Email Marketing Techniques

1. Why Email Marketing is Still King
With Brian Abracen
Re-engagement Marketing Manager at Kijiji Canada
Toronto Product Management Association
January 26, 2016

2. About Me
Brian Abracen
Re-engagement Marketing Manager, Kijiji Canada
Previously:
• Director of Customer Engagement, Intelex Technologies
• Senior Conversion Marketing Manager, FreshBooks
• Head of Email Marketing, Dealfind.com
Connect with me!
• Email: brian@abracen.com
• Twitter: @brian_abracen
• Linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/brianabracen

3. Agenda
1. Permission: Ins and Outs
2. Relevance: Segmentation & Personalization
3. Lists: Building & Maintenance
4. Deliverability
5. Testing
6. Measurement
7. Automation
8. Campaigns

4. The Basics
Introduction

5. Email Types
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The 5 Types of Email
Insert photo requirements Insert photo requirements Insert photo requirements

6. Email Types
The 5 Types of Email

7. So… what’s so good about email?
Introduction

8. Introduction
Email is dead? I don’t think so!
• By 2017 there will be 2.7 billion email users across the globe
• Nearly 1 trillion marketing emails will be sent this year
• 91% of consumers check their email at least daily
• 55% of companies surveyed say they generate more than 10% of sales from email
• 74% of companies who regularly test email strategies report a positive ROI
• 77% of consumers say they prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications
through email, beating out both text messaging and social media

9. 1. Email marketing offers a huge ROI.
• According to the Direct Marketing Association, email yields an
estimated 4,300 percent ROI
• ExactTarget reports that every dollar spent on email marketing offers
a return of $44

10. 2. Emails effortlessly nurture leads.
• A nurtured lead increases sales 20 percent more than a cold lead,
and emails generate 50 percent more sales
• Smart email marketing is one of the single most effective ways to
build relationships with customers:
1. Raise awareness, i.e. inform customers about a product
2. Stimulate a desire for acquisition, i.e. tell them where to get it
3. Guide the reader toward conversion, i.e. transform prospects
into customers
4. Create customer retention, i.e. sell them related products

11. 3. Email marketing is simple enough
for DIY small-business owners.
• Email Service Providers user interfaces are easy to learn and apply
• Based on a survey by Constant Contact Small-business owners who
have learned how to send out broadcasts and use autoresponders
consider email automation as being worth $273 an hour

12. 4. Emails convert three times
better than social media.
• Email marketing works 40 times better at getting customers than
Facebook and Twitter
• Compared to social media, email offers 17 percent higher conversion
• Email not only converts better than the most popular social media,
but people spend up to 17 percent more when they do buy

13. 5. People actually like getting
emails!
• Of course, this only applies to emails they chose to receive…
• Of those, 95 percent of people who sign up for a newsletter from a
recognized brand consider the email useful

14. 6. The vast majority of consumers check email
on their smartphones at least once a day.

15. 7. Adding social sharing buttons can
increase email click-through rates.
• Adding social sharing button increases trust
• As a result, the click-through rate increases by 158 percent
compared to emails without it

16. The (Opt-)Ins and (Opt-) Outs
Permission

17. Get off on the right foot!
Set subscriber expectations
• What do I get when I give you my email address?
• Are you going to spam me?
• How often will you email me?
• Will I get discounts?
• Will I get a first crack at your beta?
• Will you send me relevant offers or more junk?

18. Permission
CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Law)
“The crux of the law is that people should get only
the emails they want, and if you want to email someone,
you have to have permission.”
CASL requires that consent must be obtained from consumers before companies can
send them commercial email
• “Express” consent—obtained in person or in writing
• “Implied” consent, such as the existence of an ongoing business relationship
• Free opt-out mechanisms must be provided by senders or their third-party partners
• “From” lines must plainly state the name of the organization sending the message

19. Relevance
It’s All About Relevance

20. Email Marketing Overview
Be Relevant!
Consumers quickly decide which companies they
like receiving messages from based on relevance
• Personalization is paramount
Noticeable evidence that content is targeted drives conversions
• Value is evident
It’s important to make the advantage of being on the email list
clear. This can be achieved via special deals, promotions or
exclusive content

21. Relevance
Who are they?
• The old-style first-name merge has evolved over the years. You can now personalize
images: Starbucks
• You can even personalize animated gifs: Helzberg Diamonds
• When’s their birthday? For example, this Pizza Express birthday email is triggered by a
recipient’s birthday and includes a personalized image and alt text

22. Relevance
Who do they care about?
Most personalization opportunities are directly about the subscriber, but their wider sphere of
family members, friends, and work associates also provide occasions for personalization.
• LinkedIn sends many emails about your connections, including this email about
connections who had changed jobs
• ToyTalk sends parents emails about what their kids say when they interact with their mobile app

23. Relevance
What did they do?
A subscriber’s actions offer many opportunities for personalization. Combining this flavor of
personalization with behavior triggered emails creates highly compelling messages.
• This loyalty email from Panera is personalized with the number of times the recipient has eaten
at the restaurant during the current month
• This Fitbit email is personalized with the subscriber’s physical activity as collected via their
wristbands
• Reliant Energy emails include power usage information and trends based on their subscriber’s
household usage

24. Relevance
What did others do in reaction?
People are increasingly interested in how their actions affect others.
• TripAdvisor sends you updates on the impact of your reviews as a way of spurring you to
review more.
• Twitter sends weekly emails that detail how people reacted to your tweets so you can see what
kinds of content they’re responding to most

25. Relevance
What do they have?
• Moosejaw sent this well-timed rewards balance email during the holiday season to spur another
gift purchase
• Kiva, a microfinance company, sends emails personalized with the account balance to nudge
subscribers to loan that money out
• Crate & Barrel sends product care instructions for some products, knowing that it will be
handier in email form than on paper

26. Relevance
Where are they?
Because of mobile, geolocation can play a significant role in personalization.
• Nextdoor provides neighborhood information in their emails that are personalized to your
location
• Timberland used live content to include local weather information that was tailored to each
subscriber’s location

27. List Segmentation
Segmenting your audience is the first
step to creating a tailored email
marketing campaign. This will allow
you to group customers according to
specific criteria.
Relevance

28. List Segmentation
Examples of data on which
segments can be based:
• Responsiveness/behaviour/history
• Demographics
• Purchase amounts
• Language and culture
Smart segmentation strategies ensure messaging relevance
Relevance

29. Zen and the Art of List Building &
Maintenance
Lists

30. Lists
Driving Sign-up
• Pop-ups and overlays can be annoying but
are proven to be effective
• Messaging: Incentives for registering must be
clear and evident
• Opt-in: some data shows that double opt-in
provides better results
• Social: Leverage social channels to grow lists,
such as an email form on a Facebook tab
• Contests & Promotions can spike list growth
• eCommerce: Incorporate email sign-up into all
account registration and eCommerce flows

31. Welcome Emails
Automated emails create an immediate link with subscribers
• Increase account creation, customer
acquisition, and list growth
• Reward subscribers with offers and
valuable information
• Welcome series are even more
effective. The series should be a portal
to your site
Lists

32. Lists
Welcome!
• Customers expect a welcome email when they subscribe to a list
• This triggered email is your chance to make a great first impression on your new subscriber:
Show your subscribers what you’re all about, reiterate what kinds of emails they should expect
to get from you and how often you’ll contact them
• A welcome series often consists of several emails, starting with the welcome email described
above followed by a few emails containing high-value content sent over several weeks.

33. List Hygiene & Management
Improve your list integrity with
accurate list cleansing
• Improve deliverability, minimize
SPAM traps, improve response rates
• Delete inactive subscribers
• Investigate hard and soft bounces
• Partners services can facilitate
cleansing by processing your list
through their filters
Email Marketing Overview

34. Lists
Your mission:
To ensure that your list contains only valid email
addresses at all times

35. Reaching the Inbox
Deliverability

36. Deliverability
Sender Reputation
Achieving a positive sender reputation is the foundation for optimal email deliverability
• ISPs can make or break your sender reputation. Meeting their expectations helps improve
deliverability and increases your response rates
• ISPs want to protect their users from unwanted email, regardless of opt-in
• Dozens of elements contribute to overall sending reputation with ISPs, directly affecting
whether your message is deemed "good enough" to reach the inbox
• Audience engagement with your email messages is one of the primary measures used by ISPs
to determine your legitimacy as a sender

37. Deliverability
Sender Reputation
Achieving a positive sender reputation is the foundation for optimal email deliverability
• Personalization helps produce a stronger sender reputation for your brand. Increased open and
response rates give ISPs the perception that a true relationship has been established with your
audience
• Web and behavioral analytics to get better, fresher audience data with every email campaign
can help you segment and target more precisely in subsequent emails with the timely,
personalized, and relevant messaging that boosts engagement
• Adherence to applicable laws—CASL in Canada and CAN-SPAM in the US, which mandate
proper unsubscribe processes and provide guidelines for email content and sending behaviors

38. Deliverability
Best practices for optimal deliverability
1. Include safe-sender links
2. Don't use a "no reply" address
3. Work with a deliverability expert
4. Set clear expectations in advance
5. Give recipients control with preference centers
6. Optimize email for mobile

39. Email Marketing Overview
The Mobile Imperative
Over 50% of email opens happen on phones and tablets
• “Mobile First” approach to emails
• Mobile design techniques include:
• Responsive/adaptive emails
• “Mobile Aware” emails
• Recognize the users, particularly
mobile users, are scrolling

40. Deliverability
Optimize for Mobile
• Despite a 78.9% increase in email opens on tablets and a 40.7% increase in email opens on
mobile, few companies have a mobile-optimized email marketing strategy
• 70% of consumers delete emails that don’t render well on a mobile device immediately
• Test your emails on mobile devices before sending
• If you’re pressed for time, you can use a plain text email for mobile

41. A.B.T.: Always Be Testing
Testing

42. Email Marketing Overview
• Heat maps: Where are people clicking?
• Subject lines: What motivates your
audience?
• Segments: Based on customer behaviour,
demographics, sign-up date, etc.
• Copy variants: Tone, length, calls to
action, offers, etc.
• Mobile: Optimized vs. non-optimized
• Frequency: When might fatigue set in?
• Date & time: When to send?
Testing & Optimization

43. You Can’t Manage What You
Can’t Measure
Measurement

44. Email Marketing Overview
Measuring Success
Moving beyond open and click-through rates
• Where do recipients go on your
website?
• How often do they visit?
• Study conversions and/or email
revenue
• Are there new ways to think about
how to segment your list based on
behaviour?
• Understand deliverability, bounces,
unsubscribes and complaints

45. Email Marketing Overview
Measuring Success
Tagging email links for web analytics
• Adding analytics tags to the links
in your emails allows you to track
the visitors who come into your
website through email marketing
• A popular tool is Google Analytics
(GA). Here are the main tracking
parameters that are available:
• Campaign Source (utm_source)
• Campaign Medium (utm_medium)
• Campaign Term (utm_term)
• Campaign Content (utm_content)
• Campaign Name (utm_campaign)

46. Email Marketing Overview
Measuring Success
Tagging email links for web analytics

47. Set it, and Forget it.
Automation
(Not Really.)

48. Automation
Components of Marketing Automation
• Multichannel: email, social, SMS, +
• Landing pages
• Lead capture forms
• Content housing & management
• Website tracking incl. anonymous
• Lead scoring
• Lead nurturing
• ROI measuring
• CRM integration
• Segmentation / personalization
• Alerting
• Reporting and analytics

49. Automation
Automation Use Cases
• Abandoned Shopping Cart
• Upsell, Cross sell and Cycle-based sell
• After Sale Support
• Customer Happiness (NPS)
• Wake Inactive Leads
• Highly Engaged Persons
• Event communication

50. Automation

51. Automation

52. One Email Does Not a
Campaign Make
Campaigns

53. Campaigns
Drip Campaigns
Advantages of series vs. one-offs:
• 119% higher click rate than regular broadcast emails
• Conversion rates as high as 50%
• Tend to generate 18x more revenue
Examples of typical drip campaigns:
• Lead Nurturing
• Welcoming
• Renewals

54. Campaigns
Sample Drip Flow

55. Can You Handle the Truth?
Conclusion

56. Introduction
The truth is counterintuitive.
• Email isn’t about selling.
• Email isn’t that great at driving traffic.
• Replies are a huge win.
• You don’t need to spend a fortune.
• Subject lines don’t drive opens.
• Design is less important than you think.
• The bigger the list, the worse the emails.
• You can email people every day …
… if they are expecting it

57. Questions?