Anatomy of an Email Newsletter--Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read

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Anatomy of an Email Newsletter

Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read

http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com

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Email Marketing


– According to 2011 Marketer’s Agenda by Aberdeen Group, 74% of organizations with less than 100 employees use email marketing

– Experian Marketing Services 2012 report states that 61% of marketers reported that they will pilot or increase their email efforts this year, as well as 53% and 47% who will pilot or increase social advertising and mobile app efforts respectively.

– Who here sends email newsletters? – How? service provider or regular email? – Who is your service provider?

Source: 2011 Marketer’s Agenda by Aberdeen Group

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Email Providers’ Sites Great resource for white papers and e-seminars


X X X X

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4 http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com

– Easy to Use and Saves me Time and Money – Constant Contact user get

• 36% higher open rates (Aberdeen Group) • 60% greater click-through (Aberdeen Group)

– Industry leader, serves 450,000+ small organizations – They keep up with regulations, let me know about them

and customize their tools for compliance – Templates professional and work across all platforms – Spam ratings tools are included – Social media is integrated – Can track metrics for each email campaign – Reasonably priced – Wealth of training materials in their learning center

Source: Designs for Growth and : 2011 Marketer’s Agenda by Aberdeen Group

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Regular Email vs. Email Service Provider


Email marketing services automate best practices – Provide easy-to-use templates – Reinforce brand identity – Email addressed to recipient only – Manage lists – add new

subscribers, handle bouncebacks, remove unsubscribers

– Improve email delivery, track results and obey the law

Source: Constant Contact, Inc.

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Types of Email Newsletters


– Educational Answer question or solve problem – Informational Short and don’t require recipient action:

webinar reminders, why someone should follow your company on twitter, or wish "happy holiday”

– Promotional Get the recipient to take some action around a new product, service, event, or special deal

– Lead Nurturing Correspond to the sales cycle, are content-rich and try to get leads to take action

– Newsletter Sent once a month and includes a couple of pieces of content you published

Goal: Build Relationships!

Source: HubSpot, Inc.

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Retail

Educational, Informational, Promotional, Lead Nurturing, or Newsletter?

http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: Designs for Growth

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1. The top left of an email is what your customer sees first. It’s where your logo should be.

2. The viewer’s eye then moves right, in the direction we read

3. Product categories available is listed underneath

4. Promotional offer is in the center 5. Offer time-sensitive sale 6. Free shipping included 7. Social media is included, many

brand put this at the top right 8. Bottom has address, disclaimer

and other store brands


Anatomy of Promotional Newsletter

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Source: Designs for Growth

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Design Your Emails And Your Website in a Consistent Manner

Email Web


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Your Email is Laid Out Now Let’s Get it Delivered


Decrease the Odds of Your Email Being Marked as SPAM

– Words to Avoid – Subject Lines – From Lines

– Spam Is in The Eye of the Receiver • Recipient • Email Service Provider

Source: Constant Contact, Inc. and Designs for Growth

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Avoid Spam Trigger Words in Subject Lines


#1 100% satisfied 4U Accept credit cards Act Now! Additional Income Affordable All natural All new Amazing Apply online Bargain Best price Billing address Buy direct Call Call free Can’t live without Cards Accepted Cents on the dollar Check Claims Click / Click Here / Click Below Click to remove Compare rates

Congratulations Cost / No cost Dear friend Do it today Extra income For free Form Free and FREE Free installation Free leads Free membership Free offer Free preview Free website Full refund Get it now Giving away Guarantee Here Hidden Increase sales Increase traffic Information you requested Insurance Investment / no investment Investment decision

Legal Lose Marketing Marketing solutions Message contains Money Month trial offer Name brand Never No gimmicks No Hidden Costs No-obligation Now Offer One time / one-time Opportunity Order / Order Now / Order today / Order status Orders shipped by priority mail Performance Phone Please read Potential earnings Pre-approved Price

Print out and fax Profits Real thing Removal instructions Remove Risk free Sales Satisfaction guaranteed Save $ Save up to Search engines See for yourself Serious cash Solution Special promotion Success The following form Unsolicited Unsubscribe Urgent US dollars Wife Win Winner Work at home

Source: Mannix Marketing, Inc.

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Use Power Words in Your Email Text


Management Built Demonstrated Developed Enhanced Facilitated Generated Impacted Implemented Negotiated Revitalized

Sales and Marketing Closed Collaborated Delivered Drove Established Generated Increased Presented Prospected Retained

Technical Analyzed Built Consulted Created Escalated Formatted Integrated Maintained Programmed Supported Troubleshot

Academic Applied Authored Counseled Developed Educated Evaluated Mentored Nourished Researched Taught Tutored

Healthcare Assigned Assessed Assisted Cared Charged Provided Monitored Nursed Secured

Accounting Analyzed Audited Justified Verified Prepared Processed Reported Researched Reviewed

Source: Mannix Marketing, Inc.

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Yale University Identified 12 Words That People Responded To The Most


1. Health 2. Money 3. Love 4. Safety 5. Save 6. New 7. Discovery 8. Breakthrough 9. Easy 10. Guarantee 11. Proven 12. You

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Marketing-the-13-Power-Words&id=140638

• These five words are basic human desires.

• They register with peoples emotions to cause attention and response.

• Desires are junctions in our deeper places that are always ready to respond to something.

• Any of these words, used to describe benefits in a promotion will draw attention because they “strike a nerve.”

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• These three words help basic human yearning in a number of potential clients to experience something new.

• The first cause is boredom • The second is a result of

self-image- wanting to be perceived as “hip.”

• These terms should be placed in an opening statement or at an angle for emphasis.

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• These three words instills a sense of security, trust and credibility.

• They imply that people will not have a problem with your product or service, nor will they be disappointed.

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• Because it’s always about the customer

17 Source: Experien The 2012 Digital Marketer

Top 25 Words Used in Email Subject Lines

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Good Subject Lines


– Action-oriented Include action verb such as learn, download, or sign up. Use an active tone.

– Compelling Include the email’s offer – Consistent Because of preview, people see

subject line and the first sentence or two in the email. Make both match.

– Short Keep under 45 characters so viewers see entire subject line. Put most important info first in case subject line does get cut off.

Source: HubSpot, Inc. and Constant Contact, Inc.

Emails with shorter subject lines significantly outperformed emails with longer subject lines. – MailerMailer (2008)

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From Name & Email Address


– Use a name your audience recognizes – Include your organization name or brand – Refer to your business the same way as your audience – Be consistent

• The “from” name and email address should be consistent.

• Example, “from” name is: Christine Labate – Designs for Growth

• “from” email address is [email protected] • Both match


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Bad Email Subject Lines


Can get your emails caught by spam filters, not opened, or get people to unsubscribe from your list.

AVOID: X The words: free, guarantee, spam, credit card etc. X ALL CAPITAL LETTERS X Excessive punctuation !!!, ??? X Excessive use of “click here” X $$, and other symbols X No “From:” address X Misleading subject lines X Generic addresses like noreply@, sales@ and marketing@


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Let’s Rate These


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Email I Send Regarding This Presentation

From: "Christine @ Designs for Growth” Email: [email protected] Subject: Learn How to Get Your Emails Delivered, Opened and Read


Better Subject Line?

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Stats


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Stats


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Test Your Emails to Determine What Elements Need to Change to Generate Better Results.


Why test? – Increase your click-through rate – Decrease your unsubscribe rate

Method–A/B Testing – Send one email to 10% of your email list – Change one element of this email and send to a

different 10% of your email list – Determined which email performed better – Send the remaining 80% of your list the better

performing email


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Email Elements You Can Test


“From”➤ Name and From Address • Remember to keep consistent

Subject Line • Personalization, line length, call to action or wording

Email Design • Bolding, capitalization, font size and color or images

Email Content • Headlines, placement of content, call to action, type

of content, placement of social media links, number of images (if any), number of links or length of email

Timing • Day of week and time of day


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When to Send, Day and Time


What day and time do you get the most emails? – Monday mornings

When is your audience most likely to read it? – When they get less email

• Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday • 10am–3pm • Sunday, mixed reviews

Test to confirm your audience is consistent with industry standards

Source: Designs for Growth, Benchmark Email, HubSpot, Inc. and Constant Contact, Inc.

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Formula for When to Send, Day and Time


The formula consists of four variables – Recipient factor, Delivery duration, Queue factor and

ISP factor • DOT – (IF + DD + QF) = ST

Where • DOT = desired open time

IF = ISP factor DD = delivery duration QF = queue factor ST = scheduler or send time

Example: 1 p.m. – (1 Hour + 1 Hour + 0.5 Hour) = 10:30 am

Source: G-Lock Software

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Conduct an Email Send Frequency Test


A recent study from Constant Contact and Chadwick Bailey reports that 69% of consumers who unsubscribe from an email list do so because they're receiving too many emails from the business. – Let users know how often you will send emails when

they sign up – If you are sending an extra email, let them know it won’t

be happening all the time – The best way to stop guessing and start feeling

confident in your email schedule is to conduct an email send frequency test.

– HOW?


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How to Conduct an Email Send Frequency Test


Establish Baseline Metrics: Determine the metrics necessary to determine success: open, deliverability, unsubscribe, or click-through rates. Create and Schedule Your Test Emails: Create a handful of test emails to rotate through the list sample. Once you've created the emails, schedule them for the sending frequency you outlined in your hypothesis. Measure and Analyze Results: Measure your results against the hypotheses you established in the beginning and the baseline results you recorded. For a more in-depth explanation of how to conduct a test like this, check out Hubspot’s five-step guide to determining your optimal email frequency, which elaborates on the steps above.


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The ROI of Video in Email Marketing Tactics to Increase Email Marketing Revenue by Forty Percent Written by David Daniels, The Relevancy Group, LLC Research Sponsored by StreamSend Executive Summary

Consumers are flocking to online video, watching more than four billion videos on YouTube each day. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, smartphones now match desktops and laptops as a video delivery device, facilitating the ability to stream video in email and other message formats.

In a survey of 266 marketing executives, The Relevancy Group found that twenty-five percent of email marketers are currently utilizing video in email. Our survey found that marketers that utilize video in email have increased their click-through and conversion rates, and are generating forty percent higher monthly revenue than those that do not use video. To execute video in email effectively, ensure that videos have the ability to be configured with call-to-action links, sharing mechanisms and auto-responders.

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Marketers Who Plan to Use Video in Email Marketing

Yes No

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Marketers who Plan to Use Video in Future for Email Marketing

Not Likely Likely Very Likely

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Case Studies from Which Test Won


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Which Landing Page Increased Sales – Video vs Copy

http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: http://whichtestwon.com/webroot’s-landing-page-test

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Actual Test Results:

VIDEO significantly increased sales.

Other Factors: Credibility: Badges icon above the fold are more visible and have higher-impact. Cleaner Design: A lot of the clutter that was caused by all of the descriptive text


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Which Landing Page Increased Sales – Guarantee vs no-Guaranty


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Version B, the header variation with copy reading ‘100% Satisfaction Guarantee’ increased sales by 15.11% at a 96% confidence rate. This was a remarkable gain given both how busy the header already was, and the lack of contrast between the color of guarantee copy and the background color.


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Brand Authentication vs Price Guarantee: Which Version Got 107% More Online Sales?


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Version A, the brand authentication element, increased sales over the low price guarantee by 107% at a 95% confidence rate. This was a clean A/B test; no other aspects on the page were changed.

This test gave insights into what shoppers believed to be most important. If you’re optimizing sales for an ecommerce site where the product brands are more famous than the site brand, perhaps you should be touting the product brands more than your own.


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Ecommerce Store Page Template Radical Redesign Test

http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: http://whichtestwon.com/thundershirt’s-product-page-test-results

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Version B resulted in a substantial increase in purchases because of removing extraneous navigation, increasing image size and clarifying the order process.

http://www.DesignsforGrowth.com Source: http://whichtestwon.com/thundershirt’s-product-page-test-results

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Version B, with the marketing-style header lifted unique purchases by 22%, total revenue by 9% and average order value by 7%.

Nitro PDF, a provider of software to create, edit, sign, and secure PDF files, conducted this test in-house using their ecommerce provider Cleverbridge’s MVT lab. All traffic to this page were trial users who had already downloaded and been using the software. At the 14-day mark of their free accounts, the software prompted them to buy a license key… so they wound up in this cart.

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Anatomy of an Email Newsletter--Getting Your Emails Delivered and Read

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