The Good, the Bad, and the Best: Practices for a Post “Wild West” Email Marketing World
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Adopting email marketing best practices isn’t about ticking boxes. It’s about execution. Join Chad White, ExactTarget’s Principal of Marketing Research and the author of “Email Marketing Rules: How to Wear a White Hat, Shoot Straight, and Win Hearts,” as he discusses a variety of best practices and shares real-world examples of brands with good, bad and the best executions. Hear real-world examples of brands with good, bad, and the best executions. You’ll see all types of digital content including signup forms, welcome emails, mobile-friendly emails, preheaders, unsubscribe pages, and more.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Best: Practices for a Post “Wild West” Email Marketing World
- 1. The GOOD the BAD and the BEST Practices for a Post-Wild West Email Marketing World
- 2. Elyse Dupré is a reporter at Direct Marketing News and covers ever- evolving trends in the marketing world. She joined Direct Marketing News in August 2012 after graduating from Boston University with a B.S. in journalism and a B.A. in psychology. Moderator: Elyse Dupré @chadswhite #ET13
- 3. • Principal of Marketing Research at ExactTarget • Author of the book Email Marketing Rules • Email Insider Columnist • Blogger for 7+ years (2,500+ posts) Speaker: Chad White @chadswhite #ET13
- 4. What are best practices? @chadswhite #ET13
- 10. “Best practices are those practices that generally produce the best results or minimize risk.” @chadswhite #ET13
- 11. “Following best practices doesn’t make you mediocre, unimaginative or a conformist.” @chadswhite #ET13
- 12. Adopting best practices isn’t about ticking boxes. It’s about execution. @chadswhite #ET13
- 14. Let’s look at the GOOD, the BAD, and the BEST of 8 email marketing practices… @chadswhite #ET13
- 23. Sign up confirmation pages… • Confirm opt-in was successful • Set expectations • Collect more subscriber data • Secure additional opt-ins • Engage with offers or content @chadswhite #ET13
- 41. Under Armour, 5/21/13 — Built To Tackle The Sun & Sand It's Always Sunny Somewhere — Shop Now | View Online. Urban Outfitters, 5/20/13 — Are you ready to get the party started? Shop Summer Party Essentials @chadswhite #ET13
- 42. Victoria’s Secret, 4/16/13 — This one's for you, Angels... You have asked to receive emails from Victoria's Secret. If you have received this email in error, please unsubscribe here. Monterey Bay Aquarium, 5/21/13 — Bid Now for the Oceans: Last Chance! Having trouble reading this message? View it online. Ann Taylor, 5/20/13 — FINAL HOURS! EXTRA 50% Off Sale Final Hours: Take An Extra 50% Off All Sale Styles! @chadswhite #ET13
- 43. West Elm, 2/18/13 — Today only: free shipping (plus a Presidents Day surprise) Use promo code FREE4PRES at checkout, some exclusions apply Threadless, 4/24/13 — Aerosoiled and 9 more new goofy designs by MADE artist Aaron Jay! Plus, hang out while we interview Aaron Jay at 11:30AM CST. @chadswhite #ET13
- 48. < Images on @chadswhite #ET13
- 49. < Images on Images off> @chadswhite #ET13
- 50. < Images on @chadswhite #ET13
- 51. < Images on Images off> @chadswhite #ET13
- 53. < Images on @chadswhite #ET13
- 54. < Images off @chadswhite #ET13
- 63. Lenovo, welcome email — Chad, thank you for signing up. Enjoy your exclusive Lenovo offer. Michael’s, progressive profiling email — Chad, isn't it time we got to know each other? Olive Garden, birthday email — Chad, go celebrate your birthday with a free app or dessert! ThinkGeek, 5/17/13 — Chad, I am your father @chadswhite #ET13
- 64. Subway, 9/4/13 — Chad, it's time to celebrate! Any regular FOOTLONG(TM) is a $5 FOOTLONG(TM) all SUBtember(R) long. (At participating restaurants. Pricing details inside.) Volkswagen, 2/22/13 — Chad, don't miss out on a limited- time offer on the 2013 Passat Chili’s, 7/21/13 — 2 Coupons for Chad Chadwicks, 2/18/12 — , enjoy $4.99 shipping today! @chadswhite #ET13
- 74. Email marketing’s impressive power obscures an unfortunate truth… @chadswhite #ET13
- 75. “Poor practices are blunting email marketing’s effectiveness and keeping its ROI from being truly awesome.” @chadswhite #ET13
- 76. Thank You! Please complete the survey for this session. @chadswhite #ET13
- 77. Email Swipe File pinterest.com/exacttarget/email-swipe-file Plus, reports that showcase the best pins
- 78. Download it for FREE during Connections courtesy of ExactTarget: extg.co/emailmarketingrules @chadswhite #ET13
Editor's Notes
- A little background on me: I founded the Retail Email Blog and authored it for 6.5 years, worked at email marketing agency Smith-Harmon (acquired by Responsys) and at the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council, and started by career in journalism at Dow Jones and Conde Nast.
- Best practices are often misunderstood, with some people confusing best practices with common practices.
- Some take a simplistic tick-the-box view of best practices and claim that if everyone is doing the same thing it leads to mediocrity.
- Even Dilbert takes shots at best practices!
- In my book I compare best practices to a sheet a paper. It is confining to the degree that you have to stay on the paper and not be drawing on the table and floor and walls, but a sheet of paper also gives you lots of freedom for unique executions.
- Your most valuable subscribers always come from your website, making it a critical email acquisition to optimize.
- Southwest Airlines present two clear engagement options: email and an app.
- The email signup form is direct, showing you a sample email, outlining benefits, and asking for just 4 pieces of information in order to sign up.
- Meineke asks for lots of contact information—email, phone numbers, mailing address—making it clear that they’re going to send you direct mail and call you as well as email you. They also want car information that they could get themselves if they focused more on just getting you signed up and encouraging you to redeem your signup incentive coupon.
- EBags has a prominent and simple signup form.
- During early November, eBags added a seasonal appeal to their signup language to boost optins.
- Welcome emails are becoming fairly common, but welcome email series are the new differientiator.
- Threadless uses on brand imagery in their welcome email…
- … and includes four calls-to-action to deepen their relationship with the new subscriber.
- Tide doesn’t try to engage new subscribers at all, is vague about what they’ll be delivering, and their logo suffers rendering problems.
- Zulily sends a series of welcome emails, with the first focused on referrals,…
- … the second on getting to know the new subscriber’s brand preferences so they can send relevant emails in the future,…
- … the third focused on getting them to download their mobile app,…
- … the fourth focused on engaging them on social media, and…
- … the fifth asking for friend referral again. These welcome emails are interspersed with the promotional emails.
- Preheader text often appears as snippet text following a subject line on the iPhone, in Gmail and in Outlook new email notifications.
- The email clients that block images by default have been struck through, but it’s changing all the time.
- This 2011 B&H email uses great defensive design techniques like HTML text and alt text,…
- … which came in handy when this email was sent because their image server failed so no images were displayed.
- This is the Anthropologie email with images on…
- … and this is the same email with images blocked.
- This is the Mothercare email with images enabled…
- … and this is with images blocked.
- The UK retailer uses styled alt text and background colors for most of the effect, but also uses mosaic color blocking to recreate the stroller image.
- Reading email is the No. 1 activity on smartphones and smartphone penetration is still growing, so mobile is a growing consideration.
- Lowe’s email is very tablet-friendly. Even their navigation bar is touch-friendly.
- They limit their product grid to two columns wide, use large text and big buttons.
- They also use plenty of white space to boost contrast and make the text easier to read.
- Costco’s emails are still desktop-oriented. They’re very long, use small text, and have a 5-column wide product grid.
- Currently the height of mobile-friendliness is responsive design. This is a Starwood email viewed on a wide screen…
- … and this is the email viewed on a narrow screen. Some of the less important content drops out and calls-to-actions get bigger.
- The administrative links at the bottom of the email are also touch-friendly.
- Consumers are suspicious of first-name personalization in subject lines. Open rates are lower when it’s used,…
- … as are click rates.
- For this Aug. 2011 email, Helzberg created 60,000 unique animated gifs to target each of their subscribers by name with these charms, which jangled back and forth. The subject line was not personalized. This email outperformed a similar email by nearly 300% in terms of revenue generated.
- The most subscribers opt out because of too frequent or irrelevant emails, so try to address those issues on your unsubscribe page.
- Staples lets you change your email address, opt-down to receive fewer emails, or opt out completely. The options are clearly laid out.
- Uncommon Goods uses a one-click unsubscribe process and the opt-out confirmation page makes no attempt to engage outgoing subscribers in any way. The page, which doesn’t carry any branding or offer any links to anywhere, is cold and almost hostile.
- Jetsetter offers folks the opportunity to change their email address, opt-down to receive fewer email, and to update their interests—which addresses three of the top reasons people unsubscribe.