Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Are you disciplined enough to run your own email marketing campaigns?

The ongoing upsurge of the online audience, social media, mobile and eCommerce coupled with the overall evolution of the average consumer, means that email campaigns, whether they include marketing offers or operational documentation, need to cater to the needs, wants and lifestyle of an increasingly savvy online consumer.


Be smarter with the way you use email


The role of email in an integrated online campaign is best described as a launch pad. Email can act as the window to the digital world, where with one click you can quickly access Quick Response (QR) codes, video, music and other exciting content. As the launch pad, email should include transparent functionality (tracking, deliverability techniques, interactivity and intelligence tools) to enhance the customer’s experience and direct them to detailed relevant content where a website could be one of the multiple landing strips.

Email is not just about promotion


Email allows you to engage with customers and take them on a journey through to the sale and a flourishing, persistant online relationship. It enables the ability to share the customer’s favorite content to their preferred social network or allow them to make a payment from within the bill.

The email might be read on the go or saved for later, so it should be available on a variety of devices and platforms and when implemented correctly should result in a great return on investment, while cutting paper usage and costs at the same time.

No pressure at all. I guess that is why they call email marketing a discipline.

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Email marketing IS a specialisation


The strength of this marketing tool is not just about sending out bulk email. It’s about understanding the medium, tracking each email and making adjustments to future campaigns so that your goals are met. It’s important to note that email is not a one size fits all medium – you need to create your space where you are engaging with your customers in a way that brings results. And that doesn’t happen ‘automagically’. You need to ensure you have experts in this space to help you along the way.

6 Tips for getting smarter with email


  1. Delivery
    Ensure you have measures like DKIM, SPF and DMARC in place, a great data cleaning method and authentication tactics, as well as automated bounced email clean up processes.
  2. Open rate and subject lines
    Keep the subject line short, clear and be wary of using words that trigger spam filters. Personalize or customize the subject line. Use a recognisable' from' name that ensures credibility.
  3. Creative design
    Creative design must transform strategy into a series of templates where the combination of layout, images and colour is functional, device friendly and easy to navigate, plus looks good and works online. The creative elements of the campaign must not only work for the target audience, but should also represent the relevant brand effectively.
  4. Mobile email
    Design with mobile in mind. Remember that if mobile email is the launch pad, the destination pages or functionality must be tested to ensure compatibility with all mobile device types.
  5. Add value
    Be relevant via a well segmented database, add call-me-back functionality and link the reply address to a tool to assist the call centre. Add a poll for insight and feedback, a survey for data enhancement. Include a phased profiling solution and a preference centre to help customers be in control of their communications.
  6. Cut costs
    Don’t send to inactive customers, continuously bouncing addresses or invalid domains and aim to run regular harvesting and adoption campaigns to reduce paper.

Now get going, there is a lot of work to be done! Call an eMarketing specialist and start sending smarter email.

Sheryl-Lynn Collins 
striata.com

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Digital migration: You could be saving $500k in print and postage!

Do you know exactly what your company’s targets are for print and postage savings over the next two years? Not having targets could be costing you a fortune. I recently attended a 'digital partner strategy day’, hosted by one of our larger clients, which turned out to be an incredibly valuable exercise. What struck me most was how wide the spectrum is between a company with clearly defined targets for reducing paper communications and those that have done little more than ‘offer’ eBilling.

The gap was costing one client half a million dollars a year. Read on to find out how to avoid this...

The primary objective of this client-led 'digital partner strategy day' was for senior managers from several divisions to lay out their vision for digital communication and short, medium and long terms goals for migrating as many customer contact points to electronic as possible. They invited a very small group of best-of-breed partners, which included the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, HP, Adobe and Striata to share their thoughts on how to accelerate this process and enhance the client's vision for a truly personalized customer experience.


What is your true cost of service?

I was particularly impressed that this company has crystal clear targets for print and postage savings (something we encourage all our clients to do upfront). They established the volume and cost per communication type: each paper mailing, inbound and outbound phone calls, the impact per day of slow or late payments; and then segmented commercial customers from individuals. With the help of strategic partners, industry research and management they set aggressive, but achievable targets, which everyone within the company has agreed to. Buy in and accountability across all divisions is critical.

How can you commit resources without targets?

The majority of companies we meet with don’t have well defined targets. In fact, most don’t even have an accurate account of their communication volumes or costs, which are essential for setting targets. At best, they may have ballpark figures for how many paper bills are delivered, and a rough percentage in mind for eBilling adoption (usually based on the industry average). But they haven’t mapped out which other mailings go out to the same customer, and at what cost.

Imagine sending everyone in your company out on a scavenger hunt with no finish line, no timeframe and no encouragement to enlist the help from other departments. One of the biggest challenges in achieving these mythical cost reduction targets is that there is rarely any sharing of data across departments or communication types. This makes it incredibly difficult to get all the key stakeholders to swim in the same direction – let alone commit resources.

Half a million dollars a year down the drain

While conducting a discovery workshop with a prospective client recently, we determined that $1.4 million is spent every year on mailing their annual privacy notice, a regulatory requirement, which they believe very few customers actually read. This is a classic example of departments not working together, as more than 30% of customers are already registered for eStatements, and yet 100% of customers get the privacy policy in the mail. If you can confirm delivery via email, why wouldn’t you send it electronically for a fraction of the cost, and use it as an opportunity to drive more traffic to your website?

Start the discovery process today

Start by looking at your volumes and print & mail costs for each of the following:
  • System generated personal documents – bills, statements, policies, collection notices etc.
  • Triggered messages – welcome letters, payment confirmations, reminders
  • High volume, low touch communications – all general notifications with no sensitive information – annual reports, privacy notices
  • Inbound and outbound phone calls
  • Another key data point is the total number of email addresses on file – across all departments and databases (including 3rd party vendors)

Use your full army, not just a handful of enthusiasts

Once you have a handle on these metrics, you can START developing your ‘digital migration strategy’, and set targets for print and postage reduction, email address collection, auto-pay enrollment, reduction of inbound phone calls, etc. This should be a collaborative exercise, not just within your organization, but with your key vendor partners as well.

Lastly, but most importantly, make a big deal of communicating your short, medium and long-term goals and get buy-in from everyone involved in moving customers to electronic communication, providing regular updates as milestones are achieved. Having a whole army of supporters is infinitely more powerful than a few fanatics fighting the battle in the dark.

Interested in a no cost, no obligation discovery workshop? Contact us today.

Barrie Arnold
striata.com

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Make that welcome email count!

Welcome emails are an opportunity not to be missed


Your welcome email message is possibly the best opportunity you will ever have to engage with your customer through the email medium and subsequently drive them towards action. On average, welcome emails generate some of the best open rates and when executed correctly they create a lasting impression for all your future email messages. I believe one of the biggest missed opportunities in email strategy is capitalising on the welcome email itself.

The sooner a subscriber is positively engaged, the more likely they will remain active with your email program over time. The welcome email is a critical phase in every email strategy and utilising it to the maximum will yield great benefits and return on investment for your brand going forward.

Make it happen and make it fast!


A quickly executed welcome email creates the right lasting impression, makes you look more responsive and opens the conversation with your customer at the point where they are most interested. You do not want your customer to regret opening the email or regret signing-up, so you definitely need to provide information that is relevant and engaging. Remember too that there are many other marketers competing for your customer’s attention and so, real time response is critical.

Some benefits of the welcome email ...


  • Reminds the customer that they opted in to receive email communication
  • Confirms the customer’s subscription details
  • Reinforces your brand, positioning and value proposition
  • Creates opportunities to highlight, up sell or cross sell relevant products
  • Pushes customers back to your website, preference centre or profile page to drive action related behaviour
  • Sets the expectation for the customer by giving them an idea of future content and frequency of communications
  • Helps the customer find things they perhaps missed when they signed up
  • Provides information on feedback channels and processes

9 elements for structuring great welcome emails:


  1. Include your brand name in either the From address or the subject line so that your customer instantly recognises who sent it
  2. Confirm that the subscription has been successful, include a warm and personal welcome message and emphasise the benefits of signing up
  3. Remind the customer why they opted in
  4. Create expectations of how often you are going to be mailing your customer
  5. Add a ‘safe senders instruction’ to ensure further deliverability
  6. Provide relevant and necessary contact information
  7. Add an offer or an incentive if relevant
  8. Include a strong call to action to drive further engagement
  9. Embed links to your website, preference centre, online profile form, privacy policy, unsubscribe and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter

While there is a lot of information that should be included, it's not necessary to cram everything into the initial welcome email. I have found that a series of three or four emails sent over a period of 7 to 10 days after sign-up can work quite effectively. To optimise this even further, segment and customise the preceding welcome emails, so they are more relevant to your customers - this will enhance their experience with your brand and make it a memorable one.

Don’t let this golden opportunity slide - it is never too late to embark on a winning welcome email strategy.

Ross Sibbald 
striata.com

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Resurrect your subscribers (from the grave) with reactivation campaigns

When last did you consider how much of your subscriber base is inactive and unresponsive? If you were to take an honest look at your database in terms of deliverability and interactivity across campaigns, how serious is this issue?

The dead wood can represent as low as 20% or as high as 90% of your database. According to Silverpop’s Loren McDonald, most inactivity falls within the 30 – 40% range translating into about a 3rd of a database. This costs you money and muddies the waters when trying to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.


Perform CPR or flick the switch?


While inactive and unresponsive subscribers represent a cost in the marketing budget and may do harm to your future email campaign in terms of deliverability, is the right strategy just to remove them from your database altogether? I say – first give every effort to restoring the lost relationship through reactivation campaigns and methods. This way you can try to elicit responses to your marketing campaigns which ultimately re-introduces them to your brand.

If you then find that you are still left with unresponsive subscribers, then consider the best practice approach; cull these addresses from your email database before they cause deliverability issues for you.

But don't forget the campaign analytics


Looking at dormancy is of course only one side of the coin. Campaign analytics need to be measured in terms of actual purchases by a customer, as not all customer interaction is created equal. Some customers may never open or click on a campaign, yet they make regular or semi-regular in-store or online purchases all the same. Some customers prefer to buy through alternate channels e.g. call centres. So it begs the question, did something as subtle as the campaign subject line or pre-header move a client into action without them opening and engaging with the email? Referred to as the ‘nudge effect’ by Dela Quist, this kind of subliminal marketing cannot be discounted, however I do not believe you can be dependent on a 3rd of your database taking action through ‘subliminal’ marketing tactics.

Reactivation campaigns should be run according to customer activity e.g. no interaction with brand through any channels for 3 months. This approach needs to be tailored to your company and how you measure customer engagement – whether as open and click-throughs, purchases or both.

4 Steps to avoid having too many inactive and unresponsive subscribers:


  1. Start before you have a problem. There are tactics that can be employed whilst your customers are still engaged. The majority of inactive customers result from email address churn. Using tactics such as SMS and alternate email address on registration you provide your company with alternate ways to contact a customer - having them provide you with updated details or permission to continue marketing to them. Email address hygiene should be an ongoing (monthly or campaign-by- campaign) process.
  2. When a customer first joins your database ensure all of your touch points are in place. Losing out on an opportunity to engage will cost you later. An email welcome series is the first step in a customer retention program. Getting customers to engage at the beginning of their relationship with you is critical in raising the probability that they spend / continue to spend with you.
  3. Start segmentation from the beginning of the customer lifecycle. Spray and pray marketing approaches have been passé for many years. Ensure your company does not send un-segmented, un-targeted and often irrelevant communication to subscribers.
  4. Keep up the momentum. Keep the dialogue open with your customer, build trust and continue to ask them for preferences as your relationship progresses. Ensure you USE the preferences accordingly if you want your customers to continue to provide you with this kind of information.

Some extra tactics


Having all of the above in place does not guarantee a 100% engagement from your base. It never will. At the point that you start to see your open and click-through-rates dipping, you can employ the following tactics to encourage your customers to re-engage.

  1. Incentive: some customers may be bribed back to life with a once off incentive. Remember that you run the risk of encouraging the wrong future behaviour, in that customers may continue to wait for ‘never to be missed offers’ before they engage again. Weigh up the revenue reward and risk and see if this approach is right for you.
  2. Subscribe down: Less frequent and more targeted communication may be what your disengaged customer needs in order to bring them back from inertia.
  3. Education: Your customers may need to be reminded of your offer - what value is offered to them as a subscriber and how they can access that value?
  4. Survey: Ask your customers what they like and dislike about your campaigns, product, service etc. Understand where the problem lies and use this feedback to address these problems and assist in segmentation e.g. reduced email frequency.

Remember that reactivation campaigns never promise a full return on your investment. Rather employ an ongoing reactivation program that addresses email churn and disengagement of valid email address subscribers on a regular basis and that acts as a proactive methodology rather than a desperate attempt to win back a subscriber after years of disengagement.

Want to breathe life back into your unresponsive base? Get in touch.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Postage price hikes - what is the true cost to DELIVER?

A loss of almost £1 billion over the past four years is hard to swallow and now the UK Royal Mail is feeding that to us. A Royal Mail postal rate increase, the biggest in percentage terms since 1975, is set to hit your mail budgets by 30%. Not good news for output managers looking to spend their bonus on a new Porsche, or even just to get a bonus.

When I checked out comments on Royal Mail's website regarding their previous financial losses, it stated they "were unable to charge the price the service truly costs to deliver." Well, I have to say that I wasn't totally turned off at them responding with a postage hike. Even at 60p, Postman Pat is earning his keep. Next day delivery come rain or shine isn't a bad offer for that price. I'm still buying.

Still, the question shouldn’t be the future of Royal Mail but rather yours. How are you going to deal with the instant reduction to your paper billing budget? Maybe you could add a “Royal Mail Tax” onto your bills? Or start applying the GE approach and fire the bottom 10% of your team? This is serious stuff with some companies set to lose millions off the bottom line.

If the future is eBilling, let it begin now. While you may already take online payment through your current portal, paper turn off still lingers around 15% for most companies. And, that is often driven by marketing the portal on paper. Does that rate of paper turn-off solve your budget deficit? I think not.


eBilling and eMarketing are more crucial than ever before


It’s been proven time and time again, ‘Push’ eBilling consistently results in:
  • 25 -70 % paper turn off
  • reduced DSO
  • reduced call centre volume
  • increased cross sales through intelligent and personalised marketing campaigns

So what is the true cost to deliver? Far less than the cost of a new Royal Mail postage stamp.