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by Stephan Spencer,
Founder & President of Netconcepts

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0 Ghat is your level of experience with email


marketing, on a scale from 1 to 5?
0 (1=Never done it, 5=Expert)

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0 Ghat are your most pressing concerns about email


marketing? Check all that apply:
² Getting and keeping permission
² Getting the right offer
² Targeting the right audience
² Copywriting
² Design
² Tracking & reporting
² Getting it to ´go viralµ
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0 Critical mass: reaches 93% of internet users


(Jupiter Research)
0 Response rates: 10x greater than direct mail
(DMA)
0 Lower costs: 1/10 the cost per communication
(Andersen)
0 Relationship builder: 80% of visitors never return
(eMarketer)
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ü     

0 Corporate scandals erode trust


0 Growing marketing resistance
0 Receives 100 emails a day
(10-20 from people you know)
0 Gant to be treated as people, not a mass market
0 Spam is in the eye of the beholder

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0 32% of email messages are official SPAM


(Radicati Group)
0 Costs $8.9 billion in lost productivity annually
(Ferris Research)
0 Spam filters in Outlook, Hotmail, AOL etc.; Anti-
spam tools at the ISPs; Corporate email firewalls
0 15% of permission-based marketing messages are
wrongly blocked (Assurance Systems)
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    !"#  

0 Audience
² Prospects, customers, advocates, partners
0 Goals
² Registrations, Signups, Sales
0 Content
² Newsletter, Promotions, Reminders, Invitations
0 Metrics
² Click through, Registration, Visits, Booking/Purchase
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0 2nsolicited Commercial Email (2CE)


0 Typical spam has a bogus sender address, bogus
unsubscribe instructions, and bogus offers
0 Spam is in the eye of the beholder
0 Ensure recipients don·t misconstrue your message
as spam

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0 Opt-in, not opt-out. Get recipient·s consent in


advance!
² Opt-in: recipient volunteered to receive your email
² Opt-out: recipient didn·t have the opportunity to avoid
receiving your first email, only to avoid receiving
subsequent ones
0 ´Hand-raisersµ are a lot more likely to not only
tolerate receiving your emails, but also to respond
favorably
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0 Read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin


w    !  $ G% 
& '
0 Provide numerous opt-in opportunities all with low
barriers to entry
0 Make sure the amount of work required to sign up is
minimal
² Many sites only require the email address and all other
personal information is optional
0 Place the email list sign-up on all forms on your
site, including inquiry, order, and feedback forms
² Ok to have the sign-up checkbox ticked in advance?
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0 Builds trust
0 Address what you·ll be doing with the user·s
information, both now and potentially in the future
0 Post it in an obvious place on your site
0 Link to it from your email campaigns
0 Abide by it, no exceptions
0 Don·t revoke or weaken it once you·ve published it
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0 Remind recipients that they·ve given you


permission to contact them
0 Provide an easy way to unsubscribe
² 2nsubscribe urban legend
0 Be sure reply works
0 Have it signed by a real person
0 Publish and abide by a strict privacy policy

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!"   # #
 $  " "  

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0 Develop a voice and unique personality


0 Relate to their problem
0 First few lines are key (GIIFM)
0 The ¶gift of education·
0 Be honest. Full disclosure - No hidden advertorials
0 Avoid ¶chest pounding· and promotions
0 People trust people, not marketing speak
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% & ' &
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0 Shoddy workmanship in your email campaign


reflects poorly on your business
² Typos & grammatical errors
² Getting the facts wrong
² Formatting problems
² Otherwise illegible (font size too small etc.) or
unintelligible

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 ,    *
      
   $-   .

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0 ´Flames,µ i.e. hate email


0 Harassment from spam vigilantes
0 Badmouthed in discussion forums
0 Blacklisted (SpamCop, etc.)
0 You may even have your Internet privileges revoked
by your ISP
0 Remember, perception is 9/10ths of reality

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0 Email should be relevant, timely, and beneficial


0 ´Value" can take the form of:
² newsletters, discounts, contests, last minute availability,
event reminders, invitations, prizes, memberships,
bonuses, coupons/discounts, exclusive sales, free
samples, or demos.
0 Surveys - give free report or enter them in a draw
0 Go paperless - specs, price lists, statements
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  !"   

0 Newsletters
² Regularly scheduled messages that deliver timely and
interesting news, tips, and other informational tidbits
0 Promotional messages
² Inform recipients about special offers
0 Discussion forum posts
² Soft-sell marketing strategy for becoming an accepted
and trusted member of your target audience·s online
community
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0 Discussion forums include 2senet newsgroups,


email discussion lists (listservs), and web forums
0 Often overlooked by e-marketers
0 Key is to respect the forum·s non-commercial
nature
0 Don·t blatantly advertise
² Add value by answering questions in a vendor-neutral
manner, then soft-sell solely through your "signature"
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0 At the bottom of your discussion post


0 Should be short - no more than 4 lines
0 Your name
0 Your company name
0 Your email address (include mailto: in front)
0 Link to your site (include http:// in front)
0 Your 2SP (2nique Selling Proposition)

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0 Subject line
² Most important ~35 characters of the email. Focus on it!
0 From line
0 To line
0 Message body
² A promotional message should contain a compelling offer & call-to-
action
² An e-mail newsletter should contain a header, a table of contents, a
welcome, and multiple ¶departments·
² Privacy statement, Disclaimer, and 2nsubscribe instructions
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0 2nsubscribe rate
0 Bounce rate
0 2nique open rate
0 Total open rate
0 Clickthrough rate
² Can separate HTML vs. plaintext clickthroughs
0 Conversion rate

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0 The split-second decision - keep it or delete it
0 The basis of their decision: the From and Subject
line
0 Your open rate may be overstated
² Your message may be getting displayed in recipient·s
preview pane as he selects it just to delete it

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0 Depends on expectations of target audience


0 Email newsletters tend to be weekly or monthly
0 Monitor number/variety of contacts to avoid burnout

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0 Tuesday through Thursday?


0 10am to 2pm?
0 Varies depending on your audience!

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0 In general, keep it short and sweet. 2se links.


0 Geekly newsletter should be no more than five
sections, with three or fewer paragraphs each,
0 Monthly newsletter can be double or triple that.
0 Promotional messages should be significantly
shorter than a newsletter.
0 Include whole articles or just abstracts with links to
the rest?
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0 Spam filters built in Outlook, Hotmail, AOL etc.


0 Corporate email firewalls
0 Don·t trip the spam filters
² ´Freeµ, ´opt-inµ, ´!!!µ, ´forward to a friendµ, etc.
² ¶Bcc·
² ¶To· line doesn·t include recipient·s email address
² Scripts
² Attachments
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0 Do it BEFORE sending
0 Built into some email services (like GravityMail)
0 Or, free tool available from
www.gravitymail.com/spamscore.php
² Aim for < 5 SpamAssassin points
² Note: This tool is only indicative. Not everyone·s using
SpamAssassin to filter spam. Other filters will interpret
your campaign differently.

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m  ¦()
0 Play our email filter game!
0 The Rules:
² Point out things in the email campaign that caused it to
be unceremoniously junked by SpamAssassin
² Must be something that·s displayed on the slide
² The thing must be worth at least 0.4 points
² See how many problems you can find

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M' ¦ 3

0 HTML emails typically have twice the clickthroughs


0 HTML offers more control over layout
0 HTML looks more ¶polished· (could be good or bad)
0 Some old email clients can·t do HTML, e.g. Outlook
95
0 ´Sniffµ for HTML open or send multiple versions
multi-part

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0 Precede 2RLs with ´http://µ and emails with


´mailto:µ
0 Limit the line width to 65 characters
0 Headlines in ALL CAPS
² Reading text in caps is very slow, because people read
only the tops of letters. ALL CAPS letters don·t have
enough differentiation to them

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0 Tables - to control placement & avoid long lines
0 Graphics - <30k, will cause the recipient grief if reading
email while offline, increases download time
0 Color - color text or color a table background, doesn·t
impact download speed
0 Font - face, size, and color
0 Forms - embed in the email to make it easy for the recipient
to respond to an offer, e.g. seminar registration
² Auto fill-in as many form fields as possible
0 Scripts, Flash, Streaming Video - not recommended!
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0 Collect more than just the email address


² Name (first name should be a separate field)
² Zip code, interests, and other relevant demographics
² Ghat else?
² Also ask for info that you plan to use in the future
0 ¶Text to Columns· feature in Excel
0 In-house lists typically perform much better than
purchased or rented lists
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0 Tailor the offer to the individual. Beneficial offers are
relevant offers
0 Provide customized content specific to recipient location
and interests
0 Greet the recipient by first name. Perhaps even in the
Subject line too.
0 To line should specify the recipient·s email address
0 Let the recipient control the contact frequency
0 Increases the likelihood of being at the right place at the
right time with the right value proposition
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0 By demographics, psychographics, clickographics


(visiting behavior and transaction history)
0 Target who·s most relevant, most profitable, or
most likely to respond

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0 Avoid the use of purchased lists


² Many have actually been ´harvestedµ from web pages,
newsgroup discussion posts, or domain contact
information (from the ´whoisµ database) ² without the
knowledge or permission of the affected individuals
0 Rented lists from reputable list brokers may be
worthwhile
² Is it double opt-in, fastidiously clean of unsubscribes,
and finely segmented?
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0 Email addresses of prospects, potential distributors


and business partners, journalists
0 Member lists - associations, clubs, etc.
0 Find them with Google
0 Introduce yourself. Be personal and informal.
0 Careful! Potential spam territory

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0 Treat your email campaigns like experiments


0 Have a control group
0 Vary only one thing at a time
0 Ghat to test?
² The offer, the Subject line, the From line, the message
copy, the layout, the message length, the timing, the
contact frequency

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0 Track response rates of each test by making call-to-


action 2RLs & e-mail addresses unique for each
test group
0 Special attention should be given to the frequency
² don't allow recipient burnout, particularly with a regular
mailing such as an e-mail newsletter
0 Test and refine, test and refine

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  (¦

0 Reduce the administrative headaches - the bounces


and unsubscribe requests, the tracking, reporting,
segmenting, and personalizing
² Do-it-yourself software. e.g. GorldMerge
(www.coloradosoft.com)
² Or outsource to an e-mail service bureau, e.g.
GravityMail (www.gravitymail.com)

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0 Your subscribers listen to GII-FM


0 Regular contact is required to stand out
0 A lot of variables to get right
² Such as frequency, length, content
0 Now you know how to get permission, build your
database, personalize, segment, test, measure
success

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0 R   Emai Mark by Dbb Mayo-R


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0 Mark Wh E-Ma by Rhao K d
0 P
o M  by Rh God

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0 It·s time for some Q & A!

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