Accelerating Email Marketing Performance

June 15th 2011

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Todd Lebo, Senior Director of Content, MECLABS

@ToddLebo http://www.linkedin.com/in/tlebo Todd.Lebo@MECLABS.com

Adam Sutton, Senior Reporter, MarketingSherpa

@AdamTSutton http://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-sutton Adam.Sutton@MECLABS.com

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 Research firm and publisher of marketing know-how MarketingSherpa, founded in 2000, is part of the MECLABS Sciences Group Content read by hundreds of thousands in the marketing community weekly

Research

Newsletters

Events

Membership
Access to Extensive Library Discounts on Research and Events

Benchmark Reports

Case Studies

Summits

How-to Handbooks

Best Practice articles

Sherpa Training

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 Benchmark Report Find what works

for thousands of email marketers

Mature tactic, incremental improvements Multiple tactics accelerate performance

Handbook Identify best practices

and formulate a methodology

Current stage of process for email marketing Look at the new LEAPS methodology

Knowledge transfer Teach email

Summits, workshops, certification, webinars

marketers how to apply best practices

A continuous improvement process

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 Relevancy most significant

challenge to overcome
List growth increasingly

difficult but not mission impossible

Proving ROI wins over C-suite

skeptics that control budgets

Making it into the inbox not

as easy as it sounds
Integrating with social media

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 Email marketing is a mature tactic

Will take a coordinated effort to

make improvements

Focus on steps with greatest

influence

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LEAPS
Leverage all tactics to build quality lists Engage your audience with relevant
content

Act respectfully to ensure deliverability Place email in pipeline to quantify ROI Sync email with social and smart phones

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LEVERAGE ALL TACTICS TO BUILD QUALITY LISTS

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Why exclusivity is essential Managing subscriber relationships Attracting new subscribers and setting expectations

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What sort of growth have you seen in your email list over the past 12 months?
A. B. C. D. E. Very Positive Our list is rapidly growing Somewhat Positive Our list is growing slowly Neutral The gains balance out the losses Somewhat Negative Our list is slowly shrinking Very Negative Our list is rapidly shrinking

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 Reassuring to find 51%

Very positive - our list is rapidly growing

22%

of lists growing slowly

Somewhat positive our list is slowly growing 51%

The size of the list is

secondary to the quality

Neutral - the gains balance out the losses Somewhat negative our list is slowly shrinking Very negative - our list is rapidly shrinking

22%

4%

Have you had positive

list growth in the past 12 months?

1%

Source: MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded Sep 2010, N=1,115

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 The Email Experience Council reports that each year corporations lose roughly 1/3 of their email addresses Lists must grow to overcome attrition

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Exclusivity Uniqueness Humility

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 Be selective in who you empower to become brand evangelists Email is only for people who want your messages

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Offer subscribers something they cannot get anywhere else

Think how your brands personality or expertise can be a differentiator in a cluttered in box

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 Marketers sometimes think they

know what customers "really" want before they tell us their needs
Keep your promise to deliver exactly

what the subscriber requested and nothing more

Email messages should contain

valuable information in the form of reports, entertaining videos and insightful stories, not endless selfpromotion

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 Preference center Opt-down subscriptions Invite un-subscriptions

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 Update subscriptions,

content and frequency, and set expectations

Offer alternative

communication channels; RSS, social media

Be proactive. Ask to

update frequently
Only ask for what you

need. Unused information is disingenuous

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 Give options to opt-down vs. opt-out Reduce frequency, change formats,

content or channel
Give option to pause subscription or press

snooze with delivery stop and restart dates

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 47% of email recipients click

the spam button in their email client rather than looking for the unsubscribe link
Dont hide your unsubscribe

link
Have a simple

unsubscribing process
Request their reasons to

learn how to improve your communications

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 Blogs Mobile Social Media sites Webinars Website Customer service Tradeshows & conferences

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 81% of subscribers have been moved to provide a company with their email address due to some form of promotion - Exact Target B2B audiences want educational opportunities to gain a competitive advantage; special reports, market research and thought leadership

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 Exclusivity white

papers for B2B

Incentives should be

relevant to your brand

Choose coupons and

sweepstakes prizes wisely

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 Clearly state what type of

content you will be sending

Identify how often you will be

sending email communications

Spell out the features and

benefits to crystallize your value proposition

Add a link to your privacy policy Break promises at your own

peril

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 List owners include tech companies, industry groups and associations, niche publications Find a good List Broker they have the inside knowledge of which lists are working, which arent, what other kinds of marketers are using them, etc.
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1. Use opt-in lists only 2. Take advantage of Selects 3. Provide relevant offer for this audience 4. Your standard creative/copy might not work 5. Be prepared to work at it 6. Maintain ability to identify Third Party lists in

your database so you can monitor effectiveness

7. Measure and test

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Online B2B contact databases

Demandbase Experian Harte Hanks Hoovers InfoUSA Jigsaw NetProspex Nex-sales Reachforce Zoominfo

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ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE WITH RELEVANT CONTENT

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 Creating contagious

content
Segmenting for success Shipping on time

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 Challenge: Most tactics are

content- and capabilityintensive

Most effective tactics: using

triggers and behavioral segmentation

Most effective tactics are

also the most difficult to implement

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Content

Relevance

Segmentation

Time

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Research Customer Service Interviews

Publicity

Sales Website

Product Dev.

Blogs

Print

Email Content

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Seek to uncover human-interest stories that personalize your brand, giving readers revealing insights into your companys culture, products and services

Hire a Brand Journalist - Promote a Content Director - Search for internal storytellers

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 Content should be like a potato

chips. You cant just eat one and you want to share with your friends.
Two types of content well cover:
Repurposed Original

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 Pre-existing content may

be found in:
Media coverage Speaking engagements Case studies Blogs Analysts reports

The art of repurposing lies

in the editors ability to combine existing content with the communications purpose in a relevant way to the reader.
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 Starting from scratch gives marketers

an opportunity to create content that can have a great impact on solving your customers biggest problems

Ask yourself
How can I help the prospect? How can I be of service? How do I solve their pain points?

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I look forward to industry news

Enjoy reading what the CEO thinks

I like learning best practices

I want to evaluate purchase options

I recently changed jobs

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Segmented email campaigns based on behavior

85% 77% 63% 68% 65% 46% 62% 73% 51% 47% 58% 50% 45% 46% 29% Business channel (B2B) Consumer channel (B2C) Both channels (B2B2C)

Key benefit: Brands do

Segmented email campaigns based on sales cycle

not overwhelm readers with a bombardment of seemingly random offers

Brands earn trust that

Automatically send email based on triggers

Dynamically personalized email content

transfers into higher open and clickthrough rates

85% of B2B marketers

Allowed subscribers to specify email preferences

Source: MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded Sep 2010, N=1,115

responded that segmenting campaigns by behavior was difficult

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 The success of your

segmentation strategy depends on the quality of your database

Four types of data:

Endemic data Behavioral data Transactional data Computed

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 You are what you ship If the email is not sent at the right

time, the message will be irrelevant

To ship on time and make it a

repeatable process
Path to purchase agreed on by marketing and sales Predictable approval process that respects the urgency of sending on time Editorial calendar

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 This calendar is in line with

your marketing initiatives, building off existing promotions, events and key objectives
The production schedule

includes ship dates, approval process and deadlines.

Do less and ship. Do not

over-plan or you risk missing target dates and quality expectations.

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Todd Lebo, Senior Director of Content, MECLABS

@ToddLebo http://www.linkedin.com/in/tlebo Todd.Lebo@MECLABS.com

Adam Sutton, Senior Reporter, MarketingSherpa

@AdamTSutton http://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-sutton Adam.Sutton@MECLABS.com

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Upcoming Webinars:
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Thank you.