How to increase the value exchange of email marketing in covid-19?

In my opinion, SEM is using the appropriate keywords to increase CTR when people’s intent is high. By contrast, display ads is delivering more interesting and nice-to-know information to increase CTR when people’s intent is low. Apart from them, email is to building the value exchange of subscription. Therefore, in covid-19, when people‘s values change drastically from emphasizing appearance to focusing on comfortability, what can email marketing do to keep engaging the customers?

Firstly, we need to catch the most important change - people pay more attention to their internal and try best to feel comfortable. Therefore, exclusive contents, such as how to organize the room, how to recycle the outdated goods and what is needed to make WFH more efficient, are indeed good information to deliver.

Secondly, reminder emails are more needed than before. Personalized reminders responding to “life cycle” can be more frequent. As people are trapped at home and have lost a lot of contacts with the outside world, they are more likely to forget to buy the goods in one specific point of “life cycle”. For example, when a moisturizer runs out they are more likely to find a substitute nearby instead of buying new. Therefore, a reminder to use coupons triggering customers buying new one is more necessary.

On the whole, in order to increase the value exchange of email marketing in covid-19, the content of email marketing should focus more on comfortability and the reminding points along “life cycle” should be more frequent.

Email Marketing: What Do Your Customers Really Want?

Like it or hate it – email continues to reign as one of the most effective tools to engage with consumers in a personalized way. A research conducted by campaign monitor reveals the key insights that can help increase your ROI. Here's a summary:

Consumers Still Prefer Brands to Communicate via Email

Key finding: There is no doubt, consumers still love email. More than half (52.7%) of those surveyed in the U.S. check their personal email account more than 10 times a day, and it is by far their favorite way to receive communication from brands  (compared to direct mail, mobile apps, social media, push notifications, and mobile wallet).

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATIONS FROM RETAIL BRANDS

Marketers are Delivering on Personalization

Key finding: 76% of consumers agree that retail brands are sending relevant, accurate emails which reflect their shopping preferences, location or purchase history. Companies across all industries are delivering on the promise of personalized emails. Overall, consumers overwhelmingly prefer to receive personalized emails across verticals.

AGREEMENT THAT BRANDS ARE SENDING RELEVANT EMAILS ACROSS INDUSTRIES

Along With Personalized Subject Lines, Discounts Drive the Most Opens!

Key finding: Across verticals, the top reasons consumers will open an email from a brand are personalization and discounts. Consumers are just slightly more inclined to open an email offering a discount (72%) than one with a personalized subject line (62%).

CONSUMER PREFERENCE BY EMAIL ATTRIBUTE ACROSS INDUSTRIES

Millennials Lead the Way in Making Purchasing Decisions Based on Email

Key finding: Preferences based on personalization and type of content received from brands did not vary widely among age groups. However, when it comes to taking action based on an email, millennials are far more likely to do so. 58% of millennials “always” or “most of the time” donated to a nonprofit while just 18% of respondents 55+ did the same.

PROPENSITY TO TAKE ACTION BY AGE GROUP ACROSS INDUSTRIES

The bottom line? Marketers must know their audience to run a successful campaign. Consumers prefer when brands personalize their email marketing campaigns, across age groups and verticals, and are seeking more of it. Brands must continue to personalize email campaigns to drive even more success and engagement, particularly with millennials. This trend will continue over time, as email continues to reign as one of the most effective tools to engage with consumers!

Link: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/insights-research-report/

Will Microsoft’s new email marketing tool kill MailChimp?

Microsoft recently released an email marketing extension of Office 365 Microsoft Connections. Connections allow users to create professional-looking email marketing campaigns on the web, iOS, and Android. It monitors campaign performance, including clicks and open rates, and manages subscribers. In many ways, Microsoft Connection’s value proposition is similar to MailChimp’s! If this was not enough - Microsoft is offering the email tool for free just like MailChimp! Ever heard of anything ‘free’ from Microsoft before?

MailChimp announced in early May that it would give its 15 million customers free access to its email marketing tools, a service previously which came at extra cost. While MailChimp is cheaper than an Office 365 subscription, experts say that's only true to a point. The MailChimp business model has a "free to play" lower tier which spikes upwards as a list of subscribers grow. For example, with MailChimp, you can email to a list of up to 2,000 subscribers a month for free, but if you have 24,000 subscribers, it will cost you $150 a month. However, MailChimp’s model is not sustainable - especially if it were to compete with tech giants! Microsoft on the other hand, has $126 billion in cash on hand, so offering products for free is no big deal for them.  But with Microsoft's offering there is a catch - Connections is not really 'free', you will need to purchase Office Suite to install the email tool!

While leveraging Microsoft's platform may seem tempting to small businesses, they must wait to see if Connections will be like Microsoft Media Player or Microsoft Money! Will it be a huge success or will it just fail like several other Microsoft products?

It is perhaps too soon to say anything, but it will be interesting to see if Microsoft is able to revolutionize email marketing with Connections and if MailChimp will be able to sail through the fierce competition from a tech-giant!

Link: https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/10/microsoft-launches-new-email-marketing-and-invoicing-tools-for-small-businesses/?ncid=mobilenavtrend

Key Email Marketing Trends from 2015

This article talked about some of the key email marketing trends over the last year.  The key highlights were as follows:

1) Email triggers on the rise
Email triggers were used more and were seen as more effective then in previous years - 7% of marketers said email triggers were very successful (up from 4%); 54% of marketers said email triggers were quite successful (up from 47%)

1) Making emails more mobile friendly
This has been one of the key changes - marketers focused not only on the design of the emails to make sure they display well on emails, but also on the content to ensure that it captures the attention of consumers in less space and less time (emails are read much quicker on mobile then desktop)

Key Email Marketing Trends

Email Marketing Here to Stay

Many have discounted the future of email marketing given all of the social apps that have popped up that were thought to be the future of brand/customer communication. However, email marketing is still strong with 98% of brands using it and the most successful ones adapting their strategies in three different ways.

1. Making customers part of the content (leveraging UGC) and in real time

• Brands have seen success when they incorporate user-generated content relating to the brand and develop quick stories/campaigns around the content, emailing them out in real time.

2. Speaking directly to the individual recipient, not mass communication

• Brands are personalizing their communications (something difficult to do via social), sending individualized emails with tailored messages and content based on each individual recipient.

3. Measuring and adapting continuously

• Successful brands relearning from each email blast, testing multiple messages, calls to action, structures, contents, etc. They are continuously refining and narrowing in on very specific success factors of their campaigns. 

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/3-ways-email-marketing-embracing-trends-were-supposed-make-it-obsolete-166300

How to exponentially grow your email list?

How to exponentially grow your email list?

To help your own channels such as email marketing you have to constantly add new subscribers. Why use email? Because emails are controlled by you, while Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms are not. 

• Think big (10x), ambition is very important.
• What works for one company may not work for other companies, so learn by doing. The faster you start the faster you’ll get there.
• Create metrics that are predictable and scalable. 
• Don't do one offs, be consistent. Be regular in how often you send out emails to your list.
• And, use the AAA formula:

1. Ask: ask your people to go to your newsletter through other social media platforms.
2. Assets: your email signature is your asset. Add a link to your signature that goes to a landing page where people can sign up for your mailing list. Join slack groups and comment on them, organize your key people and influencers that should always know about your new launches. The emails you are sending already to your base have to encourage your subscribers to share and forward your emails.
3.  Acquisition: boost post Facebook and then retarget your content. No one wants to click adds, people like to click when they know they can learn something new and different. 

Sources: hubspot, presentation by Noah Kagan (founder of SumoMe)

Email marketing introduction and tips

INTRODUCTION TO EMAIL MARKETING:

Email is a channel that you own, so take advantage of it. It is a great resource because:

1.       Your audience has already opted in

2.       You can speak directly to them in a relevant way through segmenting, targeting and testing

3.       It has a higher conversion rate than other opt-in relationship channels such as social media

There are different types of emails:

1.       Transactional: welcome email when you sign in, thank you email when you complete a purchase, confirmation email when you made a purchase, abandoned cart email when you initiate a purchase but do not complete it.

2.       Marketing: newsletter, promotions…

Key metrics:

1.       Open rate: # opens/total recipients. A good open rate is around 20% to 30%.

2.       Click to open rate: # clicks/# opens. A good click to open rate is around 20% to 30%.

3.       Conversion rate: # actions/total recipients. It depends on the industry and the email offer.

4.       Unsubscribe rate: # unsubscribes/total recipients. Should be less than 1%.

Taylor and test depending on your customers:

You can modify and do A/B testing to improve your metrics. Recommendations are to create different subject lines, images, messaging, landing pages, time of the day you send the email, and others.

GENERAL TIPS:

·         Be clear: when creating an email start with a question, what do I want to say to my customer?

·         Be concise: use short and simple words, and avoid fluffy modifiers such as amazing, memorable, powerful, beautiful, unique, innovative, it’s never been easier…

·         Define who is your customer? What do they need to know? And give them the information they need and want to read.

·         Write how your brand speaks.

·         Think about mobile.  Everything you send should be mobile-friendly, if not it is not going to perform very well.

·         Avoid jargon and catchphrases: for blogs and magazines examples are: X is the new Y, the future of X, viral… For startups examples are: adaptive, disruptive, seamless, game changer…

·         Subject line: tell what it is inside, don’t sell what it is inside, be descriptive, make it local or personal, < 50 characters, avoid all caps and exclamations, use emojis for fun (not as replacement of words)

·         Pre-header: summary and teaser (longer that the subject line, should complement each other, has to be different).

·         Headline: different from subject line, the most obvious. It is what people read.

·         Body: people are scanning, make it easy for them to scan, and images are key. Do not make false promises.

·         Call to action (CTA): make it clear. Keep it short, no more than 5 words, the majority are two words such as Buy Now. Use active language because you want customers to act now. Create a sense of urgency, so give customers a reason to act now. For instance, put a limited time frame on deals so customers won’t wait.

·         Footer: unsubscribe (make it easy to unsubscribe), address, link, little image (something fun), social media buttons.

·         Track and analyze your results.

Sources: Vertical Response, Mailchimp, General Assembly, Forbes, Huffington Post, HubSpot

 

 

Study shows a lot of room for improvement in email marketing

Consultancy firm Practicology tracked email activity of almost 100 major retailers for 6 months and found that there was a lot that they could be doing better.
They started by subscribing to their newsletters, and were able to do so in 91% of them. Some of retailers even required the user to create an account to subscribe to their newsletter.
Shockingly, 15% of the retailers never contacted them even when they subscribed to their newsletter. Also, only 67% of the companies acknowledged subscription by sending a confirmation email.
Despite a lot of them had multi-platform websites that adapted to the screen of the user, only 52% of the emails showed the same responsiveness, making it more complicated for the subscriber to view the content of the newsletter.
The study mentions that even though there is no defined limit for the frequency, 7% of the companies sent daily emails to its subscribers, with a high risk of them unsubscribing from the newsletter.
Regarding social media, and given its importance today, it is almost unbelievable to find that about 24% of the newsletters didn't include links to the retailers social media accounts, making it easier for the customers to connect with them.
The study clearly shows that, despite being one of the oldest tools of digital marketing, companies still need to improve a lot their email campaigns.

Original article:
Six month study shows major retailers failing to make the most from email marketing

Email Marketers Are the New Keymasters of Digital Experience

Here's an article from Click Z about email marketing campaign.  The artcile goes on to argue that email marketing is not going anywhere and remains the highest ROI channel of digital marketing.

I think a good email marketing campaign requires short messages (subject title) that catches the users attention right away, with underlying content direct and to the point.  In my opinion an effective marketing email should probably be no different than social media marketing in that sense.  In addition, based on my experience the frequency of the emails should be limited where it is not too many to become annoying or disruptive to the overall effort.

Full article below:

Email marketing isn't going anywhere. In fact, it's becoming more important than ever, as it increasingly gives marketers the means for creating digital engagements and tracking their efficacy.

It's a great time to be an email marketer. While email has been overshadowed by flashier emerging marketing channels for some time, a new perspective on its role in facilitating cross-channel digital marketing puts it right back into the limelight. One of the most popular discussions taking place among marketers is how email addresses themselves can be the key to understanding and reaching individuals across an ever-broadening set of digital interaction channels.

At a recent industry event, Brian Anderson of LUMA Partners spoke about "The Changing Digital Marketing Technology Landscape." Anderson affirmed once again that email is the highest ROI channel and shared insight into how email’s value extends well beyond direct ROI. He described how a person’s email address is now the "connective tissue" that enables marketers and advertisers to coordinate multi-channel, multi-stage marketing engagements.

Leading marketers now understand the value of an email address is not just in opening up a line of communication with a customer; it's also as an effective means for targeting and attribution across alternate digital channels.

Even more recently, Dave Hendricks, president of LiveIntent, pondered the question "Is Email the Missing Link?" One of his most salient points was this: "The most important element of email seems to be the least exciting to so many current email marketers: the data." The email address itself, and the behavioral data associated with it, are incredibly valuable in ways outside of the traditional email communication channel. Their use in media and advertising is now emerging, where smart email marketers need to start thinking differently about their email data.

Email marketers must recognize their new role across the wider organization and the critical new part they now play in improving customer experience and engagement. While most email marketers have long been obsessed with the results driven through the channel, there are now new areas where they can focus their time and energy.

List Building Beyond the Permission

Since the dawn of email, marketers have been obsessed with securing permission to engage consumers through the channel – getting to that critical opt-in. While this core fact is unchanged, the email address now plays a broader and very valuable new role within your organization. Even if some consumers prefer not to engage with your email communications, their email addresses can still be the key to reaching them. Building custom audiences in Facebook, tying together behavioral data from a variety of sources, or figuring out how multi-channel interactions are impacting your customer engagements, can all be done based on that key email address held within your systems. Managing an email list can deliver incredible value to your organization, even if that person never happens to engage with a single email.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Many of today’s marketing organizations are still highly siloed in their approaches and execution. Now more than ever, it’s critical to break down these internal silos and create true cross-channel orchestration to improve how we interact with our customers. As the holder of a key piece of information, email marketers are in a perfect position to lead us to this new coordinated future, where email address can be used to target display ads, tie together behavioral data, or even send a targeted offer.

Building Cross-Channel Contextual Data

"Context," along with developing contextual marketing engagements, is shaping up as a key theme of 2015 for most marketing departments. Building a contextual understanding of consumers, and engaging with them on their terms, is changing how companies interact with, and create value for, customers.

Understanding true customer context requires bringing many types of data together, from a wide variety of sources. Context for a customer is comprised both of the disposition and situation of the individual consumer, as well as the disposition and situation of your business at the time of engagement (see image below). Email marketers need to develop true contextual insights and understand that the email address is the key to bringing the required data together.

Successful Strategies for Email Marketing

According to a Forrester Research report, 42% of US online adults delete most email advertising without reading it, down from 44% in 2012 and 59% in 2010. The percentage of consumers agreeing that they receive too many email offers and promotions fell by 1% from 2012 and down 10% from 2010.  What does this mean?  We are doing a better job at email marketing but we can do much better.

Email marketing is huge and will continue to be for many years to come so it needs to become smarter. Businesses need to become extremely clever about what types of email content they provide and how they promote it.  Businesses are realizing that the key is sending BETTER emails (not more emails) that create value.

Grow email list 

Your email list is one of your most valuable marketing resources.  If you want your list to have an even bigger impact, make it easy for people to sign up and give people a compelling reason to sign up.  Most major email service providers will have an app that allows you to collect emails right from within your Facebook page. As always, it’s a good idea to offer something of value here rather than just asking your fans to sign up for your list. 

With it getting harder and harder to reach fans on Facebook without using paid advertising, many are finding great success distributing free offers using Twitter.  There are tons of tweet schedulers out there like Hootsuite and SocialOomph which allows you to set the times, frequency and campaign duration as well as recycles the tweets for later use. 

 

Increase email open rates

Your open rate is one of the best metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.  The more people you get to open your emails, the more opportunities you’ll have to drive business results.  Focus on sending emails that your audience will thank you for.  Create the best email subject line that catches your reader’s attention and lets them know why they should click to open.

Average open rates vary from industry to industry. If you’re not sure how your open rate compares to other businesses, check out the Comparison by Industry Chart.

Enhance engagement

One of the best ways to measure engagement is to look at your click-through rates.  Click-through rates show you how many subscribers are engaging with your content and taking a desired action by clicking on links within your email.  Keep your message as focused as possible, with one clear call to action that you want them to take.

 

Compel the customer to act

Take some time to look through your reports to see which links are getting the most attention. This is a great way to see what your readers are most interested in. Create separate email lists for people who click on a particular link and follow up with a more targeted email.

Determine goals and boost results

The goal will be a direct response — to drive sales, generate reservations, or bring more people into your store or office. In other cases, the goal will be focused on the long-term — to generate awareness, improve loyalty, or increase referrals.

Measure results

Pay attention to how many of the people who redeemed the offer are existing customers, and which are new to your business.