10 Email Marketing Feaux Pas You're Probably Making
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If you regularly send email to your customers, you may be making these common faux pas.
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10 Email Marketing Feaux Pas You're Probably Making
- 1. Masters of Marketing 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making Heather Cherry AgencyBuzz Product Manager
- 2. Welcome to Masters of Marketing! • Today we’ll be talking about 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making • Follow along with our live conversation on Twitter using #MastersMktg (Follow us on Twitter @InsTechCorp while you’re at it!) • If you have questions during the webinar, please use the chat window and I will answer all questions at the end. • Find slides & a recording of this presentation at https://resources.getitc.com/masters-of- marketing • Join us next time on March 15th at 12:00 p.m. for Staying Social: What Facebook’s New Algorithm Means for Your Agency hosted by SEO Consultant Stephanie Ewen Thank you for joining us today. Heather Cherry 800-383-3482 x 182 hcherry@getitc.com
- 3. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 4. You Talk Too Much • Respect Your Audience • Reduce Confusion & Frustration • Don’t Make Your Recipients Work Too Hard • Tips & Tricks • Have 1 Clear Goal (And Stick to It) • Make Your Message Clear & Concise • Avoid Too Many Design Features • Clearly Define Next Step(s) 1. US Consumer Device Preference Report Recipients decide if your email is worthy of their attention in 0-3 Seconds1.
- 5. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 6. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics • Open Rates • Click-Through Rates • Bounces • ROI • “What is the ultimate goal of this email?” Insurance Industry 21.56% Open Rate 2.11% CTR 0.82% Hard Bounce 0.26% Opt-Out 1. The Annuitas Group
- 7. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 8. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give • It’s Not About You • Provide Value • Focus on Benefits, Not Features • Nurture Your Relationship • Tips & Tricks • Valuable Resources • Personal Testimony • Drip Campaign Nurtured Leads Make 47% Larger Purchases Than Non-Nurtured Leads1
- 9. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 10. You Sell It & Forget It • Continually “Earn” Your Customers • Prove Your Value • Tips & Tricks • New Customer Onboarding • Holidays & Birthdays • Surveys • Newsletters • Cross-Sell Up to 30% of Repeat Purchases Come from Email Marketing1. 1. The Purchase Path of Online Buyers
- 11. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 12. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components • Subject Line • From Field • Pre-Header • Images • Call To Action 33% of Email Recipients Open Email Based On Subject Line Alone.1 1. Convince&Convert
- 13. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 14. Your Personality Lacks Personality • Inject Your Brand’s Personality • Match Your Audience • Communicate WITH Recipients, Not TO Them • Personalize Email Signatures • Maintain Professionalism 48% of a Brand’s Image Can Be Attributed to What It Says & How It Says It1. 1. BOP Design
- 15. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 16. You Fail At Testing • A/B Split Testing • Formatting • Mobile Devices • Scheduling At 41% Mobile is the Most Popular Environment for a Subscriber’s First Interaction With An Email1. 1. DMA, 2013
- 17. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 18. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails • Don’t Annoy Your Audience • Don’t Be Afraid to Increase Frequency • Manage Expectations • Consistency > Frequency • Poll the Audience • Monitor Your Stats 1.The State of Email Marketing by Industry (Get Response, 2016) The average number of emails sent monthly is 51.
- 19. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 20. You Ignore Your Audience • Personalization • 760%1 Increase in Revenue From Segmented Campaigns • Align Emails With Buyer Personas • Subject Line • Content • Tone • Email When They Are Most Receptive 1. DMA c/o Campaign Monitor 2. Experian Marketing Services Email Study 70% of Brands Fail to Personalize Their Messages2
- 21. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 22. Your Contact List Lacks Luster • Maintain Proper List Hygiene • Find New Ways to Grow Your List • Gather More Information About Your Contacts • Adapt As Your List Grows Proper Email List Segmentation Can Double Open Rates1. 1. MarketingSherpa
- 23. 10 Email Marketing Faux Pas You’re Probably Making 1. You Talk Too Much 2. You Don’t Fully Understand Your Metrics 3. You Take, Take, Take, But Never Give 4. You Sell It & Forget It 5. You Ignore Pivotal Email Components 6. Your Personality Lacks Personality 7. You Fail at Testing 8. You Send Too Many (or Too Few) Emails 9. You Ignore Your Audience 10. Your Contact List Lacks Luster
- 24. Thank You for Joining Us! • Find slides & a recording of this presentation at https://resources.getitc.com/masters-of-marketing • Join us next time on March 15th at 12:00 p.m. for Staying Social: What Facebook’s New Algorithm Means for Your Agency hosted by SEO Consultant Stephanie Ewen Heather Cherry 800-383-3482 x 182 hcherry@getitc.com
Editor's Notes
- Respect the value of your audience’s time. Treat recipients’ inboxes the way you want yours to be treated. Remember that your audience has an “on-the-go” mentality Too much information and copy to digest leads to confusion and frustration for your audience. Overcomplicated and cluttered content make your recipients work much harder than they need (and expect) to. Tips & Tricks Have 1 clear goal for your email and stick to it. Have more than 1 goal? Create a multi-message campaign that this thematically linked. Make your copy clearly written and efficient. Your recipients will decide quickly if your email is worth their time. Avoid too many “bells and whistles” in your email design. Clean and fresh design features declutter your message. Explicitly outline the next step, or steps, you want your readers to take. Provide a clear Call to Action.
- Many marketers give more value to open rates than they deserve. The number/percentage of opens reflects the success of your reputation, subject line, and the day/time you sent your email. Open rates can be misleading and do not necessarily reflect the success of the email as a whole. Skewed data: Blocked images do not count as opens. All opens are not created equal: you cannot distinguish between someone who opened and read the entire email, or someone who accidentally opened the email and immediately deleted it. Open rates should be analyzed with other email marketing statistics to provide more valuable insights. Click-through rates are valuable for analyzing the engagement level of your recipients. Total click-through rates are good for determining the success of your newsletter topic choices. Click-To-Open rates are seldom calculated for you, but very important. They reflect how many of your recipients are engaged with your email. (# Unique Clicks/#Unique Opens) x 100 As a beginner, you probably used bounces to clean up your email address lists. But they can show you much more than bad/outdated emails. High bounce rates are big red flags, but low bounce rates can indicate issues, too. If you notice a trend in low bounce rates combined with decreasing open rates, you could have a problem with deliverability. (Graymail) High soft bounce rates may not be cause for alarm. Consider the amount of other email campaigns you have running at the same time, the time of year (holidays and vacations), etc. Use soft bounces to catch bad emails before they turn into hard bounces. ROI = (sales value of campaign – cost of campaign)/cost of campaign x100 Average ROI of email marketing is $38 for every dollar spent (3800%) What is the ultimate goal of your email? Pure Information Open Rate CTA Click-Through Rate
- Your message should be recipient-based. Provide interesting, relevant content instead of a price tag. Requests should not come across as self-serving. Target your audience’s goals, problems, and aspirations. If you give, give, give, your recipients will feel more like they owe you something in return. You need to provide (perceived or actual) value to your recipients. Answer “What’s in it for me?” Provide more than what your audience expects/pays for. Is your message valuable even if the recipient never buys? Focus on Benefits Not Features Which of their problems will your product help solve? Which of their fears will you help them with? Purchasing an insurance policy is a big and important decision (especially if the price tag is high) that recipients won’t take lightly. Foster a relationship with your audience where you become a trusted advisor. Generate interesting, relevant dialogue. Build your credibility and establish yourself as the expert. Be genuine. Tips & Tricks Valuable Resources: Articles, White Pages, Guides, etc. Personal Testimony: How you (or a client) overcame an obstacle with the help of your product. Drip Campaign: Building a relationship takes time. Use a drip campaign to slowly build trust.
- Attention shouldn’t stop once a prospect converts into a customer. You must continually earn their business. New Customers Happy Customers Repeat Customers Loyal Customers Referring Customers Prove the value you promised during the sales process, and keep your customers from feeling like they aren’t getting enough value for their money. Constantly remind customers just how valuable you are. Tips & Tricks New Customer Welcome Campaign Educate recipients about their purchase – what they purchased & how to use it. Establish expectations. Answer the “Now what?” question. Holidays & Birthdays Stay top-of-mind. Be genuine and avoid salesy language. Surveys Follow through with making changes based on survey results. Customer Service, Product Feedback, Interaction Preferences, etc. Newsletters Provide useful resources & information about your product. Establish your knowledge about the industry and build clout. Continue to build a lasting relationship with your customers. Cross-Sell Provide additional relevant and valuable products. Beware of over-using these campaigns. You do not want to come across as disingenuous and make your customers feel like they mean nothing more to you than a $.
- Your subject line is one of only a few pieces of information your recipients consider when deciding whether or not to open your email. Capture attention & convince your audience to open the email to read more. Make your subject line relevant to your audience: address their concerns. Personalize by including the recipient’s name. Use actionable language: be explicit about what your offer is. “Join us.” Be specific, short, and compelling. Don’t be misleading: avoid “Re:” and clickbait. It matters who the email comes from. Noreply gives off a “we don’t want to talk to you” vibe and is a missed opportunity to engage dialogue. Build trust with your recipients by continually emailing from the same email address. Test different sender names. Preview text vital on mobile devices. The first few lines of your message (100 characters) are previewed in inboxes before recipients open your email. Valuable real estate. Expand & support your subject line with more detail. Give more reason to open the email. Avoid images. Images can play a very crucial role in attracting attention. Make them relevant: supplement copy, match your offer. Choose images that are visually compelling to help immediately draw your recipients into your message. Remember: Alt text & Title text Having your CTA be a button instead of a link can increase conversion rates by as much as 28% (Campaign Monitor) Minimum 44x44 pixels for mobile Make them prominent and located in the lower left-hand corner. Have only one CTA to keep from distracting from your email’s main goal. Make your CTA explicit and clear. It should be easy for readers to know what the next step is and how to take it.
- Use your agency’s existing personality and inject it into your message. Is your brand welcoming and friendly? Make your emails warm and inviting. Is your brand knowledgeable and a leading expert? Reach out and establish yourself as a trusted advisor. Is your brand fun and energetic? Make your emails informal and playful. The type of recipients you are emailing can help you develop your tone and messaging. Look at age, gender, and education level. Consider the product(s) they have purchased. Take into account where/how you obtained their email addresses. Use your emails as an opportunity to build trust. Use “You” and “I” Build a personal relationship. Dialogue not Monologue Write like you’re talking to 1 individual person. Use your email signatures as an opportunity to give more information about the sender. Add photo Link to professional social media accounts and/or blog Provide direct contact information. Remember that your emails are still business correspondence. Be respectful. Double check grammar and spelling. Be thoughtful about what you say about your agency and how you say it. Informal does not mean unprofessional.
- No matter what the “rules” or best practices are, it is important to try things out on your own client database. A/B split testing is a great when trying out new techniques or formats. Decide what you’ll test (CTA, Subject Line, Layout, Colors, Images, etc.) If historically you have low open rates, it will be more difficult to test click-through rates. Start with subject lines. Only test one variable at a time. While you cannot 100% predict what your email will look like in each individual’s specific inbox, you can test your emails in the most popular clients. iPhone, Gmail, iPad, Android, Outlook Look at spacing, sizing, consistency, text wrapping, alignment, etc. Test your emails across multiple devices and on multiple email clients. Important for mobile. Look at format, size, legibility, etc. Make sure your links point to mobile-friendly links. One of the most frequently asked questions about email marketing is “When should I send my email?” There are many different answers, but you should test on your own clients. Test the same type of email. Don’t be afraid to send out on the weekends. Look at open rates and unsubscribe rates.
- Be respectful of your audience’s time and attention. 78% of consumers have unsubscribed from emails because a brand was sending too many emails (Hubspot, 2016). Don’t be so scared of losing subscribers that you stop emailing them. 86% of consumers would like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with at least monthly (Statista). They forget who you are and stop engaging with you. Manage your subscribers’ expectations by clearly stating how frequently you will email them when they first subscribe. It is important to stick to regular scheduling and maintaining consistent frequency. Poll the Audience Send out a survey to your subscribers asking their preference. Honor the survey results. Keep an eye on your email marketing statistics and take note of negative changes: Decreased CTR, Increased Opt-Outs Sending Too Many Decreased Deliverability, Increased Abuse Reports Sending Too Few Frequency is a juggling act.
- 74% of consumers get frustrated when they receive content that has nothing to do with their interests. (Janrain Online Personal Experience Study, 2013) Consumers are craving and beginning to expect personalized content from companies. Personalization is becoming the new normal to consumers. Segmentation is the foundation for any successful marketing campaign. You need to know who your audience is in order to know how to market to them. Demographic Information Purchase History Browsing Activity Tailored content is more relevant and interesting. Develop Buyer Personas to help you customize & personalize your emails. Demographics + Motivations, Fears, Goals + Behavior Patterns, Purchase Tendencies By knowing who your audience is and what drives them, you can create compelling content, intriguing subject lines, receptive tones, and drive recipients to your CTA. Knowing your audience can help you determine what days/times to send your emails. Are they business professionals? You may want to email them during office hours M-F. Are they parents? You may want to try emailing them in the evenings or during lunch. Are they millennials? Don’t be scared to email them at night or over the weekend.
- You should already be following the basic rules for list hygiene: Organic Email Lists Honor Opt-Outs Address & Remove Stale Addresses Monitor Bounce Rates Don’t just rely on quote requests to build your email list. Free Reports/Forms On Your Website Social Media Contests In-Office Visits You can never have too much information about your contacts. Send out a survey asking them more about their demographics, interests, preferences, etc. Ask them to reply with feedback. Ask for more information on signup forms. As your list grows, you need to make sure you are modifying your segments accordingly. Break prospects down into groups according to their referral source. Separate new customers from returning/renewing customers.