Katrina Kokoska

DIY Email Marketing

@kkokoska // kkokoska@schipul.com

Who Am I?

@kkokoska

• Why email marketing?• Getting started• Crafting and sending messages• Measurement and management

What We’ll Cover

@kkokoska

• It has proven value• Engaged audience• Easy to measure• Messages have long shelf life• ROI

Why Email Marketing?

@kkokoska

People Find it Valuable

@kkokoska

You Have an Engaged Audience

@kkokoska

40% of consumers enjoy receiving a substantial amount of marketing emails every week –

Blue Kangaroo

Easy to Measure

@kkokoska

Longer Shelf Life

@kkokoska

•23.6% of email opens occur within the first hour.

•A Facebook brand post will get half of it’s reach in the first 30 minutes.

ROI

@kkokoska http://THEWEBSHOPPE.NET/email-marketing/cost-comparison-email-marketing-vs-direct-mail/

ROI Again

@kkokoska http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34032/An-Investigation-Into-the-ROI-of-Direct-Mail-vs-Email-Marketing-DATA.aspx

ROI Again

$$$Takeaways:

@kkokoska

@kkokoska http://www.flickr.com/photos/29647247@N00/60963915/

Getting Started1. Define objective2. Choose your ESP3. Build your list

• Who is/are your audience(s)?• What is a conversion for them?– Loyalty program– Referrals – Lead nurturing– Closing

Why are you doing this?

@kkokoska

• Fully managed• SaaS• In-House

Choosing your ESP

@kkokoska

• Price• Commitment• Templating features• Reporting• Reputation

Choosing your SaaS Solution

@kkokoska

The Usual Suspects

@kkokoska

List Building - Do’s and Don’ts

• Add checkbox to offline forms• Business cards• Event registrants• *Recent consumers

DO: Build your list offline

@kkokoska

• Website–Homepage– Sidebar– Contact Form– Check out– Event Registration

• Facebook• Blog

DO: Build your list online

@kkokoska

DO: Segment your list

@kkokoska

Emails that have been tailored to specific audiences through segmentation get 50% more clicks than their counterparts. – Marketing Sherpa

DO: Tell them what they will receive

@kkokoska

DO: Build trust immediately

DO: Continue growing your list

@kkokoska

• Buy lists• Harvest email addresses or copy/paste• Precheck the box• Add folks to more lists than they agreed to• Send to folks you haven’t sent to in at least 2

years• Anything else that sounds shady

DON’T!

@kkokoska

Sender Score: Service from Return Path. Rates sender IP.

Sender Reputation: Also calculated by email networks and ISPs

Sender Score/Reputation

@kkokoska

Controllingthe

Assaultof

Non-SolicitedPornographyAndMarketing

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

@kkokoska

Spam is any email you send to someone who hasn’t given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.

EACH separate violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000

• Define objectives first• Use a SaaS solution• Build your list thoughtfully across

offline/digital properties• Don’t be shady

Takeaways:

@kkokoska

Crafting and Creating Your Message

1.) List2.) Subject Line3.) Message4.) Landing page5.) Timing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24687645@N00/2826029311/

Do it firstBe brief and explicitNot appropriate for the hard sellSense of urgency?Avoid SPAM TermsLocalization not personalizationUse your company nameTest

Subject Lines

@kkokoska

@kkokoskahttp://www.mailermailer.com/

Subject Lines

The Email: Design

@kkokoska

• Your CTA:– Above the fold?– All roads lead to CTA?– Short and powerful?– Redundant?

• How’s your subject line holding up?• Can you “Share with a Friend?”• Have you integrated your other digital properties?

The Email: Message

@kkokoska

• How does it hold up across email clients?• How does it look across mobile

platforms?• Can you view in browser and as plain

text?

The Email: Technical Considerations

@kkokoska

@kkokoska

1. Never go home2. Focused value proposition3. Clear request4. One step conversion

The Landing Page

@kkokoska

@kkokoska

The Landing Page

http://searchengineland.com/the-value-proposition-test-what-is-your-pages-caption-141970

@kkokoska

The Landing Page

Timing Considerations

@kkokoska

1. Who is your audience?2. What timezones are you sending to?3. What is it you are asking them do?

@kkokoska

1. Use an explicit subject line which you have tested

2. Be consistent with your branding3. Have a clear CTA which links to a focused page4. Schedule thoughtfully (earlier is better)5. TEST TEST TEST

Takeaways

@kkokoska

Management and Measurement

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87434398@N00/136165399/

• Bounce = Undeliverable email–Hard bounce–Soft bounce

• Bounce Rate = # hard bounces/list size

#1: Bounce Rate

@kkokoska

@kkokoska

Average Bounce Rate

http://www.mailermailer.com/

• Unsubscribe – Opt out• Unsubscribe Rate = # of

unsubscribes / list size

#2: Unsubscribe Rate

@kkokoska

@kkokoska

• Unique Open Rate – The # of people who open a message• Open Rate = # of opens / emails sent

#3: Open Rate

@kkokoska

@kkokoska

• Click Thru – Clicking a link in message• Click Thru Rate = # of unique clicks / #

of links X recipients

#4: Click Rates

@kkokoska

@kkokoska

Conversion – Someone did the thing you wanted them to do.

Conversion Rate = # of conversions / # of recipients

#5: Conversion Rate

@kkokoska

Are You Set Up for Tracking?

Are your defined goals set up for tracking?

Have you set up e-commerce?

@kkokoska

Set up an Assisted Conversion

1. Bounce/Unsubscribes – List health2. Open/CTR – Content3. Conversion – Overall performance4. TEST

Takeaways

@kkokoska

Questions? Contact Me!

Katrina Kokoska@kkokoskakkokoska@schipul.com