Webinar Email Marketing Writing Tips
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1 Page 1 Email Marketing Writing Tips to Improve Email Results May 27-28, 2009 Gary Halliwell NetProspex CEO mfeldman@NetProspex. com (888) 826-4877 www.twitter.com/ netprospex www.netprospex.com/blog Craig Stouffer, Pinpointe Email Marketing [email protected] om (408) 834-7577 x125 www.twitter.com/ pinpointe www.pinpointe.com/blog
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Transcript of Webinar Email Marketing Writing Tips
- 1.
- Email Marketing
- Writing Tips to Improve Email Results
- May 27-28, 2009
- 2. Email Writing Tips
- Overview
- Focus on B2B. Guidelines apply well to B2C too
- Where do these tips apply?
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- Offer (e.g. download whitepaper)
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- Event Invitation (e.g. Webinar, seminar, lunch-n-learn)
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- Outreach (e.g. stay in touch campaigns)
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- Business update (i.e., newsletter format)
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- Everywhere!
- Sources: Pinpointe analysis of millions of emails / hundreds of campaigns
- 3. Email Writing Tips: Break it Down
- Focus on Each part of the Email
- Subject + From
- Salutation
- Introduction: Think Above the Fold
- Body
- Signature
- Other Considerations
- Graphics Impact?
- Links Effective Use
- 4. Importance of Email Subjects
- At least 40% of the readers decision to open or take action is based on the email subject + send-from
- Tip : 69% of recipients decide whether to report email as spam based on the subject line (source: ESPC)
- The 50/50 Rule:
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- Spend 50% of your time on the subject + Intro
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- 50% on everything else (including design)
- The 80/20 Rule of Email Subjects
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- 8 of 10 people will skim/read your email subject line
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- Less than 2 in 10 will read the rest / take action
- 5. 10 Best Performing Email Subjects
- MyCompany Sales & Marketing Monthly Newsletter
- MyCompany Newsletter - January 2009: Teaser Subject/Topic
- [Webinar]: N Tips to Improve Email Responses
- MyCompany Webinar: Case Studies - Join Us Feb 15
- Webinar Topic - Webinar Slides Available
- This Weeks Phone Call / Meeting (Personalized note from sales rep)
- John - 8 Customer Service Tips that Work
- Exciting Update from MyCompany - IBM Approved Supplier
- Reminder: Storage Survey - Your Input
- Invitation - Breakfast on Specific Topic
- * Source: Pinpointe analysis of several million customer emails
- 6. 9 Worst Performing Email Subjects
- Join Us for a FREE Webinar on April 2 2009!
- Shop Early and Save!
- Register to Win Your FREE iPod!!
- Security Spending
- Post-Trade Show Webinar: Expert Insights Into the Key Trends and Observations from the Trade Show Floor Last Week
- European Lakefront Elegance
- (Company) Announces Partnership to Work with (Other Company)
- Product Launch: New Widget Available
- Full Press Release Title (Company) Announces New Widgets
- 7. Email Subject Length Experiment
- Pinpointe Campaign webinar invite / split test / 2 versions
- Short : [Webinar] Split Test Case Studies (Feb 4)
- Long : [Pinpointe] Case Studies Webinar: Using Split Testing to Improve HTML Email Response Rates (Feb 4th) - Please Join Us
- 8.
- GOOD
- Popular, specific and * relevant * keywords
- Offer value, resources
- Honest / Non-hyped
- Length: 50 ~ 55 characters
- Clearly stated benefit(s)
- Lead-in with a teaser / Ask a question
- BAD
- Pushy / salesy - Ask for an order
- Non-descript / vague / (sometimes meaningless)
- 70+ Characters
- 9.
- Keep it personal - Reinforce 1 to 1 relationship
- Usually better to use name+company vs. Company
- Legitimate / valid email address (!)
- Consider: person as send-from + Company in subject
- GOOD:
- Craig Stouffer, Pinpointe < [email_address] >
- BAD:
- [email_address]
- Do Not Reply
- 10. The Opening: Above the Fold
- FOLD : The First 3 lines / 300 pixels (Preview pane)
- You have email subject + 3 lines to get attention
- Use it wisely!
- Consider:
- Can your opening sentence stand on its own?
- Think: The 5 + 30 approach:
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- Tell the 5 second version of your story first
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- Then tell the 30 second version
- 11. Above the Fold Good/Bad Examples WORKS: DOESNT WORK: Company
- 12.
- WHAT:
- The offer (or the main point / objective)
- Main benefit
- Response instructions
- HOW:
- Divide key message into sections
- Short vs. Long?
-
- Generally, short and concise works best
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- Exception complicated offering / big ticket item
- Consider: Shorter paragraph with link to landing page(s) with supporting details
- 13.
- Newsletters, quick updates, event invites, any outreach
- Stay CAN-SPAM compliant-
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- Always include a signature
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- Dont forget physical address
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- phone
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- Contact email address
- TIP : Try this: OK to advertize below the signature:
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- Social links (eg: twitter, Facebook, Blog)
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- Text + link to special offer
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- Offer for free demo / trial / etc
- 14. Images and Attachments
- Almost an inverse relationship between use and response in B2B communications
- 50% of Email clients: Images disabled by default
- How will your email will look w/o images?
- 15.
- Tips for using images in B2B:
- Use sparingly
- Event/Asset Registration?
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- Adding a Register Now button increased responses 22%
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- (use ALT Text) (source: Pinpointe testing)
- Offering a whitepaper / webinar / report?
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- Add thumbnail of report to increase responses by 25%
- Avoid attachments. Link to document
- 16.
- Do multiple links improve results?
- Compared 20 newsletter campaigns (*Mark Brownlow)
- Analyzed the teaser / intro text with 1, 2 links
- 2 Example newsletter intro paragraphs:
- Results (Average across 20 campaigns):
- Average CTR for campaigns with 1 link: 6.8%
- Average CTR for campaigns with 2 links: 8.57%
- Improvement: Extra link = +25%
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- * Source: Mark Brownlow www.email-marketing-reports.com
- 17.
- Is there a correlation between:
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- Distance between call-to-action links, and
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- Click-to-open rate?
- Test (20 different email newsletters)
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- Teaser intro with 2 links: in-content link and end link
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- Correlated distance between links in words and click rates
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- 5-7 lines of text / 2 paragraphs for all variations
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- * Source: Mark Brownlow www.email-marketing-reports.com
- 18.
- Results:
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- Optimal click-rate occurs with 10~22 words between links
- Recommendations:
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- Try embedded in-context link + trainer link (e.g. Read more)
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- Test test test see what works in your environment
- 19. Top Performers - Examples
- 20. Poor Performers - Examples Company
- 21.
- B2B communication
- Offer / invite attend educational training
- Goal: Get customer on phone with sales team
- Problem: Terrible response rates (