Email marketing doesn’t need to be complex. Join Mike Madden, Sr. Demand Generation Program Manager at Marketo, to learn the fundamentals of email marketing. We'll define the metrics, discuss copy and design, and give you the essentials you need to understand and implement a bulletproof email marketing strategy.
You'll learn:
- How to write subject lines that beg to be opened
- Best practices for testing and measuring your email campaigns
- Pitfalls, perils, and how to avoid them
1. Intro to Email Marketing
Mike Madden
Sr. Demand Generation Program Manager
Marketo
2. • This webinar is being recorded! Slides and recording will be sent to
you after the webinar concludes.
• Have a question? Use the chat box and I’ll get to your questions
after the webinar.
• Posting to social? Use our hashtag - #mktgnation
• There is a brief survey after the webinar
Housekeeping
From Name – Who sent this email? Should I open it? The From Name embodies your brand and should differentiate you from other emails.
From Address – This is extremely similar in importance to the From Name. Does this seem like a reputable sender? Does this email look valid?
Reply-to: Make sure to use an email address that can receive responses and that you have a process set up to account for them.
Subject Line – This is the “Why should I open this email/read this email?” We’ll talk more about these in a few minutes.
Pre-header – This is the first text from your email, which is pulled in to compliment the subject line. Be sure to use these to help entice the open!
Let’s go over each of these one by one.
Social buttons are a great addition to any email because it allows recipients to view something other than the intended offer. If someone clicks to follow your company on Facebook, it’s a great way for that subscriber to warm up to your brand and hopefully make a purchase down the road. In my own tests, I’ve seen that having social buttons actually increases clicks on the main offer.
The imagery/headline is the “handshake” to your email. It tells the subscriber why they should care and what the offer is. Choose art that is visually compelling and add in headlines and subheadlines to entice the subscriber to read further.
In my opinion, the copy for a single offer email should be no more than 3-5 sentences. Give the prospect the benefit and value in as short and sweet of a way as possible. Anything longer than that will likely lose attention and not get clicked.
The call to action should be big, bold, and bright with contrasting color. This is your email conversion point. Make sure it’s consistent with the copy and stands out for the recipient.
Lastly, every email needs an unsubscribe link to stay CAN-SPAM compliant, unless it is an operational email like a receipt. Make sure it’s clearly labeled so recipients that do want to opt-out know how to do it.
Blacklist – a realtime database of IP addresses that are suspected of being spammers. There are several blacklists including Spamhaus, Barracuda, and Spam Cop. If your IP gets placed on a blacklist, good luck getting your emails delivered. Maintain a healthy database with clean opt-in practices and you should be fine.
Spam – Unsolicited email or any email that is unwanted
Spam trap – an email address that is old, inactive or unused intentionally set up to catch spammers.
Spam complaint – when a recipient marks your email as spam
Whitelist – a list of approved IP addresses and senders. Oftentimes, you should ask your subscribers to whitelist your email domain because that ensures your emails get placed in their inboxes.
Opt-In – a recipient has given you consent to send them marketing emails. Sending to folks that didn’t actually opt-in to your communications is considered spam.
BOUNCE MANAGEMENT
You know that one friend who’s horrible at telling stories? You know, where 15 minutes into telling their story, you begin thinking “Where is this even going? Are we ever going to hear the good part?” And by the time they finally get to the good part, you’ve already checked out. Yeah, some subject lines are just like that—don’t let it be yours.
People want to know why your email is more important than the thousands of others in their inbox, so put all the important, actionable words in the front of your subject line to entice opens. In other words, get to the point! In my experience, changing the structure of the sentence line to front-load the important keywords has increased open rates by 10-20%.
Let’s take a look at a recent email from eMarketer. “9 Clever, Must-Try Emails” catches the eye and leaves you begging for more.
There’s usually at least one person in every office who can’t seem to remember anyone’s first name. Mike is Matt, Joe is John, and Stacy is Stephanie. They might try to get around it by using nicknames like sport, bud, pal, dude, man, bro, and fella. For the record, no one likes that, especially not your email subscribers. Address your subscribers by their name or insert pronouns like “you” or “your” to give your subject lines a personalized touch. According to Experian, emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened (although it varies by industry), yet 70% of brands are not personalizing emails sent to subscribers. That’s a huge opportunity for your brand to stand out!
SiriusXM recently sent me this email about my free trial. Just by adding my name to the subject line, it made me feel like they see me as a person, not just a potential conversion, and that they’re truly interested in helping me achieve the best experience.
This might seem weird, but I have always seen subject lines that use rhymes, alliteration, or puns do really well. Have you ever read a word or name over and over again until it either sounds weird or gets funnier each time? My word is “hullabaloo,” which means a great noise or excitement. Or have you ever read a subject line that was so clever it deserved to be opened?
If you can write a subject line that rolls off the tongue, you will get a higher open rate. It’s like music to the ears! It’s not easy to come up with these but when you do, they will perform exceedingly well. In fact, I’ve seen extraordinary subject line performance where I’ve beaten the control by 30-40%! For some inspiration, just take a look at some of the session names from SXSW. Some of my favorites from previous years? “Social Music Marketing: Bands, Brands and Fans” and “An Unusual Arsenal: Tech Tools to Topple a Tyrant.”
Character limits (stay between 35-55 characters)
Avoid spam words/ALL CAPS. Words like free, discount, and fast cash are just a few examples.
Test, test, test. The subject line is the doorway into your email. You should test when you can to determine what types of subject lines work best for your audience.
Use numbers and lists. People tend to interpret the word in lists because it’s easier to understand concepts or large ideas when they are grouped together. Give it a try!
In a 2011 case study conducted by AWeber communications, they found that a clear subject line gets 541% more clicks than one that’s clever.
I think clear usually beats clever is because clear subject lines tend to have better consistency into the body of the email, which accounts for higher raw clicks. No tricks, no clickbait, and no question about what the email actually contains.
A few examples of clever subject lines that I’ve seen are “you’re not alone”, “it’s finally here”, and “still doing it the old way?”
For clear subject lines, here are a few that I’ve used: “9 Must-Try Email Subject Lines”, “Your Winning Personalization Strategy”, and “3 Steps to Winning Customer Loyalty”
The clear subject lines might not seem as sexy or luring, but they work exceedingly well.
Poor list hygiene means that you don’t manage your database when there are unsubscribes, soft bounces, hard bounces and spam complaints. Make sure you remove all hard bounced emails the first time because continuing to send to them hurts your deliverability and reputation as an email sender. If someone unsubscribes, make sure you honor their request. And if someone marks you as spam, definitely don’t email them again!
Lastly, test only one variable at a time, otherwise you don’t know what or which variable provided a lift/decrease in your email performance. By isolating one variable at a time, you can know exactly what is improving your emails.