Email Marketing Life Cycles

Better Results from Email Marketing:Some ideas, experiences and examples

Sam Michelsam@chinwag.com

http://www.chinwag.com

Eturundus! 5Tallinn, 13th April 2006

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Chinwag

• Chinwag was founded in 1996• uk-netmarketing

– UK’s oldest forum for new media marketers• Operates in three areas:

– Email-based community forums & resources– Chinwag Jobs - specialist recruitment website– Digital Marketing Consultancy

• Consultancy clients:– MSN UK, BBC, Arsenal FC– Focus on email marketing & eCRM

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Email Marketing Activities

Direct Marketing Association UKhttp://www.dma.org.uk/content/Rsr-Introduction.asp?grp=8

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User Journey

• Opt-in/Subscribe• Receiver• Responder

– Newbie– Mature Subscriber

• Unsubscribe – Or worse, ‘ignore’

Analyse

Plan

Test

Roll Out

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Little Changes Add Up

• Micro-Persuasion• Resource always an issue• Don’t tackle too much

Call to Actionby Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberghttp://www.grokdotcom.com

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For example?

• Email subscription form– Easy? Obvious? Informative?– Is it on your homepage?– This is FREE MONEY!

• And the “Thank You” page?– Cross-sell– User feedback– How did you hear about us?

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MSN UK Example

• User benefits• What & when• Example copy• Prepares user for Microsoft

Passport sign-up

• Result:– 10% increase in sign ups

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No Spam Thanks

• Why Permission is Important– Trust– Brand/customer loyalty– Legal issues– Deliverability– Blacklists & collaborative filters– Poor conversion

Permission Marketing bySeth Godinhttp://www.sethgodin.com/permission/

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Subject Lines

• Think like a tabloid headline writer

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British Tabloid Headlines

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Subject Lines• Think like a tabloid headline writer• First 50 characters most important

• Fight for attention• No open = Wasted Opportunity• Playboy TV Newsletter

– Funny Subject Lines = Better open rates

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Some UK Examples

– Lastminute.com (quality editorial)• http://www.lastminute.com

– Game (integration with website)• http://www.game.net

– Innocent Smoothies (brand extension)• http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk

– Holy Moly (email-driven & editorial)• http://www.holymoly.co.uk

– Rocking Vicar (long text-only quality)• http://www.rockingvicar.com

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Testing & Segmentation

• More testing = better results• Advanced testing = even better results• Test, test, test…

– From address– Subject lines– Copy: length, links, style– Layout: single column, pictures– Frequency: hourly, daily, weekly monthly– Day-part: time, day of week, day of month– Behavioural: response, purchase, recency

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Knowing Your Audience• No pics, sorry

• Advent calendar – Right time, right place, right hand?– Daily email from Playboy Bunnies– Drive trials and paid subs

• Stats from campaign– 98% open rate– 45% click-through rate– 30% free trial offer– Trial converts @ ~35%– On Christmas Day!

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Is It Working?

• What should I measure?– Focus on the right statistics

• Long-term vs. short-term– small clickthrough now– but lifetime value?

• Audience surveys– easy with email

http://www.sherpastore.com/c/a.pl?1047&p.cfm/1976

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The Future…

Or at least some guesses on my part…• RSS – not an email killer…yet• Delivery/spam still a big problem

– Goodmail/Habeas/Bonded Sender

• Very sophisticated testing– Multi-variate/Taguchi method tests– Better data = better, testing = better results

• New email readers, new challenges– E.g. Hotmail Live

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Thanks

Any questions?…or email me later if you prefer.

sam@chinwag.com