Let us look at a couple of factors that could separate your company from your competitors’ e-marketing strategies in 2008 and beyond.

1) There should be a focus on integrating current CRM system with processes, services and software, especially when it comes to software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. B-to-B marketers have identified that their single greatest problem is finding a way to leverage e-mail campaign data. Sales people need to know when someone has shown interest from an e-marketing campaign and leads should be properly and quickly allocated. As soon as an enquiry is received or when someone has expressed interest in a product the company needs to react immediately. They want that information to be disseminated almost instantly, when the prospect is hot. “E-mail can play a vital role in lead nurturing if you can track the many data points that can serve as triggers,” he said. Having e-mail functionality built into CRM solutions such as ClearFormat’s Intelligent Reporting and Link Tracking Management Console makes this possible.

2) Increased use of automated tools and customization. Market and client segmentation plays an important role in sending personal and relevant info. Rendering tools should be available to test message quality in a number of email clients “You need the ability to preview messages across multiple clients, [see] how that message is going to look in the in-box,” he said. “These are not new technologies, but people are finally starting to use them, making e-mail a true marketing tool, not just an afterthought.”

3) Closer alignment of marketing elements. E-mail can’t stand alone anymore, Integrate other marketing elements with your email campaigns such as Google AdWords, Email Branding, Lead Online Advertising and PR. Even though e-mail has moved up the chain of command from departmental viewers (employees) to the managerial viewers (CMO's or directors of marketing), email should not stand alone. Email supports every other interactive marketing tactic.

For example, people use search engines to identify suppliers with whom they are most likely to do business. Savvy e-mailers are using landing pages that link from search engines to invite those prospects to opt in to additional communications. “Most marketers invite signup on the main home page, but the smartest ones figure out which pages are most heavily trafficked and invite opt in there as well,” he said. “It’s about moving e-mail out of the tactical world and into the strategic world,” he said. “Integrate e-mail into a marketing plan as a strategic element.”

4) Using rich content with e-mail marketing. Although marketers learned that embedding video in e-mail can present difficulties, video does work—especially in the b-to-b market, Book said. The trick is to use e-mail to bring readers to a special landing page where they can view video on their own terms. “The viral effect of video also drives adoption of your e-mail and builds an audience,” he said. Another option is to provide links to forms or instant chat clients so people can ask questions of salespeople or customer. Then of course you should look at actual creative thinking to bridge the gap of normality or the status quo.

Author: Ruan Schreuder

It is simple, practical, affordable, measurable and exceedingly effective. Just follow these steps. If you brand it they will come.

Building E-mail Brand Value (EVB) is essential to establish long term customer relationships, and it hinges on the relevancy of your messages. Send out a bland email or newsletter and your customers will decide not to read it. Send it to the wrong people, and they’ll no longer want to have anything to do with you. Angry customers are not customers for long. Think it as “dating your customers”. In the old days companies would start right in with a marriage proposal. They would spend a lot of money on a fancy television ad and hope that it would entice new customers to buy their product. But this tactic assumes that customers have loads of time on their hands (which they don’t), and that they have few alternatives to your brand. When you date your customers, you persuade them slowly. The process takes longer, but it yields powerful, long-term results.

Offer an incentive and use that incentive to build the customer’s understanding of your product and reinforce the incentive to gain even more permission.

Solidifying customer relationships and building EBV requires moving your company’s email program from an isolated marketing endeavor to a consistent, enterprise wide strategy. Your brand is what keeps your customers reading past the “from” field. Your brand is what lays the foundation for every interaction you have with your customers. And every department within your organization needs to be focused single-mindedly on maintaining the value of the brand.

• Creativity is key. Make your message interesting and entertaining and then you recipients are more likely to read and forward on your emails compared to plain emails that get absolutely no attention.
• Grab attention of non-users. Entice your uninterested clients or end-users by offering something new, something on discount, something on promotion, something updated, something brief and concise, something funny, something visually appealing (branded).
• Deliverability. Always watch your domain delivery statistics closely and look for low response rates, which can mean your e-mail is being diverted to a junk box. With Clearformat this is unlikely.
• Mobile email readers. Marketers need to be aware that as handheld usage increases, it’s more important than ever to have very concise messaging with clear calls to action that can be acted on in mobile environments. “Give the mobile reader a reason to save your e-mail and act on it later rather than simply deleting your message”
• Make it easy to scan. Inbox overload has driven recipients to spend less and less time making decisions on what to do with an e-mail. They scan and they do not read, therefore the aesthetics of your branded email goes a long way with Clearformat.
• Use strong value statements. “Clever marketers can take advantage of this tool by placing a strong value statement that builds on the subject line and increases brand recognition,” he said. “This in turn leads to higher response rates and increased brand recognition.”
• Break through the clutter. Multiple studies have shown that the two most important parts of an e-mail are the “from” address and the subject line. This is where you make or break. Imagine a third element of clarity and creativity with branded email.

With ClearFormat’s e-mail branding solutions you are able to be as creative as you want, as you are given a variety of options to customize your branded emails. Some users are harder to target, but the key to grabbing their attention is to communicate on a personal level and by offering a service or product that adds value. The ClearFormat offering gives you the power to check and note your delivery status, because some emails can be undelivered. Take note that ClearFormat embeds all info as it moves through our servers, making your email credible and safe. Clear, concise and aesthetically appealing emails are better for mobile-email-readers as the scan and they rarely give their full attention in reading. The same goes for normal email recipients. Add value and credibility to your emails by placing strong value statements that build on the subject line so that you get higher response rates and increased brand recognition.

Emails are much like news letters or billboards or TV ads, but each individual email that goes out is personalized and carries more meaning. Email branding is a whole new platform or touch-point for your client and/or customer to interact with your brand. It is another platform to build brand awareness, brand credibility and brand imagery. All this and each image, number or banner is directly link to the relevant page on your website.

Author: Ruan Schreuder, inspired by Seth Godin

A new retail benchmark study, Hitting the Mark released by dotMailer, reveals that some of the UK’s largest online and offline retailers are neglecting key areas of the email marketing process and failing to comply with Best Practice Guidelines.

Almost half of the retailers (46%) failed to comply with basic legal requirements, according to the study, which evaluates 46 retailers’ email campaigns against 20 criteria, awarding each email campaign an Email Effectiveness rating out of 100.

Topshop heads the index of UK retailers with a score of 86.5 but is one of only eight to score over 80%. STA Travel, ASDA and M&S were close behind with 85.5, 84.5 and 83.5 respectively. At the other end, shoe retailer Office came in last place (54) just behind Lidl and H&M (both 57).  Overall an alarming 35% failed to score more than 70.

Key failings identified by the study included minimal or ineffective design, inappropriate landing pages and non-existent targeting. Alarmingly the average score for effective targeting was a lowly 16%, with only five brands in the study using information about customer preferences to tailor email content and just 15% asked for any information about customer preferences during the sign-up process.

The study also revealed that retailers are not investing in email specific design skills. By failing to understand the unique technical requirements of email design, communications are failing to render correctly across inboxes leading to a less than satisfactory customer experience.

Only 30% of retailers invested in campaign specific designs and 40% of retailers failed to design relevant landing pages with consistent branding and a clearly visible offer or call to action.

“Our study was eye-opening in demonstrating that many retailers are failing to realise the full potential of email as a sophisticated direct marketing channel, offering vast scope for targeted and measurable communications,” said Tink Taylor, a member of the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Marketing Council.

“There is a long way to go in understanding that email requires specific skills and expertise that offline designers and website developers do not always possess or are not actually aware of. These key elements are essential to ensuring that email marketing activity engages customers, encourages them to interact with brands, and ultimately, impact sales.”

The 20 criteria in the report were used to evaluate the key factors that need to be addressed by any email marketing campaign to be effective across the four key areas that determine success: deliverability, renderability, open rates and response rates. A range of aspects were considered, including sign-up, unsubscribing, the HTML code used, effectiveness of the design, targeting and time of sending.

Top Five Performers Index		Worst Five Offenders Index
Topshop	86.5	Office	54
STA Travel	85.5	H&M	57
ASDA	84.5	Lidl	57
Marks & Spencer	83.5	Expedia	59.5
Thomson	81.5	Somerfield	61

 

“With spam accounting for 85-95% of all emails sent, it is now more crucial than ever for marketers to get their message across. However, ISPs are filtering out marketing email and consumers are becoming more selective in the way they view, read and delete emails.

“Email marketing is a complex marketing method and if we simply ignore the best practice guidelines or not aware of the issues involved then we fail to maximise every opportunity that email offers. This study highlights how marketers should use the criteria we outline throughout their planning and development stages to ensure that they get the most out of their email marketing,” concludes Tink Taylor.  

Good practice legal requirements were not included – Following the Companies Regulations of 2006, marketers have adopted as best practice the requirement that every marketing email should now include the company registration number, country of registration and a registered office address. Incredibly, 46% of the emails studied did not contain this vital information.

The website landing page was not consistent with the look and feel of the email – An email marketing message acts as a vehicle to direct recipients to a website. However, too often either the wrong link was used or a website page no longer existed. Many landing pages looked different to the email itself and lacked clear navigation that would allow calls-to-action to be followed through to a measurable conversion. 40% of the retailers assessed scored under half in this category.

Emails did not render across popular email clients – Very few emails managed to display properly across the most common UK email clients. This suggests that designers are not aware of the way certain inboxes render emails and have not tested the message prior to sending.

No viral element or links were hidden – Only 20% of the emails examined contained a forward to a friend link or viral element and of these, many were hidden at the bottom of the email out of sight.
Design was not appropriate to email or specific campaign – The survey revealed that only 30% of retailers had invested in a campaign-specific design.

The email showed no evidence of targeting – Only 15% of retailers asked for any information about interests during signup. Targeting is crucial to ensuring that the right message is sent to the right person at the right time. Retailers scored 16% on average in this section.
http://www.dotmailer.co.uk/hittingthemark

Author: Dotmailer | Thursday, 06 March, 2008 | Business Communications, Corporate Branding, Marketing