45 Email Tips in 45 Minutes

Reggie Brady Marty DonnerCynthia O’Brien

Tip #1

Give visitors a reason to sign-up

Banner rotates in different positions on site pages.

Landing page also restates benefits

Tip #2Design creatives with audience in mind.

• Does your demographic need messages with larger text?

•Do your customers respond better to images or copy?

•What subject lines catch their attention?

What are your subscribers doing on your website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, your message boards, etc?

Listen to the “Chatter” …respond in real-time!

Tip #3

Tip #4Provide social sign-on as one option for email sign-up

10% may prefer to use this option

And, you get tons of data!

Tip #5Check with legal that all claims are true

Ex. “…e-mail exclusive offer”

Beware of:

• “Limited-Time Only”

• “Expires on…”

• “Exclusive Offer”

Tip #6Find the tipping point…mail less make more $$$

9% of the volume generated

38% of the $$$$

Tip #7Use your Facebook presence to encourage email sign-ups

Crocs converts 2,000+ Facebook fans to email subscribers each week!

Joel Book, ExactTarget 9-11

Tip #8Landing pages can make a difference

•Test landing pages that match design of email

•Do not distract with unnecessary links on page!

Not linkable

One major link

Tip #9It’s all about your list!!!

• Your #1 asset• What are you doing

to protect and grow it?

Tip #10Use progressive sign-up

Capture important information first … then present another page

Tip #11Ensure the ‘from name’ is recognizable!

•Using company’s president’s name on emails may resonate with some customers but not with others

•May have issues if that person leaves your company

Tip #12Improve inbox deliverability through Chatter email

• Hard bounces and complaints areno longer enough

• ISPs are using activity• Chatter emails with average open

rates of 40%+ increase overall inbox metrics

Tip #13

A. Form on the left B. Form on the right

Which form position generated higher submissions?

Version B generated 24.6% more form submissions

In western countries eyes track from left to right

Which Test Won – 1/27/10

Scheduling – be cognizant of holidays, high-traffic days, etc.

•Continue day of week & time of day testing

•Weekdays vs weekends isn’t as hard & fast as it used to be; depends on industry, offer, B2B/B2C, etc.

Tip #14

Change the way you think about acquisition• It’s about qualified prospects NOT leads

• How much is a new customer worth?

• “one and done” vs. multiple behaviorally triggered touch points

Tip #15

Tip #16Implement abandoned cart emails

Send the first within hours

Send a series

Subject Line Offer Opens CTR Conversion

1 Thank you, Joe for stopping by Birkenstock Central! Your items are waiting for you.

No 49.9% 23.9% 12.7%

2 Joe, just a reminder, you still have items in your shopping cart…

No 34.9% 18.2% 15.6%

3 Joe, complete your order within 24 hours & receive 5% off!

5% 32.9% 15.9% 15.9%

4 Time is Running Out! Save 10% Off when you complete your Purchase Today!

10% 20.3% 7.6% 9.3%

5 Last Chance to Save! Your Birkenstock Central Cart is about to Expire!

10% 21.4% 7.8% 9.4%

Give yourself enough time to read results.

•Response time on emails has increased (no more 24-48 hours!)

•Now easier to search inboxes for future use

49% - Day 4

59% - Day 7

71% - Day 13

80% - Day 20

90% - Day 31

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1 5 9

13

17

21

25

29

33

37

41

45

49

53

57

61

65

69

73

77

81

85

89

93

97

10

1

10

5

Last 10% - Day 32 to Day 100+

Tip #17

Tip #18Track and act on Social Chatter!!!

Trigger emails based on what your subscribers are doing on social media via a Social Portal

Tip #19Make sure your sign-up forms (and other forms) are bullet proof

Do the grandma and grandpa test

Measure percent of recipients reading your emails on mobile devices

•Great opportunity to optimize emails & order forms for better display on mobile devices

•Statistics show over 30% of emails are read on a mobile device

Tip #20

Tip #21

• Use your current email list to fund acquisition• Most email databases have >50% 6 month

MIAs• New subscriber autoresponders & welcome

cascades average 10 – 15X revenue/email• Not mailing 100K MIAs 2x/week

frees up a lot of acquisition $$$$

Tip #22Be friendly – send a welcome message

Include an offer. Gander Mountain reports welcome messages account for 30% of their email related revenues.

Bronto case study

Personalize and speak to the customer as specifically as possible•Be cognizant of customers shopping for others as gifts

Tip #23

Tip #24automate, Automate, AUTOMATE!

• Shopping cart abandon• Behavioral triggers• Website chatter• Social chatter• Smart cascades

Tip #25Have a preference center – a must-have element

Then, also promote it in your emails

Keep testing pure (apples to apples) and statistically significant.

Tip #26

Tip #27Take dynamic segmentation to the NEXT LEVELLet your email platform do the work

Tip #28Design emails for PC and mobile at same time

The top 2 – 3 inches is valuable real estatePut “view online” and “view mobile” at topPut most important content or offers thereMove “forward to a friend,” social icons and “add to address book” below top of the message

Use fixed width tables

Keep width as close to 500 pixels as possible

Look out for internal jargon and acronyms from creeping into copy/creative

Tip #29• ConsumerReports.org

vs. CRO• Consumers Union vs. CU • Unsubscribe vs. Opt-out• Failed Credit Card• Auto-Renew

Clean your house, before the party.

Automate multi-cell testing of subject lines and creative

Tip #30

Tip #31Mobile Rendering – a handy tool

If a rendering check is not provided by your ESP, Litmus.com offers this starting at $49/month 29 environments.

On transactional emails, add ‘upsells’ whenever appropriate (80%/20% rule)

Tip #32

Tip #33Use Facebook to grow your email database

Likes are good…

Growing your database and increasing $$$$ is even better!

Tip #34More on mobile design – the fat finger syndrome

Old Mouse New Mouse

Good Doesn’t work

Use deliverability vendor to measure inbox delivery

Tip #35

Don’t blame your ISP for poor deliverability

Look at your own mailing and acquisition practices:

• Mailing frequency• Response rates• Complaints• Hard bounces• Acquisition sources

Tip #36

Use snippets in your pre-header

They provide another reason to open your email

Tip #37

Make sure you’re Can-Spam Compliant / Honor opt-outs within 10 business days

Tip #38

Tip #39Are you listening to what your customers are saying you? your competitors?

Tip #40Wake up your inactives

The definition of inactive will vary

• 6 months• 9 months• 1 year• 18 months

Review emails in ‘preview pane’ mode

•Be sure “call to action” appears ‘above the fold’

•Some statistics show that about 25% of desktop traffic reads emails via preview pane

Tip #41

Tip #42Re-activation is a daily process

• Automate the process• Don’t wait until it’s too late• Use smart, behaviorally driven cascades• Don’t impact your deliverability metrics

Tip #43Send a dedicated email to promote your social presence

Tip #44Spot check links and follow desired flow all the way through to the end in the test & live seeds. Additionally, send to Customer Service before email is sent out.

Tip #45Website Remarketing• Engage 100% of your subscribers that visit your website, not just the 15%

that make it to the shopping cart

• Get 50% open rates and 15x revenue per email

Thank you!