e-mail marketing with lyris. agenda why e-mail marketing? e-mail best practices tips for effective...
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E-mail Marketing with Lyris
Agenda
• Why e-mail marketing?• E-mail best practices• Tips for effective messaging• Writing good e-mail content• Things to avoid• E-mail at the University• Lyris overview
Why E-mail Marketing?
• inexpensive• effective• drives traffic• builds loyalty• immediate• targeted• easy
Recent e-mail statistics
• Globally, spam accounted for 58.2% of all e-mails (nearly 2 out of 3)
• Out of 127.2 million e-mail boxes• 61.342 billion e-mails undelivered due to server
outage• 142.534 billion blocked or tagged inbound e-mails• 36.593 billion unaltered, delivered e-mails• Ratio of blocked or tagged inbound e-mail to valid
e-mail is 5.6 to 1, or 85%
E-mail best practices
1. Mail with permission• “opt-in” and “permission based”
subscription• double opt-in
• Builds an audience that truly wants to hear from you
• Increases mailing delivery rates
• Keeps your list clean
• Risk of losing some names
E-mail best practices
E-mail best practices
2. Set and meet expectations• Describe the topic, format, and
frequency of mailings • Reassure prospects about privacy
• include a privacy statement on U Web pages
• Deliver what you say you will
E-mail best practices
E-mail best practices
E-mail best practices
3. Test your formatting• HTML and text versions• Multiple e-mail clients and platforms
E-mail best practices
E-mail best practices
E-mail best practices
4. Optimize for delivery• Use a professional, dedicated list
management software or system • Create complete and consistent headers• Write content that doesn’t look like spam• Test message against spam filters• Adjust headers and content to minimize
chances of blockage
E-mail best practices
E-mail best practices
5. Optimize for the inbox• Use test or “seed” addresses at popular
domains• Time consuming
E-mail best practices
6. Comply with the law and University policies• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
• (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act)
• Enforced by the FTC• Bans the following:
• False or misleading header information• Deceptive subject lines
• Must include:• Opt-out mechanism• Legitimate physical address of the mailer
E-mail best practices
6. Comply with the law and University policies• Publishing information on the World Wide Web• All Web pages must:
• University of Minnesota wordmark at top of page• Equal opportunity statement• Date of last revision and contact information• Copyright information• Link to the University’s privacy statement• Comply with the University's Accessibility of
Information Technology policy
• University Web templates
E-mail best practices
E-mail best practices
7. Analyze results and incorporate learning
• Identify key goals and metrics• Benchmark your campaigns• Feed results back into subsequent
campaigns
E-mail best practices
1. Mail with permission2. Set and meet expectations3. Test your formatting4. Optimize for delivery5. Optimize for the inbox6. Comply with the law and U policy7. Analyze results and close the loop
Tips for effective messaging
• Know your audience• Change with your audience
• Blackberry and PDA users
• Instill a sense of urgency• Not everyone reads e-mail
Writing good e-mail content
• Write for the preview pane• Above-the-fold
• Engage readers• Be brief• Direct people to content on Web sites
E-mail best practices
Things to avoid
• Complicated design• Flash, JavaScript, CSS (cascading style
sheets)
• Heavy on images• Broken links• Only HTML, rather than including text
version• Large blocks of text
E-mail at the U
• Many different methods to send messages• Software packages like ExactTarget that cost
money• Listservs
• A lot of noise• Bad formatting• Too many messages
Introduction to Lyris Listmanager
• Free, Web-based tool for distributing customized mass e-mail
• List sources• x.500 (PeopleSoft)• Donor Management System (UMF)• Personal or departmental home-grown lists
• Provides an interface for:• Creating e-mail content• Selecting segments of lists• Sending the linked content + list members• Tracking success of the mailing
Lyris--Continued
• Can manage many list management functions
• Removal of bad addresses• Subscribe and unsubscribe
• Allows for:• Import of e-mail addresses • Creation and management of HTML templates• Creation of HTML and text messages
• Can manage e-mail workflow• Creation• Approval
Lyris Listmanager
Lyris Listmanager
Lyris--Continued
• Requires some level of technical skills• Familiarity with Web-based applications• HTML e-mail experience• Data management experience
• Steeper learning curve than listserv• Very involved process to create templates,
easier after that
Lyris--Continued
• Training• ADCS is developing training material and
documentation
• Support• Dedicated support staff
• Available June 2006
E-mail glossary• Click-through-rate
• The percentage (the number of unique clicks divided by the number that were opened) of recipients that click on a given URL in your e-mail.
• Conversion rate• The number or percentage of recipients who respond to your call-to-action
in a given e-mail marketing campaign or promotion. This is the measure of your e-mail campaign's success.
• Hard bounce/soft bounce• A hard bounce is the failed delivery of an e-mail due to a permanent reason
like a non-existent address. A soft bounce is the failed delivery of an e-mail due to a temporary issue, like a full mailbox or an unavailable server.
• Landing page• A web page that is linked to an email for the purpose of providing additional
information directly related to products or services promoted in the email.• Open rate
• The percentage of e-mails opened in any given e-mail marketing campaign, or the percentage opened of the total number of e-mails sent.