1. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © eBusiness Programme Top 20 Email Marketing Tips “in one hour we’ll equip you with tools, hints and tips to develop and deliver an effective email marketing campaign” Will Ingleby BluebirdCRM.co.uk

2. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Top 20 Email Marketing Tips 1.Develop a digital strategy 2.Get permission 3.Understand the law 4.Deliver value 5.Make quality a priority 6.Manage frequency 7.Consider timing 8.Cleanse your data 9.The ‘From’ line 10. Craft a good subject line 11. Design for the inbox 12. Personalise your message 13. Use a strong Call To Action (CTA) 14. Use html but keep it simple 15. Consider ‘text’ alternatives 16. Don’t assume delivery 17. Use the proper tools 18. Create good landing pages 19. ‘Web 2.0’ email marketing 20. Viral email marketing

3. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 1. Develop a digital strategy If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never going to get there! Define how email marketing will contribute towards your business development strategy Be realistic (it takes time to build a trust relationship with your ‘targets’) Make some time to analyse what you did, and use that knowledge to improve what you do next (email marketing is the ‘long game’)

4. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 1. Develop a digital strategy * U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, New Methods in Search Marketing: Contextual Advertising and Other Evolutions (Safa Rashtchy), Cost per lead across various direct marketing methods Source: Piper Jaffray & Co.

5. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 2. Get permission Expressed Consent v Implied Consent: Expressed Consent typically means: Better response rates Increased trust and brand affinity Better deliverability Click-Through Rates (CTR)… Expressed = 10-20% Implied = 1-5%

6. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 2. Get permission Attitude towards the email when opened… ExpressedImplied Curious to read it48%16% Eager to read it13%4% Indifferent to it30%3% Somewhat annoyed7%76% Delete it without reading it2%1%

7. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 2. Get permission

8. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 3.Understand the law 1. You cannot transmit unsolicited marketing email to an individual subscriber unless they have previously notified you that they consent, for the time being, to receiving such communications. (Exception to rule - ‘soft opt in‘ (Regulation 22(2) refers). 2. You cannot transmit marketing email (solicited or unsolicited) to any subscriber where: the identity of the sender has been disguised or concealed a valid address to which the recipient can send an opt-out request has not been provided. *Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003

9. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Soft opt-in (Regulation 22(3))? You may send marketing emails to an individual subscriber where: A. You obtained contact details of recipient in the course of a sale or negotiations for sale of a product or service ; B. Content relates to similar products/services; recipient has been given a simple means of refusing the use of their contact details at time initially collected and, where they did not refuse, at time of each subsequent communication. *Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 3.Understand the law

10. 4. Deliver value

11. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 5. Make Quality A Priority Double Opt-in: Where user subscribes for newsletter or other email messages by explicit request and confirms the email address to be his own.

12. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 6. Manage Frequency Q. How often should you broadcast marketing emails? A.When you have something new and/or interesting/valuable to communicate Email your customers often enough that you don't lose contact with them…but be careful not to alienate them by contacting them too much.

13. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 7. Timing: When To Broadcast Source: Constant Contact DayTimeOpen Rate Tuesday / Wednesday 11:30am - 11:30pm 50-62% Thursday3:30pm34-44% Friday9:30am18%

14. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 8. Cleanse Your Data Address churn means that old data is likely to contain a higher percentage of bad emails than you think! If you use old and unchecked data you may be wasting your time and your money…

15. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 9. Don’t Underestimate the ‘From’ Line Commercial recipients open emails from a sending company they have subscribed to or from a sender whose name they recognise* Choose a ‘From’ line that recipients are most likely to identify with Many email marketers use ‘real names’ in the ‘From’ line to suggest a personal connection Consider company names or subject names if these will assist the recipient in identification of: A. You as the sender B. Your message *Forrester

16. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 9. ‘From’ line examples… From: “Will Ingleby” Where I’m targeting people who know me, anticipate and look forward to receiving MY communications From: “BluebirdCRM” Where I’m targeting people who are likely to be familiar with my corporate brand or have subscribed to a company newsletter From: “Sage ACT! Specialists” Where I’m targeting people who may not be as aware of my brand (‘implied’ opt-ins)

17. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 10. Craft a Good Subject Line Get the key message at the beginning of the line Try to keep your subject line within 30-35 characters Consider using this structured construct: 1. Description 2. Differentiator / Value Add 3. Call To Action

18. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 10. Subject Line Example Good… “ACT! Software Training Near You Book Now” Not So Good… “Offer ends 30/09/09: Guaranteed visitors to your site” “Optimise your daily budget to get more clicks”

19. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 11. Design Emails For The Inbox Get your key message ‘above the fold’ (and preferably in the top left corner!) Use text and html colours rather than images Setup a test group using various email clients and internet email accounts

20. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 11. Design Emails For The Inbox

21. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 11. Design Emails For The Inbox

22. Default Image Blocking Settings in Mail Clients Source: www.campaignmonitor.comwww.campaignmonitor.com 11. Design Emails For The Inbox

23. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 12. Personalize For Greater Relevance Dear Sir/Madam, We would like to invite your company to join our network of approved internet suppliers of IT products and services to the catering industry… Dear Will, As a leading supplier of CRM software from your online shop at www.BluebirdCRM.co.uk, we thought you might like to join our network of approved suppliers to the catering industry...

24. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Email Marketing Process Email sent Delivered to inbox Not immediatel y deleted OpenedReadActioned Website visit Click through to shop Purchase made

25. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 12. Personalize For Greater Relevance

26. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 13. Use a Strong Call To Action (CTA)

27. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 14. Use ‘HTML’ But Keep It Simple For (html) Create visually appealing emails that stand out in the ‘inbox’. You can differentiate yourself and deliver a more inspirational message that could induce the reader to respond to your ‘call to action’. Against (html) There is no guarantee that your email will be ‘rendered’ the way you intended as html is interpreted in different ways by different ‘email clients’. Some spam filters may ‘score against’ html emails.

28. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 14. Use ‘HTML’ But Keep It Simple

29. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 14. Use ‘HTML’ But Keep It Simple

30. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 15. Consider ‘text’ alternatives html emails will not be correctly ‘rendered’ where: The email is opened in a mail client that only supports text based email The recipient has configured their mail client to render all inbound emails as text The recipients employer/organisation has configured its mail server to only pass mail through as text The recipient is reading email on a device that does not support html (some blackberry, PDA, mobile phone devices etc…)

31. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 15. html rendered as html

32. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 15. html rendered as text

33. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 15. Text Email

34. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Currently, 80%+ of email traffic is spam ISPs and Internet Email Providers (IEPs) such as Yahoo and Hotmail need to maintain 4X in extra hardware and processing capacity to handle this volume Not all words that trigger Spam filters are obvious seemingly innocuous words such as ‘tips’, ‘enter’, ‘sample’, ‘private’, ‘reserved’, ‘products’ and ‘introductory’ could be viewed by filters as “spammy” 16. Don’t Assume Emails Will Be Delivered

35. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 16. Don’t Assume Emails Will Be Delivered Bayes Theory “The probability that an email is spam, given that it has certain words in it, is equal to the probability of finding those certain words in spam email, times the probability that any email is spam, divided by the probability of finding those words in any email”

36. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 16. Don’t Assume Emails Will Be Delivered

37. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © MailingCheck from sendblaster.com 16. Don’t Assume Emails Will Be Delivered

38. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Standard Email Programs (e.g. Outlook, Hotmail) are not designed for group email messaging… Limited number of emails can be sent at one time Message can be filtered, blocked or undelivered without notice No tracking and reporting of email results If messages perceived as spam, entire corporate email server can be blocked by ISPs Legal compliance is manual 17. Use the Proper Tools

39. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 17. Use the Proper Tools Many ‘ESP’s (Email Service Providers) offer tools to assist mass mail delivery from about £10 per month (there are even some free ones). Common features include: Full open and click-through tracking. Opt-out suppression Drip-marketing Pre-constructed html templates Text alternatives Spam filter checkers Integration with analytics Double opt-in …. and much more

41. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 18. Create Good Landing Pages Unless your ‘landing page’ is structured to convert your visitors into customers, or to gain some kind of commitment from them, your investment in email marketing could be wasted!

42. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 19. Recognise the benefits of web 2.0 Web 1.0 - pure information gathering (email = simple message delivery) Web 2.0 - combines information gathering with collaboration (email = personalised messages with content appropriate to expressed preferences) Web 3.0 - The ‘net won’t just be a place for interacting with others; The web itself will interact with you, learning what you want, who you are, and what you might do in the future

43. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © 20. Don’t Ignore Viral Email Marketing "viral marketing's rubbish, tell yer mates“ Some advantages of effective Viral email marketing are: High response rates Spam mails can be avoided Reliable word of mouth recommendations Achieving high target in less time High pass along rate Gradual link building

44. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © The Law And Best Practices Data Protection Act 1998 Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 Direct Marketing Association Best Practice Guidelines for Email Marketing

45. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Data Protection Act - Registration

46. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 Information Commissioner’s Office The Information Commissioner's Office is the UK's independent authority set up to promote access to official information and to protect personal information ICO will have more extensive fining powers. www.ico.gov.uk

47. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © DMA Guidelines On Email Marketing Campaigns ‘the right message... ’ - is it the right product? - is it the right incentive? - is the tone appropriate? - is it the right call to action? - is the email format appropriate? ‘...the right person...’ - is it going to the right segment? - how can you personalise the message? ‘... at the right time’ customer buying cycle?, time of year, month, week? event associated?

48. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © www.EmarketingTips.co.uk You can download: This presentation Email marketing services – free tool downloads ICO Guidelines on Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive Data Protection Act 1998 (Office of Public Sector Information) Data Protection Notification Handbook DMA Email Marketing Council Best Practice Guidelines

49. Copyright Bluebird Sales and Marketing Ltd 2009 © Next Steps Complete Evaluation Form Further Support Action Planning Workshops Business Support Advisers www.businesslink.gov.uk/eastmidlands Tel: 0845 058 6644 Email: info@businesslinkem.co.uk