Best Practices for Email

Combining Social Marketing and Email Successfully

Social Marketing is the new craze. Most of us are using Facebook or one of the many other social networks on the web.  Can social networks like Facebook help you with your email marketing? Yes.

Here are some ideas using Facebook

If a large portion of your subscriber list is already on Facebook, you can provide tools in your email campaigns to allow your readers to help share your content. This will give you the power to leverage your growing audience and gain much more visibility for your content or message.

This has the potential to lead to more subscribers and conversions as you share your content with your network of subscribers.

Share Links from Email to Facebook

To be able to share your content or message on Facebook, you need to use the share URL that Facebook has created. By doing this, it will create a preview of your content, which can then be posted to a Facebook profile or sent as a direct message.

The simplest way to give a subscriber the option to share your link is to add this code into your email.

Just replace URL with the link you want to share.

A lot of sites will also feature a Facebook button on their website or in their email to do the same thing. After you click on the link, it creates a preview with optional image selections from the page URL provided.

Once the link is posted to a reader’s profile, their wall is updated, which basically is telling their friends that they have read or feel the link is important.This not only shows up on the profile page, but also shows up in the news feed of their friends.

Showing up in multiple news feeds is when you start to leverage that user’s entire friend list. This process has the potential to move virally as people leave comments or share the item with their friends and family.

Ask Subscribers to Become Fans

This is where promoting your Facebook page in email starts to blur the line between email marketing and social networking. When someone visits oyur page and clicks on the “become a fan” link, they are essentially opting-in to Facebook’s version of email marketing, which Facebook calls “updates”.

When a user logs in to their Facebook account, they will be notified of any updates and directed to their Facebook inbox.

Just like in email marketing, users are given the ability to opt-out of these updates or report them as spam.

Following email marketing’s best practices on frequency apply here as well. Don’t over communicate because that will just end up labeling you as a spammer and people will start to opt-out from your updates.

Anatomy of a Great Email + New Emotional Social Marketing Tool

Powered by Greeting Flix Emotional Marketing Tool Created by a long time client of mine, Chris Lombardo has an extraordinary way for a company to weave their key  advertising messages into memorable user-generated content - amplified with the element of personal photos. and packaged in a client branded microsite (check out the Gerber link here) A branded "Powered by Greeting Flix" microsite site allows visitors to quickly create highly-entertaining branded videos featuring their personal photos, which can be shared with friends & family, forwarded, posted to blogs, and accessed at any time for repeated distribution. Videos can include printable coupons, links to specific web pages, and additional advertising (if desired) on the "recipient view" page. Many large companies are looking at this flavor of technology to drive some of their social marketing initiatives - let me know if you have an interest! See's Candies May 2009 Email Review Here is company that takes stock in using the best practices in email marketing to create comelling and user friendly email campaigns. Let's take a closer look.  A: Notice how See's has added the main call to action in the header of their email (What the sale message is and a link). This is great, since so many people triage their emails on a PDAS and html might not display correctly. Plus, they have added the "view the message as web ink" and reminded the recipient again to add the from address to the safe sender list. B. Great use of personalization within the body of the email. It works nicely. However, as you can see my name is in all CAPS. They should rework their data from proper case within name fields. Go here to learn how to do that. Key "call to action" is above the fold (top 1/3 of email). Make sure you let your recipients see your main call to action at the top of your email not at the bottom -- they may not reach it if that is the case. Improvement Suggestion:  So many email browsers block images by default. Why take a chance that the recipient has not enabled images.  See's has not taken advantage of this and should use alt tags and text so the person can understand what the image represents if they cannot see it. C. Have multiple areas where a recipient can click to an action. Use both graphic as well as text links. When you review your tracking results you wil then be able see whay links were most effective. Many email solutions like ExactTarget have an overlay feature that let's you preview the email and visually see what links were click most often and by whom. D. Normally, companies offer an email signup page and/or website registration form to capture consumers' opt-ins, which are the most valuable commodities in the digital world - an opportunity to build a two way dialogue with your customer!  Consider having a link to your customer's preferences. Give them choice! E. I love the way See's gives the recipient a chance to view the sample comunication before they opt for it! How do they want to receive communications i.e. multiple platforms (email, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Provide the ability to change preferences, formats, languages, etc. Let them choose frequency of updates Asking them their preferences as it relates to the products or services you offer  Let them choose types of communications and adjust as you go, as opposed to unsubscribing from all Provide a sneak peak of any offered communications Tell them how data will be treated and information on other privacy issues Explain how to remove oneself with ease from any or all communications ************

Using the Email Header to Highlight Your offer

The future is now with regard to email marketing's role as a key digital marketing choice for today's challenging economic times. A recent StrongMail study showed that more than half (51 percent) of the nearly 1,000 global business leaders polled plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2009 to focus on programs that yield a higher return on investment, such as email marketing and search. Let's take a look at a few key items to drive your response results immediately!

1. Use the Header copy to your advantage and highlight the offer.
2. Optimize for mobile viewers.
3. Use alt tags.
4. Preference Center is the new "go to" web page for your customers

An example by Harry & David using text copy above the graphic email banner to allow recipients to either view the email as a web page or on a mobile device. Plus they have also highlighted the key action and subject of the email. clicking in the mobile device provides a text email that is optimized for the small screen of PDAs.

So many email browsers block images by default. Why take a chance that the recipient has not enabled images. Use alt tags and text so the person can understand what the image represents.

Normally,  companies offer an email signup page and/or website registration form to capture consumers' opt-ins, which are the most valuable commodities in the digital world - an opportunity to build a two way dialogue with your customer!  Remember, these are customers and prospects raising their hands to say, "Yes, please market to me." E marketing can be the "connective glue" in your marketing programs. Consider:

• How do they want to receive communications i.e. multiple platforms (email, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Provide the ability to change preferences, formats, languages, etc.
• Let them choose frequency of updates
• Asking them their preferences as it relates to the products or services you offer 
• Let them choose types of communications and adjust as you go, as opposed to unsubscribing from all
• Provide a sneak peak of any offered communications
• Tell them how data will be treated and information on other privacy issues
• Explain how to remove oneself with ease from any or all communications

A great way to obtain this additional information is in the confirmation email, after they have initially said "yes" to communication. An immediate incentive or offer can help the customer go the extra mile to link to the customer profile page to fill out / update the other information.

Note, the nice use of tabs above for both updating preferences and changing your email by HP.

Can SPAM Refresher

In 2003 Congress passed the Can-Spam Act. This law is designed to help cut down on the volume of spam email through the US. Even if you're not based in the States, complying with the Can-Spam act will significantly improve your deliverability.

Can-Spam basically includes six major provisions. They are:
1.The email message must not have misleading header information.
2.The message must not have a misleading subject line.
3.The message must come from a functioning return email address.
4.Senders must remove all unsubscribe requests within 10 business days.
5.Commercial email must display the physical postal address of the sender.
6.Any unsolicited emails must clearly identify that it's an advertising message. The recipient must have the opportunity to decline further emails.

It's very important that every email you send contains an unsubscribe link. If someone requests to unsubscribe, the law states that you have ten business days to remove him. Your ESP, like Exact Target will process these opt-out requests for you. This ensures that you always comply with the Can-Spam regulations.

Email and Search Go Hand in Hand

Use your site's search function to help target messaging.

 If someone logs on and searches for a specific product, on your web site, you're missing out if you don't use that information to target your email messaging. Don't to be too obvious, but if a person  searches for a pair of shoes, you can send your regular e-mail message and end it with a message about  your shoe offers. Remember this is not rocket science – find a need and fill it – be targeted and customer centric in your approach.

Use e-mail to nurture paid search prospects.

 If you click on most paid search ads, you'll find plenty of product information, but what you may not find is an opt-in option. The average paid search conversion rate is 2% to 4%. Many companies are now using the paid search as a way to increase their prospect email lists.  If you're advertising  on Google AdWords, the value of e-mail becomes - What do we do with the other 96 or 98 people? It doesn't take away from the main conversion goal, but an e-mail opt-in can become a very strong secondary call to action.  If the person who clicked on your add opts in, your ROI goes up when—weeks or several months out—a few more of those people convert  to customers. Food fort hought.

10 Things Your CMO Needs to Know About Email NOW

In today’s economic environment this holiday season, it is likely that you are challenged to protect their email marketing budget.  To assist you in responding to this challenge, ExactTarget, one of the company ESPs I represent as a reseller in the Los Angeles area,  has developed an Executive Alert titled 10 Things Your C-Suite Must Know About Email Now.  There is great info in this piece! Here are some excerpts and a link to download the pdf of the document- super holiday reading!

 

The quick and easy read serves to bridge the gap between marketers and company leaders in the understanding of email marketing and highlights best practices for email marketing implementation, benefits, and pitfalls to avoid.

 

In the midst of a weakening global economy, many companies struggling to make the numbers are reverting to what they know: cost-cutting across the board and that includes marketing budgets. This document equips marketers with a list of 10 important email marketing best practices that they can easily share with their executive team to help them understand the critical role played by email in facilitating sales and maintaining strong customer relationships. Some of the email truths include:

  

−      Email is Everywhere

−      Email is Cost-Effective

−      Email is Profitable

−      Email Demands Permission

−      Email Demands Integration

−      Email is Personal

−      Email is Immediate

−      Email is Mobile

−      Email is Flexible

−      Email is Measurable

• The facts and statistics provided within the Executive Alert will give marketers the support they need when making the case for why it is critical to invest time, talent, and resources in email communication efforts.
• Some of the insights marketers can use to educate their executive team, include:

−      “Batch and blast” is not a strategy – it’s a recipe for subscriber revolt and delivery disaster.

−      Email is best used for customer retention and lead nurturing – other tactics such as search marketing are better for customer acquisition.

−      Email is not direct mail. The inbox is not the mailbox – it’s a far more personal space.

• Includes three “bonus” points which include:

−      Permission Email is Not Spam

−      Email is Social

−      Email is the Future

 

To download the entire document go here

In today’s economic environment this holiday season, it is likely that you are challenged to protect their email marketing budget.  To assist you in responding to this challenge, ExactTarget, one of the company ESP I represent as a reseller in the Los Angeles area,  has developed an Executive Alert titled 10 Things Your C-Suite Must Know About Email Now.  There is great info in this piece! Here are some excepts and a link to download the pdf of the document- super holiday reading.

 

The Executive Alert serves to bridge the gap between marketers and company leaders in the understanding of email marketing and highlights best practices for email marketing implementation, benefits, and pitfalls to avoid.

 

Key highlights from the alert include:

·         In the midst of a weakening global economy, many companies struggling to make the numbers are reverting to what they know: cost-cutting across the board and that includes marketing budgets. This Executive Alert equips marketers with a list of 10 important email marketing best practices that they can easily share with their executive team to help them understand the critical role played by email in facilitating sales and maintaining strong customer relationships. Some of the email truths include:

−     Email is Everywhere

−     Email is Cost-Effective

−     Email is Profitable

−     Email Demands Permission

−     Email Demands Integration

−     Email is Personal

−     Email is Immediate

−     Email is Mobile

−     Email is Flexible

−     Email is Measurable

• The facts and statistics provided within the Executive Alert will give marketers the support they need when making the case for why it is critical to invest time, talent, and resources in email communication efforts.
• Some of the insights marketers can use to educate their executive team, include:

−     “Batch and blast” is not a strategy – it’s a recipe for subscriber revolt and delivery disaster.

−     Email is best used for customer retention and lead nurturing – other tactics such as search marketing are better for customer acquisition.

−     Email is not direct mail. The inbox is not the mailbox – it’s a far more personal space.

• Includes three “bonus” points which include:

−     Permission Email is Not Spam

−     Email is Social

−     Email is the Future

  

 Link to the pdf document

Consumers Opening Less Emails This Season

Opens and clicks have been falling, but marketers aren’t about to drop their favorite tactic.

Fewer consumers worldwide are opening marketing e-mails, according to a November 2008 study by MailerMailer.

The company found that the average marketing e-mail open rate fell to 13.20% in the first half of 2008, compared with 16.11% in the first half of 2007. Click rates also fell, from 3.18% in the first half of 2007 to 2.73% in the first half of this year.

MailerMailer said that some industries had higher open rates for their marketing e-mail, with banking/finance, religious/spiritual, government and telecommunications having more success than other verticals.

As revealed in previous studies, shorter subject lines performed better than longer ones. Subject lines of less than 35 characters yielded an average open rate of 19.6% and a 3.1% average click rate. E-mails with subject lines of 35 or more characters drew average open rates of 14.8% and average click rates of 1.9%.

As the most-established digital marketing tactic, e-mail may lack the glamour of other methods, but marketers continue to prize e-mail when it comes to producing results.

Online retailers worldwide surveyed in July and August 2008 by E-Consultancy and R.O.EYE said that e-mail was second only to paid search when it came to driving high volume. The sample size was relatively small, at 241 online retailers. However, the results are in line with similar surveys. Nearly four out of 10 search engine advertisers worldwide surveyed in January 2008 by Radar Research for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) said e-mail marketing yielded the best ROI of any tactic.

Emarketing Myths - The Real Deal

Emarketing Myths: The Real Deal

There are still a number of email myths that are floating around marketing departments and next to the proverbial office water cooler. Let's take a closer look at some of them. 

Myth #1: The CAN-SPAM Act doesn't require permission

Reality: Many companies use the CAN-SPAM act as a license to send out email and avoid getting explicit permission before emailing. Permission is the foundation of customer relevance and trust.

CAN-SPAM does not require opt-in. However, if you don't have opted-in customers, the act requires a statement in your emails such as "This is an advertisement." Would you open emails with that in the subject line? Plus, the vast majority of email service providers will not let you send email through their system if the addresses are not opted-in.

Remember customer define spam as "Unwanted" mail - even if they have subscribed before in the past.

Myth #2: Open rates the best measure of email successReality: Today, the preview pane and image blocking have turned the open metric into an inaccurate metric that no longer measures what it was originally intended to. Build a "call to action" in your email and measure your click thru rates instead.

More and more people are now viewing their emails on mobile devices today, most of which do not render images. Recent email studies estimate that both consumers and business email users view from a quarter to a half of their emails in a preview pane, and 50-60 percent block images by default.

Myth #3: Email is cheap.

Reality: Your customers and the ISPs affect email results by access. Increased frequency can often deliver short-term results, but it also increases list churn through higher spam complaints and unsubscribes. Once a customer globallly unsubscribes you cannot resent to them unless they request to be added to your list again. Your customer list and subsequent lifetime value is an asset - treat it wisely.

Use email to drive more sales or conversions doing more personalized, segmented, and targeted messaging rather than just sending the same messages over and over.

 

Myth #4: "I cannot improve my delivery rates"

Reality: Your sender reputation with your ISP really affects your delivery rate. Concentrate on it and you can improve your delivery.

• Obtain subscriber permission
• Authenticate your emails
• Perform regular list hygiene
• Minimize spam complaints through relevancy and frequency monitoring
• Monitor your sender reputation
• Remove hard bounces, unsubscribe requests and spam complaints immediately
• Eliminate coding errors
• Checking for and remove questionable content and design approaches (e.g., single large images) that may get your messages blocked or filtered.

 

Myth #5: Larger lists are better

Reality:   A smaller list of highly engaged subscribers will outperform a larger mostly inactive list everytime. These days marketing is about ROI. Segment your list by subscriber engagment and RFM. Then send and manage those groups individually - You might be surprised at the results!  

Email is the perfect channel for engaging subscribers through a highly personalized and targeted approach.

Myth #6: "Batch and blast" still works fine

Reality: Not all customers are the same! Advances in email marketing software now make sophisticated techniques such as segmenting,  lifecycle, and trigger-based email programs possible for all marketers.

Research also supports moving an email program from simple broadcasting to a more targeted approach. Conversions in clickstream-based emails outpaced untargeted broadcast emails 4 to 1, according to a 2006 JupiterResearch study.

And, while targeted or trigger-based campaigns can cost more to produce (according to salary requirements), they also generate far more revenue, the study said.

Triggered campaigns on average bring in 171 percent more revenue than broadcast campaigns; lifecycle campaigns perform 389 percent better and clickstream campaigns perform 781 better than broadcast, according to the JupiterResearch report.

How to get started:

• Reallocate resources: Instead of sending two weekly "blast" messages, turn one into a trigger-based message. Once you do that, it can run virtually on autopilot thereafter.
• Analyze: Compare a broadcast campaign to a targeted one -- even one as simple as emailing the entire list versus previous buyers. Results do not lie. 
• Learn:  You can avail yourself to a multitude of email conferences - they are happening all the time - including the mention of ET Connections 08 below.  Explore webinars, whitepapers and blog posts online. 
• Do one thing different with every message: Consider targeting recipients who clicked on a specific link in your last broadcast email, and test the results. That's all it takes to get started

Shrink Your House Email List and Increase Your Results - What?

Subscribing to an email list is easy-so easy in fact, it leads some subscribers to request emails in which they have only a passing interest. As time goes by, that half-hearted interest can dwindle and become non-existent.

The Impact of "Dead Weight Subscribers" on Your Email Performance

Many marketers work hard to build larger mailing lists, but by doing so they can adversely affect the very data used to reflect campaign success. Current research has shown Conversion Rate, Open Rate and Click-through Rate to be the metrics most used by marketers when assessing email performance.

1. "Dead weight subscribers" who receive, but rarely or never engage with your emails, have a negative impact on these key metrics simply by remaining on your recipient list.
2.  They also make it more difficult to accurately test the success of different email strategies (e.g. subject line testing), as these types of subscribers can skew your results.

These subscribers will eventually tire of deleting your emails without opening them, and may inaccurately mark your message as SPAM even though they opted-in to your list. The easily-accessible "Report as SPAM" tools on popular email clients can be viewed as more convenient than the unsubscribe process, and uninterested recipients are more likely than anyone to take this path of least resistance-which can harm your reputation as a sender. 

A smaller list made up of actively engaged subscribers should deliver improved email metrics, and can be attained without taking the ultimate step of deleting addresses.

Steps to Take Before Deleting

1.  Send an open-ended survey to your subscribers who have not opened and/or clicked a link within an email in the past six months, asking for feedback as to what content they would like to see in future emails. Make sure the subject line (e.g., "Help Improve Our Newsletter") makes it clear this is not just another typical email communication to these subscribers; this will help produce greater feedback.

 Not only will this feedback provide valuable insight into areas where your emails may be lacking, but being spoken to directly can re-engage these subscribers with your email. If certain subscribers continue to show no response to your emails even after special effort has been made to target them, it is likely they have no interest in receiving further communications, and they can be removed with no regrets.

2.  Another less permanent approach would be to filter the email addresses of all dead weight subscribers into a separate list. This way, the overall number of subscribers stays the same and the same content can be delivered to all subscribers, but the segmented list of dead weight subscribers will have its metrics reported separately from the main list. You can also leverage this separation to test various tactics to increase engagement with these subscribers, such as differing subject lines and offers.