emerging email marketing trends

Emerging Email Marketing Trends

Presented by Loren McDonaldSilverpop

April 21, 2009

The New Birthday Wish

Email Has Been Easy “Pickens,” Like…

…But Are We Entering the “Slim Picken’s” Phase?

It Is Up To You

• Evolve to address/ take advantage of market changes

Or…

• Do nothing and see your ROI decline

Agenda

• Trends

• Ingredients for Success

• Q & A

6 Trends Affecting Email Marketers

1. Email Volume Has Exploded

Holiday Email Volume Explodes

…and the Volume Increase Continues

Lands’ End: 20 Emails in 22 Days

Free Shipping20% off

$5, $10 off

2. Emails Are Becoming Undifferentiated

Free Shipping, 20% Off – “So What”

Remember the White Flower Day Sale?

• Was every Thursday, or so it seemed• So when did I shop at Macy’s?• They trained me to only shop on Thursday• Study the subject lines/emails of your competitors• How are your positioned differently?

3. Communication Channels Are Exploding

Advertising is about the only thing that isn’t “social”

Twitter, Facebook, et al R Xplding

Everyone is Joining the Fray

Mobile Devices Are the Norm

4. The Changing Inbox…and Role of Email?

My Recent Inbox Snapshot – Nearly Half Are Alerts/Notifications

Only 1 message was opened …

Except…that I read several of the emails on my Blackberry

Web Browser

PC client

Mobile Client

Same Email… May Be Read In Multiple Environments

Social Network RSS Feed

Web Version

5. Attention Deficit Disorder

From 4 Pages …

… to 140 characters…

6. Email Marketing ROI is still #1

Email’s Future Looks Bright

Email Still Top’s for ROI

Email’s ROI in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spent on it,

according to the DMA’s Power of Direct economic

impact study.

…And Email Still Rocks for Business Communications

So What’s A Marketer To Do?

A Few Ingredients for Better Engagement

Stop Using the Ketchup on Your Emails

It is all About the Ingredients

#1: Collect the right data and USE it!

My Expectations:• Birthday wish and/or coupon

• Age-based content/offers• Gender-based content/offers

Now for that haircut, I’d Pay More Than $16!

Loren

What I Get

• No birthday wish

• Content does not reflect age

or gender

No Data/Preferences Collected

Logical Personalization?:

• Gender• Marital status• Age ranges on signup• Wedding anniversary• Significant other’s birth date

2. Use Behavioral Data

Cart Abandonment

Cart Abandonment Reminder Campaign

Big Results after One Month:(compared to all previous email

campaigns)

48% lift Click through rate

129% lift in Net Conversion rate

Accounted for 10.4% of the total revenue from email marketing

while representing only 2.7% of the total email volume.

Purchase Data

3. Create New, High-Value Email Streams

Email That Educates & Sells

Community/UGC Aggregation

Productizing of Emails

• Notifications• Alerts• Reminders• Aggregators• Confirmations• Updates• Closeouts• Invoices• …and more

4. Think ‘Shareworthy’

Sharing is Delicious

Email Share-to-Social

What Makes Content Shareworthy?

• Trustworthiness

• Tribal interests

• Simple and obvious

• Ease of sharing

• Social acumen and adoption of subscribers

• Creates value

• Reward/Incentives

• Good content

#5: Get a Personality

We Like Personalities

Jim Cramer – Mad Money

Keith Olbermann – MSNBC

Woot is a Hoot

Personality is the New Free Shipping

• People want to buy from people –Zappos CEO on Twitter

• Talk to ME

• Entertain me

• Reviews – what others bought

#6: Make It Easy for Subscribers

• Select flights right from the email

• Oakland is my preferred departure

airport

• “Book a flight” links

• Search link

Everything You Need, Without the Images

#7: Welcome Subscribers

Questions to Ponder

1. Are you enabling subscriber choice?

2. Are your emails uniquely positioned relative to

competitors?

3. Are you collecting and USING customer data?

4. Do your emails have personality?

5. Are your emails shareworthy?

6. Are you leveraging email for all it can be?

Do your emails need ketchup?

Q & A• lmcdonald@silverpop.com• Twitter:

– @LorenMcDonald– @Silverpop

• SlideShare: www.slideshare.net/silverpop• LinkedIn:

– http://www.linkedin.com/companies/silverpop

• Facebook:– Search “Silverpop”