Getting Started With E-mail Marketing A Quick Start Guide for Avaya BusinessPartners + Plan + Use this guide to maximize your e-mail campaigns effectiveness and best practice compliance. Execute Generate quality leads and sales by delivering timely, approachable content in a cost-effective way. Visit Avaya Partner Marketing Central at https://pmc.avaya.com for more Quick Start Guides and additional resources.
A Quick Start Guide for Avaya BusinessPartners A recent study by emarketer noted that 98% of global online users use e-mail. This means millions of messages are constantly transmitted over networks all over the world. You can capitalize on this vast mountain of opportunity with the potential of e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing can be a double-edged sword. On one side, you can create a precise marketing campaign to cost-effectively promote your business. On the other side, you can harm your business image and brand by not following the rules of professional e-mail etiquette. This Quick Start Guide contains best practice guidelines that will help your business maximize its return on investment (ROI) from permission-based e-mail marketing. Navigate the Quick Start Guide: Introduction 2
Introduction What can your business gain by using e-mail marketing? The goal of all marketing is to attract interest, build demand, and generate sales. E-mail marketing excels at all of them, nicely complementing traditional marketing efforts. It s one of the most cost effective ways to contact prospects and customers far cheaper than traditional direct mail. Plus, it often has a larger impact on both immediate sales and the development of long-term relationships. When done correctly, e-mail marketing can be an extremely powerful and effective marketing technique. When done incorrectly, however, e-mail marketing can be destructive, erode brand equity, and turn your happy clients into angry unsubscribers. While e-mail marketing isn t new, it has gone through quite a transformation since the early batch-and-blast days. Whether you re an old pro or just starting out, learn more about how e-mail marketing can work for you. What is e-mail marketing? E-mail marketing is an easy, affordable, and effective form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail to send personalized, relevant communications that customers actually want to receive. In its broadest sense, every e-mail your business sends to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. The level of interaction, speed, depth, and communication set e-mail apart from other marketing media. By communicating with your prospects and customers in a mutually beneficial and compelling way, you ll drive your sales, grow your opt-in subscriber list and improve your marketing return on investment (ROI). Interest Demand ROI Sales 3
Introduction How does e-mail marketing work? Today, e-mail marketing combines best practice industry standards with the latest delivery technology. This technology enables you to personalize e-mail and include relevant content to help ensure you send the right message, to the right person, at the right time. E-mail marketing campaigns sent from real people to real people encourage relationships based on value and trust. What is the difference between e-mail marketing and spam? Chances are that the Web sites you regularly visit provide content that you value. The same holds true for e-mail, as long as customers find value in it, they will be willing to receive it. Providing value such as content on a relevant topic, a discount, promotion on a product, or service will allow you to continue to engage with your customers. Unsolicited e-mail or spam is not only unexpected, irrelevant, and rarely valuable it is also illegal. Sending bulk spam can result in litigation, ruin a legitimate business reputation, and damage the brand value. Therefore, intelligent e-mail marketers always adhere to opt-out guidelines as required by the US CAN SPAM act of 2003. You User Permission-based (or opt-in) e-mail marketing, however, is used effectively by organizations every day to build the value of their brands, increase sales, and strengthen their relationships with clients and subscribers. The key difference is that e-mails are only sent to persons who have requested or opted to receive them. Permission-based e-mail marketing allows companies like yours to develop and sustain relationships with their prospects and consumers by creating value. Ultimately, it s an effective way to increase sales conversion rates, build strong relationships with your customers and turn your one-time customers into loyal customers. 4
Marketing to permission-based e-mail lists is a proven, cost-effective way to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty when you follow these simple rules: The do s of e-mail marketing: 1. Leverage existing marketing programs When you purchase or rent an e-mail list, include a link to the e-mail sign-up page on your Web site in the campaign. Also include a link to your e-mail sign-up page wherever your company engages in any other marketing initiatives. 2. Make it easy to opt-in and to opt-out Once people reach your site, make sure the opt-in process is simple and takes as little time as possible. Also, make the link to your e-mail sign-up page visible or at least accessible from every page of your site. It s required by law to allow recipients to unsubscribe. You can secure permission by sending an opt-in e-mail that gives the recipient the option to unsubscribe, or there should be an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the e-mail. Comply with the opt-out and other notification provisions required by the US CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and always adhere to regional privacy laws which may be more restrictive (see local country laws that may apply). 3. Know your target audience Get some basic details about the people in your optin list to help you keep your messages relevant and to make adjustments in future communications or promotions. Request a limited number of demographic questions (such as company name, industry, or physical location) as part of the opt-in process. You can also include a survey to gauge interests directly within your e-mails. 4. the four C s Clear. Concise. Compelling. Customer-centric. As you write an e-mail, put yourself in the readers shoes. Instead of a sales pitch, think of their needs: saving time, money or effort and improving productivity and success. Your message should be compelling enough to convince people to sign up, valuable enough to keep them wanting more, and useful enough to pass along. 5. Enable and encourage forwarding Word-of-mouth in the online world is called viral marketing people passing along to others what interests them. If your message is targeted, well crafted and relevant, your subscribers may forward your message to others, who may forward it to others, and so on. Just make forwarding easy by including a one-click forward link in every e-mail. 5
Marketing to permission-based e-mail lists is a proven, cost-effective way to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty when you follow these simple rules: The don ts of e-mail marketing: 1. DON T offer fabulous prizes for signing up While this might seem like a nice gesture, you ll end up with subscribers whose motivation is to win a prize, not to learn useful information about your company. 2. DON T overwhelm your subscribers with too many e-mails How many e-mails depends on the appropriateness or timeliness of your message. Let people know what to expect before they submit their e-mail. After they ve had time to digest the information, ask a sample from your list to advise you on the right number of e-mails. Otherwise they ll let you know with an unsubscribe request. 3. DON T be everything to everyone Your sign-up messaging, as well as the information in every communication, should be focused and prioritized. Don t be afraid to address just one of your audience s needs at a time and save the rest for future mailings. If you re too generic (hoping to get more people to opt-in), you ll end up being nothing to everyone. 4. DON T spend too much acquiring names An opt-in list is a valuable asset that requires investment to build and maintain budget appropriately. Find the most cost-effective methods for reaching your target audience and know how much it will cost you to acquire each name. Keep in mind potential revenue and the lifetime value of each customer and make recommendations accordingly. 5. DON T live in a vacuum Continually view, read and explore how competitors, partners, or even businesses in completely different industries build their opt-in lists. You ll spot an occasional guerilla tactic that will inspire you to try something new and it just might work for you too. 6
As with any marketing campaign, it is critical to measure and analyze the results of your e-mail marketing efforts. Thoroughly understand what works and what doesn t so that you can maximize the effectiveness of each and every campaign. Here are a few things to think about as you build your e-mail programs: Gather results through trackable links and access real-time reports to help you understand what works and what doesn t. Gather Results Redistribute Refine Message Test using different subject lines, copy, offers, creative designs and more. Use real-time results to see which get the best response rates. Test When running a series of e-mail campaigns, refine your message as quickly as possible once you understand the results of your first campaign. Look for an e-mail service provider that offers real-time reporting features that address more than just who opened your message. Save time by using e-mail marketing software that automatically manages and tracks results so that you don t have to manually sort and calculate hundreds or thousands of responses. If you need fast results, choose an e-mail service provider or software package that gets your message out quickly. Above all, take the time to understand e-mail as a marketing medium. Always analyze your results and think about innovative strategies to get in front of new customers. 7
Craft your messaging Before you craft the right message, be sure you ve developed a marketing strategy that includes goals and objectives specific to e-mail marketing increasing revenue, generating leads, strengthening customer relationships, increasing Web site traffic and building brand awareness. An interesting message that offers value to the reader is critical to the success of any e-mail campaign. See what others are doing. Sign up for e-mail newsletters from competitors or from your favorite hobby or interest. Note what makes you open some and delete others. Keep the message personal and casual. Think like a customer and write in a conversational tone. People prefer a conversational tone over corporate speak. Also, people respond best to messages that are written by one individual at a company whom they can get to know over time its part of building relationships. Get the length right. A good rule of thumb is the more frequently you send campaigns, the shorter the e-mail should be. While people might open a short Tip of the Day, few will want to get something longer every single day. Avoid using Blacklisted material to stay out of spam filters and junk mail folders. You can check blacklists at www.dnsstuff.com. Personalize the From part of your e-mail and be clear who the e-mail is really coming from. Be honest in your subject line and reflect what s inside. Doing so is required by law. Because many recipients will see less than 50 characters of the subject line, keep it brief (without sacrificing clarity) and make sure the most important information is in the beginning of the message. Don t be short for short s sake but do make every word count in persuading the recipient to open your message. Use your subject line to encourage forwarding. The Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM) always adds Pls. Forward to the ends of their newsletter subject lines and they report it s more than doubled their circulation! Personalize each message and watch response rates climb. At the very minimum, always include the recipient s name. Customize your messages to appeal to customer interests and hobbies. Ask your customers what they want to hear about: news about products, updates, upgrades, improvements, special offers, new services, etc. The Right Message Will... Build Brand Awareness Increase Revenues Generate New Leads Increase Web Site Traffic Strengthen Customer Relationships 8
Choose your format Once you ve got a compelling message, you need to present it to your customers in the most effective way possible. Studies show that most people won t look beyond the first screen of information if there s not something immediately interesting to them. Give them a reason to scroll or click through. HTML and rich media messages that include audio, video and animation generate high response rates. However, always have a plain text version for those recipients that prefer text or can only receive text (use bullet points and lots of white space for plain text messages). To make it easy for readers to scan your message, keep columns of copy narrow, avoid using ALL CAPS, and if your e-mail or newsletter is long, always include a table of contents up-front so people can scroll quickly and easily to the section of their choice. writing your message in the same format it will appear in on your customers screens so that you can preview exactly what they will see. For text-based e-mails, this means setting your text in 10 point Courier type and limiting lines to 60 characters (five inches) across. Test your messages through a number of e-mail accounts to ensure they look good through all mainstream e-mail clients. Today, an increasing percentage of business users are accessing e-mail through a mobile device. Plan your format to be mobile friendly. 9
There is a simple six-step process for launching a successful permission-based e-mail marketing campaign. 1. Start using a permission-based e-mail marketing service provider or software that allows you to easily and automatically manage subscribes, unsubscribes, bounces, and view reporting statistics like open rates and click throughs. Industry-leading companies include: Email Marketing Service Provider ExactTarget Constant Contact Silverpop Vertical Response www.exacttarget.com www.constantcontact.com www.silverpop.com www.verticalresponse.com Start Collecting Subscribers Response Rates 2. All e-mail service providers and software platforms will have a list management tool. Add a sign-up form to your Web site so you can start collecting subscribers and add any existing lists to your list management tool. It is generally also safe to import the names of anyone who has done business with you in the past year, provided you will be sending content relevant to what they purchased. 3. response rates. There are a number of online resources for direct response e-mail benchmarks, including the Direct Marketing Association and Marketing Sherpa. 4. Decide the type and frequency of e-mail communication you will be sending. Remember: don t overwhelm. We recommend sending at least a monthly newsletter. You can also send promotional messages offering discounts, bundles, or other special offers. Just make sure that your e-mail communications are always relevant and valuable to your customers. Decide the Type and Frequency Create well-designed Email Templates Develop Quality Relevant Content 5. Create well-designed e-mail templates. Many predesigned and formatted templates are available on Avaya s Partner Marketing Central. (https://pmc.avaya.com) Check out our latest e-mail tool (E-mail Now). At no cost, you can customize an e-mail using the templates provided and upload as many as 1,000 e-mail addresses and send the e-mail with the click of your mouse. 6. Develop quality relevant content for your e-mail and newsletters and send it out to your list. Continue sending your newsletters, announcements, or promotions with consistency. As your list grows, you will notice increased traffic on the day of and the days following an e-mail send. By providing valuable content with reasonable frequency, you can succeed in keeping your brand in your customers minds and cement strong, lasting relationships. 10
E-mail Marketing Terms A Above-the-fold The part of a web page that is visible without scrolling. It is generally more desirable placement on a Web site because of its visibility. If you have a join our mailing list tag on your Web site, you should place it above the fold making it easy for visitors to opt-in. Affirmative Consent Another word for permission. The recipient of your e-mail has been clearly and fully notified of the collection and use of his e-mail address and has consented prior to such collection and use. Affirmative consent is not only a best practice, it is required by all reputable e-mail marketing services. Auto Responder A program or a script that automatically sends a response when someone sends a message to its address. The most common uses of auto responders are for subscribe and unsubscribe confirmations, welcome e-mails and customer-support questions. C CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 Federal anti-spam legislation passed in 2003 that requires the following in each e-mail: a legitimate header, a valid From address, a straightforward Subject line, an unsubscribe/optout link and/or instructions and a physical address. It also requires that all unsubscribes are processed within ten days of receipt. Campaign An e-mail marketing message or a series of messages designed to accomplish an overall goal. Challenge Response An automated message triggered by the receipt of an e-mail for the purpose of identifying the sender as a trusted source. The challenge is a message to the sender of the e-mail with instructions on how to validate themselves. If the sender provides a valid response, his e-mail address is added to the recipient s list of trusted senders and his message is passed along to the recipient. Click-Through Rate (CTR) The percentage (the number of unique clicks divided by the number that were opened) of recipients that click on a given URL in your e-mail. Confirmed Opt-In A more stringent method of obtaining permission to send e-mail campaigns. Confirmed opt-in adds an additional step to the opt-in process. It requires the subscriber to respond to a confirmation e-mail, either by clicking on a confirmation link, or by replying to the e-mail to confirm their subscription. Only those subscribers who take this additional step are added to your list. Conversion Rate The number or percentage of recipients who respond to your call-to-action in a given e-mail marketing campaign or promotion. This is the measure of your e-mail campaign s success. You may measure conversion in sales, phone calls, appointments etc. Cost per Thousand (CPM) In e-mail marketing, CPM commonly refers to the cost per 1000 names on a given rental list. For example, a rental list priced at $250 CPM would mean that the list owner charges $.25 per e-mail address. E E-zine An E-zine is an electronic magazine e-mailed to a list of subscribers. Advertisers pay to have their ad (text, HTML or both depending on the publication) inserted into the body of the e-mail. Buying ad space in an E-zine or e-mail newsletter, or sponsoring a specific article or series of articles allows advertisers to reach a targeted audience driving traffic to a Web site, store or office, signups to a newsletter or sales of a product or service. E-mail Blocking E-mail blocking typically refers to blocking by ISPs. E-mails that are blocked are not processed through the ISP and are essentially prevented from reaching their addressed destination. ISPs actively block e-mail coming from suspected spammers. E-mail Newsletter Ads or Sponsorships Buying ad space in an e-mail newsletter or sponsoring a specific article or series of articles. Advertisers pay to have their ad (text, HTML or both depending on the publication) inserted into the body of the e-mail. F False Positive Legitimate permission-based e-mail that is erroneously blocked due to the limitations of current e-mail blocking and filtering techniques. False positives are an industry wide problem. Currently, 17% of permission-based e-mail is erroneously blocked. 11
From Line or Sender Line The from line has two parts: part one is the From Name. Part two is the From Address the electronic address including @ such as, tips@avaya. com. Your recipients may see just the from name, just the from address, or both depending on the configuration of their e-mail client. H HTML E-mail An e-mail that is formatted using Hypertext Markup Language instead of plain text. HTML makes it possible to include unique fonts, graphics and background colors. HTML makes an e-mail more interesting and when used properly can generate higher response rates than plain text. Hard Bounce/Soft Bounce A hard bounce is the failed delivery of an e-mail due to a permanent reason like a non-existent address. A soft bounce is the failed delivery of an e-mail due to a temporary issue, like a full mailbox or an unavailable server. House List (or Retention List) A permission-based list that you built yourself. Use it to market, cross sell and up-sell, and to establish a relationship with customers over time. Your house list is one of your most valuable assets because it is 7 times less expensive to market to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. Use every opportunity to add to it and use it. L Landing Page A web page that is linked to an e-mail for the purpose of providing additional information directly related to products or services promoted in the e-mail. Links Text links, hyperlinks, graphics or images that, when clicked or when pasted into a browser, send the prospect to another online location (e.g. a landing page or other pages of a Web site). Links in e-mails are a call-to-action. To be most effective in motivating action, links should be visible, clear and compelling. O Open Rate The percentage of e-mails opened in any given e-mail marketing campaign, or the percentage opened of the total number of e-mails sent. Opt-in (or Subscribe) To opt-in or subscribe to an e-mail list is to choose to receive e-mail communications by supplying an e-mail address to a particular company, Web site or individual giving them permission to e-mail you. The subscriber can often indicate areas of personal interest (e.g. mountain biking) and/or indicate what types of e-mails they wish to receive from the sender (e.g. newsletters). Opt-out (or Unsubscribe) To opt-out or unsubscribe from an e-mail list is to choose not to receive communications from the sender by requesting the removal of your e-mail address from their list. P Permission-Based E-mail E-mail sent to recipients who have opted-in or subscribed to receive e-mail communications from a particular company, Web site or individual. Permission is an absolute prerequisite for legitimate and profitable e-mail marketing. Phishing (pronounced fishing ) Refers to e-mail scams whose purpose is identity theft. Identity thieves send fraudulent e-mail messages with return addresses, links, and branding that appear to come from credit card companies, banks and some of the Web s most well known sites including ebay, PayPal, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL. These messages are designed to phish for personal and financial information (e.g. passwords, usernames, social security numbers, credit card numbers, mother s maiden name, etc.) from the recipient. For examples, see www.anti-phishing.org. Preexisting Business Relationship The recipient of your e-mail has made a purchase, requested information, responded to a questionnaire or a survey, or had offline contact with you. Important note: Federal law recognizes your right to send e-mail to people with whom you have a preexisting business relationship provided that you include a working unsubscribe link or instructions, however, be aware of the difference between your legal rights and best practices. Blasting off an e-mail campaign to all of your past customers will likely engender bad will and can result in a high complaint rate. First, forget about the customers who are more than one year old if you haven t e-mailed them before. To your remaining list, you may want to send a permission letter that reminds customers of their relationship with you. Then, encourage them to unsubscribe if they do not want to receive your future mailings. Your permission letter reassures your customers that you care about their permission, minimizes complaints and starts you off with a cleaner list. Privacy Policy A clear description of a Web site or company s policy on the use of information collected from and about Web site visitors and what they do, and do not do, with the data. Your privacy policy builds trust especially among those who opt-in to receive e-mail from you or those who register on your site. If subscribers, prospects and customers know their information is safe with you, they will likely share more information with you making your relationship that much more valuable. 12
R Rental List (or Acquisition List) A list of prospects or a targeted group of recipients who have opt-in to receive information about certain subjects. Using permission-based rental lists, marketers can send e-mail messages to audiences targeted by interest category, profession, demographic information and more. Renting a list usually costs between $.10 and $.40 per name. Be sure your rental list is a certified permission-based, opt-in list. Permission-based lists are rented, not sold. Don t be fooled by a list offer that sounds too good to be true. Save the $19.95 and buy yourself a George Foreman grill instead. Unlike the cheap list, the grill is worth the money. S Segmentation Dividing your e-mail list based on interest categories, purchasing behavior, demographics and more for the purpose of targeting specific e-mail campaigns to the audience most likely to respond to your messaging or offer. Your list segmentation and targeting efforts pay off in higher open and clickthrough rates. Signature File (or sig file for short) A tagline or short block of text at the end of an e-mail message that identifies the sender and provides additional information such as company name and contact information. Your signature file is a marketing opportunity. Use it to convey a benefit and include a call-toaction with a link. Single Opt-in (with a subscriber acknowledgement E-mail) The most widely accepted and routinely used method of obtaining e-mail addresses and permission. A single opt-in list is created by inviting visitors and customers to subscribe to your e-mail list. When you use a signup tag on your Web site, a message immediately goes out to the subscriber acknowledging the subscription (this is often accomplished using an autoresponder). This message should reiterate what the subscriber has signed up for, and provide an immediate way for the subscriber to edit her interests or opt-out. Spam or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail) E-mail sent to someone who has not opted-in or given permission to the sender. Spoofing The falsification of an e-mail header so that the e-mail appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Illegitimate marketers use spoofing to disguise their identity in an attempt to commit fraud and avoid prosecution for sending UCE or spam. Federal law prohibits spoofing, however, until sender identity can be established, spammers will continue to escape the law. Subject Line The short line of type in an e-mail that indicates what the message is about. Your subject line should be short (30-40 characters including spaces, or 5-8 words), and it should include a specific benefit that accurately reflects your offer in order to be effective. Federal law prohibits the use of misleading subject lines. Suppression List (a.k.a. opt-out list) A list of e-mail addresses whose owners have asked to be removed from an e-mail list so that they no longer receive e-mail regarding an advertiser s products or services. A reputable e-mail marketing service makes this process automatic, however, if you use multiple e-mail products, or have multiple databases from which you send e-mails, you should use a suppression list to process all unsubscribe requests across all lists. T Targeting Selecting a target audience or group of individuals likely to be interested in a certain product or service. Targeting is very important for an e-mail marketer because targeted and relevant e-mail campaigns yield a higher response rate and result in fewer unsubscribes. U Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Your USP is the unique attribute(s) of your business that makes your company, product or service the best solution to a problem, the best way to fulfill a need or desire or the best way to achieve a goal. Your USP answers the prospect s question: Why should I do business with you instead of someone else? Universal Resource Locator (URL) A Web site, page or any other document address or location on the Internet. URLs indicate the location of every file on every computer accessible through the Internet. V Viral Marketing A type of marketing that is carried out voluntarily by a company s customers. It is often referred to as word-of-mouth advertising. E-mail has made this type of marketing very prevalent. Tools such as send this page, article or Web site to a friend encourage people to refer or recommend your company product, service or a specific offer to others. Version 1-2/27/09 13