What is Relevance, Anyway?

October 13, 2009

Ask the experts about email success…

…and they’ll all say

But what is relevance, anyway?

Relevance = Right Message + Right Time

Relevance

Right Time• Wanted• Trusted and Recognized• Expected• Delivered• Timely• Surprising

Right Message• Usable• Personalized• Differentiated• Valued• Humanized

It’s all about the customer/subscriber!

Wanted

Different Levels of “Wanted”

The Reluctant - Opt-In?

The OK, If I have to - Opt-In?

The You Decided For Me - Opt-In

The Incented - Opt-In

The I Really Want It - Opt-In

Hmm, Sounds Pretty Good - Opt-In

Trusted and Recognized

Who the Heck is Presentation Excellence?

I’m sure Mike is a nice guy…

Expected

Weekly - Opt-in Form

Monthly – Welcome Email

Wine of the Day - Cadence

Consistency – Every Tuesday

Delivered

Impact of Poor Deliverability

• Inconsistent inbox experience

• Lost subscribers

• Lost revenue

20% of email fails to reach the Inbox

52% of marketers cite deliverability as their greatest challenge

Source 1: Pivotal Veracity Q2 2009 delivery benchmarksSource 2: “What are your greatest challenges when conducting email marketing? (select all that apply)” JupiterResearch/E-Rewards Goodmail Email Executive Survey (10/08), n = 202 (email marketers, US

The future of deliverability is

managing reputation at the

individual level.

Evolution of Spam Filtering

The progression of spam filtering

Personal Preference

• Consumer Relevancy

• ISPs adopt adaptive learning models and determine delivery based upon consumer preferences – both explicit AND learned

• Reputation

• If you have a good reputation in the eyes of the ISPs your mail will be delivered

Border Patrol

• Authentication

• ISPs use Authentication to help reduce false-positives

Stone Walls

• Blast and Spray

• All emails were welcomed by ISPs and consumers

No Email Boundaries

ISPs will continue to adapt their filters and other technology to mirror end user preferences

• Whitelist & Blacklist

• ISPs incorporate basic spam filtering techniques to thwart spam

Picket Fences

Source: Pivotal Veracity

Selected Deliverability Tips

• “Add to address” in Welcome email

• Monitor response rates of new subscribers

• Monitor deliverability by ISP

• Make sure your email stands out if it

reaches the Junk folder

• Follow general deliverability best practices

Timely

Overloaded Inboxes, & New Entrants

Email is Competing for Mindshare

Time Variables Are Endless

Send Time Matters…

Because we are all individuals

One Size Fits All = A Failed Approach

…when each individual recipient is most likely to respond:

The time when they consistently open and act on your emails.

The Right Time Of Course Is…

Optimizing for Individual Send Time

• Export your email data from a recent send• Group recipients by their open time• Test your next send

– 50% get the email at the standard time– 50% get it at the hour of day they last opened

Overview• Regular weekly promotional email• Established open and click rate trends

Results on first send• Open rates increased 20%• Click rates increased 30%• Total revenue generated increased 75%

• Average value per order grew 35%

Little Tikes Case Study

Timely, Also = Date Based

• Birthday• Anniversary• Holiday• Season/Weather• Renewal• Replenishment• Sale/Special• Service due

Timely, Also = Event Based

• Special Event – e.g., Super Bowl

• News event

• Recent purchase

• Abandoned shopping cart

• Status or preference change

Surprising

I could use more emails like this!

Unexpected content

VSL – “discovery”

Big Results after One Month:(compared to all previous email

campaigns)

48% lift Click through rate

129% lift in Net Conversion rate

Accounted for 10.4% of the total revenue from email marketing

while representing only 2.7% of the total email volume.

Usable

Help me Buy

- Use Bullets- Better

images- Cost?- Not clear

sidebar is coffee

- How do I get to $40?

- Deadline is hidden

• Select flights right from the

email

• Oakland is my preferred

departure airport

• “Book a flight” links

• Search link

• “Today, March 27”

• No minimum

• 4-7 Day Delivery

• More details below

Do the Math for Your

Subscribers

- % off - Old price- New price- $ Savings

- People are

motivated by

different “discount”

math

Good Use of Text Navigation & Alt Tags

Text links – key Web site destinationsAlt tags

Mobile Friendly – Header CTA

Personalized

This is not really personalization

This is personalization

Halfway There

No Data, No Relevance

Logical Personalization?:

• Gender• Marital status• Age ranges on signup• Wedding anniversary• Significant other’s birth date

Celebrate Your 26th Anniversary With an Engagement Ring????

Differentiated

Free Shipping, 20% Off – “So What”

Social Network Emails in the Mix

• Your emails are competing with social alerts/conversations

• Negatively affecting opens, clicks and engagement

• Increases need for relevance, personality and social components in your emails

Fun Subject Lines

One-of-a kind content

Valued

What is a Valued Email?

• Engaged recipient

• Conversion/Revenue

• Shared

Break Through the Clutter With New Message Streams

• Notifications• Alerts• Reminders• Aggregators• Updates• Closeouts• …and more

Incorporating Social Aspects Within Emails

• Comments• User ratings• Top read, top purchases, etc.

Leveraging Member Reviews in Email Content

Share to Social in Email

• Increased views, clicks

• Reach new audience

• Obtain new subscribers

• Viral buzz

• Increased ROI

• Most valuable sharers

Humanized

We Like Personalities

Jim Cramer – Mad Money

Keith Olbermann – MSNBC

…Not Faceless Corporations

Can we talk?

• More than ever, we want to connect with brands via real people– Think Twitter

• We want a personal note, not a direct marketing promotion

A Dash of Personality

• Tone• From a real person• Humor• Employee, customer

stories/comments• UGC• “Relatable”

Woot is a Hoot

Like, Awesome Dude!

• Personal reviews/ comments from staff members

• While not objective, puts real people behind the products and emails

Q & A / Reminders & Contacts

• Loren McDonald– lmcdonald@silverpop.com– Twitter: @LorenMcDonald

www.silverpop.comTwitter: @Silverpop

Thank you!

On Twitter: @Silverpopwww.slideshare.net/silverpop

www.silverpop.com