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