leveraging email to grow your sales
DESCRIPTION
Covers ROI of email. Consumer preference for email. Benefits of email. Explanation of permission for email: opt-in vs opt-out. Highlights CAN SPAM rules. Discusses deliverability of emails. Reviews lead nurturing through email. Explains scoring leads. Gives examples for email content, frequency and recency. Shows email data on timing, open rates, click through rates, device statistics, and subject lines. Details two email case studies.TRANSCRIPT
Leveraging Email to Grow Your Sales
Direct Marketing Ecosystem
Direct Marketing
Catalogs & Postal
Tele-marketing
Text Messaging
Ads on Mobile Devices
Online Advertising
Why Focus on Email?
Direct Mail (Catalog)
Telemarketing
Insert Media
Mobile
Social Media/Networking
Direct Mail (Non-Catalog)
Internet Search
Internet Display
Commercial Email
$0.00 $10.00 $20.00 $30.00 $40.00
$7.25
$8.26
$11.34
$11.37
$12.90
$15.40
$19.71
$22.38
$39.40
ROI by Direct Marketing Channel
Source: Direct Marketing Association, The Power of Direct Marketing, 2011-2012.
Consumers Prefer Email
Overall 15-17
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Email 77% 66 74 75 81 79 81 79
Direct mail (letters, catalogs, postcards, etc.)
9% 6 6 6 9 10 14 14
Text messaging (SMS) on cell
5% 10 5 7 4 6 1 0
Facebook 4% 8 7 3 4 3 1 0
Telephone 2% 0 5 3 2 1 1 2
Twitter 1% 4 1 1 0 0 0 0
Mobile App 1% 2 1 1 0 1 0 0
LinkedIn 0% 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
Source: ExactTarget, 2012 Channel Preference Survey, February 2012
Preferred Channel for Permission-Based Promotional Messages
More Reasons Email Works Well
Reduced Time & Effort: Emails do not take a lot of time to produce relative to other marketing efforts
Cost-Effective: Email costs are much lower than other traditional forms of marketing
Real-Time Messages: Email messages can be sent immediately to communicate quickly
Personalized Messages: Unlike other forms of mass communication, email is addressing each recipient
Segmentation of Database: Segmentation allows for highly targeted messages, which are proven to work
More Frequent Messages: Due to the easiness and cost-effective nature of sending email, more messages can be sent within a given time frame
Establishing Permission to Email Leads/Customers
Qua
ntity
Quality
Opt-Out Only
Single Opt-In, Pre-checked
Single Opt-In, Unchecked
Double Opt-In
CAN-SPAM Checklist• Commercial messages used to advertise products or services
are regulated by CAN-SPAM• Transaction or relationship-based emails are not
Email Type
• US laws do not require opt-in methods of acquiring informationPermission (opt-in)
• Every message must include opt-out instructions• Sender must honor requests within 10 daysUnsubscribe (opt-out)
• Misleading header information is banned: “From”, “To” and routing information must identify person initiating emailSender Identity
• Deceptive subject lines are prohibited• Advertisement identification is required
Subject Lines/ Labeling
• Valid postal address is requiredContact Information/ Post Address
Deliverability of Emails
78%
4%
18%
InboxSpamMissing
Source: Return Path, Email Intelligence Report Placement Benchmarks, 1H 2013
• Complaints (SPAM)
• Unsubscribes
• Blocked/Blacklisted• Hard Bounce (permanent)• Soft Bounce <5• Soft Bounce >5
• Sender Reputation (senderscore.com)
• User engagement (opens/clicks)
Email Touches All Points of the Customer Lifecycle
Nurture Prospective Customers (Discover & Explore)• Explain product benefits• Provide social proof (i.e. customer testimonials)• Address barriers to entry:
• price• privacy• legalities
• Advertise news/eventsManage Existing Customers (Buy & Engage)• Upsell and cross-sell products• Solicit referrals• Request testimonials• Survey for:
• sales improvements• customer satisfaction
• Advertise news/events
Discover
Explore
Buy
Engage
Email Usage for Prospects – Deep Dive
Various Media SourcesPaid Media
• Print• Radio• Magazines• Outdoor• Banners• Direct Mail• Email List Rental
Owned Media• Brochure• Store• Website• Facebook Fan
Page• Mobile Apps
Earned Media• Word of mouth• Facebook• Twitter• Blogs• Forums• Youtube
Readiness to Buy
Sales Funnel for Leads
Inquiry
Marketing Qualified Leads
Sales Accepted Leads
Sales Qualified Leads
$
Lead
Nur
turin
g via
Recy
cle Le
ads
Scoring Leads
What is Lead Scoring?Ranking leads based on the interest they show in your business, their current place in the buying cycle and their fit in regards to your business. Types of Lead Scoring:
Implicit Explicit
Behavior Online body language BANT data (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)
Demographics Inferred geography, data quality, etc.
Demographics – typically collected from form data or data appending
Example Behaviors to Score
IMPLICIT DATAEmails
OpenedOpened Multiple TimesClickedClicked Multiple TimesUnsubscribed (negative)
Web PagesViewed product specific
pageViewed pricing pageViewed customer reviewsShared via social sharing
EXPLICIT DATAAgePurchasing AuthorityLocationLead Source
WebsiteEventSponsorshipNewspaper
Household IncomeProduct Interest
Turning Leads into Sales
Less than 25% of new leads are sales-ready.
How do you nurture and close the remaining 75%?
Source: Gleanstar Research, December 2010 Gleansight on Lead Nurturing
Lead Nurturing
What is Lead Nurturing?The process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy, with the goal of earning their business when they are ready.
Why Focus on Lead Nurturing?
Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales
opportunities versus non-nurtured leads.
Source: DemandGen Report
Determine Email Strategy Using Lead Scores
Source: Marketo, The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing
Email Messaging Changes as Leads Move Down Funnel
Help potential customers better understand their
problems
free whitepapers, guides, videos,
checklists
Help potential customers solve their
problems
webinars, case studies, free
samples, catalogs, FAQ sheets, spec sheets, brochures
Help potential customers choose
you
free trials, demos, assessments, consultations,
estimates, coupons
Discovery Consideration Decision
Email Recency and Frequency Adjusts to Lead Behavior
Lead 1 Welcome Email
< 1 Day
Whitepaper
Opened Either Email?
7 Days
yes
no
3 Days
7 Days
Signed Up atCompany Event
Checklist
Personal Email from Sales Rep
Lead 2 Welcome Email
< 1 Day
Brochure
3 Days
Personal Email from Sales Rep
1 Day
Schedule Demo/Tour
Requested Brochure from Website
Email Trends and Best Practices
‘Age’ of Lead is Important
Source: HubSpot, An Introduction to Email Marketing
Capitalize on high engagement when lead
is still new
Email Timing is Important
Source: MailerMailer LLC
Most people open email as they start work
Email Performance Metrics
Q1 2010
Q2 2010
Q3 2010
Q4 2010
Q1 2011
Q2 2011
Q3 2011
Q4 2011
Q1 2012
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
Open RateClickthrough
Source: Epsilon and Email Experience Council, Q1 2012 Email Trends and Benchmarks, June 2012
Open Rates are trending up; CTRs are
trending down
Email Metrics for Prospect and House ListsB2B House File Prospect File
Open Rate 21.8% 12.9%
Clickthrough Rate 8.6% 7.3%
Conversion Rate (median) 1.2% 0.3%
Acquisition Cost (mean) - $65.66
ROI (median) $52.50 -
B2C House File Prospect File
Open Rate 22.9% 11.1%
Clickthrough Rate 7.7% 5.3%
Conversion Rate (median) 1.5% 0.6%
Acquisition Cost (mean) - $39.96
ROI (median) $16.50 -
Source: Direct Marketing Association, Response Rate 2012 Report, June 2012
Email Subject Lines by Length
Source: MailerMailer LLC, 12th Edition Email Marketing Metrics Report, July 2012
4-15 16-27 28-39 40-50 51+0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
12.0%
14.0%
16.0%
Open RateCTR
Character Length
Shorter is better
Open Rate Share by Device
Source: Knotice, Mobile Email Opens Report, April 2012 & Fishbowl, Q2 2013
Desktop73%
Mobile27%
2012
Desktop53%
Mobile47%
2013
Optimize for mobile
Number of Personal Email Addresses that Users Have
128%
239%
321%
46%
5+7%
Source: BlueHornet, Consumer Views of Email Marketing, April 2012
Are you counting people more than once?
Other Email Insights• 88% prefer to receive HTML to 12% who prefer plain text
• Click through rate (CTR) is higher when using the recipients first name in the subject line over no use of the first name
• Clicks by button text: “Click Here” gets the highest % of clicks over Go and Submit
• 65% prefer emails that contain mostly images vs. 35% who prefer mostly text
• “Secrets” is the most clicked lead nurturing subject line word
Source: HubSpot
Email Marketing Case Studies
Improve Deliverability Rates (Ecommerce Company)• Business Problem: Messages for yahoo
customers, which made up 30% of this company’s entire email list, were not being delivered resulting in lost revenue.
• Step 1: Identified & Separated Impacted Email Addresses They pulled the list of all email addresses with yahoo domains (@yahoo, @ymail, @rocketmail, etc)
• Step 2: Defined ‘active’ subscribers Knowing that yahoo has strict engagement algorithms for inbox placement, they segmented their yahoo list into inactive and active subscribers (anyone who clicked or opened in last 30 days) and only sent to actives…which was only 8% of all their yahoo names.
• Step 3: Slowly added more ‘inactive’ subscribers As the deliverability improved for first group of active customers, they added the next batch of inactives (anyone who clicked or opened within 60 days and then 90 days) all while holding out the inactive members.
• Step 4: Created permanent message strategy for Yahoo inactives Once deliverability finally returned to normal, they settled on a new definition of ‘inactive’ for yahoo members specifically, which was more stringent than their other subscriber domains (12 months vs 18 months of no opens or clicks)
• Results: Deliverability improved from 70%-92%, which resulted in over $100k+ in recognized revenue
Increase Conversion for New Email Members (Family Style Restaurant)
• Business Objective: A family style restaurant chain wanted to improve the conversion of new email subscribers into new guests in their restaurants and increase their initial ROI of acquiring that email name.
• Step 1: Evaluated Welcome Offer The control welcome offer of a free appetizer was ‘safe’. They wanted to test a richer offer to create more incentive to visit ‘now’. They decided on $15 off two entrees.
• Step 2: A/B Tested Offer in Email Promotion They worked with a marketing agency to attract new email members via an email campaign that randomly assigned its email list the control offer (50% ) and the test offer (50% ).
• Step 3: Tracked Redemption for Both Offers After the email promotion was sent, the restaurant acquired close to 1k new email members. Interestingly, the same amount of people signed up to the eclub with the control offer as did with the test offer. These results did not hold true in terms of restaurant visits. The test offer - $15 Off 2 Entrées – outperformed the control offer on all performance metrics.
• Results: The test offer raised conversion rates by 62% and increased net revenue per email/member by 70%. Total estimated net revenue impact is $280k for every 100k new email names acquired with the new offer.
Thanks!Contact Info:
Nicole Tabatabai@ntabatabai (twitter)
Any Questions?