Intro to digital marketing - Chapter 8: Email marketing

The costs of using a pop-up ad to collect email addresses 

1. The company has to forgo revenue

2. The customer’s shopping may be impacted and potentially decrease the conversion

These costs may be negated by sending a user marketing emails

The 3 most important lessons in email capture

1. Companies must be purposeful in capturing emails, as email addresses are valuable

2. Customers should have incentives to give their email addresses (e.g. discount)

3. Customers should know they’re signing up for marketing emails

The difference between single opt-in and double opt-in

• Single opt-in instantly adds the user’s email address to the marketing list

• Double opt-in needs a verification link from a verification email to be clicked to be added to the list

Open rate

Emails opened/delivered; a 20% open rate is average and is also a good indicator of the subject line’s quality

Click through rate

Emails clicked/delivered; its average is 3.5%

Conversion rate

Transactions/sessions generated via email; good sites have conversion rates of 3% - 5%, and may have high CTR with a low conversion rate, or vice versa

Average order value

Tracking the success of an email campaign/individual email by combining open rate, CTR, conversion rate, and average order value

List churn

How often emails are causing people to unsubscribe

Spam filters

Systems that use sophisticated methods of finding which firms are using illicit practices in any part of their email marketing

Bounces

Emails sent out by the company that don’t reach the destination in-box

Hard bounce

The email address is fake, bad, or wrong, and the email gets sent back

Hard bounce (con’t)

The address should be removed from the list immediately

Soft bounces

The recipient’s inbox is full and the email gets rejected

Soft bounce (con’t)

The address should be removed from the list after several soft bounces in a row (usually 4 or more)

Non-opening (unopened)

When the recipient hasn’t opened their email in several months, they should be removed from the email list

The perks of using double opt-in

Helps ensure:

1. Real people are subscribing

2. People aren’t marking a firm’s emails as spam/junk

3. People are opening emails frequently 

Other ways of avoiding spam filters

• Offer an easy to use unsubscribe option in every email 

• Immediately comply with unsubscribe requests

Customer relationship management (CRM)

A company’s efforts to manage its interactions with current and potential customers

Email and CRM

Leads are kept within the marketing teams to be nurtured via regular emails from the company

Email and CRM (con’t)

Measurement of email response (e.g. if it’s been opened or if stuff in the email has been clicked)

Is important as it can indicate when a lead has been nurtured sufficiently and should go to the sales team

Email and CRM (III)

Allows for sophisticated segmenting, as a CRM system has more info about a client than the email address 

e.g. their company, position, site history of a contact

Marketing automation

Software that allows a firm to automate and optimize digital marketing efforts across multiple channels,

e.g. A marketing automation system can automatically tailor email content to a lead’s interest in IT infrastructure management 

AI in email marketing

AI is being used to enhance data from each email contact and allow for more fine-grained segmentation, as well as allowing for mass customization and reducing costs

The goal of online retail emails

Generate additional purchases by sending discounts and/or promotions on certain merch to their email list, as well as emails about new or recommend products based on past purchases

The goal of lead generation emails

Implementing profitable marketing strategies and sending regular emails to maintain long-term relationships with customers

e.g. A real estate agent sends out emails with tips and prices to those they know are looking for a new home

The goal of search engine emails

Letting customers know about deals on hotels via regular emails

The goal of online media emails

Making money when users spend time on their sites by sending them a daily email about the day’s top content

The goal of online B2B service emails

Establishing the company as a market leader as well as convincing customers of their service’s value

Best times to send emails

B2B emails - regular business hours

Online retail - early evening

Transactional emails

When a customer makes a purchase from a retailer but doesn’t sign up for the email list, the retailer may send them an email about the transaction

Transactional emails (con’t)

Can also be reciepts for online purchases

Broadcast emails

Emails that go out at timed intervals to all or part of a company’’s email list

Triggered emails

Sending emails outside of the regularly scheduled emails based on one’s actions

e.g. Sending an email when one someone sends an email outside of business hours

Onboarding emails

Emails sent to those to recently signed up for the email list with content such as welcome offers, invites to connect on social media, etc

What should a subject line do?

Should accurately describe the email’s content to get the customer to read more; A/B testing can also be used to test maximum email effectiveness 

What should each unique section of a site do?

Each unique section of an email should take the user to a dedicated landing page for it

e.g. If a customer clicks on a section of an email touting 10% of clothes in an email, then they should go to a page showing clothes 10% off

The email path to conversion

Email open rate formula

Open rate divded by number of emails delivered

Email Click through rate formula

Number of emails clicked divided by number of emails delivered

Email Click through rate formula (II)

Number of emails clicked divided by number of emails opened

Email conversion rate formula

Conversions divided by clicks

What to do for a low open rate

Improve the subject line

What to do for a low CTR

Improve the email’s content

i.e brevity, spelling/grammer, have a hook, call to action, etc

What to do for a low conversion rate

Improve the landing page

i.e. Having good spelling/grammar, have it match the email’s, content

What should be in the subject line?

Straightforward and descriptive content that also avoids selling

What should be done for the ad copy?

There should be an appropriate format (e.g format vs. text) and tested and linked

What should be done for the unsubscribe button?

It should be easy to find and collect reasons as to why the user’s unsubscribing

What can KPIs be used to plan for?

• Best dates/times to send emails

• Writing subject lines

• Creating content

• Customer segmentation