Transcript Email Marketing

Email Marketing
Week 5
• Seeuthere.com IDM works!!!!!
“Spam”
• ‘Spam’ is Unsolicited Commercial E-mail(UCE)
• No existing relationship of permission from
recipient.
– If they visit the booth
• Customer point of view
• Sender point of view
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Not sent directly to your email address
Mailed in Bulk
Commercial in nature
Hard (or impossible) to unsubscribe
What is Permission Marketing
• A “courting ritual” with your customers and
prospects
• Recognizes the most valuable commodity is
attention
• An ideal application of email
• Complete knowledge and communication
with your customer
Why We Hate Spam
• Spam erodes our value to ALL of our
customers (mail blocking by mail
administrators)
• Spam hurts our clients’ reputation
Newsgroup chatter: “I hate this company”
• Spam can seriously damage our business
• Spam clutters the inbox and reduces the
effectiveness for legitimate email messages
Opt Out
• Practice: A marketer obtains email
addresses from customer and mails without
prior permission
• Theory
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We have an existing relationship
It is very simple to unsubscribe
This is just like traditional direct mail
They can always just hit “delete”
Opt-Out
• Reality
– Complaints will be sharp, frequent and may
result in blocking actions by ISP’s
– Does not scale
• Imagine if every business you ever patronized sent
you an email marketing message.
– Encourage distrust
• 60% of customers have given false information
when filling out forms ( BCG privacy white paper)
Opt-Out Permission
• Pre-checked box
• Confirming email ( auto responder) may or
may not be sent
XDo you wish to receive our free monthly
newsletter
XCheck here to receive additional valuable offers
from selected sponsors & partners
Opt-In Permission
• Customer must select box
• Confirming email may or may not be sent
Do you wish to receive our free monthly
newsletter
Check here to receive additional valuable offers
from selected sponsors & partners
Confirmed Opt-In Permission
• Customer must select choice
• Confirming email will be sent
• Customer must verify their addition to list
Do you wish to receive our free monthly
newsletter
Check here to receive additional valuable offers
from selected sponsors & partners
Double opt-in adds a confirmation step into the subscription process. When an email address
is entered into our subscription form, we will respond with a message to that email address.
The potential subscriber must reply to that email in order to actually start receiving our newsletter.
Problems
No disclosure
of Use on signup page
Future
promotions not
addresses
Problems:
Privacy policy
Disclosure
Future
Promotions
not
addressed
Disclosure
The right way
Not must fill fields
True Opt-In
Full Disclosure of use
Please enter your e-mail address if
you would like to receive special offers
and product information via electronic
mail. You may unsubscribe from any
e-mail communications you receive
from us at any time.
By filling out and submitting this form
you are being added to the Dell
mailing list. The Dell mailing list is
private and not sold to other
merchants.
The Right Way
HTML defined,
And asked
The Email Marketing Spectrum
SPAM
OPT-OUT
OPT-IN
CONFIRMED OPT-IN
Addresses gathered from
anywhere
Existing customers.They
haven’t given you
permission,
A check box gave you
permission to send
mail
A checkbox gave you
the permission and you
have confirmed the
address
•Many complaints
•Doesn’t scale
•Not bullet proof
•None.
•Distrustful visitors use •100% clean and loyal
wrong addresses
audience
PITFALLS
•Doesn’t work
•Creates complaints
•ISPs shut you down
Acceptability
A Grass Roots Call To Action
Forward all spam e-mail:
Abuse@domain
And spamrecycle.com
Tell them: E-mail is great marketing medium,
but you are not playing by the rules.
You are inviting government oversight
Practice permission marketing
Netizen Psychology 101
• Advice
– Don’t surprise
– Show respect
• Time
• Intelligence
• Privacy
– Test small
Why Email is a Powerful
Marketing Medium
E-mail Most Effective Online
Promotional Tool
• Email users click on email 3x-10x vs.
banners ( Ernst&Young 1/00)
• Survey of online consumers 12/10 – 12/22
– 63% purchased via email promotion
– 38% purchased via banner ad
– 29% purchased via offline advertising
» Buyersguide.com 1/00
The Email Revolution
Faster
Cheaper
Response Time
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Cost Per Unit
$1.40
$1.25
8%
$0.80
6%
$0.60
$0.40
$0.25
4%
1-2%
2%
$0.20
Email
5-15%
10%
$1.00
3 Days
Response Rate
12%
$1.20
3-6 Weeks
Direct Mail
Better
$0.00
0%
Direct Mail
Email
Direct Mail
Email
Sources : Forrester, DMA, Gartner Group
May 25 2000
Email Marketing Spending will
Triple by 2004
“How much do you spend on email?”
% of Online
marketing
budget
Annual
Spending
1999
Annual
Spending
2004
% of email
budget for
acquisition
%of Email
budget for
retention
All
Companies
5%
$ 240.000
$ 720.000
36%
64%
Traditional
Companies
5%
$ 144.000
$ 950.000
12%
88%
Internet Pure
Plays
7%
$ 290.000
$ 600.000
55%
48%
Source: Forrester research (Jan 2000) Based on interviews
With email marketing managers from 22 traditional and 28 internet pure plays.
$1+billion E-mail Marketing by
2001
• Marketers will shift Sales&Marketing
resources to permission email marketing
• Marketers will spend at least $5 per name
per year maintaining permission
• Email service and solution providers are
proliferating
• Scale agencies, bureaus and solution suites
will emerge to support this market
E-mails Role in the Relationship
Marketing Spectrum
How is e-mail marketing used?
Other
Market Research
4%
8%
Prospects
24%
Alerts/reminders
28%
Advertising/Marketing
34%
Product releases
48%
Newsletter
House List
66%
Promotions&Discounts
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Forrester Research
Email Communication Strategy
Daily Newsletter
Automated Greetings
Specific channel/Service
Interest
Adhoc Promo
Reminders
Welcome back
Customer feedback
Targeted
Content
Subscriber Advantage
Local content Newsletter
Target AIM 1.0 users
Segmented
Flash Emails
Contest Follow-up
Bulk
Welcome
Registration
Surveys
Knowledge of customer behavior and preference
Crafting E-Mail Campaign
Crafting an E-Mail Campaign
• Beginning with the basics
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Define your target
Establish objectives
Develop a strategy
Determine the offer
Build the plan
Test assumptions
Measure results
Crafting E-Mail Campaign
• Strategy Development
Keys to response
List
Offer
Format
Copy
Postal
50%
25%
15%
10%
Email
30%
25%
15%
5%
Crafting E-Mail Campaign
• Strategy development
Focus on offer first
– Don’t mail unless you have something to say
– Use email for direct response capabilities rather
than brand awareness.
– Audience more rush than any other medium
Determine Offer
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Free Information
Free Service
Free give away
Sweepstakes
Discount offers
Rewards Programs
Partner promotion
No offer
House File Creation
• The pitfalls to avoid
– Problem: Details within Privacy
– Essential: Disclosure at Time of collection
House File Creation
• Ask for email address via every channel
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Printed order forms
Call centers
Customer Service calls
Give customers a reason to register at your web
site
• Tell them what you will do with their name
House File Creation
• Audit trail
– Protect yourself
– Proof of permission
• Date
• Time
• IP address
– Proof of confirmation
House File Creation
• HTML, TEXT and AOL
– Three different environments…
House File Creation
• Domain Segmentation
– Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, Mail.com, USA.net (
these represent about 75 % of all HTML
enabled email accounts)
– “Sniffer” Technology
• Identify HTML enabled Email Clients while mail is
being sent.
• 90 % accurate
• The other 10% is a problem
House File Creation
• AOL Segmentation
– AOL is not TEXT or HTML
• Without Tag in AOL
• With HREF tag in AOL
• AOL can be up to 30% of some consumer
mailings.
Components of the Message
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From Line
Subject Line
Header/Footer
Remove/Unsubscribe
Prospect Header issues
Personalization
Body copy
Components of the Message
• From Line
– CNET Digital Dispatch
– [[email protected]]
• As short as possible
• As clear as possible
• It is the envelope, misperceive that you are spam.
– You don’t want to be deleted
Components of the Message
• The Don'ts
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Important Message
SUPER SAVER
Re: how are you
Free Software
Unlimited access
“Guaranteed”
Hi
• The Do’s
– Identify your company
– 35 Character or less
– Personalization in
subject works
– Put your company
name
Subject Headings We Can Live Without
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Important Message
PLS support us
Very important Announcement
Protect your health
SUPER software sale
“Work smarter not harder”
“$4370 a month for life
Great mortgage Leads
We’ll pay your debts!!!
• Start earning money while you
are sleeping
• RE: How are you doing
• LOSE 30 POUNDS IN 30
DAYS, GUARANTEED
• Unlimited Long Distance
Calling for Only $25/month
• Free web site analysis
• The Internet Spy! Find out
anything about anyone
• FRAMELESS BUILDING
CONSTRUCTION
The Components of the Message
• Header/Footer
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Header
– This special offer is only sent to fake email list.com registrants who have opted-in
to receive information and special offers. This message is delivered to you via
Emailtransmitter.com
The to email address
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Footer
– [email protected]
– If you would like to be omitted from future offers from the fake emaillist.com
please reply to offer@fakeemaillist .com with remove in subject line.
Where did the message come
from and why?
Which name is the customer
To: [email protected]
Likely to recognize
From: Our company and or Brand
You are receiving this message because you opted in at
your web site to receive new product information. If you
do not wish to receive these messages in the future, please
click here or follow the instructions below.
Recipients are more likely to
Read your message if you are specific about the
relationship
Easy Unsubscribe
To: [email protected]
From: Our company and or Brand
We only want to send e-mail to those wish to receive it. If you
wold not like to receive email from us please go to [email protected] or reply to this message
with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line
The Components of the Message
• Body Copy
– Newsletter Mailings
• 500-1500 words
– Prospect mailings
• 200-500 words
– Repeat Links
• Put your URL everywhere
– Lots of people read mail from preview.
– Good for testing
» Htm1
» Htm2
» Htm3
Some quick tips
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Include more than one link within mailing
Keep it short-no longer than 1 printed page
Sign the email from real person…not just a company
How often can you mail? Watch your unsubscribe rate carefully…that
will tell you
– More than once a week is dangerous!
• When to mail
– B2B 10:00 Tuesday thru Thursday works best (before lunch)
– Consumer anytime??
– Within 24 hours you will know the 70% response rate
– 48 hours 70-80%
Some quick tips
• Subject Lines
– Make sure your subject line is killer
– Be very careful of the use of FREE
– Keep your subject line to 35 characters
• Personalized mail is guaranteed to out pull
• First line extremely important
– May be displayed within recipients email client
– 50% decide whether to keep reading after 1st two
sentences.
Rules of Thumb with Email
• Make it very clear where the message is coming
from and why
• Make it very easy to unsubscribe
• If the customer did not explicitly opt-in,
DO NOT assume they will accept opt-out.
• Don’t rent your list! Transferring permission is
difficult and should be done cautiously
• Avoid spammish copy
Writing Effective Email
• Before you begin, tell them how to
unsubscribe
• Begin&End with a hyperlink
• Tailor message to your audience
– Keep it short & Sweet
• Raise excitement, include call to action
– Web site, not email, closes the transaction
Crafting an Email Campaign
• Targeting
– Personalization
• In-house list,established relationship-YES
• Prospect list, no relationship – Tread carefully
– Could trigger privacy fears
– Risk may exceed reward
Measuring Success
Maximize ROI
Test
Measure
Refine
Before you mail
• Segment out HTML, TEXT..
• Important: Segment AOL users
Steps in Measuring the Campaign
-Emails delivered
• Bounce rate
• Retry programs
• Soft Bounce – [email protected]
– A soft bounce occurs most often because of an error in a subscriber's email
address. A misspelled name or something as simple as a missing space or
dash can cause a soft bounce.
• Hard bounce – [email protected]
– A hard bounce occurs most often because of an error in a subscriber's email
address (wrong host). You should unsubscribe hard bounces from your list.
Steps in Measuring the Campaign
-Emails delivered
• Actual were delivered
– Hard/soft bounce
– Hotmail and Yahoo issues
– Retry programs- How often do you try to remail bounces
• Some of your bounces can be fixed.
Measurement
What you should be measuring
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Lists, Newsletters all email
Emails delivered
CTR
TEXT vs. HTML vs. AOL
Inquiries, Sales or depth of site
Transactions
Pass alongs
Testing
• Yes, Yes, Yes
– Huge benefit of email
• High response rate, requires smaller test cells
– 500 HTML message 1000 text message
• 75% of responses within 48 hours
• Costs to change copy, graphics, inexpensive
• http://www.clickz.com/article/cz.2369.html#
• http://www.clickz.com/article/cz.3137.html
Outside Email Lists
• Discussion list sponsorships
• Newsletter sponsorships
• Standalone permission lists
Email Discussion Lists
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Similar to newsgroups
Moderated, open
Topically driven
Earn revenue driven through sponsorships
Generally small….but targeted
Not widely known about by marketers so
may be a hidden gem
Newsletter Sponsorships
• Niche oriented
• Content driven
– Provide free Free Value-Added benefits to those
who want to be informed, educated or
entertained
• Loyal readership
• Revenue driven by sponsorships,text ads
Newsletter Sponsorship
Newsletter Sponsorship Universe
• Response is likely to be 25% or less than
response from an email list
• But costs are lower too.
• Greater targeting available
– Especially BtoB
Newsletter Sponsorship Universe
• Where to find them….
– www.e-zines.com
– Sites that sell banner ad space
• List brokers
• Time sensitive availability
– Holiday Seasons
Newsletter Sponsorship Universe
• Size can be deceiving
• Must make sure all names are unique
– Newspaper sites generally
– 300 000 may mean 100,000 sent x 3
• This is a space medium!!!!
– Must buy 2 months in andvance
– Nearing any holiday buy 3 months in advance
List Exchange
• Fastest growing part of Email Marketing
Standalone Permission Lists
• People who have said “Yes I am interested:
– In the market for something,have a need or interest in a
type of product or service
– Relevant to lifestyle,household, family need, hobby,
passion etc.
• Subscribers have control
• Marketers get results
– Because customers want to receive their information
Standalone Permission Lists
Only use true permission lists
• User selection tremendously better than
default opt-in program
• Be afraid-be very afraid
• Ask for case studies or references
• Find out how people opted in
• Verify it.
Never use a list like this
• 77 million fresh email addresses for only
$69
That is right 77 million with no
duplications.That is less than $1 per million
names. Can you make 1 cent from each of
these names?
Standalone Permission Lists
• Typical price range: $150 to $500+ CPM
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Cost driven by demand
Consumer lists at lower end of pricing range
B2B lists at upper end of pricing range.
Some lists are standalone…although the source
of the list is usually mentioned.
Standalone Permission Lists
• Consumer Lists
– Few response files on the market…most are
lists where people have indicated an interest in
a particular subject.
– Selects include recency, geographic location,
interest area, gender.
• B2B Lists
– Very selectable: SIC codes, title, number of
people in company etc.
Standalone Permission Lists
• Targeting
– Lists do’s and don’ts
– Do not mail unless you are 100% permission sure
– Do ask the source-many companies selling the same
lists
– Do not be cheap-the risks are great
– Do scrub list for duplicates
– Do provide clear “remove” access
Permission List Networks
Problems with Permission Lists
• You can’t merge/purge
– List owners are very concerned about the security of
their list. They usually designate one trusted company
to deliver all email to their names
• Some will allow you to send them your house file
for suppression
– But marketers may need to send their file to multiple
service bureaus and that is a concern for marketers own
list security
Prospects List Universe
• List Brokers Role
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Media
Tracking
First Usage
Cut costs
Advice