EMAIL MARKETINGYour Message Belongs in the Inbox

EMAILMARKETING

Email marketing assists in:

• Building loyalty, trust and brand awareness.

• Enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current, prospective and previous customers in order to encourage customer loyalty.

• Messaging with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately.

Researchers estimate that US firms spent over $1.5 billion on email marketing in 2011. This number is expected to grow to $2.5 billion by 2016.

Email Marketing is your primary communication tool today.

Email Marketing allows advertisers to communicate directly to a specific target with a specific offer at a specific time.

EMAIL MARKETING

Engaging with your customers through email is a great way to increase traffic. The opportunity to drive in-store activity, online traffic and sales with consumers is unprecedented. Those who receive email marketing messages spend 83% more when shopping.

There has been a strong increase in average email open rates, rising from 18.35% to 21.47% in the last 12 months.

For more research on how email marketing can help your business succeed check out this study done by iContact.

http://www.theheavyweights.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/EmailMarketing.jpeg

Email marketing is incredibly cost efficient. Average return on email marketing investment: $44.25 for every dollar spent.

Email marketing is incredibly consistent in reaching consumers.

Email marketing do’s and don’ts

Email marketing relies on timing and carefully planned emails to be effective.

• Plan your email deployments. Emails issued on Saturdays and Sundays had higher open, click, and transaction rates.

• Make sure your subscribers are available when you email them. Contrary to popular belief, research shows emails issued from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. had the highest response rate.

• Select the proper subject line. 64% of people say they open an email because of the subject line.

• Keep your subject line short. Simple subject lines (30 or fewer characters) achieve the highest opens and clicks.

• Avoid “spammy” words (Win, Free, Contests), using multiple exclamation marks or capitalized letters.

• Don’t send too many emails. 69% of subscribers say this is the number reason they unsubscribe from email.

Email Marketing Jargon

Open rate: The term used to describe when a recipient opens your email at any point.

Click-through rate: The term used to describe when a subscriber clicks any part of an email to open more content, including links to your targeted content, your brands website, or your social media pages.

Bounces: When an email sent to a subscriber isn’t received. A soft bounce can occur because the subscriber is on vacation or their inbox is full. A hard bounce will occur if the email is invalid, misspelled or just doesn‘t exist.

HTML: This is the programming language used to create most emails. You don’t need to know how to program to create a dynamic email, but a simple understanding helps.

Triggered Emails: A message that is sent to a list subscriber based on an event. For example, a discount coupon can be sent to a subscriber on their birthday. Events are determined based on information provided by the subscriber.

Spam: Blame the early days of Email Marketing for spam and spam filters. Most users will have a spam filter that will check the emails you send for keywords. If it thinks it might be spam your email won’t reach the customer.

This is what a good email looks like:

This is what a good email looks like:

Creating Killer Emails

They key to creating a successful email campaign is creating effective, well designed emails.

Creating the perfect email can very difficult at times and creating a bad email can very quickly derail any campaign you are running.

Here are 6 Best Practices of Email Design by Email Monks to help you create your own killer emails.

1. Brand Optimization

•From Name: Include your brand name in the from name.

•From Address: Use an identifiable From Address.

•To Field: Should be personalized to the recipient’s name.

•Subject Line: Use an informative, short and recognizable subject line.

2. Pre-header and Header

•Online Version: Include a link to an online version of your email.•Snippet Text: Some email clients show preview text taken from the first few lines of the email. •Johnson Box: The email preview that appears in email inboxes.

• The preview area is 400x300 pixels. • Your brand header and main headline should

appear in this area. • The Johnson box plays a key role in engaging

recipients.

3. Email Layout

• Ideal email width- 500 to 650 pixels.

• Vertical layout over the Horizontal is preferable.

• Text and images should be used in a right proportion.

• Use a table of contents if you have a lot to cover.

• If you have multiple products/categories to display, provide a navigation bar.

• Use 4-5 panels of area for visual emphasis that offers specific eye path for key offerings.

• Call-to-action should be clear and enticing.

4. Visual Impact

• Graphics & imagery should delineate the content sections well. Images speak louder than words.

• Whenever an image is used, it’s important to provide fallback color and alt-text for the image.

• Try to avoid background images layered with text. Many of the email clients (i.e. Outlook) don’t support background images

• Make feature headers or product offers readily clickable.

5. Copy & Content

•Use short sentences and paragraphs.

•Use design elements like spacing and dividing lines to distinguish the content sections from one another.

•Use bold typeface and sub-headers to make certain words stand out.

•Use bullet points to showcase benefits.

•Use web standard fonts.

•Ideal font size for body copy is 14 pixels and title is minimum 22 pixels which provide decent readability on mobile phones.

•Double check your copy for spellings and grammar.

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM6. Footer

• Include Organization’s complete contact details.

• Don’t hide the unsubscribe button.

• Include links to main section of your website or key product categories.

• Make it easy for your audience to share your email.

• Add a line about why your recipients are receiving this email to decrease the chances of spam complaints.

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM

Things To Avoid:

•Use a still image linked to a landing page rather then embedding videos into emails.

• No Flash or Ajax functionalities.

• Avoid using GIFs.

Things To Consider:

•Design your email keeping in mind that the message is conveyed without relying on on images to load.

•When creating HTML emails, include a plain text version that is easy to read.

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAMMobile Email Design Checklist:

• Email Width: Stay under 600px for Android. Litmus suggests 320-550px.

• Create tappable calls to action: Your creative calls-to-action need to be tappable and a minimum size of 44x44px.

• Layout: Mobile newsletters should be designed in a single column template.

• Finger Targets: Increase font size, line spacing, button sizes and white spaces to make it easy to touch and go for touch screen.

• Visibility of call to action and links: Mobile devices don’t support hover functions. So make sure you make clearly clickable objects.

• Coding Methods: Choose responsive or scalable email coding standards while developing your email.

What is Spam?

Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages, especially advertising, indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, social spam, televisions advertising and file sharing spam.

It is named for Spam, a canned luncheon meat, by way of a Monty Python sketch in which Spam is included in almost every dish.

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM

Spam: The Internets Most Overused Term

Imagine a world of no television commercials, no radio commercials, no newspaper ads, no magazine ads, no ads of any kind. Some of us would like that very much, but there is a downside to this kind of thinking.

How does anyone learn about anything new without advertisements? The truth is they don’t.  Advertising educates, informs, advises and creates interest.

Spam is the most overused term today associated with the internet. Consumers want and need to know about what's new, what's exciting, what's going on and I'm appreciative of ad spending to keep me informed.

Something to consider: If the government is concerned about spam, how is it that they push millions and millions of print pieces through the mail about the census, about elections, about services? If marketers can't email without permission exactly how will they get a message to you in the future? 

Spam in my opinion is something that comes to me only once I've opted out. Prior to that it's unsolicited mail which is as old as communication itself.

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM

CanSpam

Something new in the works. Here's the latest, check it out when you have a minute.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ecic-ceac.nsf/eng/gv00521.html#q4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spam_legislation_by_country

Privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses and manages a customer or client’s data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy

We recommend that you institute a privacy policy on your websites, landing pages and email communications.

Email Lists

Email list sharing is wrong when it comes to email marketing. Spam and privacy concerns are the main reasons. It's a controversial subject with no clear set of rules. At Raven5, we recognize that consumers and prospects have provided their email to us as a matter of trust. But lets keep in mind, the address has been provided for selfish reasons, consumers want and expect something in this process.

As an example, when I provide my email to any company, store, group I'm doing so for my own interest and benefit. I'm interested in what you do, and how you do it. I want to know about new products, enhancements, pricing, offers, etc. So, once you as a company have collected an email address you have a responsibility to provide information. Sending email that is about selling only is against all areas of good email practice! Email marketing must provide value.

It’s my argument that the consumer is interested in your store and your products. As a consumer I’m looking for product information, offers, deals and contests that benefit me. If the offer is exclusive, even better, after all, that’s why I provided my information.

EMAIL

What is in it for me?

Email Sharing

It’s not our job or responsibility to filter the information but provide it. Providing filtered information will ultimately alienate the consumer. They have access to more information than you can provide, and can find it any time using Internet searches.

As such, it's critical to add value to your email list by providing information and value from not just your store and your offering, but the offerings of your partner groups. By doing so, you provide additional value, thereby ensuring your consumers will stay engaged and trust your messaging.

Open, honest and transparent communications are critical today. Keep in mind, one click and you are gone! Sharing lists with your partners will ensure you provide valuable and varied content to your consumer group.

EMAIL SHARING

What Consumers Want

"Email is among the most trusted medium of all digital marketing tools – often cited ahead of display media, banner ads and brand website."

•95% want discounts•56.5% want product or service updates•56.1% love the brand

Should your email be brand oriented? Should your email include offers? Should your email include contests? Should your email include content?

Some interesting facts:

•75% of consumers say a poorly designed email negatively impacts a brand•70% of consumers delete emails that don't render well on mobile•69% of consumers have used their mobile device to sort email•50% of consumers use the "view online" link•50% of consumers are open to purchasing products from an email•37% of consumers share emails with social networks

Digital River "Consumer views of email marketing" 

Relevance and frequency continue to be the primary reasons for unsubscribing.

Email is your primary communication tool today.

It's a privilege to be allowed into their inbox.

It is imperative that your business provides valuable content, offers and discounts.

Stay In Touch:

RAVEN5 Ltd. 461 North Service Rd. W, Unit B31 Oakville, ON, L6M 1Y3 T - 905 469 8345 T - 1 855 543 8345 info@raven5.com www.raven5.com www.raven5media.com www.socialmc2.com