96% of email campaigns fail - don't let yours be one of them

96% of Email Campaigns Fail –

Don’t Let Yours Be One of Them

September 10, 2015

Today’s Presenters

Scott Roth

Chief Marketing Officer

Return Path

Shar VanBoskirk

Vice President &

Principal Analyst

Forrester Research

James DeStefano

Director of Email

Marketing and CRM

Gilt City

Scott Roth


“96% of Email Campaigns Fail”

Your inbox knows a lot about you

We help the world’s leading companies

promote and protect their brand.

About Return Path

2,000+

Customers

Partnered with

ESP’s/ISP’s 480+

Employees

12 Global

Offices

Return Path Business Solutions

Shar VanBoskirk

Vice President, Principal Analyst

Forrester Research

The Future of Email Marketing How Context Will Make Email Even More Valuable

9

Welcome to The Age Of The Customer

10 © 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Theme

› Email is the best marketing tool

for building brand relationships


Agenda

• Why is it so important to do email well?

• How can improve your current email efforts?

• How can you put email to better use?

11


Agenda




12

© 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 13

Customers are empowered

Base: 58,583 US online adults (18+)

Source: Forrester's North American Consumer Technographics® Online Benchmark Survey, 2014

Number of connected devices used:


Tech gets used in very intimate places

Base: 58,583 US online adults (18+)

Source: Forrester's North American Consumer Technographics® Online Benchmark Survey, 2014

Bathroom??


Source: Forrester’s North American Consumer Technographics Online Benchmark Survey (part 2), 2014; Forrester's North American Technographics Online

Benchmark Survey (Part 2), Q3 2012 (US, Canada_; and Forrester’s North American Technographics Omnibus Online Survey, Q1 2010 (US)

Attitudes toward email continue to improve


Note: All numbers rounded down

Source: Forrester Research Email Marketing Forecast, 2014 To 2019 (US)

Email continues to grow at a 9% CAGR


Most emails could be better

Base: 98 emails

Source: The Best And Worst of Email Marketing, 2014, June 20, 2014


Agenda




19


Balance user need with business goals

1) What do my users need?

2) What is my business goal for email?


Forrester’s email user experience review evaluates four dimensions

▪ Subscription

▪ Value

▪ Presentation

▪ Trust


Good: inviting

registration front

and center on the

home page

Better: collecting

email address

directly

Make email registration easy


HP’s registration is clear and explanatory

HP provides

explanations

and benefits

associated

with data

collection . . .

. . .At each step in

the registration

process


Poor targeting keeps this email from providing essential content


Kraft includes peer reviews in its email

Best practices:

•Includes social

content in the email

•Encourages

interactivity by inviting

users to review

recipes

•Makes sharing easy


Citi Cards emails make sense with no images

And it has

several, above-

the-fold calls to

action


The NY Times uses headlines to ease content navigation


McKinsey provides a user-centric footer

Footer reminds subscribers:

•What emails they get, why

•How to change email address

or preferences

•Of privacy policies


Agenda




29


› Fails to differentiate

› Creates crippling complexity

› Doesn’t guarantee relevance

Email for CRM isn’t enough

It:


A contextual understanding of

consumers allows companies to deliver

on the promise of customer-centricity


What this is right now

Triggered emails are

contextual by nature:

Shopping cart

abandonment emails tap

a $4 trillion opportunity


AIMIA showed locations

nearby at time of email open

where Nectar Rewards could

be redeemed

Open rates increased by

67%

Geo-targeted content:


• Conversion rates by 375%

• Bookings by 60%

• Share of voice by 650%

…with no incremental investment

Red Roof Inn

applied weather

in another way:


What this will become › A business traveler receives an email from a retail chain to

which she is a loyal shopper.

› Email technology shows that the customer is traveling when

she opens the email.

› The chain has stores in the city where she is traveling and

makes the logical leap that she is staying at a

› The retailer personalizes email content at open time to

promote items such as water, snacks, or umbrella; or room

delivery


To summarize

› Your customer relationships are your primary

competitive differentiator

› Email is a key way to build customer

relationships

› Apply best practices to improve email

performance

› Context will take email beyond CRM

Scott Roth


We have unprecedented visibility into the inbox

CONSUMERS & DEVELOPERS

and 2M+ Consumers

eCommerce receipts

from over

5,000 Retailers

Data Examples:

Message arrived, message read,

message deleted, subject line, creative,

purchase receipts, travel notifications

PROVIDERS

Data Examples:

Mail logs, spam traps, complaints,

deliverability stats, IP authentication,

SPF/DKIM/DMARC records

70+ Providers

2.5B Inboxes

with

Return Path Email Optimization Suite

With The Right

Message

• Inbox Preview

• Subject Line Optimizer

• Email Client Monitor

• Inbox Insight

Reach The Right

Inbox

• Certification

• Inbox Monitor • Reputation Monitor

At The Right

Time

• Send Time

Optimization

Return Path’s Email Optimization Suite helps companies build better relationships, drive

more responses, and increase revenue from their email marketing efforts.

James DeStefano

Director of Email Marketing and CRM

Gilt City

Who We Are: Gilt

Gilt City offers its 3.7M+ members coveted access to exclusive experiences in

select U.S. cities, all at insider prices.

City Women Men

Kids Home DuJour

Gilt is a members-only lifestyle destination and e-commerce site

that provides insider access to today’s top designer labels.

September 2010 Gilt City Launches

Gilt City Quick Facts

160 Sales Launch Weekly

Beauty, Retail, Dining, Spa, & Fitness Largest Revenue Driving Categories

$60K Virgin America Charter Flight Most Expensive Experience Sold

13 Local Markets

The Power of Email at Gilt City

Over 50M promotional emails

sent per month

Most cost efficient marketing

channel

RP Certified since November 2011

Primary means of

communication with our

members

Largest driver of traffic and

revenue

Recent Success &

Innovation

Delivering Relevant Content

Challenge

• How to maintain fresh copy and creative

• Waning engagement

• Lapsed purchase behavior

• Increased inbox competition

Solution

• Hyper personalized campaign

• Use witty and playful copy

• Walk each lapsed customer through their own unique journey from

registration through last purchase

• Capturing his/her attention

• Reigniting their passion for the brand

13% Conversion Rate Lift

44% CTO Lift

Delivering Relevant Content

Control Creative:

Creating Urgency

Goal

• Drive excitement and urgency

• Create a more nimble franchise that is agnostic of seasons, holidays,

cultural events, etc.

159% Conversion Rate Lift

Concept

• “The Rush” franchise plays off the idea of getting a rush from shopping

• Urgency of a rush

• Deep discount for a limited period of time

Results

• RP Certification allows us to bypass certain filters and so reach our

members’ inboxes at the start of the redemption window

Merchandise Authority Goal

• Establish Gilt City as the go-to

destination for can’t miss local

experiences

Concept

• Editorialized content that tells a

story

Learnings

• Most relevant for members with

brand/category affinity AND who

have purchased before

Conversion Rate Lifts of Up to 11% CTO Lifts of Up to 20%

From: To:

Onboarding Experience Optimization

Goal

• Educate

• Reinforce the value prop

• Deepen the relationship w/ our members

• Increase activation rate while driving incremental

revenue

Solution – TEST, TEST, TEST!

• Copy and creative

• Incentive

• Incentive max redemption

• Responsive design vs. mobile friendly

• Banner vs. dedicated email

• Timing Sets frequency

expectations

Speaks to value

proposition

Challenges

Inbox Placement Overview

• GC relies heavily on Inbox Monitor – alerts go to

senior management

Challenge

• Seeds for smaller transactional emails and our

welcome email showed sporadic bulking at Gmail

• Tried to resolve, but were unsuccessful –

• Updated creative

• Updated SL and copy

• Recoded the HTML

Solution

• Worked closely with our account team

• After reviewing the volume, it became apparent

we had too many IPs

• Reduced the number of IPs and issue resolved

Thank You

Questions?

Contact

James DeStefano

[email protected] Scott Roth

[email protected]

Shar VanBoskirk

[email protected]

96% of email campaigns fail - don't let yours be one of them

Data & Analytics