Best Practices for Email

Main Goal for Email is Retention Efforts

Three out of four e-mail campaigns focus on customer retention, while the remaining quarter are for new customer acquisition, according to the latest version of an annual Direct Marketing Association (DMA) study.

Company announcements are a popular customer acquisition method, with 68% of respondents saying they used this method. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they send out company newsletters, and 63% use special discounts and one-time offers.

Two-thirds of marketers use special offer codes when sending e-mail as part of an integrated campaign.

The DMA categorized responding firms as advanced, intermediate or beginner; as marketers or service providers; as business-to-consumer or business-to-business (or both); and by company size.

B2C firms use e-mail marketing more than B2B firms. B2C marketers estimated that they would allocate 11% of their total marketing budgets for e-mail marketing in 2007. B2B firms said that they would allocate only 6.5%.

The frequency with which marketers send e-mails has grown since 2005.

Email- Fast Facts and Thoughts

E-mail has nearly total penetration, with 97% of consumers and 94% of marketers using the channel, according to a new study by JupiterResearch.

Click-through rates have remained steady since 2003, at an average of 5%.

E-mail marketing is a success in the sense that consumers who buy products advertised in e-mails spend 138% more online than peers who do not.

When e-mail solicitations work, they work quickly: 29% of all online consumers buy immediately following an offer.

Three-fifths of e-mail forwarding is done by women. The study also found that consumers ages 18-34 often use a separate address just for marketing e-mails.

Nearly a third of respondents said that they read promotional e-mails, looking for promotions when opening e-mail and forwarding them to friends

According to Jupiter Research, 93% of U.S. Internet users consider email their top online activity. Email is a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to communicate with prospects, customers, and vendors.

Points to Ponder:

How do you use email marketing effectively, without irritating your recipients? Can you answer these simple questions below:

• How often to send email
• How to write messages that get a response
• Why you must systematically deliver what your customers value, and quickly fix problems when you don't
• When to use HTML and when to use text only
• How to build lists that perform

Good Use of Data is Required for Effective Email Delivery

Make a point to take some time this quarter to evaluate your current email marketing practices for improved deliverability in the year ahead. The email delivery landscape is constantly changing, so practices that have worked in the beginning may be less effective now. As an email marketer, you are need to keep up with the latest skills for improving your email programs.

Best practices in data capture
Let's discuss the first thing you have to do to be successful in email marketing: capture data. It sets the stage for future deliverability. The way in which you capture your customers' data is critical. It marks the beginning of a customer relationship that will evolve over time. At this initial interaction with the customer, you need to collect critical data reliably so you can create rules of engagement for all future communications. 

1.) Strategy
When identifying which data to capture, you should consider the value exchange (i.e. what you'll be offering the customer in return). If you ask for too much data, you risk having the customer abandon the form. On the flip side, you don't want to overlook data that you'll need in order to provide the service. It's also a good idea to test the optimal amount of data to be collected. And don't ask for information that you won't or can't use, as that can reflect poorly on your organization in the long run.

Data capture shouldn't be viewed as a single event, but rather as a continuum. You should always be on the lookout for events consistent with the value exchange that allows you to ask for additional information. Of course, you should also have backend systems in place that allow users to update their information from an account management page.

2.) Customer Preferences
Establishing customer preferences means allowing them to identify the information that they want to receive and how they want to receive it. Give your customers the option to sign up for marketing offers, new product announcements, company newsletters, etc. In doing so, you empower your marketing organization with the information required to deliver relevant messages that address your customers' needs and wants. You will also want to establish how often they want to receive information for your company.

By asking for the right type of information, you can find out if your customers want HTML or text emails, or if they are using a PDA to view their emails. Once you gather this information you will be able to tailor future mailings with this type of personalization.

3.) Expectation Setting
In addition to collecting pertinent information, you also need to inform customers of what they they'll be getting. By spelling out exactly what they'll get and how often they'll get it, you can set proper expectations and help avoid future complaints. Disclosure should be made on the sign-up page as well as sent in a confirmation email. The latter will serve as a permanent record that should reconfirm expectations. Additionally, the confirmation email will allow you to validate the email address and delete the record if it bounces. Be upfront about what they'll receive with each opt-in-- if they know they'll be getting a newsletter every week, there should be no surprises. 

4.) Reliability and Accessibility
Identifying the right information to gather is just the first step. As you are collecting this data you need to put controls in place to ensure that critical information like email addresses and passwords is entered correctly.  Double entry verification for these important fields can provide an easy way to verify that the information is at least entered correctly. While making someone enter their email address twice does not ensure that it is their proper email address, it will reduce the number of bad email addresses in your customer list. 

You amy also want to consider where on your website you place the signup for your newsletters and other email programs. While most companies offer a signup link on their home page, some neglect to keep these links persistent across all pages within their website. This is especially important for companies using search engine advertising to drive customers to their site. If a sponsored link bypasses a signup page, you've missed out on a valuable opportunity to collect their information. Another important aspect to remember is to put your signup links above the fold where it is easy for everyone to see it.

By following these rules when you are collecting your customers' data, you will be well on your way to increasing your deliverability. (paraphrased article from Strongmail)

Old Challenges with Email Never Go Away

'Who gets this stuff and who reads it?'

As long as there has been advertising, marketers have been trying to identify their customers and potential customers, along with trying to understand what makes them tick and which campaign elements make them buy and which do not.

Some things never seem to change.

At least that is the conclusion of a new survey from Silverpop, an e-mail service provider (ESP), conducted by JupiterResearch.

In a poll of 422 e-mail marketers, 34% of them said that a lack of customer data is the largest hurdle they face.

Additionally, 32% said they struggled with analyzing campaign results.

In other words: "Exactly who did we send this mailing to and what did the responses (or lack thereof) mean?"

"The ability to analyze customer data in meaningful ways is more important than ever for marketers," said Elaine O'Gorman of Silverpop. "Driving Web site traffic, personalizing content and improving ROI can't happen without sufficient levels of customer data and sophisticated analysis of that data."

Consequently, it is not surprising that when seeking the assistance of an email solution provider or consultant, four out of 10 marketers who send 50,000 or more e-mails a month look for customized reporting capabilities from within an e-mail marketing application, and 38% identify the ability to program recurring campaigns as important. Campaign triggering capabilities also ranked high at 35%.

FIVE TACTICS TO ENHANCE EMAIL EFFECTIVENESS

1. Supervise Spam. Check the percent of messages that
are marked as spam by recipients. If it’s above expectations,
find out why. Did multiple departments inundate customers
with too many emails at the same time? Did the subject line
trigger an ISP spam filter? Whatever the cause, use the information
to improve over time.

2. Always authenticate. Validate your authorization to
send email to the major ISPs, using a mechanism such as
the signature-based DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), or
the open-source Sender Policy Framework (SPF).

3. Weigh the whitelist. Use one or more third-party
whitelisting services to establish your reputation among
ISPs. It won’t guarantee delivery of your email messages to
the inbox, but it will certainly help.

4. Diagnose delivery. Routinely monitor email delivery
reports from each ISP to detect problems. Because individual
email marketers don’t have much influence at the large
ISPs, this is one area where an Email Service Provider (ESP)
delivers a benefit.

5. Test, test. Every marketer knows that subject lines, layout
and copy should be tested. “Get real, every A/B split doubles
the work,” is the typical marketer response. But with today’s
technology, testing is less resource intensive and makes for
much more effective campaigns.

Segmenting your Email List at Sign up- What a concept!

Segmentation of your email list to create relevant experiences for your customers is the hard part (and well worth it for higher response and deliverability). Yet, many marketers skip over the easy part: applying a segmentation strategy to the registration process. The best time to offer a choice of email types, content or frequency is at signup: that lets you build a larger list of engaged, active subscribers.

The first and last rule of registration is gaining permission. Regardless of which permission standard you use (double opt-in, validated opt-in, single opt-in or opt-out), it's imperative to eliminate any surprise when subscribers don't recognize what you've sent as what they thought was promised. Surprised subscribers do not respond, and worse, they unsubscribe or report you as a spammer to ISPs, causing complaints that hamper inbox deliverability for all your email.

Be obvious about what your subscribers can expect from you-- in terms of frequency, timing, content and use of data. No matter what you plan to do, be sure to disclose it during data capture, on the confirmation/thank you page as well as in the welcome message. If you are going to customize the content based on any segmentation -- subscriber-selected, data-based (e.g., demographic) or behavioral -- highlight that during the registration process, as well. You'll set more clear expectations by using the language most appealing to each segment. You'll also improve conversion on your form, get more accurate data and grow your file more quickly. Here's how it can work for you.

Sign 'em up, then segment 'em out

For many B2C marketers, it’s a best practice to convert as many website visitors to your email list by using a one-field form-- collecting an email address only. So how do you segment based on just an email address? Well--you can't!

First, use the landing page to gather more data. Don’t make it mandatory, but be sure to present some benefit to the subscriber. Sometimes it’s enough to let subscribers know that they can get more custom or relevant information if they provide additional data. Offer a "Guide to Great Fall Sweaters" or "Three Tips to Lighting Even the Darkest Corners of Your Home." Usually, these guides can be easily created from content already on your website. Just package it up into an easily printed PDF guidebook. It doesn’t need to be long or detailed -- just relevant -- in order to be interesting to new subscribers.

B2B marketers can employ this same strategy by offering a whitepaper. In some ways, offering content as the "thank you" is stronger than other incentives because it’s relevant. It also helps you set the stage for future email messages-- your subscribers are more likely to be active and engaged if you entice them with material that is related to your email program. 

Capture data with logical flow

If your form is multi-page, then it's easy to see how dynamic rendering of fields and drop-down boxes can be used to customize future pages based on customer input. Even simple data-enabled HTML forms can create custom experiences through the order of the questions and the language you use for each segment.

Keep your form short and easy to navigate. Always collect the email address first, and then ask for interests and demographics, letting the prospect know why you need the information at each step. Be sure to include a link to your Privacy Policy or a statement  that "we will never spam you."

Use a "progress bar" to show how much longer the form is, or how far the participant has come in the process. This helps reduce churn. For very long forms (20 questions or more), consider placing a "save now" or "remind me next week to come back and finish" button at regular intervals, so that folks who are tired or distracted can save their partial data. You can let them know on the form and in the reminder email that they won't enjoy full benefits without filling in the entire form.

Customizing language
Use segment identifying questions (gender, job title, purchasing power, interests, et cetera) to create unique paths, and customize the language as you learn more about the prospect.

Speak to mothers differently than expectant mothers, to men differently than women, to urban dwellers differently than suburbanites. Send business prospects down a different path than consumers, or influencers (i.e., CFOs) down a shorter path than decision makers (i.e., IT directors).

HP does it right
Hewlett Packard’s Technology at Work email program requires each subscriber to fill in a three- to four-page form. The value proposition promises subscribers a customized newsletter, specific to their hardware and product use. At each stage of the form, each selection dictates the next set of questions. Select a specific printer, and all subsequent questions should speak to the utility, software and accessories for that printer. If the subscriber indicates a future purchase is imminent, another set of questions is triggered to help Hewlett Packard send relevant promotions.

Give subscribers the option to self-select into segments that appeal to them, rather than assume that what you plan to send is most welcome. Highlight this option on the confirmation page and in a "New Subscriber" survey that you send out two to three email messages into your program. Include an offer: "Like what you're getting? Get more, less or change it completely here."

Customize confirmation, welcome

Confirm the details of your email program on the confirmation page and in the welcome message. It's never safe to think that anyone will read it just because it's on the page, in the footer or a click away in the privacy policy.

Be sure to repeat the details several times in simple, clear language. "Welcome! You're a successful business owner, so we'll be emailing you business management ideas and case studies from leading experts every week. Want other business growth ideas? Sign up here."

For example,

Offer appropriate next steps

The confirmation page and welcome message are not merely destinations, they are portals.

Include segment-appropriate links and offer next-step navigation to speed new subscribers onward to relevant content, product reviews or contact information. A prominent site search feature on these pages can be very popular.

Omaha Steaks offers new subscribers "exclusive offers selected just for email subscribers." As soon as you sign up, you receive a "thank you" offer.

Condense the distance between the registration and the value you send via email-- your welcome message is the first opportunity. Be sure it arrives in a timely manner (we recommend immediately, or within 24 hours) and is specific to the content and value promised. 

Promote change

It's a best practice to provide your email subscribers with an easy-to-access

Email Preference Center and link to it from your footer. Be proactive, too. Encourage subscribers to visit the Center and update their content preferences, take a survey, sign up for more/different newsletters and update their email addresses.

Send a specific "Get More of What You Like" campaign every quarter, or include a promotion in the sidebar of your newsletter. Be sure your program keeps pace with your subscribers' lifestyles and life stages, to ensure relevancy and readership (and low spam complaints).

Take credit for what you do

Many retailers, travel marketers and B2B marketers send offers only to their best buyers. Often, however, the recipient doesn’t know how special they are, because it’s not mentioned in the email that this is truly an exclusive offer.

If you are segmenting based on buyer status, and offering special incentives as a result, take credit! Let your VIP customers know they are special, and that you've sent them these great offers because they are valued customers. American Express positions itself as a partner to the small businesses that carry its business gold and platinum cards. Recently, the company offered a high-profile promotion opportunity to a select list of business cardholders-- and the email clearly notes why they were selected. The email also follows the best practice of asking for feedback at the bottom: "Tell us why you would or would not consider this opportunity."

Takeaway: It's relatively easy to get customers to subscribe to your newsletter, but it's hard to keep them subscribed. Making your content relevant from the earliest moment in your email relationship -- registration -- is one way of keeping those customers around

Ideas to Reduce Email Unsubscribes

So how do you grow your Email list? This is on the minds of many email marketers  today and is a hot topic.  Many  are using avenues, like list rentals and co-registration programs, to grow their lists. An easier way  is to keep more of the subscribers you get!. An email preference center one way  you can add subscribers and prevent unsubscribes, while also providing a CAN-SPAM-compliant method of unsubscribing.

JupiterResearch reports that nearly four out of 10 email marketers say list turnover is their greatest challenge. Forrester states that the average company will lose 30 percent of its email subscriber list per year. 

Companies are  letting their users  unsubscribe without offering them alternative solutions.  In a recent study, Silverpop found that 12 percent of companies gave customers the chance to change their preferences in addition to simply opting-out. That means 88 percent of the companies surveyed are letting customers leave their low cost, high touch form of retention without even offering them an alterative!

Email preference centers primarily offer users a simple, menu style of to opt in and opt out of email newsletters. They can be thought of as your email program's home page. The components of a strong preference center can be found below.

       Complete description of email offerings: This should include titles of newsletters, descriptions of what they offer and the expected frequency of the email(s). It should include a function where the subscriber's current subscriptions are already marked and made available to view. Include overviews on what and why they should sign up for other email newsletters. Delivery Preferences. Subscribers should have the ability to choose whether they want to receive HTML or text versions. Use this section also to remind them to add your "From" email address or domain to their personal email whitelist while their interest in your email is at it's highest.

       Sample of each newsletter:.Give potential subscribers a chance to view a sample newsletter, either through a small popup window or by using a larger roll over window.

       Profile/email address change: Allow subscribers to quickly add or edit their profile, which includes their email address and other profile data you should collect, even if you don't require it for email subscription. This also will allow you to segment your database for better content and advertising opportunities. By allowing additional data to be collected once the user is subscribed, your users give you more profile data (and they will do this the better they trust you and your email offerings).

       Unsubscribe all emails/a la carte: Allow users to change content preferences as their needs change, in addition to just providing unsubscribe fields. For example, if you have been receiving Auto information from a content site but have bought the car, you may want to unsubscribe from the Auto newsletter but not from the Sports & Business newsletters. Ensure that your unsubscribe links and section denote whether the unsubscribe applies to one email or all company emails.

       Promotional offerings: By offering a free product or service with your email subscription, you entice customers to opt-in and increase user awareness when you first email them. This can be especially effective when building an email subscription database from scratch.

       Viral component: Provide your new subscribers a chance to forward your email offer or information about the newsletter they just signed up for to their friends, family and co-workers. Everyone likes to be an early adopter and cutting edge, so make your subscribers feel like they are a vital part of your community by encouraging them to help grow it. Consider rewarding these active new subscribers as well.

       Privacy Policy: ALWAYS have a link to your Privacy Policy where your subscribers are subscribing, adding/editing profile pages, etc. so that the user has the chance to read you strict guidelines (or not) on your personal information and how you handle your email marketing programs from a privacy standpoint.

       Customer service/Contact us: This is just as important as the Privacy Policy, as the contact us functionality is imperative, not just for customer satisfaction, but also to keep you aware of any possible subscription malfunctions or glitches that may not otherwise have been known.

       Subscribe leaving/Last chance/Stay with us offer: As per CAN-SPAM Act, your unsubscribe link must be easy and functional, but that doesn't mean you can't offer your nearly-departed subscribers a carrot for them to stay as a subscriber or opt in for another newsletter or service. If anything, provide a simple form asking why they are unsubscribing before they click and leave you forever.

Where Your Customers Receive Their Email- Home or Office -- Makes a Difference

E-mail marketers looking to make a big impact need to pay attention to whether users are receiving their e-mail at home or at work.

According to a Q2 2006 study of e-mail marketing preferences by eROI Inc., 79% of people who subscribe to business-to-business e-mail marketing messages receive them at a business e-mail address. Just 19% of people who receive consumer-oriented e-mail marketing messages subscribe with their business e-mail address.

Those who receive consumer-oriented messages were also much more likely to use an e-mail address created specifically for e-mail marketing: 24% did, vs. 6% of those who received B2B messages.

"This may mean that this email address is not checked as often, and that it is subject to more noise (junk email) than their personal email address," eROI stated in its report. The quarterly study was conducted among 300-plus respondents who received B2B and B2C e-mail marketing messages.

Another key factor to e-mail marketing success is picking the right day to send a message. More clients are targeting their messages toward the end of the week, to reach consumers who are planning for their weekend activities or shopping outings.

Consumer respondents to eROI's survey said Friday was their preferred day to receive e-mail marketing messages. Among B2B respondents, Monday and Tuesday were preferred days, likely because of less clutter in the workweek.

The key to improving open rates is to continue to segment lists and test communications with e-mail recipients. Ask customers when they want to receive communications and how often. There is a direct correlation to open rate and click rate.

Understanding Subscriber Complaints

Listed below is a recent article from Chip House of Exact Target, one of the best in the business when it comes to understanding deliverabilty best practices. Enjoy and learn!

We have all done it - gone through our email inbox and quickly deleted each message for which we don't recognize the sender or the subject line, only to find out later that we deleted a message from a friend or a commercial email we had requested.  Here's the problem: reporting an email as "spam" is just as easy.

With the largest email providers like Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail it is easier for a user to just report a message as spam than it is to unsubscribe from a message.  All three ISPs provide quick links or buttons their users can click on to complain about your email.  And they are so easy to use, they get used often, and many times by users that actually requested the email.  Yahoo even ran a contest a few years back giving their users a sweepstakes entry for each time they clicked the complaint link.  Think their users only complained about the email they should complain about?  Of course not...there was a sweepstakes on the line!

Okay, so complaints are a reality.  Keeping them in check is the challenge.  The good news is the ISPs recognize this and set thresholds for complaints, allowing all senders some number or percentage of them before they begin filtering your email.  Have a strong permission list that gets too many complaints?  There are four main reasons why.  Find out how to reduce complaints...in this four-part blog series.  Read on!

Anticipation

If your subscriber's didn't actively give you consent to send them email, they are much more likely to complain.  Remember the Carly Simon song..."Anticipation, it's makin' me wait...it's keepin' me wa-a-a-a-aiting?"  (Okay, you may not remember that one if you're under 30).  Anyway, it's a good rule of thumb to use when you are evaluating whether or not you have permission to send email to someone.  Are they anticipating my message?  Did I ask them if they want to receive it?  If the answer is "No," then you'll need to reevaluate your email program, because your complaint level will continue to be high, and rightly so!

Seth Godin says for a communication to be truly permission-based, it must be anticipated, personal, and relevant.  I like to think of this as the "Golden Rule of Email Marketing."  It goes, "Send email to others as you would have email sent to you."  So, it stands to reassign that if you want your subscribers to anticipate your emails, then you have to ask for permission.  The best practice is to capture an opt-in and confirm the email address before you begin sending any email

E-Newsletter Design for Blackberry and Treo

Should I change the design of my e-newsletter so people can read it on their handheld device?

Answer: E-mail-enabled devices such as the BlackBerry and the Treo have become useful tools for busy people to screen e-mail for later action and to make use of downtime by cleaning up their in-boxes. In other words, they have become editing tools, and it is your job as an e-mail marketer to make the cut by engaging this rapidly growing audience.

How do you convince your mobile audience not to delete e-mails but save them until they can follow up later? Adhere to these simple rules:

• Add an ALT Tag. Without an alternative text tag (ALT tag), the PDA will default to HTML and will show image codes and programming strings. ALT tags will enable a PDA to render the e-mail in a simple, readable format without affecting how the e-mail will look on a computer.
• Don’t use multipart MIME. Most PDAs think they can display HTML but often nothing shows up. Test your HTML on a handheld before you deliver.
• Get to the point. Put text copy as close to the top of your e-mail as possible. You have to get to the point quickly in text format.
• Do not top load with ads. If you make subscribers scroll through long links of ads, they will hit “delete.” Pull the ads lower or put some interesting copy above all the HTML and links.
• Ask readers to hang in there. Put a text line above the ads and header telling readers their attention to the e-mail will be worthwhile. This might go unnoticed in the full rendering of the desktop view but will stand out strongly in the handheld view.
• Stop asking to be added to the address book. This message takes up the entire content area on a handheld. Once a subscriber has added you to her address book, stop asking. These data should become an attribute, and marketers should use dynamic content to send that note only to those who have not already clicked.