email marketing and e-crm david hughes co-founder, the email academy [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
The 2 minute summary...
• Be relevant and engaging– Segment– Personalise– Triggered messages– Lifecycle marketing
• Keep improving– Test– Optimise
“How nice of them to think of me”
Drayton Bird
• Adaptable to all stages in lifecycle• Cuts costs – direct mail, telemarketing• Offers short time to market• Short test to roll cycles• Infinitely personalisable• Delivers best Return on Investment.
Why all the excitement?
Here is the DMA USA
• For 2009, an investment of $1 in direct marketing advertising expenditures is predicted to return, on average, $11.65 in incremental revenue across all industries
DMA USA “The Power of Direct Forecast”, August 2009.
...and for Email Marketing
$43.62 for every dollar spent
DMA USA “The Power of Direct Forecast”, August 2009.
What about Benchmarks?
Most email tracking may be wrong!
• Email open rate tags can be disabled• Forwarded emails carry the original recipients’
DNA
Not opened, but clicked?
Forget about Averages...
10
Prospects2%
Customers 10%
Average5%
Records
Response
“Average” Conversion Rates?
More Averages – so what?
• Average Open Rate: 22.2%Average Click-Through Rate: 5.9%Epsilon Q2 2009 Email Trends and Benchmark (Oct 2009)
You are where you are
• Last campaign is benchmark• Things you can’t control• Keep testing• Keep measuring
Find the right broadcast partner
• Prices start at £20 a month• Handle most of your delivery problems• Keep email data in one place• Reduce your campaign turnaround times• Access to segmentation and personalisation tools• Web-based reporting• Resources available at the DMA and Econsultancy
http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-buyers-guide
What are the challenges?
David Hughes,
after Sean Kelly, Comhra Ltd
Shouting
Segmenting
Triggered Programs
Planning Complexity
Data Complexity
What does good bad look like?
Stop SHOUTING at me.
I’m a CUSTOMER, remember?
One big image – no Personalisation
It’s a poster, not an email…
And then there is message rendering...
Bad Email Marketing can be Good Email Marketing
(A message you can send to everybody?)
Assemble the creative assets
Craft the copy
“We literally made the decision to go to sale
on the Thursday morning, and by Friday
lunchtime, it looked like we were on for the
biggest single day in Howies history!”
www.nonlineblogging.com
Non-Line Marketing
Don’t wave good-bye to direct mail
• Those who received both the print and email communications were twice as likely to visit their personalised web pages.– 6% who received only email– 12% who received both email and direct mail
• From customers who received both– Twice the conversion rate– Twice the revenue
www.nonlineblogging.com
Segmentation and Personalisation
• Registration data• Transactional data• Click-stream data
Registration
A critical part of email marketing
3 Elements to Registration
• Visibility– Can people see it?– On every page?
• Value– Why should they bother?
• Ease– How long will it take?– Does it look painful?
Roadblock Registration!
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Less beer, more value
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Ease
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Progressive Registration
Email driven by registration
£4m revenue in 2006
You’ve got content
Transactional Data
The best you can get!
Recency, Frequency and Value
Frequency
Recency
Value
Shouting, Shouting and Shouting
Frequency
Recency
Value
Monthly Newsletter
Relevant and timely? Lovely.
Amsterdam
Budapest
Points over
Points over
“Dynamic” <Insert>
“Conditional”<If – Then – Else>
It’s about Lifecycle Marketing
More Shouting
Monthly Newsletter
I Choose
I Need
I Become
AwareI Buy
I Use
I Enjoy
I Want
Sony Welcome programme
Survey information said:
• Within the 1st 30 days of ownership Digital Still Camera users want added memory, camera accessories, batteries, shooting kits, advice etc.
• Within the 2nd 30 days users are more likely to be interested in PRINTING their photos
Messages or Programmes?
Welcome programme
• Thank you• How was it for you?• How’s the new camera?• Want some help?• Need some memory?• How about printing?
Welcome Message
• Thank you
Click-stream Data
Watch, don’t ask.
Recency-driven Campaigns
Average Conversion Rates?
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Successful Outcomes
• What do you want people to do?• How clear is the call to action?• Why should somebody do it, now?• What happens after the click...
So its more about the landing page
• Do you need to build one?• How can you personalise it?• How can you remove barriers to the
outcome?
Lazy marketing...you know me!!
Pre-population of Landing Page
Lovely!
Landing Pages – Multiple Elements
• Heading• Page layout• Images• Long or short copy• Calls to action – phone numbers or “Call Me”
Optimost was able to prove that the winning page recipe generated a
26.7% increase in conversions from landing page through to the order process, which in
turn led to a
10.7% increase in subscription revenue.
5 Variables...what could we improve?
This one that works 14% better.
Google offer it for free…
Think about the customer journey
• The email needs to be relevant and engaging• The call to action needs to be strong• The successful outcome needs to be easy• You can’t pay your staff with clicks!
Email Creative
It’s NOT a web page.
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Web Page can – email can’t
• Advanced Cascading Style Sheets• Background images• Scripting (Java, shockwave, video etc)• Animated GIFs• Images disabled by default...
Images are not displayed by default...
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/
Background Images?
Get testing - This is what Pivotal Veracity offers
• Full message, above the fold & preview pane rendering.
• Automatically identifies missing alt-tags and allows you to view your email in all email clients with images on and off.
Beautiful
Beautiful. Not.
Oh dear...
Who needs images anyway?
Marketing Sherpa 2008
First 6 lines
• Remember the Preview Pane• Don’t lob a big image in there• Try and get some text that people will see
Fantastic use of preview pane
And pre-headers...
Use words and HTML Code
Tables of colour Logo as
Text
Text, not images
Text Personalisation
Lost images, but so what?
A few words about persuasion
Use persuasive words
• Gain their attention• Ask questions• Sell benefits• Break down the cost• Use pace• Excitement• Fear, uncertainty and doubt
How Testing will Improve your Email Marketing Performance
John Caples, Tested Advertising Methods 1932
"In planning an advertising campaign, the first step should be to clear the decks of all opinions …
…the next step should be to find a scientific method of testing."
• Price points• Discount in value or %• Bundles• From Field• Subject line• First 6 lines• Day of week• Time of day• Text v HTML
That’s a lot of opinions...• Segmentation• Design and Layout• Tone of Voice• Long/short Copy• Personalisation
• Number of links• Landing Page• Frequency• Follow-up
Statistical Validity
• Could this have happened by chance?
http://www.emarketingdynamics.com/email-test-sample-size-calculator.asp
Test simple or complex variables
Test Simple Variables
What response rate will a 20% discount give me?
Does a different “From” field increase open rate?
Test Complex Variables
Does this new newsletter template work better than the old one?
Will campaigns based on trigger dates work better than monthly campaigns?
Testing should help resolve problems
Not opened. Not clicked. Not bought.
So where can testing help?
Your first problem is probably delivery
Some testing options using format
• What happens to my campaigns when I send a text only version?– Click-through for the first time ever at bigcompany.com– People clicking through for the first time ever
• Why did it happen?– HTML message may have been perceived as SPAM– Text version renders properly in Lotus Notes, on a
Blackberry
Declining Open Rates?
Get their attention
From Field Subject Line
Preview Pane
CONTROLFrom : PriceMinister
Advice
Click-Through rate: Index100
TEST
From : Sophie at PriceMinister
Click-Through rate : Index 156
What’s in a Name? 56% more traffic.
Subject Line?
First 6 lines – Email Labs test
Their re-designed version…
To summarise
• Testing will help you improve• Testing can be quick and very easy• Testing can deliver huge business benefits
If you don’t fall off, you’re not trying hard enough!
Email and Social Media
Driving traffic? That’s the old way
The beating heart pushing content out...
StaffJournalistsCustomers
NewsAlerts
Updates
CompetitionsDiscussion
Connection
NewsletterAlerts
Updates
“This is what we’re all talking about”
If they can do it...
The future of viral?
www.silverpop.com
www.silverpop.com
Here is Silverpop’s view...
http://www.silverpop.com/downloads/white-papers/Silverpop-Engage-S2S-Study.pdf
Spam Spam Spam
Its about your deeds not your words
Argos have a cracking reputation
Why do all these get to my Inbox?
Reputation Look-up
Reputation Management
• Authentication• Accreditation• Blacklisting• Mailing history• Complaints
Spamassassin Tests
To summarise
• Gather the right data to drive campaigns• Segment and personalise using all your data– Registration– Transactional– Click-stream
• Look beyond the email
“How nice of them to think of me!”