The top 10 ways you're limiting the potential of your email marketing

© 2017 Brian Riback. All Rights Reserved. · Brian Riback · M: 201.258.9171 · E: [email protected] · W: www.riback.me

THE TOP 10 WAYSY O U ’ R E L I M I T I N G T H E P O T E N T I A L O F Y O U R E M A I L M A R K E T I N G

" T a c t i c s w i t h o u t s t r a t e g y i s t h e n o i s e b e f o r e d e f e a t . “

- S u n T z u

By: Brian Riback



Whether considering data or design, email marketing is all about

quality over quantity.

Ensuring your list of recipients remains ‘healthy’ is, by far, the most

important consideration when managing an email marketing program. I

would rather have 20,000 fully engaged recipients than 2,000,000 who

haven’t opened a single email in a year. Here’s why:

1 0 YOU’RE FOCUSING ON QUANTITY, NOT QUALITY

Monetary LossIf a person hasn’t opened an email from you, they are either no longer

using that address or are simply not interested in your messages any

longer. You are wasting money by sending to them. Thirty percent of

Americans change their email address annually1.

If you are including non-openers in your reporting, you are negatively

impacting your ability to effectively analyze campaign performance. Consider

this example:

Skewed Reporting

The Acme Company is deploying to the same list of

recipients, over a two-week period-

• In deployment ‘A’ they included recipients whohaven’t opened in 90-days

• In deployment ‘B’, this group was excluded

Deployment ‘A’ Deployment ‘B’

Sent 2,000,000 20,000

Opens 2,400 2,400

Open Rate 0.12% 12%

By sending to non-openers, you are hindering your

own ability to effectively demonstrate engagement

levels to your company, potential investors, ad sales

clients, and others.

DeliverabilityEmailing non-openers destroys your sending reputation. As a result, your

messages will be sent to the SPAM folder and eventually blocked

completely.

Fixing deliverability issues can be expensive, time consuming, and

completely avoidable.

QUICKTIP

Stay away from list rentals and email appends. I have never seen these efforts yield a positive ROI.

If an active opener of your campaigns changes their address, they will likely either re-register or update their profile.

Contact us to learn more about cost-effective re-engagement programs. More than anything, focus on acquisition- driving new signups, instead. It is more cost-effective and yields a much greater ROI.

1http://sumo.ly/4Cye


9 YOU’RE NOT EFFECTIVELY ADDRESSING DELIVERABILITY

QUICKTIP

While there is no official list you can reference, Hubspotretains a collection of industry-specific trigger words and

phrases that are considered no-no’s.

Do a quick Google search for, “The-Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words.”

Pressing the SPAM button is not the only influence on deliverability.

Succeeding with any email marketing initiative is not simple. It requires a working

knowledge of technology, strategy, analytics, databases, design, and coding. But,

one more factor is often overlooked: the legal side.

Laws regulating email differ from country to country. If you have any international

presence in your database, this should raise concerns. ; if you don’t know where

your recipients reside, you are still liable for adhering to their local laws.

Before you get overly concerned, consider that in most cases your provider will offer

the necessary guidance and best practices you need, along with certain fail-safes to

protect you from making crucial mistakes.

But you should still try to learn (at least a little) about the laws that apply to your

audience.

Your ultimate goal is to optimize those facets of deliverability that are within your

control, instead of those that are not.

When you include certain words or phrases that are often found in actual SPAM

messages, providers such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. recognize this, it will

impede deliverability. When writing copy, be creative, but careful with the words you

choose.

There are many other references to deliverability in this eBook, from the quality of

your content to removing non-openers, as well as your registration process.


8 YOU’RE EMAILS HAVE TOO MUCH CONTENT

The role of promotional email marketing serves only one purpose: to inspire

its recipients to take an action.

Keep your emails short and sweet (even newsletters). Long emails yield high

abandon rates.

This does not mean you should use ‘clickbait’. Instead, focus on calls to action that

engage readers. People, in general, respond best to unique experiences. If you can

somehow apply this to your messaging, you will always observe an increase in

engagement. Always.

G. Simms Jenkins, Founder & CEO of BrightWave, led a study a few years ago with

one of his B2B clients. In this study, Jenkins concluded that recipients will scan an

email first, before actually reading it. If the mailing has too much text, they typically

feel overwhelmed and subsequently abandon2.

2https://goo.gl/cd0QR43Unique Clicks/Unique Opens

Jenkins deployed an email to the same B2B list, two weeks in a row-

• For deployment ‘A’, he used a longer creative

• In deployment ‘B’, he used a shorter creative

Deployment ‘A’ Deployment ‘B’

Open Rate 20% 30%

Click Rate 5% 11%

Click-to-open Rate3 13% 17%

QUICKTIP

Value and price/discounting are not synonymous. For

example, 25% off is not impressive for a product I have

never heard of before- and it's even worse if the discount is

for something I just purchased at full price.


7 YOU’RE SENDING TO RECIPIENTS WHO NEVER EXPLICITLY REQUESTED YOU DO SOJust because someone purchases a product or service from you does not mean

that they want to enter into an ongoing relationship. Yet many marketers

interpret every purchase as an invitation to add a customer to their mailing

list.

Automatically opting-in recipients typically aggravates them. It does not make them

engage more with your brand. This action is a key reason many of them will likely hit

the SPAM button or never open your mailings in the first place.

Focus instead on earning explicit opt-ins during the registration/purchase process-

asking your customers to register. You want to establish a strong foundation with

new customers.

4https://www.quicksprout.com5https://goo.gl/9Myj2E

QUICKTIP

I am not a fan of double opt-ins. It negatively impacts list

growth, as typically, 20% of subscribers never click to

confirm5. At the same time, single opt-ins inflate list size,

but lead to deliverability issues or worse, abuse complaints.

Want to learn how I get around using either method?

Contact me today!

“Optimizing a signup form led to a 120% growth in conversions for one company,

and even increased profits by 12 million dollars for another4.”


6 YOU’RE NOT BEING RELEVANT TO THE UNIQUE RECIPIENTRelevancy is at the heart of what makes an email marketing campaign

successful. There are three ways to achieve relevancy in email marketing:

QUICKTIP

Review at least one year’s worth of email reporting and

determine where you see peaks and valleys with respect to

opens and clicks.

Consider any events that may have negatively or positively

impacted performance (e.g., a major weather event) and try

to pick up on patterns where a specific topic or product

may have driven higher engagement.

MessagingDriving relevancy can be extremely complicated. But, like anything, the

more complicated something gets, the more expensive. Leverage previous

campaign performance and overall sales trends to determine what will

most likely drive engagement from recipients.

Remember: Emails are intended to encourage recipients to click. You may

have a new product or service to promote, but to earn the click-through,

lead with something familiar.

Events/SeasonalityThe importance of relevancy shines when you consider factors such as

timing and seasonality. Having “breaking news” templates ready to go is

always a good idea. But, “our company has slashed prices” is not an

example of breaking news.

A few years ago, I was responsible for email marketing at a major media

company. When an earthquake shook NYC, I immediately deployed a

breaking news alert. With our average open rates around 12%, this

campaign reached over 28%.

The same logic can be applied to food delivery services which might send

a $5 coupon offer to recipients who order home delivery during a major

snow storm.

Buying HabitsIt is extremely easy to look at previous click or purchasing behavior to

determine what is popular with recipients or behaviors that can help drive

increased sales.

When I worked with a car rental company, I was tasked with improving

sales retention from business clients. By referencing previous campaign

performance and year-over-year rental behaviors, I was able to determine

that these traveling professionals were likely visiting the same clients,

annually. In response, we sent them a timely offer, successfully driving

sales retention.


5 YOU’RE NOT PUTTING EACH RECIPIENT IN THE DRIVER’S SEATRelevant messaging is not enough

Putting the customer in control of their journey with your brand is a crucial step in

ensuring they remain engaged and satisfied with their experience.

Here are a few examples of how you can do it…

Give them optionsWith the popularity of ‘Big Data’, marketers often turn to analytics

platforms to uncover which topics, products, services, etc. are most

popular, using this information to dictate which content to include in a

mailing.

But, why don’t they just ask their customers what they want to receive?

If you run a media company, ask your customers which topics interest

them most and then feature it in the version of each mailing they receive.

Embrace the unsubscribe buttonYes, you read that correctly! I see emails all the time where the

unsubscribe button is written in small text, text decoration is set to ‘none’-

truly any effort is made to hide this option. This is a mistake.

If the user can’t find the unsubscribe button, they are more likely to select

the SPAM option in their email client, instead.

In most cases, every unsubscribe page I see is generic- almost treated as

an after-thought.

Some companies include surveys on these pages. That’s almost like

conceding defeat. Use your unsubscribe page as a promotional

opportunity and give your reader options (E.g. Changing the frequency

with which they receive messages or registering for alternative

campaigns).

If a recipient isn’t interested in your emails, they are more likely to just

ignore them. If they take the time to open them and click through, even to

the unsub page, it is an opportunity to grow your relationship.

I built a preference center for one media company, reducing their

unsubscribes by over 18% and increasing click rates by 14%, overall.

Don’t ignore your unsubscribe page

6https://goo.gl/os0w5s

QUICKTIP

Nearly one-third of emails are opened and read within one

hour (53% within six hours)6 of being received. However,

mailing at a consistent time and day will greatly influence

whether or not your most engaged recipients will click

through.

But my question is, have you ever considered how the

varying time zones of your recipients can influence

engagement?


4 YOU’RE FOCUSING ON FASHION, NOT FUNCTIONIn a mobile-first world, Email design is all about function over fashion.

When designing an email, it is important to consider the placement of text and calls

to action. Strict design standards must be adhered to in order to support

deliverability; it is also an important factor in driving engagement.

Many Email Service Providers (ESPs) offer tools making it easy to update their

catalog of pre-designed templates. However, I have yet to see any of the creatives

they offer reflect the ideal layout considerations important for driving high levels of

engagement. Having a strategic designer work with you is a worthy initial

investment.

Email is truly a science. Similar to chemistry, what makes it work, is when you

combine just the right amounts of each ingredient.

QUICKTIP

Many ESPs offer custom design services. Quite often, they

can ‘templatize’ these designs into their proprietary editors

so you can update them without the need to learn how to

code.

If they do not offer this service, there are third party tools

that you can turn to, which can help.


3 YOU’RE NOT SENDING THANK NEW EMAIL’S TO NEW SUBSCRIBERSIf someone shares their email address, they are showing they havean interest in either your brand or its products or services. This is anopportunity to establish a foundation from which you may grow arelationship with this customer.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts for you to consider:

Do:

• Thank them for subscribing

• Educate them on your brand and share customer service contactinformation

• Ask a question that promotes action when offering new subscribers(who have not yet made a purchase)

“Companies that include an offer typically enjoy a modest 9% lift in

transaction rates and a 30% lift in revenue per email, compared to bulk

welcomes with no offer7.”

Don’t:

• Ask them to share anything with friends or on social media- Keep thefocus on how else you can help them

• Send transactional emails, using web servers or shared IPs. Thisapproach often leads to delays in delivery and sometimes, prevents itcompletely

• Invite them to join a ‘loyalty’ program. You just met them. Get to knowthem first

7https://goo.gl/wyUsW5

QUICKTIP

Don’t confuse affinity with loyalty.

Every “loyalty program” I have

seen, without fail, is in fact an

“affinity program.”

“Loyalty” to a brand means that a

customer begins to spend more with

them, purchase new products, etc. In

contrast, “affinity” describes a

person’s feelings toward a brand,

their dedication and appreciation.

And you don’t need a large budget to

achieve this goal, just good service.


2 YOU’RE NOT USING THE “FROM” ADDRESS AS AN INVITATIONThe best way to get customers to lose interest in your brand is bylosing interest in them.

I've never understood why the ‘from’ address reads,“[email protected]” in many of the promotional emails I receive.Why would anyone deliberately push customers away? Not to mentionthe fact this can negatively impact deliverability. What should you use?Create a test plan that identifies the best option for your needs- and ifyou need help, we’re here for you.

From asking for their feedback, to reminding customers you are there forthem, service is the single most crucial element to building and sustainingstrong relationships with them.

Stop hiding your hours of operation and contact information in the footerof the message. It is myth that being up front about how to reach you willcause an unmanageable spike in calls and inquiries.

Two-way conversations are about speaking and listening, so it isimportant to ensure you ‘listen’ to what your customers are telling you.This is where reporting comes in. The best way to determine the wants,needs, and preferences of your customers apart from listening to thosewho directly respond to you, is to closely monitor and study click metrics.

Clicks tell you which topics you will want to focus on in subsequentcampaigns- and which ones you shouldn't waste any more time on.

QUICKTIP

Clicks are important, but my favorite metric is the, “click-to-open” rate

(clicks/opens). It tells you how many of those who opened the mailing,

actually clicked through to your site.

In other words, the click-to-open ratio tells you how interesting your

content was to your customers.


1 YOU’RE NOT INCLUDING HIGH-QUALITY CONTENTNobody is asking you to become a professional copywriter. However,there simply is no one better than you to tell your brand’s story.

According to Content Marketing Institute, Eighty-eight percent of B2Bcompanies leverage content marketing tactics. However, only half of thisgroup clearly understands how to effectively facilitate it8.

Content marketing has always existed. It is the foundation on which weestablish, sustain, and grow relationships with customers. The differencetoday is that companies are so consumed with the methods of deliveringcontent, that they fail to focus on effectively telling their story. You cansend countless emails, but if your messaging isn’t right, you will nevermaximize your revenue and ROI potential.

The subscription-based, content marketing software company NewsCredfound that customers who engaged with their content had a 41% higherrenewal rate, were 33% more likely to be upsold and had a 24% highermonthly recurring revenue rate9.

It simply isn’t about how many followers a brand has on Twitter. Rather, itis how the brand’s story connects with people.

8http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2016_B2C_Research_Final.pdf9http://lizbedor.com/2016/01/07/how-content-marketing-can-help-ensure-customer-retention102016 B2B Content Marketing 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report

QUICKTIP

Need help coming up with content?

Ask your best customers to be guest writers- submitting

reviews, comments and other applicable thoughts on

products, services, industry trends and more.

Over the years, our research has consistently shown that marketers who have documented their content

marketing strategy are more effective than those who have a verbal-only strategy or no strategy at all10.

- Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

- Brian Riback

Thank you for reading my eBook.

With over 16 years of experience building and launching

channel marketing campaigns for national companies, my

approach is founded in the principles of upstream marketing

and the belief that to enhance consumer engagement, you

must first truly understand a brand’s story.

I am confident in my ability to provide immediate value to

your organization and welcome the opportunity to discuss

how I may help you achieve success.

• Marketing Technology Management • Behavioral, PURL, Database Marketing • Email Marketing • Consumer Insights & Analytics • Sales Enablement

• Web Development • Multi-Channel Campaigns• IT & C-Level Collaboration • Business & Technical Insights• Contract Negotiations

• Team Leadership & Training• Strategic Communications • C-Level Collaboration • Relationship Building • APIs, RSS, XML

Specializations AchievementsRevenue Acceleration

Demonstrated record of success catalyzing dramatic revenuegrowth (including a 75% net income increase for one prominentclient) via consultative leadership, as well as the facilitation oftechnological and marketing innovations.

Data & Behavioral Marketing Specialist

Background of conceptualizing, documenting and overseeingdevelopment of 1:1 marketing initiatives, leveragingpersonalization and dynamic content to increase userengagement.

Current & Former Clients

Over the past sixteen years, I have worked with hundreds ofcompanies, supporting their email marketing needs. Thefollowing is a sampling of the email marketing programs onwhich I have worked -

• 7-Eleven

• Arch Diocese of Bridgeport

• Avis/Budget

• Popular Community Bank

• Cendant

• Century21

• Citibank

• Coldwell Banker

• Coldwell Banker Commercial

• Daas Knowledge

• Disney Theme Parks

• Dunkin’ Donuts

• ERA

• Fairway Markets

• Genworth Financial

• GNC

• Go Smile

• Hofstra University

• Key Food

• Minetech

• Disney Theme Parks

• Dunkin’ Donuts

• ERA

• Modern Bookkeeping

• New York Daily News

• New York Mets

• New York Yankees

• NFL

• OXO

• P.C. Richard & Son

• Prudential

• RICG

• Six Flags Great Adventure

• St. Peter’s University

• The Smithsonian Institute

• Universal Studios Florida

• U.S. News & World Report

• Victoria’s Secret

• Vistaprint

• Weight Watchers

M: 201.258.9171

E: [email protected]

W: www.riback.me

C o n t a c t I n f o .