Instructed by Joe Keenan.

1. 7 Best Practices for Email
Marketing Success
Joe Keenan
Managing Editor
Retail Online Integration

2. About Me
Managing editor of Retail Online
Integration, a trade publication
devoted to helping cross-channel
retailers tackle industry challenges
and discover opportunities to grow
their businesses in new and
profitable ways. ROI publishes a
bimonthly print issue and daily e-
newsletter, as well as hosts live and
virtual events, including webinars
and conferences.

3. About Me (cont.)
Managing editor of eMarketing and Commerce
(eM+C), a web-only brand that covers the online
marketing and commerce industries. eM+C
publishes a daily e-newsletter, eM+C Daily, as well
as hosts a number of live and virtual events,
including webinars and conferences.

4. Agenda
• Introduction to Retail Online Integration, eM+C
• Reasons why email marketers are leaving
money on the table
• A list of seven ways that marketers can optimize
their email marketing programs
• Contact info for follow-up questions/comments

5. About Retail Online Integration
• A trade publication devoted to helping brick-
and-mortar retailers, online merchants,
catalogers and brand marketers tackle
industry challenges and discover
opportunities to grow their businesses in new
and profitable ways.
• Publishes a bimonthly print magazine and
daily e-newsletter, as well as hosting live and
virtual events, including conferences,
webinars and Retail Roundtables.

6. Email is Alive and Well
• 77% of online consumers
prefer to receive
permission-based marketing
messages via email. Direct
mail was the closest
channel at 9%.
(ExactTarget, 2012)
• 67% of marketers said email
had the best ROI of any
channel, with online
marketing next at 38%
(Direct Marketing
Association, 2012)

7. … Yet Marketers Aren’t Taking Full
Advantage
• Incomplete or
inaccurate subscriber
data
• Nontargeted content
• Lackluster creative
• Unclear calls to action
• Not mobile optimized
• Not integrated with
other marketing
channels

8. How to Optimize Your Email Program
• A seven-step
process, from
deliverability to
managing opt-outs
— and everything
in between

9. 1. Ensuring Your Emails Reach Their
Intended Destination
(i.e., your subscribers’ inboxes)

10. Actions to Improve Deliverability Rate
• Use seed lists — i.e.,
addresses that you add to
your email list and measure
their placement — to monitor
your inbox placement rates
in real time.
• Monitor your sender
reputation score, which is
affected by metrics such as
complaint rate, unknown
user rate, spam trap rate and
mailing infrastructure

11. Deliverability Tips
• Segment your database
based on activity (e.g.,
sending more email to
only your most active
subscribers.
• Remove inactive
subscribers (i.e., those
who haven’t opened or
clicked on a email in the
last six months to 12
months) from your list.
• Prompt users to add you
to their address book.

12. Deliverability Tips (cont.)
• Set up a feedback loop
between the ISP/webmail
provider and your ESP or
in-house server so that
emails reported as spam
are removed from your list
in the same way bounced
emails are.
• Use an inbox preview tool
to see how your email
templates will render in
different ISPs’ inboxes,
especially those where
images are turned off.

13. 2: Create a Compelling Subject Line That
Gets Opened

14. Words to Use in Subject Lines …
• Apply
• Opportunity
• Demo
• Connect
• Payments
• Conference
• Cancellation

15. Words Not to Use
• Confirm
• Join
• Assistance
• Speaker
• Press
• Social
• Invite

16. Short and Sweet
• Between 35 and 50
characters is
recommended as
consumers quickly scan
their inboxes
• This is particularly
important when
considering emails read
on mobile devices, where
lengthy subject lines can
be rendered meaningless
when cut short.

17. Say Something Controversial
• “Eat all you
want and still
lose weight!”
• “Work less,
earn more”
• “The cheapest
flights you’ll
find”

18. Numbers Work
• Teasing subscribers
with a numbered list
(e.g., 10 Tricks to
Losing Weight, 6
Tips to a Perfect
Garden, Top 10
Games of the Year)
have proven
effective at driving
opens.

19. Ask a Question
• Asking a question
(e.g., Looking for the
perfect holiday gift?)
forces the subscriber
to think about the
answer and piques
their interest, leading
to higher open rates.

20. 3. Optimize for Mobile Devices

21. Do Your Research
• Find out how many
of your subscribers
are opening your
emails on a mobile
device.
• It’s likely more of
your emails are
being read on an
Apple device
(iPhone or iPad)

22. Design for Mobile Viewing
• Limit subject lines to 25
characters or less
• Limit number of navigation
choices to 3
• Use HTML (most email
clients default to disabled
images)
• Increase font size to 14
pixels or more for body text
and 22 pixels for headlines
• Add padding between
links/sections to account for
bigger fingers

23. Design for Mobile Viewing
• Design whole sections to
be clickable
• Use bold colors for links
• Create larger buttons
and links
• Implement a single or
double column design
layout
• Have a higher contrast
between content to make
images and text more
legible.

24. Design for Mobile Viewing
• Link to your mobile
website or landing
page to create a
seamless transition for
users
• Test how your emails
are displaying across
the variety of mobile
devices available today

25. 4. Integrate With Other Channels

26. Tips to Lead You in the Right Direction
• Ask your email
subscribers to share
your content and
connect with your brand
via social media
• Send a dedicated email
asking your email
subscribers to Like you
on Facebook, follow you
on Twitter, etc.
• It’s a two-way street:
Ask for email sign-ups
via your social platforms

27. • Highlight a particularly
powerful, insightful,
humorous tweet, Facebook
post, YouTube video, etc.
in your email campaign.
• Add an email opt-in form
on Facebook (the social
media site allows you to
embed this as one of your
apps)

28. Drive Offline Sales With Email Marketing
• Segment your list by geography
to target sales and events at
your store locations to nearby
customers.
• Add maps and other directions
to your nearest retail store in
your emails.
• Offer exclusive discounts to
email subscribers that are
redeemable in-store

29. Acquisition Sources
• Collect email addresses
via QR codes on in-store
signage or on printed
receipts.
• Have store associates
acquire email addresses at
the point of sale.

30. 5. Segment Your Subscribers

31. Variables to Segment
• Geography
• Age
• Gender
• Past purchases
• Buying frequency
• Shopping cart
abandoners
• Preferred shopping
channel

32. Benefits of Email Segmentation
• Your reputation
improves
• Your results improve

33. So why aren’t more email marketers
segmenting?
• Because it’s challenging. You can slice and
dice an email list thousands of ways looking
for sweet spots.
• You need content (i.e., offers) to be relevant
to your targeted subscribers. Content
creation takes time — often lots of it.

34. Why Email Segmentation is More
Important Now Than Ever
• More and more of your
subscribers are reading
your emails on mobile
devices with dramatically
different email client
capabilities.
• Improvements in email
filtering has made it much
easier for subscribers to
tune out messaging that’s
not relevant to them.

35. 6. Use Triggers

36. Implementing a Trigger Program
• Work in stages
• Start simple
• Get your timing down
• Use an offer with a
deadline
• Personalize

37. Implementing a Trigger Program
• Don’t waste lots of time on
creative
• Use call-to-action-buttons
• Build your list so your trigger
program is more effective
• Track results

38. Triggered Emails Work
Consider the
following:
Triggered email
messages had 96%
higher open rates and
125% higher
clickthrough rates
than “regular” emails
(Email Experience Council, Epsilon)

39. 7. Protect Your List

40. Email Security Best Practices
Implement an archiving
system that can recognize
email that’s consistent with
your corporate culture,
regulatory requirements and
industry.

41. Email Security Best Practices
Pay attention to your
IP reputation

42. Email Security Best Practices
Be wary of
subscribers’
whitelists

43. Email Security Best Practices
Protect your
company with
policy
management

44. Thank You!
Feel free to contact me at
jkeenan@napco.com with any
questions or comments.