@ChuckHester

1. Best Practices for Customer
Acquisition and Retention Using
Email Marketing
REAL ESTATE MARKETING
& TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY
April 28, 2010
Chuck Hester, APR
iContact Corporation

2. Chuck Hester, APR
• Communications Director, iContact
• Joined iContact’s in 2006 – Employee #27
• 30 years experience in marketing, branding
and public relations
• Traditional PR guy turned social media
expert
• LinkedIn Power User with over 10,000 first
level connections
• National speaker and Author on Social Media

3. iContact Corporation: Our Story
• Email Marketing Software for Small/Mid Sized
businesses, associations and non-profits
• Founded in 2003
• 190 employees
• 63,000 customers

4. The Team
6

6. We sent 6.1 billion
emails in 2009
700,000,000
600,000,000
500,000,000
400,000,000 Total Emails
300,000,000 Small Biz
200,000,000 Mid-Market
100,000,000 Agency
0
Up from 2.9 billion
emails in 2008

7. #1 Objective of Email Marketing is?
A: Acquisition

8. #1 Objective of Email Marketing is?
B: Retention

9. Email Marketing Best Practices
• Connect with your recipient. No matter how timely or
interesting your message may be. It must connect with
the reader.

10. Email Marketing Best Practices
• Inform and link. Provide information and tools that will
help them do their jobs better and give you an
authoritative voice as an expert.

11. Email Marketing Best Practices
• It is not all about you. Your newsletters should contain
roughly 80% industry information and 20% details on
your new customers, products, or news.

12. Email Marketing Best Practices
• Personalize. Use a personal email address, or at least
one that conveys an appropriate sense of placement.
Avoid “sales@” or other generic email addresses.

13. Email Marketing Best Practices
Personalize!
Welcome to The Team (contact first name)!
I'm amazed at the strong positive reaction I've received for xxx concept. So
many people have called, emailed and joined xxx online that it's clear I'm not
the only one feeling frustrated out there in the sales profession.
Welcome to xxx’s first email newsletter, listing the most popular recent
articles and offering links to resources for sales professionals. Please contact
me with your questions, suggestions and feedback. We're figuring this one
out as we go along kids!
All the best,

14. Email Marketing Elements to Test
• Message Content
• Creative
• Frequency
• List Segmentation

15. Email Marketing Elements to Test
Message
• Know what you want to say
• Make sure the wording matches the goals of the
send.
• Compare the wording of different messages to
determine which is most likely to be read by
your audience.

16. Email Marketing Elements to Test
Creative
• Choose the correct combination of colors and
templates.
• Try to envision what a customer wants to see or
will respond to best.
• Fall message = Fall colors

17. Email Marketing Elements to Test
Frequency
• Consistency of contact is vital to the relationship
• Survey customers to determine an appropriate
level of contact
• Once you’ve established a schedule, stick to it!

18. Email Marketing Elements to Test
List Segmentation
• Use split testing to test creative and content.
• Determine which pieces your customers prefer.
• Continue your campaigns with best practice
according to customers’ behavior patterns.

19. Email Marketing Tips & Tricks

20. Email Marketing Tips & Tricks
• Ensure all email recipients are opt-in or double opt-in.
This requires the recipient to ACTIVELY subscribe

21. Email Marketing Tips & Tricks
ALWAYS provide an unsubscribe link.

22. Email Marketing Tips & Tricks
Keep Email Short. 5-10 lines of text per paragraph.

23. Email Marketing Tips & Tricks
Consider using a P.S. Readers may skim email but read
the P.S. Repeat an offer or incentive in that section.

24. Email Marketing Tips & Tricks
Consider using a P.S. Readers may skim email but read
the P.S. Repeat an offer or incentive in that section.
As a member of xxx, you're eligible to a half-price initial consultation.
Normally $x for a two-hour meeting or phone consultation, I'll speak with
you about the challenges you're facing growing your sales for just $x.

25. Email Marketing Tips & Tricks
Add personality to your emails.

26. Email Don’ts
Don’t:
• Send test messages to your entire mailing list.
• Send multiple test messages to your entire mailing list.
• Send test messages with unprofessional text.
• Send out untargeted “spam” mailings.
• Send broken HTML links.

27. Email Don’ts
Don’t:
• Send large media pieces that take a long time to
download or view.
• Send out HTML mailings as text mailings.
• Send mailings to unsubscribed recipients

28. Email Marketing Do’s
Best Times:
• 11AM through 3PM for businesses
• 5 PM through 8PM for consumer
Best Days:
• Tuesday through Thursday for businesses
• Friday through Sunday for consumer recipients

29. Email Marketing Do’s
Frequency:
• Once a month is usually best. Time sensitive
offers may require more frequent mailings.
Variations:
• Sending up to three variations of the same offer
is a good way to improve response rates. But no
more than three attempts is suggested.

30. Email Marketing Do’s
Prime the Pump:
• Get the recipient ready to receive sales offers
beforehand.
• Build credibility and then go for the sale.
Follow Up:
• A timely follow-up message sent one to two
weeks after an initial offer can improve the
response rate of that initial offer.

31. Contact Information
Chuck Hester, APR
chuck@iContact.com
(919) 459-1451
www.iContact.com/media
Linkedin:
www.Linkedin.com/ChuckHester
Twitter:
@iContactCorp
@ChuckHester