The DMA are running a series of events around the email customer lifecycle. The latest on ‘conversion’ was so popular that even after finding a bigger venue the next one’s over half booked after just a week! If email marketing is your thing and you want to attend the next one then I’d get in there sooner rather than later.
In the meantime I thought it would be good for those of you who couldn’t attend the last seminar on Conversion to get a summary view, so here it is:
Richard Lees ‘Initial steps: create conversions’
Richard Lees of the Database Group led off with a comprehensive strategic view, it’s absolutely fascinating the levels of planning these guys are able to support. This level of planning needs to be a part of any marketing plan, but can be intimidating for those without tonnes of resource.
If you simplify the messages, Richard was talking about these three key points:
1. Know what you are trying to achieve and make it the focus of everything you do.
2. Look at the customer lifecycle, all too often marketing works independently of sales (or ecommerce). Marketing can augment every stage of the buying cycle but often the input stops when the initial lead is generated.
3. What does a conversion mean to you? All too often “making a sale” is the default response, but are you considering converting existing customers to buy more or how about getting brand ambassadors on our side?
If you can clearly establish these before you start the process of trying to improve your conversions, your chances of success are greatly improved. My favourite stat from Richard? – each page you need someone to go through to covert you will get an 8% drop off – wow cut those pages down!
I was up next, but we’ll leave talking about me for a bit.
Margaret Farmakis ‘Testing 1-2-3: Get true email ROI’
Margaret Farmakis from Return Path gave us some great insights into the effect further down the line of having poor deliverability, talking through what was to be the theme of the morning – testing.
A couple of interesting stats:
“84% of consumers report clicking through to a relevant email offer”
= So give recipients relevant content and you are very likely to get a click through.
“73% of email users report making an online purchase as the result of a relevant email offer.”
= They’ll end up buying as well!
My favourite speaker was up next, Jean-Michel Boujon.
One of the head honchos over at Theladders.co.uk, he provided a client side view into how he goes about improving the conversion rate of his email campaigns.
• First off – understand which emails are most important in your email campaigns – his password reminders actually generated the highest conversions. Apparently this indicates that the prospect is ready to re-engage with the site and therefore is likely to convert.
• Once you’ve picked the ones you want to improve, test, test then test again! Jean suggested using agency resource to facilitate the extra HTML you’ll need, after all you are working on improving conversions – getting a design budget for that shouldn’t be too tough.
Another interesting insight was that when emails are sent from a female name they got a 10% bump in opens, due to the fact that most of their subscribers are males – how can you apply this thinking to your list?
His slides around landing pages and email content were really interesting, I suggest you download them along with all the presentations from the day *here*. (http://www.pure360.com/email-marketing-resources-insights/conversion)
To finish, some guy from Pure360 (me) did a presentation.
I have 4 key “takeaways” when looking at conversions, follow these and I’ll bet you an overpriced coffee you’ll get higher conversions:
• Get conversion metrics into your email service provider, or wherever you make decisions on email marketing – don’t refine based on email metrics – do so based on conversions!
• Make the call to actions clear as day
• Invest in retargeting your subscribers based on what they have done – Jean-Micheal was a keen advocate of the cart abandon campaigns.
• Make sure your email creative matches your landing pages, you can see a good example from Citrix, poor matching of email and landing pages style, copy and creative will lead to a massive drop off.
You can still (for now) sign up for the final parts three and four of the email customer lifecycle series:
Part three: Engagement and Retention (June)
Part Four: Winback (September)
In this month’s issue of Infobox, Stephanie Miller addresses some of the reasons why good email gets marked as bad. Even the most respected brands have some email message blocked by the spam filters – in fact, about 15 to 20% of permission-based, legitimate email marketing never reaches the inbox*.
The ISPs like Yahoo!, Gmail, T-Online, Orange and Free.fr now require marketers to do more to be considered “good.”
In this webinar organised by The Email Marketers Club, you’ll learn what the ISPs are saying is important for marketers if they want to get their messages delivered to the inbox.
Speaker: Stephanie Miller, VP, Global Market Development, Return Path
Moderator: Tamara Gielen, independent email marketing consultant, author of the email marketing best practices blog Be Relevant and founder of the Email Marketer’s Club
When: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 11am EST
(8am PST, 5pm CET, 4pm GMT)
The first 10 people to register using our special discount code of DMAEMAILBLOG will get to attend this webinar for free!
To find out more or to register for this webinar click here
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While the date has yet to be set for the forthcoming general election, all political parties are gearing up to campaign in what promises to be the most closely contested general election in years.
As the Obama presidential campaign in 2008 showed, the difference between winning and losing could come down to which candidate operates the most effective communications campaign. A well executed digital marketing campaign undoubtedly helped to connect President Obama with voters in a way no politician has done so before.
Regular targeted and personalised emails to voters proved to be one of the most powerful communications tools in the Obama’s election campaign. It remains to be seen whether any of the UK’s mainstream political parties will harness the power of email marketing in a similar fashion, but recent history suggests they’d be foolish not to.
In this month’s Infobox Return Path’s Stephanie Miller looks at the rules of engagement when it comes to inbox placement; David Hughes of Email Academy puts forward his case for why averages don’t tell us anything interesting; Newsweaver’s Denise Cox addresses the challenges and choices around videos in email; and James Bunting of Communication explains why he’s impressed by the way Amazon uses data. For DMA members’ eyes only, this month’s special report is Anatomy of an Email Newsletter Checklist.
Why Good Email Gets Marked as Bad, Stephanie Miller
Don’t be Mr. Average: why averages are a bad, bad thing in email marketing, David Hughes
Video in email, denise Cox
Campaigns We Like: Amazon, James Bunting
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Welcome to the January 2010 issue of Infobox. We have now set foot in what is ostensibly the email marketing industry’s second decade of existence. As we entered the new millennium, few could have predicted just how email would quickly evolve to become one of the preeminent marketing channels. Technological developments aside, what has been most impressive is how sophisticated the medium has become in such a short period of time. What the digital world will look like ten years hence is anyone’s guess, but I’m confident that the next decade will see email marketing continue to be at the forefront of marketing innovation.
This month, Infobox features articles on how the ’spray and pray’ approach used by some email marketers needs to be retired and make way for the three Ts: tailored, targeted, timely; taking a level-headed approach to integrating email with social media marketing; and a case study on how Apple uses email to effectively up- and cross-sell.
Don’t forget that we’d also like to see you in the real world at our series of Email Customer Lifecycle seminars during 2010. On 3 March, we’ll be looking at conversion – how to earn that click and open and drive revenue. Tickets for the first Lifecycle sold out, so to guarantee your seat today, please make your booking here.
The 3 T’s – Tailored, Targeted, Timely by Jonathan Burston
Email as a social stepping stone by Simone Barratt
Campaigns we like: Apple by Tink Taylor
Read the full issue of Infobox here
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Welcome to the November 2009 issue of Infobox. As autumn has well and truly arrived, kick back, warm your hands in the glow of your PC, sip from a mug of hot chocolate and read about the latest news and views from the world of email marketing. This month, Infobox features articles on whether or not the Royal Mail postal strikes will have a positive effect on the email sector; taking a consumer’s eye view at email marketing messages; advice on when to use the word ‘free’ in subject lines; and a review of a recent email marketing campaign that’s impressed us. For DMA members’ eyes only, this month’s special report looks at the effectiveness of using navigation bars in email templates.
Don’t forget that we’d also like to see you in the real world at the first of our four Email Customer Lifecycle seminars. On November 10, we will be addressing tactics for growing your lists with active and engaged subscribers. Tickets are going fast for this free morning seminar in central London. To guarantee your seat today, please make your booking here.
Also, now is your chance to take part in fast.MAP/DMA’s 2009 Marketing GAP study. This vital piece of research measures the gulf between what consumers think of marketing messages and what marketers think they think. Sounds confusing? Well it’s not, and if you take part then you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win £250 for your favourite charity. To start this short survey, please click here.
Our articles this month include:
Postal strike – good or bad news for email marketing? Simon Bowker
Research from my inbox…James Bunting
Free email marketing deliverability advice – when to use ‘FREE’ Chris Combemale
Campaigns we like – Firebox denise cox
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In many cases, businesses earn more in the 10 weeks prior to Christmas than the other 42 weeks of the year combined!
Although the busy period may start in late November, customers are already starting to think about what to buy well in advance. Email is a great way to remind them about products and services that are perfect to put under the Christmas tree. But first, in order to sow the seeds for these emails, you need to have a good list!
As an early Christmas gift to all our email marketers, the DMA has partnered with Pure360 to offer a FREE List Growth Email Marketing event to get you started and make your campaigns successful for the holiday season. With an increase in site visits and click through rates throughout December, list growth and capturing good quality data is vital.
Find out how to grow your opt-in list size from the founder of the Email Experience Council Jeanniey Mullen; gain insight into a case study on how Europe’s largest ticket exchange Seatwave built their database; and make sure all your permissions are legal with email legal expert Stephen Groom at our next free event.
Availability is limited and seats are going fast, so make sure you book today!
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Part one in a four-part series
This series of events is designed for marketers looking for information about how to take their email programmes to the next level – from ordinary to extraordinary. Explore the different stages in the customer lifecycle and learn how to improve your ROI.
Part one: List growth, 10 November 2009
Growing the file with active and engaged subscribers.
Part two: Conversion, 3 March 2010
Earning the open and click, and driving channel revenue.
Part three: Engagement and retention, 7 June 2010
Providing subscribers with relevant and useful content so that they anticipate and interact with the marketer’s email messages, regardless of whether or not they are in-market to make a purchase.
Part four: Winback, 27 September 2010
Bringing unresponsive subscribers back into the fold and removing those that have no intention of reengaging with the programme.
Who Should Attend?
Email marketers who are looking to build on the knowledge they already use and implement daily.
• Marketing managers and directors
• Business development managers and directors
• Campaign and account managers and directors
Date: Tuesday 10 November 2009
Time: 8.00am – 11.00am
Venue: Central London
Cost: Free
PROGRAMME
8.00 Registration and coffee
8.30 Welcome and introduction
Richard Gibson, Channel Relationship Manager, UK, Return Path
8.40 Keynote address: The World According To Email Marketing
Jeanniey Mullen, Global EVP and CMO at Zinio and VIV Magazine, Founder and Executive Chairman at Email Experience Council
9.20 Case study
Marc Munier, Commercial Director, Pure360
9.50 Get your legal permissions right at the start
Stephen Groom, Head of Marketing and Privacy Law, Osborne Clarke
10.20 Q&A
10.50 Closing comments
11.00 Close of seminar
HOW TO BOOK
Online: Follow this link to book online.
Email: catherine.gibbon@dma.org.uk
Phone: Catherine Gibbon on 020 7291 3355
The nature of the B2B buyer is fundamentally changing. And the impact will forever re-align the roles of sales and marketing team members. This underlies the topic I am going to be covering in my presentation and panel on Thursday at the DMA’s B2B engagement marketing event in London.
It’s also a topic at the core of much dialogue right now among B2B sales and marketing professionals in the marketplace. So it’s worth digging into the dynamics.
How is the nature of the B2B buyer changing? And what is the evidence?
At the most fundamental level, we’re seeing a power shift — from B2B vendor to B2B buyer — that is largely fuelled by the proliferation of Internet-available information. Initially, this information availability benefitted vendors more than buyers, but the explosion of the Web as a forum for buyer social exchange and micro-publishing has overwhelmed vendors. What has emerged is an asynchronous acceleration of power on the buyer side.
This is probably not new to you, but some of the more granular aspects of this evolution may not be as apparent. In particular, this power shift has several consequences, as I outlined in a recent post on my Propelling Brands blog.
B2B buyers:
• Are increasingly turning to online sources, earlier in their process, to research purchases before ever calling a ‘live’ sales rep;
• Are increasingly leveraging social media — especially peer communication, such as Twitter, blogs, etc. — in the information collection phase of the buying process;
• Are pursuing their buying process more ‘massively multi-channel’ than ever before; however, channel weightings and their sequence vary by the phase of the buying process; and
• Manifest themselves more than ever as a complex, savvy ‘buying unit,’ rather than simply as a single decision-maker.
My Propelling Brands post presents a host of research data and insights that supports these points, so I’d check it out.
How should B2B marketers respond?
This shift in the nature of the B2B buyer changes nothing and yet everything. It has little impact on the core tactics that have defined marketing for decades, and yet it must totally re-align our underlying strategy.
The most important shift is moving from the (artificial) concept of a sales funnel, and instead shifting the alignment of our marketing and sales processes to the buying cycle. This is something that I outlined in a blog post that summarizes my recent conversation with Meg Heuer, an analyst with SiriusDecisions. She advocates for a totally buying-cycle-centric mindset. And she’s right.
I believe the implication for B2B marketers is a re-envisioning of the marketing role. Rather than thinking about B2B marketing as simply a lead-generation apparatus (and then being frustrated with the differential quality of those leads), marketing must be positioned as the manager of upstream buyer dialogue — via inbound and outbound marketing tactics — and the filter of knowing when a buyer is ready to buy.
Given sales will not be engaged until later and later in the process — as that is the trend — and buyers will more than ever be shaped by what they see and read online, B2B marketing must take over managing this exchange and driving community participation. This is critical to shaping early perceptions of buyers and to ensuring your firm is part of their consideration set as they progress through their buying cycle.
The hand-off of prospects from marketing to sales should consequently be accompanied by an acknowledgement that these prospects are truly in a buying mode (which is known, given upstream dialogue); moreover, marketers must pass along the previous dialogue to the sales team member — to better prepare them for success and to ensure continuity of dialogue.
A critical element in this new approach is leveraging your marketing automation platform — which shifts from serving as a tactical campaign management system to becoming a strategic dashboard for architecting, managing and monitoring all of your buyer interactions. And this should serve as the cornerstone for processes and systems that help you scale ‘mass one-on-one conversations’ that ultimately will fuel your sales pipeline.
Want to learn more? Join us on Thursday at the DMA’s B2B Engagement Email Marketing Conference and participate in the dialogue.
Adam Needles (Twitter: @abneedles) is Director, Field Marketing, and the B2B marketing evangelist for Silverpop.
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Upcoming Email Marketing Events
B2B engagement email marketing
DMA Email Marketing one day Conference
Business marketers often face even more daunting challenges than consumer marketers and B2B buyers have more information power than ever.
What are the implications for marketers seeking to generate new leads and drive greater engagement with prospects?
Right now companies are under more pressure than ever. Getting your B2B email marketing strategies and campaign right first time is essential.
Date: Thursday 1 October 2009
Time: 9.30am – 4.15pm
Venue: Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3NN
Cost: DMA members: standard £225 (+ VAT); charity £212.50 (+VAT)
Non members: standard £295 (+ VAT); charity £276.25 (+VAT)�
CPD: Carries 4 hours and 45 minutes of CPD for CIM and IDM members
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Joint DMA and IAB half day workshop
This half day workshop is an educational networking event where participants will gain an insight into email marketing and all of its key elements.
Gain all the best and most up-to-date advice on the benefits of email marketing.
Learn about strategy, creative, implementation, results and reporting to produce great work.
Networking time with workshop facilitators on a one-to-one basis.
The event will include interactive sessions and a competition where participants will consider a brief, prepared by leading industry figures, and work in teams to develop a pitch. The best work will win a prize.
Date: Monday 5 October 2009
Time: 8.30am – 12.35pm
Venue: IAB, 14 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NF
Cost: DMA/IAB members: Standard £45.00 + VAT (£51.75)
Non members: Standard £60.00 + VAT (£69.00)
CPD: 3.5 hours can be claimed by CIM and IDM members
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European Email Marketing Conference
November 11-13, 2009, Barcelona
Joint EEC, DMA and BBP Conference
Join us for the inaugural European Email Marketing Conference (EEMC) for 3 days of focused learning and networking at the only European conference for – and by – email marketers.
The European Email Marketing Conference will arm you with actionable strategies, illuminating research and insightful forecasts to help you get up-to-speed with today’s customer preferences and stay one step ahead of the competition. Customize your course of study by choosing to follow one track or mix and match:
Customers – How to engage your customers efficiently and effectively while maximizing your ROI.
Conversations – Optimize a variety of channels – email, social, mobile – to reach your target audience.
Case Studies – Information you can leverage and apply directly to your products, your customers and your unique situation.
Exploding the Digital Myth: 2 half day events
In the ever changing digital landscape the importance of an effective creative digital campaign has brought about the need to converge different digital channels to creatively deliver relevant digital campaigns to the target consumer. At this event, find out how to weave the newest fads and various aspects of digital marketing into the fabric of your campaign to creatively engage your consumer.
Date: Thursday 18 and 25 June 2009
Time: 9.00am – 1.30pm
Venue: The Marylebone Hotel, 47 Welbeck Street, London, W1G 8DN