MailNinja's Ultimate Guide To Email Marketing

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Welcome
What’s here?
1. Is email dead?
Read more, go to https://mailninja.co.uk!
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Is email dead?
Email has been around since MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
developed a way for a single message to be sent from one computer to
another. According to Wikipedia the first instance of this dates back to
1965.
Since then, particularly within the last 10-15 years, email has come a long
way. It’s estimated that there are now over 3.1 billion email accounts that
have been created. This is set to rise further over the coming 12 months
(2013) to reach 3.6 billion. In fact it’s hard to think of the Internet without
thinking of email as its primary purpose. Studies found that 83% of people
who go online check their emails first before anything else.
So, why is email as a marketing medium so popular? First of all, its free to
join, it’s environmentally green and your customers prefer it. 74% say it’s
their preferred way of receiving information over text messages, post or
phone calls.
From a marketing point-of-view you get great return on your investment. It
beats all other mediums. According to a recent survey the following are
returns on each dollar spent during 2012:
• Email $40.56
• Search engine marketing $22.24
• Internet display advertising $19.72
• Mobile $10.51
• Catalogue $7.30
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Plus, you can track the results easily and get really clever with features such
as split-testing campaigns, segmenting lists and setting auto-responders
based on set behaviours.
To top it all off, 36% of consumers say that email marketing has become
more relevant in the last 12 months (2012).
So, are you convinced yet?
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Building
What’s here?
1. 50 Sure Fire Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List
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50 Sure Fire Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List
Growing your business means lots of things. When you have an engaged
group of customers and prospects who want to hear from you, getting the
word out about your business, your services and your offers is much easier.
With people changing email addresses faster than hairstyles these days (in
fact, industry average is 1/3 of your list will be lost due to attrition each
year), how do you plant the seeds to grow a strong, healthy and engaged list
of subscribers?
Whether your company sells to other businesses or to consumers, here are
50 ways to grow your email list!
B2C (Business to Consumer)
1. Business Cards
Put an offer on the back of your business cards to encourage folks to sign
up to receive your emails.
2. Tradeshows
Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to tradeshows and ask for
permission to send email to anyone who signs up.
3. Host Your Own Event
Art galleries, software companies (one here in San Francisco has a party
every quarter and invites the neighbouring businesses), retail shops and
consultants (think “lunch and learn” gatherings) can all host an event. Have
a sign-up book available at the event to collect email addresses of anyone
who wants to be invited to future events and hear from your business.
4. Special Clubs
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Offer a birthday or anniversary club where you give something special to
people whom sign up for your email list.
5. Incentivise Your Employees
Give them money for collecting valid email addresses. Just remember that
the person giving the email address must consent to receive emails from
your business.
6. Give Out a Daily Deal
If you’re in retail or in a local service business, try Groupon or a similar
daily deal site. The way it works is that you give your discount only if a
certain number of people take you up on it in a given amount of time. Then
make sure you ask for their email address in exchange for their discount.
7. Referrals
Ask customers to refer new subscribers to your list. You can give them a
discount as a reward.
8. Bounce Backs
If you sent an email and it got bounced, you can send a postcard and ask
them to give you their updated email address so you can keep in touch. You
can even reward them with a discount or freebie for taking that extra step.
9. Newsletter Space
Trade newsletter space with a neighbouring business; include a link for
their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
10. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Optimise your website for your keywords. You should try to be at, or near,
the top of the organic search when people are looking for your products or
services. Google’s AdWords tool makes this pretty quick and easy.
11. Giveaways
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Send people something in the mail or via email and ask for their email
address. Always tell them what kind of value your emails will provide in
return.
12. Direct Mail
Do you have a list of physical addresses but no email addresses? Send them
a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
13. Opt-in Forms
Include opt-in forms on every page on your website, blog and social media
networks like Facebook.
14. Pop-up Windows
Before someone leaves your website, or blog, pop up a call to action for
their email address.
15. Forward To a Friend
Include forward-to-a-friend links in your emails in case your recipients
want to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
16. Archive Newsletters
Use the archive link from your sent emails to save your newsletters on your
website to boost interest in signing up.
17. Offer a Community
Consider a platform like BuddyPress for WordPress to easily set up a
community and foster interaction among your customers. Don’t forget to
include a sign-up form for your newsletter on every page.
18. Email Only Specials
Offer “email only” specials and don’t promote or use those offers anywhere
else but via email.
19. Telemarketing
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If you’ve got people on the phone, don’t hang up until you ask if you can
add them to your newsletter/email list.
20. Fishbowl
Put a fishbowl on your counter and hold a weekly prise giveaway of your
product, then announce the winner in your email newsletter. Add everyone
who drops a card to your newsletter list. Just make sure you have a sign
near the bowl that tells them they will be added to your list.
21. Opt-in Form in Your Email
Include a link to an opt-in form in your emails for those people who get
your email forwarded to them.
22. Tradeshows
Collect business cards and scan them into a spreadsheet. Make sure you ask
permission to send email to them, and then mark the card.
23. Sandwich Board
If you’ve got a retail location, why not use that valuable sidewalk to
advertise your newsletter sign-up? Create an offer to get customers in the
store to join your list – you might make a sale along the way.
24. Receipts
While someone is signing their credit card receipt, why not ask him or her
to include their email address on the receipt itself? Then at the end of the
day, enter them into your account, and send them an email thanking them
for their purchase and welcoming them to your list.
25. Street Fairs
If you participate in a local street fair, try collecting email addresses right at
the fair. You can sweeten the deal by offering a discount on the first or next
purchase.
26. Use a Video Contest
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Host a contest where you have customers create a one-minute video about
why they like your non-profit, your company or products. Ask your
customers to send you the videos and post them on your Facebook page.
Then have your visitors vote on which should win cash or prizes that you
offer. Your contestants will email their lists, and post to Twitter and
Facebook asking their friends to vote for them and you’ll get more
exposure. Count up the “likes” or comments on each video to determine
the winner. Make sure you include an email opt-in form on your Facebook
page to capture any email addresses. And make sure to follow Facebook
and Twitter rules regarding contests as they change frequently.
27. Go Mobile
Maybe you’re at a tradeshow, or your business requires you to be walking
around instead of behind the computer or register. Why not use your
smartphone to collect email addresses? Many email service providers have a
mobile app that lets you easily add a contact to one of your existing lists, or
create a new one, on the fly.
28. Retail Packages
If you’re shipping products, you’ve got some valuable real estate you’re
playing with – the box! Include an inbox request on a piece of paper and
tout that you’ve got “email only” offers. Direct customers to your website’s
opt-in form, and after they join your list, direct them to a page where you
give them their first promotional offer.
29. Non-Profits
Include a place to fill in their email address line on all donation
envelopes/forms.
30. In Store Event
Have an in-store event featuring your products or services. If you sell hats,
have a quarterly “hat party” where you encourage people to wear crazy hats
and offer discounts. Then get email addresses while people are in the store.
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31. Use What You’ve Got
Export your list of personal friends and business colleagues who know you
from your accounts in Outlook, Gmail, AOL or Yahoo! Then send
everyone an email from you personally asking him or her to join your list.
Include a link to a hosted version of an opt-in form so you can
track them separately. Don’t forget to include the value they’ll be getting
from you, like discounts, coupons or information that is exclusive to them.
And since you know them, chances are they’ll join pretty quickly.
32. iPad
There’s no doubt that tablets like iPads are all the rage. Use it to your
advantage! Offer a newsletter sign up at your location or event and use an
opt-in form to gather the email addresses right on your iPad.
B2B (Business to Business)
33. Signature
Include a newsletter sign-up link in the signature of all of your personal
emails.
34. Chamber Members
Join your local Chamber of Commerce; email the member list (if it’s opt-in)
about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
35. Downloads
Giving out something for free like an ebook or guide? Have visitors sign up
to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
36. Speaking Events
During your speech, weave into your message that people can always get
more information about you from your website. Then tell them that if they
sign up for your newsletter, you’ll give them free consultations. You also
might try bringing something tangible that you can give away that includes
the URL of your website with your opt-in form on it.
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37. Networking
Set a goal for your networking events. Go to events and get 10 to 20
business cards and send them an email right away telling them it was a
pleasure to meet them.
38. Giveaways
Each month give away a valuable and fun item that may or may not relate
to your business to those who join your list.
39. Give Privileged Access
Privileged access doesn’t have to only be “offer-related” when it comes to
giving something to your email newsletter subscribers. If you’ve got
something that they want to see, then give them “subscriber only” access. If
you’ve got a video feed, a helpful guide or something special you can give
access to, you can use it to get more subscribers.
40. Surveys
If you are conducting a survey, include email sign up info.
41. Invoices
Include an option to sign up for email communications on invoices you are
sending out.
Social Media
42. Twitter and/or Facebook
Post the hosted link from your newsletter to spread the word.
43. Facebook
Include an opt-in form as one of your Facebook tabs.
44. Social Icons
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Include links to share your email or articles on Twitter or Facebook. Your
recipients will be able to share your emails with their networks; just
remember to include an opt-in form link in your email.
45. WordPress
Include an opt-in form on your WordPress site or blog and easily start
collecting email addresses right from your blog.
46. Use Foursquare
Give a discount each time a customer buys something from you and shows
you that they mentioned your business on Foursquare on their mobile
device. This means that they’re telling everyone in their network that
they’ve just visited your business or talked about it. Give a big discount to
your “mayor” each month and ask them for their email addresses.
47. Comment on Blogs and Forums
Offer insightful comments on blogs or forums that your prospects or
customers would visit. Then include a link to your site where your opt-in
form is hosted.
48. Facebook
Direct your fans to your website where you have your opt-in form hosted
and entice them to sign up by giving them a discount or special offer. After
they opt-in to your list, direct them to a coupon page with a code or offer a
print out, or send them a separate email-only discount as a follow up email.
49. Twitter
Each week tweet to your followers that you’ll give something of value to
those that join your list. Use a bit.ly link to send them to your hosted opt-in
form and track how many click through.
50. Facebook
Create a Facebook page and invite people to it, then post new links often.
From time-to-time, post a link to sign up for your newsletter.
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There you have it: lots of great ideas to help plant the seeds for a strong,
healthy and growing email list of engaged subscribers! Remember that any
contact with your potential customers is a chance to get them to sign up for
your list. And always keep in mind that permission-based lists will give you
the best results; these are the people who want to hear from you and are
interested in what you’re sending.
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Sending
What’s here?
1. Best time to send an email campaign
2. How to write effective email copy
3. Avoiding the junk folder
4. Spam filter trigger list
5. 101 killer subject lines
6. Email design best practices
7. Essential pre-send checklist
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Best time to send an email campaign
'Should I send my email campaign now, how soon is now, and if not now
then when?'
I'm often asked this question. Sometimes on a daily basis in fact! No
question, which gets asked with such frequency, can have a simple answer,
but there is certainly some sound advice I can dispense. One man's meat is
another man's poison.
Traditionally, it's been suggested that Tuesday morning and Thursday
afternoon are the sweet-spot to ensure that your email is opened. Others
suggest hitting targets just after the morning rush or soon after lunch.
But actually, these universal sweet spots are a myth.
Look at it this way: If there really was a single best time to hit audiences,
everyone would be sending their campaigns at those times, inundating
inboxes and turning the sweet-spots into the exact opposite - the worst
possible times to send.
What's more, spammers (who you could argue pay as much attention to the
stats as legitimate email marketers) would also be sending their spam in
these golden time slots, putting a dampener on open rates even more.
The reality is that indications of these sweet spots for email sending are
very general, average highs, and shouldn't be taken as indicators of the
behaviour of your own customers and target audience.
How to identify your own 'best sending' time windows
So, I've explained why I'd prefer you to take industry averages with a pinch
of salt in this context. But that's not the end of the story. There are some
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key questions you can ask to help identify the 'best send windows' for your
own customer base and contacts.
Who are you recipients and what do they do?
Firstly, I'd like you to consider the demographics of your target audience –
who are these people, what work do they do, how do they live and behave?
Occupation alone can be a major influence on opening habits and
expectations. Are your audience business or consumer? At work, at college
or at home? All these factors can help you build a picture of how your
target market is likely to respond to the timing of your email campaigns.
When do they interact with you?
Use your website analytics or ask your account department to show you
when your market interacts with you. When are the busy buying/enquiring
times and days. When does activity drop off? Build you campaign timings
around these patterns.
Let's look at an example.
Here at MailNinja, we have a client in the business of selling personal
development products. On investigation they found that their website
generated a flurry of orders on Monday mornings.
What’s the possible logic behind this? Those ordering on Monday
mornings were people who'd had a bad weekend on were suffering from
Monday morning blues and wanted to cheer themselves up and look
forward to Friday?
Either way, weekends had presented a quiet time for sales for this business.
With this in mind, they used weekends to send promotions with buy-1-get-
1-free offers on any orders placed that Saturday.
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Who's doing what and when?
Segmentation is the key word here. Don't stick with a one-time-fits-all
broadcast slot.
It's always worth experimenting with different segmenting your audience in
line with their engagement levels and experimenting with different timed
sends for different segments.
What's the history?
If you've been using email marketing for a while, you should have access to
an invaluable reservoir of historical information and reporting.
Campaign response reporting offered by your email service provider can
give you some eye opening insights into when your recipients are most
responsive and to what degree the sending time influences their behaviour.
All these considerations can come together and help you work out the best
times to send your different email marketing messages. Not because of
when they open everyone else's emails or because of industry averages, but
based on the specific habits of your audience.
As is so often the case in marketing I recommend a good dose of patience,
willingness to experiment and an understanding of whom you're trying to
reach.
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How to write effective email copy
Coming up with effective email marketing copy can be a frustrating
experience. The formula that sells is a blend of getting your readers to
understand your offer and giving them a clear way to get back to you.
To successfully create the perfect formula, here are some tried and tested
tips you should be aware of before you begin writing copy!
Know your audience
Always keep your target audience in mind. Give your audience a bit of
background; picture how they spend their day, what’s important to them,
their age, what they have bought from you and their reasons for doing so.
This makes your copy relevant and targeted.
Follow an objective
When you have an objective in mind, you can provide your readers with a
clear view about your offers. Your objective should come across casually
but firmly and not seem overly formal. Write about your products and
services the way you would speak about it with a friend.
Explain the benefits
One of the most important tips for writing great copy is to highlight the
benefits of your offerings. Enlist all the ways in which your offer benefits
readers and ensure these advantages stand out in your copy. Your readers
are spending precious time to read what you have to say; you have to let
them know that it is worth their while.
Use subheads and bullets
Nobody is interested in reading a page long sermon about what you have to
offer. Get to the point, and get there fast. Subheads are a great way to make
readers focus on important details. Bullets allow readers to get a quick idea
of what you are selling. With subheads and bullets, readers are able to
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quickly get an idea of what you are talking about by simply glancing at your
marketing copy.
Use effective Subject Line
Pay attention to your subject lines and your headlines. Make sure your
subject line communicates your email message precisely. Keep it short and
sweet. Ensure your headline is a real attention grabber. Remember, your
heading is what compels your reader to read further. Tip: create your
subject line and heading after you have finished your email body for better
results.
Make use of testimonials
Customer quotes and testimonials are an excellent way to sell what you are
offering! Make sure the customer quote that you include explains why the
customer loves your product or service. Also include your customer’s name
and other relevant details, as this makes your testimonial more credible.
Be unique
In this competitive era, the uniqueness of your offering plays a large role in
your success. A run of the mill offer will not interest your readers. The
more unique your offer is, the more it will intrigue and excite your readers.
So make sure your offerings are distinct, one of a kind and stand out.
Be positive
When writing marketing copy, avoid using words such as 'hope', 'ish', 'try'
and 'perhaps'. Instead, use direct and positive words such as 'will' and 'can'.
Such words make your readers trust your offers and go a long way towards
making them believe in what you have to say.
Think before you write
Just because you can send information faster than ever before, it does not
mean that you should send it. Analyse your readers' needs to make certain
that you are sending a message that will be both clear and useful.
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Keep your message concise
Remember that the screen only shows about half of a hard-copy page. Save
longer messages and formal reports for regular (snail) or overnight mail.
On the other hand, do not keep your message so short that the reader has
no idea what you re talking about. Begin long email messages with
summaries.
Remember that email is not necessarily confidential
Many companies retain the right to monitor employees' messages. (Refer to
#1 and #2.) Do not send anything you would not be comfortable seeing
published in your company's newsletter (or your community's newspaper).
Don't "spam" your readers
Don't send them unnecessary or frivolous messages. Soon, they'll quit
opening any message from you. (Refer to #1.)
DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS!
Remember, if you emphasise everything, you will have emphasized
nothing.
Take the time to proofread your document before you sent it. Rub the
document thru the spell checker and/or the grammar checker. Even simple
typos will make you look sloppy and damage you re professional credibility.
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Avoiding the junk folder
If you send email campaigns long enough, you will inevitably run into
spam filter issues. We've found that on average, you can expect 10-20% of
your emails to just get lost in cyberspace, mostly due to overzealous spam
filters. You don't even have to be a spammer to be spam-filtered. Innocent
email marketers who send permission-based emails to people who
requested them get spam filtered all the time.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. The only way to avoid spam filters is to
understand how they work.
Generally speaking, spam filters look at a long list of criteria to judge
whether or not your email is junk. For example, they might look for
spammy phrases like "CLICK HERE!" or "FREE! BUY NOW!". They'll
assign points each time they see one of those phrases. Certain criteria get
more points than others. Here's a sample of criteria from Spam Assassin,
one of the most popular spam filters out there:
Talks about lots of money (.193 points)
Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points)
Looks like mortgage pitch (.297 points)
Contains urgent matter (.288 points)
Money back guarantee (2.051 points)
Why Pay More? (1.249 points)
If your campaign's total "spam score" exceeds a certain threshold, your
email is sent to the junk folder. You're probably going to ask "what's the
threshold I need to stay under?" Sorry, but the threshold is different for
every server. It's determined by the person who installed the spam filter
software. If the person is really sick of spam, they'll set the threshold
extremely low. Just about anything will get spam filtered then.
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Oh yeah, that list of "spammy" criteria? It's constantly growing and
adapting, because spam filters "learn" what junk looks like, every time
someone clicks the "This is spam" button in their email program. Spam
filters even sync-up with each other online, to share what they've learned.
See why there's no magic bullet?
Avoid these common mistakes
These are the most common mistakes we see new email marketers make,
which result in accidental spam filtering.
Using spammy phrases, like "Click here!" or "Once in a lifetime
opportunity!"
Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!
USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL (especially in
the subject)
Colouring their fonts bright red, or green
Coding sloppy HTML (usually from converting a Microsoft Word file to
HTML)
Creating an HTML email that's nothing but one big image, with little or no
text (since spam filters can't read images, they assume you're a spammer
that's trying to trick 'em).
Using the word "Test" in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time,
when sending drafts to clients for approval)
Sending a test to multiple recipients within the same company (that
company's email firewall can only assume it's a spam attack)
Designing HTML email in Microsoft Word, and exporting the code to
HTML (that code is sloppy, and spam filters hate it)
How can I tell if my emails were spam filtered?
How can you tell if your campaign ended up in recipients' junk folders? For
starters, look at your open rate. If it suddenly dropped from your average,
you probably have a spam filter problem. If you're new to email marketing,
20-30% is a rough open rate average.
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An abnormally high bounce rate is another indicator. Look through your
hard bounces, and read the SMTP replies. Spam filters sometimes leave
little clues about why they blocked your campaign (See: How to read your
bounce back headers).
Most established email marketing services (like MailNinja) have been
accepted into feedback loops with ISPs like AOL, Netzero, MSN, Hotmail,
and more (See: "Getting in the Feedback Loop at Clickz.com"). Whenever a
recipient on their network reports an email as spam, an alert is sent to the
sending server. MailNinja receives those alerts and stores them under your
account, so you'll know how many people reported your campaign as spam
(MailNinja will also remove those people from your list automatically, so
you don't get reported again).
Can I check my campaign before I send it?
Yes, MailNinja comes with a spam checker tool so you can check all this
before you send your campaign.
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Spam filter trigger list
Below are 290 of the most common problematic phrases that can trigger
ISPs and mail client filters, and should be avoided. The below list is not
meant to be a comprehensive list and should only be used as a guideline. I
suggest keeping a copy of this list handy and checking it each time you
schedule an email to your customers. This will prevent your emails from
being blocked as well as help you avoid accusations of being a spammer.
290 Email Spam Trigger Words to Avoid
#1 For free No fees
$$$ For instant access No hidden costs
100% free For just $XXX No inventory
100% satisfied Form No investment
4U Free access No medical exams
50% off Free and FREE No middleman
Accept credit cards Free cell phone No obligation
Acceptance Free consultation No purchase necessary
Access Free DVD No questions asked
Accordingly Free gift No selling
Act Now! Free grant money No strings attached
Ad Free hosting Not intended
Additional income Free info Now
Affordable Free installation Obligation
All natural Free investment Off shore
All new Free leads Offer
Amazing Free membership Offer
Apply now Free money Offer expires
Apply online Free offer Offers coupon
As seen on Free preview Offers extra cash
Auto email removal Free priority mail Offers free (often stolen)
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Avoid bankruptcy Free quote Once in lifetime
Bargain Free sample One hundred percent free
Be amazed Free trial One hundred percent guaranteed
Be your own boss Free website One time
Being a member Full refund One time mailing
Beneficiary Get it now Online biz opportunity
Best price Get paid Online marketing
Beverage Get started now Online pharmacy
Big bucks Gift certificate Only $
Billing address Give it away Opportunity
Billion Giving away Order
Bulk email Great offer Order now
Buy direct Guarantee Order status
Buying judgments Guaranteed Order today
Call Have you been
turned down? Orders shipped by priority mail
Call free Here Passwords
Call now Hidden Performance
Calling creditors Home based Phone
Can’t live without Home employment Please read
Cancel at anytime Home-based business Potential earnings
Cannot be combined
If only it were that
with any other offer
easy Pre-approved
Cards accepted Income from home Price(s)
Cash Increase sales Print out and fax
Cash bonus Increase traffic Profits
Casino Increase your sales Promise you
Cents on the dollar Incredible deal Quote
Certified Info you requested Real thing
Cheap Information you
requested Refinance
Check Insurance Removal instructions
Claims Internet marketing Remove(s)
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Click Investment Reverses aging
Click below Investment decision Risk free
Click here It’s effective Sales
Click to remove Join millions Sample
Collect Laser printer Satisfaction guaranteed
Collect child support Leave Save $
Compare Legal Save up to
Compare rates Limited time offer Search engine listings
Compete for your
business Limited time only Search engines
Confidentially on all
orders Loans See for yourself
Congratulations Lose Serious cash
Consolidate debt and
credit Lose weight Solution
Consolidate your debt Lower interest rate Special promotion
Copy accurately Lower monthly
payment Stock disclaimer statement
Copy DVDs Lowest price Stop snoring
Cost Luxury car Stop(s)
Credit Mail in order form Subscribe
Credit bureaus Maintained Success
Credit card offers Make money The following form
Cures baldness Marketing Thousands
Dainty Marketing solutions Time limited
Dear friend Mass email Trial
Diagnostics Medium Unsecured credit
Direct email Meet singles Unsecured debt
Direct marketing Member stuff Unsolicited
Discount Message contains Unsubscribe
Do it today Message contains
disclaimer Unsubscribe
Don’t delete Million dollars Urgent
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Don’t hesitate! MLM US dollars
Dormant Money Vacation
Double your income Money back Visit our website
Drastically reduced Money making Web traffic
Earn $ Month trial offer Weight loss
Earn extra cash More Internet Traffic While supplies last
Earn per week Mortgage rate(s) Why pay more?
Easy terms Multi level marketing Wife
Eliminate bad credit Name brand Win
Eliminate debt Never Winner
Email harvest New customers only Work at home
Email marketing New domain
extensions You’re a Winner!
Expect to earn Nigerian You’ve been selected
Explode your business No age restrictions
Extra income No catch !
Fantastic deal No claim forms !
Fast cash No cost !
Financial freedom No credit check !
Financially independent No disappointment !
Find out anything No experience !
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101 killer subject lines
I’ve compiled a list of 101 subject line “starters” for you here. Of course,
you’ll want to add your own special touches. You can also personalise the
subject lines by incorporating the person’s first name. Or you can add an
element of time (i.e. “this Friday” or “tonight”), which will give your emails
a greater sense of urgency.
1. Have you heard about this?
2. This is your last chance to register for ____________________.
3. Which option do you prefer?
4. So… what are you waiting for?
5. Want my secret weapon for ____________________?
6. Are you in the know about this?
7. This changes… everything!
8. Did you know that ____________________?
9. What does your ____________________ say about you?
10. Could this be possible?
11. The FREE call about ____________________ starts in 15/30/60
minutes!
12. Just checking in…
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13. There are only 3/5/a few spots left!
14. Print this out and save it!
15. This is your last chance.
16. Here’s something to think about before the next time you
____________________.
17. Got this yet?
18. Here are my top 3 secrets for ____________________.
19. Just in case you missed this…
20. I need your help with something important.
21. Here’s my favourite ____________________.
22. Can I give you some free advice?
23. I’m about to spill the beans on ____________________.
24. Learn to double/triple/cut in half your ____________________.
25. 5 surefire tips to make your ____________________ work
better/harder/faster.
26. Do you have a burning question about ____________________?
27. Is your ____________________ outdated?
28. Don’t be the last to know!
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29. Do you have dinner/lunch/breakfast plans?
30. Are you missing out on this?
31. Can you do this today?
32. Are you making this mistake?
33. This is HUGE.
34. I have a quick question for you.
35. Take care of this before you forget!
36. Have you seen this?
37. Is this why you’re losing business?
38. Heads up. We’re about to raise the price!
39. Last chance ever to ____________________.
40. Can I help you ____________________?
41. There’s still time to jump on the call happening NOW!
42. Were you there tonight/today/yesterday?
43. Are you secretly avoiding wealth/success/other?
44. Can we talk about this?
45. Be the first to ____________________.
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46. Are you kicking yourself for missing this?
47. Make more money by ____________________.
48. I bet you’re overpaying for ____________________.
49. 3 false myths about ____________________.
50. My competitors aren’t going to be happy I’m sharing this…
51. Only X more days until it’s gone forever…
52. It’s finally here.
53. We’re scheduled to talk tomorrow, right?
54. Hurry! This offer will expire on ____________________.
55. How would you like to ____________________?
56. What to do AFTER you ____________________.
57. Is this true for you too?
58. I heard you were looking for ____________________.
59. Just a friendly reminder to ____________________.
60. Who your clients hire when they don’t hire you…
61. Your competitors already know this…
62. Here’s your chance to ____________________.
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63. Finally! The _____________________ you’ve been waiting for.
64. Here’s the free gift I promised you!
65. I thought you’d want to know…
66. There are only X spots left. Is one of them yours?
67. Would you like the magic ingredient to ____________________?
68. Something important I’ve learned about ____________________.
69. Don’t make the same mistake I did!
70. You’ll never believe what I found out…
71. Haven’t you waited long enough?
72. The ____________________ strategy that will make you or break you.
73. The secret to transforming your ____________________.
74. Learn how to ____________________ for less.
75. What your clients aren’t telling you that you really need to hear…
76. Are you still doing this?
77. Here’s a free gift to help you ____________________.
78. Have you had enough?
79. Remember this?
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80. Are you ready to up-level?
81. Frankly, I’m confused.
82. Be the first to get your hands on this!
83. Time is ticking!
84. If you ____________________, you need to know this!
85. Will you do me a favour?
86. Stop losing sleep about this…
87. 3 simple steps to skyrocket your biz.
88. How many clients have you lost because of this?
89. Here’s a rare second chance…
90. Finally! An answer to your biggest ____________________ question.
91. Will you take a look at this for me?
92. Can you settle this bet for me?
93. Find out how to do ____________________ better than your
competitors.
94. Are you kicking yourself?
95. It’s not too late. Jump on this while there’s still time!
96. The most expensive mistake when it comes to ____________________.
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97. I don’t normally write you on Saturday, but…
98. You’ve been asking for this. And here it is!
99. This has been really upsetting me…
100. It’s time to make a decision about this.
101. The trouble with ____________________ is that…
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Email design best practices
Email marketers already know that effective email design plays an essential
role in branding and has a direct correlation with high clickthrough and
conversion rates. However, many marketers overlook the effect that design
can have on the deliverability of the actual email message. In light of the
increasing use of preview panes, filters and the default blocking of images
in popular email clients such as Outlook, Gmail and AOL. Here at
MailNinja we’ve outlined some design best practices that will help you
successfully reach your audience.
Code Carefully
Many emails created are not W3C HTML compliant, which can cause
rendering and delivery issues. If you use HTML in your messages, make
sure your code is error-free and follows W3C HTML guidelines. You can
find the guidelines at www.w3.org.
Properly closed HTML tags
Poorly formed HTML often results in email messages being rendered in
surprising and undesirable ways. Most mail clients are smart enough to
know that if you don't close a paragraph tag, then you probably made a
mistake and it will add one in for you. However, other things like table tags
are pretty tricky, so the mail client might guess correctly and might not —
or it might not even try to fix it. Your message could look fine or it could be
changed completely. It's a lot like leaving the punctuation out of an entire
paragraph — people can guess what you meant, but they might guess
wrong.
Be mindful of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
Don't link to external style sheets. Use inline styles tied to individual HTML
tags since they display more reliably. Also, don't embed CSS in the head
tags since many email clients strip those tags from email. If you do use CSS,
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be sure to test extensively. Some web-based mail clients combine your CSS
with their own, breaking down the look of their application as well as the
look of your email message.
Use an HTML validator
HTML validators make sure your message uses properly formed HTML.
Professional web design packages and browser add-ons, such as HTML
Tidy, often include this feature. You can also access an online HTML
validator at http://validator.w3.org.
Keep a balance between text and images
Filters are on the lookout for email messages with only images. If you
embed your text and graphics into a single image, you risk your message
going straight to the intended reader's spam filter. Also make sure to
include ALT text in the code for your images. Most email clients will
disable images by default and ALT tags will be what the contact sees until
the images are turned on.
Include an alternative text version of your message
Use an email marketing product that allows you to send a text version of
your message along with the HTML version. In addition to being another
criteria for some filters, the text version of the message ensures readability
by email clients that are not receptive to HTML messages.
Design Simply
Unlike web browsers, there are many different types of email clients and
the way in which they display messages can vary wildly. Hence, it is best to
keep your message and HTML code as clean and simple as possible for the
most reliable results. Here are some more specific guidelines:
Design your emails with formatting in mind
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Using multiple columns or nested tables can become very complex. The
more complex your coding, the more difficult troubleshooting is if you
experience rendering problems.
Avoid Flash
Embedded Flash does not work consistently in most email clients. Relevant,
concise copy, a compelling call to action, and clean simple design will
create more reliable and consistent impact than a risky "flash in the pan"
mailing. If you do want to include Flash or other audio/video elements, it is
most effective to include them on the adjoining landing page rather than
embedding in the email message for best results.
Use absolute links versus relative ones
Relative links open up the risk of all links and images being broken in the
email because the mail client won't know where to go to get them. It's like
giving the mailman your house number and street but no city or state. If
you code a link to go to http://bronto.com/stats/, it has all the info that it
needs to get to where you want it to go. However, if you just code the link
as /stats/, then it's not complete.
Don't link to images used elsewhere on your website
Your web designer may replace, rename, or delete these images and
inadvertently cause your images not to be displayed your email. By hosting
your images with your ESP (or at the very least, separate from your other
website images), you will avoid problems with broken links showing up in
your email and probably speed up the display of these images in your email.
Grab Your Audience While You Can Your email has a great deal of
competition in the crowded inbox. Put your company name in the "from"
line for quick recognition. Adding an engaging subject line can also help
you stand out. Use the most valuable real estate, the top of your email
preview pane known as "above the fold", for your main calls to action and
to be "disabled images" friendly. Incorporate teaser text such as preheaders
which provide copy above the HTML message to enable your customers to
get an immediate preview of the email offerings. In addition, use ALT tags
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for all images to provide actionable content even if the reader is unable to
see the associated images. Last, but certainly not least, display the important
content – the offer and call to action – above the fold to encourage
immediate viewing. You have a very short period of time between open and
delete; use it well.
Write effective subject lines
Subject lines and the "from name" are two of the most important
determinants of the success of the email. The content of a subject line is the
key variable for a recipient to proceed with opening an email, deleting it
immediately, ignoring it, or reporting it as spam. The subject line content is
also a major component in the algorithm of many ISP and recipient-level
spam filters. A poorly written subject line may lead to the customer
skipping your message, or even causing it to never reach the recipient's
inbox. Keep in mind the following when creating a subject line: inform,
intrigue, invoke action, and uplift brand. You will also want to place the
most important words in your subject line first so that they are not cut off
in the inbox.
Utilise your real estate well
Are you wasting the most valuable real estate in your message? Give an
incentive to the recipient to scroll further within the newsletter or email, or
possibly even click the web version. Designing to optimise the top 250x250
pixels of the message will incentivise the scroll down. Include a preheader
call to action, a good balance of HTML text and images, and enticing copy
and images.
Test, Re-Test and Test Again
If you don't have a distribution list for testing, stop what you are doing and
immediately set up one for your email marketing. Never rely solely on your
internal email client and standard browsers for testing. You should conduct
tests for the major ISPs (Outlook, AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) as
well as other email clients that make up a large portion of your email lists.
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Some providers, such as MailNinja, offer inbox previews that allow you to
view the email message in various email clients before you send your final
message. Also test the readability of messages in different browsers
(Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) to verify that your text and images
translate successfully in each. Make a checklist for yourself of critical items
such as the following that you will test across multiple ISPs and browsers:
• Cascading Style Sheets are not altered or mangled
• HTML images are not blocked or there is a proper placeholder for the
image if it doesn't appear
• An alternative 'text version of this email' label is displayed
• Readability if the email client strips out your text and changes the
background colour
• If used, columns and tables are unaltered
• All URL links function properly
Hopefully this brief introduction to email design will get you well on your
way to higher deliverability.
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Essential pre-send checklist
• The email includes company registration number, name and address
• Content has been spell-checked
• All images have alt tags
• HTML test version sent, proofed and approved
• Text only version proofed and approved
• All links clicked through and checked, including the Unsubscribe
and View in Browser links
• Test send to relevant smart phones has been approved
• All dynamic content versions test-sent, proofed and approved
• Inbox Preview with Advanced Spam Content test run, checked and
actioned
• Any personalisation includes default ‘fall-back’ value for when
personalised data is missing
• All the details on your MailNinja campaign summary screen checked
• Your best practice checklist
Who’s it from?
• Your ‘sent from’ domain includes your company name or brand
• Your friendly from name will be recognisable to your recipients
• What’s the subject line?
• Your subject line delivers your key message in the first 50 characters
• Your subject reflects the single, key message, offer or proposition of
your email campaign
• Your subject is compelling, and will drive recipients to both open
and click through
• Your subject avoids adjectives & exclamations!
What’s in it for them?
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• The offer, benefit, takeaway or promotion is clearly and prominently
displayed
• What should they do next?
• Your email has clear calls to action and links through to a relevant
landing page
• It’s clear to any users who click through to your landing page what
they should do next
• Your offer has a time limit or urgency factor to drive recipients to act
now
• Recipients can share your email through social network bookmarks
and a Forward-to-Friend link
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___________
Become a pro
What’s here?
1. Max your ROI
2. Tracking your campaign performance
3. Why list segmentation matters
4. 8 ways to integrate email with social media
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The power of autoresponders
Do you ever reach the point when you become exhausted with replying to
the endless amounts of emails you receive day-on-day? Then you are ready
to learn about how autoresponders can save you hours of valuable time.
The problem with email is that those sending them expect replies instantly,
whereas you'll probably feel that this is very tiring when you have 101 other
things to do with your day. So what do you do? Work continual twenty-four
hour shifts to answer any incoming emails, or hire staff to do this for
you? A better solution is to use an inexpensive program called an
autoresponder.
Autoresponders can be used in a number of ways to help you online, and
one of these ways is to automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as
they are received.
As you will probably already realize, emails are a primary method of
communication throughout the internet, which makes them essential to
your business. One very important feature of emails is the ability for
visitors to provide feedback on your website, products, and service free of
charge. However, if you spend hours upon hours replying to these emails,
how are you expected to run your business?
The answer really is very simple, but it is amazing how many websites will
not be aware of the use of autoresponders.
Besides automatically answering emails, autoresponders have many other
good reasons to use them. For example they can provide a perfect
opportunity to send out information about your website services or
products, any special offers that you would like to offer, and any articles or
advice that you can offer to your prospects. They are a very good way to
build stable relationships with your customers.
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Autoresponders can be in a variety of formats, from software that runs with
your email program or scripts that run on your web hosts server, to
autoresponder service providers. There are several companies that offer
autoresponders free of charge, but you will want to read what features they
offer before deciding on any one provider. Alternatively there are others
that charge a small fee so take a look around before deciding.
A great feature of autoresponders is their ability to send out an unlimited
number of follow-up messages at set intervals. This provides an
opportunity to send out an e-course for example. What better way to keep
your visitors happy than to provide them with an informative e-course, that
educates the readers on a subject, captures the visitors email address for
further contact, and provides information on your service and products at
the same time!
These e-courses can be as long or as short as you choose, but make sure the
reader can keep track of the course. For example, when they sign up, let
them know what they are signing up for. An example title "A Free 10-day
E-course On Wedding Planning" will of course inform the visitor of the
duration of the course, and what it is about. Your first email should always
be a welcome message to your site visitor along with an explanation of what
to expect from the e-course. Make this message enticing, whilst getting the
point across that you are offering free, high quality information that will
benefit the reader.
Email is an excellent marketing tool, but autoresponders has taken the
power of emails to a new level, allowing you to make contact with
thousands of potential customers, several times, automatically. I have given
a quick intro to autoresponders here, but there is a lot more to find out.
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Max your ROI
The success of an email campaign can be determined by a variety of key
performance indicators (KPIs): open ratio, click through ratio, conversion
ratio, sales, unsubscribe ratio, etc. Email marketing success truly depends
on your business objectives as well as overall customer engagement. Email
programs that grow stale and stagnant are not going to entice and engage
your most valuable assets – your email subscribers.
Savvy email marketers are always pushing to evolve their campaigns and
wisely incorporate the following seven proven email strategies. By doing so,
they garner the strongest KPIs by capturing their subscribers' attention
time and time again.
These seven strategies and tactics outlined below will assist you in
maximizing your email marketing Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS):
The Basics
Subject Lines
The subject line is the first and possibly the only introduction to your
campaign that your subscribers may ever see. Take the time and effort to
create a truly relevant, engaging subject line that entices subscribers to
open.
Alt Tags
Alt tags are truly one of the easiest email elements to leverage when
optimizing templates, yet this brilliant element continues to be excluded
from most marketers' html. An alt tag is the text content that appears when
a subscriber's email client doesn't render images. For those online retailers
who create their html as image slices (and there are plenty of you out
there), be certain to include the alt tags.
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Pre-Headers
Pre-header text can be an email marketer's best friend. Think of this email
element as pre-content that can tout your promotional offers, new
products, product features or services. Most marketers use it today to offer
a web version for those that may have rendering issues, and yet it's the most
valuable real estate in your email message. So instead of using the standard
"If you are having difficulty viewing this email, click here" leverage this
prime real estate to promote a strong call to action linking directly to the
highlighted offer:
Growing your List
List growth is a critical aspect of your email marketing program that should
always be top of mind. If your list has been static over the last year, it's time
to implement alternative tactics to grow your opt-in list. It's also important
to emphasise the word "opt-in" when discussing list growth. The benefits of
growing your list organically are very clear: higher retention rate, more
engaged audience, more profitability and a strong and stable sender
reputation. The reality is that if someone has requested to receive
communications from you, they are much more likely to interact with your
email campaigns and ultimately convert. Here are several key fundamentals
to follow when growing your email opt-in list:
Easy to Find
Opt-In Customers should not have to search your site to sign up for your
email marketing efforts. Place your subscribe banner on your homepage
and within your universal navigation bar so customers can find it with ease.
Make It Easy to Join
The easier it is for subscribers to join, the more likely they will. So, limit the
form fields required to join your email program. Requesting multiple fields,
including preferences, may cause a significant amount of form
abandonment. Instead, get what you need to begin the dialogue and collect
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additional information over time through pointed drip campaigns or a
smart "manage preferences" call to action.
Embrace New Subscribers
Thank and welcome new subscribers immediately with a Welcome email
highlighting the big wins of your email program. Build a robust Welcome
series that touches new subscribers consistently by bringing your brand to
life with personal triggers geared towards building a strong relationship
with each new subscriber.
Design
Seeking ways to boost your click-through and conversion rates? The design
of your email templates may have more impact than you realize. If you are
creating an all image html campaign, chances are many of your subscribers
may not see it. A 2010 MarketingSherpa survey found that "only 33 percent
of those surveyed have images turned on by default in their email client."
Thus, consider using a reasonable text to image ratio. Text is every email
marketer's friend, always pepper text elements throughout your email
templates. In addition, have you experimented with your call to action,
footer components, header height or even dynamic content use? If not, you
should. Your campaign will only be as successful as you allow it to be.
Experiment with your design to see what engages your subscribers.
Relevant content
"Untargeted email programs increase costs by as much as 3.6 times the cost
of targeted programs," as per the Relevancy Group in 2010. Yet email
marketers struggle to be relevant. According to eMarketer, "44% of
marketers surveyed believe the biggest challenge in email is providing
relevant content." Delivering your email campaign to the right person, with
the right message, at the right time is critical to your overall email
marketing success. So how does one successfully create relevancy in their
email marketing program?
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Timing
Timing is critical when ensuring relevance. Think back to your subscriber
segments. If you created a segment of customers that have purchased
shampoo in the past 30-45 days, an appropriate campaign would include a
discount off of their next shampoo purchase, or a buy one get one free
combo for shampoo and conditioner. Sending a campaign that speaks to
their purchase behaviour and preferences, as well as creating campaigns
that are sent at the most appropriate time, will yield a stronger ROI overall.
Analyse the results
To create impactful email marketing, you need the ability to overlay your
web analytics data with your email marketing KPIs. You need the ability to
take your email marketing/web analytics integration beyond traffic analysis
in an effort to gather specific data in real-time on your prospects and
customers. Having access to this data will enable you to build true
relationship email marketing. But how do you make it actionable? By
gathering valuable insight into your customer behaviour, you can create
segmented lists and lifecycle campaigns that will significantly increase
retention ratios.
Automate
Trigger based email marketing is extremely effective because it provides a
one-to-one touch based on the relationship between you and your
subscriber. To be successful though, you must be certain to define your
business rules, set frequency limits and remember the importance of
recency. Automated campaigns can trigger timely and relevant messaging
that a subscriber is often excited to receive. Here are three types of trigger
based email campaigns that you should incorporate into your current
program: Customer Satisfaction Programs Consider creating an automated
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message that will be triggered when a customer makes a big item purchase
to gauge their satisfaction with the process.
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Tracking your campaign performance
As marketers, we wear many different hats that constantly pull our
attention across a variety of tactics, campaigns and metrics. Then, as we
cross items off our ever-growing list of deliverables and achieve success,
those specific tactics drop in priority and we continue our journey of
improving other marketing activities. Sometimes, we make time for
determining campaign effectiveness and sometimes we are off to the next
campaign or tactic before we have completed that crucial step. Email
marketing for online retailers presents even more complexities. Factors
such as inundated inboxes, brand loyalty, subscriber engagement,
competing promotional offers, shopping cart behaviour and customer
lifecycles greatly impact email marketing success. Developing an
encompassing, ongoing method to consistently evaluate your email
marketing program will ensure you accomplish your goals.
Building and monitoring your email marketing program presents you with
a unique opportunity to get an inside view of the nuances and inner
workings of your email marketing and how you measure up to your goals.
In this whitepaper, we will review the gauges every online retailer should
include in their email marketing program to assess campaign performance.
Use these factors to determine how your email marketing efforts truly stack
up and areas to tweak for future success.
Define Your Goals Before You Evaluate
Imagine your email marketing program is one of the most important games
of the season. Would you walk onto the field with no game plan and hope
for the best? No! Your playbook would not only include strategies, but also
a plan for each quarter to ultimately achieve your desired endgame –
success. But what does the successful endgame look like for your online
store? Defining your goals before attempting any sort of measurement is a
key part of determining wins and losses. Before you begin crafting your
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message, call-to-action and imagery, don't forget to be SMART. Regardless
of what you determine is important to your online business, your goals
must be:
Specific
Like the saying goes, "Mean what you say and say what you mean." Avoid
potential confusion.
Measurable
Measuring progress is vital to determine if you are going in the right or
wrong direction. Include quantitative and qualitative goals to keep yourself
accountable. Achievable. Attaining complete ecommerce dominance is not
an achievable goal, so make sure your goal is attainable.
Realistic
It doesn't help to list all kinds of wonderful ideas that you would like to
implement but lack the resources to actually accomplish. Don't set goals
and plans that are beyond your scope. Set realistically ambitious goals and
plans.
Time-Bound
No deadline equals no action. Give yourself a time limit to push for success
and measure frequently enough so that you can adjust your tactics to meet
your goals. More common goals for online retailers include driving website
traffic, direct selling, brand awareness and repeat purchases. However,
consider these goals as well:
Increasing conversions
You can lead your subscribers to your site, but are they making purchases?
Have a goal to turn shoppers into buyers and one-time buyers into repeat
buyers.
Building loyalty
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All subscribers aren't created equally. Do you know your high-value buyers
from the window shoppers? Think of your high value segment both in
terms of the actual revenue they provide to you and in terms of their
influence through social networks.
Subscriber acquisition
Getting (and keeping) your foot in the door is a must. Have an objective to
increase your opt-in list as well as enhance mindshare. You can use a multi-channel
approach with mobile & social to help you build your email list to
better grow that revenue driver.
By first defining your goals, you are better able to gauge a campaign's
performance. In addition, you gain the ability to fine-tune customer
experiences that help in the drive toward your specific goal.
Identify Metrics to Benchmark
Once you have defined your goals, you must identify the metrics you will
continuously trend to measure performance. When deciding which
metrics to track, make certain your goals and metrics are aligned. Your
metrics should all work together to determine total customer engagement
and feed the one metric that matters – revenue. Check out the chart below
for ideas on how to translate your goals into measurable values.
Integrating social and mobile into your marketing program? Track the
number and frequency of social and blog comments to help measure
awareness. Or, measure the response rate to specific contests or special
offers to your followers, fans or mobile users.
Verify Your Impact with Benchmarking
Benchmarking against your identified metrics allows you to both have a
greater impact in your marketing programs and cut out any ineffective
activities that are distracting you from achieving your desired goals. For
example, if your shopping cart conversion rate is 15%, is that good, bad or
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just average? You don't know until you have identified shopping cart
conversions as a metric and benchmarked it against existing numbers.
There are two different approaches to use when benchmarking; both of
which yield useful intelligence about campaign performance. The first type
is referred to as internal benchmarking. This type benchmarks performance
against prior experience for your brand or past marketing programs. The
other type, or external benchmarking, compares your metrics to industry
norms. Here is another way to think about it. The first type answers the
question "Are we doing better than we used to?" The second answers the
question "Are we doing as well as we should be?" Most online retailers
begin by answering the first question because it is the information that is
readily available. However, if you're new to tracking your online
performance and don't have a history, then now is the time to start.
Industry statistics are harder to come by because it requires publicly
available data, which is potentially incomplete or over-aggregated. But, if
you can find comparable statistics on your competitive set, then you can
ensure a successful comparison. Look for various marketing organizations
that support your industry to see if they offer the information you need.
Factors That Influence Your Metrics
As part of your evaluation, there are specific factors that not only impact an
online retailers' performance, but also affect your other metrics. Get these
factors right and you significantly increase your odds for email marketing
success and the ability to drive revenue. These factors include deliverability,
relevancy and segmentation.
Ensure Deliverability
If your email never makes it to your intended recipient's inbox, it is
virtually impossible to determine your campaign's effectiveness, not to
mention the loss of revenue. Although you are sending legitimate email,
your messages may not be getting to its final destination due to a variety of
reasons. So, ensuring deliverability is not a "nice to have," but a necessity. In
order to determine your deliverability, you should measure:
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• Number of complaints
• Number of bounces (hard, soft and general)
• Number of messages delivered
• Size of the messages
Optimise your deliverability rate
Monitoring your email campaign delivery rates, cleansing your data
routinely, watching for list fatigue, implementing a subscriber preference
centre and requesting to be added to the customer's address book are just a
few ways to safeguard your email from getting caught in the SPAM filter.
Unsure whether you're headed into the SPAM category? Remember, it's
okay to have a lot of great time-sensitive promotions such as free shipping
or incentives to offer your customers. However, keep your subscriber's
preference in mind. That means frequency and relevancy become your two
closest allies when managing your deliverability.
In addition, it's critical to maintain a healthy relationship with Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) to which you are sending email. Most reputable
ESPs constantly evaluate these relationships and address issues that may
negatively impact your sender rating.
Relevancy
The truth is that your customers' tastes and styles will continue to change
over their lifecycle. For instance, if you sell books, your loyal customers'
buying habits could go from science fiction to weddings to babies,
depending on their life stages or demographic information. Delivering a
message that doesn't speak to the customer can disengage a valuable
relationship. Being irrelevant in your email marketing can result in
decreased open and click-through rates, increased unsubscribes and
decreased sales. Targeted messaging creates a one-to- one relationship with
customers, which means you "get" them as a customer and a shopper.
Understanding your customers' needs and preferences is crucial to
delivering relevant content in your messages. Strategies such as trigger-
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based messaging allow you to be timely and relevant based their needs and
behaviours. According to The Relevancy Group, the cost of untargeted
email is nearly four times higher than targeted mailings. Creating a message
that meets the needs of your customers enhances your relationship as well
as reinforces your trust factor. Shift your focus from the masses to those
more likely to buy and start turning your subscribers into sales conversions
to see uplift in your overall performance.
Segmentation
Segmentation ensures that your message is delivered at the right time, to
the right person and with the right content. Collecting valuable data about
your customers and strategically acting increases engagement and will take
your email marketing performance to the next level. Consider segmenting
your subscribers on preferences, behaviours, RFM (Recency, Frequency,
Monetary Value) data or customer lifecycle stages. Ecommerce provides
marketers a great opportunity to gather and slice and dice available data, so
take advantage. As a result, you will see a boost in conversions, repeat
purchases and engagement with your brand.
Evaluate Your Performance
Now that you have your goals and correlated metrics in mind, here comes
the interesting part – evaluating your performance. Begin by carefully
comparing your results with past performance to determine what is and
isn't working. Here are two things to keep in mind during your evaluation:
Test, Test, and Retest
Testing is critical for email marketing success. Once you have identified
areas for improvement, use testing to tweak offers, call-to-actions and
content. With your endgame of increased revenue in mind, take the time to
create a better brand and shopping experience for your customers. Utilise
testing methods such as:
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• A/B testing. Test one campaign element against another. It may include
varying the offer, call-to-action, look or subject line of a message.
• Multivariate testing. Test multiple changes simultaneously in a live
environment.
Optimize.
Now that you've determined your metrics and addressed the deliverability
and relevancy of your campaign, it is time for optimization. Analyse your
metrics and determine where there is opportunity to increase performance
and convert low hanging fruit.
Assessing your email marketing performance is not a one-time affair. Once
you have your goals, metrics and results in-hand, the next step is updating
your strategy and reprioritizing. Drive sales and reach the goals for your
online store by taking action on your evaluation results.
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Why list segmentation matters
By now, most marketers understand the importance of email to their
overall marketing strategy and recognise that it's not dying in the wake of
other emerging marketing tactics like social media. But while most
marketers realise that email is here to stay, unfortunately, that doesn't
exactly mean certain email marketing best practices have caught on.
Segmentation is one such best practices. Segmenting your communications
can improve your email marketing campaigns by leaps and bounds (read
on -- we have the data to prove it!).
Luckily, marketers are at least starting to realise the importance of
segmentation in their email communications. In fact, according to the
MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, 32% of
marketers say segmenting their email database is one of their organization's
top objectives in the next 12 months. Furthermore, 52% of marketers say
they have a great need to improve email database segmentation.
So if you aren't slicing and dicing your email database into various
segments and tailoring the content in your emails to those individual
groups of contacts, we think you could use some convincing. Read on to
find out why all marketers should be segmenting their email
communications.
Your Buyers Aren't All the Same
Here's the reality: most businesses, whether B2B or B2C, don't cater to just
one type of customer, even if they do only sell one product or service. There
is no one-size-fits-all customer, and there are usually several ideal
customers for any given business. If you own a plumbing company, for
example, you might cater to the landlord of a big apartment building as
well as the owner of a single family home. These are two very different
types of customers who have very different problems and needs, meaning
they should be treated quite differently, right? So if you were doing some
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email marketing to these two target customers, blanketing them with the
same, broad message wouldn't be as effective as sending each a targeted
email that spoke to their specific problems and needs.
Think about it. If you were that owner of a single family home (hey --
maybe you actually are!), which of the following two emails would you be
more interested in opening? One that promised to provide you with 10
general tips for unclogging drains, or one that is offering 10 tips for
unclogging household drains, specifically written to address the problems a
homeowner would have? It may sound trivial, but that second email, when
sent to a targeted list of homeowners, would perform much better than a
broad, general message to an entire list of email contacts.
If you haven't already, determine who your various segments of target
customers are. These are also known as buyer personas, and here is a great
guide to help you identify them. Once you figure out which types of
individuals make up your customer base as a whole, segmenting becomes
much more understandable -- and easier. And the beauty of segmentation
is that the possibilities are endless. You can identify three or four general
personas, or get more granular with each of those, splitting them into even
more targeted groups and making your segmentation even more effective.
Your Contacts Are at Different Points in the Sales Cycle
Here's another reality: Your email database is made up of contacts who are
at varied stages of interaction with your business. This means your contacts
are at different points in the sales cycle, and they require different types of
information and communication depending on which point they're at. Let's
revert back to our plumbing example for a second so I can prove a point.
See that guy on your list, Type 'A' Tom? Type 'A' Tom is on your list
because he opted in to your email database after reading, say, a general
article on your blog about plumbing best practices. He just bought a new
house with his bride, and ever since, he's been scouring the web, reading up
on various preventative measures he can take to properly maintain his new
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abode. None of his drains are clogged (yet), and he's not in the market for a
plumber at this time. Now let's take a look at your email list again.
See Frantic Fred? He just redeemed three separate offers on your website
about how to unclog a stubborn drain, bought three different kinds of
liquid plumber at the local hardware store based on the recommendations
in your ebook, and his drain still isn't budging. His wife told him that if she
can't take a shower by the time she gets back from her business trip, he's in
the dog house. Seems like Fred might be much closer to making a
purchasing decision than Tom, huh? Don't you think your email to Fred
should provide targeted content that caters to someone who is in that stage
of the sales cycle, rather than an email written with general content in an
attempt to also include Tom?
In other words, failing to use email to take advantage of prospects' differing
wants and needs depending on their stage in the sales cycle is a huge missed
opportunity.
Your Email Reputation Will Improve
This may have already become obvious as you read the two sections above,
but when you send targeted, segmented email to your audience, your emails
are naturally more engaging to that audience. For example, if you sat down
to write an email to people on your list like Frantic Fred, and you have a
much better understanding of who they are and what they're looking for at
that moment, you'll be able to craft compelling copy that truly speaks just
to all those Freds.
And if you stick to this practice, over time, those Freds and Toms of the
world will start to realise that every time they get an email from you, they
know the content will be interesting to them -- because it always has been.
In other words, you'll reap the benefits of a great sender reputation among
your audience. If you think about all the emails you receive as a buyer,
aren't the ones you open time and time again the ones whose content
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always seems to appeal to you? Those vendors are likely doing some great
segmentation and targeting!
You'll Achieve Better Results
I saved the best for last. Sure, I can sing the praises of segmentation all day,
but you're probably thinking, "Show me the proof!" Well, it's true: research
shows that segmented email does outperform general, untargeted sends.
Just take a look at the following data from the Lyris Annual Email
Optimizer Report. When asked to indicate their top three results, 39% of
marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates,
28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates, and 24% experienced better
deliverability and greater revenue. And as you can see, the list goes on.
And that's not all! Research carried out by HubSpot found that targeted and
segmented lead nurturing emails generate an 8% click-through rate
compared to general email sends, which generate just a 3% click-through
rate. In other words, targeted sends result in more clicks, which means
recipients engage with the content within segmented email and perform the
actions you want them to take. Furthermore, Jupiter Research reveals that
relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails.
As you can see, all the signs indicate that segmented email is the much
better way to go.
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8 ways to integrate email with social media
Before we dive in, it’s important to understand the distinction between
social sharing and connecting:
Social Sharing: This is when a marketer includes an option for the
subscriber to share the entire email or a specific content block with their
social network(s).
Social Connection: This is what we tend to see most often—asking your
email subscribers to like your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter,
subscribe to your YouTube channel, etc.
Below are 8 ways to integrate email marketing and social media for
maximum effectiveness. One thing to note: I consider “old-school” social
networks like blogs and SMS (texting) to be social media.
#1: Include Social Icons in Emails
While this may sound like an obvious one, it’s important to include social
icons in your email campaigns. To be clear, I’m not talking about slapping a
tiny Facebook or Twitter icon somewhere at the bottom of an email. Nope.
Say it loud. Say it proud. Like the Huffington Post Media Brief.
#2: Ask Email Subscribers to Share and Connect
Sometimes just including social icons is not enough. Remember: While
many subscribers recognise the Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn icons, not all
know what action you want them to take when they see them in an email.
Don’t be afraid to tell them!
#3: Send a Dedicated Email Campaign
There are times when including some links or buttons—asking your
subscribers to socially connect or share with their network—is not clear
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enough. If you are not having much success, try sending an email that is
dedicated to a particular social network.
#4: Provide Incentive
As mentioned in #3, if you want someone to connect with you on other
social networks, sometimes you need to provide an incentive—tell me
what’s in it for me!
However, your incentive does not have to be financial. You can also try
what Chris Penn did here in his email newsletter. (Note: red box is mine.)
He offered two subscribers a chance to be featured in his next email—the
one who shared the most and the one who generated the most click-throughs.
Give your subscribers a reason to connect, a reason to share.
#5: Promote Email Sign-up Via Social Networks
If you have a strong following on a particular social network, don’t hesitate
to ask for new email subscribers via that channel. See what C.C. Chapman
did in this tweet. Ask for your Twitter followers to opt into your email
newsletter. You can also promote your email sign-up page on Facebook.
The key here is cross-promotion—leverage each channel to promote the
other.
#6: Include “Retweet This!” Snippet in Email
Another great way to cross-pollinate email marketing and social media is to
highlight a particular tweet in your email campaign. MarketingProfs is one
company that does this in many of their emails.
#7: Build an Email Opt-In Form on Facebook
Facebook allows you to embed an email sign-up form as one of your apps.
Take advantage of this great opportunity to encourage your Facebook fans
to opt into your email list.
#8: Promote Email Marketing on Your Blog
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One often-overlooked integration option is using your blog to mention,
link to and ask for new email subscribers.
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___________
Extras
What’s here?
1. Email marketing checklist
2. Tips for effective email marketing
3. Email facts
4. The email glossary: 178 terms defined
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Email marketing checklist
It is vitally important to check and test emails thoroughly before sending
out a campaign. We suggest creating an email checklist, and to help get you
started we've identified a number of questions you really should answer
before sending a major campaign …
The Email
• Have you avoided cutting and pasting content from a Microsoft
programme?
• Does the email design & layout look correct in your own and testing
account inboxes?
• Have you checked that the email is not too advertorial or editorial
focused?
• Have you checked the important parts of your email show correctly
in a preview pane?
• Have you checked your spelling?
• Have you checked the content for spam filtering issues?
• Have you included a call to action?
• Have you ensured that the email can’t be shorter or more concise?
• Have you checked all of the links and company details are correct?
• Have you given all important images Alt tags?
The Subject Line & ‘From’ Details
• Have you checked the spelling?
• Will recipients recognise the ‘From’ name and email address?
• Is the ‘From’ address a live email address that works?
• Does someone open this inbox to answer replies?
• Are you ready for the out of office responses?
• Have you checked for spam filtering issues?
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Testing
• Have you planned time to test?
• Have you sent a complete version to yourself (and a proof group) as
it will be delivered?
Database
• Have you grouped your database to help with analysis?
• Have you checked your database for personalisation?
• Have you cleaned your data recently?
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Tips for effective email marketing
Email marketing has grown in popularity because it produces results. While
in the late 90's and into 2000, email marketing was new. The accessibility of
email now means that marketers must work hard to cut through the clutter.
In the past, permission was a "nice to have." Now permission is a "must
have." Ultimately, a company must put more thought into email
communications – from goals and objectives to long-term vision.
Whether you are new to email marketing or a seasoned professional, a
strategy and a roadmap prove critical for email marketing.
Here are some things you should consider:
Define Email Marketing
Email marketing can mean lots of things to lots of people. Email is a very
versatile medium that can include customer acquisition (lead or sales),
retention, cross-selling, up-selling and more.
Email is a very versatile medium that can include customer acquisition
(lead or sales), retention, cross-selling, up-selling, and more. Content can
be one-size-fits-all or highly customized. Frequency can consist of fixed,
frequent intervals or sporadic intervals, with transmissions occurring only
when something newsworthy comes along. The Sophistication (and cost)
can be very low or very high.
But there's a far more meaningful definition of email marketing that can
only be determined by you and your business. Defining the purpose of
email marketing for your organization is critical and will be the driving
force for all other email activities.
Set Goals
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Remember that you need to communicate the purpose of email marketing
for your organization. Start with a goal so that others can see how it ties
into the overall business strategy.
Email can be seen as a tactical and inexpensive way to reach out to
prospects and customers to quickly increase sales or drive traffic to the
website. It's a valid but very short-sighted view. By building a sound
strategy, you will be able to set expectations for long-term success up front
and alleviate those frustrations.
Build Your List
Your contacts form the foundation of your strategy. After all, you're
building a strategy around communicating with them. Your goals are tied
to their actions. Your lists are the most important piece of the puzzle.
Successful email marketing is a result of sending relevant content, so your
plan should include learning as much as you can about your contacts.
Successful email marketing starts with quality data. Do you know your
audience? Take some time to note what exists currently and make a plan to
capture additional information over time. The more you know about your
readers, the easier it will be to provide valuable, targeted content. Now
think about what information you have and what you'd like to know about
new prospects and customers. Typical information below:
• Demographics (marital status, income, Location, etc)
• Interest area (product A or B, specific service, information, etc)
• Amount purchased, donated, etc
• Business info (industry, title, etc)
• Time frame for making a decision
• Budget
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The most powerful aspect of email marketing software is that you can
segment your contacts and determine the best recipients for the message
you would like to convey, and prepare the communication to speak directly
to that audience.
Plan for Content
One of the biggest reasons that many email marketing campaigns aren't
successful is that content isn't planned in advance. Setting an editorial
calendar, similar to print, is a very good idea.
Now that you know who your target audience is, you now need to
determine the type of communications you want to produce, and organise
an editorial calendar for each item. This will help you prepare for the future
and ensure that each communication contains relevant content.
Post-Campaign Support
Are your company's internal departments prepared to provide post-campaign
support? Will you be able to handle the traffic, replies, leads or
sales that your message may produce?
The customers you are hoping to acquire are unable to access your landing
page from the increased traffic. Not the most successful first impression
that may discourage the customer from returning. Or, perhaps, you create a
backlog of leads that your sales department is unable to respond to. The
customer may lose interest if they aren't responded to within a timely
manner.
The Bottom Line
People love numbers. Be prepared to discuss the metrics you will use to
determine your success.
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As with any critical marketing function, you need to define metrics for
success. For each type of publication, you should outline what will
represent success. Sharing these metrics will help communicate with all
involved how email can truly impact the organization.
!

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Email facts
56% of US Marketers plan to spend more on 'newer media' marketing
(including websites, email marketing, mobile, search, and social media) in
2011. - Association of National Advertisers (2010)
Over 60% of respondents said that at least fifty percent of the email
programs they participate in are of value to them. - Econsultancy "How We
Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of Consumers" (2010)
42% of consumers said the best way to receive ads for sales and specials is
via email. - Econsultancy "How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations
of Consumers" (2010)
68% of US consumers aged 18-26 use emailed coupons online. -
Econsultancy "How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of
Consumers" (2010)
US Internet users engage with an average of 11.8 brands via Email,
compared to 9.4 brands via Facebook and 7.9 brands via twitter. -
ExactTarget "Subscribers, Fans, and Followers: The Social Profile" (2010)
56% of US Internet users interact with brands only via marketing emails,
compared to 1.3% who interact only via twitter and 0.7% by Facebook. -
ExactTarget "Subscribers, Fans, and Followers: The Social Profile" (2010)
37% of US in-store shoppers' preferred method of receiving retail
promotions in via email. - CrossView (2010)
Only 9% of US in-store shoppers prefer to receive promotional messages on
social media sites. - CrossView (2010)
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Strategy/Consulting is the most predominant additional service provided in
addition to email services with 66% of respondents offering these services,
followed by general interactive marketing (53%), social media (43%) and
web design (42%). - EmailStatCenter.com "Compensation & Resources
Study" (2010)
2/3's of US Internet users surveyed said email was their preferred channel
for written communications between friends. - ExactTarget, "2008 Channel
Preference Survey" (2008)
Only 9% of those surveyed preferred getting marketing messages via SMS
(text) instead of email. - ExactTarget, "2008 Channel Preference Survey"
(2008)
65% of the demographic between the ages of 18 to 34, the age demographic
most comfortable with IM, SMS and emerging communications methods,
will favour email to communicate with businesses in five years. - Habeas
(2008)
67% of respondents prefer email as a communications channel over other
online vehicles and 65 percent believe this will continue to be the case in
five years. - Habeas (2008)80% of Marketers Report Email Is Strongest
Performing Media Buy Ahead of Search and Display. - Datran Media,
"Marketing & Media Survey" (2008)
Search is favoured channel for complementing the email channel. - Datran
Media, "Marketing & Media Survey" (2008)
83% of surveyed marketing executives worldwide used email, ahead of
display ads, paid search and online video. - The McKinsey Quarterly (2007)
33% of surveyed travel and tourism businesses said that driving repeat
visitors is a major benefit of email marketing. - Constant Contact, Inc, The
2007 U.S. Small Business Summer Outlook (2007)
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Nearly half of survey respondents (46%) said reducing the dependency on
print marketing is a major benefit of email marketing. - Constant Contact,
Inc, The 2007 U.S. Small Business Summer Outlook (2007)
83.2% of marketers surveyed chose email marketing as the most important
advertising mediums they will use in 2007. - Datran Media Research (2007)
49.6% of online merchants maintain that email marketing performs better
than other forms of marketing, including paid search, search engine
optimization, direct mail and affiliate marketing. - Internet Retailer (2007)
When marketers do use email in concert with other marketing channels,
two out of three use special offer codes to integrate the channels. - DMA
(Nov 2006)
According to Ad:Tech Attendees 31% of US Marketing Executives surveyed
say direct response programs (email and mailings) have greatest ROI, more
than double all other marketing programs (p.r., event marketing, website,
advertising). - CMO Council (2006)
Online retailers ranked email marketing as the most important demand-generation
activity for holiday success, with Search Engine Marketing
(SEM) ranking second. - Online Retail Holiday Readiness Report,
WebTrends (2006)
Telephone and email produced the highest response rates - 2.60% and
2.45%, respectively - among direct marketing media channels in terms of
generating leads. - Direct Marketing Association's "2006 Response Rate
Trends Report"
57.4% of respondents to the survey report that sales from email as a
proportion of total sales are much higher or somewhat higher than a year
ago. - Internet Retailer (Sept 2006)
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Email generated $15.50 in sales per dollar spent on email marketing
campaigns last year, 17% more than direct mail, even though marketers
spend 23 times more money on direct mail campaigns than on email,
Winterberry Group reports. - Winterberry Group (2005)
Email will maintain about the same leads over direct mail and
telemarketing in generated sales this year, when Winterberry estimates that
email will generate $16.7 in sales per dollar spent on marketing, compared
to $14.6 for direct mail and $9.71 for telemarketing. - Winterberry Group
(2005)
Email drove 73% more sales per marketing dollar than did telemarketing,
which generated $8.94 per marketing dollar. - Winterberry Group (2005)
Email delivers the highest ROI by an eye-popping margin: a whopping
$57.25 for every dollar spent on it in 2005, $7.08 for every dollar spent on
print catalogues, and $22.52 for every dollar spent on non-email Internet
marketing. - DMA (2005)
Winterberry also projects that marketers will spend $2.2 billion on email
campaigns this year, up from $2.1 billion last year, and that they'll spend
$51.4 billion on direct mail, up from $48.6 billion last year. - Winterberry
Group (2005)
Email marketing is the top online marketing method for retention, above
search engine positioning, banner ads, sponsorships and other programs. -
Direct Marketing Association (DMA) (2005)
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The email glossary: 178 terms defined
A/B split: Refers to a test situation in which a list is split into two pieces
with every other name being sent one specific creative, and vice versa. See
also Nth name.
Above the fold: The part of an email message or Web page that is visible
without scrolling. Material in this area is considered more valuable because
the reader sees it first. Refers to a printing term for the top half of a
newspaper above the fold. Unlike a newspaper, email and Web page fold
locations aren't predictable. Your fold may be affected by the users' preview
pane, monitor-size, monitor resolution, any headers placed by email
programs such as Hotmail, etc.
Access: Microsoft software tool used for developing a database. Any
database vendor you work with -- email broadcaster, list broker, third-party
list-hygiene service, etc. -- should be able to work with this format (as well
as several others.)
Acquisition cost: In email marketing, the cost to generate one lead,
newsletter subscriber or customer in an individual email campaign;
typically, the total campaign expense divided by the number of leads,
subscribers or customers it produced.
Ad swap: An exchange between two publishers in which each agrees to run
the other's comparably valued ad at no charge. Value is determined by rate
card, placement, size of list, quality of list, name brand fame, etc.
Affiliate: A marketing partner that promotes your products or services
under a payment-on-results agreement.
Affirmative consent: An active request by a reader or subscriber to receive
advertising or promotional information, newsletters, etc. Generally
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affirmative consent does not included the following -- failing to uncheck a
pre-checked box on a Web form, entering a business relationship with an
organization without being asked for separate permission to be sent specific
types of email, opt-out.
Alert: Email message that notifies subscribers of an event or special price.
AOL: America Online.
Application Program Interface (API): How a program (application)
accesses another to transmit data. A client may have an API connection to
load database information to an email vendor automatically and receive
data back from the email.
Application Service Provider (ASP): Company that provides a Web-based
service. Clients don’t have to install software on their own computers; all
tasks are performed on (hosted on) the ASP’s servers.
Attachment: A text, video, graphic, PDF or sound file that accompanies an
email message but is not included in the message itself. Attachments are
not a good way to send email newsletters because many ISPs, email clients
and individual email recipients do not allow attachments, because hackers
use them to deliver viruses and other malicious code.
Authentication: An automated process that verifies an email sender's
identity.
Autoresponder: Automated email message-sending capability, such as a
welcome message sent to all new subscribers the minute they join a list.
May be triggered by joins, unsubscribes, all email sent to a particular
mailbox. May be more than a single message — can be a series of date or
event-triggered emails.
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MailNinja's Ultimate Guide To Email Marketing

MailNinja's Ultimate Guide To Email Marketing

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