marketing sherpa 2015

Key Insights

1. Determine Mental LeversFlint McGlaughlin Managing Director, MECLABS Institute

Decision) Motion is incited by the mental lever: to humanize our emails, we need to discover the key point that motivates the customer to take action

• Marketers are NOT thinking through the mental lever of what will make the recipient ACT, instead they are simply creating copy

• You should be optimizing a thought sequence, NOT an email

Jonah Berger, Marketing Professor, The Wharton School

• Social Currency- The things we say and the things we share, effect how people see us

• How can you make subscribers feel like insiders? Smart, special, and in-the-know?

• Find the inner remarkability

Jonah Berger, Marketing Professor, The Wharton School

• (Mental) Triggers- Top-of-mind means tip-of-tongue

• Cheerios is top of mind at breakfast time

• What is your peanut butter?!

• Emotion- When we care, we share.

• (Engaging) Stories

2. Eliminate ConfusionLive Email Optimization | Flint McGlaughlin Managing Director, MECLABS Institute• Find the mental lever for a better subject line- What is the benefit?

• Remove images or input an image that is related to the content. An image in an email should seize the tension or support the value proposition.

• Shorten the content and include bullet points for a better eye path. A paragraph in an email should not be any longer than 3 sentences.

• Headlines should be complete sentences. Make sure your headline and sub-header have meaning. If they have no meaning, they have no message. If there is no message, there will be no response.

• Change the CTA to match the exact position they are at in the sales process. Example: “Start my free 2-week trial” is too committing. “Learn About Our Free 2-Week Preview” is much better.

• Don’t have too many links or CTAs. Multiple options typically divide responses and decrease conversion.

Segmentation: 101-401Ryan Phelan, Vice President, Global Shared Services

101- Segment by purchasers• What have they purchased in the past that’s related to other products?

201- Segment by one attribute by the individual

• Male/Female

301- Transactional emails

• Email receipt with “Those who bought

what you bought also bought ‘x’.”

401- Valhalla Marketing -----

• Use information to group customers

together

Content Demystified: What content is making you look bad?Jessica Best, Digital Marketing Evangelist, emfluence

1. Pass the duck test

You quack like spam:

• FREE FREE FREE

• Marketing, Pharma, Money

• $ % !!!

• ALL CAPS

Content Demystified: What content is making you look bad?

2. Your code is sloppy

• Errors in the code, unpaired tags

• Pasting from Microsoft Word

3. If your email looks empty:

• All image, no text = ‘empty’

Design is CommunicationJustine Jordan, Marketing Director Litmus

2 1/2 lessons

1. White space (or negative space) = BREATHING ROOM

• Use the 'rule of thumb'- 40-60 pixels between elements

• Sets the tone & improves comprehension

Design is communication

2. Hierarchy has to do with order, number and scale of the elements in your message

• Influence user behavior & guide subscriber to click

• Enhance comprehension

Design is communication

2 1/2 lessons

2.5. Be consistent with styling- Start with your headline, what you're comfortable with and go down 4 px from there

• Headlines - 22px+

• Subheads - 18-20px

• Body copy - 13px min; 15-16px is better

3. Test like a BAWSE!

The EXPERTS you need to consult are your CUSTOMERS.

• Research Question- Find your ‘which’ question• Helps identify an alternative (treatment) that performs better

Example: What is the best headline for my landing page?

Instead: Which one of these three headlines words best for my landing page?

Hypothesis

The goal of all customer research is to enable the marketer to predict customer behavior.

Which Why What

Customer Behavior Customer Theory

Which headline will generate a higher response What does my customer want the most

Which testimonial will generate the most response What makes my customer especially anxious?

Control vs. Treatment

• Control = Original email

• Treatment = Changed email

• Variable – What changes?

• Values- How it changes?

MECLABS TEST PROTOCAL TOOL TIME