step away from the open rates! communicator corp

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Step Away From the Open Rates!


Why do we use the open rate?

Uniquely accurate

Key to reputation and delivery

High open rate = success


Email best practice advice... who is it for?

•inactive data

•volume

•relevancy

Common Problems

•clean lists

•send to active data

•improve targeting

Familiar Answers

•You are sending too many emails

•inactive data is bad

•improve your open rates

•improve your sender reputation

Standard Message


Email Marketing - Chapter 1

Collect permission-based data for marketing

Use that data to target, segment and personalise

Trigger and automate campaigns to improve relevancy and timeliness

Re-engage and reactivate dormant and sleepy customers on your list

Don’t send emails to long-term inactive data


Email Marketing - Chapter 2

Open rate not relevant to evolving email marketing techniques

You should send more emails

You should repeat email sends

If you want to engage with your customers, it is your customers, not your campaigns which you should measure (Tim Watson)

Inactive is normal (Dela Quist)

Use ‘Big Data’ techniques to increase segment size


High Open Rates and Campaign Success

High open

rates are seen in

successful

campaigns, but…

Campaign success comes from relevancy and recipient interaction

Open rates are a measure of that interaction

High open

rates are a

consequence of a successf

ul campaign, not the causeWhat does the

open rate indicate?


Send Email of Value,

not Volume


Volume and Value Case Study 1: Welcome Campaigns

StudentBeans

•13% Revenue increase

•“We found that it is actually

making the list more engaged”

•Open rates after welcome

campaign increased by 67%

because list was more engaged

•It was not the same people

opening each welcome email,

which is what lead to the increased

overall engagement of the list

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/sixemail-welcome-increases-revenue-13

Moved from a single welcome email to a welcome series

More people opened welcome emails

67% more people opened subsequent emails

13% revenue increase over subscription lifetime





Volume and Value Case Study 2: Cart Abandonment

SaleCycle – MandM Direct

Email 1 – within a few minutes of cart abandonment 4.04% conversion rate Email 2 – 24 hours after cart abandonment2.8% conversion rate 2nd Cycle influence36% of conversions generated by the 2nd cycle

37% of cart recovery revenue generated by the 2nd cycle

http://www.salecycle.com/ourresources/case-studies/content/mandm-direct.aspx

Moved from a single email to an email series

More people opened emails

More people revisited abandoned carts

Increased conversions




How multi-phase and re-targeting works

More chances to open emails

More people open emails

Relevancy must be maintained


Multi-phase – open rates

Email campaign Recipients Openers Open Rate

Week 1 full list - news and offers 10,000 2,000 20%

Week 2 full list – discount voucher 10,000 2,500 25%

Discount Voucher priority follow-upPhase 1

2,000 800 40%


1200 200 17%

Follow-up campaign 1: SuccessFollow-up campaign 2: Failure?


Multi-phase – engagement and revenue

Email campaign Recipients Openers Combined Openers Revenue

Week 1 full list - news and offers 10,000 2,000 £4000

Week 2 full list – discount voucher 10,000 2,500 £5000


2,000 800 3300(33%) £1600


1200 200 3500(35%) £400

Email campaign open rates show only a single point-in-time measure of success

Look at overall impact to mailing list

Look at overall and incremental revenue

Incremental costs are close to zero with automation


Multi-phase and re-targeting – further examples

Welcome campaign

series

Multi-cycle cart

abandonment

Priority customer rewards

Time-limited event or offer

A one-off offer to push


Engagement, not open rates

•Re-target•Multi-phase•Repeat

campaignsIncrease the reach of

individual campaigns

•Increase size of mailing list

•Increase quality of new and existing data and reduce unsubscribes

•Interesting, useful, engaging, timely and relevant content

Long term aim:

increase openers within

mailing list


Open Rate Strategy:Targeting active email addresses

Increases open rates

Remedial only – targeting same, decreasing list

Inactive is normal (Dela Quist)

Use inactive data differently

Remove long-term inactive email addresses


Open Rate Strategy: Targeting to segment

Filter results

male

Scotland

Has purchased

Filter Criteria


Open Rate Strategy: Targeting to fan-out results

Purchaser Demographic

male

Scotland

Has purchased

Fan-Out Filter Results


Open Rate Strategy: Targeting to fan-out results

Big Data modelling techniques to

identify recipients with similar

demographics

Analysis used for targeting can be

used to grow segments


Summary

Open rate is a single measure of a single campaign, not relevant to many modern email marketing techniques

Open rate maximisation advice is to fix basic delivery problems and long-term can result in small number of people being retargeted

If you want to engage with your customers, it is your customers, not your campaigns which you should measure (Tim Watson)

Maximise revenue by improving the reach of each campaign and your mailing list engagement.


A new strategy for the next 12 months

Increase email revenue and ROI

Increase number of actively opening, engaged customers

Increase number and quality of customers in lists

Use multi-phase campaigns to increase the reach of each campaign


Questions?

Meet the team at stand E6056

Some of the brands we work with...

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