20 Quick Tips for Improving Your Email Marketing Programmes June 25, 2008 Presenter: Paul Bates UK Managing Director, StrongMail Systems 1
Agenda Introduction Best Practices Overview 20 Quick Tips About StrongMail Q&A
What Makes a Best Practice for Email? Industry Trends Customer Feedback Testing & Refining New Technologies Defining our email strategy is the #1 top challenge of email marketers. JupiterResearch, 2007 Executive Survey
Tip 1: Solve a Problem Identify the business problem first > Conduct offline research or hire strategic marketing firm Consider non email related metrics > e.g. increase number of units per transaction > Verify that offers and content solve the business problem Example: Effect of Shopping Frequency on Rention Rates 2x Month Retention Rate 1x Month >1x Month 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Tip 2: Optimise Subject Lines Keep them direct, relevant, timely and impactful Insert program name at the beginning or make it the entire subject Know whether to recycle or refresh Avoid ALL CAPS Consider Initial Caps Use action words It s okay to be free Use the right personalisation did you know? It s the subject line that tells recipients whether or not to open an email? When measuring open rates, look to subject line copy as a primary indicator of success.
Tip 3: Pay Attention to Your From Name Recipients use From name to determine whether or not email gets deleted Use the name your customers know Keep it consistent Don t bait and switch Tip 4: Improve Email Rendering Add more right hand white space Place grey boxes under image cells Avoid XHTML and out of line CSS Use the HTML evaluator at www.w3.org Consider Campaign Preview Tools did you know? AOL does not render broken image tags, so your recipients won t know what they re missing unless you show them graphically
Tip 5: Test Your Template Code Use an email code expert to review templates Test your templates with a rendering tool Keep master copies separate Avoid XHTML and out of line CSS www.w3.org Tip 6: Fine Tune Email Frequency Number of messages/time period/mailing category Continually test to optimise frequency Set standards and frequency caps Determine the value of an email address to enforce limits Email recipients 53% unsubscribe when the offer or content is not interesting to them* 2007 JupiterResearch Consumer Email Study
Tip 7: Know Your Metrics and Apply to the Right Audience Identify the metrics that matter to your differing audiences > Boss: metrics on the problem your email program was designed to solved (revenue, site traffic, etc.) > CRM Mgr.: email address attrition (churn sources and drivers) > Web Team: size of campaign, type of offers, deployment time > You: evaluate what metrics are most important, and avoid useless ones like opens/clicks over time in a mailing
Tip 8: Monetise Service Based Email Higher opens and clicks than marketing email Introduce HTML into your transactional email Make the template similar to your marketing email Keep information and offers relevant Allowed under UK and intl spam laws Test offer placement during the roll out
Tip 8a: Upgraded Transactional Email Branded & personalised Customer service & acct info Up sell message by sku or product purchase history Dynamic order management Loyalty or special cross sell offer
Tip 9: Leverage Customer Data Effectively & Responsibly Segment lists to improve relevancy, reduce list churn Create message categories, preference centers and email based on requested content Employ behavioral targeting Establish and abide by privacy policies Protect customer data from security breaches Tip 10: Keep Your Lists Clean Dirty lists affect: > ISPs increases blocked and filtered email > Recipients increases mail to junk folder > Marketers skews send/open/click metrics Marketers who 40% are unsure if their marketing practices protect personal information* 2008 Ponemon Email Marketing and Privacy Survey
Tip 11: Test to Maximise Results Insist on having proper tools to manage and test your programs Regularly test core marketing elements Run A/B tests on subject lines, segments or queries Review reporting in real time and make adjustments Keep up to date with new technologies, regulations and recipient behavior Percentage of emailers who believe a provider s testing 19% capabilities are their most important product feature.* 2006 JupiterResearch Email Marketing Executive Survey
Tip 12: Improve Deliverability Reputation Check blacklists and blocklists regularly Track your key performance indicators Throttling Determine your top 5 10 domains Set throttling rates to meet ISP requirements Follow best practices to improve delivery Feedback Loops Sign up for feedback loops immediately Auto process complaints
Tip 13: Integrate with Other Marketing Channels Send email on the date your catalog is expected to drop to encourage catalog usage Send email on day before direct mail is expected to drop to encourage open and read Hosted email landing pages should be SEO friendly and incorporate key words and phrases did you know? Marketers using integrated tactics can generate nearly four times more revenue, compared with marketers using broadcast mailings. JupiterResearch, Road to Relevance, 2007
Tip 14: Integrate Email with Web Analytics Measure the impact of email marketing campaigns from click tracking to purchase and beyond Compare ROI across marketing programs Launch email campaigns based on visitor demographics, behavior and preferences Leverage shopping card abandonment programs and other remarketing strategies Increase in net profit for targeted emails that leverage Web site click 32x stream data vs. undifferentiated broadcast campaigns.* JupiterResearch, Road to Relevance, 2007
Tip 15: Accommodate Mobile Email Users Develop a strategy for handheld users > Identify and send text email messages to mobile users > Host and link to an html version of your message. Expose link in the email header Handheld users 16% that triage email on their handheld device. Up from 8% in 2006.* Tip 16: Time Emails for International Markets Plan ahead to accommodate translation, coding, testing, etc. Test and schedule delivery for optimised times in each local market Stick to your timing schedule 2007 JupiterResearch Consumer Email Study
Tip 17: Leverage Partnerships to Build Your Lists Carefully choose the right partner Drive opt in through list access Temper partner data into lists over time to better manage deliverability reputation Tip 18: Evaluate Email Appends Email appends can improve segmentation Demo/psycho data append for more data points Be wary of reverse appends Don t settle for less than a 20% match rate
Tip 19: Keep It Legal Email is regulated internationally Inventory email programmes and research applicable legal requirements Maintaining compliance protects the channel Check out spamlaws.com for foreign country policy links. Tip 20: Double Check Before Hitting Send Establish a pre send checklist and follow it Double Check: > Data sources, queries > Links, unsubscribe, naming and content rendering > Final count, start and end dates > Legal compliance Get the full premailing checklist at strongmail.com
StrongMail Systems Founded 2002 and headquartered in Redwood City, California 100+ employees with account and service representatives across the US 50 full time engineers dedicated to technical and functional innovations across StrongMail s entire product line Six pending patents in outbound email technology 300+ customers representing large organisations across multiple verticals Chair and participate in email industry standards bodies, driving innovation and new standards.
Who is StrongMail? The leading provider of commercial grade on premise solutions for marketing and transactional email Enable businesses to better leverage email and messaging to interact with their customers A more powerful and cost effective alternative to service based products > Superior control > Tighter integration > Complete security and privacy A more complete solution than home grown or point products > Intuitive email marketing application > Enterprise class infrastructure > Comprehensive services
Comprehensive Services StrongStart Services Administration Support Services Deliverability Services Professional Services/Consulting 24x7 Product Support
Questions? www.strongmail.com > 20 Quick Tips > The Maturation of Email > MarketingSherpa Survey > Case studies > Webinars > Email Marketing Insights Blog Or call: +44 (0) 1494 435 120 +1 (650) 421 4200