Drive Digital email marketing presentation

UPSKILLING IPSWICH’S DIGITAL PROWESS

•Series of free workshops

•4 this year

•www.drivingdigital.co.uk

•All at UCS, all on a Tuesday

INTRODUCTION

Justin Bowser

Head of Online Business, HTK

@jkbowser

Today, you’ve got me…

INTRODUCTION

Last time…

About HTK

INTRODUCTION

• htk.co.uk

• @htkhorizon

INTRODUCTION

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

Agenda

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

Econsultancy.com Email Marketing Industry Census 2014

•Email marketing continues to deliver strong performance, regaining top spot from SEO

•23% of total sales attributed to email marketing

•For 16% of total marketing budget

•… it’s performing better than other channels

BUT

•Only 3% rate their campaigns as “excellent”

•39% rate campaigns as “good”

What’s happening in the industry?

DOES EMAIL MARKETING STILL WORK?

DOES EMAIL MARKETING STILL WORK?

What’s happening in the industry?

DOES EMAIL MARKETING STILL WORK?

CUSTOMER DATA

RELEVANT, TARGETED COMMS

UNDERSTANDING & INSIGHT

IMPROVED RESULTS

Content Relevance is King

DOES EMAIL MARKETING STILL WORK?

Content Relevance is King

DOES EMAIL MARKETING STILL WORK?

Econsultancy.com Email Marketing Industry Census 2014

•2013 was the “year of mobile”, but companies shouldn’t become complacent

•Marketers are still spending most of their time on design and content, at the expense of planning, data and optimisation

•Companies are still feeling their way with marketing automation despite appreciating the benefits

•The future will be completely integrated and personalised, but not totally automated

What are the trends for 2014/15?

DOES EMAIL MARKETING STILL WORK?

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

What data is most important for you…

SECTOR SIZE

JOB ROLE

and what pieces do you need?

MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR DATA

Prospects and leads

•Demographics

•Interactions

•Online activity

•Sector

•Size

•Source

Existing customers

•Purchases

•Timings

•Usage

•Service

•Value

•Loyalty

MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR DATA

BIG DATA? IT’S NOT THE SIZE THAT MATTERS …

MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR DATA

Differences matter…

What’s right for Bill…

is probably wrong for Jade.

MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR DATA

“BUY! BUY! BUY!”

Try to avoid this…

MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR DATA

• Who are your ideal customers?

• What are their key characteristics?

• What are their wants, needs, pain points?

• What do they want from your emails?

Think about “personas”

MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR DATA

Activity: Defining some personas

Name :

Personal details

Interests / requirements

Drivers

Barriers to conversion

Value to your business

MAKING BEST USE OF YOUR DATA

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

Start with the end in mind

Win back lapsed customers

Increase frequency of purchase

Increase value per purchase

Cross-sell / upsell a product or service

Retain existing customers

Introduce a new product

Get more visitors

Create sales leads

SETTING YOUR OBJECTIVES

Make your objectives SMART

SETTING YOUR OBJECTIVES

• “Grow our engaged database by 100 people next quarter”

• “Get 25 prospects to download our Best Practices whitepaper”

What were your objectives last year?

Did you achieve them?

Activity: Setting some email marketing objectives

SETTING YOUR OBJECTIVES

Last year Objectives met? This year

Objective 1 Objective 1

Objective 2 Objective 2

Objective 3 Objective 3

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

A typical approach…

E-Commerce

Website

WWW.

Capture forms

EMAIL MARKETING

LIST/S

EXCEL HELL

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

“e-blast”“e-shot”

Pull it all together

E-Commerce

Social

Website

WWW.

Contact Centre

Spreadsheets

Data Capture formsSINGLE DATABASE

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

Use your personas to create target “segments”

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

… And customer “lifecycle stages”

What stages does a prospect / customer go through?

Repeat customerSupporterEvangelist

Prospect

Lapsed

Sell to some, cross-sell others, nurture early prospects,

and re-engage the ones slipping away

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

A small engaged list is better than a large unengaged one.

1.Give each contact an “age” – e.g. months since last engagement

2.Decide what age equals “unengaged”; around 3 to 6 months

3.Segment your database into age buckets

4.Create your re-engagement offer/s

5.Test them, on youngest contacts first

6.Check your hard bounce rates and spam reports

7.Move on to older contacts, until bounce and/or spam rates are too high

Re-engagement programmes

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

Re-engagement programmes

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

• Give people a reason to re-engage – what’s in it for them?

• Try 2 or 3 times, but then be prepared to remove them

• Why? Because your email response rates will go up, and that helps your sender reputation with ISPs like Google.

Create an email strategy that aligns with your business objectives, e.g.:

•For subscribers: Monthly newsletter to engage and identify interest– Quarterly measurement, based on level of engagement & database growth

•For sales leads: Targeted sales campaigns– Monthly measurement, based on revenue & unsubscribes

•For customers: Cross/up-sell, satisfaction survey– Annual measurement as part of ISO9001 / NPS

•For lapsed subscribers: Re-engagement programme– Quarterly measurement, on level of re-engagement

Lapsed

Plan and run structured campaigns

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

Set out an annual calendar of activity

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

Align with your content strategy (what you’re writing about, when)

What is it?Automatically runs sequences of actions, based on email opens & clicksTypically to “nurture” leads until they’re ready for human sales engagement

Pros:

•Time saving

•More relevant comms

•Higher response rates

Cons:

•Can get complex

•Can get confusing

•May be too granular

•Ignores non-email behaviour

Image courtesy pardot.com

Email marketing automation?

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

Image courtesy pardot.com

Email marketing automation?

STRUCTURING CAMPAIGNS

Start with a few simple triggered emails, e.g.:

•Welcome email (or welcome series)

•Abandoned basket

•Sales follow-on, after a whitepaper was downloaded

•Re-engagement email/s after 3-6 months of inactivity

•“Thank you” after a dormant customer re-engages

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

Good = “mobile responsive” design

•Examples: Waitrose, Fortnum & Mason•Good balance of text and images •Strong, clear call-to-action•“Pre-header” to extend the subject line•Legal compliance at the bottom•Preference centre / unsubscribe link at the top?

Return Path: 63% of US consumers delete emails immediately if they are not optimized for mobile.

Email design

Econsultancy: 78% of companies now have at least a ‘basic’ strategy for optimising email

marketing for mobile devices.

Email “responsive” design

DESIGN AND COPYWRITING

Image courtesy litmus.com

Email copy should fit with your overall content strategy and tone

•Tell a story, with social proof– Use a mix of sell / inform / entertain– Write small chunks, for people who skim-read. First 2 words

important. – A conversational tone can work well (if it fits with your website, blog)

•Structure for attention, interest, desire, action (AIDA)– Attention: “From” name, subject line, pre-header– Interest: Subject line, main heading, first few words– Desire: Facts, figures, testimonials, emotions– Action: Clear calls-to-action

DESIGN AND COPYWRITING

Copywriting tips

Attention, interest, desire, action (AIDA)

DESIGN AND COPYWRITING

“You are what you click”

•Provide clear links to different parts of your website•Mirror your website navigation

1) To drive traffic

2) To learn what each subscriber wants

Capturing behavioural data

Activity: Designing emails for AIDA

How could this email be improved?

DESIGN AND COPYWRITING

Designing emails for AIDA

DESIGN AND COPYWRITING

The first incremental change – we tweaked the design and added a more prominent “Weddings” link towards the top

•Increased number of “wedding” clicks by 142%

•Three times as many people clicked the top ‘Weddings’ link than clicked the intended call-to-action further down.

•Also acquired useful sales insight from prospects clicking the “Rooms” link.

Some people will simply miss your first email in their inbox. Don’t be afraid to send again to non-openers.

•Try a different subject line to get their attention.

•Re-send to non-openers, but don’t spam people who opened the first time!

If at first you don’t succeed in getting attention…

DESIGN AND COPYWRITING

% opened / clicked

47% / 2%

52% / 5%

60% / 9%

If you’re not testing, you’re not learning! Every email campaign is an opportunity to learn and improve.

•50:50 test– Send 2 versions, each to half of the audience

•A/B split test– Send 2+ versions to a % of the audience– Pick the winner based on opens, clicks

or conversions to send to the remainder

•Control group– Exclude contacts from your campaign, to rule out external factors

Test and learn

DESIGN AND COPYWRITING

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

Measurement – The standard email metrics

MEASURING SUCCESS

There are a set of (fairly) standard metrics:

•Delivery rate – Should be looking at 99%+ for a clean list

•Bounce rate (hard and soft) – Hard bounces indicate bad addresses

•Opens – Anywhere between 15 – 30% is average (sometimes inaccurate)

•Clicks – A good indicator of relevance (and individual interests)

•Sharing – A good indicator of great content (and your social advocates)

•Forwarding – ‘Forward to a friend’; being overtaken by social sharing

•Unsubscribes – Expect around 1%, but watch click rate more closely

•Spam complaints – A good indicator of list health, Should be < 0.01%

Measurement – The standard email metrics

MEASURING SUCCESS

A few simple(ish) ways to do this:

•Measure conversions in Google Analytics– Just need to add “utm_” tags to the links in your emails– Most email marketing systems will do this for you

•Feed campaign activity into your CRM system (like salesforce.com)– Not available with all systems, but easy to set up if it’s there

•Feed conversion events and/or transaction data into your email system– Not available with all systems, but fairly easy to set up if it’s there

Measure conversions if possible, not just clicks

MEASURING SUCCESS

Measure conversions if possible, not just clicks

MEASURING SUCCESS

People who opened the email

People who clicked through

the email

People who bought

Email marketing return on investment

(compared to the effort/cost of other marketing channels)

The most significant outcome of your campaigns should be a positive trend over time.

•Growth of ‘engaged’ database•More complete data•More leads•More sales revenue•Improved customer loyalty

Measure success and trends against objectives

• Does email marketing still work?

• Data… a recap from last time

• Setting your objectives

• Structuring campaigns

• Design & copywriting

• Measuring success

• Q&A

Any questions?

www.htk.co.uk

@htkhorizon

@jkbowser

justin.bowser@htk.co.uk

http://www.drivingdigital.co.uk

Next time:

Tuesday 11th November

“Competitor and Consumer

Intelligence in the Digital Age”

Thank you

www.htk.co.uk

@htkhorizon

@jkbowser

justin.bowser@htk.co.uk

http://www.drivingdigital.co.uk