1. E-News “DIG”
August 13, 2009
_______________________________
Adding Email to your Marketing Initiatives
Contact. Engage. Converse.
Email Marketing: 10 quick tips
from our friends at Emma
Email Planning & Followup
LISTS: Building, Acquisition, Permission and Segmentation
Substance & Style
Spam, Delivery & Open and Click-Through Rates
Case Study
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2. Adding Email to your Marketing Initiatives
Contact. Engage. Converse.
At Fresh Dirt, we know that getting results from your organization’s marketing has everything to
do with implementing meaningful tactics based in sound strategy. That’s not a new idea, but
knowing how to evaluate the status of your organization’s current marketing profile, set
achievable goals, and choose the right - and most affordable - tactics to employ isn’t always
obvious. That’s where the strength and experience of the Fresh Dirt strategy team can benefit
your organization.
It is our philosophy that marketing is a discipline based on a toolbox. Sometimes as marketers we
need the advertising “hammer,” the public relations “wrench” or the social media “screwdriver.”
The tools work fine alone, but together; they build a strong platform on which to build a solid
brand. That leads to growth in sales and revenues – and that is what we want to achieve for our
clients.
The Email Marketing tool…
If used correctly, email marketing can be one of the most powerful tools in your Marketing
Toolbox. Because almost everyone (and yes, their mama) has an email address these days,
marketers now have an audience that is more accessible than ever. Advertisers can get into the
homes, offices and mobile devices of just about anyone.
Sounds exciting right? You’ve got a product or service that you want to tell the world about and
you figure that email is a FREE way to speak to the masses. So, you load a bunch of information
into Outlook and blast your entire contact list with the good news.
STOP!
The first mistake many make in email marketing is to start without a plan or knowledge of the
rules (yes there are rules, even laws) of the game and the tools available.
There are a lot of things that can sabotage an email marketing effort. Proceed with caution!
Goals and objectives should be examined and a plan developed so that tracking and measuring
results become a part of the process.
Examples of Email delivery tools:
MailerMailer
MailChimp
Bronto
Constant Contact
Emma (our favorite!)
Steps for an Email Marketing plan
1. Set overall marketing goals.
2. Build your list.
3. Develop and editorial calendar.
4. Determine what Email delivery tool can be used to accomplish the goals and deliver the
messages.
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3. 5. Design your look
6. Create your content (write your message).
7. Analyze response data.
8. Follow up with prospects.
9. Tweak approach if necessary and continue.
The Art of Email Marketing
A successful campaign is a mix of lists, audience, message, look, subject, timing and adaptation.
The formula is different for everyone.
Fresh Dirt can help. Let’s sit down and talk about how to fit Email Marketing initiatives
into your marketing plan!
www.freshdirtmarketing.com | 615.279.1502
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4. Email Marketing: 10 quick tips
from our friends at Emma
What makes a successful email marketing plan? Here are 10 quick tips to consider when
launching yours:
1. Ask for permission.
Sending to people who want to hear from you is the best way to remain legally compliant,
maintain a solid reputation, and generate great results. And with consumers becoming more
finicky about what they read - and servers becoming more finicky about what they deliver building
a true permission-based list is more important than ever.
2. Get into the address book.
Want to know the secret to reaching the inbox? It's the Address Book. Get in there, and you're
more likely to bypass any filters and show up just the way you want to. So remind your audience
members to add you to their address book (or white list or safe senders list) every chance you
get.
3. Give your emails style and substance.
The visual possibilities of HTML mean it's easier than ever to create emails that are attractive and
enticing. Just make sure that in addition to creating emails that look great, you're also giving your
emails enough substance to warrant sending them in the first place. Marry style and substance
with the campaigns you send, and your readers will thank you (and probably buy something while
they're at it).
4. Send with delivery in mind.
Before your emails can be read and responded to, they have to be seen. That's why we make
sure your emails are sent in a way that's designed to ensure high delivery rates - through
personalized delivery, sophisticated delivery policies, and ISP relationships. And it's why we offer
you the tools to proof your campaign's content prior to send-off and see the complete results
(good and bad) after it's out.
5. Use (really use) the subject line.
Arguably the most important single line of any email, the subject line is your two-second
opportunity to catch someone's eye and convince them to stop and look. More than one great
email has been ruined because of a generic, vague or uninspiring subject. So craft your subject
line with care, test variations whenever you can, and remember that those are the most important
5 to 10 words in your campaign.
6. Know your audience.
The key to creating appealing content is to really know the group to whom you're trying to appeal.
Use your signup screens and database to collect information about out who they are, where they
live, and what they like, and enlist your recipients’ help to keep that information fresh and up-to-
date.
7. Tailor your message.
Forget the old days of batch-and-blast. Today, it's about creating smaller, more targeted mailings
based on your recipients' demographics, interest and more. The more timely, relevant and
personal you can make it, the better.
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5. 8. Handle opt-outs immediately.
This is one thing you can't mess around with. The Can-Spam legislation grants you 10 days to
handle opt-out requests, but in the world of email 10 days is an eternity. That's why our opt-out
feature handles requests instantly and remembers those requests to prevent against accidental
abuse.
9. Understand (and use) your results.
Tracking metrics like receipts, bounces, opens, clicks, forwards and signups is the first step to
understanding what's happening to your emails. But those numbers are more than just metrics -
they're your audience talking to you. Not with real voices, because that'd be weird, but through
their actions (or inaction). Listen to what they're saying and then apply it to your future emails.
10. Experiment and adapt.
Like most things, email marketing isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. So start with a basic plan,
apply your philosophy and style, and adapt as you go.
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6. Email Planning & Followup
A well planned email campaign is critical to success.
Steps for an Email Marketing plan
1. Set overall marketing goals.
2. Build your list.
3. Develop and editorial calendar.
4. Determine what Email delivery tool can be used to accomplish the goals and deliver the
messages.
5. Design your look
6. Create your content (write your message).
7. Analyze response data.
8. Follow up with prospects.
9. Tweak approach if necessary and continue.
Your editorial calendar should be planned 6-12 months in advance and include the following:
• Send dates
• Subject/content ideas for each email broken down into sections of the email.
• Due dates for finalizing content, creating the email, proofing and testing.
• Potential subject line (see the attached study on effective subject lines)
Beware of common rookie mistakes. MailChimp says If you're new to email marketing, you're
probably excited about sending out lots of emails to your customers. But before you dive right in
and start "blasting out campaigns," we've put together a list of common mistakes that we see
"beginners" and "rookies" make when they first get into email marketing...
Mistake: Not having permission
Mistake: Confusing "Transactional" emails with "Email Marketing"
Mistake: Being in a rush
Mistake: Assuming people actually want to hear from you
Mistake: Assuming people remember who you are
Mistake: Purchasing email lists
Mistake: Not double-checking the list before sending to it
Mistake: Thinking "BLAST" instead of "Relationship"
Mistake: Writing content like a used car salesman
Mistake: Not testing your campaign in lots of different email programs
Mistake: Sending with a personal email address in the "reply-to"
Mistake: Ignoring their campaign reports
Followup, followup, followup. Your efforts should not end at the click of the send button. Make
sure to evaluate the stats after each sent campaign and ask questions. Use these metrics to
determine “what is normal for us” to track how your are doing over time. Your email should be
used as a tool to open doors to a real-live conversation. Don’t hide behind electronic
communication- get out there and talk to your people. Especially those who you have activated
with your email campaign.
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7. LISTS: Building, Acquisition, Permission and Segmentation
Creating your list is tricky. There are many options in purchasing or building a list. The
effectiveness of your email marketing efforts depends on your audience being appropriate and
relevant. There are many rules and laws regarding Spam these days that will effect your list
building efforts.
________________________________________________________________
List Acquisition (Be Afraid). Build, Don't Buy.
from Email Transmit Info Center - Email Marketing Blog by Anthony Schneider
Online Customer Acquisition: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A lot of marketers want to build their opt-in lists. Of course. Opt-in lists mean more email recipients, more
buzz, more word-of-mouth, more queries, more sales.
It follows that a lot of marketers consider licensing third-party lists, running promotions to increase opt-ins, or
buying ad units in email newsletters. Licensing a third-party email list can also work, but it should be a last
resort. Here’s how we think about list acquisition and other ways to increase opt-ins.
Be Afraid (of List Acquisition)
The pros: you get access to a targeted list of potential customers and you can mix and match using multi-
channel marketing including email, direct mail and SMS.
The cons: email lists are expensive, many times contain bad email addresses and often result in complaints.
Licensing a list, testing vendors, developing creative and providing HTML all adds up to an expensive one-
time transmission to people you don’t even know. Worse, many third parties send sub-standard emails that
wind up undelivered or in junk folders. And who wants to pay to send a crappy email that doesn’t even reach
the intended recipient?
The Email Experience Council is unequivocal on the subject: “Don’t purchase lists,” they warn. “Unsolicited
messages have the highest complaint rates and could ruin your reputation.”
Size Matters, But Not as Much as You Think
Do you want an email list of 1,000 subscribers who always buy your product, or 10,000 who never do?
Subscriber quality is far more important than subscriber quantity. List size is an easily measurable facet of
email marketing, but it’s not a result. Lists are means not ends. So, worry about how well your list is
performing (opens, clickthroughs, conversions, etc.) more than you obsess about adding new names.
Not All List Vendors Were Created Equal
Let’s say you know all the hazards but you’re intent on licensing a list. Okay, we understand. But remember,
there are good list vendors and there are shoddy list vendors. Before you commit to a major list buy, get to
know your potential list vendor, run a test, run the numbers, and look closely at how they deliver emails and
report results.
If you haven’t tried building your list organically or sponsoring a third-party newsletter, we recommend you
try those tactics first.
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8. Build Don’t Buy
Try to grow your opt-in list the old-fashioned way: build your own. Home-grown lists always perform better.
If you have a quality existing opt-in list, use a sweepstakes, special promotion or referral marketing program
(like Peersuasion) to expand your reach. Use your current subscribers to generate additional interest
through word-of-mouth marketing and other promotions, and remember to ask the referrals to opt-in (an
unchecked opt-in box to capture subscribers is standard best practice). How are the results? We’ve seen
sweepstakes that grow opt-in lists by 20%, and we’ve seen word-of-mouth programs double the size of an
opt-in list in one week.
If you don’t have a big list already, then start capturing opt-in email addresses on your Web site, within your
social media environments, at trade shows, in-store, everywhere.
B2B: Try Trade Publications
Many B2B trade publications will license their list for suitable marketers. While not necessarily less costly
than using a list vendor, these lists are targeted and the recipients responsive. We have seen very good
results for B2B marketers everywhere from construction to insurance to medical optics.
Eric van den Heuvel, Director Channel Planning for The Gate Worldwide, is a proponent. “The Gate’s B2B
clients have increased their usage of list rental and newsletter sponsorships from B2B media providers,” van
den Heuvel says. “Better performing programs have seen open rates as high as 30%, with 30% of those
clicking through to the destination page.”
B2C: Try Email Ads and Sponsorships
B2C marketers may want to sponsor or place an ad in an email newsletter. Marketers are seeing high
clickthroughs from sponsored newsletters with appropriate demographics, reach and other attributes.
Putting your message in a successful, appropriate email newsletter means you get access to an existing,
attractive audience. There are a lot of good newsletters out there, so chances are there’s one that is a good
fit for your brand and demographic.
“Time Out helps advertisers to reach our audience of young, active urbanites,” says Marci Weisler, Digital
Business Director for Time Out North America. “TONY promotions are written by us, in our style, allowing
our clients to leverage the TONY brand equity and have a meaningful interaction with our audience,
resulting in higher response rates.”
Emily Carpenter, Web Editor of Garden & Gun, a Southern lifestyle magazine, puts it this way: “Sponsoring
an email newsletter is one of the most direct paths to a new customer.” And Garden & Gun marketers have
seen some strong results. “Oftentimes our sponsors/advertisers receive more clickthroughs than the
subjects of our newsletters,” Carpenter says.
Permission Now Required
from Email Transmit Info Center - Email Marketing Blog by Mark Lewis
Permission is no longer an option in email marketing- it’s required. And it’s critical to the success
of your campaigns. It is not acceptable - and often illegal - to take a list of email addresses, send
them an email, and think that the uninterested will unsubscribe. You must get the recipients’
permission before sending.
Sending email without the permission of the addresses in your list will be detrimental in many
ways. They include:
* Hurting the deliverability of your campaign
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9. * Affecting deliverability of your future campaigns
* Creating a negative customer brand experience
* Being illegal in certain cases
On the other hand, using an opt-in only list dramatically improves your email campaigns. Sending
to an email to recipients that have given their permission to receive your emails will:
* Improve deliverability
* Increase your brand perception and trust
* Create better response rates and conversions
What is Permission?
Permission is active consent- a user must consent to receive email from you. The consent must
be actively expressed- like selecting a newsletter opt-in checkbox to sign up for an email list.
Permission cannot be implied- for example, you cannot send a marketing email to someone just
because they bought an item on your web site.
Deliverability
An email campaign sent to an audience that did not provide permission will likely have a higher
bounceback rate than an opt-in list. This means you may be sending email to recipients who don’t
exist. By sending to these addresses you risk getting your message blacklisted or moved to the
Junk/Spam folder, as ISPs see more and more of your emails trying to reach invalid addresses.
This means your email won’t reach any more recipients- valid or not. AOL is notorious for this
practice, and other ISPs are also making deliverability a factor in flagging a message as spam or
allowing it through as a legitimate campaign.
Recipients can also affect delivery, as users who have the option of clicking “report spam” buttons
may alert the ISP which will then delete or send remaining emails into a Spam or Bulk folder.
AOL, Gmail and Yahoo all have this option.
Return on Investment
Because you are likely paying for every email you send, make the most of your email marketing
dollars. Permission email almost always outperforms unsolicited email in opens, clicks and
conversions. A small home-grown opt-in list will cost you less money and deliver more value than
a large non opt-in list. You will create better return on investment, making you a smarter marketer
and achieving better results for your business.
Focus on Permission
It’s up to all legitimate businesses to implement permission best practice techniques. Instead of
investing your time and budget marketing to individuals who have no interest in your product,
invest your efforts into establishing best practices at your data collection points: web site, direct
mail, trade shows, point of sale orders, etc. Your marketing results will improve, and you’ll create
a better brand experience…which should be the reason why you are marketing in the first place.
Segmentation
by Steve Adams – Marketing Profs July 14, 2009
Now that you've nailed your tone and content, the following tips will guide you through kicking off
your segmentation efforts.
1. Don't make a mountain out of a molehill
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10. * Segmenting might seem overwhelming, but once you start doing it regularly and become
more familiar with email marketing, it will seem like second nature. Until then, start out simple and
do what you can.
* Send one general email to all your contacts. To kick off the segmentation, separate the email
into different sections.
* To make it easier for your customers to navigate through your email and find what they want,
categorize the different products and services you offer.
* As your campaign progresses, break down this one big email into multiple smaller emailing
lists.
2. Get familiar
* When segmenting your list, it's important to be familiar with who your audience is.
* Offer a special deal to those subscribers who haven't yet bought anything. This will entice
them to make their first purchase.
* Look at those subscribers who are already customers. Ask whether they'd be interested in
one of your service or product upgrades.
3. Take advantage of your resources
* One of the most useful tools to use when segmenting your list is your metrics. Use that
information to begin making different targeted lists.
* Send an email to those who almost never open your emails and ask if they would like to keep
their subscription. You might lose some subscribers, but if you focus on the quality of your list
rather than on the quantity, you'll watch your profits grow.
* Make another list out of those subscribers who usually open your emails. Treat this list with
special attention and segment it even further. This will improve the relevance of your emails and
your open rates.
4. Segment based on interests and spending
* Sorting your list based on subscribers' interests and spending is one of the most effective
segmentation tactics. Not only will your subscribers be getting emails pertaining to what they like,
but they'll also be getting offers within their price range.
* Separate your customers based on their interests and customize each email to fit those
needs. With the right emails going to the right people, the result will be increased sales and a
better relationship with your brand.
* Make separate lists based on spending ranges. Make lists for low spenders, average
spenders, and high spenders. Next, offer applicable discounts for each spending-level group.
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11. Substance & Style
Substance.
One of the goals of your email marketing efforts is a high open rate. Content is King! And when it
comes to email marketing, this is especially so. Think about it this way - email marketing is one
way to communicate to your target audience about what you do, what you sell, or what you are
advocating. It is a tool that is used to communicate your "messages" (as we say in marketing
lingo). But, you have to do it in a way that matters to your reader. A few things to keep in mind to
ensure that your content is on target are:
• Consider your recipient. If you were them, what would you want to know about your
business?
• Be different. The FDM rule of thumb is that if we can change the logo at the top of the
page to a competitor and have the same message - it is too generic! Talk about the
things that your competition can't talk about, or that you do better or differently.
• Plan your content so that it is in line with the season. Don't talk about shopping for
the Holidays in February or give personal tax advice on April 16.
• Be visual and keep it short. Use images (good ones) where you can to keep people
scrolling, and cut long emails in to several over a longer period of time. People don't
have tolerance for "War and Peace" style emails.
• Be entertaining. It is a lot easier to keep someone engaged in your email if they find
what you have to say humorous. Don't force it - we're not advocating using jokes
here - just be conversational.
Style.
Style is also important and adds interest to your
campaign. Since most people are able to receive
html emails attention must be given to the look.
Having a consistency with your overall company
brand is imperative. Each email vendor offers
different options to create stationery or use custom
html and layouts. For inspiration look at your
competitors or other email newsletters that you
subscribe to for ideas.
Still stuck? Take a look at BEN
www.beautiful-email-newsletters.com
a nifty collection of favorites.
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12. Spam, Delivery & Open and Click-Through Rates
Spam & Delivery.
If you send email campaigns long enough, you will inevitably run into spam filter issues. Spam =
delivery issues. We've found that on average, you can expect 10-20% of your emails to just get
lost in cyberspace, mostly due to overzealous spam filters. You don't even have to be a spammer
to be spam-filtered. Innocent email marketers who send permission-based emails to people who
requested them get spam filtered all the time.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. The only way to avoid spam filters is to understand how they
work.
Generally speaking, spam filters look at a long list of criteria to judge whether or not your email is
junk. Oh yeah, that list of "spammy" criteria? It's constantly growing and adapting, because spam
filters "learn" what junk looks like, every time someone clicks the "This is spam" button in their
email program. Spam filters even sync-up with each other online, to share what they've learned.
See why there's no magic bullet?
These are the most common mistakes we see new email marketers make, which result in
accidental spam filtering.
• Using spammy phrases, like "Click here!" or "Once in a lifetime opportunity!"
• Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!
• USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL
• Coloring their fonts bright red, or green
• Coding sloppy HTML (usually from converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML)
• Creating an HTML email that's nothing but one big image, with no text (since spam filters
can't read images, they assume you're a spammer that's trying to trick 'em).
• Using the word "Test" in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time, when sending
drafts to clients for approval)
• Sending a test to multiple recipients within the same company (that company's email
firewall can only assume it's a spam attack)
• Sending nothing but one big image (with little or no text) in the message
• Designing HTML email in Microsoft Word, and exporting the code to HTML (that code is
sloppy, and spam filters hate it)
(credit: MailChimp)
Also, see the attached study on subject lines to see more approaches to try or avoid.
Open & Click-Through Rates.
You’ve gotten past the spaminators, now what? Now your email needs to be appealing enough to
your audience to make them open it and eventually click to a sale. About 20-30% is a normal
open rate, but a lot depends on your list, your content type, and how frequently you send your
campaigns (and how fatigued your recipients are). Other factors that can effect open rates are an
ineffective subject line, bad timing, poor list quality, and bad content. Your very first campaign
may see a high open rate (like +70%) but things quickly level off with subsequent campaigns.
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13. The two driving factors in getting someone to OPEN an email are the “from” and the subject
line. Who your email is addressed from can signal “Open me now”, “I Can wait” or “Delete”. The
subject line can do the same. See the attached study on subject lines for some insight.
Another factor in open rates is when you choose to send your email. MarketingCharts found that
the average open rate on Wednesday was over 25% higher than any other day. Here are
more tips (from Email Transit Info Center) on timing:
Worst Days and Times:
• Don’t send emails after 5 p.m., on weekends or public holidays. Most people are out of
the office on Saturday and Sunday. Remember there are different holidays in different
countries.
• Don’t send emails on Monday morning. Most email users have a lot of emails when they
get to the office, and they tend to cleanse their inbox pretty quickly.
• Don’t send on Friday afternoons. People are going for the weekend or thinking about that
cocktail, and they’ll delete anything non-essential.
Best Days:
• Over 60% of all emails are opened between Tuesday and Thursday. This is especially
true for B2B and business-oriented communications.
• If you have to pick a day, pick Wednesday. MarketingCharts found that the average open
rate on Wednesdays was over 25%, higher than any other day of the week.
Send surveys Tuesday and Wednesday, so that they can linger in the inbox and still get
the users attention the same week.
Best Times:
• Mornings are better. According a the MarketingSherpa study, clickthrough rates for
emails sent at 9 a.m. performed more than 15% better than those sent at 4 p.m.
• The best times to send an email are 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Time Zones:
• Watch out for time zones. Don’t send emails that people on the West Coast will receive
before 9 a.m.
• There are two ways to conquer the time zone problem. Either send emails in the
afternoon, so that users across the United States will all receive them during business
hours. Or, if you know Zip code or state, you can choose to divide your list into time
zones.
• If a lot of your recipients live in other countries, you will probably want to segregate your
list so that people receive your email when they are most likely to read it and take action.
Everyone wants to know how they compare to others. While open and click-through rates are
highly subjective, below is information from two reports that will give a reference point.
According to the “Email Marketing Metrics Report” by
MailerMailer, 12.5% of unique marketing e-mails
were opened in the second half of 2008.
E-Mail Marketing Open Rates Worldwide, Second
half 2007-Second half 2008
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14. The figure is down from the first half of 2008, when 13.2%
of messages were opened.
How often e-mails were opened and clicked varied with the
industry of the sender—and the size of the list.
Messages delivered to small and medium lists had higher
open and click-through rates than messages delivered to
lists of 1,000 or more subscribers.
Religious and spiritual organizations had the highest open
rates among large lists, followed by telecommunications
and travel companies.
E-Mail Marketing Open Rates Worldwide, by Industry and
List Size, Second half 2008
Click-through rates for lists of over 1,000 recipients were
also highest for religious e-mails, followed by travel,
general consumer and retail.
E-Mail Marketing Click Rates Worldwide, by Industry and
List Size, Second half 2008
“A smaller list does not directly affect open and click
rates, but mailings to smaller lists may be targeted better,
contain more relevant content or have more recent
subscribers,” wrote the authors of the report.
According to the “Q1 2009 Email Trends and
Benchmarks” report by Epsilon, 94.1% of marketing e-
mails were delivered in Q1 2009.
US E-Mail Marketing Campaign Metrics, Q1 2007-Q1
2009
In addition, 22.1% of e-mails were opened and 6.1%
were clicked through. Open rates and click-throughs
were up slightly from Q4 2008. Deliveries were down.
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15. How often e-mails were opened and clicked varied
with the industry of the sender—and the size of the
list.
General financial services e-mails were opened
most frequently, followed by general business
products and services, and credit cards and banks.
E-Mail Marketing Open Rates in North America, by
Industry, Q1 2008 & Q1 2009
The least popular categories were apparel, publishing
and media, consumer packaged goods and electronics.
Click-through rates in January through March 2009
were highest for consumer packaged goods, followed
by general financial services and pharmaceuticals.
E-Mail Marketing Click Rates in North America, by
Industry, Q1 2008 & Q1 2009
“Consumers are savvier than ever and e-mail inboxes
are often oversaturated,” wrote the authors of the
report.
Nevertheless, they said that “e-mail continues to be an
effective marketing vehicle” that “drives strong results.”
(credit: www.emarketer.com )
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16. Google Reader (1000+) http://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=my
Email Marketing: Case Study
How surveys helped Lightning 100 add 5,000 email Apr 22, 2009 9:56 AM
addresses to its list.
from Emma Email Marketing Blog | Email Newsletter Tips | Email Campaign Design by Edwin Acevedo
The folks at Nashville independent radio station Lightning 100 showcased 32 of Music City’s artists on
the verge of making it big, and at the same time they highlighted their own indie brand in a success story
we just had to share.
The idea was to get 32 great
Nashville-area bands, play their
songs on the radio and have their
friends and fans register and vote
for them on Lightning 100’s
website. The promotion was called
“Music City Mayhem,” which
happily coincided with the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournaments.
By using Emma’s signup screens for registering voters and Emma’s surveys for counting the votes,
Lightning 100 added more than 5,000 email addresses to its database while providing a ton of exposure
to the 32 artists who participated, said Brian Waters, the New Media Content Coordinator for Lightning
100 (also known as WRLT-FM, if you happen to work for the FCC).
“We acquire people into our database by offering exclusive incentives like internet pre-sales and unique
content,” Waters said. “For this, the people who voted, their incentive was to support their favorite bands
and help them advance. We didn’t have to give away tickets to Bonnaroo or Dave Matthews Band. We
decided we wanted to do something different, with unsigned bands.
“The idea behind it was to get the bands to do the marketing, and bring their fans to our website,” Waters
said.
Not only was there an increase in Web traffic, the station also attracted a fair number of new listeners.
“We received an email from a girl who said she got a message on Facebook from Parachute Musical
(one of the four finalists in the competition),” Waters said. “The band told her to visit our site and vote.
She went on our site to vote and ended up listening to the radio station. Now we’re her favorite radio
station.”
On average, there were 230 votes per day, with the highest vote total coming as the field narrowed to
eight (522 votes cast on one day). The winning band, Moon Taxi, topped Maureen Murphy in the finals.
Daniel Ellsworth rounded out the final four.
The event’s main sponsor, Yazoo Brewing Company (another fabulous Emma customer), shares its
building with Lightning 100 and provided the concert venue for the finals. About 800 people attended,
heard some great local music and enjoyed some great local craft beer.
“With the times we’re going through right now with the recession, what we’ve seen is local people
supporting local businesses supporting the local community,” Waters said. “It’s really impressive the way
the local music community in Nashville supported local artists.”
Want to make Lightning 100 your favorite radio station? Visit the website, and while you’re at it, sign up
for their fabulous newsletter.
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1 of 2 8/12/09 1:58 PM

17. Email Marketing Subject Line Study
Best and Worst Open Rates on MailChimp
People who are new to email marketing often ask us, "How should I write my subject lines so that
more recipients will open my emails?" In order to answer that question, we recently analyzed over
40 million emails sent from customers through MailChimp, and found the ones with the highest
open rates and the ones with the lowest open rates. Then we pulled 20 from each pile and put
their subject lines in a side-by-side comparison. The "highest" open rates were in the range of
60%-87%, while the "lowest" performers fell in the dismal 1%-14% range. Do you see a pattern
below?
Best Open Rates (60%-87%) Worst Open Rates (1%-14%)
1. [COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter 1. Last Minute Gift - We Have The Answer
2. Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 - Nov 4) 2. Valentines - Shop Early & Save 10%
3. [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos 3. Give a Gift Certificate this Holiday
4. [COMPANYNAME] May 2005 News Bulletin! 4. Valentine's Day Salon and Spa Specials!
5. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter - February 2006 5. Gift Certificates - Easy & Elegant Giving - Let
Them Choose
6. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter - January 2006 [ *|FNAME|* 6. Need More Advertising Value From Your
*|LNAME|* ] Marketing Partner?
7. [COMPANYNAME] and [COMPANYNAME] Invites You! 7. [COMPANYNAME] Pioneers in Banana
Technology
8. Happy Holidays from [COMPANYNAME] 8. [COMPANYNAME] Moves You Home for the
Holidays
9. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] Staff! 9. Renewal
10. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] West Staff!! 10. Technology Company Works with
[COMPANYNAME] on Bananas Efforts
11. Invitation from [COMPANYNAME] 11. [COMPANYNAME] Update - A Summary of
Security and Emergency Preparedness News
12. [COMPANYNAME] Jan/Feb 2006 Newsletter 12. Now Offering Banana Services!
13. Website news - Issue 3 13. It's still summer in Tahoe!
14. Upcoming Events at [COMPANYNAME] 14. [COMPANYNAME] endorses [COMPANYNAME]
as successor
15. [COMPANYNAME] Councils: Letter of Interest 15. [COMPANYNAME] Holiday Sales Event
16. [COMPANYNAME] Coffee Exchange - Post-Katrina 16. The Future of International Trade
Update
17. We're Throwing a Party 17. [COMPANYNAME] for your next dream home.
18. October 2005 Newsletter 18. True automation of your Banana Research
19. [COMPANYNAME]: 02.10.06 19. [COMPANYNAME] Resort - Spring into May
Savings
20. [COMPANYNAME] Racing Newsletter 20. You Asked For More...
* Study only included campaigns sent to at least 100 recipients.
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