We’ve Done SEO Now We’re Moving On To….

Search Engine Marketing

Types of Online Marketing Email Newsletters Online Lead Generation Landing Pages Viral Marketing and Social Media Mobile Marketing

Go to Sheree’s email now for demonstration of newsletter and Landing Pages.

Email Newsletters 49% of email marketers said their newsletters routinely

justified themselves in terms of ROI. 

Users spend 51 seconds reading the average newsletter. The layout and writing both need superb usability to survive in the high-pressure environment of a crowded Inbox.  

Usability is absolutely key in effective email newsletters – across the Nielson-Norman Group study, newsletters lost 19% of potential subscribers due to usability difficulties in the subscription process alone.

Newsletters must be perceived as a medium that reduces the burdens of modern life. Even if they are free, the cost in email clutter must be paid for by being helpful and relevant to users.

Email Postcard

Email Marketing Best Practices, Strategies & TacticsEmail Lists and List Building Consumers want more from email than ever before- Privacy and Goodies

Amongst a 2008 survey of consumers, over 60% said they would be more likely to opt in to an email list if they knew their information would not be shared with other companies, and if they would receive special pricing for opting in.

The ability to customize communications patterns (frequency of receiving)

and previews of products and special offers would incent 50% to opt in as well.

The use of third party rental lists has not proven to be consistently driving a return. Only about 15% of those emailing find the use of third party rental to be “routinely justified” by results.

The amount of data collected during email list sign up is still pretty basic. Most companies only collect the basics of name and email address from consumers and name, email address, company name and role from businesses. Less than 30% of those surveyed ask for more detailed information like contact

preferences and delivery preferences.

Email Best Practices The Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience

Council surveyed 118 retail email newsletters on subscription practices in 2007 and found…

Require only email address at sign-up Offer link to privacy policy on registration page Offer one-click sign-up from the homepage Offer content tailored to specific interests or products Require a name in addition to email address at sign-up Require ZIP code at sign-up Request to be added to address books to boost

rendering and deliverability Offer a text-only option

Gold Standard… Confirmed opt-in adoption where the

consumer must verify they have opted-in to receive emails.

This best practice is utilized less often than you’d think – email marketers often discuss confirmed or double opt-in as the gold standard for email list management.

However in a survey of over 500 email marketers, only 30% were found to be using the practice.

Some businesses are reluctant to embrace the practice because the extra step can result in fewer new subscribers than a single opt in.

Email Marketing Industry Growth and Trends

• Goals for email marketers shifted slightly in 2008. The focus of efforts to grow email lists is a priority with over 90% of marketers surveyed.

And, integrating email with other marketing and improving deliverability is now a priority with over 85% of marketers.

Email ad spending will jump to $677 million in 2011, from $492 million in 2008. – eMarketer, Social Media and E-Mail Spending to Rise

According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), email presently generates 21.6% of total revenue from campaigns. – Direct Marketing Association “The Integrated Marketing Media Mix” (2008)

The Trend is Up and Growing The number of marketing emails sent by

U.S. retailers and wholesalers in 2008 was predicted to hit 158 billion and grow 63% to 258 billion in 2013. – Forrester’s US Email Marketing Volume Forecast

(2008)

Email is Good Career Path 50% of respondents to a 2008 survey said

they handle their direct response marketing (rich email campaigns) internally, while 37% conducted it though a combination of agency and internally.

23% reported their budget would increase by 10% or higher this year compared to the previous year. – Direct Partners (2008), www.directpartners.com.

Does It Really Work? 50% of respondents bought something based

on permission based email, up 3 points from 2007.

And, 32% said they stopped doing business with at least one company because of poor email practices, – www.merkleinc.com/inboxwhitepaper/.

Do Consumes See It as SPAM?Of the email recipients surveyed… Over 65% of them had reported email received as

Spam to their ISP. Of those, 53% reported the email as Spam because

they did not sign up for the communication. Over 47% of subscribers surveyed will check their

Spam or Junk Email folder when they are missing an email they signed up for.

Over half of subscribers are comfortable letting their ISP decide what Spam is for them rather than reviewing all of their email and deciding for themselves.

Email Creative, Formats, Images, Personalization and Subject Lines

Over half of recipients use the preview pane when reviewing emails, most likely in a horizontal format with a small preview.

For advertising-oriented lists, 57% of marketers surveyed said that “emailing unique content by segment” produced routinely justifiable results in terms of ROI.

Tips for Successful Campaigns Segment mailing lists by one or more demographic

factors, including: age, sex, income and buying history.

Feature the company name prominently in the message “From” line.

Keep key message points high up in the message body to be seen when the message is viewed in the preview pane.

Try to create the right mix of graphics and content in the message.

Watch the message size to avoid sending messages that consume too much bandwidth.

Email Frequency and Times to Send

Spam, Anti-Spam Laws, Unsubscribe and ISP Relations The number one reason that consumers opted

out of email lists was that the emails received were not pertinent to them. (58%).

The second most popular reason was that the sender sent too many emails (44%).

Less than a third of those surveyed opted out over too many emails in general, or because their situation changed or they are using less email in favor of other modes of communication like texting or social media. – Marketing Sherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008

Ask Them Why They Unsubscribe Consumers who opt out of email may be

interested in communicating through other channels, however 90% of marketers don’t follow up with opt-outs to determine what that might be.

Only 9% of major online retailers employ a one-click unsubscribe process. It usually takes at the very least 2 clicks.

The Law CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires that retailers take you

off the list and do so in less than 10 business days. 86% of retailers honored opt-outs within 3 days. 3% of retailers had their opt-out processes fail. 73% of retailers sent no more emails after receiving an

opt-out request. 16% of retailers give those trying to opt-out an

opportunity to reduce the frequency at which they receive emails.

17% of retailers solicited feedback from those that had opted out.

4% of retailers were in violation of the law by either failing to honor opt-outs or taking longer than 10 business days to do so.