Tailoring your content according to what you know about subscribers can boost response. Here’s what you need to know…

What’s the difference between dynamic content and personalisation?

The difference lies in how the email is built. Personalisation inserts data that is held in your database directly into the content of your email. Dynamic content, on the other hand, is where blocks of tailored content hosted by you or your ESP are inserted according to specific rules set by you.

Give me some examples

For a personalised campaign, you might include details such as your subscriber’s name, address, date of birth – any data that you hold, in the format in which it’s stored – so long as it’s relevant or adds value to your message.

Using dynamic content, meanwhile, you might opt to send different content elements to different subscriber groups that meet certain criteria such as:

• interests: a DIY store might send one content element to customers who browsed garden  furniture, and something different to those that browsed soft furnishings
• geography an international campaign might send content in different languages to users in different countries
• gender you might send one image to males, and a different image to females
• customer type for instance, sending high-value offers to big spenders and lower-value deals to lower-spending customers

Personalisation? Don’t people see through that “Dear <First Name>” stuff nowadays?

It’s true that simply personalising a message with a user’s name doesn’t have the impact it once did. Any message that just tops a completely generic message with a user name is likely to disappoint, and consumers are wary of supposedly personalised messages that turn out to be spam.

However, with a little lateral thinking, there are lots of easy ways to use personalisation to improve campaign performance such as:

• add credibility to welcome messages by including the source of the registration you’re confirming or
• include the Account Manager’s name or signature in B2B campaigns.

Better still, many platforms also enable you to set up dynamic personalisation – enabling you to build rules around personalisation. This gives you some of the advantages of dynamic content without the complexity, such as a rule like: “if ‘first name’ blank, use ‘customer’”.

Isn’t creating dynamic content very complicated?

If you haven’t created dynamic campaigns before, your first campaign can seem complicated, but the effort is well worth it: dynamic campaigns can save you significant amounts of time and resource in the long run.

Once you have your rules set up, you can often save them for future use, making ongoing dynamic campaigns only slightly more time consuming to set up and test.

To get you started, follow these steps:

• Create a test list with internal contacts or seed addresses with data that mirrors the data you hold for your subscribers. Then have a play with your platform.
• Start off simply with live data. Use just one dynamic content segment and a couple of rules, then you can build on your campaign’s complexity from there.
• Consider outsourcing the set-up and deployment of dynamic campaigns, so freeing you up to spend more time on generating content and strategies for future campaigns.

Checklist for developing campaigns with tailored content

Personalisation and dynamic content can provide a significant uplift to your campaign performance when done well; get it wrong, however, and you can harm your brand and reputation. Here’s what you need to get right:

• Check the quality of your data – are all fields complete and accurate?
• Make sure you’ve thought through the logic properly, and specify default values where appropriate.
• Test your campaigns thoroughly. With some ESPs you can test before deployment using live data; otherwise, create some dummy data and generate a test mailing to that list before your final deployment.
• Check your hosted version: whether personalisation or dynamic content carry through to your hosted version will depend on your platform.
• Find out what reporting is available for dynamic/personalised campaigns. Even if your platform cannot report on the performance of different content segments, you should still be able to run reports offline, though this will incur additional time and resource.
• Don’t personalise for the sake of it: only include information that is relevant and valuable to subscribers
• Always test the performance of your personalised campaigns against less targeted campaigns: sometimes broad offerings will generate unexpected sales, after all the fact a customer is male does not preclude them from buying a dress for a friend, relation or even for themselves.

Sometimes in the midst of all the amazing advanced email technology available to marketers, the essential building blocks in email are overlooked or not maximised.

I regularly remind marketers to go back and check that all the building blocks are in place in order to have a firm infrastructure to have the data to use the technology available at their finger tips. Data is the key to your success, and allows you to achieve those sophisticated aims and goals such as personalisation, segmentation and triggered and life cycle mailings.

With that in mind, I point to the subscribe form – an excellent cost-effective way to build an in-house database of pre-qualified leads.

1. Create a subscribe (or opt-in) form that attracts sign-ups. Include details of what you will send, how often, a link to a sample issue and your privacy policy. Include carefully selected non-required fields that will help you understand where the lead is in the sales cycle so you can provide better content. Plan to test it too, just as you would a landing page.
2. Start by placing the form prominently throughout your company’s website. Place it as part of any other forms you have on your website.
3. Include a link to the subscribe form in each issue of your email newsletter.
4. Put the information on your business card. Also, when you meet someone through networking or business meetings ask them if they’d like to receive your newsletter and sign them up. Follow up immediately with a welcome message reminding them why they will be receiving it.
5. Have a “forward to a friend” function in your emails – and don’t forget to have a link to your sign up form as well!
6. Put that link in all your social networking profiles. When you send a newsletter, publish its link to your streams, such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
7. Create an email address specifically for signing up to the newsletter. Use it in all your printed material (e.g. bills, invoices or statements) – include it in your hold and voicemail messages.
8. cross promote the newsletter through direct marketing material, as well as offline and online advertising.
9. Have a signup sheet available at your trade shows stands. Also have a sign up form at reception.
10. Use direct mail – if you only have physical addresses for your leads and/or customers, send them a direct mail with information on how to sign up to your emails.

denise cox is the Email Communications Specialist for Newsweaver. You can follow her on Twitter @denisecox

If you’re anything like me, then you’ll have been glued to the TV over the last month or so watching some of the greatest footballers in the world compete for that all important prize. But even if I hadn’t watched any of the World Cup, I’d only have to look at my inbox to know exactly what was going on.

That’s because over the last few weeks it seems as though every company under the sun has taken the opportunity to bombard its recipients with emails that ‘newsjack’ off the competition.

It’s a tried and tested marketing strategy and no doubt one that works very well for many companies. And yet, I can’t help but think that for some, the knee-jerk reaction to piggyback off the success of something happening out there in the wider world could be doing more bad than good.

Last week, we looked at a bunch of these World Cup emails that had come through and picked out a couple of the better ones. If there was one thing that really stood out, it was that some of the companies had obviously put a great deal of thought, care and attention behind their seasonal campaigns.

Don’t forget to target

The campaigns that were most successful were the ones that had clearly put in a great deal of advanced planning. Figleaves, for example, had launched a range of ‘England’ knickers – called Britnix! – a product that clearly suited its target audience while making the most of the World Cup.

And this really is the key point to remember when running campaigns like these. While it is tempting to jump on the bandwagon, it’s vital to hold onto all those tried and tested email marketing best practices. The central one of these, as demonstrated by Figleaves, is targeting.  It’s only by targeting the email effectively that you will actually reach a recipient that is engaged and ready to interact with your message. And they will only do this if the seasonal event is of interest and relevant to them.

Tink is Managing Director at dotMailer. He blogs on the dotDigital Blog and you can also follow him on Twitter: @tinktaylor

We all talk about the power of email marketing, but it really comes home to roost where you’re on the end of a bad experience.

Let me set the scene. With summer on the way I decided to buy some plants for my garden. I chose a company I’d never bought from before but had the recommendation badge from a leading horticultural organisation. At first I had good service, they delivered quickly, but the problems arose with my second order. My second order was left on my doorstep and whilst the box clearly said ‘do not tip’, the delivery company had left it on its side resulting in six of my nine plants being damaged.

I went to the website of the company I bought them from and the only way I could get in contact was through completing their website form (not a good start). There wasn’t an email address for them anywhere. So I sent off my complaint and waited and waited. In fact I waited one week and heard nothing even though their website said they would get back to me within two working days.

I did some more digging around and found an email address hidden on the receipt I’d had for the order, so I sent off another complaint and waited and waited. In the intervening time I received an email from one of their other businesses offering me incontinence products. Signing up for emails from the gardening business and get emails from the incontinence business. I was not impressed.

Four days later I sent my complaint email again. This time I had a response and was pleased with how they coped with it. They were mortified and offered to refund the plants that were damaged, so I responded reminding them that six had been damaged. Sadly I’ve heard nothing since and whilst I’ve emailed I’m a little lost and disappointed that having chased and chased and chased communication has fallen off a cliff.

Email marketing is a powerful communication tool. It can build positive customer experiences and long standing relationships. However, it can also destroy them very quickly. Use it wisely.

Jonathan Burston, Director

Customer Solutions Group, CACI

A quick search on the Internet for “Email Marketing Test Results” brings back numerous case studies and reports detailing how businesses have improved the success of their email campaigns thanks to testing.  Nonetheless, I suspect that there are at least as many businesses that are yet to see the value of testing in their email programs, not least because testing can be a very difficult task. To help with this, I thought I would share with you 10 common mistakes I have seen businesses make with their email testing so that you can avoid them and improve the results of your own email tests.

Mistake 1:- Not Testing At All
Many marketers fail to do any element of testing because they think it is too difficult and time consuming.  This all too common mistake can have a dramatic effect on the success of your email program.   Your own email campaigns will only be as effective as the knowledge that powers them – the more you know about your recipients the more powerful and successful your campaigns can become.  Email testing is all about gaining more knowledge about your own recipients.  Understanding what makes them react, ultimately gives you the knowledge to build a relationship with them.  Not testing at all is a big mistake that should be avoided.

Mistake 2:- Not focusing testing on the big things that are going to make a difference
One resource that is limited for all of us is time.  With this in mind, don’t make the mistake of not prioritising your testing plan.  Make sure that you build up a testing plan that focuses first and foremost on the things that can make a big difference to the success of your email program.  If you are looking to improve brand awareness and therefore open rates, testing a single word change in a subject line is likely to deliver small improvements whereas testing frequency and day of send could deliver significant improvements.  Prioritise your tests to focus on the big wins first.

Mistake 3:- Not having a hypothesis to prove
I have seen many people test their email campaigns without having a hypothesis to prove or disprove.  Your hypothesis gives your testing direction and meaning.  For example testing to prove the hypothesis “More prominent placement of calls to action within my email will improve click through rates” gives your testing far more shape than simply testing with the aim of improving click through rates.

Mistake 4:- Not testing with a robust data sample
Ensuring that you have a robust data sample for your testing is imperative as failure to do so will leave all of your tests results in doubt.  One common mistake I have seen is selecting a sample size that is too small.  In my opinion anything less than 5% is going to be too small. 
Alternatively, some businesses don’t select their data at random. This creates a problem as the group you have chosen aren’t representative of your whole database i.e. the first 5,000 people in the database already have a long term relationship with you whereas the last 5,000 people in the database are just starting their relationship.  Make sure you don’t make the mistake of not using a robust data sample.

Mistake 5:- Forgetting to keep a control group
Don’t forget to keep a control group that don’t receive any elements of your email testing program.  This group of recipients are important for you to be able to categorically prove your hypothesis.  I have seen email marketers forget to set up a control group and then had their test results dismissed on the basis that they couldn’t prove recipients wouldn’t have acted in that particular way as a result of the changes made in the test. For example if you are looking to prove the hypothesis “A Welcome program will reduce the time it takes recipients to make their first purchase” a control group of recipients who don’t get the Welcome Program emails is imperative.

I know I have promised ten mistakes, so next week we will look at 5 mistakes people make with their testing once they have hit dispatch.

The  question “How do I write effective subject lines?” with all its variants is the No1 FAQ in email marketing, despite the fact that subject lines are probably the most frequently A/B tested variables in email marketing. Most email marketers A/B split test subject lines on a regular basis so why hasn’t anyone come up with the answer yet?

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

I think it’s because most email marketing departments do not have enough resource to test more than 2 or 3 subject lines at a time. At that rate it could take several years to gather enough results to come up with a truly effective methodology for subject line writing. Which leaves no other option but to keep A/B split testing.

But relying on relying on A/B split testing to tell you which of the 2, 3 or more subject lines you come up with is like expecting someone to give you a fish every day for the rest of your life. we think it’s time to learn to fish; so we’re launching a unique new research project.

Our aim is to conduct the first ever subject line study to evaluate the impact on ROI of language – grammar, syntax and word choice. In association with digital copywriting agency Sticky Content, we’re analysing the results of hundreds of subject line split-tests conducted by us and participating clients over the last 18 months to find answers to such questions as:

• Which work better in subject lines – questions or instructions?
• What are the most effective words to use in subject lines – and what are the words to avoid?
• Does mentioning your brand name in a subject line really make a difference?
• Does personalisation in the subject lines improve performance?

Send us your subject lines – get a FREE advance report

Have you run A/B subject line tests in the last 18 months? If so, we would like to invite you to pool your test data with ours to create the largest collaborative subject line study ever run (and get a free copy advance copy).

Send us your subject line test results by Friday 2nd July and get a free advance copy of our whitepaper.

Find out more >>

I’m always on the look out for examples of good practice in email marketing. So when I visited my local Makro cash & carry store to top up the office coffee and biscuit supplies, I was pleased to find an in store campaign to grow email subscribers.

In this post I’m looking at what Makro did and using this example sharing ideas how you can make an effective campaign to grow your email list using offline touch points.

Makro is a wholesaler to businesses and you must show your customer card to gain entrance. There was a stack of email registration forms at the entrance desk. Even better, the assistant checking my customer card explicitly explained the option to subscribe and asked if I would be interested. This was either a very diligent employee or Makro had the foresight to provide a staff incentive to encourage bringing the email subscribe offer to the shoppers attention.

Invoice rear side showing subscribe form.

Even better at the end of my shop when I’d loaded up my goodies and paid, the rear of my invoice carried a subscribe call to action too as show in the image above.

Many businesses miss the opportunity to ask for a subscription on their standard print materials. In many cases there is empty space going unused, for example the rear of receipts. Draw up a list of all the printed materials in your business and look how a subscribe call to action could be incorporated. You may be surprised at the number of free blank spaces you have. Here is a list of common print materials to get you going; leaflets, compliment slips, invoices, till receipts, business cards, flyers, discount vouchers, coupons, point of sale displays, packaging, food menus, event tickets, posters, feedback forms, brochures, print newsletters and magazines, instruction booklets, guarantee cards.

Once you’ve identified the spaces where you can put your call to subscribe, you need to think about these three questions that every potential subscriber will have:

1. What benefit is being offered to me?
2. Should I risk sharing my email address?
3. What do I need to do next?

These questions need to be answered, in that order and as simply and quickly as possible.

So how did the Makro subscribe form answer these questions? Let’s have a look at the actual form I picked up.

The front side of the instore subscribe form.

The rear side of the instore subscribe form.

• Front side has the benefit stated ‘Exclusive offers’
• Rear side includes two more benefits, ‘Tailored offers’ and ‘News & Information’
• It states ‘We promise not to bombard you – we typically send one email every week’
• The action to take is given, to register online or complete paper form and return to store.

The three key questions are covered and in the right order on the left side of the form rear. The promise not to bombard and the ‘tailored offers’ helps to reduce  reader anxiety that they will receive lots of emails. It makes them more comfortable to share their email address.

How about trying to improve this form?

• The front side copy puts the headline as Click!, rather than the benefit of Exclusive offers. Attention would be better grabbed with the benefit coming first.
• To further reduce the anxiety of sharing an email address, the bombard statement could be made stronger “We promise to look after your email address, we won’t share it or bombard you – typically we send weekly”. The small print does say the email address won’t be shared, but the small print won’t be read.
• The text top right repeats the benefit but not consistently, missing the key exclusive offers. This text looks awkward, redundant and may even confuse.
• The card is laid out in a way that does not control the eye path, so not all people will read the text in the same order. This means we are not certain of getting our message across in the order we want.
• The instruction to return the card to the store would be better placed at the bottom by the signature and date. The point at which the information is needed.
• The box for the email address is too small. A typical email address is 25 characters and space should be allowed for up to 50.  The small space will cause squashed writing and impair data entry. This could wipe out 15% of the captured email addresses as not usable.

To address these challenges the card layout needs to be changed to improve flow, control the reading order and give more space for the email address.

Next time you see a paper based data collection form, take a good look and think about the questions you are asking yourself, how it answers them and the flow of the form.

It’s easy to see a form from the customers view when you aren’t intimately related to the offer and purpose. Viewing your own form through the eyes of a customer is much harder. So for your own form find a few colleagues, friends or customers. Given them your form for 30 seconds, then take it away and ask them what they saw.

Do leave a comment if you’ve seen a good instore email subscribe campaign recently.

It will come as no surprise to the majority of those reading this that I fervently believe in the mutli-channel approach and the importance of tying in a retail marketing campaign through e-mail, the check-out, catalogues…basically at every step on the customer lifecycle.

The trouble is, many bricks and mortar retailers are still resisting the shift online and are struggling to keep up with their e-commerce counterparts – similarly, some retailers have dedicated so much energy to their online offering that they are neglecting the high street stores which built up their brand presence in the first place.

One of my Account Managers, Judd Marcello, recently wrote a very interesting blog on the opportunities to integrate online and offline. His ideas make for interesting reading, so with full credit to him, I would like to share them with you.

Forrester Research recently published their forecast on e-commerce growth in 2014…and, if they are right, it is telling. In Western Europe (inclusive of the UK), Forrester expects the e-Commerce Annual Growth Rate in 2014 to reach 11% (€114.5b). In the US, a +10% AGR is expected over the same period ($250b).
What’s more, their other predications for the next four years provide even more evidence that the web will drive sales:

- By 2014, 8% of total retail sales will be from e-commerce (up from 6% in 2009)
- 154 million. That is the number of people in the US who bought at least one product online in 2009 (that is 67% of the online population, up +4% from 2008)
- An estimated 53% of total retail sales (U.S.) will be online or “web-influenced” offline sales (+9% from 2009)
It is that last stat that particularly demands attention. “web-influenced” that is: online research, rate and reviews, product comparison sites, social media, forums, etc.

One of the biggest influencers on the web, especially where driving consumers in-store is concerned, is e-mail. Further research by Forrester states that, “e-mail marketing is nearly as effective at driving action offline as it is online. 44% of surveyed e-mail users in 2008 were inspired to make an online purchase as a result of a promotional e-mail versus 41% who said the same for offline purchases”.

The question for marketers is how do you capitalise on this? How do you turn this influence into concrete sales? Let’s be honest, there is no sure fire way to guarantee that, but there are things which, as digital marketers, we can do to make the online customer a little more likely to convert to an in-store shopper as well.

What we need to focus on are the “moments for engagements” – that is, the messages which resonate with consumers because they are triggered by events or actions which are related to the e-mail recipient. Two of these moments which are successful at getting consumers away from their computers and into their homes are: new store openings and in-store events/promotions.

New store openings
You already have your subscriber’s attention, so let them know about this big event. Send out a specific e-mail announcing the opening and the events, sales or promotions that will be occurring at the grand opening celebration.

By providing subscribers with an in-store certificate to receive a discount when they spend over a specific amount, you further incentivise them to connect with you on a new level.
Be sure to target users in the same postcode as the store opening to increase the relevance factor. There is no sense inviting a customer to an event if they can’t get there easily or at all!

In-store events/promotions:
There are many different in-store events and services that can be communicated through your mailings: exclusive, after-hour, friends and family sales, e-mail subscriber only rewards such as a session with a personal shopper, product demonstrations, food tastings, workshops, celebrity book signings…and these are just a few.

While buying online provides the luxury of convenience, the in-store environment provides the opportunity to provide a unique (branded) shopper experience. Are you launching a new designer clothing line? Why not invite your most loyal customers in for a special runway launch party where they get to see the new fashions before they are hung up on the racks for sale.

Everybody loves a deal, so give them one that rewards them for being a faithful subscriber and in-store shopper.

- Include in-store only coupons in your e-mails. Incorporate “offer valid” parameters to drive traffic on specific dates/timeframes
- Announce an exclusive product or collectable to your subscribers. Give them first access to them when they redeem a certificate once they come to visit you
- Offer discounts on product that are exclusive to your e-mail subscribers only. Reward them for their attention!

The in-store environment is your opportunity to connect with your consumers in an engaging fashion. Be it an event, a service or a chance for them to touch and feel the products or get that all-important face-to-face contact with the floor staff, you customers should walk away thinking, “I can’t wait for the next one!”

The smart retailer understands that when it comes to online and offline tactics, one hand washes the other. The smart consumer understands that the internet is a powerful provider of knowledge and, as a result, an even more powerful influencer when deciding what products to buy at which retailer.

The smartest retailer is the one that builds a multichannel strategy and uses the web to influence consumers to buy products from them…and what is one of the most effective influencers on the web? E-mail.

Hopefully, utilising these tips on moments for engagement, and how to effectively use e-mail to influence store visits, will have your customers lining up around the block (with exclusive e-mail subscriber only, in-store coupons gripped tightly in hand).

Its common sense, don’t make it hard for customers to do what you want them to do. Yet that’s what I see happening all too often with online forms. They are not always as helpful and friendly as they could be. After all, nobody likes filling in forms, nobody starts their day hoping for opportunities to fill in forms.

They are a necessary evil that people tolerate, if they are motivated enough. Make the form and conversion process too hard and they will abandon part way.

Take a recent experience I had. I wished to make a donation to a charity via their website. I entered all my details for a credit card payment and was greeted with this error when I tried to complete payment:

Sorry, but for your donation to be processed, you must correct the following:
-BH189NB is not a valid postcode – no space or space in wrong position

Reasonable you might think? However, if the website is smart enough to suggest I need a space; it could have just put it in for me. When postcodes are typed they are entered with a selection of upper case, lower case, with extra spaces before, in the middle or after the postcode. Given this can be expected, the form should be clever and work out what’s meant.

It’s not an issue confined to small mom & pop online businesses, my postcode experience was a major charity with payment facility provided by a major company. The footer proudly said ‘Powered by BT’.

I’ve experienced pedantic form processes many times and in most cases the form could have been made easier. These are my tips to help get your forms converted, whether it’s a lead enquiry, whitepaper download, subscription, user preferences, event registation or checkout.

• Keep forms short, don’t ask for data you don’t absolutely need. If asking for sensitive data, such as date of birth, explain why it’s in the customers’ interest to provide it.
• Pre-fill forms. If you know who is visiting fill in the form with the data you have already. This gives a significant boost to the number of people who will convert.
• Re-fill forms. Should it be necessary for someone to back step in your process, don’t make the customer re-fill or select options they have already completed once.
• Allow for information in mixed upper and lower case.
• Automatically remove extra spaces.
• Don’t rely on separation characters such as space or hyphen being entered perfectly. This could be a space in the postcode, or hyphens in customer ID or account number.
• Verify all information as far as possible.
• Provide clear and specific details of errors when necessary. Don’t just give a vague error message, when you could say, how many digits too many, or too few or which characters were typed which aren’t allowed.
• Use drop-down and tick boxes to make data entry quick and easy.
• When asking for details such as user or account IDs, remind the customer where they can find this information, such as where on an address label, invoice or bill statement it might appear.
• Don’t ask for registration unless that is your conversion objective. Within shopping carts making registration optional after the purchase increases conversion.
• Ensure your forms are tested with a variety of different data values. Including valid and invalid data.

Remember, forms are a tolerated evil. I’ve never come across a form that I actually enjoyed filling in, but if you have, I’d be delighted to know about it. Please leave details in a comment.

March 2010: Legal firm Osborne Clarke reports on a verdict in Germany in which the CEO of a travel company was personally responsible to ensure that each individual on a database of email addresses had explicitly given his prior consent to receiving marketing emails. Osborne Clarke reports that this new legal assessment will lead to changes in the scope of personal liability. The case coincides with the EU Commission’s plans to strengthen enforcement of EU email laws. (read more – requires free registration)