Tag: email marketing campaign

Online Marketing: Don’t Mistake New for Better.

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I was recently informed by a client that they needed to step up their social media presence because “email is on the way out”.  That was a shock to me as most of my clients (this one included) see a nice return on their email marketing investment.  In fact, industry wide email marketing boasts a leading ROI among online marketing efforts with $42.08 generated from every dollar spent.  In short, my client was mistaken.  He’d made the error of thinking “new” was “better”.

Social media seems to be the new “new”.  It’s one of the first things out of people’s mouths when internet marketing comes up.  And I don’t mean to pick on social media, it’s a valuable tool.  It just shouldn’t be put on a pedestal above older communication channels that still outperform it.

An older example is when CSS layouts were first appearing.  Many companies rushed to update their pages for the new “standard”.  The problem was that many of the web browsers weren’t quite up to speed in rendering these sites so web developers had to create multiple versions for individual browsers.  That made developing the site significantly more expensive.  The difference between jumping on CSS layouts when it was new and when browser support increased was potentially tens of thousands of dollars.  At the end of the day there was no difference between a tabled layout and a CSS layout to most users but the early adopters could revel in the “newness” for a short period of time.

Neglecting other marketing channels to do what’s “new” can be very problematic when resources are shifted to a new media that does not perform as well as an older one.  It’s like trading a dollar for a quarter, it might be shinier but there’s no financial upside.

Of course I’m not suggesting that you let your online marketing stagnate into a tried and true rut.  Innovation and new technology will come up and many times it should be adopted.  But focus on effectiveness not newness.  When you keep track of what’s performing best it keeps the allure of “new” out of your decision making.  Online marketing is about increasing awareness of a company, driving opportunities, and ultimately having a positive impact on the bottom line.  Newness is hard pressed to affect any of those things on its own.

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Monitor Bounces: Email

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Like websites, there’s a temptation to look at the positive metrics rather than improving negative ones.  Bounces from email is a great indicator of list health.

An email campaign that has a low bounce rate (under 10%) is often a well built list that is regularly maintained.  The benefit of this is that it usually reflects audience engagement.  Poorly built lists can see bounce rates approach 50%.  This is typically a sign of poorly compiled lists or a build up of bad addresses over an extended period.

Monitoring your bounce rate has a few benefits:

  • It let’s you know if your list quality is acceptable (going over 20% bounce rates is a sign of trouble).
  • It makes maintenance a recurring task so that bad email addresses can be removed.  This often saves money on your email list provider as the list or emails sent gets smaller.
  • It gives an idea of true audience so if your list begins to shrink then efforts to boost subscribers can be launched.

Don’t just focus on the positive metrics like opens and clicks.  Keeping an eye on who isn’t getting your email communications can be as informative as knowing who does.

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Multiple Technology Platforms for an Email Marketing Contact Management System

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It’s hard to find all inclusive tools.  Some times the features in one system do a certain task well while another technology is better suited for something else.  This is often true in email marketing, especially for small and medium companies.  There’s no inherent problem with using multiple database or list platforms.  However a lack of planning and organization can cause administrative nightmares for running a cohesive email marketing campaign.  Set a contact management system for your email marketing program that ensure data is shared across all your list management technologies.

The first task is to simplify technologies.  Get the number of necessary technologies down to the smallest number possible.  It’s extremely rare that there would be more than two technologies involved:

  • An email marketing specific platform that specializes in templating, some list management, automated sending, and opt-out/opt-in compliance.
  • A database platform with advanced sorting/queries, reporting, and dynamic contact management.

There are add-ons to popular database platforms for email marketing.  If the add-on suits all of your email marketing needs then they can be an ideal solution.  Some are better than others but there is usually a sacrifice in functionality or accessibility with these add-ons which is impractical for certain email marketing campaigns.

I’ve yet to see an email marketing platform that has a robust enough list management system that it can double as a company database.  Email marketing platforms fulfill a niche role and most of them do it well.  Don’t try and hammer it into a function it wasn’t designed for.

Let’s assume that add-ons aren’t available for your database technology or that the add-on doesn’t have all the necessary functionality required.  That leaves two distinct technologies in your contact management system.

The trick to making your contact management effective is a recurring update process.  In some cases that can be automated which is ideal.

Other times automation is too complex or too expensive to implement.  In those situations, a schedule is vital.  Basically, a person or people need to fill the role of automation.  This often is not a daunting task.  Contacts can be held in the database and advanced sorting allows for very specific criteria to be met.  Most database programs make exporting data easy and most email marketing systems make importing data into usable groups simple.  This provides a simple exchange of information so that both technologies are on the same page.

The only time this process becomes problematic is if the schedule is not well planned out or the timing is not followed.  Managing your contacts is critical to all marketing efforts.  Sacrificing functionality is a poor option.  So if you find that you need to have more than one technology in your contact management system, ensure there is a plan to keep them synchronized.

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Buying or Renting Email Lists

It’s not uncommon for people to want to infuse their email list with a batch of new people.  The stock answer from email marketers (myself included) is to gradually and methodically build a list.  Use your network of contacts and regular business interactions to build up a legitimate opt-in email marketing list.  However, some people are in a hurry or don’t have the patience to build a list.  So if you find you are backed in a corner, the last resort is to buy or sell an email list.

The theory on any bought or rented list is that the people have opted in for marketing communications.  That assumption is only as good as the person you are buying or renting from.  The first thing that email marketers need to understand is that buying or renting a list has become difficult and/or expensive.

Buying a list is very rare.  In fact, if I run into someone that is selling lists, I am suspicious.  Selling lists legally has become very challenging, if not impossible, and is typically not a good route to pursue.  You’re more likely to run into a scam than a legitimate list source.

List brokers will rent a list by sending a communication to people that have opted in but prices can run up to 50 cents a name.  In most cases, that multiplies the overall expense of the send by at least five.  If the price doesn’t scare you off, the good list brokers can also offer some kind of targeting so that the list is sent to people that fit your email offer.  Bad list brokers don’t even share basic demographic data.  I ran into one that couldn’t/wouldn’t verify the email was sent to their list.  In shor

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Define Success: Email Marketing

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Using generic metrics for gauging success is very common in email marketing.  Specifically the most common gauges are:

  • Open rate
  • Click rate

Don’t misunderstand, these metrics are important but for most email campaigns they should not be the defining factor in measuring success.  Success depends on the intent of the email.

Here’s an example, an email campaign that consists of one communication promoting an event and a second that offers informative tips.  The open rate matters in both cases as it is an indicator of subject line clarity and recipient loyalty.

In fact, for the informative tip the open rate is a good immediate indicator.  However, the rate of the email being forwarded might be a better gauge because it clearly indicates that recipients valued the content.  Even a fairly small percent of forwards is a major victory because this particular metric typically only records a fraction of actual forwarding activity.

For the event promotion opens are a good initial indicator and click through rates are important.  However drilling down to what was clicked on is typically more important.  Were people drawn to a video link, an image, a headline, or a particular hyperlink?  This information is a better gauge for success because it can be linked to who registered for the event as well as inform future communication on what draws the target audience.

Of course this is only a sample and other metrics would be more critical to success in other cases.  The point is that open and click rates are usually a starting point to evaluating a campaign.  They rarely are capable of being a stand-alone gauge for success.

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Define Success for Your Online Marketing

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It’s common for people to use general metric standards as a guideline for success when analyzing online marketing data.  This can lead to real problems with their campaigns because it doesn’t take into account individualized goals.

Each webpage, email communication, or social media post needs to have a clearly defined metric for success rather than being analyzed on general metrics. General metrics like visitors, open/click rates, or post views can be misleading on the effectiveness of online marketing.  This data is informative but should not be the measuring stick for most online marketing initiatives.

In upcoming posts we’ll look at three separate areas of online marketing and general metrics that people use to measure success.  We’ll then outline how in many cases the general metrics are feeding false assumptions.  The three areas we will focus on are:

  • Email Marketing
  • Website
  • Social Media
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Email Subject Lines – Be Direct

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Jakob Nielson wrote a great article on email usability.  There is a lot of good points but I wanted to focus on his section about subject lines.  As a rule of thumb, if you have doubts on what the subject line should be . . . be direct.

There is a great example in the article of a subject line that the ad or marketing people probably loved.  And with good reason, it’s a witty one liner.  It just sucks as an email marketing subject line because it doesn’t give recipients a clue as to what the email is about.

In marketing and advertising it’s easy to be swayed by our cleverness.  The problem is that almost all email recipients don’t have time for clever.  They get too many communications to want to revel in advertising wit.

Make subject lines to the point and open rates will be better.  Our testing typically shows a 10% – 20% decrease in opens if a question or tag line is used in the subject line vs. a direct subject line that summarizes the email content.  The same is true for subject lines that are too long, so don’t attempt both direct and witty.

Tell recipients what you want to talk about.  The email is the chance to tell them again with more detail.  Finally the web landing page is a chance to tell them a third time and give them an opportunity to act on it.

It might not be flashy, but in email marketing the subject is your first chance to say something. Make sure it sets recipients up for the email’s content, not leave them guessing about what a clever subject line has to do with anything.

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Email Marketing: What’s in it for . . . Them?

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As a broad guideline, at least 50% of your email communications should have a clear benefit for your recipients.  A higher percentage is fine, a lower percentage will often result in list fatigue and opt outs.

This seems like a simple equation but it gets complicated when email marketers confuse what benefits them and what is a benefit to the recipients.  So here is a sample of “for them” and “for us”:

For Them:

  • Valuable information – This can be research papers, articles, audio or video tips, or directories to other information but it has to be quality content.
  • Product or service discounts – This can be a special offer to the recipient base or coupons but it has to be a legitimate offer that is simple to take advantage of without strings attached.
  • Request fulfillment – This should be a direct response to a request typically resulting from targeted list segmentation.  For example, if a person specifically asked to know when new items come out in a certain product line, then an email highlighting that item is for them.

For Us:

  • Product or service launches – These emails talk about us.  Of course they should be written to highlight the value to recipients, but it’s still about us.
  • Untargeted promotions – A store wide sale isn’t a specific offer to a select list.  Hopefully it will garner recipient’s interest but it’s an open promotion that recipients may or may not be interested in.
  • Events – Events are another step in engaging or closing prospects and benefits us.  Even if your event has valuable information or entertainment (which they all should) and is free, the event is more about us than recipients.
  • Surveys – Surveys are always asking for recipients’ time which is valuable.  We reap the benefit of their responses so unless there is an easily redeemed reward, a survey is for us.

As a general rule, if the email’s primary goal is about moving prospects further into a sales or marketing funnel, it’s about us.  Of course that is what almost every email campaign is about in one way or the other, but we need to provide a give and take.  It’s perfectly reasonable to promote your products, services, or events, just make sure that recipients don’t get flooded with too much about you and very little for them.

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Email and Internet Testing Needs Some Planning

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In a previous post, I said that email testing didn’t have to be a monumental task for smaller lists.  While that is true, the statement shouldn’t be taken to mean it is easy.  Detailed analysis is necessary to get a true picture of how your campaigns are running.  An integrated set of reports that takes all of your online initiatives into account is critical to make sound decisions on how to improve your metrics.

As a general rule a complete understanding of your online campaigns hinges on knowing how the numbers affect the bottom line.  Here is a real life example.

Company X was running an email campaign and were fairly diligent about reviewing their results.  Over the course of a few months they modified their emails and found that their open rate improved by 10% and their click rate improved by 2%.  They were thrilled with the results and made the changes permanent.

For about a year after making the changes they saw decreased conversions.  Fretting over the trend, they decided to go through a full campaign analysis.

I won’t describe the specific situation but as a generic idea, but here is a genericized comparison.  They sent an email to a list with a revised subject line that said fill out a simple form and get $100 (a great offer).  The copy was tweaked to make filling out the form a singular focus.  The email generated recipient interest and open and click rate sky rocket.  Then recipients were directed to  a form that said,  “Only available to 10-year-old’s from Peru” (It only applied to a small subset of their list).  The conversion rate plummeted because they were getting clicks but it was coming from poorly suited prospects.

The in depth analysis revealed that while the email numbers improved, the landing page conversion plummeted by 50%.  After understanding that their average lead was worth about four thousand dollars, they estimated that their “improvement” had cost almost one-hundred thousand dollars.

A big picture is critical while testing online campaigns.  Making decisions on segments of data might improve that area but could cost a lot overall.

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