Welcome toWelcome to

Advanced eMail MarketingAdvanced eMail Marketing

Heather Honea, Ph.D.

Placing the Consumer at the Placing the Consumer at the Center of the Marketing ProcessCenter of the Marketing Process

Seminar Format

• Workbooks are for reference only – they should not be read during the seminar unless the seminar leader refers to a particular section.

• This session is interactive you may ask questions and the seminar leader will stimulate discussion.

Schedule

•There Will Be a 20 Minute Break at 10:30

•Lunch Is From 12 Noon to 1PM

eMail Is Different

• Different environment

• Different process

• Different outcomes

OutdoorAdvertising (Billboards) Radio

Television

Mass Targeted

Passive

Active

Statement Stuffers

Telemarketing

Newspapers Magazines

Loyalty Programs

Brochures

Direct Mailings

Point-of-Purchase Displays

eMail

• Targeted Personal

• Active Interactive

• Low Control High Control

Spam

• Degrades legitimate email

• Privacy issues are relevant

Spam

• Unsolicited• Recipients personal identity and context are

irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to other recipients

• Recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit and revocable permission for it to be sent

• Transmission of the message appears to the recipient to give disproportionate benefit to the sender

Spam

• No universal accepted definition

• Spam is in the eye of the beholder– Expectations– Costs– Relevance

Permission Based Marketing

• New concept in marketing

• Opt-in, opt-out, double opt-in

Legal Issues

• 22 states have laws

• No federal laws (although there are many bills pending in congress)

• Turbulent arena – little precedent

• Minor enforcement mostly under existing fraud statutes by the federal government, some state action.

To Be Safe

• Use only opt-in lists

• Valid reply address

• Opt-out option

• Don’t use misleading offers

• Spread out your campaign – don’t over do

• Be aware of legislation

To Be Smart

• Pursue permission based activities

• Privacy policy (protection, use, how to discontinue participation)

To Be Successful

• Know your customer

• Allow the customer to help define the process and outcomes

• Create compelling content

Implementing eMail

Infrastructure Analysis

• Computer equipment

• Internet connections

• Staff

• Software

• Database

• Budget

Task Requirements

• Maintaining computer equipment

• Managing a service provider

• Email software (if you do email in-house)

• Managing an ASP (if you outsource)

• Compiling email lists

• Maintaining a database

• Measuring your results

Advantages to Software Only

• Control over data

• No monthly/per message charge

• Speed

• Better database management

Disadvantages to Software Only

• Set up program yourself

• Opt-out is time consuming

• Costs

• Strain your infrastructure

ASP Key Questions• Can you preview your messages

• Is uploading data simple

• Is there a spell check

• How are bounces handled

• How easy is it to back up data

• What kind of reports are offered

• Is there auto detect for text vs. Html

ASP Key Questions• What is the unsubscribe support

• How stable is the company

• Can you manually remove addresses

• What are the billing rates, monthly, message sent

• How simple is the administrative console

• Do they archive your email messages

• How quickly is your email sent

• Auto-response features

Email Lists

• Outside lists

• House lists

• Harvester lists

The Good, Bad, and Ugly

• Good data – accurate, secure, permission based

• Bad data – stale, badly organized,

• Ugly data – acquired from unqualified, or unknown source – used without recipients permission

Offline Databases – Get the Email Address

• Direct mail order forms

• Lead cards from trade shows

• Guest books at retail locations

• Business reply cards

• Invoices and bills

• Customer service bulletins

Offline Databases – Get the Email Address

• Outbound telemarketing

• Customer service representatives

• Seminars and presentations

• Warranty cards

• Surveys

• Receipts

• Newsletters via direct mail

On-line/On-site List Acquisition

• Newsletter

• Surveys

• Sweepstakes

• Order form

• Free gift or software trial

• Access to members area

• Contact area

List Broker

• They can tell you where they got the names on their lists

• They won’t actually hand over the list to you (they will send on your behalf)

• They will monitor your message to ensure compliance with the requests of the recipients

Harvesting

• Used primarily for Spam

• Numerous software packages available

• Some legitimate uses

• Spiders sites and files for email addresses

Planning

Know Your Customer

• Customer profiles

• Offline success

• Competition

• Research

• Practice

D and D your Customer

Define

(e.g. geographic, demographic, psychographic)

Describe (who is the customer)

Determine the objective of your copy.

• Generate inquiries• Generate sales• Answer inquiries• Qualify prospects• Transmit product information• Build brand recognition and preference• Build company image

Identify your audience and their relationship to your product.

• What is the customer's main concern? (Price, delivery, performance, reliability, service maintenance, quality efficiency)

• What is the character of the buyer? What motivates the buyer? What is the customer buying process?

Get all previously published material on

the product.

• Previous ads, brochures, press kits and

catalogs (print and audio-visual)• Article and press release reprints• Technical papers and product specifications• Competitors' ads and literature• Business and marketing plans• Reports and proposals

Design and Copy

Use ADIA

• Get ATTENTION

• Generate INTEREST

• Create DESIRE

• Call for ACTION

The Subject Line

• Benefits approach

• Question approach

• Cultural tie-in approach

• Personalized approach

Email Design

• Quick downloading• Avoid large blocks of type• Don’t use too many graphics• Include clear banners and headers• Don’t overdo reverse text• Make your links clear• Link everything• Don’t use attachments

HTML Vs. Plain Text

• 80% can read HTML

• Consider your audience

• Use rich media accordingly

Design Programs

• Adobe PageMill

• Macromedia Dreamweaver

• Microsoft Front Page

Measurement and Metrics

Metrics

• Key issue in planning

• Data dumps

• Useful information, Actionable analysis (related to objectives)

• Ad Testing

Email and Offline Integration

• Coordinate promotions

• Help or hinder offline efforts

• Coordinate promotions

• Maintain design continuity

• Manage expectations

• Use your web address everywhere

Moving Through the Customer Relationship Stages

Attention

(Awareness)

Involvement

(Exploration)

Permission Loyalty

(Interest)

Moving Through the Customer Relationship Stages

Attention

(Awareness)

Involvement

(Exploration)

Permission Loyalty

(Interest)

Banner Website

Keep communication short and infrequent

Begin to personalize

Provide value for their information, allow them to opt-in

Order confirmation

Increasing level of control for the user

Not a Member of the eMA

• Join at this seminar and receive $25.00 off any membership category

• Associate

• Professional

• Corporate

• Details at the registration desk

You have completed the eMail Marketing Seminar – Congratulations!

Welcome to Advanced Search Engine

Marketing

Schedule

• There will be a break at 3:00.

• The seminar closes at 5PM.

• There will be an informal “no-host” networking reception in the lounge area following the seminar.

Seminar Format

• Workbooks are for reference only – they should not be read during the seminar unless the seminar leader refers to a particular section.

• This session is interactive you may ask questions and the seminar leader will on occasion stimulate discussion.

Return on Investment (ROI) for Online

Chart courtesy of Overture

Return on Investment (ROI) for Online Advertising Methods

Do It Yourself or Pay a Professional

• The focus of this seminar is on the do it yourself approach

• Be careful if you are hiring a company to do SEO for you

2500 Submissions for $10.

• 90% of web surfers use the top 10 major engines and directories

• Not of much value

• Focus your efforts

• If you are not in the top 20 results you will not get much traffic from your listings

Your Product or Service Makes a Huge Difference

• Sell “air-plants” and you will have little competition for top listings

• Books, software and computer products will be much more difficult

Directory

• Edited by a human reviewer

• Meta tags are not as important

• Difficult to change once listed

• Most allow paid submission

• Quality of site very important

Search Engine

• Crawled by robot spider

• Meta and title tags are important

• HTML code very important

• Quality of site not as important

Top Search Directories

• Yahoo

• LookSmart

• Open directory

• AOL

Hybrid Engines

• Mixed results

• Favors one type of listing over another

• Yahoo! Favors its own directory over crawler based results (provided by Google), especially for more obscure inquires

Top Search Engines

• Google

• Alta vista

• Lycos

• HotBot

• Overture

How Do Search Engines Rank Pages?

• A ranking algorithm

• Formulas change frequently and are kept confidential

• All search engines have different methods for ranking

Your SEO Plan

• Site design and navigation

• Privacy policy

• Browser friendly colors

• Good contact page

• Good checkout process (for e-commerce sites)

• Fast loading graphics

Metrics

• WebTrends live

• Site log analysis

• In-house software solutions

• Analyze relevant actionable data – not everything

Example From WebTrends

Example From WebTrends

10 Areas of Concern When Submitting Your Site

1. URL status

2. Frames

3. Keywords meta tag

4. Description meta tag

5. Title tag

10 Areas of Concern When Submitting Your Site

6. Head section

7. Page copy

8. Hidden text

9. Image tags

10. Spiderable

Site Design Problems

• Frames

• Flash

• Javascript

• Image maps

• Dynamic URLs

Frames

• Search engines do not index frames very well

• We recommend against them

• If you must use frames there are some solutions, although not using frames is better

Flash

• Often used on home pages as a “splash page

• Search engines cannot index

• Your splash page will not get listed

• If you must use it use as much page copy as possible

Keywords

• Metatags

• Think phrases not keywords

• Pay for click programs (overture)

• Your choices are critical

• Overture keyword generator

Much Too General

• Shoes

• Men's shoes

• Woman’s shoes

Much Better

• Imported Italian shoes

• Men’s leather penny loafers

• Woman's aerobic sneakers

Metatags,titles and Descriptions

• The title is the most important

• Hidden text (no-no)

• Page copy optimization

• Image alt tags

• Text hyperlinks

• Heading tags

Check Out Your Competitors Meta Tags

Go to any website and right click your mouse on an open (not picture) area of the site. A menu will pop up – select “view source” and you will be able to see the HTML code for that page

Text and Graphic Hyperlinks

• Can help improve your listings

• Keywords around hyperlinks

• Text immediately surrounding hyperlinks

Search Engine Spam

• Background text

• Multiple title tags

• Duplicate site pages

• Submitting more than once in 24 hours

• Keywords that do not relate to your site

Pay for Inclusion

• Needs to be done manually

• Does not guarentte position

• SEO is important

• Usually guarentees frequent indexing

Pay for Click

• Get the number one position almost instantly without SEO

• PPC budget and strategy is important

• Listing descriptions are critical

• Keyword selection needs to be relevant

Advertisers' Overall Satisfaction

1. c

2. Jupiter Media Metrix: Online Advertising Effectiveness Study, August 2001

Linking

• Improve your search engine rankings with link popularity

• Find sites that link to your comptetion (page 90 workbook)

• Find sites that accept site submissions

• Outgoing links

• Link keywords

Reception in Hotel Lounge

• No host

• Informal

• Meet with fellow members and marketers

• 5:15

You have completed the Advanced Search Engine Marketing Seminar – Congratulations!