"Tricks of the Trade" for Successful Email Marketing 14 Tips and Strategies for Best Email Results
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Today s Agenda Overview of email as a marketing channel in the education market and why it makes sense to use it to reach administrators and teachers Tricks of the trade" for creating successful email marketing campaigns Basic tools and strategies you need to get higher response and maximum results for your marketing dollars 4
Regina Brady Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions 5 Reggie Brady has 20+ years of experience in the areas of email, privacy, direct marketing, management, and database building. Her consulting practice focuses particularly on email marketing and helps companies with business and marketing planning, strategy development and implementation, traditional direct marketing, online traffic building, and permission and privacy. Prior to her consulting practice, Ms. Brady was Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships for FloNetwork Inc., a leading email service bureau that has since been acquired by DoubleClick. She was also Vice President of Interactive Services for Acxiom/Direct Media and spent over eleven years at CompuServe, a major global Internet Service Provider as Director of Interactive Marketing. She is a member of the Direct Marketing Association and served for six years on their Ethics Policy Committee, developing standards for direct marketing professionals. Reggie is also a board member and President of the Direct Marketing Club of New York and sits on the advisory board of several direct marketing companies.
Christopher Ziemnicki E-Marketing Solutions Leader MDR Christopher Ziemnicki currently leads e-marketing product development at MDR and acts as chief strategy consultant on interactive marketing to MDR s customers. He leads MDR s industry-leading educational e-marketing research and best practices efforts. Before joining MDR, Chris built and managed large-scale Web-affiliate marketing programs and managed email marketing programs for both start-up and established B2C companies and catalogers. 6
Why Email Makes Sense for Marketers While 60% of marketers plan to cut their traditional marketing budgets this year, 47% of marketers plan to boost their email marketing budgets. Aberdeen Group, "Recessionary Marketing: How Best-in-Class Companies Are Weathering the Storm" (Jan 2009) 80.4% of marketing executives surveyed say email performs strongly as an advertising channel for their companies. Datran Media "3rd Annual Marketing & Media Survey Results" (2008) Spending on email will rise to $488 million in 2009, up from $472 million in 2008, and will jump to $677 million in 2011. emarketer (Nov 2008) 7
Why Email Makes Sense for Marketers What are educational marketers saying? 87% of marketers are engaged in email marketing 3.70 3.59 3.51 3.39 Effectiveness Rating: Scale of 1-5 1=Least Effective, 5=Most Effective 3.05 2.90 1.73 1.72 3 rd most effective marketing channel receive only 15% of the marketing budget Sales Force Lead Generation Catalogs Email Marketing Direct Mail Search Engine Web Advertising Print Advertising Retail 8 Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2007, survey conducted fall 2007.
Why Email Makes Sense for Marketers What are educational marketers saying? 57 Forecasted Increases in Spending in Next 12 Months 42 % Increase 9 Email was the #1 marketing channel slated for increase in spending over the next 12 months Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2007, survey conducted fall 2007. Email Marketing Direct Mail 27 25 22 Web Advertising Sales Force Generation Search Engine Catalogs 19 8 Other 7 Print Advertising Retail 2
Why Email Makes Sense for Educational Marketers Educational Email Marketing Frequency Educational email marketing far from saturation point More than 10 per day 7-10 5-7 Number of Education/School-Related Email Offers Received by Teachers in an Average School Day 6% 9% 8% 8% 13% 15% 2008 2006 Some personnel are targeted more 3-4 23% 23% Consumers get on average ~35 nonspam emails per day (MarketingSherpa, 2008) 1-2 Less than 1 per day 17% 21% 28% 28% 10 Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.
Getting Started With Email Marketing for the Educational Marketer Prospecting: Sender recognition Create strong relevance/value messaging Primary purpose call to action Scan-ability Rendering considerations Prospect to those that look like your customers Utilize campaign results for segmentation strategy going forward 11
Getting Started With Email Marketing for the Educational Marketer Email expands the traditional educational marketing window: End-of-year Campaigns Email inventory blowouts Email on/off peak times and over summer Email in support of your catalog and direct mail campaigns 12
Teachers Email Reading Frequency 84% of Teachers check their email several times a day, all day long, and nights and weekends 13 Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.
Teachers Connectivity During Summer Break Email Usage During Summer Break Self-reported connectivity to their school-based email address during summer Several times a day Daily Multiple times a week 6% 20% 26% Summer campaigns, back-to-school campaigns in August, professional development events, etc. Once a week Multiple times a month Once a month Just prior to school opening Never 6% 5% 2% 11% 24% 14 Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.
14 "Tricks of the Trade" for Successful Email Marketing 15
1. Email Plus Direct Mail 1 + 1 Doesn t Equal 2 Extend the power of your messaging Email only response 1% Catalog only response 8.3% Email + catalog response 11.2% Note use of similar imagery 16 Source: EmailSherpa 5/1/07.
1 + 1 Doesn t Equal 2 (cont.) 2 Test panels All received 3 catalogs Second panel also received 3 newsletters Results: Email group increase in sales of 18% Email group orders increased by 6% Email AOV increased by 12% Email cost increased 6% 17 Source: Vicki Updike, Miles Kimball 6/08.
Send Email in Advance of Direct Mail Cut through mailbox clutter Time to arrive: 2 to 3 days before Show your outer envelope or catalog cover Prominently feature URL on every spread or mailing component 18
Leverage the Channel Direct mail Longer form copy and multiple images Copy blocks Email Fewer images Short, succinct copy Strong calls to action both above and below the fold 19
2. Maximize Your Call Center Train your call center reps to ask for email address Make sure reps understand the value an email address Customer-initiated call represents perfect opportunity Script a value proposition Newer trend. Marketers seeing this is an important operating metric. They are measuring call centers on number of valid email addresses collected. Begin communication ASAP with a welcome email Consider flagging bounced emails in workstation 20
3. Design Include Your 800 Number Multiple studies have found up to 20% of sales will be made via the 800 number Feature it prominently 21
4. Design Use the Preview Pane Half your readers will be able to see the header and the beginning of your message Work with the first 2 inches Include teaser text at the top of your email, such as a brief list of headlines or contents 22
5. Use Effective HTML Design Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are for web page design, not email Rendering problems, particularly Hotmail and Gmail Outlook 2007 presents additional problems Use inline HTML. No style defined. Every line of code has to be defined with font faces/attributes/sizes, etc. 23
Rendering Problems 24 Reggie Brady 2009
CSS Layout in a Web Browser 25 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Email Campaigns.
CSS Layout in Yahoo! Mail No gray box around email 26 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Email Campaigns.
CSS Layout in Windows Live Hotmail Two right-hand boxes shift position 27 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Email Campaigns.
CSS Layout in Gmail Logo moved to top, headline font gone, one of the call-out boxes is missing 28 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Email Campaigns.
CSS Layout in Outlook 2007 Ugh! 29 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Email Campaigns.
Tables Tips for HTML Formatting Use tables for position Be careful with nested tables Outlook 07 does not support background images in table cells Don t use Flash Embedded media Javascript, DHTML, ActiveX, ASP, PHP Image maps 30
Tips for HTML Formatting (cont.) Images Optimized jpegs or gifs pre-formatted in correct size Post images online and include full URL, not just the local reference Set height and width parameters Use ALT tags 31
Design Use ALT Tags Use descriptive ALT" tags on all images Will not work with all email clients but does work with Google Okay to make these longer 32
7. Design Image Blocking More than 60% of email recipients have reported some image blocking Link to view full HTML is important Use at least 60% text and 40% images Use ALT tags for images Forrester found 40% of emails studied were impossible to understand without graphics Test your own emails by viewing them when not connected to the Web 33
How Would Your Emails Look? Nothing to see! 34
How Would Your Emails Look? Text is readable even without images 35
8. Copy Long vs. Short Which was more effective? Both had same number of clickthroughs The shorter version generated twice as many requests 36 Source: Email Sherpa 5/1/07.
Make sure your first link is as far up as possible Include links below the fold The more links the better Even if images are blocked, there is still plenty to see in this email 9. Links 37 All links point to same landing page
10. Columns I like a 2-column design It gives you a chance to organize information It makes it easier to read text across the screen 38 Source: Email Sherpa 5/1/07.
11. Test Dollars off or a percent discount? 39 Tested in subject line and body Both had similar opens and CTRs $50 Off generated 170% more revenue and 72% higher conversion rate Source: EmailSherpa 7/23/08.
Design Test Franklin Electronic Publishers tested including a Hacker Safe logo in their emails Conducted test for 7 months (50% of list saw logo and 50% did not) Results for those who saw logo: 28.3% higher average order 8.1% higher conversion rate CTR 2.1% higher 40 Source: EmailSherpa 10/30/07.
Test Wording of Links MarketingSherpa used Continue here and wanted to test link wording: Click to continue + 8.53% CTR Continue this article + 3.3% CTR Read more 1.8% 41 Source: Email Sherpa 9/11/07.
Wrong Buttons Right 42
12. Test Subject Lines Just for Fun A Quick Test ProFlowers hi Subject line A: Last chance to order for Valentine s Day is this Wednesday, order now Subject line B: Only 48 hours to order for guaranteed Valentine s Day delivery 43 Source: DoubleClick. A is the winner with 23% lift in sales
More on Subject Lines Subject lines drive open rates Keep it short! Focus on the first 45 characters it can be longer, 60 characters maximum. Make it compelling State a benefit from reader s point of view Make an offer Intrigue the reader and stimulate curiosity Forrester analysis 52% of subject lines described content but had nothing of real benefit to readers 44
Use Action and Benefit Words Top 12 Email Newsletter Mistakes 6 Actions to Lift Click-Throughs: New Data Get 250 Free Business Cards with Free printing on the back REGINA, BUSINESS 2.0 Magazine Wants to Say Thank You Free Financial Guide Still Available Instant Rebates on Best-Selling Wyse Winterm Thin Clients Save $20 on Your Next OfficeDepot.com Order Dramatically reduce your payroll processing costs 45
13. Have a Strong Offer Subject Line Complimentary Leadership Assessment: Identify Your Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses Link to view images Good headlines Images that don t overwhelm Clear offer Testimonial 46 Forrester analysis showed almost 50% of emails studied had first call to action below the fold.
And a Good Landing Page Same image creates seamless experience Simple vertical form Yellow boxes Toll-free number 47
Offers That Work Free Gifts Mayo Clinic invitation to join their list What they did right: Comes from a person Clear call to action Free gift Easy to read What they did wrong: Dear friend???? Logo at top would be nice 48
Offers That Work Free Gifts (cont.) Mayo Clinic landing page What they did right: Simple page Immediate gratification What they did wrong: I just clicked on the link to see more, but I was immediately added to their list 49
14. Focus on Landing Pages Bring them directly to the content/offer Some create a micro site to support a campaign To focus attention If they start looking at other areas of your site, they may forget your specific call to action Make the layout of the page simple and focus attention Raise the font size, eliminate multiple columns, and eliminate extraneous links Include complementary images 50
Landing Page Tests Buy Now button color test by Dymo 4.3% improvement 51 Source: MarketingSherpa 7/25/07.
Landing Page Tests (cont.) Add to Cart vs. Proceed to Checkout test on last page before payment 44.1% Improvement 52 Source: MarketingSherpa 7/25/07.
Landing Page Tests (cont.) What others have found Removing FAQ from a registration page improved results A Motley Fool newsletter improved sign-ups by removing a picture of the author A red action button worked better than a green button 53 Source: Direct Newsline 6/23/06.
Landing Page Tests (cont.) 54 Source: MarketingSherpa B-to-B 9/10/08.
Regina Brady Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions reginabrady@att.net Q & A Christopher Ziemnicki E-Marketing Solutions Leader, MDR cziemnicki@dnb.com Market Data Retrieval (MDR), a D&B Company, is the market s first choice for direct sales and marketing solutions, powered by the most complete, current, and accurate education databases available in the industry. As the leading U.S. provider of marketing information and services for the K-12, higher education, library, early childhood, and related education markets, MDR can provide you with direct mail lists, email contacts and deployment, sales contact and lead solutions, and market research and analysis. www.schooldata.com 800-333-8802 55 Future MDR Webinars: July 23 Upgrade Your Online Marketing: Get top search results and turn them into new business Sign up on http://www.schooldata.com/mdrwebinars.asp September 24 Social Media in the Education Industry Stay tuned! The material in this presentation is copyrighted. Please contact MDR for permission to reproduce or use this content.