email toolkit

Communication

Matters:

Insurance Institute

Email Toolkit

V 1.0February 2014

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Communication Matters: Insurance Institute Email Toolkit

A Four Fast Facts About Our Email Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

B The Big Picture: How Email Fits Our Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

C Excellence in Email Execution: Core Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Parts of An Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

D Setting Up for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1: Make Your Email Deliverable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4

2: Clarity is Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4

3: Action! What do you want the recipient to do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5

4: Permission & Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6

5: The Power of Personalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6

6: Understand Member Preferences and Send Relevant Emails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7

7: The Preference Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

E Regulations: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

F Email Operations at the Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Email Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Email Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

What Do I Do When . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

G Branding & Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Message Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Insurance Institute Template Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

H The Importance of Subject Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

How to Write an Effective Subject Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Subject Line Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Tips for Great Subject Lines with Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

I Working with Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Tips and Best Practices for Images in Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

J Email Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

K Best Practice Email Scenaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

» Seminar Promotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

» Promoting Social Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

L Email Success Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

M Bringing it All Together: Best Practices in the real world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

N Email Marketing Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

2

Section A

Four Fast Facts

About Our Email

Program

Section A Four Fast Facts About Our Email Program

4

Four Fast Facts About Our Email Program

1. Email can be the most effective and efficient tool for developing loyal active and engaged subscribers

Through email, you have the ability to send members relevant, valuable and timely marketing communications and offers.

By continuously providing members with information in their inbox that is tailored to their needs, wants, and interests, email is a powerful medium for building loyal, and long-term relationships.

2. Email is data-driven

The Insurance Institute email system is integrated tightly with Aptify to allow us to connect to our own member data.

Metrics built into our Insurance Institute email system allow us to immediately see if our communication was relevant and effective.

3. Email supports each stage of a members’ journey with the Institute

We can send messages to welcome our members, to inform them about courses, and to help further their skills development. Our messages provide details about certification, career advancement and staying connected with the p&c insurance industry. Email is vital to our engagement with members.

4. Email is cost-effective compared to print communication

Email provides a contained workflow where the individual can be both author and publisher and efficiently control each stage in the email development and deployment. To contrast, a brochure requires content development, design, approval, translation, printing and distribution.

Section Title Section Sub Title

5

Section B

The Big Picture:

How Email Fits

Our Strategy

Section B The Big Picture: How Email Fits Our Strategy

6

The Big Picture:

How Email Fits Our Strategy

Email is a crucial channel for the Institute as we work to modernize our communications infrastructure. As seen in the diagram below, traditionally the Institute has pushed messages in a “one-way” model, which is institute-centric.

one way

Traditional

Newsletter

Brochure

Advertising

two way

Digital

Email

Web/Internet

Digital Content

ongoing

Social

Social Network Sites

Blog

Wiki

The new Insurance Institute website provides us with an opportunity to better adapt to our audiences wanting information on their own terms (where the individual can pull information as they require it). We have moved toward an approach to digital content assets that can be accessed on-demand by our audiences. This audience-centric model for communication is also the foundation for our approach to email. It is a permission medium and the subscriber has the power to decide what messages they want to receive.

Finally, we have the ongoing dialogue that comes from our social media executions. From YouTube to Twitter and LinkedIn, we are ready to engage in an ongoing dialogue with our audiences via social network tools.

When planning our digital strategy, we set a number of objectives. Email, working in concert with the website and social media is a critical component in achieving our objectives to:

products

7

As seen in the diagram above, our digital channels are structured in a hub and spoke model (like a bicycle wheel) – where InsuranceInstitute.ca is the hub. It is our most important digital property because we have the most control over the user experience. It is where our audience converts – from visitor to member, or member to event registrant. This is the model at the root of our digital strategy; Email as you can see in the diagram, is the crucial connector and channel to reach our audience.

The Insurance Institute email system (and our digital strategy as a whole) has been developed to meet the needs of our communities and local institutes and chapters who use email to promote events, courses and seminars. We appreciate that most of the interactions a member has with the

connection.

Section B The Big Picture: How Email Fits Our Strategy


8

Section C

Excellence in

Email Execution:

Core Principles

9

Before data is pulled from Aptify and before we start working with the email software to produce and distribute our message (and even before we start writing), we begin with these three core principles1 :

1. Serve the individual.

2. Respect their unique preferences with regard to communication (content, frequency and

channels).

3. Deliver them timely, relevant information that improves their member experience.

1 Adapted from http://help.exacttarget.com/en/documentation/exacttarget/resources/best_practices/

Excellence in Email Execution:

Core Principles

Section CExcellence in Email Execution: Core Principles

10

Parts of An Email

CTA (text)

CTA (button)

Social Media Links

Pre-header

From Address

Email Body

From Name

Header

Footer

Subject Line

Pre-header

view in inbox


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‘‘From” Name and “from” address

The recipient wants to know who is sending him an email. There are two elements: the “from” name that displays a name as used in normal world (e.g. John Doe or Insurance Institute of PEI) and the “from” address (e.g. [email protected]). These elements can both be configured when sending an email and can be set on an email-by-email basis.

Subject line

The subject line indicates what the email message is about. The subject line is displayed next to the “from” name and is the second thing the recipient sees. The subject line has a huge influence on whether a recipient opens an email or not and therefore is one of the most tested elements of email marketing.

Pre-header or snippet

The pre-header is the first text found in the email message. This pre-header is shown after the subject line in some email software and in inboxes on mobile phones. It acts as an extension to the subject line. The pre-header is built into the IIC templates and is fully modifiable.

Envelope

Together the “from” name, subject line and pre-header form the envelope of an email marketing message. If the envelope is attractive your email stands a bigger chance to get opened, read and acted upon.

Header

The top part of the email message is typically called the header. Extra care should be taken to include recognizable elements like a Logo and the color scheme of the sender, because the header is the first thing a reader will see of the actual email. The header is also displayed in the preview pane, making it extra important to make it both recognizable and enticing.

Email Body

The body is “the meat” of the email message. The body is where the magic should happen, taking the reader from initial interest to reading and action.

Offer

Each sales-driven email should contain one or more offers. Offers can include your product, service, content or other desired action (like filling a questionnaire) presented in such a way it encourages action. An offer can be spiced up when including a deal or special discount. The fit and attractiveness of the offer have a huge impact on the results of your email message.

Images

Images are used to strengthen or even convey the main message of the email. Some email clients however, do not display images by default. This means smart email marketers should craft their messages to also render well when images are off.



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Call to action (CTA)

No email is complete without a compelling Call to Action. The Call to Action (CTA) tells the recipient what action they are expected to do. The CTA is often a text link or button that directs the recipient to “read more”, “click here” or “register now”.

Footer

The footer is the bottom part of the email. It typically includes the unsubscribe link, links to the preference centre and a disclaimer text.

Social media links and call outs

If your Institute is active on social networks, links to your social media profiles could be a part of the anatomy of your effective email message. There are different kinds of social links. You could use a button or icon to link directly to your Institute social media pages, or direct them to the web hub page for social media.


13

Section D

Setting Up for

Success

Section DSetting Up for Success

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Given the importance of email as a channel for member communications, we must set up our executions for success. Therefore it is key to make your email messages:

1. Deliverable

2. Clear

3. Actionable

4. Permission-Based

5. Personal

6. Relevant

7. Measurable

1: Make Your Email Deliverable

What is deliverability? Deliverability concerns all the techniques used to ensure that email messages end up in the inboxes of your recipients, rather than in their spam folder. Its main goal is to improve the success of sending emails and reach the recipients inbox while its end goal is to avoid being blocked, labeled as spam, or both. Deliverability of email messages is dependent on various factors:

Sender’s IP address reputation. Each sender has a unique internet address (IP). If enough people mark emails from the Institute as Spam, our overall deliverability will suffer because email systems will flag our IP as a spammer and our messages won’t reach the inboxes of our subscribers.

Quality of database. Since Aptify is our primary database we can have confidence in our data. Rented or purchased lists can be of poor quality because they could have dormant addresses or contain name of individuals who believe they didn’t grant permission to be contacted. This is a risk because the recipients can mark messages as spam.

Message design, structure and content – optimized messages stand a better chance of being delivered to the inbox.

Message frequency and relevance – send email too frequently or messages that don’t appeal to the recipient and you risk being marked as a spam, deleted or unsubscribed.

2: Clarity is Key

Email must be clear in purpose and message.

We know our members. They deal with massive amounts of information on a daily basis. In fact,

Setting Up for Success


15

Studies of office workers who use computers reveal that they constantly stop what they’re doing to read and respond to incoming e-mails. It’s not unusual for them to glance at their inbox 30-40 times an hour (though when asked how frequently they look, they’ll give an much lower figure).2

In 2009, it was estimated that the average corporate worker spends more than 40% of his or her day sending and receiving some 200 messages3.

We also know from behavioral studies that people scan online information constantly and only read what catches their eye (literally). It is easy to ignore an email message and with a simple key stroke a recipient can delete or mark a message as spam.

The Institute competes amongst hundreds of messages in our recipients’ inboxes. Our messages must be clear in purpose and optimized to cut through the noise.

3: Action! What do you want the recipient to do?

Why are you sending an email message? Chances are you want the member to do something. Within the world of email marketing, there is a quick acronym to help us remember that each message should be actionable: Call To Action (or CTA for short).

A CTA is a banner, button, or some type of graphic or text in an email meant to prompt a user to click it.

There are all kinds of CTAs:

Register

Sign up

Join

Download

Follow

Click

Read

Enter

Share

Comment

It is best practice to repeat your CTA, and include multiple formats such as a text version and a button version. Sometimes the button can look like a graphic but it is actually a non-image based button so that if the email reader has images off, they can still see the CTA.

2 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327590ijhc2103_3#.Um5SziS-O98

3 http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Addressing_Info_Overload.pdf


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4: Permission & Respect

A key concept in email marketing is Permission. Noted author and marketer, Seth Godin who coined the phrase permission marketing explains it best:

Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.

It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.

Pay attention is a key phrase here, because permission marketers understand that when someone chooses to pay attention they are actually paying you with something precious. And there’s no way they can get their attention back if they change their mind. Attention becomes an important asset, something to be valued, not wasted.

Real permission is different from presumed or legalistic permission. Just because you somehow get my email address doesn’t mean you have permission. Just because I don’t complain doesn’t mean you have permission. Just because it’s in the fine print of your privacy policy doesn’t mean it’s permission either.

Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went.4

Lack of trust is the number one inhibitor to growing authentic, connected relationships. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, consumers cited “quality products and services” as the top standard of trust in 2006; by 2010, 83% of consumers named “transparent and honest practices” as the most important element to establishing brand trust (AdAge, 2012).5

Every time we send an email message to promote an event or provide information, we are honoring a commitment to respect our recipients and we show that respect by ensuring that the message aligns to their permission and preferences.

5: The Power of Personalization

Our email system sends out messages to many recipients at once, but we do have the chance to personalize how that message is delivered, and it makes a difference. Below is a list of personalization fields available in our system:

Person ID (Membership #)

First Name

Last Name

Designation

Company

4 http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-mark.html

5 http://www.business2community.com/social-data/increase-trust-transparency-permission-based-data-access-0648583#tCdlU

3OKWsQAyUmt.99


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E-mail Address (Email 1)6

Organization (Chapter) Institute

In the industry, smart marketers are personalizing their communication based on a prospect’s interests—using behavioral data and a whole new generation of online personalization technology. There’s another concept underpinning personalization, and that is the value exchange.

There are different kinds of value exchange when it comes to people and their relationships with organizations like the Insurance Institute:

1. The trading of money for goods or services.

2. The consumer sharing information in return for a reward.

3. The promise and delivery of a better consumer experience.

For our email to be effective, we must consider the value exchange. When our communication becomes too one-sided is when we see our members unsubscribe.

Tip: Watch your own inbox to see personalization in action from large retailers and e-commerce companies.

6: Understand Member Preferences

The Institute uses online preference centres to manage permissions and preferences for Members, Graduates and Non-Members. The preference centre is a key tool to ensure the Institute remains in compliance with Canada’s anti-spam legislation (discussed in detail in the next section).

When members set their preferences (permission for the Institute to email them) that information is ported into the Aptify database so that that individual will be included (or excluded) from any specific mailing or list that’s pulled for a given purpose.

7: The Preference Centre

In order to remain compliant with privacy laws within Canada, it is important that we allow our members and other customers a means of “opting out” of our e-mail services. To manage these preferences, a “preference centre” has been created. Should you create a communication that does

Privacy Officer to discuss. The preference centre is essentially a webpage (with a mirror tab in Aptify) that tracks the preferences for each of our members and others.

6 The Career Connections team regularly uses the Email4 field. This will be accounted for using advanced SQL on the Aptify side. The

CC team will be trained to alter their views to pull Email4 in place of Email1.


18

What Does the Customer See?

The customer is able to visit the preference centre either through a) clicking “manage my preferences” or “unsubscribe” at the bottom of an e-mail sent from HighRoad, or b) by selecting a link from their profile on the website.

When they get to the preference centre, they will see options that are based on their persons record in Aptify. There are four different options - paid graduates, paid members, careerconnections contacts and general.

Paid Member*


19

Paid Graduate*


20

General*

*Note: For all three options, only those individuals with a “Career Connections” tag on their persons record will see the “Career Connections Communications” checkbox

How It Works

When an individual selects (or de-selects) a box, that change will be reflected in Aptify (on the updated Communications tab). As the system pulls the views (which have been built to look for these preferences), individuals who have opted in will now be included in the distribution list and vice versa.


21

Manually Updating User Preferences

As mentioned, the Communications tab in Aptify now mimics the preference centre as it appears

any user can select (or de-select) the desired option within Aptify. This change will then also be reflected on the web-based preference centre, if the member were to log in.

Managing your Opt-Outs

You may wish to monitor your opt-outs, especially after an e-blast, to ensure that people are finding value in your communications.

Please note: It is important that individuals who opt out are not contacted again, as this is in violation of the privacy legislation.


22

Section E

Regulations:

Canadian

Anti-Spam

Legislation (CASL)

Section ERegulations: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

23

Email in Canada is governed by legislation to combat spam. The legislation is intended to deter the most damaging and deceptive forms of spam but it also covers how organizations (Insurance Institute included) send what the statute defines as “commercial electronic messages” or CEM.

What is a commercial electronic message?

A commercial electronic message is any electronic message that encourages participation in a commercial activity, regardless of whether there is an expectation of profit.

What are the general requirements concerning the sending of commercial electronic messages for which the CRTC is responsible?

Generally, the sender will need to obtain consent from the recipient before sending the message and will need to include information that identifies the sender and enables the recipient to withdraw consent.7

So there we have it. We need to first obtain permission and allow users to unsubscribe to email in order to comply with CASL.

CASL not only affects email distribution but other forms of electronic messaging such as social media and texting, so please do not use group messaging in social media channels without consulting the Institute’s privacy officer or your regional director.

Tip: Visit to learn more.

At the Institute, the Privacy Officer ( Director, Business Development & Communications ) has the overall responsibility to ensure our members privacy is respected and privacy laws are adhered to. Local Institutes and other communities that issue email must comply as well.

In following CASL, recipients of CEM must have indicated consent. Consent may be “implied” or “express”. As we have had a long standing relationship with our members ( those over two years ), the majority of our email contacts have resulted in implied consent.

The preference centre shows the information the recipient receives by email. They can unsubscribe from non-essential communications at any time, though of course we hope your communications are well targeted and well thought out so that they are relevant and therefore one would not unsubscribe. New members sign up will be reviewed so that we may possibly receive express consent at the onset of their relationship with IIC.

7 http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/00221.html

Regulations: Canadian Anti-Spam

Legislation (CASL)

24

Institute communication has been divided into “essential” and “non-essential” communications. Essential means that it is information that members receive and it is critical to our bylaws. ( notification of the Annual General Meeting in newsletters for example ).

Non-essential communications is information that is deemed a “Commercial Electronic Message”

Section ERegulations: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)


25

Section F

Email Operations

at the Institute

Section FEmail Operations at the Institute

26

For effective electronic communications, simply sending emails is not enough. As we continue to move forward in our efforts to deliver an excellent customer experience, the tools we use to communicate are becoming increasingly important. While we have been using e-mail to communicate with our members for a long time, the implementation of the new HighRoad e-mailing system gives us the opportunity to evaluate our current process and to implement some standardized procedures across the organization to ensure consistency and, above all, a positive customer experience. Email marketing is at the core of digital marketing and enhances the Institute’s use of other digital media such as our website and the use of social media. Email is the connector.

Privacy and Mailing Lists at the Institute

Mailing lists are the property of the “business” not of an individual. The information within the list may not be used for non Institute purposes, and may not be shared with non Institute staff, or any third party. Volunteers, including instructors, should not have access to any mailing list unless those contributing their information to the list are apprised of the use. When mailing information it is generally addressed to one recipient, other recipient addresses should not be visible.

The Institute does not sell or rent its lists. Out-of-house mailing lists may be purchased for one time use to help augment your own contact list. There are many companies that rent or sell lists that target specific businesses, demographics or geographies. Should you choose to explore this option to grow your membership, you should discuss with the Business Development & Communications team in advance to ensure privacy laws and anti-spam are adhered to as well as ensuring your marketing effort results in more contacts.

Email Operations at the Institute

27Section FEmail Operations at the Institute

Email Workflow

The following are the high-level steps necessary when distributing an e-mail communication. Detailed information about each step can be found in the subsequent sections of this document.

Choosing Your Audience (Distribution Lists)

It is important to ensure that you are targeting your email to the correct audience. The HighRoad system connects with Aptify to allow you to build a distribution list that meets your needs (or use one that has already been created).

Pre-Defined Views

A set of views have been pre-defined and created within the HighRoad system. These segments are as follows:

Determine Your Audience – Determine who needs to hear your message and your call to action. Then you will need to build

a view within Aptify (or use an existing view) to capture these customers.

Determine Your Timing - In consultation with the communications calendar, ensure that you know what other

communications the audience of your e-mail are receiving.

Determine Your Template - After you know who needs to hear the message, you will need to determine what

template best suits your needs. Templates are illustrated in this document.

Create Your Message - Once you have built your view and determined your template, you can log in to the

HighRoad system and build your message.

Send a Test Message - Once your message is ready to go, send a test message to yourself and

perhaps to a colleague to ensure that you have not missed anything. Read about A/B split testing in

the toolkit and consider using this for larger mailings

Send Your Message - After you have sent, and reviewed, your test message, you are ready to

Review Your Data – After sending your message, it is important to do some

analysis and manage your bouncebacks.

28Section FEmail Operations at the Institute

Tip: Views are pulled over to the HighRoad system on a nightly basis, so it is important that when you create, or change, a view you do so the day before you need to use that list.

These views are available for use by anyone using the HighRoad system. The views have been built for those communications that are indicated as “essential.”

Customized Views

If the views above do not meet your needs, any user has the capability to create a view within Aptify and have this view pulled into the HighRoad system. For more information about how to do this (please reference the HighRoad training documentation).

Email Scheduling

This schedule represents the current schedule of email-based communications at the Institute. When sending out an email communication, it is important to ensure that you consider the othercommunications being received by your target audience.

Timing Item Name Author Distributor Frequency

DAILY

Daily *1ADVANTAGE

DailyCIP Society CIP Society Daily

WEEKLY

Monday *2ADVANTAGE

HebdomadaireCIP Society CIP Society Weekly

Tuesdays/

Wednesdays *3

CC Career

OpportunitiesCareer Connections Career Connections Weekly

Thursday *4 IIO E-Blast IIO IIO Weekly

MONTHLY

First of

the month

ADVANTAGE LIVE

National Webinar

Series Promotion

CIP Society CIP Society Monthly

ANNUALLY

- IIBC Newsletter IIBC IIBC Annually

As neededRegistration

Reminder [Regional]Programs Programs Annually


29


QUARTER 1:

JANUARY - MARCH

January

National Education

WeekBD&C Annually

Winter/Spring Schedule

for Professional

Development Programs

Programs Programs Bi-Annually

ADVANTAGE LIVE

National Webinar

Series Promotion

CIP Society CIP Society Monthly

March

Institute Quarterly Programs BD&C Quarterly

IIO Newsletter GTA GTA Quarterly

IIO Newsletter SW SW Tri-Annually

IIO Newsletter OT OT Tri-Annually

IIO Newsletter CN CN Tri-Annually

IIO Newsletter HN HN Tri-Annually

IISK Newsletter IISK IISK Tri-Annually

IADQ Newsletter IADQ IADQ Tri-Annually

Winter/Spring Schedule

for Professional



IISK Newsletter IISK IISK Tri-Annually

IIMB Newsletter IIMB IIMB Quarterly

IINS Newsletter IINS IINS Quarterly

QUARTER 2:

APRIL - JUNE

April

[As needed]

Customer Service

SurveyMember Services Member Services Annually

May

Membership Drive -

First Notice [Part 1]Member Services Member Services Annually

FCIP - Send out

“apply now” E-blastBD&C BD&C Annually

June

FCIP – Send out second

“apply now” E-blast,

if necessary

BD&C BD&C Annually


FCIP Registration

(CIP Students)BD&C Bi-Annually


30


June

Membership Drive -

First Notice [Part 2]Member Services Member Services Annually

Fall Schedule

for Professional





QUARTER 3:

JULY - SEPTEMBER

July

Membership Drive -

Second Notice [Part 1]Member Services Member Services Annually

GTA Newsletter GTA GTA Quarterly

August

FCIP – Original track

reminder to registered

students

BD&C BD&C Annually


August

FCIP Original Track

ReminderBD&C BD&C Annually

Membership Drive -

Second Notice [Part 2]Member Services Member Services Annually






Customer Service

Survey [As needed]Member Services Member Services Annually

September

Fall Schedule

for Professional



FCIP – “Apply now”

E-blastBD&C BD&C Annually

NICC Conference Notice CIP Society CIP Society Annually




31


QUARTER 4:

OCTOBER – DECEMBER

OctoberFCIP Registration

(CIP Students)BD&C BD&C Bi-Annually

NovemberInstitute Quarterly Programs BD&C Quarterly

CIP Society Survey CIP Society CIP Society Annually

December








*1 – Sent out on every business day for the entire year*2 – Sent out on a weekly basis every Monday for the entire year*3 – Sent out on a weekly basis every Tuesday/Wednesday for the entire year*4 – Sent out on a weekly basis every Thursday for the entire year

What do I do When…

…the template I need doesn’t exist?

The templates created as part of this project have been designed to meet the current needs of the business. If you see a gap (that is a message you are consistently sending out that has no template), please follow the necessary steps to have a new template created.

…the list I want to use isn’t from Aptify?

Aptify serves as our central database across the organization. Having one source for customer information is important to ensure that we are using the most up-to-date information and that we are complying with the customer’s preferences (especially now given the new preference centre).

If you have a list of customers you wish to email and these individuals are not in Aptify, you may wish to consider adding them to the database. If they are people you wish to communicate with frequently, then it makes sense that they are included in our system. If, however, your e-mail is more of a “one-off” to a set of individuals we may not wish to speak to again, you may consider using Outlook or Aptify for your e-mail message, instead of the HighRoad tool.

…I am only sending an email to a few people?

The HighRoad tool is meant for mass e-mail communications. That is, email communication to a large group of individuals. It is up to your discretion what you deem a “large group,” but HighRoad

32

should in no way replace Outlook as your regular e-mailing tool. If you are sending out, as an example, a meeting agenda to your council for an upcoming meeting, this should continue to go through your Institute Outlook account.

…I don’t know how to do something in HighRoad?

The training specialist is available as your first point of contact should you be unclear about how to complete a step in the HighRoad system. Training documentation will be made available, and onboarding training sessions will occur to ensure that you have the tools you need to succeed in using the new e-mail system. For additional questions, the training specialist can be reached by submitting an on-line ticket to the Service Desk under the “How Do I…” section.

…something isn’t working with HighRoad?

If there is an error of a technical nature within HighRoad (i.e. you are unable to login), a ticket should be logged on the Service Desk to be dealt with by the IT team.

…I need a new view/distribution list?

If you are unsure about how to pull the individuals you need for a given distribution list (i.e. how to build the appropriate view in Aptify), please contact the Training Consultant for assistance. Please note, there is also a virtual training session on creating views available on myInstitute for your reference.



33

Section G

Branding &

Consistency

Section GBranding & Consistency

34

At the Institute, we are consistent with email communications so that our:

Recipients trust and recognize you

Chances are increased that your email will get read and not marked as spam

Communications have the desired impact.

We have brand standards, guidelines and fonts that form the visual identity of the Institute’s brand. Our Email system contains templates that have been developed to our brand standard.

To learn more about the Insurance Institute brand, please check out the IIC Brand Toolkit Guidelines and Fonts on MyInstitute under Business Development and Communications.

Message Templates

It is highly advised that when using the new HighRoad system, users work within a pre-created template to send out their messages. These templates ensure brand consistency and professionalism for all of our e-mail communications from the Institute.

Current Templates

As a part of the HighRoad integration project, a series of message templates were created to meet the majority of the communication needs for the Institute. The templates are listed below, as well as a quick note about their intended use.

Institute Quarterly TemplateThis template is only used by the BD&C team quarterly to distribute the Institute Quarterly (IQ) newsletter to all members.

CIP Advantage Daily TemplateThis template is only used by the CIP Society team when sending out the daily ADVANTAGE Daily e-blast to all CIP Society members.

Local Institute Periodic E-blast (Option A) Template

information about upcoming seminars, news and other opportunities on a periodic basis to

not require as much space.

Local Institute Periodic E-blast (Option B) Template

information about upcoming seminars, news and other opportunities on a periodic basis to their membership. The Option B template is for locals with more information who require more space.

Branding & Consistency


35

Event/Seminar/Course Listing TemplateThis template is used by a local Chapter or Institute to provide a list of upcoming events, seminars or courses. It is important to note that this template corresponds with three different items on the preference centre, which will be important to remember when pulling your distribution list when using this template.

Targeted Event/Seminar TemplateThis template is used by a local Chapter or Institute to highlight a specific event or seminar. Again, it is important to note that this template corresponds with three different items on the preference centre, which will be important to remember when pulling your distribution list when using this template.

Survey TemplateThis template is used by any department or team wishing to send out a survey. This could be

Academic-Related Communications Template

(related to courses and other academic items) to members. Examples include: release of tax receipts, change of exam center, grades release and class cancelation notifications.

Membership Renewal Notice TemplateThis template is used by the member services team as part of the annual membership drive, to encourage members to renew their membership. This is only sent out to those on individual bill.

Career Opportunities TemplateThis template is used by the Professionals’ Division team to send out a list of highlighted career opportunities within the industry to our membership. These opportunities will be culled from our job site.

Using the Template

As you are creating your message, you will be able to select the template that meets your needs (see training materials for more details). Each template allows the user to manipulate the template

Requesting a New Template

Given that all of the existing templates were developed within the boundaries of the e-mail project, there may be a time when the existing templates do not meet your needs. If this is the case, it will be important to understand if a new template is required or if you are sending out a “one-off” type of e-mail that can go out without the development of a new template.

If, indeed, a new template is required, a formal request must be submitted to your director or VP.

multiple requests for the same template aren’t being made to the graphics department.

Changes to an Existing Template

If you are finding issues using an existing template, this concern or change request should be


36

need to submit a graphics request to the graphics team indicating the change required, the affected

Please note, given the nature of these requests (i.e. there should be no URGENT changes required as all of the templates are flexible enough to meet immediate needs), that requests of this nature will be dealt with in sequence and graphics will be unable to facilitate immediate turnaround.


37

Insurance Institute Template Gallery

This section illustrates which documents are considered “essential” and therefore members are not able to opt out of them. Other documents are considered “non-essential” and are considered commercial electronic messages so must be opt out for existing members and opt in for new members. New communications not listed here will need to be “opt in” structure.

Each of these templates is designed for both computers and mobile devices.

Legend:

Career Connections CommunicationsProviding periodic updates on Career Connections activities and invitations to events and presentations related to promoting careers in insurance.

Career-Related CommunicationsProviding information, resources and tools – including job postings – as you explore career options and opportunities.

Networking EventsConnect with leading industry profession-als at social and sporting events such as golf, curling, softball, speakers’ events or wine & cheese celebrations.

Academic-Related

Comm. Template

Surveys Template

Career-Related

Comm. Template

Event Listing/Targeted

Promotion Templates


Promotion Templates


Promotion Templates

“Essential”

Communications

“Non-Essential”

Communications

Your annual reminder to renew your membership with us.

Providing graduates with a daily dose of industry news from across Canada and around the world.

IQ Template

Advantage Daily

Template

Membership Renewal

Notice Template

Not sent by email so

no template

No Template

No Template

No Template

Periodic Templates

IQ Template Academic-Related Surveys Template Communication Template

Membership Renewal Notice Template

“Essential”

Communications


38

INVOICE

Hello Kristi, it’s time to renew your membership!

Payment Due By: June 29, 2014

Local Institute Membership: $00.00 + Taxes: $0.00

Membership Year: June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2014

Insurance Institute of Nova ScotiaGST Number:

Member Details:First Name, SurnameOrganizationAddress 1Address 2City, Province, Postal Code

Member ID: 00000-25-0225

The Insurance Institute offers unparalleled programs, seminars and networking opportunities for our members. Renew today and see for yourself why our 39,000+ members are among the world’s leading insurance professionals.

We make renewing your membership easy:

Total Amount Due: $00.00

RENEW ONLINE

RENEW ONLINE (VISA / AMEX / MasterCard)Simply click here to sign into your member account and process the renewal.

RENEW BY PHONE (VISA / AMEX / MasterCard)Call 1-866-362-8585 and speak to an Institute member services associate.

RENEW BY MAIL (Cheque / Money Order)Attach your cheque or money order to this invoice, payable to Insurance Institutes and mail to the address below.

INSURANCE INSTITUTE

Member Services18 King Street East, 6th FloorToronto, ON M5C 1C4

© 2013 INSURANCE INSTITUTE OF CANADA ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDPRIVACY POLICY

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Institute Update:classes rescheduled due to bad weather

CIP & FCIP INSURANCE EDUCATION CIP SOCIETY RESOURCES ABOUT THE INSTITUTE INSTITUTES & CHAPTERS

INSURANCE INSTITUTE

[email protected]

STAY IN TOUCH

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Students, you can now check your exam grades online




A friendly reminder, it’s time to renew your membership

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INSURANCE INSTITUTE18 King Street East, 6th Floor, Toronto, ON M5C 1C4

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TAKE SURVEY NOW

We’d like to know what you think.

CIP & FCIP INSURANCE EDUCATION CIP SOCIETY RESOURCES ABOUT THE INSTITUTE INSTITUTES & CHAPTERS

INSURANCE INSTITUTE

[email protected]

STAY IN TOUCH

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Have you interacted with the Insurance Institute in the past year? If so, we’d love to know what your experience was like

We would greatly appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete our Member Experience Survey. For you, our members, it’s a great opportunity to pass on your feedback about your recent service experiences, and it provides us with invaluable information in our efforts to continuously improve the service we provide to you.

Complete this survey by Wednesday, July 31, and your name will be entered into a draw to win an Apple iPad, a $100 voucher to Best Buy or a $50 voucher to Chapters Indigo.

Advantage Daily Periodic Templates Career-Related Template Communication Template

Targeted Event Promotion Event Listing Template

Having trouble viewing this email? View online

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Dynamic risk management needed to address mining's threat landscape: WillisGlobal insurance broker Willis Group Holdings plc advises that more dynamic risk management will be necessary to answer an..

Industry could see more M&A activity this year, outlook report saysThe Canadian insurance industry could see more merger and acquisi-tion activity in 2013, in part because of continuing low investment..

Marine risk experts invited to bid on federal hazardous The federal government announced Monday it is looking for a contractor with expertise in marine..

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NYS proposal seeks to buy storm-wrecked homes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to spend up to $400 million to buy and demolish homes wrecked..

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$109 million personal-injury award in Western Pennsylvania offers insight into tort systemWhen Carrie Goretzka's two young girls ran out onto the porch of their suburban home 30 miles east of Pittsburgh in the late..

Takaful puts pressure on local markets Because Takaful companies are competing for the same market as conventional insurers, with much the same product offering, local..

Beyonce did not cause Superdome's Super Bowl blackoutBeyonce' s high-powered halftime show did not cause the 33- minute power outage in the third quarter of Sunday's Super Bowl, NFL..

NEW TRENDS PAPER - CLASS ACTIONS

Each month, the CIP Society brings you an in-depth analysis of an emerging trend or issue with an addition to the Advantage Monthly Hot Topics Library. Since March 2007, the CIP Society has explored over 40 different topics, including cybercrime and cyberrisk, nano-technology, flood insurance and cloud computing.

Two new papers are now available, giving you both a look back and a look ahead in respect to important events and devlopments in the P&C insurance industry: 2012 Year in Review and Trends to Watch in 2013.

The entire back catalogue of trends papers is available after the login in the Hot Topics Library.

NEW! CIP SOCIETY PROEDGE SEMINAR SERIES: DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

To coincide with the publication of the Insurance Institute's latest demographic research report, A Demographic Analysis of the P&C Insurance Industry in Canada 2012 - 2022, the CIP Society is pleased to host a series of seminars across the country featuring Richard Loreto, President of R.A.L. Consulting, and author of the research report.

Locations and dates:

IIO- GTA - Wednesday, February 13, 2013 IIO- Ottawa - Thursday, February 14, 2013 IIO- Conestoga - Thursday, February 21, 2013 IINA- Edmonton - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 IISA- Calgary - Thursday, March 7, 2013 IIBC- Vancouver - Friday, March 8, 2013 IINS- Halifax - Wednesday, March 13, 2013 IIM- Winnipeg - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 IIS- Regina - Wednesday, March 27, 2013 IADQ- Montreal - Thursday, April 18, 2013

NEW! CIP Society PROEdge Seminar Series: Demographic ResearchTo coincide with the publication of the Insurance Institute's latest demographic research report..

More from CIP Society

Set The Stage:National Leadership AwardsRecognizing leadership in the industry across Canada.

Learn more

TODAY’S DAILY PULSEAT A GLANCE

CANADIAN HEADLINES FROMCANADIAN UNDERWRITER

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES FROMADVISEN FPN

NEWS FROMCIP SOCIETY


REGISTER

The Institute's Job Site, as part of the Career Connections program, is your direct link to searching and posting jobs in the industry. As the source for Institute graduates, the job site is an excellent tool to search for jobs, post your resume and manage a full career search. As a recruitment tool for companies, the job site is an excellent source to post jobs for CIPs and FCIPs and search for new recruits from a roster of resumes.

LEARN MORE

CAREER CONNECTIONS

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM

In 2010, the Insurance Institute of Canada launched what is now referred to as the Management Development curriculum. HOWEVER, if you thought the Management Development curriculum was only for managers, think again! This curriculum offers practical, relevant, skill building courses designed for managers AND individual career professionals. Register early to avoid disappointment!

REGISTER

FEBRUARY 7 | TORONTOPROedge Seminar: Class Action Lawsuits

FEBRUARY 13 | TORONTOPROedge Seminar: Demographic Analysis of the P&C Industry 2012-2022

FEBRUARY 14 | OTTAWAPROedge Seminar: Demographic Analysis of the P&C Industry 2012-2022

FEBRUARY 21 | KITCHENERPROedge Seminar: Demographic Analysis of the P&C Industry 2012-2022

FEBRUARY 25 | REGINAPROedge Seminar: Credit Scoring Lunch & Learn with Andrew Cartmell

FEBRUARY 26 | SASKATOONPROedge Seminar: Credit Scoring Lunch & Learn with Andrew Cartmell

FEBRUARY 28 | OTTAWAPROedge Seminar: Class Action Lawsuits

UPCOMINGSEMINARS& WEBINARS

Your local CIP Society presents a variety of seminars and networking events for the benefit of graduates.

UPCOMINGEVENTSFEBRUARY 12 | TORONTOGTA Annual Fellows Reception

FEBRUARY 21 | OTTAWACIP Society Pool Party

FEBRUARY 21 | VANCOUVERBattle of the Insurance Bands

FEBRUARY 22 | LONDONCIP Society Volleyball Tournament

CANADIANHEADLINES

INTERNATIONALHEADLINES


39

“Non-Essential”

Communications


40

Section H

The Importance

of Subject Lines

Section HThe Importance of Subject Lines

41

Subject lines are the most important factor related to whether your email gets opened. Their effectiveness is tracked and measured as the Open Rate. Email subject lines are the gatekeepers of your email communications:

35% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone

69% of email recipients report email as spam based on subject line alone8

After putting hours into preparing an email distribution, make sure you consider the subject line or your effort will go to waste!

How to Write an Effective Subject Line

Be specific and unique

Tell (don’t sell) what’s inside (make the recipient curious)

Localize by including a city name, where applicable

Keep it short: 50 characters or less works best (test with your recipients)

Tip: while it’s important to establish continuity and branding, repeating the same subject line leads to a drop in open rates. For example “Our Spring Newsletter” is likely not going to encourage curiosity. Find a way to indicate what’s inside the message that would be interesting to the recipient.

Subject Line Testing

a different subject line to two random sample of recipients. By comparing email open rates of each group, you can quickly tell which subject line performs best.

Testing helps improve the effectiveness of your email messages by using the subject line that leads to the best open rate.

From Name

Message Body

Send Time

8 Jay Baer, Convince and Convert News

The Importance of Subject Lines

Section HThe Importance of Subject Lines

42

A/B Split Testing

1. Choose two different subject lines and send to a random sample of your list (10% get

subject line A, 10% get subject line B).

2. Wait for the results of the test (typically at least 24 hours) and see which subject line has

the higher open-rate.

3. Send the winning subject line to the remaining 80% of your list.

Over time, you can analyze successful subject lines to gain a better understanding of your recipients and what motivates them in terms of: incentive, curiosity, value exchange and newsworthiness.

Tips for Great Subject Lines with Examples

Subject Line Tips Examples

Leverage Localization

Use location details to be personal

and relevant

Convocation is Coming to Calgary!

Moncton’s Hot Ticket: Annual Golf Tournament

Jump in to Ottawa’s Winter Pool Party

Ask it away

Use location details to be personal

and relevant

What’s on your mind in 2014?

All set for exams?

How important is human capital in your firm?

Keep it Short and Sweet

Subject lines of 50 characters or

less perform best

Learn all about Liquor & Host Liability Law (43)

What about ethics in the insurance industry? (45)

Demystify condo insurance once and for all (42)


43

Section I

Working with

Images

Section IWorking with Images

44

In our email system, the BD&C team has uploaded standard and brand images. In addition, our system allows any user to upload their own photo, as they need to be a specific size when using one of the pre-designed and approved templates.

If you require a specific photo for your email message, local Institutes should work with the Institute’s graphics team to get the images sized and then upload it to the system.

The IIC mailing system has an image library uploaded with sized images ready to go and pre-selected. These will be refreshed from time to time.

Tips and Best Practices for Images in Email9

The use of images in newsletters and marketing emails is a hotly debated topic. Designers and traditional marketers want to include a heavy use of visuals and images for both aesthetic and brand purposes. Email marketing specialists want to minimize email images for deliverability and display reasons.

The Truth: Email Images Sell

Images and visuals are absolutely a critical part of marketing your events, seminars, courses, etc. To send an email with no images is both a branding and conversion error. The trick with email is to find a way to use images in a way that will benefit your email’s performance rather than detract from it.

Remember: An Email is Not a Print Mailer or Brochure

Your email template is not a brochure. It does not have the same flexibility of design that a print mailer would. Recipients do not navigate an email communication in the same way that they would a printed communication, both in how they respond to it and in how their eyes track through the design. Finally, email has many other usability factors to consider that a print marketing piece would not. Encouraging clicks, the need to sell recipients on reading the email in less than two seconds within a preview pane, and actual inbox deliverability issues all regulate the use of email images.

You cannot approach designing an email, as you would approach designing a print marketing piece. That means that you may be frustrated that your email can’t “look as good” as a catalog or print mailer. However, at the end of the day, while your email certainly does need to look good, it needs to drive results. In fact, driving results is certainly more important. As you begin designing your email messages, remember that you are not designing a printed piece of marketing collateral. You are designing an electronic mail that has usability limitations.

9 Adapted from: http://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-ebook/email-images.aspx

Working with Images

45

Remember: Not All Email Service Providers Will Display Your Images

One reason that you do not want to rely too heavily on using email images to convey the message within your marketing email is that not all email service providers display images by default in your email. Gmail defaults to turning email images off and relying on users to proactively download images in order to see them. The reality is that many users will not download the images, so if you’re relying on a picture or graphic button to convey an important message within your email template, then more than half of your subscribers may never see that message or request.

Remember: Images Can Send Your Email to the Spam Folder

The use of images can result in your email going to the spam folder. It’s not the use of images exclusively that can land you in the spam folder, but overuse, bad use, and certain other triggers when combined with your overall sender reputation and quality score can mean that emails hit the spam folder instead of the inbox. In fact, if you have started experiencing an inbox deliverability problem, then one of the first steps that you should take is to remove some of the images from your email.

Best Practices for Using Images in Emails

1. Limit the Use of Images in the Top Two Inches of Your Email

In the majority of cases, your subscribers will scan your email for less than two seconds before they decide if they want to bother reading it. Most of that scanning will happen within the email preview pane. The typical email preview pane is horizontally aligned and less than two inches in height. That means that you have approximately two inches of space to convince a subscriber or user to continue reading your email. There’s nothing wrong with using an image within the top two inches of space. In fact, we recommend it because it will have a positive impact and result on users who load email images automatically in their email browser. However, because so many subscribers and users will not automatically, or possibly ever, see the email images, you need to be sure to get compelling text into the top two inches of your email template in order to engage them.

Tip: Use the text-only Pre-Header area to engage people to read on into the email.

2. Don’t Send an Email That Is One Big Image or All Image Files

How many times have you opened an email that a company sent to you, and the entire thing was a blank white screen asking you to download email images? That single image (or a series


46

of smaller images built together using an html table to form a larger image), may be visually amazing. But, the true fact that you need to worry about is that half (or less) of the people who you sent the email to never saw the graphic or message. Not only did the image not load when they opened their email, but also because there was no text in the top two inches of the email to tell them why it was important that they download the image, they never bothered to explore the email at all. If you send an email that is only images, then your email marketing results will be dramatically reduced.

Tip: In the Institute’s Email system, the ability to create a web-hosted version of your graphic email is built into the template.

3. Don’t Trap Important Messages or Calls-to-Action in Email Images

Similar to the reasons for avoiding sending emails that are entirely image files, you’ll want to avoid “trapping” any messages that are critical for your recipients in image files they may never see. For example, on a webpage, using a graphic button to indicate that a user should click to “Buy” or “Read more” is effective. However, in an email template users may not see those graphic buttons and may be confused about where they should click within the email. Links in email templates should always be formatted text links. If you want to use a graphic button to indicate a place to click, you should include a text link.

What’s the basic rule? If it’s something that your recipients absolutely need to know, it needs to be in text, even if that text is in addition to a graphic.

4. Always Provide Alt and Title Text

Alt text is the html-coded text that appears when an image doesn’t load (it’s short for “alternative text”). Title text is the “hover” text that appears when a user passes their mouse over an image.

Why are alt text and title text important to you? As mentioned, at least half of your recipients will not see images in your messages. For those for whom email images don’t load, seeing an alternative piece of text that describes the image means that you have not wasted the space in your email template. You’ve used the space to convey an important message even if the image didn’t load.

Of course, what you write for your title and alt text is equally important. Remember, if the email images don’t load, you are losing one of your most powerful methods for inciting action in your recipients. You’ll want to try to compensate for that with good, strong call-to-action alt and title text.



47

Tip: Use the Alt Text fields when working with images in the Institute’s email system

5. Thirty Percent is a Good Rule

Only use about thirty percent of your available space for images. A good designer can use even less than that and still make email images effective. However thirty percent means that you’ll still have enough images to entice users but you won’t be in danger of either creating spam problems for the Institute or presenting large, blank emails to people who don’t use email images.

6. Do Not Make Image Files Too Large

Finally, avoid making the files too large. This is not only from a space perspective, but large image files can create significant spam and email deliverability issues. Small, compressed, well-formatted images are the key to successful use of images for email marketing. If you’re working with a large image, please save it to 72 dpi which is standard resolution for web use.

Interested in learning more about digital marketing and images? Please review the social media training module: Working with Images for details on sourcing images found in MyInstitute.


48

Section J

Email Check List

Section JEmail Check List

49

Default content is replaced such as dates, pre-headers, alt-tags

Review for:

grammar and style mistakes

clarity

spell-check

correct information

Check the subject line

Check all links, including clicking the image links

Make sure your brand is recognizable in the name and email address

Send a test to yourself

Send a test to email clients (if using a new template or HTML)

Campaign is sent to recipients who are interested in your message

All recipients opted in for this message

Your email complies with the (local) laws

Do the number of subscribers match what you expect? Double check this is the right list

Make sure the list is up-to-date (check the last date it was refreshed)

Make sure to hyperlink the relevant text when adding attachments

Make sure you do not include any sensitive or potentially embarassing information

You may choose to simply delete the errant e-mail addresses from these files or you may choose to follow-up with the individual (if possible) or assess the file to determine the correct address. For assistance in pulling this information from Aptify, please speak with the training consultant.

Email Check List


50

Section K

Best Practices

Email Scenaria

Section KBest Practice Email Scenaria

51

Best Practice Email Scenaria

» Seminar Promotion

Seminar Invitation


52

Seminar Reminder/Last Chance


53

» Promoting Social Events

Curling Event


54

Section L

Email Success

Metrics

[DRAFT]

Section LEmail Success Metrics

55

Email Success Metrics

To assess your email marketing performance, it is important to understand the key metrics.

Here, we’ll cover the most important email metrics to measure include metrics specific to your email campaign.

Email Metrics

Total Opens measures the number of times a given campaign is opened. This is typically achieved via a count of the number of times an invisible pixel is loaded.

Total Open Rate simply takes the total email opens divided by the net delivered emails for the campaign to express a percentage of total email opens.

Unique Opens is similar to Total Email Opens, but here, the measurement aims to count an individual opener only once regardless of the number of times that recipient may have opened the email in total. The goal with this metric is to better understand the number of unique individuals who viewed an email campaign.

Unique Open Rate takes the unique email opens divided by the net delivered emails for the campaign to express a percentage of unique email opens.

Total Clicks aims to measure each click on a link for the campaign. Many times your unsubscribe link (and any other links you choose) is excluded from this measure to help get a picture of engagement with the campaign (rather than the negative result associated with the unsubscribe link).

Total Click-Through Rate (CTR) takes the total clicks divided by the net delivered emails for the campaign to express a percentage of total click-throughs.

Unique Clicks measures how many unique individuals clicked on at least one link within the email.

Unique Click-Through Rate takes the unique clicks divided by the net delivered emails for the campaign to express a percentage of unique click-throughs.

Click-to-Open Rate is gaining in popularity, as it can be done specifically for mobile opens and clicks, allowing for a better gauge of mobile “action.” It measures activity of combined opens and clicks. In other words, the number of individuals who clicked after opening and can be done for both total and unique opens and clicks.

Bounce Rate is the percentage of total emails sent that could not be delivered to the recipient’s inbox, known as a “bounce”.

Delivery Rate is the percentage of emails that were actually delivered to recipients’ inboxes, calculated by subtracting hard and soft bounces from the gross number of emails sent, then dividing that number by gross emails sent.

Section LEmail Success Metrics

56

Unsubscribe Rate is the percentage of delivered email messages that generate unsubscribe

don’t want to receive your messages don’t go through the formal unsubscribe process. They stop opening, reading and sometimes even filter your messages so they never see them.

Conversion Metrics

Conversion metrics attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign’s call-to-action. Most often conversion metrics seek to tie revenue or ROI to a given campaign. Measuring conversion rate requires integration between your email platform and your web analytics (or CRM).

Here are a few examples:

Tradeshow Promotion

Promotional Offer (Revenue Generated)

Metrics references:

Marketing-Success.aspx


57

Section M

Bringing it All

Together:

Best Practices in

the real world

Section MBringing it All Together: Best Practices in the real world

58

Bringing it All Together:

Best Practices in the real world

A picture says a thousand words:

Institute version:

Subject: Build Better Relationships At Work

Pre-header: Some people are harder to work with than others, come and learn how to bridge the gaps.

Image: Alt Text: Learn about DiSC® styles and you’ll be better able to connect with colleagues.

Body Copy:Gain a deeper understanding of your personal style and your impact on others.Build relationships and help create a positive work environment.

Learn more


59

Inspire and Connect with Your Customer

Institute version:

Subject: CIP Graduate Rings – Order Now

Pre-header: A beautifully crafted way to commemorate a graduate’s success in the years to come.

Images:

Text Overlay & Alt Text: Attaining CIP designation takes hard work and dedication

Text Overlay & Alt Text: Celebrate your success with a CIP Graduate Ring

Shop Now


60

Minimalist Style Still Effective


61

Institute Version:

Subject: Learn, share and grow at National Education Week Events

Pre-Header: Elevate your career at the Insurance Institute’s National Education Week Feb 24 – 28Body copy:

Dear <first name>,

I’m writing to invite you to participate in special seminars and networking events offered during the Insurance Institute’s annual National Education Week.

From February 24th to 28th, 2014, education and career development will be at the forefront of conversation with insurance professionals across the country. Your Institute will be hosting topical seminars and one-on-one conversations with high-profile insurance professionals. To find out what’s happening at your local Institute visit our website or join the conversation on Twitter.

Watch and share this video with colleagues, family and friends to celebrate your commitment to professional development as a proud member of the insurance industry.

Video:

Video Text Overlay and Alt Text: National Education Week celebrates with insurance professionals across Canada their commitment to insurance education

Body text:

Expand your career horizons during National Education Week:

Network with colleagues during coffee meetings and social events

Attend seminars covering timely insurance topics such as weather preparedness

Educate yourself about the steps you can take in deepening your knowledge about the

insurance industry

Connect with us on social networks to continue the conversation

We look forward to seeing you during National Education Week 2014.

62

Use Previous Events to Promote Future Ones

Institute Version:

Subject: Register for the 2014 CIP Society Symposium

Pre-header: The wait is over. It is time for the 2014 CIP Society Symposium.

Board of Trade, First Canadian Place, Toronto]

The CIP Society Symposium is the premier industry event for insurance professionals. Don’t take it from us though. Hear what some of last year’s attendees had to say:

This year promises to be even better with incredible speakers and sessions.

What’s on the schedule so far?Register Now



63

Section N

Email Marketing

Glossary

Section NEmail Marketing Glossary

64

A

Acceptable Spam Report Rate - The rate at which you can be reported as SPAM without harming your sender reputation. Anything over 0.1% (1 report per 1000 emails) will get a warning.

Acceptance Rate - The percentage of email messages that are accepted by the mail server. Just because an email is accepted by the mail server does not mean it will get to an inbox.

B

Blacklist - A list that denotes IP addresses as spammer IPs, impeding email deliverability.

Bounce Rate - The rate at which your emails are not delivered. There are two types of bounces, hard and soft, both of which are defined later in this glossary. An acceptable bounce rate is less than 5%.

Bulk Mail - Large scale email marketing sends in which the same content goes to a large group of people.

C

Call-to-Action (usually abbreviated as CTA) - An image or line of text that prompts your visitors, leads, and customers to take action. It is, quite literally, a “call” to take an “action.” The action you want people to take could be anything: download an ebook, sign up for a webinar, get a coupon, attend an event, etc. A CTA can be placed anywhere in your marketing -- on your website, in an ebook, in an email, on social networks, or even at the end of a blog post.

Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) - CASL requires you to get permission before sending CEMs to your recipients. Consent can be express or implied. There are specific, limited exceptions for sending electronic messages without consent, or with only implied consent.

CAN-SPAM - Short for ‘Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003,’ it’s the U.S. law that outlines rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, provides email recipients with the right to stop emails, and lays out consequences for violations of the Act.

Clicks Per Delivered - A percentage measure of the number of clicks divided by the number of emails delivered to the intended inbox.

Clicks Per Open - A percentage measure of the number of clicks divided by the number of opens.

CTR (Click-Through Rate) - The percentage (the number of unique clicks divided by the number that were opened) of recipients that click on a given URL in your email.

Conversion Rate - The percentage of recipients who respond to your call-to-action in an email marketing campaign or promotion. This is one measure of your email campaign’s success.

Email Marketing Glossary

Email Marketing Glossary 65

D

Dedicated IP - In email marketing, it refers to an IP address from which only you send email.

Double Opt-In - The recommended method of building an email list, it requires subscribers to confirm their opt in by clicking a link in a confirmation email or responding to the confirmation email in some other way.

E

Eblast – Institute e-blasts should use the “periodic communications” template and are considered promotional or “non-essential” material. Therefore members may unsubscribe. Eblasts are not considered member essential communications.

Email Campaign – An email or series emails designed to accomplish an overall marketing goal.

Email Filter – A technique used to block email based on the sender, subject line, or content of an email.

Email newsletter – enewsletters are considered “essential member communications” as they contain bylaw information such as schedule of Annual General Meetings.

Email Sponsorships - Buying ad space in an email newsletter or sponsoring a specific article or series of articles. Advertisers pay to have their ad inserted into the body of the email.

F

False positive - A false positive occurs when a legitimate permission-based email is incorrectly filtered or blocked as spam.

H

Hard Bounce - A hard bounce is the failed delivery of an email due to a permanent reason like a non-existent, invalid, or blocked email address.

Honey Pot - A planted email address by organizations trying to combat spam that, when a spammer harvests and emails, identifies that sender as a spammer.

House List (or Retention List) - One of your most valuable marketing assets, it’s a permission-based list that you built yourself with opt-in subscribers.

HTML Email - Sending HTML email makes it possible to get creative with the design of your emails.

I

IP Warmup - Sending a progressively increasing number of emails out of an IP address in order to build the IP’s reputation.

L


Landing Page - A lead-capture page on your website that is linked to from an email to provide additional information directly related to products or services promoted in the email’s call-to-action.

Levels of Authentication - A way of establishing a sender’s identity, and ensure the sender is allowed to send from a given domain.

List Segmentation - Selecting a target audience or group of individuals for whom your email message is relevant. A segmented list means a more targeted and relevant email campaign, thus a higher response rate and less unsubscribes and spam reports.

O

Open Rate - The percentage of emails opened in an email marketing campaign, or the percentage opened of the total number of emails sent.

Opt-In (or Subscribe) - To opt-in or subscribe to an email list is to choose to receive email communications by supplying your email address to a particular company, website or individual thereby giving them permission to email you. The subscriber can often indicate areas of personal

sender (e.g. newsletters).

Opt-Out (or Unsubscribe) - When a subscribers chooses not to receive email communications from the sender anymore, and requests removal from your email list. It is legally required that you provide a clear way to opt out in every email you send.

P

Personalization – Adding elements to your email that are personalized based on information you already know about them. It could refer to addressing the recipient by name, referencing past purchases, or other content unique to each recipient.

Physical Address - The physical, street address of the company sending the email, usually found in the footer of an email. Its inclusion is a legal requirement for all email marketing.

Plain Text Email - An email sent without HTML. You should always give your recipients the option to read emails in either HTML or plain text for better readability.

Privacy Policy - A clear description of a website or company’s policy on the use of information collected from and about website visitors and what they do, and do not do, with the data.

R

Read or Open Length - A measure of the length of time a person opens the email until they close it.

Rental List (or Acquisition List) - Not a recommended email marketing technique, it is a list of prospects or a targeted group of recipients who have opted in to receive information about certain subjects, usually targeted by something like interest, profession, or demographic information.

S

Sender Score - A free service of Return Path, it’s a reputation rating from 0-100 for every outgoing mail server IP address. Mail servers will check your Sender Score before deciding what to do with your emails. A score of over 90 is good.


Shared IP - A less costly option than a dedicated IP address, it is an IP address from which many people send emails.

Signature File - A tagline or short block of text at the end of an email message that identifies the sender and provides additional information such as company name, physical address, and contact information.

Single Opt-In - A single opt-in list is created when users sign up for email communications, but don’t confirm the action. This means they can be signed up for a list by someone else, and as such is not a recommended way to build a healthy email marketing list.

Soft Bounce - A soft bounce is the failed delivery of an email due to a temporary issue, like a full mailbox or an unavailable server.

Spam or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) - Email sent to someone who has not opted-in or given permission to email to the sender. Over 90% of email sent is classified as spam.

Spam Cop - A paid spam service that plants their own emails and monitors who harvests the address and spams it.

Spam Trap - An email address that was once valid, but no longer is. If you email this address, you’ll receive a hard bounce notice. When the mail server sees consistent traffic going to the dead email, however, they can turn the email into a spam trap. It will stop returning a hard bounce for the known bad address, and instead accept the message and report the sender as a spammer.

SPF - Short for ‘Sender Policy Framework’, it’s a DNS record that says on whose behalf an IP or domain sends email.

T

Templates – pre-designed templates for local use and other community use are housed in MyInstitute.

W

Whitelist - Instead of listing IP addresses to block, a whitelist includes IP addresses that have been approved to deliver email to a recipient.

Glossary adapted from: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/7595/The-Ultimate-Glossary-44-Email-Marketing-Terms-Marketers-Must-Know.aspx. Plus Institute additions.

email toolkit

Documents