EMAIL STRATEGY: THE ESSENTIALS FOR DEVELOPING A REVENUE GENERATING EMAIL PROGRAM November 14 th, 2013

EMAIL STRATEGY: THE ESSENTIALS FOR DEVELOPING A REVENUE GENERATING EMAIL PROGRAM November 14 th, 2013

AGENDA Current Email Marketing Landscape Lifecycle Marketing Mobile Trends Planning, Testing, and Refining Content A/B Testing Measuring Success CAN-SPAM Compliance Guidelines Questions 2

CURRENT EMAIL MARKETING LANDSCAPE Lifecycle Marketing and Mobile 3

LIFECYCLE MARKETING 4

LIFECYCLE MARKETING Goal is to move customers up the value chain Acquire Convert Grow Retain Win- Back 5

LIFECYCLE MARKETING 6

LIFECYCLE MARKETING: ACQUIRE ACQUIRE Goal: Capture New Email Addresses Email to Current Customer Refer a Friend Utilize Word of Mouth from your current customers Triggered email after first interaction with your brand (makes a purchase, attends an event, opens up an account, etc) Offer an incentive to both the current customer and the friend 7

LIFECYCLE MARKETING: ACQUIRE ACQUIRE Goal: Capture New Email Addresses Social + Email Add an email sign-up widget to your Facebook page Clear, simple message to sign up for emails Place in the first 4 app tiles for best results 8

LIFECYCLE MARKETING: CONVERT CONVERT Goal: Move from Prospect to Customer Welcome Series Automated email message sent immediately after email sign up Typically generates 8X high revenue-per-email compared to traditional promotional emails Opportunity to introduce your brand, set expectations, and offer an incentive 9

LIFECYCLE MARKETING: GROW GROW Goal: Build Value for Your Brand Birthday Opportunity to promote brand loyalty (surprise & delight) Requires that you collect birth date in your email preference center Typically see 25%+ CTR and 2X higher average conversion rate (VERY relevant) 10

LIFECYCLE MARKETING: RETAIN RETAIN Goal: Reinforce Loyalty & Engagement Product Reviews Increase the reviews and testimonials for your products Can be reused as content in your emails or on your site Proactive approach to building the relationship Offer an incentive to help drive response and encourage additional purchases 11

LIFECYCLE MARKETING: REACTIVATE REACTIVATE Goal: Win-Back Inactive Customers Re-Engagement Sent to subscribers who have not opened or clicked an email in X time period* Series of emails that can be reused when a subscriber reaches the above determined time period Those who do not engage should be removed *Time period unique to each customer. Based on purchase lifecycle and email frequency. 12

LIFECYCLE MARKETING: WAYS TO SCALE Use APIs to set up triggered/transactional messages Use RSS, SmartGet, and other dynamic content to repurpose content and send personalized messages Utilize social share to encourage subscribers to share the entire email or individual stories/sections 13

MOBILE 14

MOBILE: PROGRESSION OF MOBILE DESIGN Blackberry: You can read email on your phone? Major Change to Email: Multipart MIME, which adds a text version of each email so the email would be legible on the blackberry iphone: You can read email + easily see email images on your phone! Major Change to Email: Mobile optimized design developed to accommodate the surge of people that adopted the iphone Small Screens Go Mainstream: You can read email + easily see email images on multiple mobile devices! Major Change to Email: Responsive design developed as majority of emails are now read on a mobile (smartphone, tablet, etc.) devices. Yet still not adopted by all (Android). 15

MOBILE: TRENDS ON READERSHIP 43% of all email is now opened on a mobile device. More email is read on a mobile device than on a desktop email client or via webmail. Source: Litmus Email Analytics (June 2013) Image: Litmus Implications More email will be accessed On the Go Websites will also need to evolve to ensure conversions 16

MOBILE: TRENDS ON READERSHIP By the end of 2013, there will be more mobile devices on Earth than people. Source: Cisco (2013) Image: https://litmus.com/blog/webinar-mobile-email-strategies-approaches Implications Email design needs to adapt to render well across multiple mobile devices as well as desktop 17

MOBILE: TRENDS ON READERSHIP What People Do If They Get a Non-Mobile Email 80% of users delete email that doesn t look good on their mobile device! 18

DESKTOP MOBILE MOBILE: RESPONSIVE DESIGN What is it? Depending on the size of the screen the email is opened on, utilize CSS3 @media queries to render two different layouts. As mobile usage increases, it is more imperative to optimize the user experience for those devices. Remove non-relevant pre-header copy Increase font sizes Adjust image sizes Convert to single column layout 19

PLANNING, TESTING, AND REFINING Content, A/B Testing, and Measuring Success 20

CONTENT 21

CONTENT: GETTING THE OPEN INBOX: From Name Subject Line Pre-Header Key Elements FROM Name Signifies who the email is from Opportunity for immediate brand recognition Subject Lines Let s the subscriber know what is in the email and why they should open Put most important information within first 25-35 characters (including spaces and punctuation) Pre-header Text First text in the HTML of the email Visible in most email clients and devices Added real estate for encouraging an open 22

EYE CATCHING SUBJECT LINE FORMULAS Symbols Time is Running Out - Your Free Business Listing Lower Case pontificate: Dictionary.com Word of the Day Upper Case Road trip with LOW auto loan rates Short Statements Holding a Yard Sale. On Your iphone. List Content Jeans. Shirts. Whiskey. For Three Days Only Winning Combinations: Name of Service + Benefit Statement Name of Service + Offer Benefit Statement + Offer Punctuation Change 2 days only! 25% off dresses our gift IT list: cozy & bright picks everyone will love. Unique Discounts 28% Off March 28th Tax Filing Services 23

CONTENT: INCLUDING ALL OF THE KEY ELEMENTS 1. Pre-header text 1 2. Headline 3. Primary Call to Action Button 4. Links in body copy 5. Secondary call-to-action 6. Recovery zone 2 3 4 5 6 7. Z-Curve 7 24

A/B TESTING 25

A/B TESTING Why Should You Test? Marketers who test have excellent or good ROI compared to those who do not test Test A 10% Test B 10% Winner 80% What Should You Test? Subject Lines Call to Actions Sending Times FROM Name Content Frequency Day of Week Everything 26

MEASURING SUCCESS 27

METRICS TO MONITOR Emails delivered/ emails sent 28

HOW DO YOU BENCHMARK Your Own Data You ll learn more by mining your own trend data and looking at results by campaign type Industry Data Email channel averages and industry-specific statistics can be directionally helpful. They can tell you if you re performing in the general ballpark of your peers. 29

DASHBOARD EXAMPLE 30

CAN-SPAM COMPLIANCE GUIDELINES What You Need To Know To Be In Compliance 31

CAN-SPAM BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Background Officially known as the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act Became law Jan. 1, 2004 Overseen by The US Federal Trade Commission Most recent amendments to law took effect Jul. 7, 2008 Objectives Establish requirements for those who send commercial email Give federal civil and criminal enforcement authorities the ability to combat commercial email that is unwanted by the recipient and/or deceptive Define penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in SPAM if they violate the law Allow state attorneys general to enforce its civil provisions, and create a private right of action for providers of Internet access service 32

CAN-SPAM: DO S AND DON TS Do s A valid U.S. postal address in all emails Clear notice in all commercial emails stating that the email is an advertisement or solicitation If you no longer wish to receive promotional email X please click here to unsubscribe. Clear and conspicuous working unsubscribe mechanism in every promotional email Keep the unsubscribe mechanism live for at least 30 days after the date of the mailing Process all unsubscribe requests within 10 days, including requests through nontypical channels Don ts Use fraudulent transmission data such as open relays, false headers, etc. Employ misleading from lines or subject lines Subject line should indicate what the email content is Complicate the opt-out mechanism Share the address of a person who unsubscribed with any other entity seeking to send that party email Harvest email addresses or use automated means to randomly generate them MCH Data has you covered! 33

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS Offer a global unsubscribe option so subscribers may remove themselves from all promotional email subscriptions or lists Remove any emails that have hard bounced or reported your email as spam Done automatically on your behalf! Perform regular re-engagement campaigns and list cleaning to maintain healthy list hygiene practices

KEY TAKEAWAYS 35

KEY TAKEAWAYS Lifecycle Marketing Mobile Planning, Testing, and Refining CAN-SPAM Categorize your current email programs Identify where you can add emails to build a robust email lifecycle Look on your phone, and co-workers phones to see how your emails are current rendering Check to see what percentage of your subscribers are viewing your emails on a mobile device Utilize pre-header text to help encourage opens Begin testing start with subject lines then expand Look at metrics regularly to measure performance consider a dashboard Make sure your FROM Names and Subject lines are clear Look into implementing regular re-engagement campaigns to maintain healthy lists and deliverability 36

QUESTIONS? 37