Another analogy which would seem completely natural delivered in Swiss Tony’s smooth southern drawl, but let’s look into this in more depth.

Every car owner has their own priorities and preferences when it comes to what car they drive. For some it’s a simple means to get from A to B while others require the fastest, sexiest car on the market.

Things are much the same in the world of email marketing. For example; some companies will prioritise ease of use, while others place huge value in having every possible added function, whether it’s likely to see use or not.

Categories

But how do you know which is best for your business? Let the analogy continue…

Cars are categorised into different classes including sports cars or 4×4s – the same is true of email marketing platforms.

At one end you have your cheap providers; little or no license fee, straight forward template construction and a polished, easy to use interface.

These are your ‘super minis’ or Smart cars. They look nice enough, get you to where you need to go and are certainly economical – but there are big sacrifices in power.

Start your engines

Super minis are perfect to get you around the local town but not ideal for taking you anywhere especially interesting or doing it in style. Any endeavor of a more ambitious journey will find you struggling along the motorway being overtaken by every other car on the road.

This is down to them having very little real power under the bonnet- the same being true of many email marketing platforms. Functionality like segmentation, split testing and survey tools are essential to make sure you’re living life in the fast lane.

They also rarely follow best practice standards. For example, allowing users to type in their own email from address, potentially sending from unauthenticated and killing deliverability.

This, coupled with the inevitable piece of branding at the foot of each email and virtually no support or advice to help standards improve, means that although they’re a great place to start with email marketing, their lifespan is limited for organisations hoping to go places.

Going Places

At the other end of the scale you have huge, well established enterprise solutions that have been around for years and offer a wealth of features with all the support you could ask for.

All they ask in return is massive license fees and often hefty ongoing support fees. Costs for sends can seem to be good value but only if you are sending huge volumes- at least in the hundreds of thousands.

For a large organisation looking for the ultimate solution these platforms would seem the logical choice, but unfortunately many of the providers in this part of the marketplace are not quite what they appear.

Consider these your top-end sports cars and executive cruisers, an Aston Martin or Rolls Royce. Great if you can afford it? Possibly, but only if you are buying a brand new model; not such a safe investment once they are a few years old.

Coded many years ago in ’old fashioned’ languages, they struggle to keep up to date with the latest functionality. Some of the most established brand names in the industry can be out performed by more modern solutions with more advanced technology at the core.

The compromise

This leaves us with the rest i.e. the middle ground cruisers where many different options are available. They are the popular choice like a Ford or BMW, offering far better returns on your original investment.

Which is best is down to your preferences and what suits your business but there are a few golden rules that may help you end up with the right partner:

1. Take a trial – it should be free.

2. Get a demonstration – it will help you make a decision.

3. Don’t base your decision purely on lowest price – you get what you pay for.

4. Do your research – this is a big decision.

Unlike when buying a car, it is rarely just one individual who chooses an email marketing platform. There are all sorts of considerations such as ease of use, functionality, costs, support/account management etc

All you can do is pick the provider that offers the best overall package to suit your business needs, now and in the future.

As a marketing technique, sometimes I feel that people undervalue email as a channel because it’s ‘cheap’ and easy deploy. The knock on effect is that it can receive very little in the way of board-level attention. This makes it really hard for marketers to get more budget to support their email marketing campaigns.

However, there are other ways to think about email, which might help you make a more powerful case!

The DMA’s email marketing council did some research which found that the lifetime value of an email address to an organisation was on average £9.11

Why £9.11?

It is worth examining this £9.11 figure in a bit more detail. It is an estimated average based on ROI from transactions relating directly to email marketing – a snapshot in time across a broad spectrum of different verticals, strategies and techniques.

This figure will be different for every organisation, but working out what it is for your company is an exercise I would recommend you conduct on a regular basis.

How to make the CEO sit up and take note

I was inspired by a conversation I had some time ago with Stefan Elliot a colleague of mine on the Partnership hub at the DMA’s Email Marketing Council where he described emails lists as your ‘Email Asset’. I am surprised how few people still to this day do not properly understand the value of their data, and types of data with it.

Identifying this is a useful starting point for assessing the value of an address over time but an internal benchmark can also assess a number of contributory factors as well.

It all adds up

Taking this one step further, it can help to assign specific monetary value to each data element you hold in your database. For example, what value would you put on holding a record for Age (£1), Location (£0.50) or Eye colour (£0.10) etc.. You decide based on your business.

Then add these amounts to the value of the email address, and consider the total value of a completed database record. Next, consider how many users you do not hold this data on and therefore the opportunity lost here.

It’s possible to take this further by assigning a value to actions including an open, a click, purchase and so on. The value of each potential recipient is far greater if they are active and engaged. They are more likely to be engaged if you have put in place a strategy to collect this additional demographic data and used it to personalise your communications.

This does take some time and sometimes budget, but for the results it achieves it is worth it.

Benchmarking

Use this benchmarking scheme to help you to make a strong case for email, by doing the reverse in your next meeting with the Board. For example, a 100,000 strong email list is, as a statistic alone may be fairly meaningless to a board of directors. But when you use the £9.11 figure ( or let’s round it up to £10 per email for now to make the maths easier) to attribute to it a value of £1,000,000, they will start to take note!  This is a company asset they should after!

And what happens if email marketing isn’t carried out effectively? Well, it damages this asset. Let’s say you see a 10% unsubscribe rate due to poor design or a lack of a call to action, that’s a £100,100 loss! This is a great way to build a business case to convince your FD or C-level executive to invest in a new email template design, testing strategy, list building strategy or some additional copywriting resource!

Invest in your email asset

And the even better thing is that, if you invest in email marketing, your asset can grow in value. Once you have this initial benchmark in place, the emphasis should move to ways in which you can increase this value.

Which segments are underperforming? Are there any similar traits that can be identified? Could you be getting even more out of your top performing email addresses? Do you need to build a more concentrated campaign for particular subscribers, perhaps with a targeted micro site to convert?

There is a small, but growing elite of email marketers who already understand and are applying these principles, reaping the benefit. The refined nature of email marketing makes it a fundamental part of the entire marketing mix – building brand identity, developing and prolonging relationships whilst remaining visible. Elite emailing will increase the real value of your email list and could make £9.11 seem like a drop in a much larger ocean.

picture credit

We all love a good analogy, and none more than Swiss Tony from the Fast Show who would no doubt approve of the example above.

However, does the statement hold any water? Well let’s see.

The first challenge

The first hurdle is to get permission; this is certainly true in both instances.

Callous advances towards a woman you have never met before are likely to earn you a slapped face and dented pride. If you go too far or offend too many then there is every possibility of being sued for harassment.

For a company sending unsolicited email these penalties are replaced by spam complaints and a tarnished brand reputation. Ultimately you risk a hefty fine; recent cases have cost some companies over £500,000 – this is quite a precedent!

So far so good then, but where do we go from here… chatting them up?

Step 2

In order to get anywhere in love you need to get to know the person first. Cheesy chat up lines will get you nowhere, while a good conversation on the first date can make all the difference.

Sure, lots of companies generate sales with a snappy subject line or tempting offer, but this is no basis for a long standing relationship with your customers.

Taking a little more time to find out what your prospects are interested in will enable you to email them with more relevant content that they are happy to receive.

This is proven to get results and will mean you’re far more likely to retain recipients’ interest for a longer period of time, hence increasing the value of your opted in data.

Size up the challenge

To draw another risque analogy; it’s not the size of your data list that matters,it’s how you use it that really counts!

So once you know your customers are regularly engaging with communications, what is the best way to convert this interest into revenue?

Simply consider the phrase: “fortune favours the brave”. Those afraid to ‘go in for the kill’ never get anywhere in love, life or indeed, email marketing. Many a nice, attractive girl and boy have missed their chance with the person of their dreams simply because they were afraid to lean in for the kiss.

Likewise, many organisations use email as a way to communicate with their customers and add value around the services they provide, but what’s the point unless you push the advantage?

Take the initiative

A strong call to action as part of a well-designed and targeted email campaign can directly drive sales and earn revenue through e-commerce or micro sites.

If that’s not working for you then invest in a proper e-commerce website and consultation from experts to maximise conversion rates – it will pay dividends.

If you sell over the phone then use the fantastic reporting available with any decent email marketing platform to set up easy wins for your sales team. Every time a recipient clicks on a link they are telling you what they might buy – You have the information, so use it!

Adam Gould

Many names come to mind when you mention the name Crystal Palace Football Club. Sansom, Hilaire, Wright, Bright, Johnson, Coppell. And now, dotMailer.

That last one is a recent addition to the list but get used to it – this season dotMailer is proud to announce its sponsorship of Edgar Davids’ away kit. Why the away kit? Well, because it’s the best and one most famous looking kits in football of course!

With those ever present orange goggles, there’s something of the digital about Edgar as it is, so he seems the perfect match for what the dotDigital group (and blog) is all about.  Edgar is also one of the most socially connected footballers you’re likely to find on the web, constantly tweeting and replying to fans.

Indeed, in reaction to Crystal Palace’s recent financial woes, some of the fans tweeted to Edgar to see if they could bring him on board to help. Not only did he call his own 11,000 followers to support the club but ultimately sign up on a pay by play basis, making his debut last night.

While his arrival didn’t herald the showering of glory that Palace needed, it’s still evidence of what can be achieved through social networks and we’re very happy to be associated with the whole phenomenon.  The question is, can this performance be replicated by other teams and will it become an influencer in the future?

Will we see email marketing campaigns attempting to motivate supporters to put such pressure on players? Time will tell, but in the meantime, keep an eye on our man Edgar- we look forward to watching him focus his two big orange eyes on the ball.

P.S. For a limited time only, the phrase EAGLES will get you a discount on your dotMailer order. Give it a try!

This week’s email comes from one good cause (Cancer Research) and is personalised for another – my birthday!  Since signing up for a sponsored run, I’ve been on the mailing list but was impressed enough with their latest effort to make it our Email of the Week.

To read the full email click here

I liked… the keen and eye-catching personalisation. With just a week to go until my big day, they’ve managed to get my attention in the subject line as well as the customised ‘from’ address, something not often seen.  Thematically, it all fits well with the tone and call to action, standing out because it acknowledges something personal to the reader before moving on to another personal topic.

I didn’t like…  the small rendering issues which plague the email.  Especially evident with images turned off, it immediately reveals a disappointing lack of detail suggesting that the message hasn’t been properly tested before sending.  Although clicking the “can’t read” text improves the problem, there’s no avoiding the impression gained from the preview pane.

I liked… the first visual which simply and powerfully communicates both the birthday aspect and the call to arms.  Whether you believe in the fold or not, it’s hard to avoid the first impression that the fully rendered email gives and the message it’s trying to communicate.

I didn’t like… it breaking from the theme with links in the main body. Having established the colour scheme thoroughly throughout, the default blue hyperlinks stand out like a sore thumb and show how a lack of attention to detail can be jarring for any template.  By contrast, the links in the footer appear to be formatted in line with the theme, reinforcing the idea that this could have used some more time and attention before distribution.

I liked… the balance of text to image and the spacing of the copy which allows me to easy engage and follow the intended message.  Emails today can often provide too much information for the modern attention span but this hits just the right level and caters for a reader who needs the quick message as well as those searching for more detail.

The verdict

In conclusion, Cancer Research have put together a good template that engages the audience with really clear calls to action. Notably, the buttons stand out vividly and make good use of the company colours that most will be familiar with, while the copy is well formatted and to the point.

In this case, the only let down is the lack of attention to detail which gives is something of an unprofessional feel here and there. The lesson is to make sure an email has been checked, double-checked and checked again before it goes out.  This thoroughness can pay dividends for the impression on your reader.

We speak to lots of clients who have reached a bit of a rut when it comes to their email marketing. They send the same type of message out to recipients and, while the results are ok, they know there is more they could be doing.

It’s often hard to keep coming up with fresh new ideas but, to really get the best results, it is vital!

With this in mind, here are my top tips for revitalising your email marketing campaigns!

1. Get a new template design – the look and feel of your message is absolutely crucial. It’s important to give your recipients a bit of variety though, so if you’ve been sending the same template for a while, consider changing things a little bit. Don’t forget to get a professional to help with the design, as it’s not quite as easy as you might think!

2. Keep your copy short and snappy – does your email contain vast swathes of text? We read very differently online than we do offline, so try and keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point. This will keep your recipients engaged and they will be more likely to take action.

3. Experiment with more images – the old saying really is true: a picture is worth a thousand words! Including more images in your emails can help you deliver more of a bang. Keep an eye on your open rates however as sometimes, if your recipients have images turned off as standard, they might not be able to see you full message first time. If in doubt, segment your list and see if you get better results with more images or not. Or alternatively, apply for email accreditation and your emails can in some circumstances have images turned on by default.

4. Try using a friendly ‘from’ email address – friendly ‘from’ addresses are a great way to inspire confidence in your recipients and encourage them to open your email. If you don’t have a friendly ‘from’ address, then consider investing!

5. Segment and test – segmenting your recipient list and then testing different aspects of your campaign is a great way to find out elements that could be improved. We’ve put together a handy list of different parts of your email campaign that can be tested.

6. Give your subject line a makeover – your subject line is the first thing your recipients will see and so is vital to improve open rates. Therefore it must pack a real punch to convince your recipients to open. Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your subject line.

7. Start collecting more data about your recipients – if you want to really start doing some advanced segmentation and targeting, then you’ll need to collect more data about your recipients. You can do this by linking your email marketing platform up with your CRM database and/or by running a survey.

8. Include social media sharing links – after you’ve made all these changes to your email, I’m sure your recipients will be delighted with the messages they are receiving. Chances are they might want to share the message with their like-minded friends. To encourage this, include social media sharing links in your email message. Don’t forget to include a subscribe button too so that the new people that read your message can sign-up to receive further emails in future.

Have you tried any of these? Have they worked? Let us now in the comments. And make sure you subscribe to our blog to get our regular tips and best practice email marketing advice.

After discovering eSpares on Google a while back, when looking for replacement dishwasher parts, I’d been regularly receiving its monthly email marketing

newsletter. But I hadn’t really paid much attention to it until the message that arrived in my inbox today.

From the arresting subject line through to its social links, it’s a great example of what can be done by shall we say, a “less than glamorous” industry to really get the reader interested and provide value.

We liked… the subject matter. For a very boring subject, eSpares has been admirably creative and addressed an interesting topic with relevancy to its audience. Rather than lazily sending over a discount voucher for parts, they’re creating demand by identifying concerns that the reader may not have been aware.

We liked… how the subject line asks “do you have a smelly washing machine?” in terms the reader can relate to and catches the eye… (Read our top tips to craft the perfect subject line.)

Once you’ve opened it, the first thing you see are the reasons for the bad smells and a video on how to stop them.

We liked… the linked video. It provides a clear and direct call to action for the reader, luring them off to the website and indulging the curiosity sparked by the email itself. It wisely doesn’t embed the video in the email (most clients cannot handle video), but makes its nature obvious with a ‘play icon’, giving the right perception to the reader. This link whisks the viewer away to see the video in full on their homepage.

The video itself has been uploaded to YouTube and embedded on the landing page. This is the perfect illustration of how to include video with at a low cost and with no impact on delivery or rendering rates.

We liked… the local aspect of identifying your postcode and gauging the threat of hard water with an accompanying image.  It’s a small but nice touch which again illustrates the problem in an intuitive way without taking up much space.

We liked… how if images are disabled, the first text you see continues the thread initiated in the subject line alongside the link to view in browser. Rather than just saying “click here to view the email online” it provides some content which may motivate the reader to click through.

Something to test

Addressing the reader by name in an email helps you stand out and compliments the frankness of the rest of the statement, after all people are attracted their own name when scanning the emails in their inbox.

However, personalising the subject line is a tactic that has been widely used by spammers; this could potentially lead to deliverability issues as a result of the email being automatically filtered out.

Equally where the email is delivered to the inbox you email may be mistaken as spam by the actual reader – they often say that ‘spam is in eye of the beholder’ (or recipient in this case). If this is a tactic that the recipient associates with a lot of spam they have received, they may simply delete the email. Also, remember many recipients register with fake details originally!

This is not to say that you should immediately scrub personalisation off of your list. But we would advise split testing on your own data to see what gets best results. Perhaps try different kinds of personalisation in the subject line- for example, the spares for my particular dishwasher may have captured my attention just as well, if not better!

On the whole top marks all round and for the record… my washing machine doesn’t smell!

People often ask me, “When’s the best time to send out email to make sure it gets opened?” Obviously no question which gets asked with such frequency can have a simple answer, but we’re happy to give it a shot.

Traditionally, it has been suggested that Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon are the sweetspot to ensure that your email is opened.  At the very least, others suggest hitting targets just after the morning rush or soon after lunch.

But actually, this is a bit of a myth.  If there really was a single best time to hit audiences, everyone would be sending out mail, inundating inboxes and making this the worst possible time. In fact spammers, who you could argue pay attention to the stats at least as much as ‘proper’ marketers, would also take advantage of this and the spam would further put readers off. These stand out as average highs, not indicators of human behaviour.

Having said all this, there are factors worth bearing in mind when considering when to distribute your email.

Things to Bear in Mind

First up, concentrate on your demographic – who are you distributing to and what are the patterns of their behaviour? Without a doubt, this is key as occupation can be the biggest influence on opening habits and expectations.

The next consideration to be addressed is the nature of your promotion. Ultimately, the call to action, perhaps referenced in your subject line, will play a big part in the likelihood of opening and the hit rate of the message.

Let’s look at some examples.

For Example?

First up, one client of ours is in the business of hair and beauty products.  In this case, they often found a burst of activity on Monday mornings.  This immediately stood out as an oddity so the account manager quickly investigated the logic.

The answer was simple! Those ordering on Monday mornings were people who had split up with the boyfriend or had a terrible weekend and were preparing for the next Friday

For contrast, if the email had been from FHM, reading it on a Monday morning would likely get you disciplined if you were caught by your employer.  On the other hand, opening it on a Friday after you’ve been to the pub with the boss may be a more likely and acceptable possibility.

Above all, content is important.  For the hair and beauty business, weekends presented a quiet time for sales. With this in mind, they’d hit customers with promotions offering buy one get one free if the order was placed that Saturday.  Again this is an example of how content can dictate the best opening time.

Segments

The biggest mistake can be to stick with a distribution time even though you know you aren’t getting many positive hits. It’s always worth experimenting with different options and segmenting your audience in line with their engagement levels.  In this way, the different opening habits become another way of understanding your audience better if harnessed correctly.

Anyone who has been using email marketing for a while also has access to a great reservoir of information which they may not be considering. Namely the historical reports provided by their Email Service Provider.

Often these will reveal discrepancies and other factors to bear in mind. We’ve all had a plan to distribute something Tuesday morning only to have it slip to Wednesday. Has this had an impact on the pickup?

All these considerations can come together and help you work out the perfect time to send email marketing. Not because it’s when they open everyone else’s or because it’s most common in the law of averages but based on the specific habits of your audience.

As with many marketing efforts, it comes down to a little patience, a willingness to experiment and an understanding of who you’re trying to reach.

We run a vast array of different email auditing services for our clients, so that they can quickly work out where they should be investing more time to get the most out of their email sends.

I thought I’d run through each of the audits we recommend and explain a little bit more about what they mean.

Some of these can be carried out yourself internally, but if you want some assistance, let us know if you are interested in any of the audits for your company and we’d be happy to help!

1. Segmentation – segmentation allows you to group your recipients by certain factors so that you can send different, targeted messages to certain segments and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.

2. Triggered campaigns – triggered emails enable your company to automatically send an email to a customer or prospect based on certain actions they take – for example, if they download a whitepaper, or a certain time after they have purchased.

3. Dynamic content – you can use dynamic content in your emails to change the information a recipient is sent based on their segmentation profiles. For example, you might want to send an email pulling in product information based on a recipient’s last purchase. The content in the email would be different for each recipient.

4. Email health check – there are around 25 different criteria that can be used to check whether your emails are up to scratch and healthy.  This will give you a broad effectiveness rating for your campaigns and allow you to identify areas for improvement.

5. Testing – this allows you to look at certain aspects of your email campaign and see if there are areas that could be performing better. By sending different messages to different segments, you can see which is performing best.

6. Eyetracking – ever wondered which parts of your email a recipient actually looks at? If so, eyetracking could help.  Eyetracking provides a picture of how your recipients actually read and interact with your emails.

7. Data collection strategy – by analysing your customer journey, you can make sure you have appropriate and effective data collection opportunities at each touchpoint. This will help you grow your data list.

8. Data quality – it is possible to benchmark the contents of your data by looking at, for example, its age and the last customer action. This will let you know whether you need to collect fresh data or at least trim your list.

9. Opt-in/Opt-out analysis – are you worried about the number of opt-outs you are receiving? It’s worth looking at the factors affecting opt-ins and opt-outs to see if there are improvements that can be made.

10. What metrics should you measure – email is fantastic because it is so measureable. But which metrics actually matter most for your business? Often, you don’t need to measure them all.

11. ROI calculation – you know you are getting some good results from your email marketing, but is it actually giving you a return on your investment? If you don’t know, it’s worth taking a look and finding out.

12. Value of an email address – what is the lifetime value of your email asset? Calculating this can help you make a case for more budget or investment in email marketing.

13. Deliverability– concerned about whether your emails are actually getting into the inbox? It is possible to investigate whether there are changes to need to make to improve deliverability.

Have you ever wondered what people actually do on your website? Or how to find ways in which you can improve your online conversion rate?

Well using Google analytics is one thing. Understanding how to ask it meaningful questions and knowing how to find the answers in your reports, is another.

That’s why I  have put together this totally practical course of interactive webinars for marketers who want to get more from Google Analytics.

Over 6 weeks starting on the 1^st September I will be providing a weekly webinar which makes it easy to understand how to use Google Analytics effectively – whatever your level of experience.

Each webinar includes clear examples, demonstrations and step by step instructions.

By the end of each webinar you’ll be able to test, measure and make worthwhile changes to your website that will give you immediate results. Maybe your site is getting enough traffic so search engine optimisation is the answer, or maybe your retention rate isn’t very good so email marketing could help, or maybe your site just isn’t converting so improving your website design would turn your online sales around. Attending this course will let you find what your problem is and provide the solutions to fix it.

Together and individually, these totally practical webinars will teach you in clear no-nonsense terms how to use Google Analytics to empower you to:

• Understand what’s really happening on your website
• Increase your website traffic
• Reduce page and webform abandonment
• Improve your onsite conversion rates
• Increase the ROI of your online marketing

The webinars will be held every Wednesday at 11am from 1st September. Each class  lasts 40 minutes followed by 20 mins for questions and answers.

Don’t miss out – book now