Stephanie Martin

Head of marketing operations, Guardian Professional

Inbox Insight

Today we receive a mind-numbing amount of incoming email which clutters our

inboxes and destroys our time management. How do you get your email

opened, read and responded to in this sort of environment? This session

explores nine key things to consider before you hit 'send' in order to improve

your response rates.

Why do marketeers choose email?

• Email is the cheapest way of creating and sending marketing messages

ever

• Consumers would rather businesses contacted them by email than any

other channel

• Email is extremely effective at delivering sales and conversions in other

channels eg phone, in-store

• Unlike web analytics and behavioural targeting, email is attributable: you

don’t just know what, you know who

• The email inbox is a competition-free zone compared to a search results

page

Email is a very personal method of communication

‘Users tend to glance at websites when they need to

accomplish something or to find the answer to a specific

question. In contrast, newsletters feel personal because

they arrive in users’ inboxes, and users have an ongoing

relationship with them.

Newsletters can create much more of a bond between users

and a company than a website can. The negative aspect is

that email usability problems have a much stronger impact

on the customer relationship that website usability problems’

Jakob Neilson and Amy Schade, Email Newsletter Usability

Consumer email trends

• One in three people say the majority of emails are of interest (up from 1 in

10,2010)

• Email frequency at an all-time low: two emails a month per sender

• 38% hold on to email for at least one week – 12% for one month

• 22% use email as a nudge to go to url by another route

• 50% receive emails from 20+ trusted brands each week

“Recipients

underestimate the

number of emails they

receive from brands

they trust”

Dela Quist,

AlchemyWorx

Nine key things to consider before you hit ‘send’ in order to

improve your response rates

1. Prospect list

2. Subject line Should be:

• Instantly understandable

• Front-loaded for reader interest

• Impactful enough to stand out amid a busy inbox

• Related to the content of the email

Should not be:

• Cryptic or ambiguous

• Too clever or long-winded in getting to the point

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3. Sender profile

• Unambiguous sender information showing product or company name

• Easy inbox retrieval

Sounds obvious but… From: Flying Club

Who? Virgin Atlantic

From: Harry Potter

Who? Borders Stores

4. Images

5. Pre-header text

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“67% of emails received

have the images turned

off.”

Jay Schwedelson,

President-CEO,

Worldata

6. Scannability

• Break content up with clear signposts, labels and calls to action

• Choose a scannable layout to format your information such as a bulleted list,

numbered steps or Q&A

• Front-load your content

• Use everyday, conversational language

• Think about how you content will display as an email snippet or in preview panel

7. Offer

• Exclusive, email-only

• Serialisation – content, vouchers

8. Personalisation Dear Stephanie

x As an Ocado Smart Pass holder, we thought you might be interested in…

9. Call to action

• Does your email content pass the SO WHAT test?

• Do you have a clear sense of what you want your recipients to think, feel

and especially do after looking at your email?

• What’s the value of the message to the recipient?

Questions…