how-to: proven processes for accelerating email marketing...

Sergio BalegnoDirector of Research MarketingSherpa

How-To: Proven Processes for

Accelerating Email Marketing Performance

W. Jeffrey RiceResearch AnalystMarketingSherpa

Annual research-based process leads to improving email marketing performance

• Benchmark Report – Find what works for thousands of email marketerso Mature tactic, incremental improvements

o Multiple tactics accelerate performance

• Handbook – Identify best practices and formulate a methodologyo Current stage of process for email marketing

o Sneak peek at new methodology

• Knowledge transfer – Teach email marketers how to apply best practiceso Summits, workshops, certification, webinars

• A continuous improvement process

Benchmark Report: Top email challenges for 2011

• 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

• Methodology for overcoming challenges and accelerating email performance in 2011

A sneak peek… New email methodology for making L.E.A.P.S. and bounds in performance

Leverage all tactics to build lists

Engage your audience with relevant content

Act respectfully to ensure deliverability

Place email in pipeline to quantify ROI

Sync email with social and smartphones

Leverage all tactics to build lists

Three dimensions of list growth tactics

• 3D view of tactic – usage, effectiveness and difficulty

• List growth reached plateau – ineffective use of tactics

• Prioritize by effectiveness –not degree of difficulty

Leverage all tactics to build quality lists

Ask. Wherever, whenever

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Offer incentives

• The company: Washington Capitals, NHL

• The marketplace: Sports entertainment

• The product: Professional hockey

• The channel: Audio Flash App

• The campaign objective: Capture email addresses for e-newsletter

Case study background

Campaign

• Step #1. Design coach- and player-themed Flash application

• Step #2. Enable audio recording for further personalization

• Step #3. Include registration form for saving and sharing

• Step #4. Launch and promote at start of playoffs

Execution

• In one week, they:

o Grew their email newsletter database by nearly 10%

o Received 15,000 impressions for the Slapstick site

o Saw 80% of users who created videos sharing them with their peers

• 2010 Holiday Season

Results

Engage with relevant content

Three dimensions of relevancy tactics

• Relevancy – right content to right people at right time

• Challenge – both content and capabilities intensive… technology, data segmentation

• Good news – effectiveness trumps “fast and easy”

Engage with relevant content

RelevancyContent

Segmentation Real-Time

Create contagious content

3 Kinds of content creation

• Repurposed

• User-generated

• Original

Segment data

• Endemic data

• Transactional data

• Behavioral data

• Computed data

Real-time communications

Trend-jacking ideas:

• Weather conditions

• Big events

• News stories

• The company: Eldorado Hotel & Casino

• The marketplace: Entertainment

• The product: Hotel packages

• The channel:

Email, SMS and social media

• The campaign objective:

Hotel bookings

Case study background

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Campaign

• Step #1. Craft a relevant offer

• Step #2. Integrate with PPC ads, SMS and social media

• Step #3. Segment email list

• Step #4. Send email

Execution

• The team sold 28% more ski packages in December than the rest of the year combined

• Since the team used in-house resources and low-cost channels for the effort, ROI was about 1,200% for the campaign

• They used Web analytics and custom phone numbers to monitor performance. The campaign's revenue via channel broke down as:

o Email: 56%

o Website: 25%

o Mobile: 14%

o Social: 5%

Results

Act respectfully to ensure deliverability

Three dimensional view of deliverability tactics

• Complex challenge requires specialized expertise

• Some tactics technology versus marketing reliant

• Relevancy also a factor in deliverability

Act respectfully to ensure deliverability

ReturnPath found in North America:

20% of email goes undelivered 4% is classified as junk16% just goes missing

Reputation is the #1 factor

Four reputation factors in your hands:

1. List hygiene2. Engagement3. Complaints4. Sending permanence

List hygiene

• Win-back

• Confirmation

• Delete dead wood

Relevancy leads to deliverability

Contagious content

Increased open and click rates

Improved sender reputation

Reduced spam detection

Improved email deliverability

New webmail prioritization features

IP permanent home and complaints

Place email in pipeline to quantify ROI

The perception of ROI is driving investment

• About ¼ of organizations producing measureable ROI

• Proving ROI wins over skeptics – drives investment

• About ¼ still think it’s free –and are destined to get what they pay for!

Where are you pouring your emails?

Place email in pipeline to

quantify ROI

Automated emails:

• Welcome

• Triggered

• Transactional

• Cart abandonment

• Reactivate

• The company: Nortel

• The marketplace: Technology

• The product: Communication infrastructure solutions

• The channel: Email, PPC, social and online events

• The campaign objective: Close the pipeline

Case study background

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Campaign

• Step #1. Collaborate on campaign plan with sales team

• Step #2. Develop message map

• Step #3. Segment audience

• Step #4. Create campaign microsite

• Step #5. Automated 4 Part- Email Campaign

• Step #6 In-person and webinar CXO roundtables

• Step #7. Sales team follow-up

• Mailer #1. Details about Nortel’s role in providing infrastructure for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic winter games

• Mailer #2. Third-party analysis of the value of implementing VOIP networks

• Mailer #3. An analyst report about how CIOs should evaluate the impact of mergers and acquisitions

• Mailer #4. Reminders of the special deals offered in Q4

Automated emails

• The number of prospects and customers that registered for the microsite or participated in the events represented 30% of the company’s sales pipeline.

• 34% of revenue generated in November and December came from accounts that had interacted with the program.

• Nurturing emails generated open and clickthrough rates far above the team’s average. For example:o First nurturing email – 43.6% open rate, 11.51% CTRo Second nurturing email – 34.9% open rate, 17% CTRo Third nurturing email – 31.3% open rate, 7.1% CTR

Results

Sync with social and smartphones

Social sharing effectiveness

• Sharing email content through social channels still emerging

• Effectiveness based on perception of social marketing effectiveness

• As social marketing matures, so will the perception of social sharing effectiveness

• Audience growth

• Customer’s voice

• Clarity via competition

• Smart preparation

Social media’s positive influence

Helpful hints:

• Share by design

• Communication consistency

• Listen, learn and test

Sync with social media

Nielsen Company reported in October 2010 that 29.7% of U.S. mobile subscribers operated fully-loaded smartphones

Sync with smartphones

Helpful Hints

• Have a Mobile Web presence

• Research

• Plan, but don’t perfect

• Ensure an excellent experience

1. Narrow emails

2. Increase font size

3. Add space around links

4. Be brief

5. Prioritize use of tracking links

6. Add “view on mobile” link

7. Preview and test

Sync with smartphones

Make L.E.A.P.S. in your email marketing efforts

Leverage all tactics to build lists

Engage your audience with relevant content

Act respectfully to ensure deliverability

Place email in pipeline to quantify ROI

Sync email with social and smartphones

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Thank you. Questions?

Sergio Balegno, Director of Research, MarketingSherpa

W. Jeffrey Rice, Research Analyst, MarketingSherpa