MANAGING YOUR EMAIL LIST Ensuring you reach the right people at the right time with a relevant message. 866.915.9465 www.delivra.com 2013 Delivra Professional Email Marketing Software and Consulting
2 The Key to Success: Your Email List Email marketing is most effective when you re sending relevant messages to people who want to receive them. This is why it is important to focus on developing and growing your email list and using industry best practices to manage it. In this whitepaper, we ll offer proven strategies for adding email addresses to your list and discuss important considerations of email list management. How to Grow Your Email List Collect On Your Website One of the easiest ways to organically add an email address to your list is to place an opt-in subscribe form on the pages of your website. Be sure the form is in a prominent location, ideally visible without having to scroll down. It s important to gather good data during this subscription process so you can use it later to segment your list. Provide Motivation Encourage people to provide their email address by offering them something valuable in return. For example, a free ebook offering useful information the individual will receive automatically upon providing their information. Other types of incentives include discount coupons, software applications, whitepapers, webinars, etc. Additional Ways to Grow Your List Mention your emails in your advertising efforts Email registration during purchase Provide an opportunity to sign up at networking events While talking with customers or prospects, ask for their email addresses and permission. If you speak at conferences and other events, invite attendees to sign up. Only 25% of Fortune 500 B2B companies use forms to protect content and capture email addresses. ClickZ 25% of Fortune 500 B2B Companies Have Adopted Marketing Automation (2013) Incorporate text-to-subscribe into marketing materials, enabling opt-in opportunities even when people are mobile. Encourage people to provide their email address by offering them something valuable in return. For example, a free ebook offering useful information the individual will receive automatically upon providing their information.
3 Privacy Policy You should have a privacy policy to clearly explain how you will use the information customers provide. Ideally, your policy should say you won t sell or rent information to a third party. Once you develop this policy, post it on your website, and include a link to it in any email you send. Doing so will reassure recipients you will protect their personal information. It may be wise to hire legal counsel to help make sure that you have covered all the necessary topics in order to keep your company within legal guidelines and protected. In addition to being a good practice, these guidelines will help you stay in compliance with the laws adopted by the United States, Canada and the European Union. Since the Internet has no borders and you cannot be sure if you have any emails traveling to EU counties, it is important to become familiar with both. The Opt-In Process The most common concept related to permission is what s known as opt-in. This means a recipient has to agree to receive emails before they can be sent. Some marketers have tried to use an opt-out approach. This is where the sender believes it s okay to send as many emails as they want to a consumer until the consumer says he or she doesn t want to receive them. Opt-out emails have proven to irritate consumers and may even violate laws. In addition, reputable email marketing service providers, such as Delivra, will not work with organizations who choose the opt-out route. A double opt-in process is even better at ensuring list quality. With this approach, someone s address is added to the mailing list only after they receive a confirmation email with a link to be clicked. If the organization does not receive this confirmation, they will not add the name to their list. 70% of consumers feel very strongly or somewhat strongly that they give permission before they can be marketed via email. RegReady Perceptions of Marketing Permission (2013) Follow-Up to Email Subscriptions Your email marketing service provider probably offers a feature allowing you to set an automatic response when someone provides their email address. Such a system can automatically provide fulfillment for any incentives you offer. Generally, most systems can be set up to send out followup/welcome emails at specified intervals, reminding recipients you received their information.
53% of marketers agree welcome messages best help to achieve their business goals, up from 15% in 2011. DMA National Client Email Report (2013) Offer A Way Out As you build your list, be sure to provide an easy way for recipients to say, thanks, but no thanks. The best way to do this is to include an unsubscribe link in every email. Clicking on this link takes email recipients to a page allowing them to confirm they want to be taken off the list. Some organizations include a question asking why the individual wants to be removed. This helps them determine where possible flaws are in their programs. Regardless of what method you choose to handle unsubscribes, make sure you remove the individual s address immediately before your next email send. It is also extremely important to manage unsubscribe history to ensure that anyone who has opted-out, never receives additional communications. When using an email service provider, this process is managed for you. While recipients who opt-out stay in the system, they are flagged as unsubscribed and never sent to again. Managing opt-outs this way effectively eliminates accidental emails sent to recipients who have very clearly opted-out. 4 Managing Your Email List There is more to email marketing than building a sound email list. List management is an ongoing process to help ensure your list is accurate and useful. In addition to prompt removal of unsubscribes, pay close attention to bounces and other problems. Keeping your email list clean and up-to-date will keep your email program running efficiently. Only 43% of B2B organizations put welcome messages to use. DMA National Client Email Report (2013) Preference Centers Having a subscribe form for when people join your email list is essential, but a preference center is a great way to manage your list on an ongoing basis. A preference center is a great place to tell subscribers what they can expect to receive (for example: type of email and how often they will receive it) and then giving them the opportunity to tell you what messages they would like to receive. Then you can segment your email list based on that information to send email subscribers exactly what they were expecting. This is a great way to reduce unsubscribes and maintain a good relationship with subscribers.
5 What is Segmentation? The most effective kind of email is the exact opposite of batch and blast. It delivers messages of narrow interest to narrow segments of your audience. Any type of direct marketing becomes increasingly more effective as it becomes more personal. The more data you can access about a particular customer or prospect, the more personal your message can become. No two customers or prospects are alike. They have different needs, interests, and may even have widely different impressions of your organization and what it can do for them. Only email makes it easy to deliver messages to each segment of your audience perfectly targeted to their needs, interests, and preferences. And only email gives you the ability to pinpoint how each recipient is reacting to your message. By tracking Segmenting types can be used individually or in any combination. Marketers are increasing their use of segmentation: the number segmenting into more than six different audiences rose from 29% in 2011 to 37% in 2012. DMA National Client Email Report (2013) your recipient s email behavior and using this information to segment your large audience into much smaller groups, you can deliver relevant and targeted messages to each group and achieve an unprecedented level of engagement. This translates into higher customer retention and ROI. Segmentation is not a complicated concept. It is as simple as breaking your entire list of customers and prospects into smaller groups who share common characteristics. These characteristics may be based on demographics, behavior, nature of their business, the relationship with your organization, or any other factor differentiating them from others on your list. You can also segment based upon interaction with your emails. In addition to seeing who opened your email, you can determine who performed particular actions such as clicking on specific links. You can then send a follow-up email based on that information. Putting Demographic Segmentation into Practice If you aren t already obtaining data to use for segmentation purposes, you can implement several basic techniques. First, start collecting information as soon as the customer or prospect begins a relationship with your organization. This can be through an email sign-up screen.
At Delivra, engagement is calculated by multiplying the effects of the following areas: click-through activity, open activity, forward activity, and purchase activity (if you have it). While you probably do not want to subject someone to a 20 item questionnaire, most people will not mind if you ask a handful of basic questions, especially if you present them in a way that suggests you will use the information to serve them better and will protect their privacy. Make sure the questions you ask are relevant to either how you intend to segment your list or evaluate reporting. To gain segmentation data for existing or past customers, consider sending an email with a brief questionnaire. You may want to offer an incentive to anyone who completes the questionnaire. Segment for Effectiveness Your organization has access to one of the most powerful tools ever deployed for marketing. To make your email efforts even more personal and effective, segment your list as it grows. This involves breaking your entire list of customers and prospects into smaller groups who share common characteristics. Those characteristics may be based on demographics, behavior, the nature of their business or relationship with your organization, or many other factors differentiating them from others on your list. The potential for segmentation is limited only by your imagination and the amount of information at your disposal. Some of the most common approaches include: Basic Demographics: gender, age, location, and size of company Engagement: reflecting how recipients react to your emails Source: referrals, search engines, promotions, and other means Lifecycle: reflecting how their email address was acquired and how long they ve been on the list Occupation: both by the type of work performed and the level within the company Employer: by company size or industry Technology: which platforms recipients are using Value: relate to the recipient, such as average order size and number of products purchased Multiple Factors: You can even assemble multiple factors into a matrix. 6
7 Segmentation and Customer Engagement One of the most effective forms of segmentation is by engagement. Essentially, it involves segmenting your list based on how recipients have interacted with previous emails. Each time you send an email message, some recipients (we hope just a few) will not open it. Of those who do open your message, some will click on links or visit your website, while others will forward the message to a friend or colleague. Each of those activities counts as a level of engagement. Email marketers estimate 30% of email revenue derives from targeting to specific segments. DMA National Client Email Report (2013) What makes segmentation by engagement so powerful is it allows you to send different types of messages based upon your own experience with the recipient. For example, if you know a recipient nearly always opens your emails and clicks through to key links, that recipient is probably pretty happy with your organization and your messages. But, if a recipient has not been opening messages or showing an interest in any of your links, you may need to pique his or her interest. One way to encourage participation is to send a special email with an incentive for action, such as a discount or a free gift. Segmentation and Message Content Now that you have segmented your recipients, you need to consider the messaging you will use to communicate with each segment. Remember, segmentation and targeting are the philosophical opposite of broadcasting, so you do not want to send identical messages to different segments of your list. In fact, when you employ segmentation, relevance becomes critically important and testing can help you find the most effective message. The Value of Testing Segmentation gives email marketers the opportunity to understand the value of testing their emails. One way you can test the effectiveness of a message is to send it to a small percentage of a particular segment. After the recipients respond to the message, you can project the response rate across the full segment. Email marketing is also well-suited for another form of testing called split testing. This involves sending out two or more unique emails to different portions of the segment. These emails might include different offers or messaging. Once you compare the performance and determine which is more effective, you can roll the better version out to the entire list.
8 Testing does not have to be a one-time thing. Savvy email marketers constantly test subject lines, offers, copy, and other elements to see which works best. Segmenting their lists allows them to compare how different messages perform among different segments. The Feedback Loop Segmentation is not a one-time activity. Ensuring your organization s segmentation strategy is effective and requires a constant performance review. If your email marketing service provider offers in-depth accurate reports of deliverability, opens, click-throughs, and similar metrics, you can determine the effectiveness of your effort. Take it a step further and link your information to sales data to identify which approaches are most effective and what segments of your list need additional information. Paying attention to member engagement and the specific items evoking positive reactions can help you further refine your segmentation efforts. About Delivra Based in Indianapolis, IN, Delivra has been providing email software and professional services for more than 13 years. Delivra helps businesses and organizations execute effective email marketing campaigns by providing dynamic software and professional services - from full out consulting engagements to help when you need it in areas such as: Design, Production, Deliverability, and Testing. Voted one of the 2011 Best Places to Work in Indiana and one of Inc 5000 s fastest growing companies - Delivra partners with businesses and organizations across all industries and verticals and truly opens its door each and every day to put the customer first. To learn more about Delivra visit www.delivra.com or call 866-915-9465.