2. What you’ll learn if you stay awake
ROI and Conversion Rates
– Email ROI in 2012 will be $28.50, the highest of
any direct marketing medium. Email is expected to
drive $67.8 billion in sales in 2012. (DMA, 2012)
– 39.4% of marketers report that email delivers their
strongest ROI, beating out #2 Search & #3 Offline.
(Datran Media Survey, 2010)
4. What you’ll learn if you stay awake
Accepted by marketers
– 88% of Business‐to‐Consumer firms and 71% of
Business‐to‐Business firms use email marketing in
their marketing mix. (Forrester, 2011)
Accepted by consumers
– 94% of daily email users subscribe to marketing
messages. (The Social Profile, 2010)
– 57% of internet users say they are more apt to buy
a product in store after getting a marketing email.
(e‐Dialog, 2010)
7. The Good
10 things you should always do
Get permission.
Spam sucks, even if it’s from
a brand you know.
Always opt‐in or double opt‐in.
8. The Good
10 things you should always do
Get permission.
9. The Good
10 things you should always do
Get permission.
10. The Good
10 things you should always do
Get permission.
11. The Good
10 things you should always do
Get permission.
Opt‐out vs. opt‐in
List quality will suffer.
Complaint rates will be high.
Welcome to the bulk folder.
12. The Good
10 things you should always do
Be CAN‐SPAM law compliant.
13. The Good
10 things you should always do
Be CAN‐SPAM law compliant.
Accurate Identity = YES
Opt Out Mechanism = YES
Physical Address = YES
Clear Intent = YES
Fraud = NO
15. The Good
10 things you should always do
Be CAN‐SPAM law compliant.
16. The Good
10 things you should always do
Have a Plan. Set goals, define
measurement & plan content.
17. The Good
10 things you should always do
Personalize – one‐to‐one.
18. The Good
10 things you should always do
Use a pre‐header
19. The Good
10 things you should always do
Keep your list clean.
Don’t look like or act like a Spammer…
‐ Grow a permission‐based (opt‐in) list.
‐ Stop sending to hard bounces & opt outs.
‐ Re‐engage or trim inactive contacts.
20. The Good
10 things you should always do
Pre‐flight – rendering.
21. The Good
10 things you should always do
Pre‐flight – rendering.
Gmail with
images off
22. The Good
10 things you should always do
Pre‐flight – SPAM filters.
23. The Good
10 things you should always do
Pre‐flight – check your content.
24. The Good
10 things you should always do
Track.
Views = Good
Clicks = Better
Conversions = Best
Bounces, Suppressions & Complaints
25. The Good
10 things you should always do
Use an Email Service Provider.
Subscribe to Feedback Loops.
Clicks
“This is Spam”
Notifies
the Marketer
Stops
Sending to
the Subscriber
26. The Good
10 things you should always do
Use an Email Service Provider.
Stay CAN‐SPAM compliant.
Most ESPs automatically include your
physical address and unsubscribe link in
emails and remove unsubscribes
immediately.
27. The Good
10 things you should always do
Use an Email Service Provider.
Throttle delivery.
Easy with the SPAM cannon, Sparky!
Too much email sent too quickly to an ISP
looks like SPAM.
28. The Good
10 things you should always do
Test.
Subject lines
Day of week
Frequency
Personalization
Price sensitivity
30. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Email “BLAST!” Don’t send the
same version to everyone.
31. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Send too frequently or
too infrequently.
Doubling frequency doesn’t
necessarily mean doubling revenues.
Your list will “tell” you when it’s too
much with increased unsubscribes.
32. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Send too frequently or
too infrequently.
If you let your list age,
you can expect a higher
bounce rate...
Like 25%+ after a 2‐year
collection period!
33. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Include everything in the email.
Keep emails to about 2 pages
printed (or 1‐2 “scrolls”).
Include snippets or teasers and link
out to full posts or more content on
your website or blog.
34. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Include everything in the email.
35. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Start from scratch.
Email = Blog + Facebook + Twitter +
36. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Start from scratch.
Curate expert content from others.
37. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Use a giant graphic.
38. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Use a giant graphic.
Use at least
some HTML text.
Use Alt Tags so
text will replace
missing images.
39. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Include an attachment.
“I’m a spammer! I’m a spammer!”
No, wait…
“I’m a virus!, I’m a virus!”
40. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Buy a list.
List buying is not illegal.
List buying is not best practice.
Monitor list sources and quality.
41. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Get on a blacklist.
Work with a deliverability expert to
help figure out how you got there.
ReturnPath, Pivotal Veracity
42. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Fail authentication.
Domain Keys/DKIM
SenderID/SPF
43. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Fail authentication.
44. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Forget to seed your list.
Set up email accounts at all the major
ISPs and check to see if your message
makes it into the inbox.
Without this, you can’t truly judge the
effectiveness of your campaign.
45. The Bad
10 things you should never do
Forget to seed your list.
47. Kicked A$$
Try this
Cross Promote & Grow
2 x Email =
60K new likes!
48. Kicked A$$
Try this
Referral program
Ongoing
9‐13%
conversion
49. Kicked A$$
Try this
Automated Series
“Drip” or
automated
campaigns
do the work
for you.
50. Kicked A$$
Try this
Time Sensitive Offers &
Reminders
48‐hour offer with a
last call to register
the day before
registration closes.
125% lift in
click‐throughs!
