Article: Email marketing - a presentation

Email marketing - a presentation

Email marketing - when used correctly - is still one of the most effective forms of direct marketing available to businesses small and large - despite the rise of social media, instant messaging and the like. This is not to say it's the best channel for all and everything - other channels now deliver that, especially if immediacy is what you are after. But overall, it's still up there.

This is a presentaiton, so apologies straight up for the layout, which Hot Lemon delivered at an industry event last year. Whilst it is pre-GDPR (which effectively didn't introduce anything new if you already followed best-practice), it is still relevant.

If you want to comment or share your thoughts on this - do please get in touch with us.

Email marketing - An Introduction

Why use Email Marketing

• Reach:
  wider potential reach: Facebook – 1.9 billion / Twitter 320 million subscribers – Email: circa 4.5 billion accounts (you need an email account to get a social media account)
• Message:
  more able to deliver message compared to being followed on Social media – 90% of email gets delivered / only 3% of Facebook fans see a post – also permission based marketing means recipients have positively opted in.
• Conversions:
  average click through rate for email – 3% / Twitter – 0.5% / Facebook – 0.6% (Facebook ads – 0.05%)
• Cost-effective:
  most effective ROI of any marketing tool – circa 3800% (DMA UK report) – transactional email 6x more effective than pure marketing / BAU
• Preference:
  for many email is the preferred channel for promotional messages – up to 72% (Marketing Sherpa – Email marketing report) – compared to 17% for social media
• Longevity:
  open platform (not proprietary / not subject to changes in company policy (i.e. Facebook)) Despite lots of new tools and channels – unlikely to be superseded – building an email list will pay off in the years to come.
• Reference:
  MySpace – largest social website in the world between 2005 / 2008. Twitter yet to make a profit – still loosing money

What can Email Marketing Be Used for

• Relationships
  it’s important to have an effective tool to communicate with the people who matter most to your business. Email gives you the ability to stay top-of-mind and keep people engaged with your business
• Credibility
  Email gives you the ability to build credibility with your audience by sharing helpful and informative content (newsletters / info guides) – the “go to” entity
• Leads
  Email gives you the opportunity to capture visitor’s attention and nurture the relationship with helpful and informative content – NOT EVERY VISITOR IS A SALE IMMEDIATELY
• Sales
  convert leads into sales / use an “interested” audience to boost sales at specific times
• Management
  manage customer relationships / sales processes automatically (side note on transactional / marketing led email (Sony x 8 emails for signing up – transactional based emails 6x more likely to be read)

HOW TO USE EMAIL EFFECTIVELY

• Objective
  always have a marketing objective i.e.  Direct sales channel / lead channel for face to face closure / subscription objective – relate to your business and your industry
• List
  the email list is the most important aspect
• Relevance
  your marketing objectives / creative must be aligned with the lists aspirations – if not won’t work. If your selling Ferraris – make sure your list can afford them
• Measurement
  analyse how your list responds to your campaigns – adapt accordingly. Measure opens / click throughs / discount codes / website visits – THEN react and adapt

THE PRACTICALITIES OF EMAIL MARKETING

• Without a relevant list – it isn't worth doing
• Invest time in building a good list:
  • Import known contacts / existing customers / associates / networking contacts
  • Signup forms on website – don’t expect people to just sign up – give them an incentive (A valuable incentive + simple subscribe opportunities = email list)
  • Compelling content
  • Order discounts
  • Upgraded shipping options
• Associate marketing – use partner business to piggy back inviting people to subscribe

• People assess whether to open an email / interact with an email according to:
  • Who it’s from (is it someone they trust / someone they want to hear more about / someone they know delivers value) – which address / name delivers that most in your organisation?
  • Why are you sending them an email – what is the reason / offer (is it valid – i.e. not just for the sake of sending something)
  • WIIFM – why should they open it – what does the email offer recipient (the value offer) – valuable insights / information / opinion / discounts / special offers
  • The only one – personalisation. Email offers unparalleled personalisation opportunities – use name / location / product usage / relationship and the like to personalise the email.
• Or, in other words: SENDER | SUBJECT LINE | PREVIEW TEXT | OFFER | PERSONALISATION

• Brand:
  does the email reflect your brand / is it recognisable as coming from your business (consistency)
• Creative:
  is it interesting / communicates your objectives / professionally laid out
• Responsive:
  over 50% of email is opened on a mobile device is your email mobile friendly
• Testing Email is not easy to do right. Different email clients render HTML email completely differently.