email marketing - the 2-year story

Email Marketing in 2008

Taking Your

Email Marketing Pulse:

Organization Readiness

What Every Company Should Know

December 11, 2008 | Shaun Holloway | Association of Strategic Marketing

Tell’em what you’re gonna tell’em

• Establish a Baseline– understand your own methods

• Listen to the Doctor– learn your audiences’ needs

• Get Healthier– maximize current processes & tools

• Undergo a Makeover– sell next steps to management

• Prepare to Show Results– demonstrate success & the future


Background Story


• My Personal Background

• Personal Experience

– previous employer • 2 year email marketing performance study

– current employer• beginning the process again

1. Establish a Baseline


• Understand your own madness

– target audiences• 5 distinct audience segments• BASE = 2 chosen as base to improve




– internal production process• track from creation to broadcast• origin and review of all content• email assembly process• BASE = 2 WEEKS!!




– inventory content of messages• length of message and the pieces• language and calls to action• purpose and fundamentals• BASE = long text, no links, info pushed




– method of delivery• system of choice – internal or external• complexity and professionalism• BASE = internal email system, 6 hours




– format of message• text-based and code-base• BASE = text email to HTML webpage




– measurable activity• click throughs, open rates, etc • BASE =

– only data collectible from webpage analytics – primary performance indicator – click-through rate percentage = started at 2.7%

Baseline Performance Analysis


Click-through Rate

0.0%

0.5%

1.0%

1.5%

2.0%

2.5%

3.0%

Jan-06 Feb-06 Mar-06 Apr-06

2. Listen to the Doctor


• Learn your audiences’ needs

– What does the audience value– What does the audience want to do– What do you want the audience to do

2. Listen to the Doctor


• Learn your audiences’ needs

– Frequency of touch points– Centralization of efforts– Timing of broadcast by day and hour– Opt-in collection methods

Projected Touchpoints


Email Marketing Email Forecast

Source# of sends

Sent Per Month Months

Send Per Year

Time of Month Sent

Audiencee-News 1 1.5 20,000 12 360,000 1st of month

Audiencee-News 2 1.0 4,000 12 48,000 15th of month

Audiencee-News 3 1.0 2,000 12 24,000 1st of month

Audiencee-News 4 3.0 500 12 18,000 Random

Audiencee-News 5 1.0 300 6 1,800 Random

Audiencee-News 6 1.0 100 12 1,200 TBD

Total 453,000

3. Get Healthier


• Maximize current processes

• Must understand how to get the most out of current tools and gather data to support advanced decisions

3. Get Healthier


• Content & Format

– Who creates content– Who reviews content– Gear messaging to audience– Provide a service through action

Results of Improving Current Systems


• 14 day process down to 8 days– Reduced redundancy

– Gave more authority

– Time invested = 14 months

Process improvement results

Base Improvement Now

Content 2 weeks 8 days 5 days

Broadcast 6 hours 5 hours 6 minutes

Click-through 2.70% 4.30% 22.40%

Open Rate unknown unknown 30.10%

Performance Analysis Continued


Click-through RateShowing an average increase and leveling

0.0%1.0%2.0%3.0%4.0%5.0%6.0%7.0%8.0%9.0%

5/1/

2006

6/1/

2006

7/1/

2006

8/1/

2006

9/1/

2006

10/1

/200

6

11/1

/200

6

12/1

/200

6

1/1/

2007

2/1/

2007

3/1/

2007

4/1/

2007

5/1/

2007

6/1/

2007

4. Undergo a Makeover


• Sell next steps to management

– Discuss performance data– Monetize the performance for both time and process– Stress on current systems– Show strengths of current processes– Demonstrate additional improvement requires additional investment



• Connect with organization

– Mission and vision– Marketing strategy and goals– Web/digital strategy and goals



• Connect with organization

– Key is…– planned integration of tactics – accountability– compliance with standards and laws



• Identify champions & stakeholders

• Understand the new organizational processes from the data collected

• Define requirements and look for a solution that aligns with the processes and culture

Comparison of Improved vs. New


Old version focusing on content and getting the messaging effective.

New version building off of tweaks focusing on look and feel.

Font size: 12pt

Font Color: #006983

Photo Size

185w x 94h

Article Photo

137 max w x vary h

Link Image

Valign = Left

Halign = 10

Insert image above text – Title will appear above image

Article Title will auto format using the text in the “Title” Field

Journalist Feature Article

Tool

Font size: 12pt

Font Color: #1F344C

Macros can be used

Side Article Photo Sizes

150w x 94h

Image can be less than 150

Main/Side Articles

Make sure to delete all “<p>” and “</p>” tags in each article to ensure spacing

Font size: 11pt

Font Color: #1F344C

NO BOLD

Main Article Photo

137w x varied h Link image

Image Properties: Valign = left

Side Header

Font size: 14pt

Color: 006983

BOLD

LOGO

Preparing Instructions for Content


Footer

Operates as two columns: “Footer Left” and “Footer Right” ; Footer Left = Arial size 10pt

5. Prepare to Show Results


• Share the results!

• Perform comparison analysis

– show the cost savings

– show the recipient actions

– connect results to organizational goals and the bottom line

Results of the 2-year Study


• Understood how we do business before taking the leap to new system

• Justified recommendations with data and use of current tools

Results of the 2-year Study


A drastic improvement!

Base Improvement Now

Content 2 weeks 8 days 5 days

Broadcast 6 hours 5 hours 6 minutes

Click-through 2.70% 4.30% 22.40%

Open Rate unknown unknown 30.10%

New Performance Results


UNIQUE Click-through Rate

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

Unique Open Rate

Unique Click-throughs

Example Report to Management


Started using the system

in October 2007

Data is now centralized!

The Future


• Focus on email list growth

– opt-in opportunities

– clean up current lists

The Future


• Continuously adjust messages

– review analytics

– perform segmentation analysis

– follow-up with response by behavior

– change mentality of organization

Establish a New Baseline


• Adjust marketing strategy

– learn from the audiences

– take action

– share results with the sales team

Establish a New Baseline


• Be creative with approach– expand functionality and media

– inspect deliverability

Tell’em what you told’em


• Understand your own methods

• Understand your audience needs

• Maximize current processes & tools

• Sell next steps to management

• Demonstrate success & the future

Thank You!

Taking Your

Email Marketing Pulse:

Organization Readiness

Questions and Discussion


email marketing - the 2-year story

Business

vision marketing strategy

youremail marketing

audience enews

codebase base

improvement base

audience value

baseline performance

text email