5 Best Practices For Increasing Email Program Response Rate and Driving Deeper Customer EngagementLorel Marketing Group | 2013

Today, most organizations recognize email marketing as one

of the vehicles to reach and convert prospects and build a

deeper relationship with their customers and drive incremental

sales.

But many companies judge email success by the size of the

list. A large list that is not engaged is not successful. And

increasing email response and engagement is a key to

improving and growing your business.

Too often we overlook the main goal of the email. We like to think it's a way to showcase our work, our content or products, or to fulfill a desire that our customers have.

In reality, the email is a tool, a means to get customers to do something, typically click through to the website.

That alone requires 3 actions from your customer:

1.Open the Email

2.Scan or Read the email

3.Click on the Link

A secondary objective is to have the email forwarded, thereby having more users subscribe to our lists. By understanding that, we can better begin to fully utilize the medium.

Email Marketing Basics

With these three objectives in mind, there are 5 steps that should be

followed to increase email response rates and customer engagement.

1. Get the email in the Inbox

2. Get the email opened

3. Be relevant and useful to the customer

4. Get the user to click through

5. Include sharing features in your emails

Improve your email response rates with these steps

1. Get in the Inbox - White listing & Best Practices Customers can’t engage with your email if it never gets to them. Make sure you follow up-to-date standards for spam and junk mail filtering.

• Be consistent in the email domains you send from.

• Match the email domain name (from mask) to the domain name.

• Continually be aware of changes in spam/junk trends for emails (balance the combination of images and copy, reduce punctuation and certain terms in your subject lines and copy)

• Follow and Maintain CAN-SPAM guidelines by including a physical address, unsubscribe links, and privacy policy links.

• Monitor unsubscribes, bounces and spam reports with each email send.

Source: ExactTarget

www.ExactTarget.com

2. Get the email opened - Using Shorter Subject LinesOnline and Email readers SCAN content, so make your content Scanable! Studies show that subject lines shorter than 50 characters in length trend to have increased open and click-through rates.

• Make sure relevant messaging is included in your subject line

• Subject line content should link with the first message within the body of the email

• Include your company name or brand as part of the subject line to validate

• Test different lengths of subject lines to determine what works best for your specific customers and subscribers

Source: The Official Pinpointe Email Marketing Blog

Once a user opens the email, you must keep their attention. Providing relevant content, tied to the subject line, in a readable format is key.

• Key content must be “scannable” (short, easy to read words)

• The Subject Line reference should be easily visible “above the fold”

• The email should be fully legible even if a user doesn’t download the images.

• The layout should GUIDE the user through the hierarchy of content.

• Include multiple links to the desired landing pages on your website.

Make the next step EASY for your customer. Guide them seamlessly through your content, to the next desired step.

Source: TRUSTe.com

3. Be Relevant - Provide Useful Content and Design

Include multiple links in your email to give your customers multiple ways to engage with you.

Source: MailerMailer email marketing report (June 2009)

• Studies show that emails with 25 or more links had an open rate 12%higher than those containing fewerthan 25 links

• They also had a click-through rate29% higher than for e-mails with fewer than 25 links.

• Your email subscribers want multiple choices; the more you know about your subscriber the better choices you can provide them.

4. Get the User to Click Through - Calls to Action

• Provide relevant, engaging content that is worth sharing

• Provide the means to easily and readily share the content

- Forward to a friend

- Social Sharing features

• Encourage sharing through contests

• Monitor the data and analytics -- find out who’s sharing and where. Follow

the shares to make sure you company has a presence, and an active one,

on those site.

The main goal of an email is to get the recipient to act, first to open, then to click through. The secondary goal is to encourage the recipient to share the content.

5. Include Sharing Features

A Closing Remark:

• Well-conceived email programs will deliver better results and

sales for you.

• Email can be an effective and high-ROI tactic for your

business.

• It is always a good practice to review your email program and

investigate if there are efficiencies and ideas that can be

introduced to generate better results.

Questions?

Thank You.Lorel Marketing Group590 North Gulph RoadKing of Prussia, PA 19406www.lorel.com