Better Email Marketing

EMAIL MARKETING Profitable results with consideration and respect

Helena Kimber Lisa Nylander Sarah Wittbom Apu Hashim Fredrik Balck

5 things for creating better newsletters

HAVE A FRIENDLY AND CARING ATTITUDE PERSONALIZE THE CONTENT TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE – HIGHLIGHT THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE NEWSLETTER THAT REPRESENT YOUR BRAND DESIGN FOR MOBILE DEVICES RUN TESTS TO LEARN ABOUT YOUR RECIPIENTS

Better email marketing Profitable results with consideration and respect

Helena Kimber Lisa Nylander Sarah Wittbom Apu Hashim Fredrik Balck

Contents Welcome 1. Email marketing 101

Authors: Helena Kimber Lisa Nylander Sarah Wittbom Apu Hashim Fredrik Balck Graphic design: Compost Illustrations: Compost, Osynlig Photos: Folio Bildbyrå Proof: Ida-Maria Högkvist, Elin Parmhed Translation: Charlotta Haldén © Compost Marketing AB 2014 www.compost.se info@compost.se Stockholm: +46 8 505 721 00 Malmö: + 46 8 562 501 14 Europe: + 45 3121 0202 North America: +1 800 788 1846 Asia: + 852 3482 2488

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Why email marketing?

Three groups of email marketing Who are you communicating with?

Email marketing in the marketing mix Content Design What works best?

The right place at the right time

7 9 9 10 11 12 12 13 13 14

2. What do you want to achieve?

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An inexpensive channel with expensive pitfalls Ostensible objectives and actual experiences Clarify your objectives Why? Content checklist Dare to make a difference Comments from email expert

17 18 19 19 19 20 21

3. Impression and experience

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Focus on the experience The ideal shop assistant Listen to your recipients Organizing for success

23 24 25 25

4. Recipient, customer, subscriber – who’s who? 27 Who subscribes to order confirmations?

The recipients and the recipient The actual subscriber The valuable subscriber Keeping the customer satisfied Ethical and legal aspects Spam or just badly thought-out emails?

When they want to break up with you Recruit new subscribers Comments form email expert

27 27 28 28 29 29 31 31 32 33

5. The art of hitting the spot

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Factors for relevant communication Driving events Data-driven communication for effective flows On technology for hitting the spot What now?

Examples Integrate dynamically Comments from email expert

35 38 39 39 40 41 42 44

6. Personal and relevant

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Segment your messages Possibilities for segmentation in your system Personalizing content Avoid being fake personal Use what you have Case: Scandic Hotels

47 49 49 50 51 52

7. Content and composition

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Building brand or sell quick?

Spark an interest The email is a story

53 54 57

Combining text and pictures Stimulate several senses Let others speak Design

57 60 60 62

8. Measuring, testing and following up

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ROI – what you get back Different types of KPIs Use A/B split testing to achieve better results Test your event driven communications

63 64 65 69

9. Mobile Marketing

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Multi-read or deleted emails How mobile are your recipients?

Three ways of being mobile Mobile email design Cross-pollinate your marketing through texts Mobilize

71 72 72 76 77 78

Checklist before sending communications

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Word list

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About Compost and Carma

86

5

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Profitable results with consideration, respect and kindness

Welcome to a world of better email marketing!

This is not an email marketing handbook. This is a guide to help you, the marketer, find ways of thinking that can achieve long-term results. We won’t tell you exactly how to create your communication projects. Instead, we want to provide tools for creating solid strategies for your email marketing, and insights into what doors you can open to better your relationship-building communication by seeing your recipients as unique individuals, rather than as a list of subscribers.

Of course, you also need to know the practical ins and outs of being a good email marketer. This book gives you some different models and checklists that you can start using right away. Since the landscape of digital communications is constantly changing and evolving, we feel that a printed manual is not the best medium for tips on technical practicalities and solutions. You can find the information you need in this area on our website, compost.se. But this book will definitely give you comprehensive advice on how you can trigger your recipients by providing relevant content, and how you can become an even better creator of good and effective email marketing.

We wish you pleasant reading!

Helena Kimber

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1. Email marketing 101 Authors: Helena Kimber and Lisa Nylander

In this chapter, we discuss what email marketing actually is, and give you an overview of what you can learn in the chapters ahead. The term email marketing includes all forms of legitimate marketing communications that a company or an organization sends to its customers, members or subscribers through the channel of email. Often, email marketing is taken to mean newsletters, and that is not altogether wrong, since newsletters are part of what email marketing can be. However, more and more frequently, we use the term email marketing to talk about all market-based communications we send via email.

Don’t miss the tips from email expert Sarah Wittbom!

See pages 21, 33 and 44.

Why email marketing?

For a long time now, email marketing has held a unique position as the most effective channel for direct communications. Partly because of the low cost, but also because it often yields good results. Besides, email marketing gives you almost unlimited possibilities of direct communication. You can reach the right person at the right time with the right message – as long as you take the time to ascertain what is in fact right for that specific person and that specific situation. An example of this might be a digital order confirmation that you send to a customer who has just bought or ordered something from you, in which both text and images mirror the user experience from your website.

Email marketing is useful for any company or organization that wants to create relationships with its customers or members. It doesn’t matter if you have two million or two hundred customers – you just need to use the right methods.

>

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In chapter 2 we will talk about the importance of havingisa clear The Project purpose to your on It’s Way email marketing, and how to avoid the temptations of the channel.

As with all communications, the purpose of email marketing is almost always to increase revenue by supporting your sales processes – in the long or short term.

But when we want to build long term relationships with customers through theService email Customer channel, we often need to work on being thoughtful and tactful in our communicaEmail tions. Furthermore, we need a good understanding of how email marketing fits into the overall marketing mix.

Three groups of email marketing To illustrate how email marketing can be used, we have grouped different kinds of communications activities into three categories, divided by the logic that drives the communication. A certain type of activity can fit into more than one group, depending on the specific reason for the communication.

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Sender-driven email marketing Sender-driven email marketing refers to all types of communication that is initiated primarily on the sender’s terms. This can be a traditional newsletter, a campaign or a special offer. Sender-driven communication can easily be developed through segmentation and personalization. Over time, sender-driven communication often evolves into one of the categories below. This type of communication is usually generated manually.

Event-driven email marketing Event-driven email marketing, or marketing automation as it is also often called, refers to communication that is based on events – something happening or having happened. Often, this type of communication will follow your customer life cycles, but this category also includes communication based on internal as well as external events. Event-driven email marketing comprises a broad scope of communication activities, from welcome emails and order confirmations to reminders and newsletters, all segmented according to how the recipient has acted in the past. In other words, all communications that are based on someone doing something or something happening. Event-driven communication is often automated, but some parts are better handled manually.

Data-driven email marketing More and more companies and organizations have access to more and more data on their customers and members. When the content of our email marketing is based on the data we have at our disposal, the communication is said to be data-driven.

Some examples of this are order confirmations that contain special offers based on past purchases, reminders of abandoned shopping carts, or customer club information when your customer reaches a new level. Data-driven communication is almost exclusively automated, except for when personal data are used in a newsletter or similar communications.

Read more about how to improve your email marketing with event-driven and data-driven communication processes in chapter 5.

Who are you communicating with?

When we talk about email marketing, we use words like subscribers and email lists.

But what we actually mean is people. Individuals to whom we want to communicate something – which is why the communications term “recipient” is a lot more fitting.

Using that term also makes it easier to include the communications we send based on the recipient’s actions, such as an order confirmation for a recent purchase or a >

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Read more about segmentation and personalization in chapter 6, where Scandic Hotels share the story of how they have worked on developing their email marketing.

reminder to tighten the lug nuts on the tires they bought a few days ago. Use your imagination to find a corresponding activity that fits your own business.

Regardless of how you refer to your recipients and why you communicate with them, it is a good idea to take advantage of the possibilities that email marketing provides for personalizing and segmenting content in all your communication campaigns. That way, you lay the foundations for reaching your desired effects and outcomes.

For all types of email marketing, there are legal and ethical aspects to be considered regarding whom you send your communications to. More information on this can be found in chapter 4.

Email marketing in the marketing mix The purpose and role of email marketing in the communications strategy of your particular company need to be defined based on, and in keeping with, your overall marketing goals. Just like any other communication activity.

In chapter 3 you will learn more about how email marketing conveys experiences and how experiences affect your brand.

Chapter 4 goes into more detail regarding why this is important.

Brand management is your basis, as well as a respectful attitude towards your customers or recipients. But an important key is understanding when to use email as your main channel and when to use it as a complement to other activities. Regardless of which category a specific email communication fits into, we need to ensure that we communicate our brand in the same way as we do in our other marketing channels, both regarding the graphic presentation and the actual content.

Content A lot of Compost’s customers ask us questions about the content and design of their emails. Many of them want to know how they can develop their content, while others ask for tips on how to combine text and images in an optimal way. Regarding the content of email marketing, the most important thing to keep in mind is that it needs to be in tune with the purpose of the communication and the role in the marketing mix.

Also important is ensuring that the brand is presented in accordance with company guidelines, as outlined in the section above.

Three content elements that should (almost) always be included in a communication: Sender – Reason (for the mail being sent to the recipient) – Unsubscribe opportunity (if the communication is a subscribed newsletter).

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Other types of content that trigger desired actions can be special offers, articles, videos, top ten lists, et cetera.

Design There are a number of guidelines regarding how to design your email marketing, be it an order confirmation or a newsletter. However, because of the constant evolution of the devices and platforms people use to read your communications, these guidelines are subject to frequent change.

Therefore, our general advice on design is to adapt your communications for the device or devices that will be used by your recipients. Once that is done, you can easily create your template and your communications according to current design recommendations. More on adapting for different devices in chapter 9.

Less subject to frequent changes, at least for the time being, is the design-related relationship between text, images and other content. An important aspect to consider is the fact that images in email marketing are often not automatically shown. The composition of the communication needs to be considered with this in mind.

What works best?

A central success factor with email marketing is daring to try different things, as well as having the ability to follow up on the results. There is a plethora of experts and bloggers out there who deal with the world of email marketing and who want to tell you how to create your communications. A lot of their tips are useful. But it is equally important that you find your own creative curiosity, your own ideas and the courage to feel your way forward (without, of course, straying from the strategic path you have drawn up for your communications).

One way of feeling your way is using A/B split tests. Another is studying opening rate over time, or evaluating the conversion rates of your different email marketing campaigns.

Email marketing has a great advantage in the almost unlimited information it provides you with on all your communications and the behavior of your recipients. Therefore, it is a good idea to decide on which specific key performance indicators you want to track. >

The Content Checklist in chapter 2 gives you the tools for determining what content suits your overall goals. Content inspiration can also be found in chapter 7.

Read more about design tips and working with images in chapter 7.

Read about which indicators to focus on and what to keep in mind when using A/B split testing in chapter 8.

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How to create communications based on delivering relevant content at the right time is covered in chapter 5.

More information on adapting communication for mobile phones in chapter 9.

The right place at the right time Many theories on email marketing highlight the importance of communicating with the right person, at the right time, with a personal message. An example of this would be the company that sells a printer to a customer and three months later sends them a special offer for toner for their specific printer model. A more inventive example could be a chain of hotels informing a customer that they have just reached a new level in the hotel bonus system, and at the same time offering them a special weekend discount for their upcoming birthday. (Again, use your imagination to find fitting scenarios for your line of business.)

Our message also needs to be in the right place – that is, not only tailored to our recipients, but also to the device they are using. This entails adapting our email marketing for mobile phones, while at the same time retaining full compatibility with personal computers. To ensure that you reach all your recipients on the device they use to read your email, you should create two versions of your communication – one that is optimized for mobile phones and one that is optimized for desktops.

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Good luck, and make sure you create email marketing you would like to receive yourself!

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2. What do you want to achieve?

By Helena Kimber and Lisa Nylander

In this chapter, we explain how to build a long-term strategy for your email marketing, and why it is important to do so. A simple model gives you tools to check that everything you do in the email channel benefits your satisfied customers or recipients – as well as your own long-term profitability.

An inexpensive channel with expensive pitfalls Email marketing is both inexpensive and simple. The investment costs for systems and communications are very low compared to postal marketing. Moreover, it is one of the top marketing channels when it comes to ROI, Return of Investment. The combination of low contact costs and substantial opportunities for driving revenue gives email marketing a unique position in the marketing mix. But this also entails substantial temptations that we need to be able to resist.

Read more about ROI and investments in chapter 8.

When we use email marketing, we do not have to worry about costs for printing or postage. For large companies, choosing a digital communications project instead of a postal one can mean significant savings. Unfortunately, it’s easy to be tempted to cut costs in other communications areas too, such as goal setting, planning and content production – and this, of course, affects your results.

In order to create email marketing that is lucrative in the long term, where your recipients feel that your communications are providing something desirable, an actual benefit, you need to curb your enthusiasm to reach quick, short term results and focus on the long term instead. You need to ask yourself why you do what you do, and then venture to invest some time into drawing up a strategy based on your answer. >

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Ostensible objectives and actual experiences Even though the actual objective of all our communication in the email channel is making money, through direct conversion or through brand-building and loyalty-building activities, it should not be all too obvious that the recipient’s money is what we’re after.

Read more about KPIs and indicators in chapter 8.

Usually, it goes without saying for us marketers that we camouflage our communications projects with other objectives or intentions. But when we work on email projects, something strange happens. Suddenly, it seems appropriate to churn out offers based only on what we have in stock or our need to reach budget goals, to people who have no interest in this. We might even ignore the fact that the activity actually conflicts with our marketing plan or our brand profile. This may help us shift the pallet of unsold umbrellas, or reach our sales target for the week, but do we take into account how many customers lose their trust in us because we choose these quick fixes in the email channel or via texting? (The number of unsubscriptions or the turnover rate of our list of recipients are clear indicators of customers bailing, but we don’t know how many recipients choose to leave the company for this specific reason.)

Unfortunately, we do not always focus enough on these KPIs, Key Performance Indicators. So take the time to follow up and present the results to your colleagues. We need to have the courage to raise the question of whether the sale of ten umbrellas is worth the extra email, bearing in mind the risk of trying the patience of our sensitive and valuable recipients.

If we focus on our objectives, we can use the email channel to drive sales while at the same time building lasting relationships.

Since the objective often is driving revenue, all you need to do is the exact same thing you already do when using other channels: Identify the ostensible objectives of your communication and the objectives you want your recipients to feel that you have. And do it clearly and honestly. This approach can seem a tad cynical, but because so many abuse the email channel by sending newsletters and offers with no relevance whatsoever for their recipients, we do need to be unpleasently clear about this.

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Clarify your objectives When you want to reach an understanding of what kind of content is suitable for different kinds of communications, Composts ten-step Content Checklist is a helpful tool. Feel free to use the model as a checklist or as a basis for workshops.

CONTENT CHECKLIST

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1.

Identify the company’s overall sales process and brand positioning.

2.

Decide what kinds of email communications can drive or support the sales process.

3.

Look at what kind is compatible with the brand positioning.

Being a marketer, you are most likely familiar with these lines of thinking. Maybe you’re already using a similar model.

Nevertheless, we want to highlight the importance of keeping both brand and sales process in mind when working with the email channel, and letting this permeate all your projects. It doesn’t make a difference how complex or multifaceted your business is, or if you are working with a campaign or an order confirmation – you still need to understand why you are sending a communication, if you expect your recipients to understand why they are receiving it.

4.

Choose activities that are a good fit with both the sales process and the brand.

5.

Identify how the communication benefits the customer/the recipient.

6.

Identify the common denominator for customer benefits in all your intended activities, and make this the overall objective of your email marketing.

7.

Let the customer benefits of your individual activities be the basis for framing your project specific aims.

8.

Decide what kind of content both supports the sales process and fits the project’s objective.

(If you include content that doesn’t fit these criteria, you should at least be aware of it.)

At Compost, we use the Content Checklist in our ERFA groups (meetings with customers that use cutting-edge strategies to work actively with email marketing at the operational level) and in customer-specific workshops. This often generates lucrative and brand-building ideas for developing and improving email marketing. Besides, it’s usually a lot of fun!

9.

Double-check that your content also fits the overall objective of your email marketing.

Why?

10. Create a simple, comprehensive draft that includes examples of content and composition for each project. Make sure to note your objective. Whenever you find yourself unsure of whether you are on the right track while creating a communication, you can return to your draft and check.

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Dare to make a difference The Content Checklist can often make us change our perspectives, and go from communicating with our recipients based on our own needs to focusing on the recipient as an individual. Structural changes that follow from this can be: »»

Increased segmentation and personalization in newsletters and campaigns.

»»

Differentiating between the customers as a group and the customer as an individual.

»»

Clarification of the difference between an event-driven dialog with your recipients and planned communications.

»»

Aspiring to ensure that every communication provides benefits for the recipient.

»»

»»

Brand building, in graphics and content, in all communications – order confirmations and other transaction-related messages too.

More communications activities based on the behavior and actions of the recipient.

»»

Fewer planned communications, but with more content.

»»

Presenting offers based on the recipient’s past purchases or behaviors.

Structural changes like these make it easier to change our approach towards our recipients. Treating them with care and respect comes naturally. Having come this far, our objectives are no longer ostensible: we have learned to really care about how our recipients are affected by our communications. This way, we can ensure that our email marketing provides long-term profitability and continuously high ROI. Last but not least, we need to have the guts to discuss the risks of email marketing within our companies. Using our KPIs, we need to ensure that our long-term approach is firmly established in the organization, so we can act according to our objectives and build the solid customer relationships we strive for.

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Comments from email expert Sarah Wittbom

”

Often the greatest obstacles identifying the goal of our email marketing are organizational ones. Maybe the responsibilities are shared between several people or someone is responsible for images, someone else for text and yet another one for follow-up. There may not even be anyone who has the overall responsibility for the product, which makes it difficult to identify the goals and analyze how to reach them.

Är din e-postmarknadsför efterlängtad av dina kund Once the overall responsibility is designated, it’s time to develop a long-term strate-

Välkommen att inspireras vägledas till hur du når bättre framgån gy. Only thinking short-term can easily damage customer relationships.

Well och worked Sarah Wittbom, VD på Nordic eCommerce Knowledge oc out plans are the be-all and end-all of succeeding innadsföring. the long term.

When pressed for time, look to these three

nadschef på Compost, guidar dig till att bli en bättre e-postmarknads questions:exempel, konkreta råd, aktuella siffror och fokus på den nöjda kunden en god och efterfrågad avsändare av e-postmarknadsföring. I kunde

• How does this benefit the recipient?

• How does this benefit your business?

• How does it fit with your other marketing?

Välkommen!

Välkommen till vårt e-postseminarium i Stockholm When in doubt about the answers, go back to the original plan to identify the cause for concern.

Plats: Filmstaden Sergel, Stockholm.

Tid: 21 mars 8-10 (frukost från 7.30).

Föreläsare: Wittbom från Nordic eCommerce Knowledge oc Because most email marketers are actually in the business of emailSarah selling and not Compost. email marketing, you have great chances of standing outfrån and being noticed if you Vi bjuder på kaffe och macka.

Seminariet är kostnadsfritt. choose to do something other than just selling. Succeeding in email marketing comes from providing the greatest benefit for the recipient and striking a personal tone that can help build a relationship. Providing benefits is a little like bartering – you need to offer the recipient something valuable to get the same in return.Anmäl dig på: www.nordicecommerceknowledge.se/se

And remember, you’re competing with the recipient’s favorite emails – not with what your competitors do in their email marketing? compost.se

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3. Impression and experience

By Helena Kimber

Email marketing has a great number of functions and roles, some advantageous and others less so. What all successful email marketing projects have in common is that they focus on the recipient and on providing a good experience. In this chapter, we take a closer look at what creates the experience and impression of an email, and what organizational support you need to reach a successful result.

Focus on the experience We keep saying that it’s important that people have a good experience of the company, and I’m sure you agree. Our communication with customers or members should be part of that good experience. Just as we expect our colleagues to present the company well and be good brand ambassadors, our email marketing should contribute to the experience we want to provide to our customers.

The email channel gives us a great opportunity to extend, expand and enhance this experience. A couple of simple approaches can help us do this: Make sure that your email communication functions as an extension of your e-business, your web page or your physical store. Make this clear by giving both text and imagery the right feel. Companies often neglect this when it comes to things like order confirmations. While the customer is visiting your e-business, they are surrounded by a pleasant atmosphere and a clear graphic profile – but once they’ve made a purchase, the experience ends abruptly. They leave the store to receive a sterile, text-only email that confirms the purchase and states the price. That’s really not good enough. The least we can do is thank the customer properly and show them how pleased we are to have them do business with us. And we need to keep making the effort to create a good experience through text and images. Only then do we create >

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the impression that we care, and that’s how we lay the groundwork for a communication than continues after the current purchase.

Expand your customer relationship and let the email marketing take on the role of shop assistant. Being courteous and helpful in our communications gives us a chance to help the customer make their decisions. Provided that the customer can ask the shop assistant for advice, that is. Read more about the shop assistant role in the next section.

Think about what types of email communication can enhance customer experience, and about which of those fit with your long-term plans, as outlined in the Content Checklist in the previous chapter.

The ideal shop assistant For anyone who runs a business online, email marketing plays a unique and irreplaceable role. The email channel is the place where we thank the customer for their business, ask whether they are satisfied with their purchase, tell them more about the purchased article, give advice on care and handling, and provide other information that enhances the overall shopping experience. The email is the shop assistant, and good email marketing is the polite, accommodating, dedicated shop assistant who lives for making the customer happy.

Unlike a human shop assistant, the email assistant is utterly flexible and can behave in complete accordance with the wishes of both the sales manager and the marketing department. The email assistant needs no sick days, and its performance can be measured in detail. The only things that can diminish the effectiveness of the email assistant are negligence and poor strategy – not on the part of the assistant, but on your part.

Example tasks for the email assistant: • • • • •

Thanking the customer for their purchase Giving advice on handling and care Issuing invitations to your customer club Informing customers about your newsletter Asking whether the customer is satisfied with their purchase

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• Suggesting articles that complement the customer’s purchases • Wishing the customer welcome back

Listen to your recipients In order to make your email marketing into a likable shop assistant, or a friendly extension of your company, several things are necessary. We have talked about the importance of having a considerate and respectful attitude towards your recipients, but equally vital is that you provide answers to questions asked. It may seem self-evident that someone who wants to sell things should not ignore their prospective buyers, but in the area of email marketing, this seems to be anything but obvious.

Many companies feel entitled to communicate with their customers and email recipients whenever they have something to say. Often, they encourage the recipients to act in some way. But often it’s impossible to respond to the company’s communication. Using a no-reply email address sends the clear message that the company is only interested in telling the customers what it wants to say, not in listening to them.

Instead, always use an email address that your customers can actually reply to. Or clearly state which address your recipients should use for questions about the specific communication. It’s a good idea to give every email project its own unique inbox, as well as designating clear responsibilities for responding to incoming emails. And of course you should have a plan for how the responses should be produced, and time limits for responding.

Organizing for success In order to reach successful results with your email marketing, it is crucial to have the right organizational support. The resources needed for email marketing will of course differ depending on the size of your company or organization, and on the goals of your email marketing. But one thing remains equally important regardless of your circumstances, and that is clearly designated ownership of the recipient list. One person, or one department, should decide what is to be done in the email channel and coordinate the types of communications that are sent to your recipients.

This is especially vital in larger organizations, where several departments want to use the email channel. A clearly defined ownership of the responsibility is necessary to ensure that your profile as sender remains clear to the recipients. Additionally, this helps prevent overuse of the channel, which may result in recipient fatigue. When you have organizational support in place to help you take care of your recipients >

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!

and keep to your long-term plan, you maximize your chances of remaining the likable shop assistant and attaining long-term success.

In order to improve the conditions for the role of email marketing in your organization, as well as the opportunity for the organization to grow with email marketing, we recommend that you focus on four primary factors: 1. Clear ownership of recipient lists and coordination of email projects.

2. A dedicated resource with the role of being an ombudsman for the recipients, and who has the ultimate power of okaying or vetoing new email activities or changes in existing ones.

3. Clear distribution of responsibilities for inboxes regarding possible responses to communications.

4. A plan for how, and in what time frame, incoming emails should be responded to.

A well-thought-out base for your email marketing, where the people doing the work have designated responsibilities to make sure the recipients are treated with care in the channel, gives you the best chance of achieving the objectives and goals of your communications activities. Both in the long and short term.

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4. Recipient, customer, subscriber – who’s who?

By Helena Kimber

Once you’re clear on why you communicate with your customers, it’s time to think about which customers to communicate with. Let’s take a look at the difference between recipients and subscribers, and the rules regarding whom you are allowed to send email marketing communications to – as well as the difference between what you can do and what you should do.

Who subscribes to order confirmations?

We often refer to the people who receive our email marketing as our subscribers. A subscriber is someone who has actively chosen to receive communications from you, which means that recipients of a newsletter can correctly be referred to as subscribers. But what about when someone who has not opted in to receiving the newsletter purchases something from us and receives an order confirmation via email? Is that person now a subscriber?

It makes more sense to refer to the people we send email marketing to as recipients (unless the recipients are shopaholics and thus can be defined as subscribing to order confirmations). This also makes our role as senders clearer: we have a responsibility for what we send, and for treating our recipients well, regardless of whether or not they have made an active choice to receive our newsletter.

The recipients and the recipient At Compost, we encourage our clients to differentiate between the recipients as a group and the recipient as a unique individual. If our mind is set on communicating with a group, we often concentrate on what we want to tell them. But when we focus on the individual, it comes naturally to consider what this unique person would like to > know or experience.

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What might interest different recipients in different situations is covered in chapter 5.

A recipient is someone we communicate with for a specific reason – because they made a purchase or sent an expression of interest, or because they have reached a specific place in our customer lifecycle.

The actual subscriber As we have mentioned, some email marketing activities relate to the recipients being actual subscribers. This usually concerns those recipients who have chosen to receive newsletters or campaign emails (which are sometimes, incorrectly, also called newsletters).

What makes a recipient a subscriber is the act of registering for a certain type of communications via un? so-called opt-in, i.e. making an active choice to receive information. At any given moment they can choose to unsubscribe, opt out. Therefore, we should acknowledge the people who choose to receive our newsletters as a group we should treat very well indeed. The newsletter is one of the best sales-driving channels. And it is very easy for a dissatisfied subscriber to end their relationship with us.

Read more on personalization and segmentation in chapter 6.

The valuable subscriber Although newsletters and other email marketing are inexpensive to produce and send, the process of creating content should be thorough. The best content is as well adapted to the unique recipient as possible. Well thought-out communications have time and care put into them, and well-made content that the recipients can appreciate.

The recipients who appreciate your accomplished and carefully created newsletters are a group of very valuable subscribers, and those who actually look forward to hearing from you are invaluable. Both as customers with you and as ambassadors for you. Therefore, it is worth your while to discern how to best compose your newsletters in order to please your potential ambassadors. Strive for building a list of subscribers based on interest and quality, rather than quantity. Make your subscribers a special group of recipients that is treated with extra special care.

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Keeping the customer satisfied When we send marketing emails following a purchase, we need to establish when that cycle begins and ends, as well as what kind of information is directly relevant to the purchase in question.

This can be order confirmations, invoices, balance statements, tickets or other things that the customer expects to receive as a consequence of an action or a transaction.

In a lot of countries you do not need legal consent from the recipient to use their email address, provided that you have received it in connection with the purchase or action in question.

This means it is up to you to decide what information to send to your clients after they make a purchase. The line of business you’re in will be a consideration here, but also the way you choose to conduct your customer service. Using the email channel to ensure customer satisfaction also gives us a good opportunity to convert the customers into valuable newsletter subscribers.

Read more about finding the right content for each type of communications activity in chapter 2.

All email marketing that is connected to a purchase or an action provides great opportunities. This is where we find the highest opening rates, and this is where we can both build our brand and increase the likelihood of satisfying the customer. Thanking the customer in the order confirmation or reminding them to tighten the bolts on their new chairs leaves very specific impressions.

Ethical and legal aspects Regardless of why you are communicating or who you are communicating with, you should always treat your recipients with respect and follow whatever rules, regulations and ethical guidelines are applicable in the country or countries where you operate.

It is important not only to ensure that you adhere to current laws and practices, but also that you give serious thought to the ethics of your behavior. In email marketing, as in other aspects of our work and daily life, we should never do things just because we can. We should do things. we see as good.

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Ethical email marketing: »» »» »» »» »» »»

Follow all applicable laws and regulations Never buy email addresses* Be clear about who the sender is Make it easy for the recipient to say no to receiving more information Focus on what is in the recipient’s interest Let all your communications be characterized by care and respect

* In some countries, it is illegal to send email to private addresses that one has bought, while other countries have no such regulations. Sometimes the legalities regarding business addresses differ from those regarding private addresses.

Moreover, it’s usually a good idea that your recipients actually want to receive email from you and understand the relevance of your communicating with them, and that is usually hard to achieve when you use bought address lists. When in doubt about the legal situation, contact the relevant trade organization in your country, or ask a lawyer to clarify the regulations.

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Spam or just badly thought-out emails?

Unfortunately, not all bad email marketing is illegal. Even if you stay within the bounds of the law, your recipients may see your email as spam if they don’t understand why they are receiving it, or if the content is not relevant to them. A common cause of this is the email being vague.

Sur(e) Therefore, it’s a good idea to follow the simple model of being SUR(E) to include a clear: Sender Unsubscribe opportunity (if the communication is a subscribed newsletter) Reason (for the email being sent to the recipient) When we keep our communication clear, it becomes clear to the recipient why they are receiving this specific email, and we decrease the risks of our email being incorrectly flagged as spam. This is important for your brand credibility as well as for your deliverability in the email channel.

When they want to break up with you Not many relationships last forever, and some end before we want them to. It’s very easy for your recipients to break up with you. All they have to do is click the unsubscribe button. This is a good thing; there’s no point in pestering someone who doesn’t want to be your friend anymore.

But you can offer a couple of alternatives to those who click unsubscribe – they might want to see you less often instead of breaking it off completely. Ask them if

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!

they might like to receive information from you on a less frequent basis, or if they would like some other kind of information. Alternatively, you can offer them the choice of receiving only customer club communications and not newsletters, or only your more exclusive messages. Use your imagination to come up with alternatives that could make your hesitant subscribers change their minds. But most importantly, if their decision to break up still stands, you must respect that. But it’s OK to tell them that you’ll miss them.

Recruit new subscribers In the registration process for your newsletter, use a double opt-in. This entails the person who wants to register first filling out a form with their data and then receiving an email with a confirmation link. Only when they click the confirmation link do they become a subscriber and are added to your list.

Make sure that the sign-up procedure for your newsletter is as simple and as pleasant as possible.

1. Don’t ask for any more data than you need at first. The email address is enough to start with. You can always ask for more information later.

2. Make your opt-in email nice and welcoming, and explain what the recipient will receive once their subscription is confirmed.

3. Thank the subscriber properly after confirming their registration, and tell them what will happen next.

After that, ensure that your email marketing delivers on your promise, and only send the kind of information that your subscriber has asked to receive.

32 RECIPIENT, CUSTOMER, SUBSCRIBER – WHO’S WHO?

Comments from email expert Sarah Wittbom

”

Companies often focus heavily on acquiring new recipients for their email lists. Sometimes, we emphasize this so much that we forget the recipients we already have. Before you cast your net for new subscribers, be sure to look after your existing ones and focus on keeping them. Pouring more water into a bucket is rather pointless if the bucket has holes.

Är din e-postmarknadsför The truth is, those subscribers who choose to unsubscribe or to not open your emailsav dina kund efterlängtad are a valuable source of information. Go back through your records and check their

Välkommen att inspireras och Have vägledas till hur du når bättre framgån time of subscription. Did you have a special offer then?

An interesting promise? nadsföring. på did Nordic eCommerce Knowledge oc you kept that promise? If they have opened some emails, what Sarah kind ofWittbom, subjectVD lines nadschef på Compost, guidar dig till those have? You could also ask inactive subscribers straight out what you could do toatt bli en bättre e-postmarknads make your communications interesting to them again.exempel, konkreta råd, aktuella siffror och fokus på den nöjda kunden

en god och efterfrågad avsändare av e-postmarknadsföring. I kunde

The answers to the questions above could help you become a better email communiVälkommen! cator to both existing and potential recipients of your valuable messages.

Some short tips on acquiring new email addresses:

Välkommen till vårt e-postseminarium i Stockholm

• Get an in-house buzz going. If more of your colleagues promote your email marPlats: Filmstaden Sergel, Stockholm. keting, you will get more subscribers. In order for this has to7.30). be Tid:to21work, mars everyone 8-10 (frukost från proud of how your email marketing works.

Föreläsare: Sarah Wittbom från Nordic eCommerce Knowledge oc från Compost. bjuder på kaffe och box macka. and Vi have a subscription on Seminariet är kostnadsfritt.

• Communicate all subscription benefits clearly, every page of your website. Few people choose to give you their email address when they first visit your site. It’s more likely that people subscribe after having Anmälcontent dig på:you www.nordicecommerceknowledge.se/se found what they were looking for, or having seen what amazing provide.

• Be open about your policy. That shows that you are serious about how you handle their trust and their email address.

>

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• Tell your potential subscribers about your content, perhaps by showing examples of earlier communications. This puts expectations on the right level.

• Tell subscribers how often you will email them, so expectations match reality there too.

• Ask for the recipient’s primary email address. You don’t want to send your brilliant messages to a “trash bin inbox”.

• Avoid technical talk. Use language anyone can understand instead.

• Wait until later to ask for more customer data. Having to fill in a long form has more of a daunting than a welcoming effect. Just uncork your symbolic champagne and thank them for their trust.

• Market your newsletter in your other channels, and be clear about the benefits of receiving your updates via email.

• Provide forward/share opportunities. Never forget the power in recommendations from friends.

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5. The art of hitting the spot

By Helena Kimber och Apu Hashim

Two useful tools can help you develop your email marketing and find an effective way of reaching the right person at the right time with a relevant message: • Event-driven email marketing • Data-driven email marketing In this chapter, we discuss three basic factors in creating successful communication, and we give you the tools you need to hit the spot.

Factors for relevant communication The basic point of event-driven and data-driven communication is attaining maximum message relevance for each recipient. With relevant messages, we provide the recipient with desirable information. We give the recipient what they want, or rather, what we think they want (and by using follow-up tools afterwards, we can analyze whether our assumptions have been correct). In order to identify which communications activities are likely to interest our recipients, we need to consider the three basic factors Relationship – Message – Timing.

Relationship The first basis for relevant communication, and perhaps the most important one, is confirming and consolidating your relationship with the recipient. When you let the relationship take center stage, something interesting happens – you get to exclude everyone who you do not have a relationship with. This is a good thing. Email marketing works best when it’s used to build long-term relationships and loyalty with

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individuals who have already shown an interest in you or made a choice to interact with you. It doesn’t matter whether the choice has involved making a purchase or a registration, filling in an expression of interest or anything else you want your customers to do.

In other words, the first basic factor entails identifying the different types of relationships you have with your customers or recipients, and categorizing them in a reasonable number of groups. You should also consider which types of actions an individual can take to start a relationship with you.

All the relationship components you can identify can be bases for communication.

Your job now is to decide which of them should be.

Message Once you know who you want to communicate with and why, it’s time to consider the second basic factor: the message. What message to use in your email marketing should be decided based on the kind of relationship you have with the recipient, in combination with what drives your business. It’s important to clearly communicate why the recipient receives this particular information, and what the customer benefits are.

If you can combine two or more messages in one communication or communications project, the relevance increases – as long as the guiding principle for your messages is that everything you communicate serves a purpose for the recipient. Just remember to make your principal objective very clear, and make sure to open your email with this. For example, an order confirmation should open with the purchase information, while special offers and other additional information play a secondary role.

Timing It’s often easy to find several points in time relating to an event or an action in the relationship when it’s appropriate to share certain information. Event-driven communication is always based on finding a point in time when something has happened or is going to happen. You can read more about different types of events in the section “Driving events” below.

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A relevant chain of communication that ties the three basic factors together can look like this: Event: A customer purchases a lambswool sweater from your webshop.

What kind of relationship is this?

Customer, new customer, potential returning customer, satisfied/dissatisfied customer, someone who likes your sweaters.

What should you communicate?

Thank them for the purchase, welcome the customer and tell them more about you, offer participation in your bonus program, remind them of washing instructions, ask if the sweater is satisfactory, respond to answers regarding satisfaction (perhaps by offering a consolation prize to the dissatisfied and a discount to the satisfied), mention sweaters other customers like, showcase new sweaters in similar styles, offer birthday discounts, link to your stock of new warm winter sweaters, and so on.

There is a multitude of options here.

When should you communicate it?

Order confirmation right after the purchase, welcoming the customer and offering bonus program in the order confirmation, reminder about washing instructions and care a couple of days after delivery, asking if the sweater is satisfactory after the return period is over, tips about other sweaters when the average time for

�

Remember this: What are you selling?

What relevant information do you want to share with the customer in connection with a purchase, and when do you want to share it?

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repeat purchase has passed, birthday discount on the customer’s birthday (or a few days earlier if you want the customer to have the sweater on their birthday), information about warm sweaters when a cold spell is expected or has hit.

Driving events Generally speaking, event-driven email marketing is based on three different types of events.

Internal events An internal event is something that happens in your business and is appropriate to communicate. This could be new opening hours, new goods in stock, a sale or something else you want your customers to know about.

External events Anything that happens in the world around us and can be connected to your business is an external event. These are events such as a summer heatwave approaching, the football World Cup coming up, Black Friday drawing near or a certain day of the week when you send out your newsletter. Something that happens outside your organization and affects your business opportunities and is interesting to your recipients.

Relationship-based events A relationship-based event is just what it sounds like – something that happens in the relationship between your company or organization and a specific customer or member. Relationship-based communication is often automated, which makes it both effective and easy to handle. An event of this type can be a purchase, an expiring warranty or a customer being due for a bonus.

All these three event categories are relevant to your communication, but a good rule of thumb to achieve a dialog with your recipients is to strive for a communication that feels logical to the recipient. This is why relationship-based events should be central to your email marketing strategy. Focus on being flexible, relevant and considerate, just as you would in a conversation. And of course, you need to convey the real objective of your communication in a convincing manner.

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Data-driven communication for simple and effective flows Many of us email marketing managers want to create more and better communication projects than we actually have time for. When we work manually with event-driven marketing, it can also be difficult to get a good overview of just when to communicate with a specific recipient. That would necessitate a very large project group registering actions taken by customers or recipients, entering the system, personalizing a communication and pressing “send”. This is just not doable.

The solution for achieving efficient event-driven email marketing is using automated and data-driven flows. The automated process entails creating flows according to certain criteria, such as a certain event happening or a certain behavior in an email.

Data-driven marketing means making our aggregated recipient information the basis for the processes. In the following section we will talk more about data-driven email marketing.

Remember: Relevant data is not always enough to hit the spot. You also need to treat your recipients with respect and consideration. Every process you create should have the objective of benefiting the recipient. Therefore, you shouldn’t use data just because you can – instead, use the data that actually serve a purpose, for the recipient.

On technology for hitting the spot So how can you make your data really useful in your marketing? First and foremost, you need to realize that the customer information, the customer data, you collect is a veritable goldmine for good marketing. In a lot of places around the world, terms like ”data marketing”, ”marketing automation” and “big data” handling are used when underlining how having knowledge about your customer is the key to good marketing. In other places, this is not quite as widespread, but more and more companies are realizing the potential of data volumes as a basis for communication.

Many marketers need to acquire better insight into where the information (the data) can be found and how to handle it. Often, the data is spread over several systems, which makes things a little more difficult, but far from impossible. As a marketer, you need these data to communicate better, and you need to know what they mean.

Let’s identify the data banks that are most common.

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Customer register Usually, a company will have some kind of CRM system (Customer Relationship Management system, or simply put a customer register). We should never disregard the CRM system, but these systems do not often contain a lot of useful data. We will find demographical data here, which can be very useful, but we need more than that to create data based communication.

E-business platform The really important information can be found in systems like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), that is, the business management system or the e-business platform.

These systems store information about what the customers actually do, not just where they live. Information that can be found here is the time and size of a customer’s latest purchase, what they have bought and how much. This is worth its weight in gold, once we know how to use it – we’ll talk more about that later.

Loyalty systems The data sources listed above are probably the most important ones, but not the only ones worth mentioning. A company’s loyalty systems contain a multitude of great data, which have the added bonus of being interesting to the customer. Among the important things here is information about the different levels of the loyalty system – for example “only two more purchases until you reach our gold membership level”!

Moreover, recipients usually appreciate information about their balance being included in emails.

Personalized web pages There are several systems you can use to make your web pages show relevant products based on how customers have interacted with the website earlier. For example, if a customer has purchased an Iphone, the website can show them Iphone accessories next time they visit. These systems often contain interesting data that can be used to make special offers personal. This has the advantage of enabling you to personalize and automate at the same time. All this information can be used in your email marketing.

What now?

Now that you’ve found the data sources that contain the information you need for

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your marketing, it’s time to find a common denominator. This can be a customer ID or some other data field that can identify a specific customer or recipient across the different systems. You also have to consider which information you need. In order to use the data in a profitable way, you need to build structures that categorize certain behaviors or products to render information about the customer. With the help of that, you can create communication that really hits the spot both message-wise and time-wise.

Examples When you can check the date of a customer’s purchase, you can create a communication flow that relates to the purchase in question and is sent automatically a set number of days after the purchase. This gives you a good reason to communicate, to talk to the customer about relevant issues that benefit them.

Example1: Day four after a purchase: We hope you have successfully started using your new dishwasher. Did you know that you can save up to 35 dollars a year by using the economy program?

Customers often appreciate this kind of email, since they’re relevant and communicate specific information that is useful to them.

Example 2: Two weeks before a subscription expires: You are one of our most valued readers.

Therefore, we want to offer you a gift. Extend your subscription today and receive an extra bonus.

If you want to retain a customer, you need to tell them that you wish to continue the relationship. When you use the email channel instead of telemarketing or the postal channel, you do not risk interrupting the customer’s dinner, you make it easy for them to re-register via one click (instead of having to post a coupon) and you can use the money you save to show your appreciation for the customer. >

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Example 3: Two years after a purchase: Time flies, can you believe it’s been two years since you bought your new bed? We hope you’re satisfied with your purchase. For continued pleasant dreams, we now offer you a half-price reduction on an additional 2-year warranty.

This is another case of saving money on postal communications or telemarketing.

You also have an opportunity to prolong your customer life cycle in a way you might not have done without the digital and data-driven possibilities.

Integrate dynamically Your business, and your communication goals, are unique. There are probably similarities between what you do in the email channel and what others do, but there’s no point in everyone following the same pattern. You need to meet your customers’ needs, not anyone else’s.

In order to achieve flexible flows that support your sales process, the integration between your systems needs to be flexible too. Therefore, you need to ensure that the integration you choose supports the creation of the kind of communication you need for your specific customer life cycle.

Most of the standard integrations on the market are fine for sending the same message to all your recipients, but they only support a limited amount of data. If you want to be able to use all the data available to you, and make sure the system sends the right information to the right person, you need a more specific solution. Use the questions below to identify what kind of integration you need, and make the list part of your procurement process.

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»»

Do you need demographic or geographic segmentation to target your communication?

»»

Do you have access to data on customer behavior and purchase history?

»»

How can the available data support your sales processes?

How can your business build customer loyalty through the email channel?

»» »»

Which information do you need to be able to use to support your communication objectives?

»»

Which systems do you need to gather information from?

It’s a good idea to compile your answers and bring them to your supplier. They can help you find the right APIs, Application Programming Interfaces, to get you started in your work with relevant and data-driven communication flows.

Email expert Sarah Wittbom comments on next page

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Comments from email expert Sarah Wittbom

”

Many people claim that timing has become less critical for catching people’s attention since we started using smart phones.

Everyone looks at their smart phone regularly, so a message will be opened no matter when it lands in a recipient’s inbox.

Är din e-postmarknadsförin efterlängtad av dina kunde

Nothing could be more wrong. The advent of smartphones means that there is even more stuff demanding people’s attention. Reminders, app updates, tweets, Facebook notifications, not to mention text messages and other things that order people’s lives.

Välkommen att inspireras och vägledas till hur du når bättre framgång me

Timing is more important than ever. nadsföring. Sarah Wittbom, VD på Nordic eCommerce Knowledge och He

på Compost, guidar dig till att bli en bättre e-postmarknadsförar The best case scenario is ensuringnadschef that every communication is sent at the time that exempel, konkreta råd, aktuella siffror och fokus på den nöjda kunden, får is best for the recipient. You shouldenhave a system that keeps track of your customers’ god och efterfrågad avsändare av e-postmarknadsföring. I kundens tjä or subscribers’ earlier behavior. Of course, this requires all your systems to communicate with each other and to have Välkommen! a core at the center that compiles all the information about every customer/subscriber to trigger the right activities. But there are also some other things you can consider.

Välkommen till vårt e-postseminarium i Stockholm den We often talk of segmenting according to WHAT might attract the subscriber. But you might also try segmenting your lists according to Sergel, WHENStockholm. people open their Plats: Filmstaden Tid: 21 mars 8-10 (frukost från 7.30). emails.

Like this:

Föreläsare: Sarah Wittbom från Nordic eCommerce Knowledge och H från Compost.

Vi bjuder på kaffe och macka. Seminariet är kostnadsfritt.

Group A – opens between 10 and 11 a.m.

Group B – opens between 11 and 12 a.m.

Anmäl dig på: www.nordicecommerceknowledge.se/semin Group C – opens between 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. … and so on.

compost.se

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In order to establish these times, you need to try different communication times. You might find clues in when the subscriber signed up to get your newsletters, or what time they usually make a purchase in your webshop.

So, timing is important, but a question that often gets lost in the rush towards deadlines is this: What do I want this communication to result in? You need to make yourself answer this question in a clear and concrete way. Do you want them to buy something? If so, what? And how much? This exercise helps you learn whether your message is in synch with your recipients. Once you have this question clear, you can start exploring the other aspects of hitting the spot.

When you’ve done that, go on to define what is actually important, and what’s important to the recipient. A recipient will not be able to grasp ten important things at once. You should be able to summarize the point of your communication in one sentence, and when the recipient has gotten that point, that will whet their appetite for more.

The very best advice I can give you in order to find the right message, the right header, the right tone, the right design and so on, to make as many people as possible appreciate your communication, is this: sleep on it. Finish the communication, then sleep on it, and read through it again before clicking “send”. Doing this has given me some of my best ideas.

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6. Personal and relevant

By Helena Kimber

Once we have a long-term strategy for our email marketing and have identified which email projects can support our sales processes, it’s time to take a look at how we can become relevant to our recipients. There are two simple ways of becoming relevant and delivering content that is adapted to each specific recipient.

The first way is using target group segmentation of our messages, the second way is applying relevant personal data in our emails. In this chapter, we’re going to get to the bottom of how to do this using segmentation and personalization.

EXAMPLES OF SEGMENTATION PARAMETERS

Segment your messages

Demographic data

A first step towards becoming more relevant is segmenting the content of your email projects. In a lot of communication activities, the target group is divided into segments that receive different messages.

Earlier behavior in connection with your communications (opened, clicked, converted) Purchase history

Geographic variables Answers to surveys Areas of interest

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When you work with email marketing, you can work with segmentation in completely new ways, since the data you acquire about your recipients gives you even more information about them.

The relevant factors for creating segmented communication will, of course, vary between different industries and business types. However, something that is true for everyone is that the more parameters you use in your segmentation, the better chance your messages will have of hitting the mark – that is, provided that your segmentation follows lines that are relevant to your target group. When we talk about segmentation, it comes naturally to think of newsletters and campaign emails, since that may be the area where we feel the strongest need for targeting our messages well. But other activities can also benefit from having well-targeted content – for example, offers in order confirmations, or information about care and handling of a product.

When you want to ensure that your segmentation is built on fact and not on assumptions, especially when you’re segmenting on behavior outside of your email marketing program, carry out a target group analysis. At the end of this chapter, you can read more about how you can use results from an analysis in your email marketing.

The story shared by Scandic Hotels gives useful tips.

Store.com With dynamic content you can control that your recipients receive right content. The segmentation is done in the actual email. In that way you don’t need to several versions of the email for different recipients.

My account Login

Tell a friend

Spring dresses has arrived!

Waterproof raincoats for active kids. Best buy!

The perfect white shirt can take you anywhere

48 PERSONAL AND RELEVANT

Customer Service 555-555 5555

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Possibilities for segmentation in your system One important starting point for your segmentation is that there are no limits in your email marketing system regarding the amount of data per recipient you can base your selections on. Other aspects to consider are the flexibility of the system and the structure of your communications. The point of using segmentation in the email channel is enabling you to create one communication for all segments, and have rules and filters guide certain content to certain recipients.

Another way of working with this is deciding what segment of your recipients receives a certain communication. This is common when you segment according to behavior with earlier communications. For example, it might be a good idea to try out new kinds of headings and content on your most inactive recipients – or to ask the recipients who open your mail but do not click links what kind of content or offers would interest them. If you have a flexible system, you can use segmentation freely and often. But, as with everything you do in the email channel, segment with care.

There’s no point in segmenting just because you can – you need to have an idea of what you want to achieve, and how this increases relevance for your recipients.

Personalizing content When the content in an email is personal, it’s clear that the message is meant for the individual who receives it – if it’s executed in the right way. There are a lot of different ways of making your communications more personal. Read about the three most common types of personalization below.

Personalized and event-driven communications An event-driven, personal email may be the most refined kind of personalized email marketing. You communicate with someone as a consequence of how that person has acted (or not acted), and your message is a direct response to their action. In this category, we find activities such as order confirmations, customer club balance statements, notifications that a product is back in stock or reminders of payment due.

Here, the communication is doubly personal: both the reason for the email and the content of it are based on an action taken by this specific person (recipient). These messages should not only confirm the action taken or the activity, they should also consolidate your relationship with the recipient.

You’re welcome to read more about this in chapter 3.

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Personal content in newsletters and campaigns In order to make planned communications such as newsletters and campaigns personal, you need to use the information you have about the specific recipient in addition to segmenting. The objective of using the personal information is making the recipient feel special, as well as increasing conversion possibilities.

Personal information that can be used to create relevant content can be things like: »»

A page header with personal information such as name, email address and customer ID

»»

Information about bonus levels and number of points to go to next upgrade

»»

Email address in page footer next to the unsubscribe link (which you should always include)

»»

For pages that require login, use personal direct links (with what is known as a soft login, where the visitor is already identified and does not need to input their data)

»»

Show the customer’s latest purchase or showcase related products

Text embedded content Text embedded content works the same way as using personal data in the email, in a technical sense. But embedded content usually implies the simpler touches – adding the recipient’s name to your greeting, or having a dynamic text that changes depending on the recipient.

Avoid being fake personal One of the most common ways of trying to achieve a personal tone in an email is embedding the recipient’s name in the greeting. “Hello Helena”, for example. If the sender and the recipient already have a relationship where a first-name basis makes sense, this can feel natural. But if the relationship is not yet there, or if nothing else in the email is personal, it misses the mark.

If your database does not separate first and last names, you should never embed names in greetings. Starting an email with “Hello Helena Kimber”, or worse, “Hello

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Anna Helena Kimber” gives off a feeling of there being no relationship at all, or no respect for the recipient on the sender’s part. If you still want to show that this email is meant especially for this individual recipient, put the name in a header together with the recipient’s email address.

Like this: Anna Helena Kimber VIP Bonus: 20 VIP Points: 1898 Points to next bonus: 1112

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Use what you have Depending on the line of business you’re in, you will have access to differing amounts of information or data about your recipients. Regardless of the amount of information you can base your communication activities on, I think it’s a good idea to use everything at your disposal that can make the message relevant to the recipient.

Often, you need a combination of segmentation and personalization to achieve a high degree of interest. It can sometimes be difficult to draw clear lines between the two techniques, but that doesn’t really pose a problem. No matter what you use to make your email marketing relevant and interesting to the recipient, everyone benefits from it, and so do you as the marketer.

Case on next page

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Case: Scandic Hotels As most businesses do, we used to communicate with our customers using the method of sending the same email to everyone. After a while, we noticed a decrease in conversions and clicking, and this made us decide to work in a more strategic way with segmentation and adaptation of our communication according to target group.

Our goal was that our members should understand why they were receiving this specific email from us.

The solution We based our communications strategy on an analysis of our membership, which resulted in a segmentation model. A lot of time was spent getting to know our recipients and their needs and preferences. Simply put, what kind of information and offers they appreciate getting from us. At the same time, we worked on creating trigger-based communication processes with different objectives, driven by customer behavior.

old, unsegmented ones. And most notably, the trigger-based communications have yielded great results.

The future

The result

Ahead we want to get to know our member segments better, in order to be able to be even more relevant and specific in our communications. Another important factor is streamlining our processes regarding planning and follow-up of the segments, in order to use what we learn from every activity to further improve our communication.

We now see a clear difference in opening rate, click quotas and conversion in the segmented emails, compared to the

/Lisa Nylander, Project Manager Member Communication, Scandic Hotels

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7. Content and composition

By Helena Kimber Finally, it’s time to put all your preparations to good use! Now, let’s turn the choices you’ve made regarding strategies, choosing suitable email projects, identifying target groups and planning communication flows into actual, concrete content.

Here we look at different content alternatives, and different routes you can choose to make your content harmonize with your overall goals. At this point, it’s easy to fall into the trap of being overly correct and serious. Try to balance that with fun and fantasy too – the best content is not only relevant, but also entertaining or humorous.

”

Remember: Let consideration for the recipient and a will to please be present in everything you do. In short: be pleasant!

Building brand or sell quick?

Before we start looking at different types of content that can be used in email marketing, there’s an important factor to consider. We have already spoken about the importance of choosing clear objectives and using the Content Checklist to >

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ensure that your content serves your objectives. This is where it all comes to a head.

The content you choose and how you choose to present it are crucial to achieving a good result. Therefore, be conscious of the two poles “building brand” and “quick sell” throughout the process of choosing your content.

Spark an interest Whatever the objective of an email project, the email has to be opened and read by the recipients in order to fill a function. When it comes to opening and reading, as well as clicking and conversion, the recipient’s interest is the key to achieving success – or not.

There are a number of easy ways of sparking a recipient’s interest in the short term – but when we want to think long-term, we need to be a little cautious about using those simple tactics.

In order to make an interesting first impression, there are five things you need to work with. The goal is having these five factors make your email into a puzzle, where every piece contributes to a complete whole.

Subject line The subject line should make it clear why the recipient should open the email. Everything you write there needs to be supported in the content. The length of your subject line, and the tone of it, are things you need to experiment your way toward. There are no absolute rights or wrongs here – your objective and the type of recipient you are targeting will determine what works best. But avoid repeating your subject line verbatim in the email.

When it comes to communication that is based on an action, such as order confirmations and invoices, the subject line should always be clear and communicate precisely what the email contains.

It can be tempting to use symbols such as in your subject line. However, this kind of symbols can look different depending on the email client used, and are therefore a little risky. Only use them when they really enhance your subject line, and when the symbol suits the context. As always in the email channel, discard everything that does not actually fill a function.

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Pre-header The pre-header, the line of text that is visible when previewing an email on a mobile phone and in some desktop based clients, is growing ever more important as more and more people read their emails on the phone. A good pre-header says something about the content without repeating the subject line. Often, the pre-header says “Click here if the email looks strange” or “Click here for web version” – and that does not make for a good first impression.

Header The very first piece of information in the email should mirror the objective of the communication. Be clear and concise, and make sure the header is always an extension of the subject line and never a repetition.

Flow As we have already mentioned, you should avoid repeating yourself, and instead create a flow where subject line, pre-header, header and the following content complement each other. By making every part a step on the way toward what you want to say, you retain the recipient’s attention. This principle should carry over when the recipient clicks a link and enters your website – they should recognize the milieu from the email, and the website should be the next chapter of the story and not a repeat performance.

Relevancy Granted, having the message be relevant is not a puzzle piece in telling the story your email wishes to convey. But in order to spark an interest with your recipient to finish the puzzle of messages you are giving them, you need to make sure that it is actually interesting to the recipient. Use segmentation and personalization where it fills a function in the different puzzle pieces. Or explain that the email contains information that is unique for your recipient (in a more exciting way than this, of course).

When constructing our puzzle, we need to be creative and try to find the exact spot that is sweetest to the recipients. The road from seeing the email in the inbox to clicking on a link to a landing page can be rather long – it’s your job to make it enjoyable and logical, too.

>

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Thank you for chosing us, we’re happy to be at service from now on

This example shows sender, subject line and pre-header as it might look in the email client’s preview mode.

Från: Subject: Date: To:

Store.com VIP preview of what’s new this Spring Pre-book your favorites now and get double points

2014-03-12

John Smith

2014-03-11

Store.com <inspiration@store.com> VIP preview of what’s new this Spring March 12, 2014 at 08:35:04 CET Maria Andersson

Maria Andersson Accumulated VIP Bonus: 20  VIP Points: 1898 Points until next bonus: 1112

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Be the chosen few who wear the latest Spring fashons first!

Spring is finally coming, and we want to celebrate this with our most loyal customers by taking a sneak peek at the Spring collection during an exclusive VIP preview. Take the opportunity of pre-booking your favorites today, while they are being made in our own workshop. All items should be finished within three weeks, and will be sent directly to your own home by our dressmakers. You will receive your garments even before they arrive in our store, and you will be first with your chosen Spring fashions!

When the entire email is shown, the subject line, header and text are visible. If you use a hidden pre-header, it is not visible in this mode.

And what's more, we now give you double VIP points on everything you pre-book before Friday this week!

Read more about how to combine the hottest Spring colors, and see what garments are recommended by our trend spotter and purchasing manager Emma Svensson.

All of us at Store.se wish you a sunny, happy Spring!

The perfect white shirt can take you anywhere

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the Offer of

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The email is a story Every email sent tells a story. It can be a story about a sale starting, a new product being launched, a shipment on the way or a customer who didn’t return. When you see your email marketing as a story, it’s logical to follow a dramaturgical storytelling arc that has a beginning, a middle and an end.

All stories are different. But your plotline is what you want your email to achieve – the path you want your recipient to take through the mail. Some stories are long, others short, some have alternate endings, and many make some kind of point.

What you want to tell your recipient will be perceived in different ways depending on how you choose to tell the story. For example, a message conveying the information that you have a half-price sale can be phrased in many ways: you could put it in terms of 50 percent off, buy one get one free, half off or sale on. Let your choice of words be guided by the story you want to tell, and choose the combination of text and images that best illustrates your story. And don’t give away the whole story in the email! Give the recipient an incentive to venture on ahead to find out how it ends.

It is often said that the tone of email marketing text should be somewhere between the formal phrasing of printed text and the more happy-go-lucky wording of the web.

But the most important thing is for every company to find their particular storytelling voice and retain it through different projects – while being able to modulate the tone according to the type of story being told.

Combining text and pictures A special challenge of email marketing is the fact that we can’t count on images in an email being shown automatically. This is nothing your ESP can do anything about, unfortunately – it depends on the rules in place with the email clients your recipients use. It is possible to ensure that some email clients show your images automatically, but the ways of making this work change over time. Read more about this at Compost.se, or contact your ESP. You should, however, assume that the images in your emails will not be shown automatically. This means you need to follow some simple guidelines in order to make your email as clear as possible to your recipients. And of course, your goal is to have them look at your images.

>

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!

Guidelines for images: »»

Use an alt-text that describes what the image shows.

»»

Make sure that the most important information in your email is in text form, or in both text and images.

»»

If you use large images, place them under an introductory text or header, or further along in the email.

»»

Use background colors to highlight important parts.

»»

Use inviting imagery that makes your recipients realize that the images in your emails are worth looking at. That will make them make a habit of clicking to show the images.

»»

Work with images as buttons, since we are getting more and more used to acting on images, both on the Internet and in emails.

In addition to finding ways of handling the risks of no images being shown, there are two other aspects worth considering. These are factors that create an experience in your email. As we discussed in chapter 3, Impression and experience, your email should be an extension of the ambience you present in your e-business, on your website or in your physical store.

The first of these aspects is that your email marketing should have the same graphics and feel as your other communications and your website. Your email creates relationships, and this is facilitated by the recipients getting a clear visual picture of who they are talking to.

The second aspect concerns the cases where the only image in your email is a logo.

It can be perceived as a lack of respect to have the recipient make the effort of clicking to show the image and then being shown nothing more exciting than a logo.

If you can’t find another way of handling this, it’s a better idea to lose the image altogether until you can offer more of an experience.

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Proceed to checkout >

0 items in cart

Women Men Children Unisex News

Create your Spring style

the Offer of

week

Top 10 Most popular right now

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Maria Andersson Accumulated VIP Bonus: 20  VIP Points: 1898 Points until next bonus: 1112

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Thank you for shopping with us!

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Offer of

Maria, this email confirms your purchase. Your order information and purchase bonus follow below.

Item Sweater Stripes white/blue size M Trousers Stretch black size S Cardigan set pink size 98 Shipping Total Bonus

Quantity 1 1 1 1

Price

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EUR 29 EUR 34 EUR 19 EUR 0 EUR 82 820 points

k

the wee

Bring chosen parts from you website to your emails. For example relevant menu items och other content that shows your identity, but also are of function for the recipients.

Blogged

Spring specials

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Read more about mobile marketing in chapter 9.

With images in mobile email marketing, it’s a different story. Especially with Iphones, since they show images in emails as a matter of course.

Stimulate several senses Keeping our focus on the recipient’s experience of our email marketing, there are more tools to work with than text and images. One that comes to mind easily is film, which is a kind of content more and more people actively seek out on the Internet.

Film can be used in many ways in email marketing. For example, to: »»

Showcase products

»»

Show how the products can be used

»»

Provide instructions for handling or care

»»

Tell the viewer about the sender

»»

Have other people talk about their favorite products

Incorporating films into your emails is similar to working with images, but a film is usually not playable in the email itself. Therefore, you should present the film with a image that links directly to the film.

Taking a screencap from the film might not be the best way of finding a good image.

Instead, you could use a image or a photo that illustrates the content of the film. Put a start button in the image, or go one step further and illustrate the video player too.

The recipient’s experience will be one of the film being located in the email, and another window opening to show the film.

Another way of using moving images in email is incorporating an animated gif. However, since the animation will only be shown by some email clients, the first image in the series should work as a stand-alone image too.

Let others speak One way of telling your recipients about what you want to sell or convey that is both pleasant and effective is letting someone else speak about your product, your

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The best and easiest way to present a film in your email is to take a frame from the film and then add a play button. Then link the image to the film (for example a youtube-link or a link to the film on your website).

service, your business or your organization – in other words, using an ambassador.

The ambassador should be a genuine one, not an actor making another commercial. A real person talking about his or her personal reasons for using a product, appreciating a vacation spot or supporting an organization.

The person speaking could be a customer, someone your target group finds trustworthy, or someone from the company. The important thing is making sure there’s both credibility and real conviction. You can present your ambassador in a short text interview with pictures, or in a film. If you let this material be unique to your email marketing, you achieve another goal at the same time – providing exclusive and interesting content.

When you use an ambassador to get your message out, you gain both credibility and effect. Studies show that recipients are much more likely to actually purchase a product, or otherwise act in a desired way, when senders use ambassadors.

>

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Design Regarding design, there is an ocean of tips and recommendations out there, concerning everything from how many pixels wide an email should be to which side of a image to place a purchase button. Since recommendations are constantly in flux due to changes in email clients and purchasing behaviors, we won’t discuss this further here.

Of course, Compost has recommendations as to how you can build your design, but these mostly concern making your email look good in different clients. When you find yourself unsure of design decisions, have a look at what others are doing.

Ask yourself what you think works well, or not so well, and why, and you will have a good starting point.

Several blogs and other email marketing material cover design questions. Before beginning your design work, check what they say about what to do. Ask your ESP and use your system to see what works in the most popular email clients. Most tools can support this, and also provide a rough guide to possible delivery problems with the content and form of your email.

Be brave, creative and questioning, to find the kind of content and composition that will tickle your particular target group’s fancy. And use tests to see what works! In the next chapter, we’ll talk about what you should keep in mind when testing.

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8. Measuring, testing and following up

By Helena Kimber In addition to the effect opportunities, email marketing’s real forte is the unlimited possibilities for follow-up, along with the conveniently simple tools that enable you to use the statistics for planning and implementing future activities.

We will now take a look at how to follow up and measure your marketing performance, familiarize ourselves with Key Performance Indicators, and find out more about how A/B split testing works.

ROI – what you get back

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Many studies show that email marketing is at the head of the class on the ROI scale, that it is the activity that gives the best returns. On average, it is said that email marketing returns 40 times the invested money. However, it’s not quite clear where this number comes from or how it >

EMAIL MARKETING

There are different ways of measuring how well our email marketing takes us toward our goals. A common measurement for comparing different types of activities is ROI, Return on Investment. This measures your profits in relation to your costs – how many dollars we get back in relation to how many dollars we invested in the activity.

ROI in different channels. Based on a diagnosis for 2012, made

by DMA.

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has been measured. Nevertheless, ROI in the email channel is decidedly high, but how high it gets depends on what we bring to I, the investment.

As we have discussed in chapter 2, it is important that we invest time in planning and creating content in order to achieve long term results. When we increase investment, the profit/investment ratio may decrease in the short term, but we lay the groundwork for long-lasting relationships. Maybe a very high ROI is actually a sign that you should increase your investment?

Different types of KPIs KPIs, Key Performance Indicators, are measurements used to evaluate specific marketing activities and follow their progress. Before we discuss different kinds of measurements, let’s think back to our objectives for email marketing (chapter 2).

What we choose to measure and analyze should be in line with our reasons for carrying out our different email projects, and our goals should be set accordingly.

Measurements of opening rate or cost per conversion won’t tell you anything unless you know why you are actually measuring them, or what your goals are.

We use two types of KPIs. One type usually concerns activity in the emails: • • • • •

Opening rate Click rate Conversion rate Number of recipients Number of unsubscriptions

These are good indicators to work with if you want to see how ”healthy” your recipient lists are, but they say nothing about what profits your email marketing is actually generating. To find out what your activities really result in, you need to also measure financial performance and profit.

That’s when we encounter the second type of KPI, which is of a more strategic kind and tells us how activities and actions relate to profits. This type of KPI is often connected to concrete objectives, such as:

64 EMAIL MARKETING 101

• Profit per communication • Value per conversion (remember to value all conversions, not just sales-related ones but also ones that drive actions such as communicating with customer service through your web site rather than over the phone) • Profit per recipient • ROI

”

Remember: Work with a small amount of measurements or KPIs at a time. That gives you opportunities for follow-up and change.

Often, the two types of KPI are used together, and the acronym includes both categories. What you choose to call your measurements is not the important thing here, but the fact that they should always give you information that contributes to your activities – they should indicate the value of your email marketing. Measuring what all your hard work actually results in is important, as well as worthwhile and fun.

It also provides hard facts that can help you show management the value of email marketing and provide an incentive for greater budget allocations and importance within the business.

Use A/B split testing to achieve even better results When using A/B split testing (explained below), there is much to learn regarding meeting the customers’ behaviors and eventually reaching a better conversion rate.

However, companies often forget that an A/B test of a website and of a newsletter are two completely different things, which need to be handled in completely different ways.

The core of the difference is, simply put, that a visitor has visited the website at a given point in time when the test is being carried out. But it’s impossible to know at which point in time the test subject will open their newsletter – if, that is, it gets opened at all. The time lag and the uncertainty are factors that need to be taken into account, regardless of whether you want to measure opening rates or click frequency.

It is a good idea to A/B test newsletters or campaigns, but there are some things that need to be considered in order to reach a result where you are absolutely sure that the winning version really is the best one. Before you begin your testing, adopt an attitude of welcoming surprises and being open to working with unforeseen results. >

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What is an A/B split test?

First, let’s identify what an A/B, or A/B/C/D, split test actually is. You start by creating two or more versions of your newsletter or your campaign. Then, you send the different versions to randomized groups of recipients from your recipient lists (the size of your test groups is up to you). After a period of testing, you determine which version has worked best, and that version is then sent to the rest of the list automatically. If you wish, you can control it manually instead.

Test the right things The most common things to test when using A/B split tests on newsletters are opening rate or number of clicks. When testing opening rate, you will usually be working with different versions of subject lines.

If you want to test different types of content, you will want to measure click rates. There are many different kinds of content that can be tested. Some kinds you can test to optimize the current communication, other kinds can be tested in order to draw more long term conclusions.

If you want to find out what kind of content is most appealing to your recipients, click rates is what you want to measure.

EXAMPLES OF THINGS TO TEST FOR CONTENT OPTIMIZING Special offers Color and shape of buttons Composition Images Link placement Text length

Prolong the time span of your test Since you don’t know when your recipients will be opening the newsletter, you need to have a rather long time span for your test. The point is that as many recipients as possible should have time to open the email before you determine which version works best.

If you’re the eager type who wants the tests finished quickly, you run a high risk of getting misleading results. The test might show that version A is the best one during the time allotted, and that version may then have been sent to the rest of the recipients. But an hour later, more people in the test group have had time to open the email, and now it transpires that version C is actually the winner.

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This is important to consider. How you should handle this depends on how much you know about the behavior of your recipients. Do they usually open their emails as soon as they get them, or is there a certain time when you want them to read them?

How many of your recipients read their emails on their mobile phones, and do you have the same opportunities for driving conversion there?

In order to get a more reliable result, you should expand your testing time span as much as possible. If you’re planning a campaign, it might be a good idea to have a time span of 24 hours. During that time, the majority of your test group should have time to make a choice whether to open the email or not. If you don’t have that much time, three hours should be your minimum. Unless, of course, you’re sending the emails in the middle of the night or on a major holiday.

Make a plan Before you start your test, decide what you want to achieve. It’s good to have a hypothesis to test, because then you’ll acquire not only a test result, but also new information about your recipients. You can, of course, carry out random tests when you feel like it, but then you should be aware that the testing is in fact random, and not a basis for long-term conclusions.

What’s a good test group size?

In order for a newsletter split test to be statistically justifiable, Compost recommends that you have a list of at least 10.000 recipients. If you want to test more than two versions, with an A/B/C/D test, you need a list of at least double that size.

You can carry out split tests with smaller lists too, but unless you get a very clear result, it’s difficult to know whether differences are really down to a better version of the > email or just random. Remember, you can test because it’s fun and interesting too!

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!

Think about this when A/B testing 1. Decide which newsletter elements you want to test alternatives to 2. Identify what the alternatives can be

”

Remember: Ask yourself now and again why you are doing the tests. Be sure to have a plan, so you don’t find yourself doing unnecessary work. Also, have fun along the way, and be open to surprising results.

68 MEASURING, TESTING AND FOLLOWING UP

3. Weed out the alternatives that you would not choose to use, even if they came out on top 4. Decide which kind of measurement shows the best alternative for the different elements – opening rate or click rate 5. Make a plan for what to test and in which order 6. Test one thing at a time 7. Make sure that your test time is long enough to allow a representative amount of your test group to open the email. The longer the test time, the more representative the result 8. If you want to be able to draw long term conclusions, repeat your test at least three times

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Test your event driven communications The event driven or data driven email marketing will not be sent in bulk, like newsletters and campaigns, but one message at a time when a recipient fits a criterion for receiving an email. Therefore, when you want to test those kinds of emails, other methods are needed. Compost recommends that you use different versions of the communications you want to test over a period of time, and then evaluate the results.

The period of time for testing depends on how often someone fits the criterion for receiving an email. If, say, you send out 1.000 order confirmations per day, a couple of days should give you reliable results. If you send out 100 confirmations per day, your test period should be quite a bit longer.

Both content and subject line can be tested in event driven communications too. You can also experiment with including different types of upselling techniques in these activities.

Another good idea is to build a library of different versions that can be adjusted according to season, segmentation or factors that influence what you want to tell your recipients.

â&#x20AC;?

Remember: Everything you test and measure should be in line with your objectives, and give answers that are relevant to them.

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70 EMAIL MARKETING 101

In december 2012, opening rates between different devices were divided as the diagram shows. These numbers come from Compost’s own email system Carma, where the majority of the recipients are Nordic.

9. Mobile Marketing

By Helena Kimber A lot of the information in this book deals with how we, as marketers, can become more flexible in order to align ourselves with our recipients’ behavior in our email marketing. It is also vital that we communicate with them in ways that let them understand what we mean to say, and encourage behavior that suits the individual recipient. This is where mobile marketing comes in. We also need to adapt what we communicate to where and how our recipients choose to receive the information. That’s when we can hit the spot for real.

The reason for mobile marketing not being addressed until the end of the book is not that it is of lesser importance – quite the opposite. Everything we have covered in previous chapters pertains to this one as well. It may be even more important to focus on being relevant, caring and pleasant when we seek to engage the customer’s attention from their pocket or their purse. In this chapter, we will discuss the patterns of mobile recipient behavior and what alternatives we have of responding to it. We’ll also take a look at how text messaging can complement and support your email marketing.

Multi-read or deleted emails According to a lot of different studies, mobile email reading is increasing dramatically. A global survey by world leading email analysts Return Path shows that more people read marketing emails on their phones than in their desktop clients at the end of 2012. Our own studies, with mostly Nordic recipients, show 39 percent of all emails being opened on the phone as of december 2012. In addition to this, many >

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!

people use their mobile to filter emails for later reading at the computer. This means that many emails are culled at the mobile stage. A small few read email marketing communications both in their mobile and on their computer.

How, then, can you succeed in becoming part of the minority whose emails are read on both mobile and computer? Or even better, how can you make your recipients take the desired action at first reading, in their mobile? Here’s how: adapt your communications to the device used for reading them.

How mobile are your recipients?

Before you choose what path to follow in order to adapt your email marketing to mobile reading, you need to get a handle on the recipient behavior for your communications. As with a lot of things in email marketing, the percentage of recipients who read emails on their mobile will vary according to business and target group. Find out what you need to do by investigating these three things: »»

What percentage of your recipients open your emails on their mobile?

»»

What’s the ratio like between different devices (computer, mobile, pad) regarding your different types of communications?

»»

What’s the ratio like between different mobile email clients?

In the cases where a significant amount of your recipients read your emails on their mobiles, you need to ensure that they can digest the information in a pleasant and accessible way, and that they can participate in the experience you as a sender want to provide.

Three ways of being mobile Your primary objectives as a sender are creating an experience, being relevant and showing that you care about the recipient. Therefore, your emails should be adapted to the reader, wherever they want to read your email. But you should also create a flow that is adapted especially for mobile devices, in order to enable conversion or drive other desired behaviors.

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Usage ratio between the five most common clients used to open emails, Compost, december 2012.

Depending on your opening ratio between mobile devices and desktops, there are different ways that work best for reaching your recipients. Of course, which path you choose will also depend on your system’s support for mobile adaptation and your possibilities of creating mobile flows. These are the three most common ways of adapting your email marketing to mobiles.

Mobile design – when all recipients are mobile The easiest way of being mobile is to gear everything toward the mobile readers, both in content and design. The downside of this option is that you neglect the experience of the recipients who prefer desktop reading. Therefore, you should only choose optimizing for mobile if an extremely high percentage of your recipients are mobile readers. The percentage should be close to 100 percent. Not only the email itself, but also the flow you want your recipients to follow, needs to be completely adapted to mobile, which is less than optimal for those who open your email on a > computer.

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Responsive emails – for responsive landing pages Responsive design means that the resolution of the email is adapted to the device used to show it. The content is the same, but the size of it differs between devices to achieve maximum readability. Using responsive design works best if you also have a responsive web page to refer to. That makes for a well-working flow from email to web site.

Recipient-driven – different content for mobile and desktop in one email Recipient-driven email is the choice that best meets the needs of different recipients, supports different devices and adapts the content to where it’s read. This means that you adapt your communications for both desktop and mobile. Simply put, you create two versions of the same email, one for mobile and one for desktop, with different types of content. The kind of device used to open it determines which version is shown.

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The best way is when the email automatically adapts the design and content depending on device – desktop or mobile.

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With a separate, mobile email, the sender can adapt content and flow to recipient behavior in different devices. The important advantage here is that you can direct mobile readers to a mobile web site and desktop readers to your regular site. If you don’t have a mobile site, the objective of the mobile email might be informing the reader of the benefits of opening the email on their computer. Or you may want to direct the recipient to other mobile-friendly options: finding a store, comparing prices, gathering information on Twitter or through other channels, liking your Facebook > page, downloading an app or perhaps calling in an order.

Send/receive emails Women

Visiting news websites

Men

Social networking (Facebook, Twitter …)

GPS-app to find out more about a location and things nearby (restaurants, shops …)

Play and download games, images, videos or music Podcasts Read or download e-books

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90 100%

How women and men (age 16-74) use their mobile phones or other handheld devices outside their home or workplace, first quarter 2012.

Source: SCB (Sweden)

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!

It may sound complicated to make two versions of every communication – but the principle is simple. Your email template should include support for creating a mobile email. Defining what differences there should be between the different versions is something you only need to do once per template. Create your regular email, click the button for creating a mobile mail, and you’re ready to send. When the email is opened on a mobile phone it will have a special design with mobile adapted content. When opened on a desktop, it’s a regular newsletter or transaction message optimized for desktop reading.

Mobile email design No matter how you choose to adapt your communications to mobile reading, we have a few useful, concrete tips to help you create the best mobile experience. The tips below are mainly geared towards making a mobile version of a recipient-adapted email, but you can also use them if you choose any of the other two paths. If a large percentage of your recipients use Iphones to open your emails, you have more scope to work with images and design, since images (as of now) are shown automatically. Android mobiles work a little differently depending on make and model.

Your ESP can give you more information on the current situation.

Things to consider with mobile emails: »»

What do you want your mobile email to achieve? Direct action or later desktop reading?

»»

If action is your objective – make sure your entire flow is mobile

»»

Use a reasonable amount of content, and create variation between images, icons and text

»»

Don’t make your images too large, and don’t make them too small.

»»

Use large buttons or images rather than links

»»

Your font size should be 14-22 points

»»

Bold typeface accentuates your introductions well

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”

Remember: A finger is larger than a cursor.

»»

Make navigation clear and simple

»»

300-320 pixels is a good width

»»

If you go with recipient-driven emails, choose a subject line that works for both versions

»»

Use a pre-header that gives more information about the content (more on pre-headers in chapter 7)

All of the above may change over time. Check with your ESP to find out what works best before you start designing.

Cross-pollinate your marketing through texts Another mobile path you may want to explore is communication via text messages.

You can either create a separate text message campaign, or combine it with your email marketing. Texting is a good idea when your message is instant, when you want your recipients to act fast, and when your information is very relevant to them – for example, an item they ordered is in the post or a reminder of a booking they made.

Incoming texts, when the recipient or the customer sends you a text message to confirm an order, enter a contest, RSVP to an event or anything else your customers can do, are an effective complement to other communication. Incoming texts provide the recipient with a simple opportunity of acting upon communications that otherwise do not encourage interactivity, for example postal campaigns or outdoor billboards. >

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Mobilize It’s difficult to predict what will work in mobile marketing tomorrow, when we’re not yet sure how we as marketers should respond to today’s mobile behavior. Most probably, we will need to move quicker and think in novel ways when we plan and implement our communication flows, as well as always being ready to evaluate what we do and dare to change our ways of thinking. This is true for traditional email marketing as well. We need to improve our ways of acting on the information we acquire through statistics and KPIs, and we need to challenge ourselves in order to grow. At the same time, we must never lose sight of our objectives. As long as our actions serve the satisfied customer, we have nothing to lose, only trust to gain.

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Remember: No matter how and where your email marketing is read, it should always be based on consideration and respect for the recipient.

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!

Checklist before sending communications In email marketing, the time between concept and communications is often very short. It’s a good idea to take the time to go over your message thoroughly before activating your communications project or sending out your newsletter.

Here’s a checklist that you can use with every project. Feel free to add items that are important in your own communication.

1. EnSURE that you’re clear about these three points (chapter 4, Recipient, customer, subscriber – who’s who?)

Sender Unsubscribe opportunity REason

2. Is it clear to the recipient why they are receiving this particular email at this particular time? (chapter 5, The art of hitting the spot)

3.The flow from inbox to clicking should be logical and not repetitive (chapter 7, Content and composition).

Check your: »» »» »» »» »»

80 CHECKLIST

Subject line Pre-header Header Text and content Landing page, if applicable

4. Use the Content Checklist (chapter 2, What do you want to achieve?) »» »» »»

Is the communication in line with your objectives and goals?

Does the content support your sales processes?

Are you being clear about the benefit for the recipient?

5. Does the email give the impression you want to give? (chapter 3, Impression and experience)

6. Have you used the recipient information you have? (chapter 6, Personal and relevant) »» »»

Is all the content relevant to all the recipients? If not – segment!

Have you used data to personalize the email?

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7. Have you adapted the email to the recipients’ preferred devices? (chapter 9, Mobile marketing)

results you hope to achieve. Therefore, be sure to: »»

You should be able to answer yes to one of the questions below:

»»

»»

»»

»» »»

Does your email have a mobile version?

Is your email responsive?

Is your email adapted for mobile reading?

8. Test and proofread your communication in several ways: »» »» »» »» »» »»

Make sure your template is tested with different email clients Test the email with different mobiles Does the content make sense even if images aren’t shown?

Do the landing pages deliver what the links or buttons promise?

Ask your colleagues to proofread Ask a third party to read and answer the questions why they have received this email and what its objective is

Choose which KPIs are most suitable for measuring your results Define what rates you want to reach for the different KPIs Decide when to measure results

10. All done? Don’t send it yet!

Regardless of whether you’re working on a newsletter, an order confirmation or a service email, you should never press the send button right after you consider it finished. Instead, schedule the newsletter or campaign, to be sent a day or so after you’ve completed it. This applies to automated flows as well. Doing so gives you time to think of improvements and changes that benefit the communication.

As we all know, after letting a project rest for a little while, we can see it with fresh new eyes.

If you can’t think of anything to change after a day – go ahead!

9. Follow up (chapter 8, Measuring, testing and following up) Before you press the send button, you should have a clear picture of what

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Word list – Fredrik explains Here are some explanations of words and concepts that are commonly used in email marketing. Fredrik Balck, head of support and training at Compost, explains what they mean.

Abandoned cart email. Email that is sent to a recipient who has not completed a purchase in a webshop.

Alt text. Text behind an image that explains what the image shows when the image is not loaded.

API. Application Programming Interface, sets of instructions for how a system or a software application is to communicate with another system. Integration documentation.

Big data. Large amounts of data on customer behavior, purchase history, personal data and other information that needs to be structured to be of use to your marketing.

Click rate. The ratio of clicks to number of opened emails in an email project.

Compost ERFA group. Themed strategic meetings with groups of high-level email marketers and Carma users.

Content. The text and images that make up the contents of an email.

82 WORD LIST

Content Checklist. A method and a model that helps create email content that is in line with the objectives of the communication.

Conversion rate. The ratio of recipients who have acted in a desired way, for example made a purchase. Often measured in relation to number of clicks.

CRM. Customer Relationship Management, or simply put, list of customers.

Customer support emails. The emails your customer support sends in response to incoming emails.

Data driven email marketing. When data is used to drive relevant email marketing. Often automated.

Deliverability. The ability to make emails reach the recipients’ inboxes. A very important aspect that is not covered in this book – but if you follow our recommendations you’ll be on the right track. For technical aspects of this, along with current tips, visit compost.se.

BETTER EMAIL MARKETING

Desktop. The place where you dump all your documents and need to clean up once in a while because it looks way too messy to use when making a presentation for management. The main workspace, or desk, of your computer.

ESP. Email Service Provider, either a company that supplies systems for email marketing or a company that provides email services such as Hotmail or Gmail.

Confusingly enough, the term is used for both these kinds of services.

Double opt-in. A registration for a newsletter or campaign emails that is authenticated via a link in a confirmation email. This is used in order to validate the registered email address.

External event. An event in the world around us that is relevant to communicate about.

Email campaign. A special offer or similar content in an email with the primary purpose of creating conversion or otherwise driving sales.

Email client. The programs used to receive and send email, such as Outlook or Applemail.

Email marketing. All types of legitimate marketing communications that a company or an organization sends to their customers, members or subscribers through the email channel.

Email shop assistant. The digital communication that conveys the experience of a pleasant shop assistant who helps the customer make decisions and enhances the shopping experience.

ERP. Enterprise Resource Planning, i.e. your business system or e-business platform.

Event-driven email marketing. When emails are sent to a specific recipient as a response to an event happening or not happening.

Event-driven communications. Flows based on events, often automated. Can refer to both email and text messages.

Hard bounce. An email address that does not work or is inactive/no longer in use.

Header. Usually refers to the introductory text or ”call to action” in an email.

Image loading. When images are loaded or shown in an email, either automatically or by the customer’s choice.

Internal event. An event in your business that may be a reason for communicating.

KPI. We use two types of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). One concerns

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click rates, conversion rates and so on.

The other type is more strategic and often connected to concrete and financial objectives, such as profit, value and ROI.

Marketing automation. Communication based on recipient data, often used when working with customer lifecycles where flows are pre-defined and handled automatically by the system.

Mobile adapted email. When an email is adapted to being read on a mobile phone as first screen, through being responsive or adapted to the device being used.

Mobile email marketing. Communication that is adapted and tailored to being opened on a mobile phone.

Newsletter. A subscribed communication from a company or organization.

Opening rate. The ratio of opened emails to number of recipients in an email project. An email is counted as opened if images have been loaded or a click registered.

Opt in. Active registration to receive a newsletter or campaign emails.

Opt out. Choosing to unsubscribe from a newsletter or other emails.

84â&#x20AC;&#x192; WORD LIST

Ostensible objective. What we want our customers to perceive as the objective of the communication.

Personalization. When your communications include content based on customer or recipient data.

Pre-header. A part of the email that some email clients show next to the header.

Recipient. A person you send communications to as a consequence of them taking an action. Subscribers are included in this category.

Recipient adapted email. An email that is adapted to the recipient regarding both content and device usage.

Relationship event. An event that pertains to the relationship between the company and the customer.

Response rate. The ratio of recipients who click, respond or act in the desired way.

ROI. Return on Investment. The financial outcome in relation to the financial investment.

Segmentation. Creating different groups among your recipients in order to direct relevant content. Can be used

BETTER EMAIL MARKETING

both with separate communications and when creating content.

Soft bounce. A temporary obstacle to reaching an email address.

Spam. Unwanted and illegal email advertising.

Subject line. Description of the content of an email, shown in the inbox.

Subscriber. Someone who has made an active choice to register as recipient of a newsletter or campaign emails.

Survey. A questionnaire where a recipient can give answers/grade your services/answer questions.

Template. The framework that determines what your email can contain and optimizes how it’s shown in different email clients.

Trigger. An automated instant message that is triggered by a recipient’s action.

Controlled by the system.

Unsubscription. The option to stop receiving newsletters or campaign communications from a sender. This should be included in all communication that is not directly connected to a purchase or similar (for example, order confirmations).

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A few words about Compost and Carma™

Build better email marketing At Compost, we help our clients create effective email marketing. Hundreds of businesses and organizations use our tool Carma to create, send and follow up newsletters and email communications.

We have the best clients in the world!

You’re in control of editing

Among our clients are companies within the retailing industry, e-commerce, education, travelling, newspaper and media, gaming, insurance, health, banks, government and many others.

Your communications are handled in an editor that gives you a visual overview of your email and lets you edit with an easy-to-use drag and drop function. You can choose different types of elements and control what content gets sent to which recipient.

Many options, one interface No matter which of Carma’s many functions you use, you work in the same interface. That’s what makes it so simple to switch between different functions, or use them all at once! You can easily send newsletters, build event-driven and data-driven communications, send text messages, send App-push notifications (new!) or create surveys using the same platform.

Follow up Using Carma’s comprehensive and detailed statistics, you can easily measure impact and effect.

You can also get an overview of effect changes over time, regarding opening rates, click rates, conversion or other actions that are important to your particular business.

The way you like it

Would you like to build better email marketing?

Carma’s tool for creating and sending out email communications is built on the principles of simplicity, reliability and flexibility. The key to this is the dynamic templates. With a dynamic template, you can easily create a new email with flexible graphic elements, without compromising on design or deliverability.

Contact us! www.compost.se Compost Marketing AB

Stockholm • Malmö • Copenhagen • Montreal • Hong Kong

Carma™ – all functions you need for effective email marketing, in one tool

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