Best practices for Email Marketing by Stefanos Cunning
Best practices for e-mail marketing
Business use of email has increased dramatically the past 2 years, with many
workers checking their email constantly throughout the day. A study from the
Gartner Group showed that 42% of users check their business e-mail even while
on vacation, and 23% check it on weekends. During the workweek, 32% check their
e-mail constantly throughout the day, and 53% check their e-mail six or more
times a day. This is the good news.
The bad news is estimates that by 2005 the average e-mail recipient will
receive 1,600 commercial e-mail messages, as well as 4,000 other e-mails in
their inbox. How do marketers cut through the clutter?
Success factors:
Obtain permission
Permission boosts response rates. Give the client the perception that they are
in control of the messages they are receiving.
Target your messages
Not only do you generate better response for the initial mailing, it builds
credibility with clients so that they will read future e-mail. The main point
is to avoid e-mail fatigue.
Deliver value
Whether sending content or promotional info, don't send fluff. Make sure your
copy is well written.
Use personalization
Where possible segment your list and personalize according to your client's
profile, to add personalization beyond simply addressing them by name. For
example, if you have five types of clients, use "dynamic personalization" to
customize your feature/benefit points to the client (e.g. Law Librarians vs.
Legal Secretaries).
Monitor and limit quantity and frequency of mailings
General guide for frequency is one email message a month to stay in the
client's mind, and max once every two weeks. This guideline is only for
marketing email, and doesn't include other customer service or confirmation
emails you might be sending. Other factors impact your client's tolerance, such
as the level of relationship they have with you, how many other marketing
communications they receive through mail, advertising, etc. If you can't
control other messages, at least be aware of the risk of email fatigue, and
keep those messages targeted!
Fitting E-Mail into your Marketing Mix
Speed, ease of response, and cheap production costs make e-mail ideal for:
customer relationship communications (e.g. a newsletter) testing offers
relationship-building customer service e-mails product/service updates It can
also really boost response when used in conjunction with your other
communication vehicles, such as PR, advertising, postal mail, or telemarketing.
Email excels in offering levels of personalization and segmentation that can be
cost-prohibitive with print.
Comparison of E-Mail vs. Postal Direct Mail
Strengths of e-mail:
Speed of response - find out how your campaign is doing within hours instead of
weeks Reduced production time Increased testing capabilities Personalization
opportunities Potentially more cost-effective than print Ability to track every
single action and tie it back to a single user Ability to increase campaign
reach through forwarded email (tell-a-friend or viral marketing) Can create
dialogue with your customer Easiest and quickest way to get customers to come
to your site to fill in your database (vs. collecting paper forms and business
reply cards).
Weaknesses or Differences:
Up to 50-80% of response is generated within 48 hours and up to 90% within a
week. Compare to postal campaigns where it can take two months to receive 85%
of response, with peak response typically in week three and four. However, some
marketers are finding customers hanging on to their emails, especially
newsletters, and generating up to 20% of their responses two to four months
later.
Like postal mail, a targeted, opt-in list is the key to response, but seems
even more important with email. Whereas postal campaigns one can argue the
importance of list, offer and creativity is balanced, with email it is still
weighted to your list and offer. With the increase of spam, expect your
customers and subscribers to demand better creativity to cut through the
clutter. Bad creativity can kill response. Read on for details.
Planning your email campaign
Just as important as the actual email and offer itself, you need to plan the
following:
Landing Page
Where do you want recipients to go when they get your email? Do you need to
design a landing page?
If you are designing a specific campaign, then, yes, you want to create a
landing page for them that reinforce the offer and encourage them to close an
appointment. Coordinate your landing page with your email, i.e. use the same
design, wording, etc. Continue the copy started in your email. Repeat the
promotion and your call to action.
Replies
Where will replies be sent? Who will respond to them? What questions could be
answered in the email instead of making clients ask for information?
Forwarding messages
Is there any information in the email that could not be forwarded to a
recipient - e.g. a special offer only for that group of clients? If so, be sure
any specifics are covered in the email.
Bouncebacks and Undeliverables
Every email campaign generates undeliverable mail. A soft bounce is when the
address is good, but is getting bounced back by the recipient's mail server
because it is too busy or the mailbox is full. If you are using a service
provider to send the email campaign, they usually allow for four tries over 48
hours and then consider the email undeliverable.
A hard bounce is when the recipient's mail server responds that the user is no
longer at that address or is unknown at that domain.
A service provider will flag these addresses as undeliverable and not mail them
(so you do not incur mailing fees). A download of these addresses should be
taken to update the internal database. If the client warrants the cost, a call
out or postcard requesting an updated email address can be sent.
Testing
Do not miss an opportunity to test an element of your campaign in order to
understand how your customers respond to email. Don't base results only on
clickthroughs (unless it's just an awareness campaign). Base your results on
final actions, which are usually sales.
These are just some of the things you can test:
List Offer Subject line Creative: tone, content, copy length, layout HTML vs.
Text Landing pages - layout, copy Time of day/week - for B2B generally this has
proven to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10am-11am. For consumers you may
find a spike in the evenings and if you email Fridays or on weekends. Test
email vs. print, email in conjunction with print. Email as part of initial
sales cycle instead of phone or print. Find out when a customer needs to talk
to a human being.
Email formats
Text
Text email must be in ASCII format, and preferably 65 characters per line. This
means no bold, no underline, etc. For formatting it's very restrictive, but
with some imagination you can create a layout that's easy to scan and read.
URLs within a text email must be on their own line for them to work properly as
a hotlink. Don't forget to include the full URL with "http", e.g.:
http://www.abccompany.com/landing_page to make sure all email programs
will display your URLs as a clickable hotlink.
What you need to know about HTML
Depending on your audience, 50-90% of subscribers today can read HTML.
Consumers are more likely than business customers to be able to read html, due
to corporate measures to lower bandwidth requirements and exposure to viruses.
HTML can increase response rates by up to 50%. HTML for Business-to-Business
has gone in and out of favour, but is generally now preferred. The only way to
know is to either offer your subscribers a choice of formats or test it.
Key issues:
Not everyone can read HTML, so if you are sending HTML you also want to create
a text message. Most email marketing software programs can send a multi-part
message with a bit of code that 'sniffs' what email program they are using and
delivers the appropriate version, either text or HTML.
Message size should be kept low, preferably under 35k to ensure quick loading
speed. Graphics are actually stored on the marketer's server, so the delivered
message only includes the HTML code. But extensive use of colour, formatting
and graphics all add code which increase message size. Some corporations will
block messages over a certain size.
In some situations, customers prefer text, even if they can read html. It's
nice to offer the choice if possible.
Creative Elements of a Promotional Email Campaign
The following elements are all part of the design the email for your campaign
and should be considered during planning and creative production.
Subject line
Your subject line not only drives or depresses response rates, but can be used
to set the tone of your email to solicit a desired action. For example, a
simple relationship-building message from an online retailer saying thank you
to customers before the holiday buying season had the same content, but 2
subject lines. They each generated similar clickthrough numbers, but look at
the difference in conversion rate:
"Thanks, June" - virtually no sales
"June, we're open if you are" - double the sales
Why? The first created a passive environment where the recipient didn't need to
do anything, whereas the second implied an invitation to visit the store,
encouraging "the shopper within" to come and browse.
Sender address
The actual email address from which your campaign is sent. If you are using a
third party email marketing service provider (also called an ASP-application
service provider) and have not set up a sub domain for them to use, you will
see their domain name.
For example, if you are using an agency or service provider, the Sender and
From address displays as:
ABC Company [ABCCompany@agency.provider.com]
If your budget permits, set up your own domain to enforce the brand and the
trust it generates, eg:
ABC Company [info@abc.com]
"From" display address
In your email program, this is whom the recipient sees the email is from. You
can select to display a formal name, eg. ABC Company Inc. Or just the email
address. Best to use a name that is trustworthy and relevant to the recipient,
such as your company name, which continues your brand enforcement: e.g. ABC
Spring Deals. Or test using a real person's name. Be careful with the From
name, so you aren't confused with spammers.
"Reply" address - similar to your from address above. It's best to have an
internal address to send replies to. For tracking purposes you might want to
set up a separate address, but have the response go to your Customer Service
department.
Communicating the offer
With print you can spend some time in your letter talking about features and
benefits before getting to the pitch. For e-mail promotions you need to have
your main feature/benefit points, offer and call-to-action, and URL within the
first 10 lines or 2 paragraphs of your email. You want clickable links to
appear above the fold - i.e. in the preview pane - of your recipient's email
program. This means you only have a couple seconds with email to grab the
reader's attention.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
All emails need to include unsubscribe information. This is standard practice,
which customers expect from a reputable company. It reminds them that you
respect their privacy and reinforces their feeling of control over the email
they receive. As marketers we want that reinforcement to be sure they read our
mail!
Customers should be able to unsubscribe easily and on their own, but remember
there will always be some who reply to the email instead, so make sure you have
someone in place to handle replies.
Long or short copy?
There is debate among email marketers, many claiming short is best, but both
have proven effective, depending on the audience and the offer. My own tests
have shown that longer copy can generate higher average sales, but also lower
response rates.
If longer copy is needed to sell the product, then use it. The more you can
complete the selling process in the email, the better your conversion rate. The
advantage of email is that you can test your copy before rolling out to your
whole list.
Links to your landing page
For promotional email, include one link above the "fold"; 50% of responders
click on this first link. Be sure to repeat the link at the end of your
message, 25% of responders click on the last link. The rest click on the middle
links.
Landing page
You should build a separate landing page whenever possible to guide your user
through whatever action you want them to take. There is nothing worse than have
a call to action in your email and then providing a link to your website home
page.
Why? It's confusing to the user; they had one message in the email, then on
your home page are suddenly confronted with a different message. They will get
distracted from what you wanted them to do.
If you are selling one product, have the links in your email take them to a
page with only that product. Continue the same design and copy tone from your
email to your landing page. Repeat key elements of the offer, but don't make
them wade through the whole spiel again. Think of email to web as one seamless
process.
For more information please see http://www.unilabplus.com
About the Author
Director of Unilabplus Ltd, a London-based online business management software
house.
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