is email marketing dead?

Is Email Marketing Dead?

Marty Gilbert

1 www.growthinit.com • 847.732.7400 • [email protected]

A few facts about email marketing

• 300 billion emails are sent and received each day worldwide. – US: About 45 billion daily emails along with 4.1B text messages

• 3.5 million emails are sent each second. • US workers spend 28% of their day in their email inbox. • Average email campaign volumes rose 20% in 2012. • Email brings in $40 for every $1 spent on it (Direct Marketing Assoc)

– SEO = $22; Internet display ads = $19; Social Networks = $13; Catalogs = $7

• Some email advantages vs alternatives. – Less expensive: no postage cost, no printing cost, minimizes call centers – It’s viral: easily shared at no additional cost – Faster to market – Creates “inspirational” sales – Feeds the sales funnel – Drives web traffic – Easy to measure its effectiveness


Email marketing facts (cont’d)

• There are 220M email users in the US today.

• 20% open rate & 5% click rate are often viewed as successful.

• 64% of B2B firms will increase their email mktg budgets in 2013

• In 2012, over 41% of emails were opened on mobile devices, up from 27% in 2011– this will exceed 50% in 2014

Mobile

Desktop

Webmail

Top 100 retailers’ email opens by platform


Oct 2012 Nov 2012 Dec 2012

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

B2B vs B2C email marketing

B2B Email Marketing:

• 88% of businesses are using email marketing today.

• 44% of businesses broadcast an email at least once a week.

• “Thought leadership” content is the biggest contributor to best results.

B2C Email Marketing:

• More immediate, more transactional, shorter sales cycles.

• 30% of B2C marketers spent >30% of their budget on email.

0

2

4

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12

SALES CYCLE

B2B

B2C


COST or # OF DECISION MAKERS

What marketing execs are saying


Which marketing tactics have the best ROI? Which marketing tactics create enduring & profitable customer relationships?

Source: DMA, 114 respondents, May 2012 Email marketing is leading the pack

How has Email Marketing Changed?


What’s changing with emails today?

1. Increased importance on building the database

2. Emails can drive the sales funnel process

3. Email marketing has a migration path

4. Drip campaigns are becoming more important

5. Mobile usage is beginning to dominate


1. Building the database

• Segmenting your list enables greater relevance per email – Greater relevancy = higher open and click rates

• Offer incentives, whitepapers, newsletters, industry reports to increase opt-in email addresses

• Create affiliate marketing relationships with other websites

• Post summaries of whitepapers, e-newsletter and reports on social media sites

• Use QR codes on ads, website and business cards that link to opt-in forms

• A poor database can destroy a great campaign


2. Emails can drive the sales effort Sales Customer

Recognize need

Gather info

Evaluate

Purchase

Qualify

Pitch

Negotiate

Close

Opens

Action

Clicks

Sends

Email Marketing Funnel


3. Email migration path

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1

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3

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Mass email to a broad database

Targeted emails based on segmentation

Time-based messages

Behavior-based messages

Bto1 individual messages

Marketing Sophistication

Automated

Manual

Response Rate / Engagement

From broadcast to individual messaging

4. Drip marketing campaigns

• Messages over a prescribed period in calculated intervals

• Maintains awareness & moves customers into active sales cycle

• Drip response rates are almost always higher

• Drip emails require little effort– auto pilot


Email # Day # Phase

1 Day 1 Value Addiction

2 Day 4 Thought leadership content

3 Day 8 80% Content / 20% Sales

4 Day 11 Creating Stickiness

5 Day 14 Encourage readers to reply, take surveys

6 Day 18

Email # Day # Phase

7 Day 22 Building Rapport

8 Day 27 Reinforce "paid" solution vs DIY

9 Day 32 Provide an offer

10 Day 38 Building Loyalty

11 Day 44 Cross-sales, conferences, webinars

12 Day 48

5. Email marketing has gone mobile

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60% Mobile

Desktop

Webmail

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Q1/09 Q2/09 Q3/09 Q4/09 Q1/10 Q2/10 Q3/10 Q4/10

Smartphones

PCs

Smartphone sales have exceeded PCs Mobiles account for most email opens

• Opens on mobile devices increased 80% in 12 months • Tablet sales are expected to grow from 120M in 2012 to 370M in 2016


M units

Mobile platforms have surged

• 36% of all emails are read on a mobile device

• Smartphone owners are more likely to read an email than make a call

• Mobile emails have grown 138% from 2011 to 2012

• 80% of mobile emails are deleted if they don’t look good on the screen


Meet the new mouse

• Standard emails are 600 pixels while smartphones are 320

• Big or clumsy fingers can present a challenge

• Few words, shorter sentences, larger type, straight to the point

• Keep it simple

Old Mouse New Mouse


A Few Email Takeaways


Tactics to improve email results


Most important purpose of email program


Most important email metrics


What do you routinely test?

Subject lines: • Drive open rates. • Are easy to change & test.


How to improve subject lines

1. Keep them very specific… 35% improvement – Coming to Chicago: New B2B direct marketing workshop

– Coming to Chicago: New interactive B2B lead generation workshop

2. Promise new information or breaking news – An exclusive story or opportunity to learn something novel

3. Consider word selection and placement – Front-load subject lines

4. Stress benefits and value

5. Questions can create intrigue and curiosity

6. Tempt readers with special offers or gift opportunities


The value of email analytics

Actions Email #1 Email #2

Sends 3,500 3,200

Bounces 600 17.1% 200 6.3%

Delivered 2,900 82.9% 2,800 87.5%

Tot Opens/Delivered 630 21.7% 750 26.8%

Unique Opens/Delivered 520 17.9% 440 15.7%

Tot Clicks/Delivered 160 5.5% 180 6.4%

Unique Clicks/Delivered 120 4.1% 80 2.9%

Unsubscribes 90 3.1% 50 1.8%

Spam 5 0.2% 3 0.1%

Total to Landing Page 110 3.8% 130 4.6%

Unique to Landing Page 90 3.1% 100 3.6%

Plus, you get the names & email addresses of each person who opened or clicked… leads!


These are the kind of analytics I provide with each email campaign.

Sales Leads

Email marketing advice

• Clarify your customer’s pain points-- vertical & horizontal

• Tie pain points to your value proposition

• Segment your email database if big enough

• Target your messaging and develop trust/reduce purchase risk

• Provide relevant info– educate/help audience solve problems

• Leverage the ongoing feedback from your email analytics

• Don’t get hung up on “open” rates-- clicks show engagement


How to measure the value of email

• Return on Marketing Investment ($100K revenue - $5,000 cost) / $5,000 cost = $19 for every $1 spent

• Revenue per Email $20K revenue on 3K delivered emails = $6.67 per delivered email

(demonstrates the value of growing your email database)

• Revenue per “Triggered” Email $10K revenue on 2K delivered emails = $5 per delivered email

(automatic emails sent on bdays, anniversaries, abandoned carts, etc)


Thank You!

Marty Gilbert

Growth Initiatives LLC

847.732.7400

www.growthinit.com

[email protected]


Win the race to revenue growth!

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