Email Marketing Best Practices Send Results Soaring
How Are you Engaging with Customers?
Or this?
The real result.
Agenda
• The email marketing landscape• Strategic solutions• Best practices that work• The bmibaby story
The Email Marketing Landscape
Background
• Silverpop Survey of email marketers
– 4 out of 10 marketers reported their email budgets for 2010 would increase
• Biggest challenges included “inbox clutter” and “providing timely and relevant content”
• Irrelevant messaging is the #1 reason for email opt-outs
Inboxes are Crowded
• More marketers embracing email’s effectiveness and high ROI (twice the ROI of any other digital channel)
• Consumers will receive more than 9,000 email marketing messages a year by 2014
Spam accounts for 29% of the inbox
Messages from friends represents 34%
Opt in messages accounts for 25%
Messages from school/work is 8%
Other messages represent 5%
Source: JupiterResearch/NPD Consumer Survey (4/08), n = 2,427; JupiterResearch/Ipsos Insight Consumer Survey (9/07), n = 2,454; (9/06), n = 2,147; JupiterResearch/Ipsos Insight Individual User Survey (6/05), n = 3,944 (e-mail users)
Anatomy of the Inbox
The Consumer is King
Consumers are: • More informed than ever • Taking brands into their own hands• Seeking out relationships• Asserting more control over brands• Expecting companies to participate in
dialogues
Relevancy is Key
• Lack of relevancy the No. 1 reason people unsubscribe
• 20% email marketers cited "providing timely and relevant content" as a challenge
Dolla
rs G
enera
ted p
er
Month
(in t
housa
nds)
NB: Metrics and salary costs are based on a Forrester executive survey. Based on 2.8 million pieces of email per month, CPM ranges grow with program complexity, assuming $39 AOV and 40% product margin.
No TargetingWebsite Analytics Targeted Social Targeting0
200
400
600
800
1000
$159
$540
$664
$840
$40
$185$239
$306
Monthly Revenue
Source: Q1 2009 Global Email Marketing And On-Site Targeting Online Survey
Relevancy Delivers
Strategic Solutions
• Understand individuals
• Achieve anticipation instead of interruption
• Seek consumer feedback
Listen as Much as You Speak
Keep Them Tuned In
• Consumers are indifferent to brands that are indifferent to them
• Creative content alone is no longer enough
• Marketers must participate and nurture an interactive relationship
Keep Them Engaged
Targeting A one-way conversation
Engagement A two-way interaction
Why Engage?
• To increase customer lifetime value (38%)?
• To increase the value the company delivers to the customer (34%)?
• Correct answer: Both
Best Practices that Work
• What types of content do users want?
• And how do they want to receive it?
Let Customers Shape Marketing
Offer Choices During Registration
U.K. North America0
10
20
30
40
50
46%33%
Series 1
• Email address update/password update • Current email subscriptions
– Newsletters, solo offers, company news, third-party offers
• Content or interest preferences– Skiing versus snowboarding, cycling versus running
• Message format– Text, HTML, mobile-optimised HTML
• Frequency (higher and lower)• Update communication channels
– Email, RSS feeds, direct mail, SMS)
• Unsubscribe options (for individual mailings or for all)
• Demographics: gender, locale, birthday, position
Types of Choices
Unsubscribe -> Preference Centre
U.K. North America0
10
20
30
40
50
28%40%
Series 1
• Email subscriber interest begins to disintegrate as soon as two weeks after the opt-in
• Test Frequency– Analyze differences in open and click
rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribes
• Send time optimisation
Send Enough, at the Right Time
Emails Received in 30-Days
>30
21-29
16-20
11-15
5-10
1-4
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
3%
2%
5%
17%
32%
25%
15%
3%
30%
47%
20%
U.K.North America
Go Social
• Understand your brand advocates Who they are What motivates them How they are different
• Deliver content they are most likely to share (‘Sharability’)
• Share-to-Social
Normal email campaign
Share-to-Social helps expands virally
Remember the Brand
• Re-iterate the brand in your subject line
• Personalize where appropriate
Personalised Subject Lines
U.K. North America0
5
10
15
11%
4%
Series 1
“An offer just for you, %%firstname%%”
Analyse, Analyse, Analyse
• Arm yourself with data
• Review data across multiple channels
• Focus on measurements that impact results
Open Rates
Open Rate (Unique) Average Top
Quartile
Overall 22.1% 28.4%
US 20.7% 26.8%UK 22.5% 33.3%
Germany 19.5% 30.7%
Click-Through Rates
Click Through Rate (Unique) Average Top
Quartile
Overall 4.3% 5.3%US 4.1% 5.0%UK 4.6% 6.2%
Germany 4.7% 6.5%
Click-to-Open (Effective Rate)
Click-To-Open Rate Average Top
Quartile
Overall 18.5% 26.5%
US 19.0% 27.5%
UK 18.0% 26.1%
Germany 18.0% 28.6%
The bmibaby story
Who are we, baby?
• Low cost airline launched in 2002
• Fly from four U.K. bases to over 30 UK and European destinations
• Aim to put the fun back in flying!
• Highly competitive market
• In-house email program required significant IT involvement
• Deliverability issues
• Desired more sophisticated email program
Challenges
• Clean up data• Build a preference centre• Send targeted emails• Lifecycle programs• Encourage social sharing• Be consistent with personality and
value reminder
The Solution
Data Cleansing
• Remove undeliverable email addresses
• Consider new approaches for inactive subscribers
• Reward engaged subscribers with unique programs and offers
Data Cleansing- bmibaby
• Removed data that was over 1 year old
• Reactivation and invigoration campaign
• Over time refined list to a group of active recipients
Preference Centres
• Move from marketer-centric to customer-centric approach
• What do subscribers want? Ask them
• Fine line between enough choices and too many
Preference Centres- bmibaby
• bmibaby’s welcome message leads to preference centre
• Choices: Preferred departure airport Favorite destinations Weekly offers Latest price alerts
Targeted, Triggered, Transactional
Consumers say:• Transactional messages are the type
most worth reading• 6 out of 10 consumers say they don’t
mind receiving marketing messages included within transactional emails
Transactional Emails- bmibaby
• bmibaby transactional emails are triggered by recipient action:
Flight booked
Confirmation email Travel Reminders
Lifecycle Campaigns
• Personalised messaging• Target specific segments• Groups to Consider:
New customers Engaged customers Lapsed customers
Welcome email
Promotional emails
Transactional messages
Lifecycle Campaigns- bmibaby
Social Sharing
• Changed the way people interact• Shifted relationship between
companies and customers• Tool for gathering product
information• Increase in reach of over 24
percent through social sharing
Social Sharing- bmibaby
Rise Above the Noise
• 35 percent of email subscribers open messages because of what’s in the subject line
• Including company/brand name in subject line can result in over 30% more opened emails (a 7 point jump in open rates!)
• Silverpop has found that only about half of marketers follow this best practice
Be Yourself, Baby
• It’s good to have you on board, baby
• The offer has landed, baby
• bmibaby sale: Up to 40% off Every Route, Every Flight
• An above-average 35 percent newsletter open rate
• 50 percent increase in social sharing
• Strong commercial results and high ROI
The Results
• Email remains a core digital tool for connecting with customers and driving ROI
• Email that’s targeted, relevant and timely uniquely engages customers
• Test subject line branding and personalisation
• Use social media links, opt-out alternatives and sales or discount incentives
• Remain respectful but attentive
Remember
Thank you!
Will Schnabel• Email: [email protected]• Twitter: @wschnabel
Marie-Clare Dixon• Email: marie-
[email protected]• Find me on LinkedIn