Why Email Marketing is Still KingBy Mike Biscotti

About the Presenter

• Sr. Account Manager At Miva Merchant• 10 years experience developing eCommerce Platforms

Major Retailers SMB Market

• Email Campaign Manager for • Target, • Best Buy, Toys “R” Us• http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebiscotti

• @MikeBiscotti

Agenda

• Is Email Marketing Really “King”?• Necessary Investment for successful Email Marketing• Conversion Rates • Benchmarks you need to know• Strategy• What’s new in 2014• Real World Examples• Conclusion/Questions

King of What? You and Whose Army?

• According to B2C.com, Email Marketing accounts for 7% of all new customer acquisitions, organic search via Google accounts for 16%

• Email generates 40 times more customers than twitter and facebook combined – Media Bistro 1/21/14

• 94% of Online Activity is Sending or Reading Email hostpapa.com

• 75% of all online adults say email is their preferred marketing method hostpapa.com

Email Converts the BEST

All Incomes:• 13.8% Email• 13.5% Facebook• 1.9% Twitter

Those who earn over $100k/yr• 33% Email• 5.6% Youtube• 0% Facebook & Twitter

“The winning strategy for entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies alike is to

attract a base of raving fans that open, read, and click on the emails you

send.”- Jack Born, CEO of AW Pro Tools

That all Sounds Great! What Now?

StrategyKnow Your Data

The Industry Benchmarks Constant Contact

All Industries Averages:• Open Rate = 13% - 24%• Bounce Rate = 6% - 12%• Click Through Rate = 5%

- 20%• Opt-out Rate = 0.11% -

0.44%

Retail Average:• Open Rate = 18.01%• Bounce Rate =

6.95%• Click Through Rate

= 13.99%• Opt-out Rate =

0.21%

The Industry Benchmarks HOSTWAY.COM

• Conversion rate should be 1-5%• Define conversion rate

PurchaseAwareness CampaignMeasure against ROI

How to Grow Your Email List

• Offer an Incentive for signing up Promise of a discount/free item Let them know why they should sign up

• Make it easy to find Add sign up widget on Facebook Visible on your site Multiple opportunities to sign up Home Page - Checkout - User Registration - Wish List - Customer Service

• Make it easy to Sign Up One click, or only ask for relevant info

Increase Your Open Rate

• Subject line length• Ask a Question• Put the promo at the start of the phrase “25% off…”• Urgency i.e. “deal ends at midnight”• Send it at the right time of day/week• Qualify your list and send quality content• Take out the spam words• DON’T YELL

The Best Time to Send An Email Mail Chimp 12/4/13

How Do I Improve My CTR?

• A/B and Multivariate TestingLength of copyNumber of images Image placementCall to action: color/placement/wording/quantityPlain Text vs. Rich text vs. HTMLTime of Day (early, mid, late), Day of the week (M > F?)

A/B Testing

How Do I Improve My CTR?

• Use both contextual text (bold words within HTML) and image CTA's.

• Use linked snippet text as a pre-header above any image that needs to be loaded which extends the proposition from the subject line and explains clearly what the email contains.

How Do I Improve My CTR?

• Move away from the traditionally old fashioned publishing schedule of weekly/bi-weekly/monthly - to one based on when you have good content to send.

• Include a "benefit to recipient" clause or “value proposition” in your content selection and publishing guidelines. Each email MUST contain something that is genuinely intended to deliver a palpable reward to recipients.

Optimize for Mobile

• Implement full responsive email designs (at the very least mobile optimized)

• More than 50% of users check email on their Smart Phones and Mobile Devices Performancein.com

Automated Emails Get Response

• Have 24% higher Open Rates compared to Newsletters• Have 47% higher CTR compared to Newsletters• Average Auto Responder sequence has 8 messages and is 49 days long• Initial Messages perform best. As time goes by the subscribers’

engagement gradually fades.

Miva & Event Triggered Messaging• Utilize 3rd party vendors for add-ons to augment Miva ETM• Miva has basic trigger emails out of the box• Examples of additional Intuitive Triggers not provided by Miva: Birthday Messages Reminder Campaigns Time to Reorder Campaigns Shopping Cart Abandonment Profile Update• Click Stream data and transactional history to create marketing programs

and messages that are personalized• Open Rates for ETM increased 84% over batch messaging• CTR for ETM increased 32% MarketingSherpa

Simple Auto responder / Advanced Multi-Path

Segmentation

• If you collect data at sign up, make sure it is relevant• What are their preferences?• Use purchase history to develop targeted campaigns• Aspire for a 1:1 relationship/experience

Segmentation in Miva

Changes and Predictions for 2014• $2 billion will be spent on email marketing Forrester Research• The average person dedicates 13 hours a week to email McKinsey Global

Institute• In 2014, expect to see new marketplaces for email that copy the advances

that have been made on display and search. PerformanceIn.com• Video in email is a growing trend. 25% of marketers use it. MarketingProfs• Event-triggered emails-Previous customer behavior triggers a targeted and

relevant email campaign which results in what the marketer has predicted.• In December 2013, Gmail blew up email marketing by caching all images

on Google Servers Arstechnica.com

Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs1. Sending Too Many Emails to Your Entire User Base2. Sending Without Permission3. No Call to Action4. No Segmentation of Target Audience5. No Optimization for Mobile Emails6. Content Errors7. Landing in Junk Mail8. Not Gauging the Effectives of Your Campaign9. Over-Promising Subject Lines10.Not Sending Emails at the Right Time

Conclusion• No One Size Fits all solution• Focus Your Marketing on What Actually Works and Generates Results• A/B testing with Email is relatively inexpensive• Don’t have time/money to A/B test? Subscribe to your competitors email

and imitate them.• Even on a shoestring budget, you can run a successful email campaign and

continue to increase your conversion rate by reviewing your data• Miva can help!

• Miva Email Design Example

• Miva Email Design Example

Questions?