Presentation to the Better Business Event, Lincoln Chamber, 20 November 2013

1. John Owens
© John Owens Associates Ltd 2013

2. Email Marketing
(A whistle-stop “Top Tips” tour!)

3. • Why email marketing?
• Getting it read – “deliverability”
• Best practice and the law
• Next steps - MailChimp demo
• Questions
Agenda

4. Why email marketing?
£6.00
£5.00
Search
£4.00
Email
£3.00
Yellow Pages
Banner Ads
£2.00
Direct Mail
£1.00
£Search
Email
Yellow
Pages
Banner
Ads
Direct
Mail
Source: Piper Jaffrey & Co 2011
Cost per lead across various direct marketing methods

5. Customers
• 6-7 times more expensive to gain
a customer than to retain a
customer
• 5% increase in retention yields
profit increases of 25 to 100%
• Repeat customers spend 67%
more
• After 10 purchases, a customer
has already referred up to 7
people
Source: Harvard Business Review

6. Why do your customers leave?
• Often, because you haven’t
given them a reason to stay
• Your Indifference – they
haven’t heard from you for 6
weeks or more
• Lots of different ways to talk
with them (+ integrate)
• BUT email marketing is very
cost effective
(See “How To Win Customers &
Keep Them For Life”
by Michael Le Boeuf)

7. Permission
• More than just opt-ins
• “Explicit” versus “Implicit”
• Quality a priority
• “Permission marketing”
• + legal aspect in UK /USA
P. S - think Is your “targeted message” my “you’re sending me
spam… (again)”?

8. Strategy
• How will email marketing contribute to your
business development?
• How does it tie in with your other
activities (social media, web,
printed etc.)?
• Be realistic (it takes time to build a
trust relationship with your ‘targets’)
• Email marketing is a ‘long game’ – it takes time

9. Getting it read....
Use a commercial service
• Don’t try to use your own
package
• Measurable results – so measure!
email

10. Don’t use your own email system...

11. Getting it read....
Have a clean database
• No point in sending to dead
addresses + ISPs don’t like it
• Collect emails whenever you can
– and get them to opt-in
• If you buy email data, use good
sources
• Named individuals if possible!
• Multiple use or single use?

12. Getting it read....
Who is going to write it?
• What’s the key message?
• What action do you want them
to do because of reading it?
How often?
• When you have something to
say
• Better if consistent

13. What time of day?
Business to
Business
•
Avoid weekends and
after 4pm
•
But best time for a
“head-hunter” was
Monday morning
•
And lots of commuters
check emails on mobiles
on way into work now
Day
Best Time
Open rate
Tuesday /
Wednesday /
Thursday
Around
9:30am
50-62%
Friday
Weekends
or 1:30 pm
9:30am
18%
2%
Source: Constant Contact & iContact

14. What time of day?
Business to Consumer
Day
Best Time
Open rate
Tuesday /
Wednesday
/Thursday
Circa 5:00 pm
to 8:00 pm
40-45%
Friday
5:00 pm
onwards
30-40%
Weekends (to
Sunday
afternoon)
30-45%
Source: Constant Contact &
iContact

15. Best practice
• Only send emails to people who have requested them
• Only include relevant content
• Be consistent with your sending
frequency & “From” name
• Have both a plain text and HTML
version
• Watch out for spam filters –
CAPS, free, !!!!!!!, Viagra,
etc…..
• Build your list everywhere you can
“The money is in the list”
ALL
F.R.E.E

16. The Law
Data Protection Act 1998
• You may need to register –
www.ico.gov.uk (£35 p.a.)
Privacy and Electronic Communications
(EC Directive) Regulations 2003
•
“You can not transmit unsolicited
marketing email to an individual
subscriber unless they have
previously notified you that they
consent, for the time being, to
receiving such communications”
•
“Soft Opt-in”

17. MailChimp – www.MailChimp.com
Sign – up and registration
(Free – don’t need a credit card)

18. FREE – up to:
•2,000 subscribers
•12,000 emails per
month

20. Build up lists of
subscribers
•Via importing a
spreadsheet list
•Via collecting from
a from embedded
on your site
•Manual entry

21. What sort of campaign?

23. Here’s one I made earlier!

24. Testing via sending to my email box

25. Getting ready to automate sending

26. Monitor the response rate

27. Any Questions?

28. John Owens
tel:
mob:
email:
web:
01522 822 302
0780 9631597
john@johnowens.biz
www.johnowens.biz