This document provides an overview of email marketing best practices. It discusses 7 reasons why email marketing works, including its ability to reach mobile customers and drive online and in-store sales. It outlines 6 goals that can be achieved through email, such as increasing customer loyalty and conversions. Additional sections provide strategies for growing email lists, optimizing timing and frequency, content creation, differences between B2B and B2C emails, top tactics for success, analytics, and tools. The document concludes that email remains an effective marketing channel.
2. Table of Contents 2
Intro
1) 7 Reasons Email Works……………………………………….………… 5
2) 6 Goals to Achieve with Email…………………………….………. 9
Strategies for Success
3) Grow your email list …………………………………………….…… 12
4) Timing and Frequency ……………………………….……….……. 17
5) Content ……………………………………………………….….………… 21
6) B2B vs B2C……………………………………………………….………… 25
7) Top 10 Tactics for Success ………………………………………… 27
8) Additional Tips ……………………………………………………….… 34
9) How to avoid being spam………………………………….……… 36
3. Table of Contents
3
Improving Campaigns
10) Email Trends in 2016 and examples………………..….… 38
11) Common Mistakes to Avoid…………………………….……… 43
12) Optimizing with A/B Testing…………………………….…… 45
13) Analytics For Email…………………………..………....……… 46
14) 20 Email Marketing tools ……………….………….…….…… 48
Conclusion………………………………………………………..…….…… 51
5. 7 Reasons Email Works
5
Easily reach mobile
customers without investing
in new technology.
Keep loyal customers
informed as consumers
actually read email from
their favorite brands.
Graphics and Image Here
6. 7 Reasons
Email Works
6
Email coupons drive
online and in-store sales.
According to Deloitte,
65% of consumers say
email coupons are
important when grocery
shopping online.
7. 7 Reasons
Email Works
7
Email is versatile. It’s easy
to customize and integrate
into other marketing tactics.
Personalized emails with
names and
recommendations work
even better. According to Forrester Research, 85% of US
retailers consider email marketing one of the
most effective customer acquisition tactics.
8. 7 Reasons Email Works
8
• Email marketing is inexpensive! It
allows business owners to reach a
large number of consumers for
pennies per message.
Allows tracking and relationship
building as you start to understand
a user’s needs and wants.
Can be automated and setup with
smart hooks and triggers.
9. 6 Goals You Can Achieve 9
Maximizes ROI. Email is
inexpensive especially compared to
paid ads, and engagement can be
much higher.
Increases customer loyalty and
profitability. Provides a deeper and
longer relationship with customers
which increases profitability.
Source: Experian
10. 6 Goals You
Can Achieve
10
• Leads prospects though the
sales process and drives more
conversions. Provides important
info that bring traffic to your
site.
Build data on users based on
their interactions with email.
11. 6 Goals You Can Achieve
11
Allows easy, consistent brand
outreach and messaging.
• More accurate tracking and
feedback than social media.
Responses generally happen
within 48 hours, but with
social media, you first have to
wonder if the post was even
seen.
Graphics and Image Here
12. How to Grow your Email List?
12
In order to have an email
campaign, you first need
email addresses.
Growing a robust email list
can take time, and deciding
which offline or online tactics
to use can be daunting.
13. How to Grow your
Email List?
13
1. Customer Request Downloads.
When visitors visit your site seeking
information, ask or require and
email address to access the item.
Examples: Whitepapers, ebooks,
webinars, infographics and case
studies.
http://lp.vbout.com/increase-conversion-rates-with-better-
web-design/
Here are some tips to try:
14. How to Grow your
Email List?
14
2. Encourage subscribers to share
and forward your emails. Include
a share button that makes
sharing simple and clear.
3. Promote an online contest. To
enter, entrants are required to
provide an email address.
4. Create a free tool/resource.
Sign up is necessary to utilize the
tool.
15. How to Grow your Email List?
15
6. Promote lead
generation offer on
social media. Ex:
Facebook lead gen
tool. (to the right)
7. Increasing your
landing pages.
Improves SEO, gives
people more
reasons to find you
and give you an
email address.
16. How to Grow you Email List?
16
8. Host an in person
event like a
conference, meetup,
or panel discussion.
Collect emails during
registration and at
the event.
9. Create smart
popups, opt in forms
on your site.
http://lp.vbout.com/transform-cold-leads-into-paying-customers/
17. Timing and Frequency
17
Many marketers deliberate about the
correct amount of email to send and
when.
The most important question is who.
After that, answering what, when and
how often becomes easier.
Know your buyer persona’s (the who)
behavior to determine the rest.
18. Timing and Frequency 18
We all receive tons of email.
Don’t annoy or overwhelm your
subscribers. Use these
guidelines for frequency :
1. Companies that send
between 16 – 30 targeted
campaigns monthly see a click
rate of more than 2x greater
than companies that send 2 or
fewer.
19. Timing and Frequency 19
2. There is a median open rate of,
32.4%, and a median click rate 6.5%.
3. Based on research, if a company
sends more than 30 targeted email
campaigns a month, there is a drop
in open rates.
4. Tuesday – Thursday are the best
days to send. More people will
open.
Graphics and Image Here
20. Timing and Frequency
20
5. Test out Sunday as people
often check email and catch up
on events.
6. This is an example of how
marketing automation becomes
a marketer’s best friend. Emails
can be scheduled in advance,
which is extremely valuable if
you have a global audience or
weekend readers.
21. Content
21
We know that content needs to
be what your target market will
view as valuable and relevant.
What you share in emails should
follow these guidelines first.
Here are a few more tips :
1. Stay focused and keep the
format simple: headline, image,
teaser, button.
22. Content 22
2. Use behavioral data.
Personalize email based on
your subscribers’
preferences. Make sure to
send what they signed up to.
3. Use compelling images.
Images should be part of you
content strategy. It has
higher engagement than
text alone. Video and gifs
even more.
23. Content
23
4. Take conversions seriously.
Include CTA in the email to
drive conversions. (sign up, go
to website, etc.)
5. Put content ahead of
design. Great design will
improve results, but a clear
purpose, interesting subject
line and direct CTAs are most
important to influencing
action.
24. Content
24
Newsletters are a great way to keep in
touch with your subscribers.
Some tips:
• Keep it to one specific topic.
• Balance it: 90% educational, 10%
promotional.
• Set expectations with consistency in
timing and frequency.
• Keep design and copy at a minimum.
It’s less time consuming and easier on
the eyes for your readers.
25. B2B Email Campaign Success
• Moz is a B2B company that
sells inbound marketing
tools.
• They use their platform to
curate interesting marketing
content and package it into
the "Moz Top 10".
• They show they are industry
experts and people really
enjoy the newsletters.
• They also display what you
can do with their products.
25
26. B2C Email Marketing
Campaign Success
• Sephora is a global beauty brand with a
loyal following, and perfectly executed
emails that keep them engaged.
• First, they make things “exclusive” and call
their followers “beauty insiders.”
• They created a lot of buzz around their
"win a trip to Paris" competition with this
email campaign.
• They strategically marketed their products
below the fold, giving subscribers plenty of
content with which to engage.
26
27. Top10 Tactics for Success
27
• Our inboxes are cluttered with solicited and unsolicited email
and sometimes desired email can get lost.
• The main question always asked is: How can I get my emails
seen and read by my audience?
Graphics and Image Here
28. Top10 Tactics for Success
28
• Here are 10 tips for better open and click through rates:
1. Send your email from a real person, not a generic “info” or general
company address. Recipients are more likely to trust a personalized
sender. Example: John Doe, Jdoe@vbout.com vs. Sales Dept,
Sales@vbout.com
29. Top10 Tactics for Success
29
2. Use a preheader. If your audience uses Gmail or iPhone Mail, then they
will see the text from the body after the subject line. This provides a
short, synopsis of your offer. It increases open rates if this is something
enticing, and if you don’t, information from the body will show and could
look messy. .
30. Top10 Tactics for Success
30
3. Write clear, interesting subject lines and use these general rules:
• 50 characters or less.
• Language that resonates with your buyer persona.
• Include their first name or location and personalize.
• Include action words/verbs to create a sense of urgency and excitement.
• Use Emojis to express an emotion and make your email standout.
31. Top10 Tactics for
Success
31
4. Keep emails short. People are busy and
like concise, short emails. Also, too much
copy is a red flag for spam filters.
5. Include one, clear CTA. Most people do
not read email, they scan or skim it. Make
sure your CTA isn’t missed.
Check out our guide on CTA design and use:
http://lp.vbout.com/increase-conversion-rates-with-
better-web-design/
32. Top10 Tactics
for Success
32
6. Add alt text to your CTA
button. Some providers may
block them by default. Set an
image’s alt text to let your
reader know where to click to
complete an action.
7. Add links to your images.
Don’t put a lot of links in the
email. Have an image to click
that drives traffic back to
your site.
33. Top 10 Tactics for Success 33
8. Add social sharing buttons.
This increases the number of
people who see your link and
click.
9. Optimize for mobile. More
than 50% of email is viewed on
a mobile device.
10. Preview and test. Make sure
everything looks good and links
work. There are tools that let
you do email inbox preview.
(Litmus mail, Vbout.)
34. Additional tips
34
Using the 10 Tactics and want
even more engagement?
Try these out:
1. Make exclusive offers. These
reward your subscribers, and
allow them to share in social
media.
2. Announce contests. Announced
over email, these could engage a
“sleepy” subscriber.
35. Additional tips
35
3. The reader should know in 7 seconds (or
less!) the purpose of the email: what’s
being offered, how to get it, and where to
find additional information.
4. Look into design rules for mobile and CTAs
as well – the right colors, wording,
placements, technical tools, etc.
For more info on CTAs, color and general design please
see: https://www.vbout.com/blog/Improving-
Conversions-With-Better-UX-design/
36. How to Avoid Being Spam
36
• Tactics: spam filters
• Understand spam compliance once
and you will do it right forever.
• Always include unsubscribe link inside
your emails.
• Include your address and contact
information in the footer of your
emails.
• Avoid attachments when sending
mass emails.
38. How to Avoid Being Spam 38
• Keep messages short so they don’t get cut out before the LOAD MORE
option on many devices.
• Optimize photos to decrease the size of your messages.
• Use spam scoring tools provided by your email provider, ex: Vbout.com.
• Set-up your SPF and DKIM records on the domain level. Ask your domain
administrator or your email software team to help you.
• When growing a lot, consider a dedicated IP with a warm-up mechanism.
• Handle unsubscribe, bounce emails and complaints seriously.
39. Trends in 2016
39
5 Top trends in
2016 for email:
1. Hyper targeted
emails are the
norm. Customers
want unique,
personalized
interactions with
brands. We’ll see
more trigger
based campaigns.
Graphics and Image Here
40. Trends in 2016
40
2. Interactive emails will elevate brand
experiences. Going beyond animated
GIFs, sometimes called kinetic email,
allows marketers to create eye-catching
and engaging campaigns that stand out
in your customer’s email.
• Enhance form submissions through
emails.
• Deeper e-commerce integrations.
41. Trends in
2016
41
3. Personal experiences.
Increased use of
marketing automation
enables companies to
give consumers what
they want: more
personalized and relevant
experience. Automation is
by far, the most effective
way to deliver this
through email marketing.
Graphics and Image Here
42. Trends in
2016
42
4. Coding HTML is dead .
Coding emails are a thing of
the past and email design
becomes simple. Powerful
drag-and-drop technology
unleashes the email
designer in everyone and
enables marketers to create
professionally designed
email campaigns that
deliver results.
Graphics and Image Here
43. Trends in 2016
43
5. Email campaigns will predict
content. Marketers won’t
struggle as much to deliver
value as machine learning
predicts the right content.
Insights come from data and
content can be automated per
user. Currently used in
ecommerce, but new to email
marketing and data mining.
Graphics and Image Here
44. Common Mistakes to Avoid 44
• Certain tactics backfire and
lower open rates. Such as:
1. Using words like cash,
quote and save in the subject.
These are spam triggers.
2. Emails that are inaccurate,
or replete with errors.
(grammatical, erroneous
links, etc).
45. Common Mistakes to Avoid
45
3. Not monitoring/reviewing the
results constantly and using the
data to improve future work.
4. Delivering sporadically. If
subscribers expect daily, weekly
delivery, be consistent.
5. Not segmenting your email list.
Together with your buyer persona,
this enables you to deliver
relevant content.
46. Optimizing with A/B Testing
Enhances your campaigns
performance.
Whether you test your
landing pages, offers,
headlines or CTA, it is
important to test.
Test everything in fact.
With email marketing, some
things to test: subject lines,
images, CTAs, content.
46
48. Analytics
48
Measure and Optimize. Review the
results from your tests and use them
to improve future content.
Analyzing helps your determine how
certain elements (landing page, offer,
etc) impact customer behavior.
You can alter content and design in
the future to match the more
successful elements and continually
improve success rates over time.
Graphics and Image Here
50. Analytics
50
Measure open
rate, bounce rate,
click rate,
complaints, unsub,
conversion,
engagements
(length of time
reading emails).
Check out this resource:
https://www.vbout.com/bl
og/Understanding-Your-
Email-Marketing-
Performance/
51. 20 Email Marketing Tools
1. Mail chimp (online email marketing solution)
2. Litmus (tracking and testing email campaigns)
3. Bomb bomb (video email marketing; set up a video email autoresponder
and then a series of video emails on a future “drip” schedule)
4. Vertical response (email and social media tool, create, send, and track
emails and social posts that look great on every device)
5. Get response (email marketing software; email creator, email marketing
and automation)
6. Simply cast (marketing automation software)
7. I contact (email marketing software; create, send, and track newsletters)
51
52. 20 Email Marketing Tools
8. Red Cappi (email marketing service; easy to use tools, including
drag & drop email builder)
9. Mail VU (video email service)
10. Dyn (email services, email reputation management)
11. Vbout (marketing automation, email, mobile, and social)
12. Yes mail (email and cross-channel marketing solutions)
13. Stream send (Email and behavioral automation)
52
53. 20 Email Marketing Tools
14. A Weber (email marketing and auto responder tool)
15. Mail machine pro (email marketing software; everything you need to
manage your mailing lists and send professional email campaigns)
16. Success By Email (email marketing software; create striking email
campaigns, invites and promotions using templates)
17. Mail Dog (Permission Email Marketing, Online Video, Social Media)
18. Campaigner (email marketing tool; send email campaigns)
19. Contact29 (Drip email campaign software)
20. Send loop (email list management and email creation)
53
54. Conclusion
54
Email is far from dead. It has the highest ROI in digital marketing.
• Make your content clear, engaging, and relevant for your audience.
• CTAs need to clear and viewable on all devices: PC, mobile, tablet.
• Marketing automation is a marketers best friend to assist in email marketing;
scheduling, tracking.
55. Conclusion
55
• Personalized emails are best for
conversion.
• It is important to conduct A/B
testing frequently. Marketers
cannot have a “set it and forget”
mindset.
• Use marketing automation
technology to streamline your
marketing tasks and for hyper-
personalization.
57. Would you like more educational content from Vbout.com?
These slides are part of a FREE Online Digital Marketing
Course taught by Vbout's Founder and CEO, Richard Fallah.
Richard has over 10 years experience as an entrepreneur
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With our course you will:
Increase your skills by learning the best practices for social
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Source: http://www.experian.com/small-business/benefits-of-email-marketing.jsp
*can we throw in some numbers of ROI of paid ads vs email and show this graphically in a chart? Trying to find current data in one graph. Still looking.
Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32028/25-Clever-Ways-to-Grow-Your-Email-Marketing-List.aspx#sm.001jp00s11checr71145dnxf0pcm9
Source for the image : https://beetle.email/e/1677618/Aveda-Online/Choose-your-travel-size--hand-or-foot-relief--
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-open-click-rate-benchmark#sm.001jp00s11checr71145dnxf0pcm9
best days to send email info Source: http://www.benchmarkemail.com/resources/email-marketing-articles/a-practical-guide
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-open-click-rate-benchmark#sm.001jp00s11checr71145dnxf0pcm9
best days to send email info Source: http://www.benchmarkemail.com/resources/email-marketing-articles/a-practical-guide
Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/make-emails-more-clickable-list#sm.001jp00s11checr71145dnxf0pcm9
*let’s combine tips for success and tactics into one section: Top 10 Tactics for Success – DONE!
*make sure to include using automation to get the timing and frequency right – Done!
*you can find them on the Email Monday blog to include here. He has a whole white paper on this. Done!
Source: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-predictions-2016/
*ask Georges for his assistance getting images of the analytics we have for email in Vbout
*this will include A/B testing and stats
*ask Georges for his assistance getting images of the analytics we have for email in Vbout
*this will include A/B testing and stats
*ask Georges for his assistance getting images of the analytics we have for email in Vbout
*this will include A/B testing and stats
*Georges is good about helping to collect a list of tools to place here at the end
*Georges – please make a list of 20 or so, but also a brief description next to it about what it does – done!
*Georges is good about helping to collect a list of tools to place here at the end
*Georges – please make a list of 20 or so, but also a brief description next to it about what it does