Over 30 companies joined us at The Design Council in London on 13th December for our Seminar: ‘Best Practices for e-newsletters from Sign-Up to Delivery’. Dr Philip Rhodes, Director of One to One Insight, one of the UK’s leading human experience research consultancies, opened the seminar with a review of the top 20 retailers’ e-newsletters. Our independent research surprisingly revealed that some of the most well known UK retailers such as play.com and Argos make it very difficult for customers to sign up for their e-newsletters. In both these cases users are forced to open a customer account merely to receive the e-newsletter, which includes entering payment information, home address, telephone number etc. Perhaps, even more surprising, almost half of the e-newsletters had no social media links. Meanwhile, John Lewis, one of the UK’s most renowned department stores, dropped points in failing to allow users to personalize the e-newsletter. If you sign up for the John Lewis e-newsletter be prepared to receive information on everything from hats to lawnmowers.

1. E-Mail Workshop Best Practices from Sign Up To Delivery

2. Human | Brand Lifecycle Solutions

3. Locations Global Coverage in Americas, Europe, Asia

4. Clients

5. Agenda onetooneinsight.com 5

6. Site | E-newsletter Review Part 1 onetooneinsight.com 6

8. Independently reviewed top 20 UK retail sites and e-newsletters

10. Information required to sign-up

11. Timeliness of email response

12. Quality of e-newsletteronetooneinsight.com 7

15. Sign-Up Process Part 1

16. Sign-up| Score 7 6 5 Criteria for analysis 4 3 2 1 0 3 0 1 2 Number of sign-up issues

18. Issues with unsubscribe: Users are informed that they can unsubscribe from a link in the confirmation email, but there is no unsubscribe link in the email.

19. Play.com gives users the worst sign-up experience

20. Only meets 1 key criteria – and included 3 sign-up issues.

21. Forces users to create an account before they can sign-up for newsletter.

22. Many retailers provide a good sign-up experience, but not excellent due to some minor sign-up issues. Typical issues found:

23. Unnecessary information required e.g. address and postcode

24. Asked to confirm their details via email

25. No confirmation email received

26. Confirmation message not clearly presented e.g. below the fold of the page

27. Link in the confirmation email not clickable20th

28. Location of the sign-up link Not on homepage Below the fold on 1024 x 1060 screen resolution

29. Engagement in sign-up link With content, Not personalised Simple With content, Personalised Image and with content With content, image and personalised

30. Sign up | the best Part 1 onetooneinsight.com 15

32. Combines newsletter preferences and email entry field in one step.

33. Step 2, a confirmation message is returned and it also tells the user that they will receive an email soon.

35. Step 3, clear ‘thank you’ page informing users they have signed up successfully.

36. Step 3b, confirmation email is received immediately (lack of branding).

37. Step 1, Newsletter sign up link is at foot of the page.

40. Step 2, Unnecessary information (town/city/postcode) are mandatory fields. Captcha verification can potentially annoy users

41. Users are not able to select their interests in order to customise the email newsletter.

42. Step 3, Confirmation page has a clear indication that their subscription was successful.

44. Users are not able to personalise newsletter by choosing area of interest.

45. Step 4, Clear confirmation screen.

46. There is no confirmation email received after signing up.

47. Step 1, No sign-up shown on homepage.

48. Users are not informed of the benefits of subscribing.

50. E-mail Newsletter | Score 10 8 6 Total Score 4 2 0 0 2 3 4 1 Number of negative issues

51. E-mail Newsletter | Score Only 8/20 newsletters received (27th September – 15th October)

53. E-mail Newsletter | Content and Length Above the fold (1024 x 1060) Average Length

54. E-mail Newsletter | Visibility of Social Media Links

55. E-mail Newsletter | Ability to Unsubscribe

56. E-mail newsletter | Consistency and Provision of Primary Menu

57. Newsletter | The Best Part 1 onetooneinsight.com 29

59. Look and feel of the newsletter is consistent with the main website.

60. Social media links are displayed at the bottom of the page.

61. No logos are included, so the links could be easily overlooked by users

62. Contact information is clearly provided.

64. The newsletter is not personalised or customised to users’ tastes.

67. Newsletter appears outdated, as the website has another tab in main navigation: Christmas

68. Users can not personalise the newsletter, therefore may be too many types of products.

69. There are no social media links.

70. The unsubscribe link takes users to email, but there is no 'what to do next' guidance

73. Sign up should be located towards the top of the page (at least above the fold)

74. Should be accompanied by an image or icon e.g. an envelope to draw attention

75. Ensure sign-up requires minimal data entry e.g. name and email address

76. Include a short sentence stating the benefits of signing up e.g. promotions, stay up to date with news and events etconetooneinsight.com 35

78. Do not require users to ‘create an account’ or ‘become a member’ of the siteonetooneinsight.com 36

80. Provide a ‘select all’ tick box or ‘general newsletter’ opt in

81. Provide a link to the latest newsletter so that users know what to expect before subscribing

82. Do not require users to re-enter information e.g. do not request name / email address a second timeonetooneinsight.com 37

84. Ideally include a clear, separate confirmation page with different content

85. Include a clear thank you message on this page

86. Provide an indication of what the user can expect next i.e. email confirmationonetooneinsight.com 38

88. User should not need to ‘reconfirm’ the subscription

89. Ensure consistency with site i.e. branding and logo, etc.

90. Include information about newsletters e.g. frequency and type of content

91. Include a link back to the website

92. Include a link to unsubscribe

93. Include contact detailsonetooneinsight.com 39

95. Ensure consistency with the site in terms of branding e.g. logo, layout, etc.

96. Include links to the site and ensure that they are clear e.g. logo and url address

97. Do not include hidden links e.g. decorative images or plain textonetooneinsight.com 40

99. To share the e-newsletter

100. Links to the social network site e.g. Facebook page

101. Ensure that the e-mail is personalised – use of first name, etc.

102. There must be a clear option to ‘unsubscribe’

103. This must not be hidden within text

104. Do not use terms such as ‘remove’ or ‘opt out’onetooneinsight.com 41

106. Do not include excessive amount of text

107. Limit the length of the e-newsletter, do not cause the user to vertically scroll excessivelyonetooneinsight.com 42

108. Delivery | Live Demo Part 3 onetooneinsight.com 43

110. Drives deeper engagement by delivering measurable content and messages across a broad spectrum of permission marketing channels including email, social and branded apps (desktop, mobile and web)

111. Can integrate with existing CRM, content management, data mining and other proprietary systems empowering marketers to quickly and easily build sophisticated retention/acquisition campaigns

113. Universal contact management

114. Multi-channel metrics

115. Preference centers and subscription management

116. Engages users across a diverse network of social media sites

117. Delivers branded content directly to a users mobile device

118. Fully-hosted enterprise email marketing solution available either as full-service or self-service modes

119. Enables marketers to easily manage multiple content channels across a network of branded apps (Desktop, Mobile, “TV”)

120. Strategy: Crafting a smart approach to relationship marketing

121. E-Mail Program Management: Managing e-mail programs since 1998

122. Apps Development: Building branded applications since 1998

123. Creative Services: For e-mail, social, and branded applications

124. Data Integration: For e-mail, social, and branded applicationsSupporting Services

125. Ease of use Three initial steps of email marketing Get your data set [Groups and Lists, import data] Edit/Create email Report on success Demo 1

126. Some Advanced Features… Sharing is the new viral/refer a friend Twitter Facebook Feeds RSS Split testing Body content and subject line Segmentation Wizard makes it easy to set up and run

127. Socialise your emails Facebook share url http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.otoinc.com%2Finteractive%2F&t=title Google “One to One Interactive” HTML page Title HTML meta tag description Demo 2

128. Feeds Using the BCC’s excellent RSS feed resource http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/uk/rss.xml Demo 3

129. Split Testing Demo 4

130. Conclusion Use share to have a conversation with your subscribers friends (3rd party engagement) and boost sales through viral content Use feeds to keep the information in your emails up to date – sales, offers, vouchers Use Split testing to verify you are sending your very best email

131. Q&A For copies of the presentation or further info on One to One services please email: joutlaw@onetooneinteractive.com onetooneinsight.com 52