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MART 330 Integrated Digital Marketing

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Email Marketing

Leanne Ross

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31 July, 2017

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Leanne Ross - www.aCupOfLee.com

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Agenda

Why email marketing is an effective digital marketing tool

  1. List building an audience
  2. Creating valuable content to build relationships
  3. Segmenting subscribers
  4. Email types and customer life cycle
  5. Writing compelling subject lines
  6. Landing pages
  7. Evaluation and A/B testing
  8. Clean up to avoid spam filters

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Return on Investment

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Why Does It Work?

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Cut-Through

CTA links

Disruption

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Job 1: List Building

  • Retail = easy (buying process sign-ups)
  • B2B = free resources
  • Pop-ups/landing pages

BEST PRACTICE

  • Don’t opt-out
  • DOUBLE opt-in
  • Privacy Policy
  • Share buttons
  • Unsubscribe function
  • Keep it simple: trade less data for higher conversion!

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Job 2: Create Valuable Content

Just like traditional advertising - the goal is to convert to action: CTAs

  • Commerce: generate sales
  • B2B: increase reputation/thought leadership
  • Lead generation: develop relationship
  • Search aggregator site: use data to deploy deals
  • Online media: website visitors = advertising revenue

Q. So how often should you send emails?

  1. As often as you can create valuable content!

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Personalisation

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No CTA - when making a campaign statement

or knowing something

will “go viral” on social media

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Online Media Content

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Content control / personalisation can stop unsubscribing

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Search Site Content

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Lead Generation Content

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B2B Content

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Calls To Action

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Quirky

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Does It Work?

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Everyday CTA

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Job 3: Segmentation

  1. Send individual emails to different segments OR
  2. Send tailored versions of one email to all subscribers

SEGMENT BASED ON:

  • Past purchases
  • Past responses
  • Customer preference
  • Location
  • Demographics

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Job 4: Email Types

Broadcast emails can be divided into:

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TRANSACTIONAL

  • Initiated by process:
    • Put important info in subject line
    • Put important info at start of email

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TRIGGERED

  • Abandoned cart
  • Review request
  • We miss you
  • Welcome back

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ONBOARDING

*People are at their most responsive post-sign up

  • Welcome offer
  • Connect on social
  • Refer friends
  • Features explainer

(usually a planned series of emails)

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Job 5: Subject Lines

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This is the KEY

piece of content.

It must convert -

or all other work is wasted!

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A/B Testing is advised

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Job 6: Landing Pages

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1-click action

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Tailored content

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Mobile-friendly

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Further CTA...

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Job 7: Evaluation

Like all marketing strategy, good email marketing

combines SCIENCE + ART (Creativity + Analysis)

  • Open rates (vs industry average)
  • Click-Through Rates (CTR)
  • Conversion rates (vs non-subscribers)
  • Average order value
  • List churn (certain % expected)

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A/B (split) Testing

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Elements to “split”

  • Subject line
  • Soft sell vs hard sell (e.g. benefits vs “buy now”)
  • Pricing variations (10% off vs $10 off)
  • Column design and image-to-text ratios
  • Time of day for sending
  • Using imagery, videos, buttons instead of text links
  • Showing personal data
  • Tone of voice
  • Exclusivity / urgency
  • Ask for info, preferences, feedback...

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Job 8: Maintenance

Avoiding spam filters…

  • Clean list (bounces)
  • Open rate removal
  • Don’t purchase lists
  • Comply unsubscribes
  • Don’t attach files
  • Physical mail address
  • Ask customers to add you to their contacts
  • Don’t use RE: or FWD: in subject line
  • Avoid CAPS & exclamations!!! in subject line

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Summary

  • Email marketing is digital marketing that uses email as the tool to deliver communication messages and build relationships with customers
  • It is a low-cost, high-return tactic that cuts through the online noise of social and digital media channels
  • Email marketing is a “close cousin” of Marketing Automation because much of the life cycle emails can be scheduled/triggered automatically
  • The key to success involves crafting good content, segmenting audiences, personalisation, executing good timing and evaluating for effectiveness to improve each time

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Key concepts

  • Email marketing ROI
  • The 8 jobs of email marketing
  • Ethical issues of email marketing
  • Email list maintenance
  • Email list segmentation
  • Factors that influence rejection/spam flagging
  • Campaign evaluation, metrics, KPIs

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Example exam questions

  1. What does A/B testing mean? Be as specific as you can. If there are many elements (subject line, from address, layout, images, copy, CTA, …) in an email message, how many should differ between A & B?
  2. What is involved in email list maintenance? List as many tasks as you can, and how you can accomplish each.
  3. How can you avoid your email marketing messages being treated as spam? List as many strategies and tactics as you can, and how you would implement each.
  4. What are the ethical issues involved in email marketing? List as many as you can, and what steps you can take to avoid them.

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Activities

  1. Create an account on mailchimp.com (or alternative solution of your choice, but we will only provide support for mailchimp)
  2. Investigate alternatives to MailChimp, and list their pros and cons for a SME (10–25 employees, 1 marketing manager with 1 assistant, and a mailing list of 2,000 prospects)
  3. Create a new email account for yourself that’s sole purpose is to send spam (to yourself only!). Send an email to yourself (from the new email address) that will get flagged as spam by your ISP or email client. Send several messages to see what will trigger flagging.

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