The NEW New Rules of Email
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Contemporary Innovations, Secrets and Strategies to boost email marketing results in 2012 and beyond Click on the email examples in slides 50 and 53 to see live video/animation.
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The NEW New Rules of Email
- 1. The NEW New Rules of Email INNOVATIONS, SECRETS AND STRATEGIES TO BOOST RESULTS Florida Direct Marketing Association March 15, 2012 Karen Talavera, President Synchronicity Marketing
- 2. Your Speaker: Karen Talavera • Nationally-recognized email marketing expert, educator, writer, speaker and consultant • DMA Email Marketing lead training instructor since 1999 • Member Email Experience Council, Only Influencers • Top 100 Women in Ecommerce 2012 (WE magazine) • President and Founder, Synchronicity Marketing – Founded 2003 – Email Marketing Strategy, Training & Consulting – Based in south Florida serving clients worldwide
- 3. Our Agenda Email Marketing 2012: The NEW New Rules Welcome Aboard: List Growth & Subscriber Retention Strategies Getting the Open: Subject Line Secrets and Lies Good-bye Vanilla: Content Options and New Creative Tactics for more flavorful marketing email
- 4. What Do You Mean by the NEW New Rules?
- 5. How Does This Apply to Email?
- 7. List Growth & Subscriber Retention Welcoming Them Aboard so they Want to Stay
- 8. The #1 Way to Grow Your Email List ASK!
- 9. NEW New Rule #1
- 10. You’re Probably Already Doing These Website Paper (order form, etc.) Phone (customer orders, etc.) In Person (POS, check in, etc.)
- 11. But Are You Using ? Free consults/ discovery sessions (strategy sessions, breakthrough sessions) immediately engage and qualify interest “Selling by Way of Serving first”
- 12. How about this?
- 13. And what about ?
- 14. Live by WIIFM Make sure there is an ONGOING value exchange
- 15. WIIFM?
- 17. NEW New Rule #2
- 18. Show and Prepare
- 19. NEW New Rule #3 Improve subscriber sign-up rate by asking only for the bare minimum
- 20. Asking Too Much
- 21. Better but Still Heavy
- 23. Ideal KISS Remember: Once you have the email address, you can go back to ask for more data or a complete profile later
- 24. NEW New Rule #4 Reassure and provide choice/flexibility to retain
- 25. Reassure How you will use their email address How you will protect their privacy
- 26. Reassurance
- 27. Beyond Reassurance: Choice & Control
- 28. Add an Opt-Down to your Unsub Pages
- 29. List Growth & Subscriber Retention Key Takeaways In summary: 1. Leave no stone unturned 2. WIIFM 3. Set expectations 4. Create comfort 5. Alleviate anxiety (pre-pave the subscriber experience) 6. Create trust with reassurance, choice and control
- 30. Subject Line Secrets and Lies New Research Reveals What Makes People Open
- 31. NEW New Rule #5
- 32. Average Marketing Email Open Rates According to Epsilon's Email Trends & Benchmarks Report
- 33. New Research on Subject Lines In 2011 Alchemy Worx tested and analyzed common assumptions about subject lines Short (< 35 characters) outperform long Single vs. Multi-proposition Analyzed 205 million delivered emails across their entire client base Total of 646 subject lines examined Source:
- 34. Subject Line Length Analysis The longer the subject line the lower the open rate, but the higher the click-to-open rate Source:
- 35. Subject Line Length Findings Subject Lines (SLs) under 60 or more than 70 characters generate the highest response Shorter SLs generate higher open rates, an initial measure of interest, but much lower click-to-open ratios Longer SLs generate a higher click-to-open ratio, an indication of ongoing interest and true response Open and click-to-open rates intersect at about 60-70 characters, a “dead zone” where neither metric is optimized Source:
- 36. So if Longer Might Be Better . . . What Do You Say? Multiple vs. Single Propositions (topics) Longer subject lines can accommodate multiple vs. single propositions, which increase relevancy Get detailed (about the offer, benefit, or content) Use length to get specific enough for subscribers to decide how relevant each message is to them The more relevant they consider the message, the more likely they are to take response action beyond the open Use separators between major points if multi-proposition
- 37. Single vs. Multi-Proposition Single – often but not always shorter; longer can work for specificity Multi – can be short, but at any length must get to the point v v
- 38. Subject Line Key Takeaways They act as a relevance filter The more information you can get into the subject line, the higher the percentage of your relevant target market will open Length not as much an indicator of response performance as specificity Keep them in perspective With “average” open rates around 22%, the vast majority of email does not get opened no matter who you are or what you do
- 39. New Content & Creative Strategies Innovations and tactics that get them to engage
- 40. NEW New Rule #6
- 41. Content from Two Perspectives
- 42. Three Flavors of Email
- 43. Performance of Triggered Blows Broadcast Out of the Water! Triggered email messages can generate 10 times the revenue and 20+ times the profit of broadcast campaigns
- 44. Customer Email Program Example Hewlett Packard monthly newsletter – HP Newsgram sent to all registered customers – Clearly-displayed issue month and table of contents – Value-added: o Free projects o Interactivity, video o HP Daily Surprise o Cross-sells HP products too
- 45. Other HP Email Message Types HP deploys a good mix of newsletter, sales promotions (deals), and holiday greeting emails
- 46. Even Triggered Email Upgrade offers like this are frequently time or date- triggered
- 47. Apply and Align Messaging to the Customer Lifecycle Each stage of the customer lifecycle naturally lends itself to specific email messages Use them to shift and direct the dialog
- 48. Mix it Up Storyboard your entire email program Some message frequency and sequencing can be planned, but allow for triggered Create a flowchart illustrating message types, timing, frequency Don’t be “the friend who only calls when you need something” Although accustomed to heavy promotional message volume from retailers, consumers also want conversation, community, news and fun
- 49. Compelling Email Content Ideas Evolve, supplement or refresh your static HTML or plain text email with Animation Video Temporally-relevant campaigns Dynamic Content Movement and multi-media = more clicks Time, place and quantity-specific content = greater relevancy = more clicks
- 50. Animation Use minimally and strategically Movement is eye-catching Can enable more content than static images
- 51. Video in Email – Two Approaches • Link to self- or web-hosted • Preferred for now due to spam blocking, filtering, image rendering and streaming video support issues • Streaming video into inbox • Video or animation streams into the message over an open connection to the Internet • Requires no plug-ins or media players on subscriber end, works with any ESP • Requires HTML5-based message design • Current environments supporting video in email: • Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) (H.264) • Apple iPad mail client (H.264) • Blackberry (BOLT 2.1) (OGG Theora) • Apple iPhone mail client (H.264) • Apple Mail 4 (H.264) • Thunderbird (OGG Theora) • Leading current solution: Liveclicker (www.liveclicker.com)
- 52. Self- or Web-Hosted Video Video in email tips: Alert them that the email contains video Subject line and headlines Put video front and center Play/pause console should be visible Host in your domain or Host on your YouTube channel for longer shelf life
- 53. Streaming Video into Message Liveclicker’s Video Email Express is integrated with several ESPs Generates simple HTML code for inclusion in email They host and deliver video content Style Campaign also handles video in email (sans audio) Example courtesy of StyleCampaign.com
- 54. Temporally-Relevant Content Beyond seasonality and holidays, leverage major events, news But, tread cautiously or know your audience
- 55. Dynamic Content Big and getting bigger Content served can be based either on: database-attributes (i.e. gender) Aka “custom publishing” in which you predestine certain content for certain users based on database profile attributes real-time response behavior (open on mobile) Use location, time and device to sense what should be served Aka evolutionary optimization Not just for email content – can define landing pages too
- 56. Time-Based Dynamic Content Movable Ink’s technology allows emails like this one (to a conference attendee) to display live counts of people attending the event To have an offer that changes by the date or time Example courtesy of Movable Ink
- 57. Other Dynamic Content Approaches This retail message displays location-specific store information Real-time inventory updates Time-based offer updates Example courtesy of Movable Ink
- 58. Content Key Takeaways When it comes to your email program, serve a multi-course meal, not the same dish over and over again Greater message variety = less predictability = higher interest and engagement Continuity programs create high trust, so some email should come on a regular schedule (newsletter) However the unpredictable gets noticed more Static HTML is fine, but with HTML5 video in email is again possible One size-fits-all is out. Triggered and dynamic content will dominate email of the future
- 59. Want More NEW Rules of Email? Join me Wednesday March 28th at 11:00 AM for a free training call The NEW Rules of Email Email Marketing Innovations, Tactics and Secrets you MUST Know to Generate Sales, Revenue and Business Growth in 2012 and Beyond Sign up for call details at www.synchronicitymarketing.com/newrulesofemai l
- 60. Thank You! Questions? Site and Blog www.synchronicitymarketing.com Email: karen@synchronicitymarketing.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/SynchronicityMarketing LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/KarenTalavera Twitter: @SyncMarketing Phone: 561.967.9665
Editor's Notes
- Our roadmap for this seminar begins with an understanding of permission, then moves into a review of the law and how to be in compliance with it. Finally, we ’ll explore the universe of receiving networks for email – largely dominated by the big Internet Service Providers like Google, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Comcast who establish rules for which email to let into their networks, and which to keep out. But before we get into the intricacies of legal compliance and anti-spam measures, let’s start with understanding – really understanding – what permission is and why it is so paramount to ethical email marketing.
- This is the secret… look at your ‘ask’! There ’s a lot of ways to collect email addresses… you need to focus on the best ways to get quality email addresses! -deliverable -accurate -primary
- Don ’t forget to ASK for folks email address!!
- Leave no email address-gathering opportunity untapped
- This was a microsite / landing page from a google adword
- On the side of the road, on social sites, etc.
- ONGOING, not just an initial bribe!
- Increase subscriber acquisition by creating comfort , reducing friction and setting expectations
- Don ’t put CAPTCHAs on signup pages if you can help it!
- Nice job!
- Even utilize typical ‘exit’ mechanisms (e.g. an unsubscribe page) to offer the opportunity to resubscribe. Just keep asking!!
- When it comes to message architecture, meaning the building blocks of the message such as header, pre-header, body and footer, the one area that merits discussion in our limited time today is an attribute that has a direct impact on overall campaign performance because it is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, influencers on whether your message is opened and read: the subject line. So, I’m singling out subject lines and addressing these in our second new new rule of email creative.
- To begin with, think of all email campaigns as one of two types: either broadcast or triggered. You can usually easily see the difference because broadcast campaigns are the same, or substantially the same, for an entire list while triggered campaigns are specific to an individual action, characteristic, or event. When most marketers begin using email they have a tendency to broadcast the same message to their entire list rather than to respond to specific list member actions or inactions. Certain types of email – a newsletter for example – are appropriate for broadcast since newsletters usually contain information relevant to the entire list. There are, however, many other ways in which email can powerfully be used to speak only to specific segments of your list or individuals on it who are in-market or expressly interested in what you have to offer at a specific time. To realize the full potential of email, you ’ll have to supplement your broadcast-style email with triggered campaigns. So, o successfully use triggered email you first have to understand which opportunities lend themselves to it. Unlike broadcast email, triggered email messages are automated, sent based on external events or actions, rules-based, and unique to steps in a consideration path, to individuals, or both.
- Did you know the contribution performance of triggered email routinely outperforms broadcast, life cycle and even targeted messages? In fact, triggered email can generate TEN TIMES the revenue and more than 20 TIMES the profit of a simple broadcast campaign. The reason triggered, or dialog email works so well has everything to do with behavioral targeting. By now you know the better segmented and targeted an audience, the more relevant and specific the offer and message that can be sent. Email timed to known events in a customer ’s lifecycle is more effective than one-to-many broadcast style email campaigns. But when targeting is narrowed down to individual behavior or clickstream data, as this chart from Jupiter Research illustrates, email performance is highest.
- Not only can you categorize triggered email campaigns and messages as belonging to one of the five main types you just learned about, you can also map them across a customer lifecycle path like this. In fact, I encourage you to use this as a checklist for creating your own triggered email appropriate to each stage. For example, do you have an email list sign-up available to people who haven ’t purchased yet? If so, do you welcome new subscribers to the list? Do you educate and familiarize them with onboarding messages? Do you email them if they’ve been browsing or shopping online and then abandon before buying? Or, when it comes to your customers, do you thank them with bouncebacks after purchase? Send reminders? Acknowledge their birthdays? This graphic illustrates that there are many specific kinds of triggered email messages appropriate for different stages of the customer lifecycle and that you should be routinely using them across your target audience.
- There are two ways to include video in your email – you can show a video console player within the email that links to video hosted on a Web site or YouTube, or you can actually stream video into a message over an open Internet connection.
- Their unique advantage is you can crop content from any web page. The one variable they handle is the image tag for their clients. It can render on open or stream on open to make their image content super-relevant. Most of the dynamic content choices (like location) are rules-driven (if responder is in NY, then show this store, etc.) The geo-location is IP-driven, not GIS. Goes down to city level, sometimes lower (neighborhood level) but not street-specific.