1. Almost Everything You Wanted to
Know About Email Marketing

2. You have email marketing questions. So do we.
We also have some answers.
Lots of them.
2

3. How to use this document:
1. Browse from the start; or
2. Go to a specific section of interest.
3

4. Permission
4

5. Permission is the foundation.

6. You are correct.
The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act does not
require permission to email.

7. See number 1.

8. Permission IS required by law in
the EU, Australia, New
Zealand, Korea, Canada.

9. The theory that relevance trumps
permission is just that – a theory.

10. Recipients will punish you hard
with SPAM complaints if you don’t
have permission.

11. Recipients will still punish you
with SPAM complaints if they
don’t remember giving you
permission.

12. ISPs tell you to gain permission.
They monitor/block by
engagement and complaints.

13. Single, Double or Confirmed
Opt-in?

14. Yes. Any approach will do.

15. Single opt-in = higher completion
rate; lower quality.

16. The vast majority of companies
use the single opt-in method.

17. Double Opt-in = An extra
step, fewer opt-ins.

18. Use Double Opt-in when you use
aggressive acquisition methods.

19. Confirmed Opt-in sends an email
notifying the new subscriber
they’ve opted in – and to
unsubscribe if in error.

20. List Rental/Buying
20

21. Simple really. Don’t EVER buy
email lists.

22. List rental? Work with a list broker
with a stellar reputation.

23. Yes, there’s a difference in the
meaning of the words “buy” and
“rent.” Learn the difference.

24. Buy = someone sells you a list that
you send.
DON’T DO IT! You are a spammer.

25. Rent = a third-party sends your email
to people that have given permission.
You must then convince them to opt-
in to your program.

26. Don’t expect huge growth from
list rental.

27. Focus on deeply qualified leads
that will drive a higher percentage
of opt-ins.

28. Map your offering to the original
reason for opt-in. Contest entrants
probably don’t buy $200K
timeshares.

29. Never risk your primary sending IP
address with outside names.

30. Welcome Emails
30

31. Use a Welcome Email. Better
yet, a Welcome Series.

32. Better yet – an onboarding
program.

33. No welcome email? Then you are
leaving to chance the new
subscriber experience.

34. Explain your value. Link to
preferences. Provide an incentive.

35. Welcome emails help set
expectations. Can solve problems.

36. Ask progressive survey questions
during the Welcome Series to build
your database.

37. Don’t lead with a coupon. Let full-
price buyers act first!

38. Classify new users into active and
inactive, and try incenting
inactives with a small discount.

39. Clearly outline your
return, shipping and other key
policies.

40. Ask for the first order in your final
email of the series.

41. Deliverability
41

42. Email marketing is NOT Direct
Email. ISPs are NOT the same as
the Post Office.

43. You the marketer are responsible
for your email deliverability – not
your email service provider (ESP).

44. Your ESP helps you with
infrastructure and strategies – but
there is no magic bat phone to the
ISPs.

45. Permission is the foundation to
high engagement, low complaint
rates.

46. Even the best email marketers
receive spam complaints. The key
is to keep the complaint rate LOW.

47. Why do I receive spam or abuse
complaints?

48. Your recipients think you send too
many emails; they are irrelevant;
or they don’t remember
subscribing.

49. Most ISPs will block/filter your
emails if you receive more than 3
complaints out of 1,000 they
receive from you.

50. How do we reduce spam
complaints then?

51. Don’t Hide the Unsubscribe Link.
Make it Easy to Unsubscribe.

52. Use a highly recognizable “from”
name.

53. Use a consistent “from” name.

54. Don’t use spammy or potentially
deceitful subject lines.

55. Authenticate your emails. DKIM.
SenderID.

56. Shared/Pooled or dedicated IP
addresses?

57. Companies that send infrequently
and low volumes should probably
be on a shared IP.

58. Like your toes in winter, your
sending IP addresses need to be
‘warmed’.

59. A tiny percentage of your
messages will be ‘blackholed’ by
ISPs.

60. Non-responders will slowly and
silently kill your deliverability
stats. Manage them proactively.

61. Test deliverability statistics of
each new template using a
deliverability monitoring service.

62. Opt-in Forms
62

63. Capture the data required to
deliver relevant emails.

64. Move opt-in forms on the bottom
of your home page to the
top/above the fold.

65. Do it now. We’ll wait. Oh, IT,
Ecommerce, etc. doesn’t want to
give up that real estate?

66. Tell the roadblockers this:
Companies that move their opt-in
forms up typically see opt-in
conversions increase 50% to 500%!

67. Allow users to opt-in with existing
social network credentials, and
capture that rich data!

68. From and Subject Lines
68

69. Yes, from or sender names
matter? A lot. So choose wisely.
69

70. Use your most recognized and
trusted brand name. Don’t veer.
70

71. Yes, use different sender names
for different email streams. But
always incorporate your brand
name.
71

72. Brand X
(newsletters@brandx.com)
Like that. Wasn’t that easy!
72

73. Resist the urge to use a person’s
name.
73

74. But I see everybody doing that
these days. Is that your reason for
doing it – everybody is?
74

75. Do you know who John Doe is? I
didn’t think so. So why use a
person’s name?
75

76. Yes, there are exceptions. If the
person’s name is also a recognized
brand in itself.
76

77. Personal names are also okay if
you're automating email streams
on behalf of a salesforce.
77

78. Subject lines can make a huge
difference. But your brand/sender
name is still the most important
thing.

79. Subject lines drive opens – AND
clicks and conversions.
79

80. Short. Medium. Long. Any length
subject line length works.
80

81. Research studies suggest that
longer subject lines outperform
short and medium length.
81

82. But, keep the key information
within the first 40-50 characters.
82

83. “Free” Use it. It works. Look in
your inbox if you don’t believe us.

84. Test subject lines all the time. It is
the easiest thing to test.
84

85. ‘From’ names are just as easy to
test, but DON’T.
85

86. Pay attention to automated SPAM
scoring tools.
86

87. Creative
87

88. Use personality and a real
human’s voice WITHIN the email
body.
88

89. Feature pictures of actual
employees within the emails.
89

90. Related: Avoid cheesy stock
photos of perfect people, shaking
hands, lightbulbs, globes, etc.
90

91. Use “alt” tags to provide context
when images don’t automatically
load.
91

92. Use “bulletproof buttons” – HTML
text and tables behind you CTA
image.
92

93. Keep key customer actions in the
same location across templates.
93

94. Show more than you tell.
94

95. Designing Emails for Mobile
95

96. Take a “mobile first” approach. Go
ahead, Google what that means…
96

97. OK, so design your emails and
landing pages to be friendly for
mobile devices. Period.
97

98. Smartphones are everywhere, and
people have email in their pocket.
98

99. The finger is the new mouse, just
40 pixels wider.
99

100. Don’t make a user side scroll or
zoom to read your content.
100

101. How Do We Measure Success?
101

102. Think in terms of “process” or
“operational” and “output” or
“success” metrics.
102

103. Output/Success: Measures against
goals and
objectives, i.e., conversion, reven
ue, retention, cost savings.
103

104. Process/Operational: Measures
email tactics
, i.e., opens, clicks, unsubscribes, s
pam complaints.
104

105. Except perhaps if you are a
publisher.
105

106. Open rates DON’T matter
106

107. Are you crazy? People have to
open their emails to click and take
action.
107

108. You are correct. But just because
recipients open an email, doesn’t
mean they’ll take action.
108

109. Opens and clicks are
irrelevant, conversion matters.
109

110. Did more people buy or sign up for
your event?
110

111. Focus your email metrics on those
that support achieving key
company objectives.
111

112. Ever met someone that got a raise
for increasing open rates?
112

113. I didn’t think so. Focus on:
conversion; revenue;
engagement; cost savings. These
things matter.
113

114. Metrics Benchmarks
114

115. There are no average open rates.
Industry matters.
115

116. Still want to know? OK.
How does 23% sound?
Happy now?
116

117. Go ahead, tell your boss you are
“average.”
We’ll wait.
117

118. Thought so.
How’s that raise looking again?
118

119. There’s average, lower quartile
and upper quartile in each
industry. Higher is better.
119

120. Oh yeah, we have a benchmark
report. You should grade yourself.
120

121. The real metric: interaction.
121

122. Frequency
122

123. The best frequency is the one that
delivers the best combination of
revenue, LCV and acceptable
churn.
123

124. The more behavior-based the
content, the less you need to
worry about frequency.
124

125. Ignore frequency controls for your
most behavior-driven emails.
125

126. Manage frequency across ALL
campaigns from your brand. See it
from the customer’s viewpoint.
126

127. Test frequency. This is your only
answer.
127

128. Re-test frequency every 90 days to
keep your approach fresh.
128

129. When to Send
129

130. The best day to send email?
Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.
Thursday. Friday. Saturday.
Sunday.
130

131. Everybody has their own
opinion…
131

132. Send based on historical recipient
open and click times.
132

133. Consider multiple time zones
within a list.
133

134. Weekends rock for some brands.
Give it a try…
134

135. Inactives / Reactivation
135

136. Inactives are a HUGE problem for
almost every company.
136

137. The average company can expect
that between 30%-50% of their
email database is inactive.
137

138. So how do you define an inactive
subscriber?
138

139. Inactives combine timeframe +
email activity + purchase/offline
behavior.
139

140. For example, no email opens and
clicks or purchases for 6 months.
140

141. But every company must develop
a definition that makes sense for
their business.
141

142. Determine who your Inactives are.
Then target them differently.
142

143. ISP algorithms are watching
whether your recipients are
opening and clicking.
143

144. Sending “we want you back”
emails to inactives typically only
activates up a few percent.
144

145. Proactively re-engage or purge
inactives while adding new
records to maintain audience.
145

146. Wanna drive your metrics through
the roof? Kill inactives mercilessly.
146

147. Reactivate via a 2-3 step program
with escalating offers. No action =
purged record or, reduced
frequency.
147

148. Tell the user you're taking them
off the list, and give them a way to
prevent it.
148

149. Reactivation programs are not the
answer. But do them anyway.
149

150. Preference Centers
150

151. Implement a world-class
preference center.

152. Seriously. Implement a world-
class preference center.

153. Ask for what you need to
segment, provide relevant content.

154. Empower new subscribers through
choice.
154

155. Step 1) Capture birth date.
Step 2) Send Happy Birthday emails.
Step 3) Print Money.
155

156. What’s the right number of form
fields?
8
156

157. Just kidding. Use common sense.
Test It. Balance data needs with
lower form completion rates.
157

158. Be radical. Consider a database
keyed on something other than
email.
158

159. Use existing social credentials
during sign up.
159

160. Let users control which
communications they receive and
each one’s frequency.
160

161. Support recipient choice, and
know that some will opt-out of
everything if you act shady.
161

162. Don’t force a full opt-out. Offer
subscribers the option to pause
communications?
162

163. Testing
163

164. Test. Test Again.
Test everything.
Test, test, test.

165. But why? Because testing is the
only real answer to all your darn
questions.
165

166. Where should I start?
166

167. Most email marketers start with
subject lines because of the ease
of testing.
167

168. When testing, use your ultimate
goal (revenue and other
conversions) to determine
winners.
168

169. What else can we test: pre-header
text, layout, copy,
personalization, offers, buttons,
timing – pretty much everything.
169

170. Only conduct true A/B tests –
random splits in parallel.
170

171. Test 10% of your list with each
variant, then send the winner to
the other 80%.
171

172. Use A/B testing to prove or
disprove pre-defined assumptions.
172

173. Don’t go crazy testing ‘from’
names. In that case, consistency
wins.
173

174. Misc./Resources/Final Notes
174

175. Stop saying (and thinking in terms
of) ‘e-blast’.
175

176. ESPs are different. Find the one
that is right for YOU.

177. Balance existing need with future
plans, and pick a vendor who
works for both.
177

178. Pay attention to 4-5 KPIs send-
over-send, week-over-week and
year-over-year.
178

179. Spend less time modifying lists in
Excel, and more time building
rules-driven programs.
179

180. There are no short cuts.

181. Don’t agree with these Slides?
Then Yes, it depends and test it.

182. Contributors
Loren McDonald
@LorenMcDonald
lmcdonald@silverpop.com
Dave Walters
@_DaveWalters
dwalters@silverpop.com

183. Thank you!
On Twitter: @Silverpop
www.slideshare.net/silverpop
www.silverpop.com