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Avenue Z Writing Solutions

Amazing Emails: Getting members to open your messages

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Amazing Emails: Getting members to open your messages. Avenue Z Writing Solutions. Session Overview. Email trends It’s all about your audience Ads, announcements and eNewsletters Best practices for increasing open rate Track and KNOW! Email Statistics Improve your subject line - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Avenue Z Writing Solutions

Page 2: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Session Overview

Email trends It’s all about your audience Ads, announcements and eNewsletters Best practices for increasing open rate

Track and KNOW! Email Statistics Improve your subject line Improve your layout and look Learn how much is too much (or not

enough) Q&A

Page 3: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Introduction

Beth Ziesenis, Owner, Avenue Z Writing Solutions Education Director for the International

Erosion Control Association Multimedia Education Manager for

conference recording company Journalist, educator and writer for more

than 20 years Newsletter creator before newsletters were

cool

Page 4: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Email Trends

Your competition Company Email plans for 2008, compared

to 2007 (Source: Datran Media, January 2008): 82.4% to increase use of email marketing 15.3% to stay the same 2.4% to decrease email marketing

expenditures ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in

2008, more than twice the ROI of other marketing media

Page 5: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Your Reading Habits

How many emails do you get a day? How many newsletters?

More than 8 a month Read less than 2

Do you have some you always open? Do you have some you always delete?

Page 6: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

It’s All About Your Audience Take a minute and jot down three messages that

you think your audience needs to know We’re having a conference We need you to call your legislator We need more volunteers Please donate to the ACC PAC

Take another minute and jot down three messages that your audience may say they want to know about What recent clinical trial results do I need to know

about? How can I manage my investments? What industry regulations might affect my practice?

Page 7: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Think About Your Audience First

Case Study: dezinegirl Case Study: Yugma Case Study: Get To The Po!nt

Page 8: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Ads, Announcements and ENewsletters

Ads: California, Michigan Promote a product or service Includes call to action; may give away something to

entice Announcements: Georgia

For ACC Chapters, perhaps a call to volunteer, a legislative update or announcement, a new benefit, the new board of directors

Similar to an electronic press release ENewsletters: Florida

Generally meant to create a relationship Informative and focused on how to make readers’

lives easier

Page 9: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

ENewsletter Trends

ENewsletter Preferences

Page 10: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

ENewsletter Trends

ENewsletter Dislikes Long articles, long newsletters, too much

text Too much graphics Old or irrelevant content Text-only format Too many ads/promos disguised as news Links that don’t work

Page 11: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Track and KNOW!

How are you sending things out? What can you learn?

How many people “open” How many people click something What they click What they don’t click Best measurement for your email

communication! Stats: Behind the Scenes

ACC Chapter Stats

Page 12: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

About Your Subject Line

Jot down your last couple of subject lines Topic Branding Length

Results: How many characters are in your subject

line? Do you have branding? Did it list a topic?

Page 13: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Benchmarking/Improving Open Rates Stats

Some on survey http://bronto.com/stats/

Improving your subject line Add branding Give content – what do your people care about Keep it short

49 characters – short enough to be seen in a preview line

Case study: Fish Story What’s your fish story?

Page 14: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Segmenting Your Email List How does your database break down?

Number of years as members? Member demographics: location, age, field of study? Type of member: FACC, CCA, FIT, practice

administrators, vendors? Go back to the exercise where you wrote down

three things your members might want to know about You probably answered for your largest demographic Are there universal topics or things you can target, or

do you need to segment to increase interest in your messages?

How to test waters with subject lines, etc Something replicable/measurable

Page 15: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Best Practices for Layout and Look Case Studies

Carlsbad Marathon Constant Contact GrokDotCom The Well-Fed Epub ASAE AAP PAII

Page 16: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Characteristics of Good Layout Clean Table of contents Two-column layout Highlights in the column Short summaries with graphics

Read More Graphics

Meaningful Consistent look

Think about “above the fold”

Page 17: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Overall Look

Font Size? Color? Style? Under 10 point is cruel and unusual Black and white for most text Some color highlights Don’t go nuts with the font – simple is best

Graphics Load well Are clear and consistent Nice sizing Don’t “jump” Always work!

Page 18: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

How to Find Your Look

What do you like? What do you read? Collect as many examples as you can

Ones you get and actually read Ones you get and DON’T read – why not? Your colleagues

Ask your audience for examples of what they like

Page 19: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

How long, how often

Depends on purpose Frequently once a month for newsletters

and as needed for others Are you keeping in touch? Or are you

informing of latest developments? What do people click on?

How long? More than three scrolls? How many links? What do your stats say?

ACC Chapter Stats

Page 20: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Additional Resources

Beth Ziesenis 619 231 9225 [email protected] Free eNewsletter evaluation Content and eNewsletter services

Avenue Z Survey: October issue of FourWayStop FourWayStop archives and other resources

Improving Open Rates Constant Contact Opt-In News

Page 21: Amazing Emails:  Getting members to  open your messages

Thank You!

Beth ZiesenisAvenue Z Writing Solutions

[email protected]

619 231 9225