]
To come Introduction
To come Best Practices 1 Centralize Preparation Take inventory of all outbound customer mail Estimate outbound throughput needs Identify email budgets across depts. Set cost saving metrics Evaluate existing technology platform Secure internal approvals
Best Practices 1 Centralize Logistics To come Determine key receiving domains total audience Set up or consolidate IP addresses Develop data sources Map online & offline data inputs into centralized customer data source Create content library
Best Practices 2 Scheduling Limit the number of emails you send a week to the same individual To come Be SELECTIVE when sending emails about webinars, white papers, shows and conferences. DON T blast everyone with an email address Use the demographics you have to make sure what you send is relevant
Best Practices 3 List Building Use a two stage opt in before a name goes into your database Re ask every twelve months Retain permission data Be prepared for churn; up to 30% turnover per year for many files Send welcome email Use relevant white papers, product specs, case studies, testimonials, contact info for person they can follow up with to nurture leads via email To come
Best Practices 4 List Maintenance To come Keep your list clean. Remove opt outs immediately. Go through your bounces and non opens. Make sure email addresses are correct Keep track of open rates by individual and remove names if they haven t opened anything in past six months
Best Practices 5 Design To come Company name in from line for fast recognition Limit subject line to 50 characters or less Insert call to action at top for immediate viewing First two words in heading & subheading critical Readers often scan left side first F shape eye track Check for correct rendering
Best Practices 6 Tests To come There are few absolutes in email marketing; data trumps intuition Test offers Test deployment date or time Test subject line Test small segments before sending out larger promotions
Best Practices 7 Engagement To come
Best Practices 7 Engagement
SmartBrief Case Study Summary To come Using email and social media. Subscriber interaction increased 25% Inbound traffic from social networks increased dramatically in 30 days Twitter 1,680%, LinkedIn 2,070%, Facebook 1,351% Sharing became another source of content
Best Practices 8 Manage Reputation To come Honor unsubscribe requests within ten day window [SPAM laws] Resolve spam complaints quickly Avoid changing IP address Monitor complaint rates, bounce rates, spam trap rates Do limited test runs and monitor volumes Quarantine new opt ins or risky list test
Best Practices 9 Analytics To come Go beyond basic data Tie into web analytics Real time reporting & tracking Understand the relationship between email and offline efforts Conduct mid year review Use metrics to build case for change & improvement
Best Practices 10 Optimize To come Conduct email stream analysis Use technology to Automate as much as possible Fight list fatigue Grow your list Forecast campaign response
To come The Chronicle of Higher Education Gwen Tomasulo
The Chronicle of Higher Education Overview More than 60,000 paid subscribers Serves Faculty and Administrators at colleges and universities Additional revenue from recruitment and display advertising
The Chronicle of Philanthropy Overview More than 25,000 paid subscribers Services executives, fundraisers and managers at nonprofit organizations Additional revenue from advertising and online training
Email Promotion: Two Departments Advertising Communications/PR Lead generation Upsell Events Creative Services Audience Development Subscription acquisition Subscription retention Site (Institution) Sales Webinars Customer engagement Lead nurturing
Challenges Existing email campaign platform No metrics or reporting on campaign details, clicks, etc. Unreasonable reporting time weeks for full results Batch and blast No audience segmentation No behavioral or triggered Testing slow and unscientific Existing systems were not integrated with CRM Many departments and stakeholders executing email with no central database or tracking
Solution Replace Email Service Provider Getting internal buy in we ve gone so long without it will it be worth all the effort? Choosing a partner none are perfect Eloqua implemented end of last calendar year Audience Development using since December 2011 Advertising begin using March 2012 Existing
Lessons Learned Spec business scenarios fully Strong project management across departments Communication Training and usage Ownership and advocacy within the organization Build cushions for resources [time] and expenses
Early Results Audience Development started using in December 2011 Acquisition Shorter testing period pull orders forward January and February highest volume of email orders in recent history Newsletters Welcome emails are now triggered when register online
What s Next? More elaborate multi step, triggered campaigns based on clicks, etc. More targeted segmentation Insights into behaviors within the email clicks, open rates, etc. Integrate marketing data into CRM and Eloqua Access denied page revamp and trigger based on behavior Lead nurturing/prospecting Newsletters from Eloqua behavioral targeting Renewals
Take Away Systems and operations can impact revenue from email campaigns negatively Have a complete understanding of the campaign process and diagnosis Set goals and objectives that are measurable and attainable Strong project management leads to success Test and measure early and often Plan for ongoing development don t launch and abandon! The tool is only as good as the data and users
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association 400,000 members 220 staff
280,000 subscribers Ranked No. 1 aviation enewsletter Erdos & Morgan survey, FAA certificated pilots Major driver of Web traffic Key to AOPA messaging
Competitors Association Consumer Advertising $450K in 2012 Variety Text/image National/regional
Content is king Know your audience to produce high interest content Spin myths Association s needs vs. readers wants Pilot run airport backs medical petition Target audience segments with special content
Reader behavior Reading habits Readers favorite sections Preferred delivery methods Other publications frequently read
Open rates Establish your brand Unique subject lines with one common element epilot: F 16 intercept; ATC saved my life epilot: Miffed mechanics; New fuel sipping engine Analyze subject line performance Establish a benchmark Test to improve Competing with yourself Not a good thing! Email policy
enewsletter production Create internal and external news sources Editorial meetings Stakeholders throughout company Editorial and production staff Workflow
Integrate your message Don t make enewsletter sole means of communication Strategic messaging in Print Social media Web Video
TAKE AWAY Compelling content delivers results Know and listen to your audience Experiment, test, refine publication
EMAIL The Digital Marketing Heavyweight Questions