3. Executive Summary
• Epsilon and Experian studies show email volume rising along with open rates but click through rates are flat.
• Saturdays and Sundays have the highest engagement and sales metrics compared to any other day of the
week, and emails sent between 8:00 PM and 4:00 AM perform the best.
• B2B and B2C communications have different audiences, therefore, the purchase motivation is different, and
they have different needs when it comes to the information that they need in order to make the decision to
purchase.
• 64% of people say they open an email because of the subject line.
• Research proves that the human eye scans email in an “F” pattern.
• It is imporant to plan your testing strategy and test continuously for continual optimization.
• 56% of businesses say they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2013.
• Including social sharing buttons and video in email proves to drive higher engagement metrics.
• Smartphone users use their devices more for email than for making phone calls.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESEMAIL BEST PRACTICES: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
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5. Experian Marketing Services Q1 2013
Email Benchmark Study
• Email volume rose by 11.6% in Q1 2013 compared to Q1 2012.
• Unique open rates were up year-over-year by 9.7%.
• Unique click rates matched those seen in Q1 2012.
• Revenue per email held steady year-over-year at $0.12.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESINDUSTRY BENCHMARKS: EXPERIAN STUDY 5
With more emails being sent, open rates are rising, but click through and
revenue rates are flat.
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6. Day & Time
• Saturdays and Sundays had the highest open rate,
unique clicks, transaction rates and revenue per
email, yet had the lowest volume deployed compared
to other days of the week.
• For weekdays, Monday had the highest revenue per
emails but Friday had the higher click rate.
• Deploying emails between 8:00 PM and 4:00 AM had
the highest response rates, yet also had the lowest
percent of email volume.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESINDUSTRY BENCHMARKS: DAY & TIME 6
Saturdays and Sundays had the highest engagement and sales rates
compared to other days of the week.
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7. Silverpop: 2012 Email Marketing Metrics
Benchmark Study
Silverpop collects unique rates.
The US has lowest engagement
metrics compared to Canada,
Europe, and Asia.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESINDUSTRY BENCHMARKS: SILVERPOP STUDY 7
Mean Median
Top
Quartile
Bottom
Quartile
Unique Open
Rate
18.9% 16.5% 34.7% 8.2%
Click-
Through
Rate
3.3% 2.2% 8.3% 0.6%
Click-To-
Open Rate
17.5% 13.1% 24% 7.5%
0.00%$ 5.00%$ 10.00%$15.00%$20.00%$25.00%$30.00%$35.00%$40.00%$
Mean$
Median$
Top$Quar6le$
Bo9om$Quar6le$$
Click>To>Open$Rate$
Click>Through$Rate$
Unique$Open$Rate$
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8. Epsilon Q4 2012 Benchmarks and Trends
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESINDUSTRY BENCHMARKS: EPSILON STUDY 8
Epsilon collects total rates.
Open rates have been rising
regularly since Q4 of 2010,
with Q4 of 2012 having the
highest open rate. However,
click-through rates are not
increasing.
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9. B2B vs. B2C
B2B and B2C communications have different audiences, therefore, the purchase
motivation is different, and they have different needs when it comes to the information
that they need in order to make the decision to purchase.
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10. ■ Company to company sales
■ Relationship driven
■ Personal negotiation process
■ Small markets
■ Long sales cycles
■ Education & awareness activities
■ Rational buying decisions
■ Business value
B2C: Consumer MarketingB2B: Business Marketing
B2B VS. B2C
■ Company to consumer sales
■ Product Driven
■ Mass media and retail process
■ Large target market
■ Short sales cycles-->one step buying process
■ Merchandizing activities
■ Emotional buying decisions
■ Purchase based on product reputation/status/
value
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESB2B VS B2C: BEST PRACTICES 10
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11. B2B Communications
72% of B2B buyers are most likely to share useful content via email.
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12. B2B Communications Best Practices
• Be an authoritative source of information. Inform the other business and link them to other web pages.
• Email newsletter content: 80% industry trends, 20% you.
• Connect with the reader through words more than images.
• The email should be from a person to a person-->use real names of real people in To and From line.
• Always be truthful.
• Use triggers (events, emotion).
• Use segmentation and personalization.
• For B2B companies, subject lines that contained “money,” “revenue,” and “profit” performed best.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESB2B COMMUNICATIONS: BEST PRACTICES 12
The main objective of B2B communication is to build a strong relationship with
another business, and to keep it moving forward over time.
Best Practices:
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13. • Personalize-subscription anniversary date, birthday,
time automated email to combat periods of
disengagement (last opn/click), holidays
• Manage expectations-set schedule
• Gather research
• Write awesome subject lines-test
• Coordinate automated emails
• Anticipate making mistakes-apologize to those
impacted, make good offer, explain mistake, use playful
language (“Oops...”), don’t just send same email
• Anticipate trends-pay attention to social media
• Acquire subscribers-ads, in store, social media
Don’ts:Do’s:
B2C Communications Best Practices
• Loop automated emails
• Lose track of time
• Forget about mobile
• Lose track of emails
• Send duplicate emails
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESB2C COMMUNICATIONS: BEST PRACTICES 13
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14. Subject Lines
64% of people say they open an email because of the subject line.
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15. • Clearly describe the topic
• Be value & action oriented
• Create incentives when applicable
• Create sense of urgency/curiosity
• TEST
• Be helpful & informative
• Don’t make them guess
• Prepare for content of email
• Be relevant and specific
Subject Lines: Best Practices
• Infuse brand style
• Appeal to emotions
• Don’t mislead
• Personalize
• Ask a question
• Keep them under six words
• Use 50 characters or fewer
• Use lowercase in all but first word and proper
nouns
• Special characters can be effective ★ ♥
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESSUBJECT LINES: BEST PRACTICES 15
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16. • Alert
• Breaking
• News
• Update
• Research
• Issue
• Latest
• Video
• Profit followed by money or revenue
Don’tsDo’s
Subject Lines: Wording
• Newsletter
• Report
• Forecast
• Whitepaper
• ROI
• Asset
• Industry
• Promotional words
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESSUBJECT LINES: WORDING 16
Testing suggests some words perform better than others....
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17. Content Marketing
The goal of content marketing is to turn prospects into customers and build more loyal and
relevant relationships with existing customers by delivering information and advice that
enrich people’s lives.
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19. •Be personal, relevant, & engaging
•Focus on factors that get readers to: open
email, read email, and take action
specified in email
•Provide different communications based
on the customer
•Be short & specific
Content Marketing Best Practices
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESCONTENT MARKETING: BEST PRACTICES 19
•Break content into parts
•Send a series of emails
•Include the actual hyperlink
•Highlight what you want to be clicked
•Use cloud links to connect to other
social media
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20. Creative Best Practices
• Create brand synergy-be sure customers instantly recognize brand with every communication
• Make the structure scannable --> use bullets, headings, & charts
• Customize “Forward to Friend,” “Unsubscribe,” and survey “Thank You” pages
• Keep your creative clean & uncluttered
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESCONTENT: CREATIVE BEST PRACTICES 20
Research proves that the human eye scans email in an “F” pattern.
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21. Use The Principles of Persuasion
• Reciprocity --> People respond to positive action with positivity in return
ex: Send personalized gift, offer benefit
• Scarcity --> Heighten feeling of scaricty with a limited time offer
• Authority --> Become authority or use 3rd part authority figure
ex: quotes, pictures, videos, signatures of people doing CTA/send email from this person
• Consistency --> Repeat message
• Liking --> Ask people to forward to their friends and family
• Consensus --> People want to do what others are doing
ex: Facebook like, ReTweet, Share, “Join...,” “Many of your neighbors are already...”
• Make action easy and simple
• Express similarities between you and your audience-->”I feel exactly as you do,,,”
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESCONTENT: USE THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSUASION 21
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22. Testing: Best Practices
• Always test simultaneously to reduce the chance your results will be skewed by time-based
factors..
• Test as large a sample as you can for more accurate results.
• Listen to the empirical data collected, not your gut instinct.
• Use the tools available to you for quicker and easier A/B testing.
• Test early and test often for the best results.
• Only test one variable per test cell for most readable results.
• Plan strategy for future testing.
• Keep track of data through charts/tables for easy reference document.
• Test continuously.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESTESTING: BEST PRACTICES 22
Email marketers should always be testing to determine best practices
internally.
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24. The Future of Email Marketing
• The volume of email accounts is increasing along with email marketing
spend growth, and is projected to continue to grow.
• 27% of consumers were more likely to say their favorite companies
should invest in more email.
• 56% of businesses say they plan to increase their use of email
marketing in 2013.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: THE FUTURE OF EMAIL MARKETING 24
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25. Email marketing
spend grows 10%
year over year
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: EMAIL GROWTH 25
0
45
90
135
180
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Email Marketing Spend Growth in $millions
0
1.1
2.2
3.2
4.3
Email Accounts (billion)
2013 2016
The number of
email accounts will
rise
25Wednesday, August 7, 13
26. What’s New?
• Obama’s email marketing success
• Integrate social media
• Mobile
• Triggered email
• Video/Cinemagraphs
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: OVERVIEW 26
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27. Email Marketing Lessons From The Obama Campaign:
President Barack Obama has been noted as one of the most
“connected” politicians of his age, embracing social media and
email marketing like few before him.
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28. Obama’s Email Marketing Success
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: OBAMA’S EMAIL MARKETING SUCCESS 28
• Personalized landing pages (Ex:
Barack Obama “Ask Me Anything”
thread on Reddit.com led to this
landing page)
• Personal opt-in forms that use line
of sight--> it’s been proven that we
have a tendency to follow the gazes of
others as well as arrows.
• Automated follow ups--> “Thank you
for opting in”
• Split testing of key pages --> Always
test!
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29. Made To Click Subject Lines
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: OBAMA’S EMAIL MARKETING SUCCESS 29
Very personal and evoked
curiosity.
Obama could get away with
these subject lines because
we know exactly who he is.
The lesson is to know your
audience and tailor
messaging to them.
Use subject lines that work
for your readers.
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30. Social Media
• Use cloud links
• Always integrate social media into the mix
• Let consumer choose which channel of communication they prefer to interact with
• Multiple channels is always better than one
• Pay attention to what people are talking about on social media (trends, events)
• Emails that include social sharing buttons have a 158% higher click-through rate
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: SOCIAL MEDIA 30
Social media is a great way to communicate and share information, and
including social sharing buttons in emails has proven to drive higher
click-through rates.
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31. Mobile
• How it looks matters-70% of consumers delete a mobile email when it doesn’t look good and
18% unsubscribe.
• 64% of decision-makers read their email via mobile devices.
• Women click 10% more often than men on mobile emails.
• Don’t forget about androids-52.2% of smartphone users own an android device.
• Don’t make them download the rest of the message.
• Don’t make them scroll.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: MOBILE 31
Mobile is increasingly important to email marketers. Email has become the most
popular activity on smartphones and 79% of smartphone owners use their device for
email a higher percentage than for making calls.
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32. Triggered Email Marketing
• 3-5% of email volume, 45% of profits (Source: Silverpop)
• More relevant, more often, fewer resources
• Based on demographics, data, preferences, behavior, internal and external factors
• Examples: birthday, anniversary, welcome, recommendations, follow-ups, reminders, surveys
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: TRIGGERED EMAIL MARKETING 32
Triggered email marketing is personalized automated email that deploys a low
volume and delivers high ROI.
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33. Video/Cinemagraphs
• Captivating & engaging
• Rigorous testing of content indicates that using motion in an email is a very effective tactic
• Provides a richer experience for the recipient
• Email campaigns with video turned in an average conversion rate 21% higher than those with
straight text and static imagery
• Experian reveals that 72% of clients who use animated GIFs and Cinemagraphs in email see a
lift in Transaction-to-Click rates
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESWHAT’S NEW?: VIDEO 33
Incorporating video into email proves to drive increased engagement and
higher conversion rates.
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34. Appendices
• Appendix A: Sources
• Appendix B: Statistics
• Appendix C: Industry Benchmark Data: Silverpop and Epsilon
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESAPPENDICES: APPENDICES 34
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35. Appendix A: Sources
• Epsilon Benchmark Study : http://www.epsilon.com/sites/default/files/
Q4_2012_Email_Benchmarks_FINAL_3_18_2013_0.pdf?2571&2391
• Silverpop Benchmark Study: http://marketingland.com/e-mail-open-rates-declining-click-through-
rates-rising-study-17005
• B2B Communication: http://www.icontact.com/static/pdf/B2B_Email_Marketing_Rules.pdf
-http://www.marketo.com/about/news/resource-news/10-tips-for-successful-b2b-email-
marketing-campaigns.php
• Testing: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/ab-testing-email-campaigns/
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESAPPENDICES: APPENDIX A 35
35Wednesday, August 7, 13
36. Email Best Practices:
• http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/best-pratce-email-market-wp-1560488.pdf
• http://www.clickz.com/category/email/email-marketing-best-practices
• http://www.echoditto.com/insights/best-practices-and-tips-sending-email
• http://www.exacttarget.com/email-marketing-best-practices
• http://www.convinceandconvert.com/email-marketing-advice/15-email-statistics-that-are-
shaping-the-future/
• http://www.mequoda.com/articles/email-marketing/whats-new-in-recent-email-marketing-
research/
• http://bluesite.lyris.com/us-en/email-marketing/371-How-Message-Size-of-Links-and-
Subject-Length-Affects-Email-Results
• http://www.marketo.com/_assets/uploads/EmailMktg-cheatsheet2-10.pdf
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESAPPENDICES: APPENDIX A 36
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38. Appendix B: Statistics
• Roughly half of an email list will be active-either opening or clicking on emails.
• 7 in 10 people say they made use of a coupon or discount from a marketing email in the prior week.
• For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on email marketing investment.
• People who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people that do not receive email offers.
• 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email.
• 30% of subscribers change email address annually.
• Following up with abandoners by email yields 50% of conversion.
• 82% of consumers open emails from companies.
• This year, about 84% of all email traffic will be Spam.
• Subject lines fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58%.
• Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened.
• 21% of email recipients report email as Spam, even if the know it isn’t.
• 43% of email recipients click Spam button based on “from” name or email address.
• 69% of email recipients click Spam button based on subject line.
• 40% of B2B marketers rated the leads generated by email marketing as high quality.
PAGEEMAIL BEST PRACTICESAPPENDICES: APPENDIX B 38
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