Tom Walsham - Chief Email Herder at PostageApp.com presents Dave McClure's Pirate Metrics method (AARRR) applied to transactional emails within your application. Tom wraps up with a list of Dos and Don'ts for your transactional email strategy across your customers' lifecycle.

1. Email for Pirates
Plunder Your Customers With
Lifecycle Marketing
Tom Walsham
@tomwalsham
PostageApp.com
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

2. About Me
- Chief Email Herder at PostageApp.com
- Product Development @ The Working Group
I DATA!
- Quest to end dashboards of vanity metrics
- Not a fan of Hockey (-stick graphs)
- Don’t believe anecdatashould drive actions
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

3. Core Concepts
MVP is not just a crappy app. It’s about learning.
Use Actionable Metrics
Have at leasta hypothesis of your Lifecycle (for Science!)
Track your Funnels
– Kissmetrics
– Mixpanel
– Google Analytics
Engage and influence your users
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

4. Funnels
Understanding your user lifecycle is key to
making informed changes to your app
Funnels are the user flows within
Your Product or Application
Guide your users through funnels
In order to maximize…
$$$ REVENUE $$$
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

5. Pirate Metrics
Metrics To Measure
Your Application Lifecycle
Developed by @DaveMcClurein 2007– Angel investor, Founder of 500 Startups
Acquisition – get users to your product
Activation – give a happy first experience
Retention – keep them coming back
Revenue – pillage some $booty
Referral – existing users drive Acquisition
AARRR (geddit)
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

6. Boosting the Pirate Metrics
- Modify User Experience
- UX changes, flow, change buttons!
- Change pricing models
- Make it cheaper/more expensive/more plans
- Social Media
– That’s the catch-all panacea, right?
- Send (transactional) emails!
– “The email address is a little bit different… because you can
proactively contact them…you can annoy the fuck out of them if
you have an email address”
- @davemcclure
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

7. What is Transactional Email?
- Event-driven email – triggered, or flows
- Not list-driven marketing email
- Driven by user behaviours, not assumptions
- Highly personalized
- See Also: Drip, Lifecycle Marketing
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

8. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
1,000,000 visits with no conversions
is a vanity metric
Until your funnel is optimized, this is
the last on your list
Grab email address at earliest point in the funnel
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

9. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
• Turn Visitors into Users
• Complement your marketing
• Offer simple calls-to-action
• Fix your brand in memory
• Win comparison shoppers
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

10. Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Acquisition –
Subject: Welcome to Freshbooks!
Prompt – Event Driven – Personal
Highlights Customer Service as clear differentiator
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

11. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Subject: Get setup quickly with PostageApp
Triggered on passive data – Clear call-to-action
Slower activation cycle requires repeat prompts
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

12. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
• Trigger with active & passive data
• Customize emails with that data
• Expose additional functionality
• Encourage your sticky points
• Remind them you exist
• Often synonymous with Revenue
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

13. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Subject:Amazon.ca recommends The Art Of The Start
Heavily Targeted – Long running campaign – Clear Call-to-action
The good side of Amazon’s retention marketing…
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

14. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Subject:Amazon.com Invites You Back for Fabulous Baby Savings
Triggered by Passive browsing data – Creepy – Don’t show your hand
Sent before friends & family knew my wife was pregnant
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

15. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Subject: Cathy, United States of Tara Season 2 is now on Netflix
Triggered by Viewing History – Drove Retention – Drove referral
Simple CTA for retention-driven company
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

16. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Goal is to Increase your ARPU
(Average Revenue Per User)
Related Purchases Retention drives revenue
eCommerce Ad-based Services
Amazon-style Clicks by visits
Upsells Upgrades
eCommerce&SaaS Software as a Service
Enhancements, Add-ons Pre-emptive plan increases
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

17. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Subject: Raining? We’ve got you covered!
Personalized – Timely – Detailed Call-to-action
Blending External and Internal data
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

18. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Subject: Reminder: Your Free Trial ends soon
Email-only offer to extend – Simple CTA – Sufficient time to act
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

19. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
• Email often plays second fiddle to social media
• More opportunity for richengagement
• Used well can drive massive growth
• Don’t over-use, or risk spamflags
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

20. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Email takes precedence – Less fleeting than Social
Providing significant incentive at both ends increases trust
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

21. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue - Referral
Subject: Tom sent you a video: “Banana Phone”
Not everyone is on Social Media – Prominent in Youtube UI
Let users do your targeting – Rinse & Repeat
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

22. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue – Referral - Re-Engagement
Not a Dave McClure Pirate Metric, but
should be differentiated from retention
• Email marketers commonly ‘refresh’ lists
• Primary message : ‘we want you back’
• Offers drive re-engagement uptake
• Enticing glimpse into what you’re missing
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

23. Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue – Referral - Re-Engagement
Subject: Thomas, you have 21 photo tags and 2 messages
Targeted with aggregate account data – Triggered on passive inaction data
Commonly has high complaint ratio
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

24. Transactional Email Strategy
DO:
• Trigger withrelevant User Action or Inaction
• Consider the timing related to your funnel
• Provide effective Calls-to-action
DON’T:
• Be Creepy by using passive data inappropriately
• Hassle people with overly frequent emails
• Mistarget. Only trigger from live data
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

25. Moving forwards
• A/B Testing
• Complex funnels
• Cohort study
• Graphs – lots of graphs
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

26. Takeaways
Best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago
– Second best time is today
• Track your funnels (if you don’t already)
• Pick a hook in activation or retention
• Plug in some transactional email
• $Profit!
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com

27. More Info
• Startup metrics for Pirates :
http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/09/startup-metrics.html
• PostageApp:
http://www.postageapp.com
• Kiss Metrics – Use Conversion Funnels :
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/use-conversion-funnels/
• Drip Marketing :
http://www.pardot.com/infographic/basics-drip-campaigns-infographic
• Transactional Email Surveys
http://blog.studiofellow.com/2012/07/26/netflix-style-one-click-email-survey-
using-basic-javascript-and-mixpanel/
• Me: tom@postageapp.com / @tomwalsham
Always happy to talk email, metrics, startups or beer. Preferably over beer.
Email For Pirates - #DevTO – Oct 29th 2012 - @tomwalsham – PostageApp.com