launching an email planning and strategy

MDDC Press AssociationNew Media Day

Email Capabilities

New Media Day

Email Capabilities


Email Capabilities

Major Provisions:

•No false or misleading header information

•No deceptive subject lines

•Mandatory opt-out method

•Disclosure that message is an advertisement or solicitation

•No “harvesting” of addresses

CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers


Email Capabilities

CAN-SPAM: Real world compliance

•66% of Businesses violate CAN-SPAM

•1.8% ignore unsubscribe requests

•51% don’t offer an unsubscribe link

•45% fail to clearly identify the source

*source: Arial Software, CAN-SPAM B2C Compliance Audit


Email Capabilities

CAN-SPAM Organizational compliance steps

•Involve all organizational stakeholders in the email marketing process (marketing, webmaster, IT, legal, sales)

•Ensure all groups understand the Act’s policies & practices

•Add a postal address to email

•Review and test opt-out language and process

•Honor all opt-out requests within 10 business days of receipt

•Use unchecked boxes to affirm consent

•Add a profile update page enabling subscribers to modify their user experience


Email Capabilities

Launching an email: Planning & Strategy

1. Goals:

•Open rates

•Click Through Rate (CTR)

•Bounce rates

•Customer actions

2. Message:

•HTML/Rich text/Plain text versions

•Unsubscribe link

•Referral link

•Update information link

•Change format preferences

3. Testing:

•Send out test messages

to a number of ISP’s

•Proof read, Proof read

4. Delivery:

•Frequency

•Arrival time

5. Post Distribution:

•Bounces, unsubscribes

•Monitor CTR


Email Capabilities

Organizational Goals

•Increase user interaction

•Branding

•Sell paid subscriptions

•Dialogue with constituents

•Generate advertising revenue


Email Capabilities

Develop a subscriber acquisition strategy

•Make your subscription offer obvious and plentiful, run it at the top of the page and make it part of site navigation

•Offer an incentive like exclusive content or a small gift

•Display privacy policy prominently

•Display a sample issue so people know what they will be getting


Email Capabilities

Develop an effective landing page

•Illicit reader feedback and design a custom landing page

•Create a single path to page…don’t require multiple clicks or confuse reader with too many options

•Design page for quick scan-ability, clearly state value proposition and offer

•In the beginning consider asking for less user data, possibly just an email address

•Track conversion rates off landing page; if you are getting a high percentage of “abandons” consider changing the process


Email Capabilities

How much information to collect at sign-up?

•Too little: limited targeting

•Too much: erroneous data, user fatigue

•Collect what is important, but no more than 7 items.


Email Capabilities


Email Capabilities

Increasing email delivery rates

Keep Your Content CleanTo avoid your ads getting caught in SPAM filters avoid:

•Capital letters•Exclamation marks•Repeating the same things•Misspelled words

Validate HTML content. •Ensure code is accurate and follows W3C HTML guidelines•No broken links•Do not use scripts as few email systems accept them•Test e-mails through internal sending


Email Capabilities

Increasing email delivery rates (CONTINUED)

Use SPF, Sender Policy Framework•Stops spammers from forging "From" fields•Helps ensure only authorized senders are sending email by using special DNS records

Whitelist your IP address•List of IP addresses that are proven legitimate•In order to be whitelisted, you must have a clean record•Methods vary by ISP, some ISPs have internal white lists who you can contact by emailing postmaster@ or abuse@ addresses, to get in touch with the mail administrators. Others like Yahoo and AOL have forms to fill out to get on list.


Email Capabilities

Hard Bounce A Hard Bounce indicates that an email cannot be delivered, due to a permanent error.For example, when a mailbox does not exist for a particular domain. There is no pointin continuing to attempt to deliver the current message to this address, or futuremessages either, as the address can no longer accept email.

Soft Bounce Soft Bounces are when an email cannot be delivered to an address due to a temporaryerror, but due to the nature of the error there is no point in re-attempting delivery of thecurrent message. Unlike a hard bounce, a soft bounces indicates that it may be possibleto deliver to the address at some point in the future. An example of a soft bounce is a"mailbox full" response.

Email Delivery


Email Capabilities

Email Delivery (Continued)

General Bounce A General Bounce is a bounce that appears to be either a Hard or Soft Bounce,but is lacking the address information of the original recipient. This usually onlyoccurs with old or unusual email server software.

BlocksA Block indicates that the recipient's email server is refusing to accept emailfrom the sender. This can be due to filtering software, email blacklists (lists ofbanned senders), or email whitelists (lists of who is allowed thru, whilerestricting all others). In any case the email cannot be delivered.

Out of Office/Auto-ReplyOut Of Office notifications are usually sent by a recipient's email client software.Unlike bounces, an Out Of Office notification does not indicate that an emailaddress is bad. These notifications are only really significant when sendingtime-dependant information to recipients.


Email Capabilities


Email Capabilities

Open Rates Are FallingHowever


Email Capabilities

Increasing Open Rates

•Write a compelling subject line with actionable information or your company brand name

•Allow whitelisting

•Allow web browser viewing

•Identify “inactives” and take action

•Design emails viewable in the preview pane/put important information above the fold

•Conduct a delivery audit


Email Capabilities

Segmentation Increases Open Rates

•Create different content areas

•Allow customized delivery options

•Segment based on demographics, preferences

.48%6.68%Clicks

4.14%30.86%Opens

Not SegmentedSegmented

Impact of Segmentation*

*source: MarketingSherpa, October 2005


Email Capabilities

WhiteListing:Add the sender to

your address book.

Click here if you are unable to see images in this email.

Opens content in web browser

Provides recipient the optionto opt-out of daily emails

UNSUBSCRIBE


Email Capabilities

Selling your list to outside parties

•Privacy policy

•Align with advertisers providing value to your readers

•Don’t send more than 2 times per month

•Charge a premium


Email Capabilities

Business Week policy on sending third party email Privacy Policy

BW may, from time to time, use informationyou provide as part of the registration processto send you information regarding other productsor services from The McGraw-Hill Companies thatmay be of interest to you. In addition, BW may provideaggregated, anonymous statistical information aboutBWOL users to other persons, including potentialadvertising clients. For detailed information about theMcGraw-Hill Customer Privacy Policy, and your rightsunder it, click on the hyperlinked text at the bottomof this screen

Third Party Marketers:Advertising in Email Newsletters

preference page

Link to email preferences. Gives recipient theoption to opt out of certain newsletters, choosenot to share contact information with 3rd parties, etc.


Email Capabilities

Co-Registration Basics

•Essentially a “per-per-lead” system where visitors opt-in

for select offers at the time of email or site registration

•Registrant checks a box, opting in to your offer

•Advertiser might “confirm” lead via email confirmation to

opt-in recipient known as a bounce check - preferred method

•Publishers are paid on pre-determined cost per lead basis

after bounce check


Email Capabilities

Implementing Co-Registration

•Leads must be permission based, never opt-out

•Publisher must develop an internal database to send out leads to customer

•Basic data advertisers require for co-reg leads include:Acquire dateEmail addressPostal AddressCountry

•Featured Advertisers: Basic text introducing co-reg partners:

Example:Please take a moment to select featured advertising opportunities fromWashington Times advertisers. By taking advantage of these opportunities,the registrar agrees on sharing his or her information with a third party.


Email Capabilities

Co-Registration Ad requirements

•Character limit, with white space

•Maximum pixel size

•Consider allowing hyperlinks

•Text only


Email Capabilities

Co-RegistrationAdvertisement


Email Capabilities

Monetizing email via direct advertising

•Sell advertising on CPM or sponsorship•Text & graphical ad units

GraphicalBox Ad

(Static .GIF)

Text Advertisement

ClearlyLabeled

“Advertisement”


Email Capabilities

SkyScraperGraphical

Advertisement

Navigation to Site

from email


Email Capabilities

Recent Developments

•Overview: Goodmail Systems provides accreditation to participating members, ensuring delivery with a cryptographically-secure token

•Promises: Reliable delivery, Full message functionality, Inbox labeling and Delivery confirmation with improved reporting

•Participating ISPs: AOL, Yahoo

•Participating publishers: American Red Cross, NYTimes.com

•Fees: Sign-up, cost per email ranging from .25 to .01 per message


Email Capabilities

Additional Resources (for directional purposes only, not endorsements)

For maintaining Whitelisted IP addresses:Habeas http://www.habeas.com

Sender Score Certified http://www.senderscorecertified.com/

General Advice and FAQ:EmailLabs http://www.emaillabs.com/articles/email_articles/email_marketing_faq.html

http://www.clickz.com/experts/

SPF information:SPF: A Sender Policy Framework http://www.openspf.org/

Deliverability Issues:http://www.clickz.com/experts/archives/em_mkt/infra/article.php/996031

http://www.clickz.com/experts/em_mkt/email_delivery/article.php/3460761

Outsourcing, full-service vendors:http://email.exacttarget.com/

http://www.silverpop.com/http://www.emaillabs.com/


Email Capabilities

Questions?

Eric GetzingerOnline Sales Manager

[email protected]

3600 New York Ave, N.E.Washington, D.C. 20002

202.636.2904