12 Most frequent asked questions about email marketing in Belgium

1. EMAIL
MARKETING
FACTS & FIGURES
12 Frequently Asked Questions
about Email Marketing
in Belgium

2. WHO AM I?
Web
Social
Mobile
… and Email
Florent Diverchy
Digital Consultant
@Bisnode since 2002
Expertise in Digital Campaign Management
@thefrenchflo

3. WHAT DOES BISNODE KNOW ABOUT EMAILS?
Permesso
Just4You
Sanoma
Prospection Emails
Nestlé
Danone
Beobank
Croustifrance
Red Market
…
Client Emails
70 million emails sent per year
Lots of analysis, tests, experiences
… lots of questions!

4. 1. WHICH RESULTS ARE YOU LOOKING AT?
Unique Openers & Clickers
After 1 launch
No Opens & Clicks
No Remails
Be careful if you compare!

5. 2. WHAT ARE THE AVERAGE BELGIAN RATES?
The 15/25 Rule
15% Open
15% Click on Open
2,25% CTR
Don’t extrapolate one from the other!
Prospection Emails
25% Open
25% Click on Open
5,63% CTR
Client Emails
1 out of 44 persons contacted click 1 out of 16 persons contacted click

6. 3. WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM MY REMAILS?
For Prospection
15% Open
15% Click on Open
Mail
Remail
Remail 2
7,5% Open
15% Click on Open
3,75% Open
15% Click on Open
Same For Client mails
0,16% Opt out
/2
/2
0,32% Opt out
1,00% Opt out

7. 4. ARE TRIGGER EMAILS PERFORMING BETTER?
Prospection Emails
30% Open
30% Click on Open
9% CTR
Client Emails
50% Open
50% Click on Open
25% CTR
1 out of 11 persons contacted click 1 out of 4 persons contacted click
The 15/25 Rule
The 30/50 Rule
x2

8. 5. IS EMAIL MARKETING DYING?
Overall rates globally constant since 4 years
Small increase in Open (new methodology)
Small decrease in Clicks
More trigger emails
Email Marketing in 2014 better than in 2013
Email Marketing is NOTdying

9. 6. WHICH ELEMENTS HAVE MORE IMPACT ON
MY CAMPAIGN?

10. TIMINGS (+10%)
What stays true
Women: Wednesday afternoon (+17% compared to other week days)
Coupon: last week of the month
Couple decision: week end
Importance is decreasing
Mobile. Always On.
New behaviours (Google Inbox)
Trigger always better

11. CREATIVE MATERIAL (+20%)
Pre-required: properly designed and cut HTML material !
Good & explicit Subject line
Simple content
Call to action visible and above the fold
Usual recommendations
Responsive design (25% of all opens on mobile)
Pre-header
What becomes more important

12. PROFILES (+50%)
Men open more (17% vs 14%), Women click more (17% vs 13%)
Age has a huge impact on Open Rate
Age has also an impact on Click Rate
18-29: 8,5%
30-49: 15,0%
50+: 22,5%
18-44: 11%
45+: 16%
NL open more than FR (17% vs 13%)

13. CONTENT (+200%)
Incentive emails are better than Informative emails
Open rate similar
Click rate x3.1
Split Incentive for better reactivity
100 x 10€ (best perception)
10 X 100€
1 X 1000€ (worst perception)
Free products
Open Rate 60%
Click Rate 50%
CTR 30%
Beware of contesters!

14. 7. WHICH FORM CONVERSION RATE CAN I EXPECT?
60% of the clickers submit the Form
84% with Form prefill
Opt-in can’t be pre-checked
82% give their opt-in
Telephone: -7%
Complete Address: -5%
Birthdate: -3%
City: -3%
Don’t ask to much

15. 8. WHAT IS AN OPTIMAL MARKETING PRESSURE?
1 week-end between two launches
Average: 0,36%
2nd email of the week: 0,56%
1st Mail on Friday, 2nd on Monday: 0,38%
Opt-out Rate:

16. 9. DOES ONLINE STORYTELLING WORK?
Case Vétérinaires sans frontières
A story developed on 5 emails
Each email sent to the openers of previous email
3 last emails sent on the same week
No incentive
Open Rate Evolution
14%  64% 78%  90%  92%
Last: 24.791 openers for 26.938 email sent
Opt-out Evolution
0,16%  0,37%  0,29%  0,31%  0,29%
A good story makes
informative emails
more reactive
than incentive emails
A good story is
not perceived
as negative pressure

17. 10. IS CPC BETTER THAN CPM?
CPC always seems better
Less risk
Things to keep in mind
What about marketing pressure?
How many remails if goals not reached?
Risk for brand image?
Ask your partner!
 Know your ROI

18. 11. WHICH KPI SHOULD I LOOK AT?
Depends on your needs
Visibility: Open Rate
Website Traffic: Click Rate
Lead Generation: Opt-in
Impact on Sales:
Direct sales
Impact on average basket after xx months
Conversion after xx months
Choose the right one!
Client Automotive 1: 16% Open – 9% Click
KPI: Car sold after 1 week
 Angry Client
Client Automotive 2: 16% Open – 7% Click
KPI: Car bought by clickers after 6 months
 Very Happy Client

19. 12. IS THE ROI OF EMAIL POSITIVE?
15% Open  15% Click  60% Forms  82% Opt In
1 person contacted on 90 gives his optin
You just need to know 2 parameters
The Conversion rate of your Lead Nurturing Program
The Value of a New Client
Example Fundraising Client
Parameters: 1 conversion for 11 optins. A new donor is worth 100€
100€ per donor = 9,09€ per opt-in = 7,45€ per form
= 4,47€ per clicker = 0,67€ per opener = 0,1063€ per email sent
ROI Positive if CPC < 4,47€ or CPM < 106,30€

20. KEY TAKE AWAYS
Prospection email:15% Open  15% Click  60% Forms  82% Opt In
Client email: 25% Open  25% Click  60% Forms
Remail: Half the Mail Open
Trigger Email: Double the rates
Biggest Impact on the Rates:
1. Content -/+200%
2. Profiles -/+50%
3. Creatives -/+20%
4. Timing -/+10%
Email is NOT dying
1 weekend between 2 emails
Storytelling works!
Choose your KPI in function of your objectives
Be sure to calculate your ROI!
Belgium 2014