internet summit conference - 5 ways to improve your email campaigns and get better results

5 Ways To Improve Your Email Campaigns (and Get Better Results)

5 Ways To Improve Your Email Campaigns (and Get Better Results)

Tweet this session!@johnethies@EmailonAcid

#ISUM16@Internet_Summit

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The feeling you get after a day of working with Outlook

Why is emailso important?01.

EMAIL delivers the highest ROI for Marketers@johnethies | @EmailonAcid*According to VentureBeat, email is the channel generating the highest ROI for marketers.

email marketing is going to remain a top priority for companies in 2016

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@johnethies | @EmailonAcid&68%OF TEENSOF MILLENNIALSPrefer to receive communication from a business via email.Source: Adestra73%

68 percent of teens and 73 percent of Millennials said they prefer to receive communication from a business via email.

In addition, more than half rely on email to buy things online.

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RESOURCES are shifting@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

71.8 percent) say they are planning to spend more time on email production and more than four out of five (86.7 percent) report that they will increase email marketing budgets this year.7

@johnethies | @EmailonAcidBUDGETS are following future needs

Additionally, of the 86.7 percent of the survey's respondents said they would spend more money on email marketing this year. The increased budget is expected to be spent on:8

$40 return for every $1 spent in Email Marketing@johnethies | @EmailonAcid*According to VentureBeat, email is the channel generating the highest ROI for marketers.

if done CORRECTLY@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

List SEGMENTATION02.

Be RELENTLESS about your RELEVENCY@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

In the midst of content overloadAlways find a way to be relevant

Marketers and subscribers often define spam differently. Subscribers dont think in terms of spam filter testing or algorithms , but in terms of relevance.

Are you sending content that matters to them? This is ultimately the most important question to ask yourself before hitting "send" on any email.

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SURVEY RESULTS A

@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

By surveying your audience, you can tap into what motivates them or analyze the psychographic makeup of your audience and segment from there.

Keep it simple: start with what you know such as age, gender, etc.

Never underestimate how a slight change, like the one above, could impact your ROI.

In order to dig deeper, find out what makes them tick. Send an email with a survey.13

@johnethies | @EmailonAcidWEATHER PATTERNSA

A company called Skymosity can track weather patterns and it allows you to create automated email campaigns that are deployed by weather-based email triggers.

Brooks, an athletic shoe company, made fantastic use of this data by creating multiple campaigns, based on weather condition and temperature range that were triggered by Skymositys weather logic.

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The average shopping cart abandonment rate is approximately

PURCHASE CYCLE A@johnethies | @EmailonAcid67%

To track where someone is in the buying journey, you have to look at their digital behavior: which pages of yours they visited, how long they stayed on your website and how you obtained their email.

A great example of segmenting by purchase cycle is seen in cart abandonment emails.

so its smart to trigger a card abandonment email 24 hours after they left the shopping cart.

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Remind your inactive subscribers why they were attracted to your brand.

RE-ENGAGEMENTA

Reengagement campaigns are your opportunity to remind your inactive subscribers why they were attracted to your brand in the first place.Subscribers who have stopped opening your emails can have negative implications on your deliverability.Analyze your existing subscriber history. Use past data to determine the average amount of time between when subscribers sign up and when they stop engaging with emails, and strategize your reengagement program around that window of time.16

Getting to the INBOX03.

VSDELIVERABILITY@johnethies | @EmailonAcidDELIVERY

Making it into the inbox is one of the more ambiguous, misunderstood elements of sending great email. Marketers often mix up a key distinction: delivery vs. deliverability. Though the terms are often used interchangeably, they have very different meanings.18

@johnethies | @EmailonAcid*According to VentureBeat, email is the channel generating the highest ROI for marketers.Whether or not a recipient accepts your message.DELIVERY

Where the message ends up once its accepted: inbox, spam folder or another folder.DELIVERABILITY@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

Email design and content can have an EFFECT on inbox placement@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

AVOID using an all image design

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Target 500+ characters

Keep email size BELOW 100kb@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

BITLY is @johnethies | @EmailonAcid

for email

From Name,Subject Line + Preheader Text03.

3 opportunities to encourage a subscriber to open your email.

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USE A TRUSTWORTHY & RECOGNIZABLE FROM NAME


@johnethies | @EmailonAcidSUBJECT LINESof email recipients open an email based on subject line alone.35%

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Subject lines with 61-70 characters get more reads. KEEP THE SUBJECT SIMPLE@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

Return Path, 65 characters seems to be a sweet spot for email subject lines, which is about 15 characters more than the average subject line. When subject lines are 61-70 characters long,they tend to get read. However, most email subject lines are between 41 and 50 characters.30

WHAT ABOUT EMOJI?Brands using emojis in their subject lines saw a 45% increase in their unique open rates.

EMOJIs @johnethies | @EmailonAcid[continued]

*Represents activity on Appboys platform, broader industry metrics may vary. Appboy, The Appboy Emoji Study: The Rise and Rise of Emoji Marketing, July 14, 2016

John Thies (JT) - Rachel, can you make this pretty? Maybe by creating a new graphic for this information? I don't think we need all the text, just referencing AppBoy as the sourcePreheaders are an EASY win!@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

NO BUENO!


Preheader Text: CODE EXAMPLE@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

PERSONALIZED MESSAGE@johnethies | @EmailonAcidPersonalization, increases opens by

26%

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Does your email include a special offer? Let your audience know in the preheader text what awaits them upon opening the email. The Honest Company also does a nice job of referencing a non-sale related incentive in their preheader tex

Increased opens by 26%

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Have FUN with it

PetCareRx does a really nice job with this subject line + preheader text combination. Theyve personalized the message (with my dogs name, Fenway), let me know about the 75% off discount being offered and referenced the classic Baha Men earworm,Who Let the Dogs Out.37

Design for MOBILE04.

53%of all emails are opened on mobile devices.@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

80%of emails are deleted if they dont render correctlyof those people will unsubscribe30%DID YOU KNOW@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

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Mobile FriendlyMobile FirstSCALABLE

Scalable design can be defined as any design that works well across both desktop and mobile without using code to adjust table or image sizes, or display or hide content between the two platforms.

typically the easiest to implement. Since scalable emails dont adjust the widths of tables or images between devices, and dont use CSS media queries

FLUID

Fluid emails use percentage-based sizing to make the width of tables and images adapt to the screen size on which they are viewed

fluid designs typically work best for text-heavy layouts since theres less control over how copy and images relate to each other.

RESPONSIVE

THIS JUST IN

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SpongyFLUID-HYBRID

Fluid tables and elements by defaultMax-width CSS to constrain widths on desktopMSO conditional comments to constrain widths in Outlook

@johnethies | @EmailonAcidShould I now change all my templates to beResponsive?

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Progressive ENHANCEMENT05.

@johnethies | @EmailonAcidSource: @actionrocket

@johnethies | @EmailonAcidsimpleCOMPLEXStyled ALT textAnimated GIFsVideoCSS AnimationHot Spot Animation

IMAGE BLOCKING

Email on AcidNo styling or background colorEmail on AcidBackground colorEmail on AcidStyled alt textEmail on AcidBackground color + styled alt textStyledALT TEXT

STYLED ALT TEXT[continued]@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

STYLED ALT TEXT[continued]

Animated GIFS

26% @johnethies | @EmailonAcid

GIF emails increase a click through rate up to

Outlook 2007+ shows the 1st frameOther programs show the animationAnimated GIFS@johnethies | @EmailonAcid[continued]

NOT supported in Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 for WindowsFirst frame should include crucial info & CTAAnimatedGIFS[continued]

support and how-to

CINEMAGRAPHS


Video

When it comes to embedding video in email, videos are fantastic to demonstrate a new feature, give a software tutorial or use with a customer testimonial. In the example above, Ritetab did a great job explaining a new feature through video in an email.

Standing out from the crowd is a constant challenge in email marketing. Templates all begin to look the same, and your subscribers have seen a thousand CTAs by now. Enter: Movement in email. Whether it be through GIFs, CSS animations, SVGs, WebGL or another form of animation, movement can be an extremely powerful tactic in your mailing strategies to increase click-through and in turn, your bottom line.

According to eMarketer approximately half of the marketers who used video in email campaigns saw increased click-through rates, increased time spent reading the email, and increased sharing and forwarding. However, sending video in email can still be difficult as some clients dont support videos.

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VIDEO FALLBACK

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CSSANIMATION

HOT SPOT ANIMATION

SimplifiedCONTENT06.

Put the MOST important message first@johnethies | @EmailonAcid

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You have approximately 8.25 seconds to capture someones attention.

Emails are open, on average, 5-15 seconds.

@johnethies | @EmailonAcidKeep it SIMPLE

as your content is brief, entertaining, and fresh, Millennials very well might evenshareit with their friend group.65

How ManyThings?

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GRANDMA TEST:Write in plain language.

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Start with what is importantShort sentences, she won't remember the beginning by the time she gets to the endSimple words67

THANK YOU!@johnethies@emailonacid@johnethies | @EmailonAcid@Internet_Summit