A little while ago I wrote an article about using transactional email as a promotion tool.  I wrote the article and then just completely forgot about the subject, until recently.

Today, I was just catching up on all the blog posts I’d missed over the past week or so and stumbled across a couple that really got me thinking about this subject again (see links at the bottom of my post).

When I wrote my post I just thought that by throwing in a couple of other related or best selling items into the email might increase a bit of interest within your company post-purchase.

As Nick Valeriote points out in his blog post, on average 54% of transactional emails are opened compared to the 21% of promotional emails that are opened.  As far as I can see it, you have opportunities to do so much with that transactional email.

Firstly you could try and get repeat business by offering a time-constrained deal or voucher.  Offering a month long discount or promotion to them will encourage repeat purchasing and may even put them on the step to the marketing holy grail – brand loyalty.  This kind of promotion as well would not be something that would annoy your recipient; whilst it is encouraging them to return to your site and purchase, it’s giving them something for free and not being too pushy.

Another option you could take up is a “send to a friend” promotion.  Once again, you will be offering a discount or voucher to both the sender and recipient of the promotion.  This way as well, you can take advantage of the purchasers recent interest in your company and reward it by giving them something for passing on your companies information.  Not only could this be a great way to increase both sales and email list size but there is no more trusted marketing channel than word of mouth; especially when the deal is sweetened with a discount.

Urgent: Why you should put house ads in your transactional emails starting tomorrow

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29944

Enhance your transactional emails

http://www.inboxmarketer.com/blog/2008/03/enhance-your-transactional-messages.html

That’s right, some of you have already noticed a few things changing in mailingmanager.

We’re updating the system, and there’s some great new features in there. Not only have we got great little gadgets like multi-inbox viewers and some really handy list segmentation and filtering options now installed, but behind the scenes is running a whole lot smoother now.

We’re pleased as punch with it and hopefully you will be too.

The subscribe and unsubscribe process can often be overlooked.  People can sometimes just be so desperate to get those names into their database that they forget about actually putting some detail and effort into their sign up process.

Understandably, you don’t want to  put off the potential sign up by asking reams of questions to make your email marketing life simple but you can add a bit more in there that will work wonders for your campaign.

If you’re worried about putting them off by asking questions, why not have different emailing lists based on where they have signed up.  For instance, if they have signed up through a purchase from your company, you can send a campaign to them offering new products and discounts knowing that they already have an interest within your products.  If you have obtained their email address through a competition, you can feel pretty safe that you know that prizes and freebies will be a large motivator to them, and you can use that to drive them to the site.

Asking questions though will really help you in achieving a successful long-term email campaign.  Probably the best time to ask a couple of questions will be just after they have purchased something.  At that point, you know that they are receptive to you and will probably be quite happy in that post-purchase feeling so will be more likely to answer what kind of emails they would like to receive.

At the other end of the scale, you could avoid a lot of unsubscribes if you just ask a couple of questions on the unsubscribe screen.  Give them the option of what they want to receive and even how frequent they can receive it.  They may not want to receive latest product updates but are still open to a discount or a freebie but as you haven’t given them the option, they’re just going to unsubscribe from the whole lot.

Both these techniques can be used to help build and maintain a healthy mailing list that will keep you and your recipients happy in the long run.

After a recent dispute with someone I started to think about the different factors you need to consider when sending to business addresses.

With webmail addresses it basically comes down to authentication and reputation; with business addresses it’s a completely different game.

You basically have to make a decision. You either:

Accept that some of your emails are going to bounce and not go over the top on compromising on your design and tracking capabilities.

Or

Concentrate your campaign on deliverability and strip out as much as you can. Remove tracking and send a text email.

Okay, so it’s not as black and white as that but you get the idea. And before you ask, there really is no right and wrong answer. I’ve seen customers of ours have success with both methods so it really does depend on what the content is and what you’re trying to achieve from your campaign.

You’ve also got to look at which stage of your email marketing campaigns life you’re in. Are you starting up and generally just looking for exposure? Do you need to gage the success of your campaign to see where you can improve? Is it more the case that you have an amazing offer on at present that you want everyone to see? Is it your companies newsletter that is just updating people on recent events? Are you concerned about really putting your companies branding across?

These questions really have to be brought up at the beginning of your campaign planning so that you have a clear idea of what your goals are.

Unfortunately there is no general rule for business address as each organisation has different rules for what can and can’t get through the filter so don’t be shy to test the water.

This article will have links to previous posts I have created throughout it that go into further depth about certain subjects.  I hope this helps!

1. Your open rate is low

Okay, so your campaign is stumbling at the first hurdle.  You need to ask yourself the following questions:

How was my recipient list created? 
If the answer to that question was “it was bought” then you can’t be expecting miracles.  If you’re receiving opens of around 10 – 15% I wouldn’t be that surprised.  If your list was self built, I’d expect your open rate to be between 15 – 30% as a minimum. 

Is your email subject enticing them in?
It’s all well and good having amazing offers and content in the email, but not letting the world know about it in the subject line is a cardinal sin.  The subject line needs to be a very short summary of what they can expect inside.  Scrap the “March 2008 issue #1” and go for “15% off of selected items with this email” or “deliverability articles and tips”.  That way you can entice people who are interested in the content in. 

If you are doing this but are still receiving low opens you have to ask yourself “am I putting in subject lines that might be specialised to only a group of my recipients?”  By no means is this a bad thing. In fact, it could improve your eventual sales as you’re targeting areas of your list.  Just because you’re getting an open rate of 15% doesn’t mean that the same people are opening your emails; you may have an active readership of 30% but your emails don’t appeal to all of them.  Just remember not to stick to one area though or the other subscribers will switch off.  The best thing to do would be to segment your list into several lists and then send targeted emails to each of them.

Are you receiving a high level of bounced emails?
This could be a deliverability issue.  Firstly, is there a large amount coming from a certain server?  If so, you could have been blacklisted by them.  You will need to contact the postmaster there and sort out the issue with them before sending again.  To prevent this from ever happening though, make sure you have a decent list hygiene routine in place.

If your list is predominantly business addresses opposed to webmail addresses, the likelihood is it is your content that is causing the blocking.  The problem with business addresses  is that there is no standardised reason for getting blocked by them, some filters block tracking links within the email, some block it because of words within the email and some just don’t get along with html altogether.  It really will be a case of trial and error.  Be prepared to compromise on your design and content though.  You may have to lose your tracking facilities to increase the success of your campaign.
 

2.  My link click-through rate is poor

Your open rate seems fine but your click-through isn’t.  The good news is your list are at least still listening to your message but for how long we don’t know.  This can be attributed to the content of your email.

Content
You need to be clear and to the point.  Don’t go over the top with content or you risk losing the recipients attention.  IT could be that the recipient just isn’t interested in what you’re writing about.  In which case you need to look at what you have previously promised, or done.  That subscriber may have initially signed up as you promised to give away special offers exclusively to your email subscribers.  Now though, you’re just updating them on developments about your company and informing them of new lines of clothing….but where’s the offer? 

Design
Maybe you’re keeping to your promise of content but you’re still not getting those click-throughs you desperately want.  Well the finger can be firmly pointed towards your design and layout.  Is your offer tucked away near the bottom of the email?  Is it bold and stand out enough?  You need to make sure that your recipients eyes are directed to wherever your “call to actions” are.  Do this and you will see those click-throughs rocket.   It could though, be that your email just doesn’t look that nice.  People make judgements within the first few seconds of looking at an email and if they don’t like the look of it, they will not even bother with the content (which is also another reason for having your call to action in an eye catching place).

3. My Conversion Rate is Poor

This is probably the most important indicator of your campaign.  If you have so far followed the advice on this article (and the rest of my blog) you should be seeing a good level of conversions now.  If that is still not the case then there could still be a couple of issues that need resolving. 

Firstly, are you directing your recipients to the exact page they wanted to go to.  If they wanted to see the offers on some of your products don’t go and send them to your index page.  Having to look for the product they want will turn them off of the idea. 

Secondly, make sure that your campaign matches your websites branding.  There is a lot of spam on the internet (you may have noticed) that is still hindering people’s confidence in e-business.  It is your job to minimise this, and the best way to do so is by having a consistent branding throughout your communications with the public.

Well, that should have your campaign back in working order now.  If you’re still having problems, email me with your problem and I’ll try and give you a hand.

“Send to Friend” in emails can be very useful in not only spreading your message but also in expanding your list with customers who are open to the messages you are sending out.

There was a recent debate on the email marketers club from someone who wanted to send out emails to all the contacts he had (500,000 or so) but only 200,000 had actually asked for any further communication from them.  He wanted to send them a free voucher to spend at his company’s store.  The thing is, however tempted you are to send to those others, they opted out for a reason.

That’s not really the point of this post.  There was hefty debate over this mans’ proposal, and though the majority disagreed with him sending to those “opt-out” recipients, some decent alternatives were brought up.

The best idea was an open “send to friend” on this voucher he was going to send his customers.  So not only is he not treading on anyone’s feet, but any forwards that his recipients are sending are increasing his own marketing spread.  Not only that, but his recipients are actually doing some marketing work for him; sending the message to friends who they think might be interested in the product.

It’s not all that easy though.  You can’t just stick a send to a friend in the newsletter and think that people will instantly be inclined to forward it.  Like the above example, send an incentive to both forwarders and the recipients.  Something like “refer a friend to our list and receive 15% off of your next purchase with us”.  As ever I’ll leave you to work out what incentive would best suit your company, but just think of the potential that a well-constructed “send to a friend” could do for your company.

Well it’s another one of those helpful tips blog posts again.  Though I will be using mailingmanager as the loose basis for this example, this can be adopted by anyone.

I think laying the groundwork of your email marketing campaign is really important in the long-term health of your campaign.  Now this could be a bit of extra work at the beginning but once you’ve got it set up and running, it’s effortless.

As I have mentioned previously, contact your new sign ups early on can really help to build up a good, long lasting interaction between you and the subscriber.  Interest is at a maximum in your company at the point of sign up.  The best thing to do is set up an initial autoresponder to reply to them almost instantly after sign up.  So in the inbox they should receive a confirmation that they are added to the subscriber list, then the first autoresponder message that you’ve created.

This first autoresponse message should just be a welcome message and should back up what content they should be receiving from you.  This should also confirm what you promised to send them on your website.  For instance, if you promised a fortnightly email with tips and tricks, then re-iterate this in your opening autoresponse.  You could even link back to online versions of previous newsletters to show them what they should expect. 

So now they know when to expect the newsletters and know what to expect as content.  This doesn’t mean that the autoresponders job is done.  You can now queue up the following autoresponders to maintain interest in your company.  Offer them loyalty bonuses after a couple of months, or free gifts to re-ignite the interest of those people whose might have waned a little (I’ll leave the creative inspiration to you guys on how you go about doing this).

For all of you on mailingmanager, firstly, may I congratulate you; now I’ll show you how to set it all up.

Just go to the autoresponders tab in mailingmanager.  You’ll then be asked to choose your list to create the autoresponder for.  If you just have one, pick that, otherwise choose the one that is linked through to your subscription form. 

Once you’ve chosen the format and name of the autoresponder, you will be prompted to start setting the time for when the autoresponder is to be sent out after subscription.  You can choose in hours or can set it up for a longer period (up to 3 years).  After that it’s just the same as any normal campaign; just create and save.

Voilà!  You now have an autoresponder campaign set up.  Of course, this is just the basics and if you get stuck along the way feel free to email us.

It wasn’t too long ago that social networks didn’t exist.  You actually had to speak to one another, in person.  The quickest, cheapest (and well, best) way of keeping in touch with people who had moved away was via the old and trusted method of email.  No longer is this the case.  People don’t want to speak to one person anymore; they want the whole world to know that they’re staying in and having Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner tonight.

Tonight’s dinner aside, this is something which needs to be paid attention too.  I have read blogs recently from people who are saying that they are turning back to email in protest to social networking and stating that email is still king.  These people also happen to be in the email marketing field.  Unfortunately, the world of email marketing can’t exist just because there are stubborn email marketers out there who are refusing to change over.  Email marketing will still work with the younger generations; we just have to remember that the concentration on their inbox is probably going to be considerably lower than the older generations of email users.

I’m lucky enough to be in a situation where I a) have brothers and sisters who are full social network addicts; and b) Am at an age where I once used email and converted to social networking, so have knowledge of my own changing attitude towards email.

So when are the younger generation going to use their email inboxes?  I read somewhere that 91% of internet users still read and send emails.  I find this quite a crude generalisation in favour of the effectiveness of email.  Don’t get me wrong though, I do believe email does still work effectively.  What has to be considered is the age generations that read email, read them with different drives.

Okay, so that really isn’t a revelation.  Marketing 101 would tell you that different age generations have different motivators. This though, is about a generation actually changing their motivation from the pre-defined one.  Social Networking has basically drawn the attention away from the inbox and towards them in terms of personal communication.  Though I haven’t read any data to back up this claim, this must mean that the time actually spent looking at their inbox has drastically reduced.

So it comes down to how exactly to grab their attention in that shorter time frame you have.  From personal experience, I don’t really bother with any of the newsletters.  If I’m going to open an email it’s because it says something like 75% off - end of season sale.  I basically don’t want lots of content; I want deals and plenty of them.  I also pay absolutely no attention to emails that have come from 3rd party sources so being on an email list is pretty pointless with me.

Now I know I’m only using a very small group of people as my test subjects (me, my family and close friends) but there was a general consensus that this was the case with the rest of them as well.

What’s even worse is that the emails I do actually bother to open are what I advise our customers not to do in terms of design.  They are just one giant image with clickable links in the image itself.  This has led me to think that content filtering will become even less important in the future of email deliverability and that emphasis will be further placed upon whitelisting and sender reputation.

Why not also consider when these recipients are most likely to concentrate harder on their online email accounts.  Working hours are probably the best time to send your email marketing campaigns.  As most work places have blocked facebook and myspace, the concentration will have shifted towards email during working hours (providing that email hasn’t also been blocked), especially seeing that you can actually view facebook posts from your email account now.

So the future for email marketing will pretty much stay the same in all honesty.  A few things will have to change.  I can see the lure of buying or renting lists diminishing in some areas of the business world as the effectiveness of them decreases.  I can also see us stepping back a bit in terms of content and design.  I think people have already, and will continue to care less about the content and how they word their emails and focus more on the sending reputation they carry.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what I’ve said.  Whether you agree or disagree, it’d be great to let me know what you think.