email marketing best practices

Email MarketingRoundtable

Led byAngela Lee-MollElliott Lowe

Today’s Discussion

> Latest best practices and benchmarks

> Case studies – audience interactive poll Research Study

eBook

Live Event

> Q&A

> Closing Remarks

Source: Email Best Practice Guidelines – Hillary Jensen, CA EMEA Marketing – June 2007

Be sure to get your emails opened

> Email open rates are down: this is mostly due to email programs automatically blocking images (which is how opens are tracked)

> Click-through rates have remained constant

> Mondays and Tuesdays are the best days to send emails

> Subject lines with 35 characters or less are 28% more likely to be opened*

> Personalization in the subject line increases opens and click-throughs

Source: Reachforce.com

*A new best practice – subject lines should be no longer than 6 words. Do you think this is because so many people are getting email on mobile devices?

Six Principles of Subject Line Writing

Be Informative– Be sure to convey something important, valuable or timely

Create Intrigue– Prompt your reader to open and act on the email immediately

Build Trust– Be sure not to over promise or mislead your prospects

Call to Action

– Make it easy for your prospects to act on the call to action

Understand who you are targeting

– Speak to each prospect as an individual and address their pain points

From who?

– Subject lines can work with From Lines

Source: Reachforce.com

Tips for Writing Good Email Copy

> Ask yourself – So what? – this will help you get to the real message

WIIFM* - Consider what your prospect or customer wants to hear, not what you want to tell them.

Don’t beat around the bush – get to the point in 100 words or less

Make sure call to action (CTA) is above the fold (and in the preview pane)

Be sure your offer or call to action are related to the content

Get to the point – use 1 idea per sentence and make sentences punchy and easy to scan

Do not use catch phrases, clichés – use real data to make key points

Source: Reachforce.com

*What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)

Source:

Bronto.com

Source:Bronto.com

Source:Bronto.com

Industry Benchmarks (B2B Technology Industry)

> Delivered 94.8%

> Open 14.4%

> Click Through 1.7%

> Registration

Source: Bronto.com

Research Report

> What do you think? Subject Line

Headline

Body Copy

CTA

Sidebar

> Scale Unsatisfactory - Excellent

Polling Questions

Performance

Launched Aug 13 2008

Delivered – 98.2%

Opened – 9%

Click / Register – 1.5%

Benchmarks (bronto.com)• Delivered 94.8%• Open 14.4%• Click Through 1.7%

Pros

> Subject line includes well-known analyst. Propose including action word “read”

> Subtitle – strong

> Bullets – good to have bulleted points about CTA

> CTA – free offer offering insight to EMA research

Cons

> Headline too long

> Body text – too long

> Bullets – better w/ 2-3

> Sidebar - too many different CTAs

> Main CTA – below the fold

> WIIFM – too long to get to it!

Security Management eBook

16 April 12, 2023 Email Marketing Best Practices Copyright © 2008 CA

> Subject Complimentary Report:

Definitive Guide to Security Management

Polling Questions

Performance of eBook

Delivered - 66.5%

Open / Delivered - 38.9%

Click / Delivered - 5.8%

Register / Click - 75.6%

Benchmarks (bronto.com)• Delivered 94.8%• Open 14.4%• Click Through 1.7%

Pros

Compelling subject

Compelling headline

Personalized

Free high-value offer

CTA above the fold and in multiple locations

19 April 12, 2023 Email Marketing Best Practices Copyright © 2008 CA

Subject: Complimentary Report: Definitive Guide to Security Management

Cons

Right sidebar cluttered

Little WIIFM copy

No bulleted copy

Subject: Complimentary Report: Definitive Guide to Security Management

Live Event Series

> Launched this week

> Results pending

Email Review

> Pros Graphic/Title – good tie

in

Title – powerful

Body text – short and to the point

CTA – good placement/multiple placements

WIIFM copy is strong

Email Review

> Cons Agenda – unnecessary if

there is a landing page

Revise 2nd paragraph to include bullets!

Conclusion

> Compelling subject line

> Personalization

> Succinct body copy

> WIIFM

> Clear CTA

Questions?

Your feedback is important…

https://www.ca.com/us/register/activity.aspx?cid=38003

Thank You