Optimizing your Email Program for Nurture Marketing, Mobile, Social Media

To do Online Marketing well, marketers need to be good at so much more than Email + Search.

-- Social is the new staple

-- Mobile is next

The Online Marketer’s Challenge

Our world today

Enough to make you Scream

History Lesson – starting w/ EmailEmail invented in 1971

“In 1971, Ray Tomlinson developed the first ARPANET email application…he chose the "commercial at" symbol to combine the user and host names, providing the naturally meaningful notation "user@host" that is the standard for email…”

Source: LivingInternet.com

@

History Lesson – Search

1. Jul’03: Yahoo buys Overture; monetizes Search

2. Aug’04: Google pays Yahoo $28.5M in exchange for Bid-for-Placement patent settlement. (Google market cap is now $184 Billion).

History Lesson – Social

History Lesson – Mobile

How Email Fits In 2007: Use Email to Build Online Community2007: RSS to Email (Publishers, Any Business)2008: Nurture Marketing2008: Anatomy of an Email2009: Holiday Email Campaign example2009: Mobile Optimization2010: all of the above and more…

2007: Use Email to Build Community

Storytelling Drives Results

Community Waiting to be Discovered

Results (14 day campaign)

1. 61,000 unique visitors2. 2,175 user-generated images uploaded3. 150 comments created for 12 Wacom artists4. 2,000+ new subscribers to email house list5. Online sales 150% increase over previous year

2007: RSS-to-Email

Publish One to Many:

Biggest cost for email marketing is a Marketer’s Time

RSS-to-Email applies to Small Biz

1. How do they find you?

2. Where do they land?

3. How do you continue the conversation?

2008: Nurture Marketing

Finding Thru Search: Paid vs. Organic

Finding you: Blogs, Social Media

eROI Google Analytics Stats

eROI Leads by Source

eROI Resource Landing Page…Bad

eROI Resource Landing Page…Good

1. Opt in / Thank you

2. Welcome Messaging

3. First Touch

3 Email Nurture Program Components

Tips for Opt-In

1. Call out your Email Opt-in on every page of your site.2. Don’t expect them to find it.3. Links to samples are effective4. Give subscribers choices! e.g. frequency (daily, weekly, monthly),

event alerts, etc...

5. Tell them specifically what they’re signing up for & how often they’ll hear from you. Keep that promise.

6. Don’t make someone register (user/pass) for email7. Remember, you can get more information later

Examples of Opt-in Questions

Good

Too Much

CBSSports.com Opt-In: Before/After

CBSSports.com Welcome Email Strategy

Thank you after Opt-In

• Thank them

• Confirm the action they took

• Give them the info they need

• Continue the dialogue

The Thank you Email: Business Reasons 1. Immediate recognition

2. Start of life cycle marketing

3. Tests email address validity

4. Begins behavioral profile

A Welcome Email is the first email received after an opt-

in and/or confirmation of subscription

This will likely be your highest open rate ever.

Make it count.

Welcome Email

The Welcome Email: Business Reasons 1. Continued Conversation

2. Exposure to additional paths

3. Subscription management / progressive profiling

4. Opportunity to award / reward

Twitter + HTML Welcome Email = LOVE

2008: Email Anatomy

Pre-HeaderHeader

Email Body

Social Media integrationFunctional Footer

2009: Email Trend – Higher Volume

Average volume: Retailers send 2.5 emails/week – nearly 1 email every other day

We’re hitting the threshold. Soon, results will show email fatigue.

Until then, send away to maximize results…BTW – relevancy improves results dramatically

2009: Holiday Email - Icebreaker

Campaigns/Frequency3 months of Oct’09-Dec’09: 38 emails3 years of Sep’06-Sep’09: 36 emails

Total emails sent: Oct’09 – Dec’09 ~500kSep’06 - Sep’09 ~450k

Read Rate Oct-Dec’09 – 25%Read Rate ‘06-Sep’09 – 33%

Click Through Rate Oct-Dec’09 – 7.5%Click Through Rate ‘06-Sep’09 – 10.5%

Average Opt Out/Campaign Rate – 0.66%

Icebreaker Holiday Email Findings

2009: Mobile Optimization

2009: Mobile Landing Page

2009: Mobile Banfield site

• Keep it simple to get to critical information (4 paths)• Location-based search• About and Contact used often

2009: Mobile Web for true Engagement, not just impressions

• Email still the backbone for mobile web apps• More popular for B2C

2010: Do all the above well, AND…1. Place – where customer is interacting with your

messaging2. Device: gaming devices, mobile devices, TVs, tablets,

netbooks, laptops, desktops, POS, etc.3. Location: geo-location on mobile device

(e.g. Foursquare)4. Action: how/where/when customer is engaging with

your brand and reaching goals you set out5. Intent: matching your goals with visitor goals

Source: Dylan Boyd, Email Wars blogger

How Email Fits In 2007: Use Email to Build Online Community2007: RSS to Email (Publishers, Any Business)2008: Nurture Marketing2008: Anatomy of an Email2009: Holiday Email Campaign example2009: Mobile Optimization2010: all of the above and more…

Thank you.

Ryan BuchananCEO, eROI

ryan@eroi.com