Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket
Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket
conform to your brand and culture. And take advantage of e-mail’s measurability. You’ll be able to learn and test on the fly, so layer in new business rules and continue to hone messages. For any marketing program, timing and relevancy are the keys to driving customer interest. Creating triggered-based e-mail programs activated by customer actions augments their relevancy, ultimately increasing your results. Michael Thompson is vice president of eServices at Click Tactics. He can be reached at mthompson@clicktactics.com. The how and why of integrating e-mail across channels BY MICHAEL GORMAN More marketers than ever are mastering the challenges of optimizing campaigns in each online channel, from search to Web sites to e-mail. So now they’re beginning to ask why they can’t coordinate and optimize campaigns across multiple channels, on and offline? First, it’s important to understand that e-mail now occupies a special place in the portfolio of marketing channels. It is exception- DM News • E-Mail Marketing Guide 2007 E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS 41 Michael Gorman Acxiom Digital E-MAIL MARKETING GUIDE ally measurable and highly targetable, even at the individual level. It is usually the most costeffective channel, the one with the highest ROI. However, it is also among the channels with the narrowest reach, as compared to online ads, search, mail or television. Companies still struggle to maintain valid e-mail lists on more than 50 percent of their customer base, and many fall far short of that. In short, e-mail is a great way to communicate with your brand’s core online audience. But integration is a top priority for many marketers right now. Companies must figure out how to assemble data from external and internal sources to build that elusive single view of the customer. Here are three flavors of e-mail integration. Extending messages delivered in other channels to e-mail This approach is probably the oldest of the three, usually paired with direct mail. There has been evidence for some time to suggest that two related messages delivered in the same time window, one in email and one in direct mail, will drive better performance for both messages than either would achieve alone. But marketers would
42 E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS DM News • E-Mail Marketing Guide 2007 be wise to test carefully here and consider all options given the additional effort required to coordinate messages. Extending e-mail messaging to other channels This technique is newer. Examples include sending an e-mail with a special offer then following up with a mobile message referencing the offer. Or follow up with a physical mailing, but only to those who click on the offer and whose other characteristics make them likely responders. Have your Web site reference an offer on the home page for customers who opened or clicked on an e-mail. The technology to accomplish all these message extensions is available, although these techniques are not yet broadly adopted by marketers. E-mail in a more complex communication stream This technique is my favorite, and the one I expect will someday be the dominant use of e-mail communication. You just visited the Web site, lingering over a particular product. Should you not receive an e-mail that in some manner builds on this behavior? “Time to renew.” “Your warranty will soon expire.” “A new store is opening in your area.” Connect the customer with the brand, and use email to continue the conversation followed by an offer of some benefit. When customers receive pertinent, timely information that extends their relationship with a brand, their attentiveness to future e-mail from that brand increases. For all of the integration techniques discussed, the critical factor making everything possible is data integration across multiple channels. This challenge is most acute for campaigns that are continuous, not one-off, and based on triggered behavior - which also happen to be the type with the greatest potential to drive results. Michael Gorman is senior vice president of search and acquisition at Acxiom Digital. You can reach him at Michael.Gorman@acxiom.com. Mona Lisa’s eyes BY ANNE ALDEN How does the Mona Lisa draw people in? Is it her eyes? That elusive smile? Or could it be the overall effect of the entire painting? If you only saw Mona Lisa’s eyes, would you want to see more? These are the questions you should be asking yourself when designing and writing an e-mail. Granted, comparing one of the best-known masterpieces of all time to effective e-mail design is a bit extreme, but you get the picture: Within a few small inches, the recipient must get a good idea of your offer, become intrigued and open the e-mail to view the entire message. Information should be conveyed in an efficient yet effective way that upholds your brand tenents. And to make the situation more challenging, you only get 45 characters in a subject line. Sound easy? Maybe so, but Anne Alden there is one invisible element that Merkle, Inc. is beyond any creative control — the bottom of a preview pane or “fold” of an open e-mail. So, how do we get your equivalent to the Mona Lisa “above the fold”? First, run your e-mail through a simulated send sequence to ESSENTIAL GUIDE check its on-screen rendering across a selection of the most commonly used e-mail providers using tools like Pivotal Veracity (http://www.pivotalveracity.com) and Delivery Audit from EmailReach.com. Second, consider other factors determined by the recipient: ■ Preview pane size. Some people like to see what they are about to get, but others read only the subject line before hitting “delete.” So remember that for some, even your best creative efforts aren’t as important as the subject line. ■ Screen resolution. Most monitors and laptop screens have advanced beyond the 800-pixel by 600-pixel ratio. The norm is now 1024 by 768, which provides more screen space. ■ Competition with your e-mails. Your messages compete for attention with other e-mails, instant messaging, message boards, multiple applications, other Web sites, ringing phones, etc. ■ Image options. Turning images off is the default setting for many Web-based e-mail services and applications. Now, ask yourself these questions: ■ Is my subject line compelling? Is my message relevant and focused? The job of an e-mail is to get people to click into the client brand experience — not to give them every option and detail. ■ What does your message look like with images turned off? Be sure to include a “Can’t view this e-mail? Click here” option that will take readers to a hosted HTML page. ■ What is the overall picture? An e-mail must work as a bridge that a reader can’t refuse to walk — or click — across. Length of copy, call to action, the blend of images and text, hyperlinks and overall clarity play a role. When readers choose to scroll below the fold, that means they are engaged and want to know more. If you only saw a portion of the Mona Lisa above the fold but could click to see the rest, wouldn’t you? Anne Alden is creative director at Merkle, Inc. She can be reached at aalden@merkleinc.com. Earn higher conversions using an A/B split BY MICHAEL STEBBIN Consider this situation: You run the marketing department for an e-commerce outdoor outfitter, and your team has decided on a subject line and special offer for your next campaign. The variable you’re trying to settle is whether the main graphic should be a product photo or one of the company president announcing the offer. This is the perfect time to employ an A/B split to find out which works better. Creating campaign A First create the e-mail using product shots — in this case, one that includes an array of men’s and women’s shoes. Then, create a landing page that reiterates the president’s sale coupon offer, in addition to using the same product imagery. This will be your ‘A’ campaign. Creating campaign B In order to isolate how much impact the imagery has on the recipient’s actions, campaign ‘B’ will be an exact replica of ‘A,’ but in place of the shoes photo, use a photo of your president. The landing page includes the coupon offer and that same picture.
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conform <strong>to</strong> your brand and culture. And take advantage of<br />
e-<strong>mail</strong>’s measurability. You’ll be able <strong>to</strong> learn and test on the fly, so<br />
layer in new business rules and continue <strong>to</strong> hone messages.<br />
For any marketing program, timing and relevancy are the keys<br />
<strong>to</strong> driving cus<strong>to</strong>mer interest. Creating triggered-based e-<strong>mail</strong> programs<br />
activated by cus<strong>to</strong>mer actions augments their relevancy,<br />
ultimately increasing your results.<br />
Michael Thompson is vice president of eServices at Click Tactics. He can be<br />
reached at mthompson@clicktactics.com.<br />
The how and why of<br />
integrating e-<strong>mail</strong> across<br />
channels<br />
BY MICHAEL GORMAN<br />
More marketers than ever are mastering the challenges of optimizing<br />
campaigns in each online channel, from search <strong>to</strong><br />
Web sites <strong>to</strong> e-<strong>mail</strong>. So now they’re beginning <strong>to</strong> ask why they<br />
can’t coordinate and optimize campaigns across multiple channels,<br />
on and offline?<br />
First, it’s important <strong>to</strong> understand that e-<strong>mail</strong> now occupies a<br />
special place in the portfolio of marketing channels. It is exception-<br />
DM News • E-Mail <strong>Marketing</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> 2007 E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS 41<br />
Michael Gorman<br />
Acxiom Digital<br />
E-MAIL MARKETING GUIDE<br />
ally measurable and highly targetable,<br />
even at the individual<br />
level. It is usually the most costeffective<br />
channel, the one with<br />
the highest ROI. However, it is<br />
also among the channels with the<br />
narrowest reach, as compared <strong>to</strong><br />
online ads, search, <strong>mail</strong> or television.<br />
Companies still struggle <strong>to</strong><br />
maintain valid e-<strong>mail</strong> lists on<br />
more than 50 percent of their cus<strong>to</strong>mer<br />
base, and many fall far<br />
short of that. In short, e-<strong>mail</strong> is a<br />
great way <strong>to</strong> communicate with<br />
your brand’s core online audience.<br />
But integration is a <strong>to</strong>p priority for many marketers right now.<br />
Companies must figure out how <strong>to</strong> assemble data from external<br />
and internal sources <strong>to</strong> build that elusive single view of the cus<strong>to</strong>mer.<br />
Here are three flavors of e-<strong>mail</strong> integration.<br />
Extending messages delivered in other channels <strong>to</strong> e-<strong>mail</strong> This<br />
approach is probably the oldest of the three, usually paired with<br />
direct <strong>mail</strong>. There has been evidence for some time <strong>to</strong> suggest that<br />
two related messages delivered in the same time window, one in e<strong>mail</strong><br />
and one in direct <strong>mail</strong>, will drive better performance for both<br />
messages than either would achieve alone. But marketers would
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