Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket
Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket
14 FUNDAMENTALS DM News • E-Mail Marketing Guide 2007 Five compelling reasons to centralize your e-mail BY TRICIA ROBINSON PRIDEMORE An effective e-mail marketing strategy should take a holistic approach that includes all e-mails sent to the customer, whether marketing, customer service or transactional. However, this can be a daunting undertaking for companies that aren’t structured that way. Only with a centralized approach can an organization have the visibility and control needed to deploy and enforce an e-mail strategy across all departments and channels. Sending a marketing e-mail to a customer without taking into account a recent purchase or an outstanding customer service request can undermine the relationship you’ve worked so hard to create. Use these five reasons to start the discussion in your firm: Improve customer relationships. A centralized e-mail platform can provide you with centralization tools to limit the amount and fre- Tricia Robinson Pridemore quency of e-mail each customer StrongMail receives, which can stave off customer burnout, complaints and unsubscribes. Being able to temporarily suspend marketing messages while a customer is resolving a problem with customer service can go long way. Increase sales. Centralization gives you valuable insight into customer behavior across all departments, which can be leveraged to send relevant and timely marketing offers. It also makes it easier for marketers to fully leverage transactional data to insert marketing messages into product confirmation e-mails or to customize marketing e-mails based on past purchases. Reduce customer service costs. Each call into customer service reduces the profitability of the customer relationship. Centralization helps reduce those calls by enabling you to identify problems in real-time. For example, if shipping is delayed for a product, let the customer know before he expects to receive it. Maintain a consistent brand. Building a brand requires tight controls over how the company is portrayed in all external communications. Without a centralized approach, there is no way to ensure that customer service is using, say, your new logo and tagline. Centralization allows marketing to maintain and carefully manage one approved repository of message templates and content blocks. Maximize e-mail deliverability. The best way to get your legitimate e-mail past the filters put in place by the ISPs is to engage in best practices and maintain a positive sender reputation. If you’re unaware of the e-mail sent by other departments or unable to control it, you are putting your reputation at jeopardy. Centralizing your e-mail on one platform empowers the savvy marketer to leverage all customer data across all departments to deliver appropriate and relevant communications. Tricia Robinson Pridemore is vice president of market and product strategy at StrongMail. You can reach her at trobinson@strongmail.com. ESSENTIAL GUIDE Getting to “Yes! Yes!”: Double opt-in as a power practice BY OUTI TUOMAALA As e-mail marketing matures, and quality triumphs over quantity, it is time to refocus on the permission and double opt-in processes. Most legitimate e-mail marketers place permission among the top best practices. Double opt-in, or double-confirmed opt-in, is the gold standard. When these processes are implemented, everyone wins. Double opt-in does require some work and effort, but the challenges are easily overcome when it is included from the very beginning. Some primary benefits include: ■ Fewer bogus subscribers, bad addresses, bounces, complaints and spam reports, resulting in a clean e-mail list with verifiable permission from every subscriber. ■ More efficient e-mail list management and better deliverability. ■ Better compliance with the best practices, in addition to exceeding the permission requirements of anti-spam legislation. ■ Increased subscriber response and engagement. To implement a successful double opt-in practice, follow these simple rules: Plan and test your double opt-in process thoroughly. The same great e-mail industry advice that applies to e-mail marketing campaigns applies to your opt-in confirmation and welcome messages as well. It’s best to focus on deliverability, readability and attractiveness to entice subscribers, use an automated signup process to send the confirmation message immediately and customize any default messages, including the subject line, so your recipient can recognize your brand before opening the message. These are easy to test and adjust. With a bit of creativity, it can be fun and help you avoid the mechanical tone of automated messages. Create synergy between your signup page and the subscribers’ Outi Tuomaala e-mail. To make this transition L-Soft smooth, use the signup confirmation page to inform your subscribers that a confirmation message will arrive in their inbox shortly. Remind them of the added security benefits. Make a good first impression. The welcome message completes the successful subscription. Remember, this message gives you the perfect opportunity to thank them for subscribing. In addition, you could provide a specific message showing the benefits of your e-mail list. Develop a lasting relationship. The double opt-in process makes your subscribers feel safe and secure when interacting with your brand. It’s a double “Yes!” for any long-term business relationship. Outi Tuomaala is an executive vice president at L-Soft. She can be reached at outi@lsoft.com.
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