ADMA ADMA Digital Marketing Course 2009 Digital Marketing Course 2009

EmailEmail

David SmerdonDavid Smerdon

Head of Strategy - Vision 6Head of Strategy - Vision 6

www.vision6.com.au

AgendaAgenda• 30 seconds on Vision 6• Why consider email?• Why direct makes sense?• The age of accountability• Email stats• Is your business in e-denial?• Design, construction and deliverability – 5 best practice tips• Content and anticipation• Segmentation• Transactional emails• 3 list growth tips• Spam compliance• 3 email ideas - Real Estate Industry

www.vision6.com.au

30 seconds on Vision 6:30 seconds on Vision 6:

– We provide an online hosted eMarketing platform called VeMail

– Australia’s leading email marketing software & services provider

– 6,500+ business users of our technology

– Founded in 2001 with a current team of 28 based in Brisbane

– IBM, Stella Resorts, RACQ, Lonely Planet, Dick Smith

– Host over 150 million contact records

– We sent over 45 million emails last month

www.vision6.com.au

Why consider email?Why consider email?

www.vision6.com.au

Campaign FinishesCustomer contact is broken with no details

captured

The prospect or customer is gone without a trace…

www.vision6.com.au

The exploding ‘Groudswell’The exploding ‘Groudswell’

Source: Forrester, Groundswell

Silence propagates assumption

www.vision6.com.au

Speed to marketSpeed to market

Why email?Why email?

www.vision6.com.au

TailoredTailored one to one communications that can one to one communications that can inspire action - one click away from a saleinspire action - one click away from a sale

www.vision6.com.au

More relevant More relevant dialog more often = dialog more often =

deeper customer deeper customer relationships and a relationships and a

more profitable, more profitable, loyal customer baseloyal customer base

CostCost

Sending 5,000 emails per month;

Access fee $50.00

Email send costs $100.00

$150.00 per month

Monthly access feesTotal Records Monthly Fee0 - 1,000 $301,001 - 5,000 $505,001 - 15,000 $9015,001 - 50,000 $15050,001 - 500,000 $220

Cost per emailNumber of Emails Cost per Email1 - 200 4 cents201 - 2,000 3 cents2,001 – 10,000 2 cents> 10,000 1 cent

www.vision6.com.au

Your Message Gatekeepers Intended recipient

NewspapersTVRadioBloggers

Why direct makes sense?Why direct makes sense?

www.vision6.com.au

Why direct makes senseWhy direct makes sense

“Myer will this year spend more on direct marketing to its Myer One customers than all of its other advertising put together, according to Chief Executive Bernie Brookes”

Will encouraging existing customers to buy more often be more cost effective than finding

new customer?

Those who buy products marketed through email

spend 138% more than non-readers of email

(Forrester Research, 2008)

www.vision6.com.au

We’re in a time of We’re in a time of microscopic accountabilitymicroscopic accountability

“I know at least half of my advertising is wasted I just don’t know which half”

Henry Ford

www.vision6.com.au

www.vision6.com.au

www.vision6.com.au

www.vision6.com.au

www.vision6.com.au

Email stats Email stats

Vision 6 Email Metrics Report July – December 2008 Vision 6 Email Metrics Report July – December 2008 (based on 182 million messages from 186,000 campaigns)(based on 182 million messages from 186,000 campaigns)

• Average open rates 22.5%• Average click through rate 4.8%• Bounce rate 8.9%• Hotmail represents 24.9% of all email recipients• Highest volume of emails sent are on a Friday 20.6%• Highest open rate is Sunday 32.2%• Time taken to open an email

– 21.6% in the first hour– 73.1% in the first 24 hours– 92.7% in the first 5 days

www.vision6.com.au

Is your business in e-denial?

www.vision6.com.au

Design, construction and Design, construction and deliverabilitydeliverability

5 best practice tips5 best practice tips

www.vision6.com.au

1. Keep email width to 550px – 650px. This will display emails without horizontal scrolls on most standard screen resolutions with vertical preview panes.

Width 550px fits in vertical preview pane without horizontal scrollbars

www.vision6.com.au

Width over 650px. Recipient has to scroll left to write to read the email

www.vision6.com.au

2. Avoid scripts, video, flash in emails. Direct users to landing pages + have a plain text version

www.vision6.com.au

3. Include call to action within first 400px

www.vision6.com.au

4. Avoid background images as some email clients such as Outlook 2007, Hotmail, Gmail & Lotus Notes ignore body background images

Email width over 650px. Recipient has to scroll left

horizontally to read the email

www.vision6.com.au

5. Make sure the message is understandable in an images ‘switched off’ environment.

www.vision6.com.au

Images switched off

Images switched on

www.vision6.com.au

Content & AnticipationContent & Anticipation

www.vision6.com.au

But what am I going to write about?

Who is going to write my content?

www.vision6.com.au

How elastic is your brand?How elastic is your brand?

www.vision6.com.au

www.vision6.com.au

www.vision6.com.au

www.vision6.com.au

Q: Do all your customers want the same thing from your business / brand?

i.e. The target groups for a travel company might range from a 20 year old backpacker to a 65 year old couple who love cruising

Segment for relevancySegment for relevancy

www.vision6.com.au

Retaining unsubscribers

www.vision6.com.au

Transactional emailsTransactional emails

Often a missed opportunityOften a missed opportunity

www.vision6.com.au

Transactional emails can give you Transactional emails can give you permission to conversepermission to converse

What are they?

• Any communication that forms part of the sales process i.e. confirmation email for subscribing to a weekly newsletter, receipt of purchase etc

• Transactional emails get through more spam filters because they consist of important customer information

www.vision6.com.au

My trip to the coast…

www.vision6.com.au

“Transactional email offers the highest open and click-through rates of any type of email – 70% open rate for transactional email v 33% for opt in email”¹

“Less than 1% of email marketing funds industry wide are spent on transactional emails”²

Source: 1. Harte-Hanks metrics, 2005 2. JupiterReasearch, “E-mail Model” November 2005

www.vision6.com.au

Advertising is working hard to get new leads

But the conversion

engine is letting the team down…

Apple's iTunes

Transactional e-mail receipts contain three "if you liked this, you'll also like" recommendations, an approach that turns a cost center into a profit center

Clickz 5th October 2007

www.vision6.com.au

3 list growth strategies

1. Best practice enews registration

1. Website registration

2. Registration web form

3. Thank you page

4. Confirmation email

5. Confirmation page

6. First eNewsletter

www.vision6.com.au

2. Call centre / in store registration

www.vision6.com.au

3. Audit existing assets

www.vision6.com.au

Spam compliance

www.vision6.com.au

The Spam Act 2003Three key conditions

• Consent (express or inferred);• Identify; and• Unsubscribe

For all commercial electronic messages:

Julia Cornwell McKeanManager, Anti-Spam Team

www.vision6.com.au

Consent1. Consent

Express consent: • Completes an online form and ticks a box• Fills in a hard copy registration form and

requests commercial information• Hands over business card and verbally requests

information

Inferred consent: • Easily visible publication of ‘work related email

address’; e.g. on a website, trade magazine, newspaper

• Long standing customer, good business relationship; a once off purchase or use of service is generally not enough

Keep good recordsSilence does not mean consent

www.vision6.com.au

2. Identify

• Must identify the body that authorised sending of message

• Sender information must be reasonably likely to remain accurate for 30 days

Identify

www.vision6.com.au

3. Unsubscribe

• Must be functional, simple to use, low or no cost. Automatic link within email or return email with unsubscribe request

• Must be honoured within five working days

Unsubscribe

www.vision6.com.au

A common sense take

• Just because it’s legal doesn't make it right• Spam is;

Any email the recipient doesn’t want, even opted in email

• Having ‘unemotionally subscribed’ contacts in your database isn’t good for either party

www.vision6.com.au

Ideas for the real estate industry1. Lifecycle Marketing

• Lifecycle Marketing is the evolution of the broadcast email

• Moving from one list to segmented lists to deliver the right message to the right person at the right

• Basic Lifecycle Marketing can be as simple as;

– An SMS when your dry cleaning is ready– Email reminder of your dentist check-up– Email receipt or thank you for your purchase

www.vision6.com.au

Lifecycle marketing, conditional content and geo-targeting

Header

Footer

Standard introduction

Conditional content based on area of

interest

Property listings

Open houses

www.vision6.com.au

Ideas for the real estate industry2. Automated triggers

• If a prospect sends you an email about a particular property on your website

– The prospect receives an instant automated email designed in the agencies branding with further details about the property (additional images etc) and a personalised message

– At the same time an automated email and SMS notification is sent to the relevant sales people

– Additional ideas: Congratulations email on settlement, dining voucher in the local area, key dates branded email, local area buying / selling resources (building and pest etc)…

www.vision6.com.au

Ideas for the real estate industry3. Signs on steroids

Virtual SMS for real estate signs

– “Text your email address to 04… to receive full details about this property”

– Also triggers an email and SMS to the agent to follow-up

www.vision6.com.au

Questions?

Contact:

David Smerdon

dsmerdon@vision6.com.au

Ph. 07 3123 5005