6 Retail Email Marketing Priorities for 2015 Or “6 Things to Work on before the Upcoming Holiday Season”

Chad WhiteLead Research AnalystSalesforce Marketing Cloud@chadswhite

Chad White• Lead Research Analyst, Salesforce Marketing Cloud

• Author of “Email Marketing Rules” and nearly 3,000 posts and articles about email marketing

• 10+ years covering email marketing and ecommerce as researcher and journalist

1.Reassess program goals

2.Get mobile-friendly

3.Optimize snippet text

4.Increase targeting & personalization

5.Build out triggered emails

6.Keep inactivity in check

The Big Priorities

1Reassess Program Goals

1.Email marketers are not in synch with CMOs and other marketing leaders when it comes to defining email marketing success.

2.Many email marketers appear to confuse email marketing health and optimization metrics for true success metrics.

The Big Picture

How CMOs Measure Success

How Email Marketers Measure Success

How Email Marketers Measure Success

CMOs agree that these are success metrics, but all the

others are campaign optimization or channel health metrics.

Email Metrics

Matrix • Focus on metrics that contribute to (1) Email Channel Success, (2) Subscriber Optimization, and (3) Business Success

• All other metrics support your efforts at improving those higher-level metrics

The last thing you want is to achieve all of your goals and discover that you have not achieved success.

• 2015 State of Marketing (Salesforce)

• The State of Marketing Leadership (Salesforce)

• Are You Looking at the Best Marketing Metrics? (Convince & Convert)

• Don't Use The Wrong Metrics To Measure Success (MediaPost)

• 9 Experts Weigh in on Email Metrics that Matter(Zettasphere)

For More Details

2Get Mobile-Friendly

1.Subscribers often tune out or unsubscribe from brands when they receive mobile-unfriendly emails on their mobile devices.

2.Mobile email reading is at critical mass for most brands.

3.The majority of major B2C brands are now sending mobile-friendly emails most of the time.

4.Mobile-friendly landing pages are important too.

The Big Picture

Percentage of emails read in mobile, webmail, and desktop environments

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Oct. '13 Dec. '13 Feb. '14 Apr. '14 Jun. '14 Aug. '14 Oct. '14 Dec. '14 Feb. '15

Not Mobile-Friendly Mobile-Friendly Responsive Mobile-Aware

Percentage of 140+ Major B2C Brands Using Mobile-Friendly Email Designs

The State of Email Mobile-Friendliness

Source: Salesforce Marketing Cloud

• Email conversion rates on smartphones are about half of what they are on tablets and desktops. The majority of that gap is due to poor design rather than consumer preference.

• Responsive is the fastest growing, most popular mobile-friendly email design approach. However, it’s not the only approach.

It’s Because of Poor Design

Responsive: Content adapts to device (e.g., Marriott, Apple, AT&T, Toms)

Hybrid Responsive-Aware: Some responsive and some mobile-aware content (e.g., Jack Spade)

Mobile-Aware: Single column, large images & text, well-spaced links (e.g., Pizza Hut, Piperlime)

Quasi–Mobile-Aware: Some mobile-aware content

Desktop-Centric: 2+ columns, small text, close links

The Mobile-Friendly Spectrum: Where Are You?

© Copyright Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. All Rights Reserved.© Copyright Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. All Rights Reserved.

Mobile-Friendly Disconnects

In June 2014, only 30% of major B2C brands had mobile-friendly emails and landing pages. And 55% had one or the other.

Disconnect:

Google will begin ranking mobile-friendly sites higher starting Apr. 21

Consumers are way out ahead of retailers on using mobile. It’s time to do some serious catch-up.

• 53% of Emails Opened on Mobile; Outlook Opens Decrease 33% (Litmus)

• Mobile-Friendly Disconnects #Infographic (Salesforce Marketing Cloud)

• Smoothing Out the Mobile Email Journey (Retail Online Integration)

• Mobile-Targeted Design: Next Step After Mobile-Friendly (MediaPost)

For More Details

3Optimize Snippet Text

1.As more emails are read on mobile devices, the number of subject line characters displays shrinks. At the same time, more subscribers are seeing snippet text, which displays a preview of the email’s HTML text content.

2.Snippet text is like a “second subject line.”

3.The majority of B2C brands don’t optimize their snippet text.

The Big Picture

The State of Snippet Text Optimization

• Extend the subject line

• Clarify a teaser style subject line

• Supply the call-to-action (e.g., link, coupon code)

• Give the punchline to the subject line

• Appeal in a different way (e.g., following an emotional subject line appeal with a discount)

• Add first-name or other personalization

Snippet Text Strategies

Marketers recognize the critical nature of sender names and subject lines, but have neglected this third “sometimes” component of envelope content.

• Optimizing the Second Subject Line #Infographic(Salesforce Marketing Cloud)

• 4 Key Email Subject Line Trends for 2015(Salesforce)

For More Details

4Increase Targeting & Personalization

• “One size fits all” emails are steadily declining in effectiveness as subscriber expectations rise.

• Marketers recognize the need for personalization, dynamic content, and predictive intelligence (and triggered emails, which we’ll talk about later).

• However, other marketing initiatives have pushed personalization down the to-do list.

The Big Picture

Personalization Has an Impact on Metrics Related to Top Marketing Goals

Personalized Customer Experiences Still Lag Traditional Marketing Goals

1. Who They Are: Starbucks, Sephora

2. Who They Care About: Gerber, Broad Ripple

3. What They Did: Fitbit, Reliant, American Apparel

4. What Others Did in Reaction: TripAdvisor

5. What They Have: Volkswagen, Kiva, Moosejaw

6. Where They Are: Timberland, Nextdoor

7. How Others Like Them Behave: West Elm

Different Ways to Personalize Content

Consumers want brands to prove they’re paying attention by delivering content that’s tailored to their individual interests.

• Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing(Forrester)

• 6 Degrees of Email Personalization (Salesforce Marketing Cloud)

• Four Keys To Improved Subscriber Journey With Progressive Profiling (MediaPost)

For More Details

5Build Out Triggered Emails

• Triggered emails are the safest way to deliver more email to your most engaged subscribers.

• The ROI of triggered emails is generally multiple times that of broadcast emails.

• The adoption rate of most triggered emails is well below 50%, giving users a competitive advantage.

• A basic triggered email is better than nothing, and gives you a foundation on which to build.

The Big Picture

Super-engagement strategies foster more opportunities with subscribers who are most engaged. Triggered emails are a key part of that.

Source: “Email Marketing Rules” (2nd Ed.)

Effectiveness of Triggered Email Campaigns

Usage Rates of Triggered Email Campaigns

• Welcome Series: Michaels, Target, Zulily

• Post-Purchase: Mazda, Crate & Barrel, Amazon

• Reengagement: Mini USA, American Apparel

• Win-back: Pinkberry, Moosejaw

• Birthday: American Apparel, Gerber, Rabbit

• Anniversary: ModCloth, Levi’s, ASOS, Zappos

• Browse Abandon: Crutchfield, Williams-Sonoma

• Cart Abandon: Blue Nile, West Elm

Examples of Triggered Emails

The new litmus test for email marketing greatness: Does the majority of your email marketing revenue and engagement come from triggered emails?

• 2015 State of Marketing Report (Salesforce Marketing Cloud)

• The New Litmus Test For A Great Email Marketing Program (MediaPost)

• Super-Engagement: Increasing The Value Of Your Most Valuable Subscribers (MediaPost)

For More Details

6Keep Inactivity in Check

• ISPs started using engagement metrics in their email filtering algorithms in the late 2000s.

• Now engagement metrics are a big factor in deliverability and inbox placement at Gmail, Yahoo, and other ISPs.

• This change makes it dangerous to hold onto inactive subscribers in order to reduce spam complaint rates.

The Big Picture

• There are literally hundreds of factors that influence whether an email is blocked, junked, or delivered to the inbox.

• Unfortunately, marketers only have visibility into a few of those factors—and that visibility is poor or compromised in every case.

Gmail says:

Email Metrics

Overlap with

Business

Metrics & ISP

Metrics

+ Opens. ISPs see every open. Marketers need pixel renders.

+ Clicks. ISPs don’t measure them, but they’re marketer’s 2nd best proxy for engagement.

+ Replies. Marketers have trained subscribers to “do not reply” for 2+ decades.

Engagement =

Source: “Email Marketing Rules”

• “Ramp down” email frequency to subscribers who don’t engage with your messages.

• For example, if you’re sending daily, switch to weekly for those subscribers.

• Re-permission subscribers who continue to be inactive after another 3-6 months, dropping those that don’t confirm their interest.

Gmail recently recommended:

Increasing Engagement by Mailing Inactive Less Often

Your email list can appear far more engaged in the eyes of ISPs just by mailing inactive subscribers less frequently.

Source: “Email Marketing Rules” (2nd Ed.)

Cutting inactives is painful. But losing the ability to reach your active subscribers is devastating. That’s why it’s important to monitor and manage inactives.

• Opens, Clicks, and Blocks in the Third Age of Email Deliverability (MediaPost)

• 5 Deliverability Tips for the Holiday Season(Salesforce Marketing Cloud)

For More Details

Review of 2015 Priorities

1.Reassess program goals

2.Get mobile-friendly

3.Optimize snippet text

4.Increase targeting & personalization

5.Build out triggered emails

6.Keep inactivity in check

The Big Priorities

Making progress on each of these priorities between now and October will get your email program in excellent shape for the upcoming holiday season. Good luck!

Thank you