"tricks of the trade" for successful email marketing

Copyright 2009 Market Data Retrieval

"Tricks of the Trade" for Successful Email Marketing

14 Tips and Strategies for Best Email Results


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• Questions will be answered at the end of the session; submit questions throughout the presentation using the Q & A feature.

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Today’s Agenda

• Overview of email as a marketing channel in the education market and why it makes sense to use it to reach administrators and teachers

• “Tricks of the trade" for creating successful email marketing campaigns

• Basic tools and strategies you need to get higher response and maximum results for your marketing dollars


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Regina BradyReggie Brady Marketing Solutions

• Reggie Brady has 20+ years of experience in the areas of email, privacy, direct marketing, management, and database building. Her consulting practice focuses particularly on email marketing and helps companies with business and marketing planning, strategy development and implementation, traditional direct marketing, online traffic building, and permission and privacy.

• Prior to her consulting practice, Ms. Brady was Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships for FloNetwork Inc., a leading email service bureau that has since been acquired by DoubleClick. She was alsoVice President of Interactive Services for Acxiom/Direct Media and spent over eleven years at CompuServe, a major global Internet Service Provider as Director of Interactive Marketing.

• She is a member of the Direct Marketing Association and served for six years on their Ethics Policy Committee, developing standards for direct marketing professionals. Reggie is also a board member and President of the Direct Marketing Club of New York and sits on the advisory board of several direct marketing companies.


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Christopher ZiemnickiE-Marketing Solutions Leader

MDR

• Christopher Ziemnicki currently leads e-marketing product development at MDR and acts as chief strategy consultant on interactive marketing to MDR’s customers.

• He leads MDR’s industry-leading educational e-marketing research and best practices efforts.

• Before joining MDR, Chris built and managed large-scale Web-affiliate marketing programs and managed email marketing programs for both start-up and established B2C companies and catalogers.


Why Email Makes Sense for Marketers

• While 60% of marketers plan to cut their traditional marketing budgets this year, 47% of marketers plan to boost their email marketing budgets. – Aberdeen Group, "Recessionary Marketing: How Best-in-Class Companies Are Weathering the Storm" (Jan 2009)

• 80.4% of marketing executives surveyed say email performs strongly as an advertising channel for their companies. – Datran Media "3rd Annual Marketing & Media Survey Results" (2008)

• Spending on email will rise to $488 million in 2009, up from $472 million in 2008, and will jump to $677 million in 2011. – eMarketer (Nov 2008)

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What are educational marketers saying?

• 87% of marketers are engaged in email marketing

• 3rd most effective marketing channel receive only 15% of the marketing budget

Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2007, survey conducted fall 2007.8

3.70 3.59 3.513.39

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Effectiveness Rating: Scale of 1-51=Least Effective, 5=Most Effective



What are educational marketers saying?

• Email was the #1 marketing channel slated for increase in spending over the next 12 months

Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2007, survey conducted fall 2007.9

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Forecasted Increases in Spending in Next 12 Months

% Increase



Why Email Makes Sense for Educational Marketers

Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.

Educational Email Marketing Frequency

Educational email marketing far from saturation point

Some personnel are targeted more

Consumers get on average ~35 non-spam emails per day (MarketingSherpa, 2008)

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Number of Education/School-Related Email Offers Received by Teachers in an Average School Day

21%

28%

23%

13%

6%

8%

17%

28%

23%

15%

8%

9%

Less than 1 per day

1-2

3-4

5-7

7-10

More than 10 per day

2008 2006


Getting Started With Email Marketingfor the Educational Marketer

Prospecting:• Sender recognition• Create strong relevance/value messaging• Primary purpose – call to action• Scan-ability• Rendering considerations• Prospect to those that look like your

customers• Utilize campaign results for segmentation

strategy going forward

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Getting Started With Email Marketingfor the Educational Marketer

Email expands the traditional educational marketing window:

• End-of-year Campaigns• Email inventory blowouts• Email on/off peak times and over

summer• Email in support of your catalog and

direct mail campaigns

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Teachers Email Reading Frequency

84% of Teachers check their email several times a day, all day long, and nights and weekends

13 Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.


Teachers Connectivity During Summer Break

Self-reported connectivity to their school-based email address during summer

Summer campaigns, back-to-school campaigns in August, professional development events, etc.

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2%

5%

6%

11%

24%

26%

20%

6%

Never

Just prior to school opening

Once a month

Multiple times a month

Once a week

Multiple times a week

Daily

Several times a day

Email Usage During Summer Break

Source: Email Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.


14 "Tricks of the Trade" for 14 "Tricks of the Trade" for Successful Email MarketingSuccessful Email Marketing

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• Extend the power of your messaging– Email only response

1%– Catalog only response

8.3%– Email + catalog response

11.2%

• Note use of similar imagery

Source: EmailSherpa 5/1/07.

1 + 1 Doesn’t Equal 2

1. Email Plus Direct Mail


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• 2 Test panels• All received 3 catalogs• Second panel also received

3 newsletters

• Results:– Email group increase in sales of 18% – Email group orders increased by 6%– Email AOV increased by 12%– Email cost increased 6%

Source: Vicki Updike, Miles Kimball 6/08.

1 + 1 Doesn’t Equal 2 (cont.)


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• Cut through mailbox clutter• Time to arrive: 2 to 3 days

before• Show your outer envelope or

catalog cover• Prominently feature URL on

every spread or mailing component

Send Email in Advance of Direct Mail


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Leverage the Channel

• Direct mail– Longer form copy and multiple images– Copy blocks

• Email – Fewer images– Short, succinct copy– Strong calls to action both above

and below the fold


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2. Maximize Your Call Center

• Train your call center reps to ask for email address

• Make sure reps understand the value an email address– Customer-initiated call represents perfect opportunity – Script a value proposition– Newer trend. Marketers seeing this is an important

operating metric. They are measuring call centers on number of valid email addresses collected.

• Begin communication ASAP with a welcome email

• Consider flagging bounced emails in workstation


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3. Design – Include Your 800 Number

• Multiple studies have found up to 20% of sales will be made via the 800 number

• Feature it prominently


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• Half your readers will be able to see the header and the beginning of your message

• Work with the first 2 inches

4. Design – Use the Preview Pane

• Include teaser text at the top of your email, such as a brief list of headlines or contents


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5. Use Effective HTML Design

• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are for web page design, not email

• Rendering problems, particularly Hotmail and Gmail• Outlook 2007 presents additional problems

• Use inline HTML. No style defined. Every line of code has to be defined with font faces/attributes/sizes, etc.


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Rendering Problems

© Reggie Brady 2009


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CSS Layout in a Web Browser

Examples courtesy of Listrak “Creating Effective HTML Email Campaigns.”


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CSS Layout in Yahoo! Mail

No gray box around email



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CSS Layout in Windows Live Hotmail

Two right-hand boxes shift position



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CSS Layout in Gmail

Logo moved to top, headline font gone, one of the call-out boxes is missing



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CSS Layout in Outlook 2007

Ugh!



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Tips for HTML Formatting

• Tables– Use tables for position– Be careful with nested tables– Outlook 07 does not support background images in

table cells

• Don’t use– Flash– Embedded media– Javascript, DHTML, ActiveX, ASP, PHP– Image maps


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• Images– Optimized jpegs or gifs pre-formatted in correct size– Post images online and include full URL, not just the

local reference – Set height and width parameters– Use ALT tags

Tips for HTML Formatting (cont.)


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Design – Use ALT Tags

• Use descriptive “ALT" tags on all images

• Will not work with all email clients but does work with Google

• Okay to make these longer


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• More than 60% of email recipients have reported some image blocking

• Link to view full HTML is important• Use at least 60% text and 40% images• Use ALT tags for images• Forrester found 40% of emails studied were

impossible to understand without graphics

7. Design – Image Blocking

Test your own emails by viewing them when not connected to the Web


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How Would Your Emails Look?

Nothing to see!


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How Would Your Emails Look?

Text is readable even without images


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8. Copy – Long vs. Short

• Which was more effective?– Both had same

number of click-throughs

– The shorter version generated twice as many requests

Source: Email Sherpa 5/1/07.


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9. Links • Make sure your first link

is as far up as possible

• Include links below the fold

• The more links the better

• Even if images are blocked, there is still plenty to see in this email

All links point to same landing page


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10. Columns

• I like a 2-column design

• It gives you a chance to organize information

• It makes it easier to read text across the screen



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• Tested in subject line and body

• Both had similar opens and CTRs


Dollars off or a percent discount?11. Test

• $50 Off generated 170% more revenue and 72% higher conversion rate


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Design Test

• Franklin Electronic Publishers tested including a Hacker Safe logo in their emails

• Conducted test for 7 months (50% of list saw logo and 50% did not)

• Results for those who saw logo:– 28.3% higher average

order– 8.1% higher

conversion rate– CTR 2.1% higher



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Test Wording of Links• MarketingSherpa used “Continue here…”

and wanted to test link wording:– Click to continue + 8.53% CTR

– Continue this article + 3.3% CTR– Read more – 1.8%



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ButtonsWrong Right


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Just for Fun – A Quick Test

A is the winner with 23% lift in sales

ProFlowers

Subject line A: “Last chance to order for Valentine’s Day is this Wednesday, order now”

Subject line B:“Only 48 hours to order for guaranteed Valentine’s Day delivery”

Source: DoubleClick.

hi

12. Test Subject Lines


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• Subject lines drive open rates• Keep it short! Focus on the first 45 characters…it can

be longer, 60 characters maximum. • Make it compelling

– State a benefit from reader’s point of view– Make an offer– Intrigue the reader and stimulate curiosity

• Forrester analysis– 52% of subject lines described content but had

nothing of real benefit to readers

More on Subject Lines


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• Top 12 Email Newsletter Mistakes

• 6 Actions to Lift Click-Throughs: New Data

• Get 250 Free Business Cards with Free printing on the back

• REGINA, BUSINESS 2.0 Magazine Wants to Say Thank You

• Free Financial Guide Still Available

• Instant Rebates on Best-Selling Wyse Winterm Thin Clients

• Save $20 on Your Next OfficeDepot.com Order

• Dramatically reduce your payroll processing costs

Use Action and Benefit Words


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13. Have a Strong Offer

Forrester analysis showed almost 50% of emails studied had first call to action below the fold.

Subject Line Complimentary Leadership Assessment: Identify Your Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses

• Link to view images• Good headlines• Images that don’t overwhelm• Clear offer• Testimonial


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…And a Good Landing Page

• Same image – creates seamless experience

• Simple vertical form

• Yellow boxes

• Toll-free number


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Mayo Clinic invitation to join their list

• What they did right:– Comes from a person– Clear call to action– Free gift– Easy to read

• What they did wrong:– Dear friend ????– Logo at top would be nice

Offers That Work– Free Gifts


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Offers That Work – Free Gifts (cont.)

Mayo Clinic landing page• What they did right:

– Simple page– Immediate

gratification

• What they did wrong:– I just clicked on

the link to see more, but I was immediately added to their list


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14. Focus on Landing Pages

• Bring them directly to the content/offer

• Some create a micro site to support a campaign

– To focus attention

– If they start looking at other areas of your site, they may forget your specific call to action

• Make the layout of the page simple and focus attention

– Raise the font size, eliminate multiple columns, and eliminate extraneous links

• Include complementary images


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Landing Page Tests“Buy Now” button color test by Dymo

Source: MarketingSherpa 7/25/07.

4.3% improvement


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Landing Page Tests (cont.)

“Add to Cart” vs. “Proceed to Checkout” test on last page before payment

Source: MarketingSherpa 7/25/07.

44.1% Improvement


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• What others have found– Removing FAQ from a registration page improved results – A Motley Fool newsletter improved sign-ups by removing a

picture of the author– A red action button worked better than a green button

Source: Direct Newsline 6/23/06.



54 Source: MarketingSherpa B-to-B 9/10/08.



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Q & A

The material in this presentation is copyrighted. Please contact MDR for permission to reproduce or use this content.

Market Data Retrieval (MDR), a D&B Company, is the market’s first choice for direct sales and marketing solutions, powered by the most complete, current, and accurate education databases available in the industry.

As the leading U.S. provider of marketing information and services for the K-12, higher education, library, early childhood, and related education markets, MDR can provide you with direct mail lists, email contacts and deployment, sales contact and lead solutions, and market research and analysis.

www.schooldata.com 800-333-8802

Christopher ZiemnickiE-Marketing Solutions Leader, MDR

[email protected]

Regina BradyReggie Brady Marketing Solutions

[email protected]

Future MDR Webinars:

July 23 – Upgrade Your Online Marketing: Get top search results and turn them into new business Sign up on http://www.schooldata.com/mdrwebinars.asp

September 24 – Social Media in the Education IndustryStay tuned!

"tricks of the trade" for successful email marketing

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