B2B Email Marketing presentation by Rechenda Smith, little green plane at CIM Digital Marketing Bootcamp, 1 Nov 2011 Bedford

1. The ten email marketing commandments

3. Background
Email
480 million
Facebook & Twitter
250 million
ROI £42.08 New accounts 480m email
for every £1 2010 users
Statistics taken from the Direct Marketing Association

4. The ten email marketing
commandments
x3 Content
x3 Data
x3 Strategy
x1 Legal

5. Content

6. 1.
Thou shalt
refine your subject line

7. Subject lines
• 49 characters or less
• Single focus vs multi focus
• Question vs command
• Time limit
• Use personalisation with care

8. The good

9. The good
• Short
• Single focus
• Time limits
• Incentives

10. The bad

11. The bad
• Multi focus
• Non-specific
• Long
• No incentives
or CTAs

12. The ugly

13. The ugly
• No opt-in
• Repetitive
• Non descriptive
• Bland

14. 2.
Thou shalt use a
prominent CTA

15. Nil point

16. Ten house
points!

17. Halfords

18. LinkedIn

19. little
green
plane

20. Other design & content tips
• Keep it short – max three snippets
• Consistent structure & prioritise content
• 600 pixels wide
• Follow corporate guidelines
• Equal image to text ratio
• Mobile considerations

21. Image only emails
Creative design First impressions

22. Getting it right
ALT TAG
ALT TAGS

23. Don’t forget mobile
• Chunkier call to action buttons
• Just include the essentials
• Single column- 300 – 400px wide
• Keep images small to minimise download time
• Social media sharing

24. 3.
Thou shalt give value
to your subscribers

25. What’s in it for me?

26. Tell your subscribers…
• What benefits they will receive when signing up
• How often they will receive updates
• How you will handle their data
• How easy it is to do business with you by keeping it simple

27. Incentive ideas
• Free guides, white papers, opinion pieces
• Money off or discount for first order
• Free consultation
• Event information
• Access to VIP materials

28. Privacy policy
• Privacy and Electronic Communications
Regulations
• How THEY can get access
• Explain the security procedures you use when
handling info you collect
• Blog: 10 vital ingredients for your Privacy Policy

29. Keep it simple, stupid!
Meh.

30. That’s better

31. Data

32. 4.
Thou shalt use an
opt-in approach

33. Be a good egg…
Ask permission and be upfront

34. Never assume
Networking Business Social
card draws

35. Why opt-in?
• Transparency and trust
• Better response and conversion rates
• Enhanced advocacy
• Save money and time on people who are JUST NOT
INTERESTED

36. 5.
Thou shalt cultivate
an organic data list

37. The blight of bought lists…
Reputation and results

38. A starter for ten
Send an opt-in
“Are we still welcome?”

39. …then start cultivating

40. Growing your list
Networking
Networking LinkedIn Request
Ask
“Can I sign you up to our e-news?

41. Growing your list
Use your website
Hidden
Sign-up subscribe
Specific
form on and Pop-up
URL
home page unsubscribe
pages

42. Growing your list
Use your website
Sign up form on
home page
Specific URL
www.littlegreenplane.com/milehighclub

43. Growing your list
Subscribe and unsubscribe pages

44. Growing your list
Use a pop up

45. Growing your list
Social media
Facebook fan page tab Twitter auto message

46. Growing your list
QR codes – for print and presentations

47. Growing your list
Forward to a friend snippet

48. 6.
Thou shalt segment
your data

49. Segmentation… it’s just like football
“I play for a football club with loads of different players,
who all have different abilities.
Trying to get the right formula to win a match can be a
problematic task.
Segmenting your data is like putting the right players in
the right position according to ability and preference; it
helps your marketing run smoother and become more
successful.”
Stuart Bonsall, little green plane sales executive and philosopher

50. Segmentation ideas
• Geographic area
• Sex
• Age
• Last purchase date
• Area of interest – subscription
centre

51. Subscription centre

52. Strategy

53. 7.
Thou shalt set
objectives

54. Email marketing objectives
• Content: what and how often?
• Target by audience – tailor your
campaigns
• Set KPIs – opens, clicks, OTC
rate, enquiries, sales, forward to a
friend, retention, re-engagement,
event attendees, guide
downloaded

55. RAF Museum
Brief:
• 5-10 donations
• Increase open rate by 5%
• More than 1,000 clicks
• Re-engage users
Strategy: starter pack
Results
• 2,000 click throughs
• 26 immediate donations
• 40% open rate (was 20%)
• Re-ignited enthusiasm from
disengaged users (80
emails)
• Knock-on effect with the
pick up of museum visitors
• People still using and
sharing the email three
weeks later

56. 8.
Thou shalt test

57. Testing and refining
• Demographics (age, sex, location)
• Time (hour, day, month, seasons, holidays)
• Personalisation
• Subject line (questions, facts, commands)
• Design (length, layout, call to action location)
• Offer (type, time frame, % off versus cash)
• From names and address
(sex, seniority, info@ versus real person)

58. Halifax
Gender split test

59. 9.
Thou shalt not spam

60. Avoiding the spam folder
Emails Spam filters Inbox Website

61. 4 layers of spam filtering
Email
Human
ISP spam Company client
spam
filter spam filter spam
filter
filter

62. Human spam testing
• Read now?
• Keep for
later?
• Forward?
• Delete?

63. Deliverability tips
• Good content and data
• Use pre-send spam tests provided by your ESP – Spam
Assassin
• Use pre-send screenshot tests
• Send preview emails & set up test list
• Remove hard bounces
• Add an unsubscribe mechanism
• Review delivery stats

64. Spam – things to avoid
• Phrases like "Click here!" or "Once in a
lifetime opportunity!“
• Repeats
• Exclamation marks!!!!!!
• USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING
IN EMAIL
• Colouring fonts bright red, or green
• Sloppy HTML coding
• One big image, with little or no text
• Using a noreply@ email address

65. 9.
Thou shalt be legal

66. Key facts
Data Protection Act 1998
(Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations)
• Any commercial motives must not be hidden
• You must provide a valid unsubscribe mechanism
• You must list your company details on your emails
• You must not use competitions to gather email lists unless
participants have also said they are happy to receive updates
• If you are collecting data you must explain how you will handle it
AND provide user access, ideally in a Privacy Policy

67. Forward to a friend
• Forward on to relevant/interested parties
only
• You will be liable if people who haven’t
opt-in complain
• You cannot ask for other people's email
addresses due to the Data Protection Act
(and good ESPs will not give you data on
this feature)
FULL GUIDE FOR MARKETERS

68. Revision

69. The ten email marketing
commandments
CONTENT 1. Thou shalt refine your subject line
2. Thou shalt use a prominent CTA
3. Thou shalt give value to your subscribers
DATA 4. Thou shalt use an opt-in approach
5. Thou shalt grow organic data
6. Thou shalt segment your data
STRATEGY 7. Thou shalt set objectives
8. Thou shalt test
9. Thou shalt not spam
LAW 10. Thou shalt be legal

70. Email marketing guide

71. Thanks
@lgplane
@rechendasmith