Archive for the ‘Email Marketing Strategy’ Category
Posted by Bill Leming on February 11th, 2010
We were recently asked to weigh in on a relatively new and untested email program that a client was considering using us to implement. At the client’s request our initial discussions focused largely on the email message and more specifically on the proposed design including creative and copy. In tandem with these conversation however was the fact that that there were many other facets of the proposed pilot program beyond creative that were at least equally important to the overall success of this initiative.
These conversations in turn led us back to the somewhat more basic questions of what were the specific goals of the program and how would we know if our efforts were successful. After all, budgets had already been set, timelines drawn up and test structures loosely defined. Shouldn’t the program’s goal or goals have been clearly defined somewhere or at the very least, obvious to those managing it? While the answer to that question is just as obvious, not knowing what the real objectives are is becoming more and more common and more and more the norm.
In this case the stated objective was to see if we could generate sales using email and do so cost effectively. And as stated, the proposition itself was somewhat flawed in that the answer was essentially yes or no, the answer did not address issues of how much we could sell nor did it identify potential channel conflicts or possible operational issues which might arise. The plan was to send an email message to an nth name sample of the file in three different waves using a different creative approach in each wave. If the first message produced an acceptable result, we were successful. If not, then we’d have to act fast to help ensure that the second and third waves were successful. In other words as the effort was structured we had three shots and three shots only to prove our success. And that’s a recipe for failure.
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Posted by Dave McCue on January 1st, 2010
The film adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2010 came with the sub-title “The Year We Make Contact.” Human space travel may not have advanced to the extent Clarke imagined when he published the novel in 1982, but the way humans make contact in the real 2010 certainly would have seemed like science fiction all the same.
Remember the home telephone? Remember writing letters, or simply paying bills through the mail? Remember having to actually speak to someone if you wanted to order a pizza? Technological advancements have replaced these things for a large number of people.
To say communication has changed over the first decade of this new millennium would be an enormous understatement and the speed at which it continues to develop is incredible, to say nothing of how widespread that adoption has been. At no time in history has the gap between the tech-savvy and the rest of the population changed so rapidly.
For email marketers, this represents a tremendous challenge. 10 years ago, the general public was not nearly as well-versed in the ways of online communication as they are today. This comfort level has definitely changed the email marketing game—which, depending on your point of view, might not be such a bad thing.
In honor of the New Year, here are ‘10 characteristics of email recipients in 2010. If you’re an email marketer, it’s time to realize that you’re not sending to a bunch of web newbies anymore.
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Posted by Dave McCue on December 3rd, 2009
In Part 1 of “Email as a Data Source” I discussed three questions email marketers should be able to answer before they try to start collecting and analyzing data. When it comes to email marketing, the goal for many organizations is to increase sales. These messages are promotional in nature, and typically aim to drive recipients to specific landing pages where a conversion can take place. Emails of this nature are fairly easy to measure from a data standpoint, which makes life easier on an email marketer when it comes time to show the fruits of his or her labor.
However, some email marketers may find this type of measurement difficult because their campaigns lack the type of “step 1, step 2, step 3″ conversion process that would make it easy to assess ROI. If your program falls into this category, your email can still function as a valuable source of data. Don’t get caught tongue-tied the next time you’re asked to explain how email marketing is helping your business—here are a few metrics you can hang your hat on that don’t necessarily have dollar signs attached.
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Posted by Dave McCue on November 16th, 2009
Evidence is the difference between theory and fact, and—as it relates to email—between saying email marketing is valuable and proving it. Any organization using email marketing is going to want to see evidence that results are being produced, and if you are the individual in charge of producing those results, your best friend in such situations is your data. If that word strikes fear into your heart, don’t worry, a term as all-encompassing as “data” can be intimidating in the big picture. But if you break it down, attaining the data you’re after is as simple as answering three questions:
1) What do I want to measure?
2) How am I going to measure it?
3) How can I make sure there is actually something to measure?
What do I want to measure?
Answering the first question is a good exercise, because it requires you to step back and define exactly what sort of results you need to see in order to consider your email program a success. Are you using email as a way to drive sales? If so, you’ll want to track visitors who arrive at your site via email to see what percentage of that traffic results in conversions. If your emails function mainly as a vehicle to sell advertising, keep close tabs on any factors that could contribute to higher/lower response to those ads—day of week, ad format, newsletter content, time of day, etc—and adjust accordingly to drive the results that will keep advertisers coming back.
How am I going to measure it?
How you measure your data is largely dependent on the resources available to you. Using an email service provider such as SubscriberMail will provide you with a reporting toolset that makes it easy to track and organize your email performance data. However, the data provided by your ESP can only tell the story up until a recipient clicks one of the links within your email. From that point, you’ll need to rely on your web analytics platform (whether a paid platform or a free service such as Google Analytics) to track visitors’ activity on your website. By adding the proper parameters to the links within your emails, you can make sure email traffic is tracked separately from regular web traffic in your web analytics platform. Once both of these systems are in place, and working in tandem, you’ll be able to create a variety of filters and funnels that make it easy to track the data that is most important to measuring the success of your program.
How can I make sure there is actually something to measure?
There are a few things you can do to make sure you have data to measure. First of all, don’t be so excited about the idea of running reports and seeing the results of your hard work that you forget to spend the necessary time on the “nuts ‘n bolts” beforehand. Assuming you are using both an ESP and a web analytics platform, take time to double-check (and test!) that the steps have been taken to enable proper tracking. Are the right parameters being added to all links within your emails that you want to track? Do all pages of your site have the appropriate web analytics tracking code installed (including any sub-domains)?
Once you are sure that data from your campaigns will be tracked the way you would like, optimize your emails to give recipients a “nudge” in the most important direction. If your goal is for recipients to fill out a registration form on a page of your site, make sure an enticing link to that page is the main call-to-action of your message. Include a link to the page in your pre-header. Some recipients will have your images blocked, so use ALT text behind images to persuade these recipients to visit your page as well. Point email links directly to the page with the registration form (i.e. not your homepage), and try to design the landing page in such a way that it is easy for visitors to take the next desired action—why add a hurdle so close to the finish line? Lastly, be sure to set up some sort of confirmation/thank you page that displays once visitors submit the registration form—it’s this confirmation page that represents the point of conversion you’ll want to measure in your analytics platform. Give your “goal” the best chance to be realized by making the conversion process as quick and easy as possible for visitors.
Check out Part 2 of “Email as a Data Source”
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Posted by Drew Miller on October 8th, 2009
Nobody can argue the value of segmentation in email marketing campaigns. For those marketers that are blessed with rich customer data and the wealth of segmentation opportunities it provides, the real issue is choosing what to segment (lucky them). But for those whose data is thinner than a deli slice of black forest ham, the goal is to fatten up just so the opportunity to segment can even exist. If you happen to fall in the latter group, you need not to worry. Here are 4 steps that can help fill out those loose pants (your customer database):
1. Make Time
Segmentation sounds easy enough in theory, but building a more robust database doesn’t happen overnight or by simply snapping your fingers, it takes time. Make a schedule and stick to it. Need some motivation? Learn reasons why you should find the time for email marketing segmentation.
2. Determine What Data to Use
This may be pretty cut and dry for some, and a challenge for others. You need to have a firm grasp on who your target audience is and the capabilities/resources you have to market to them. Check out 5 ways to discover key data fields for segmenting your email marketing campaigns.
3. Capture Your Data
There are several ways to go about acquiring more data on your customers, and it’s important to take the right approach that doesn’t lead to remorse or abandonment. Learn 3 simple ways to capture data for email marketing segmentation.
4. Test Your Data
Testing is an important component of all successful email marketing campaigns. For instance, if you are a lawn equipment company, you might try geographic segmentation using zip code to vary your message depending on where someone lives. If you are a shoe retailer, gender might be a good segmentation tactic to use. Learn more about the benefits of testing in this quick video.
Building a more well rounded database is no simple task. The real key is taking a baby step approach and exercising patience. By planting the right type of seed under the right conditions, you could be well on your way to “fatter” customer data.
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