kciabc bcs 2014: email marketing roi - let it rock!

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Email ROI

Email drove $67.8 billion in sales in 2012.

Email ROI in 2012 was $28.50, the highest of any direct marketing medium. (DMA, 2012)

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Email ROI

(Revenues-Expenses)/Expenses = Return On Investment

Got it. Now how do we improve it?

Increase revenue; OR

Decrease expenses

Campaign List Size Expenses Revenues ROI

Free Shipping offer 100,000 $1450 $31,245 $20.55

Free Product w/Purchase 100,000 $1450 $24,996 $16.24

New Customer Bounceback 1,000 $85 $3,513 $40.33

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IMPROVE DELIVERABILITY

Deliverability = getting into the inbox.

More inboxes means more revenue.

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Deliverability by the Numbers

In the U.S., only 86% of valid marketing email ever makes it to the inbox. 8% never shows up anywhere (never delivered and not reported).

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Reported open rate: 20% | Actual open rate: 25%

Potential boost in response/revenue: 25%+!

Deliverability by the Numbers

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

Sent Delivered

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Deliverability = Your Email Provider + YOU

What your Email Service Provider should do for you:

Good email template code

Throttled sending

Automated unsubscribe & complaint handling

Built-in CAN-SPAM compliance

Optional:

Pay for “Certified” Sender Status

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What YOU can do to improve deliverability:

Improve Deliverability

Create Good Content

Maintain a Good, Clean List

&

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Improve Deliverability: Good Content

Include a “white list” request in the pre-header

Balanced text:image ratio

Spell check

Avoid spammy words

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Improve Deliverability: Good Content

Pre-Flight check against common spam filters

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Improve Deliverability: Good Content

Send engaging content

Send timely content through automation

Send relevant content with segmentation

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Improve Deliverability: Segment

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Improve Deliverability: Test Content

Test, Measure, Learn & Improve

The more subscribers engage with you, the better your sender reputation will be.

Subject line Offer/Discount % Call to Action Layout Graphics Frequency of emails Time of day/day of week

Balance of images/text Number of links in an email Length of emails Landing Pages vs. full site Article topics & order Mobile responsive design

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Maintain a good email list:

Opt-in (aka permission-based) house list only.

Set expectations for frequency and value to the subscriber at sign up, and then meet those expectations.

Clear out those that don’t exist or bounce back repeatedly and/or opt-out.

Improve Deliverability: Clean List

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REENGAGE OR TRIM INACTIVES

Reengaging subscribers that haven’t opened, clicked or purchased.

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Reengaging Lost Subscribers

Reaching out to those who once opted in but are now either held (bounced) or simply inactive.

Marketing Sherpa reports that as much as 33% of your email list can turnover each year.

Without reengaging these addresses, you’re left with 16.8% of your original list after 5 years.

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Email Reengagement Campaign

Reengagement/Re-Permission

An email (or series of emails) with a strong, clear offer to entice those who haven’t opened, clicked or converted to either engage or unsubscribe.

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Other Reengagement Outreach

In-store & point-of-purchase

Telemarketing follow ups

Direct mail

Online ads/social media outreach

Be sure to ask for an updated email address so you can reconnect via your most efficient medium!

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Trim Inactives

Keep those that reengage! Those that don’t, gotta go.

Opened

Didn't open

Opened

Didn't open

NEVER open

Reengage ~ 1% and increase revenues. Trim the other 40% and save the expense of

sending to inactives.

80%

20% 20%

40%

40%

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Trim Inactives

Bonus: increase your email engagement metrics and improve your sender reputation.

# Sent # Opens Open Rate # Clicks Click Rate

Pre-Cleanse 100,000 20,000 20% 5,000 5.0%

Post-Cleanse 60,000 20,000 30% 5,000 8.3%

Opened

Didn't open

33%

67%

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Rockin’ Email ROI

REENGAGE OR TRIM INACTIVES

IMPROVE DELIVERABILITY

Campaign List Size Expenses Revenues ROI

Shipping offer 100,000 $1450 $31,245 $20.55

Free Product w/Purchase 100,000 $1450 $24,996 $16.24

New Customer Bounceback 1,000 $85 $3,513 $40.33

Campaign List Size Expenses Revenues New ROI

Shipping offer 75,000 $1200 $39,056 $31.55

Free Product w/Purchase 75,000 $1200 $31,245 $25.04

New Customer Bounceback 1,000 $85 $4,391 $50.66

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4 Steps to Rockin’ Email ROI

2. REENGAGE OR TRIM INACTIVES

1. IMPROVE DELIVERABILITY

3. TEST TO ALWAYS BE IMPROVING

4. INTEGRATE CROSS CHANNEL

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