Effective Email Marketing
66
description
Effective Email Marketing. Simon Hill Extravision www.extravision.com. About Extravision. Established 2001 Email Marketing Agency and ESP Based in Manchester Specialise in B2B email marketing Email strategy and design www.extravision.com. About me. Co-founder of Extravision - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Effective Email Marketing
About Extravision
• Established 2001• Email Marketing Agency and ESP• Based in Manchester• Specialise in B2B email marketing• Email strategy and design• www.extravision.com
23/05/2013
About me
• Co-founder of Extravision• Technical Director and email consultant• DMA Email Council and Best practice hub• Working in Email over 10 years• uk.linkedin.com/in/simonphill/• @sphill10
23/05/2013
What we will cover• How to improve your data acquisition and make sure you’re
legal at the same time• Ideas that can help your campaigns create more impact
across all devices• What can be done to help get your message into the users
inbox• Which stats are important and how successful has your
campaign really been
23/05/2013
Email marketing is like parenting
• Everyone has advice on how to bring up your children and what is best for them.
• The same is true in email marketing• Some things are just common sense• No concrete rules about what will work for your
email campaigns• Your business is unique and so are its campaigns
23/05/2013
Why email marketing ?
• Number of email accounts will increase to over 3.8 billion by 2014 (The Radicati Group, Inc)
• 1.5 billion Twitter users• 1.1 billion Facebook users• 175 million LinkedIn users
23/05/2013
[email protected] 723/05/2013
Why email marketing ?
• 188 billion emails sent per day worldwide (excluding 106 billion spam messages) August 2011
• 140 million tweets – 0.74%• 60 million Facebook updates – 0.03%
http://blogs.smartertools.com/2011/08/29/the-value-of-email/
23/05/2013
Why email marketing
• “Anyone without an email address is the digital equivalent of homeless “
Dela Quist - CEO Alchemy Worx
23/05/2013
How to improve your data acquisition and make sure you’re
legal at the same time
23/05/2013
Data Collection
• Don’t waste time using outdated or junk data. • Spamtraps and blacklisting• Start at data collection and grow organically• Only collect the data you need• Record the data capture date
23/05/2013
Data Hygiene
• Double opt in– barrier to list growth– http://www.magillreport.com/Why-Fully-Confirmed-Opt-In-Sucks/
• Welcome message• Validate data input – leadspend.com• Double entry email – waste of time• CAPTCHA - annoying
23/05/2013
Spam traps
• 3 types– Honeypots – created by Blacklist providers– Zombie accounts – once active accounts– Typotraps – mistyped domains
• Very difficult to identify and remove once on your list.
23/05/2013
Data Hygiene
• Clean your lists regularly – avoid spamtraps– Remove bounces– Remove typo’s– Possible harvested addresses– Unsubscribes via other channels i.e. fbl’s– Inactive subscribers
23/05/2013
Data collection
• Positive action opt-in (the checkbox is initially unchecked) required by EU law unless soft opt-in
• Include a link to your privacy policy• Email syntax validation• Send a welcome email
23/05/2013
Ideas that can help your campaigns create more impact
across all devices
23/05/2013
How many images should we use ?
• Depends on your brand – fashion vs IT• 2 schools of thought
– no images, no sense, download images to see the content
– Optimised for no images with alt tags, people can still read your message and click links
23/05/2013
Email Mosaics
• When people have images turned off• HTML tables that impersonate images.• Convey message without images• Promote interest• Can go viral
23/05/2013
Email Mosaics
• Easter egg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_%28media%29
• Go to google.com• Type “google gravity” and then select “I’m
feeling lucky”
23/05/2013
[email protected] 2223/05/2013
[email protected] 2323/05/2013
[email protected] 2523/05/2013
Sony campaign by Alchemy Worx (www.alchemyworx.com)
Images turned off
Pros/cons of mosaics
• Increase message size• Use style alt tags instead• 2 creative options in one email• Look at our recipients• www.emailonacid.com
23/05/2013
Pre-header
• The text at the top of an email before the content
• Usually online version, unsubscribe• Super subject line
23/05/2013
Subject lines
• Grab attention – newspaper headline• Arguments for both long and short• Consider your audience• Combination of subject line and message
content is the key
23/05/2013
Subject lines
• Special characters in subject lines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscellaneous_Symbols
• Don’t be afraid to use – FREE, OFFER, Capitalisation etc.
• Hashtag in subject line ?
23/05/2013
The Obama email campaign
• Create 4 to 6 messages for every day.• Send each message with 3 different subject
line• Large test cells of 50,000 contacts • Goal metric – donations
23/05/2013
The Obama email campaign
• Test send around 7am and a winner picked about 60 to 90 minutes later
• The winner went to the remaining database, but some segments received slight variations on the winner depending on their donation history.
23/05/2013
Email design for mobile
• “80% of people will delete an email on a mobile device if it doesn’t look good”
http://www.bluehornet.com/news/full/new-survey-reveals-shifting-consumer-views-on-email-marketing
• The question was ““If you get a mobile email that doesn’t look good then what do you do ?”
23/05/2013
Email design for mobile
• If you are sending html emails then you already have a mobile email strategy
• Concentrate efforts on your website• Look at your own stats before optimising for
mobile devices
23/05/2013
Mobile first design
• Luke Wroblewski http://www.lukew.com/resources/mobile_first.asp
• Normally design for desktop and adapt for mobile
• Focus on what is important to the user• Single design for all devices
23/05/2013
Mobile first design
• Design for touchscreen– Apple’s human interface guidelines state that the
minimum size for a click-able area should be 22x44px
• Design for the screen size– Single column 320 px , full width images
23/05/2013
[email protected] 4323/05/2013
[email protected] 4423/05/2013
[email protected] 4523/05/2013
Responsive Design
• Uses CSS3 @media to render different layouts• Requires 2 designs• Can be complex coding to implement• Does work on all mobile devices
23/05/2013
[email protected] 4723/05/2013
[email protected] 4823/05/2013
[email protected] 4923/05/2013
What is deliverability ?
• “Reaching the inbox is the only way you can earn a response. You must maintain an on going reputation for being welcome in the inbox. Being relevant and earning a high sender reputation is not a box you can just check off. It’s an attitude.” Stephanie Miller
23/05/2013
What affects your deliverability ?
• Sender/IP reputation• Blacklists• Spam filters• Feedback loops
23/05/2013
IP Reputation
• ESP’s normally have shared and dedicated IP addresses.
• A dedicated IP address is not for everyone• Domain reputation• www.senderscore.org
23/05/2013
IP Reputation
• Domain setup– Custom domain (sub domain)– Reverse DNS– SPF record
• Domain Authenticated– Domain keys / DKIM– DMARC
23/05/2013
[email protected] 5523/05/2013
Complaint feedback loops
• Each ISP has its own FBL• Setup by your ESP• Generates an email when a message is
reported as spam• Process this reply accordingly – unsubscribe
23/05/2013
Which stats are important and how successful has your
campaign really been
23/05/2013
The opens debate
• Einstein once said “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted”
• “open rates are as useful as your appendix“ Tim Watson - Zettasphere
23/05/2013
The opens debate
• Did the recipient receive the email ?• Was it of interest ?• Did they read it ?• Did they follow any of the CTA’s ?
23/05/2013
The opens debate
• Read rate the holy grail of email stats• Litmus provides a stat• Consider your own inbox triage
23/05/2013
The opens debate
• Don’t get hung up on your open rate• One small metric• Set clear goals for your campaign
23/05/2013
Engagement – open reach
• What is engagement ?• Open, click rate are campaign metrics• Engagement is not your open rate• Measured over time
23/05/2013
Email frequency
“First time openers generate more revenue, first time openers are generally new subscribers hence grow your list or increase your frequency”
Alchemy Worx http://www.alchemyworx.com/emailworx/2012/strategy/five-reasons-why-open-reach-will-revolutionise-your-email-marketing/
23/05/2013
Conclusion
• Look after your data• Smarter with your email• Set clear goals and measure your success
against your goals
23/05/2013
Thank you
• www.extravision.com• [email protected]
• [email protected]• uk.linkedin.com/in/simonphill/• @sphill10
23/05/2013
