TOP 5 EMAIL MARKETING MISTAKES

Top 5 Email Marketing Mistakes
Learn simple exercises to uncover and prevent the most common email marketing pitfalls.
ELITESEM.COM CONFIDENTIAL

Sr. Strategist, Email & CRM
Mike Woodall
Elite SEM

ELITESEM.COM CONFIDENTIAL | 3
Overview
• 5. Improper Deliverability Tracking
• 4. Destructive Segmentation
• 3. Ignoring Engagement
• 2. Poor Acquisition & Tracking
• 1. Losing & Misplacing Subscribers
• Key Takeaways

5. Improper
Deliverability Tracking

What is Deliverability?
Email Deliverability can be broadly defined as the ability to get messages into subscribers’
inboxes. When referring to the email metric, it is often called an inbox rate.
You cannot have successful email program, if your campaigns are consistently going to spam, or
being blocked by ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, Etc.).
• There’s a variety of ways that online retailers track their inbox rate that we’ll review:
– Panel Data Tracking
– Email Certification & Whitelisting
– Seed List Tracking (Weighted & Unweighted)
– Open Rate By ISP/Domain

Can You Trust Panel Data?
Email Panel Data is derived from real email users who volunteer to have their inboxes tracked by 3rd
party tools. The driving appeal behind this form of email deliverability tracking is that the data is taken
from real humans interacting with your company’s emails. However, there are few glaring issues with
this form of tracking:
• The 3rd party apps tracking panel data have been found to encourage contacts to flag more emails
as spam or will add additional email filters which can inflate spam rates.
• User self-filtering or older inactive email addresses can cause significant inaccuracies in panel data.
(Ex. Panel subscriber manually flags your companies emails as spam. )
• Due to recent privacy concerns related to 3rd party panel data farming tools, Google updated their
user data policy which will help increase user protections for Gmail subscribers and could mark the
end of panel data tracking with this major ISP.
Note: If interested in learning more about these recent privacy issues related to Gmail and panel data
companies, check out this CNET article.

Email Certification & Whitelisting
Email Certification or Whitelisting is a service that a lot of email deliverability companies urge
is the most powerful deliverability solution. They promise preferential inbox treatment at major
ISPs, but this is often misleading.
• One of the largest ISPs, Gmail does not have any certification or whitelisting partners.
• For many certification and whitelisting programs, a company will often be required to
improve their deliverability before even being qualified for certification.
• The best way to improve your deliverability is to limit sending to your inactive contacts, as
ISPs will look at how often your contacts interact with your emails.

Seed List Tracking
Seed List Tracking uses a list of test email addresses created specifically to
track whether emails are reaching the inboxes, spam folders, or not being
delivered at all. Typically seed lists will be made of around 1-2k test email
accounts with representation from of all the different ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo,
AOL, Comcast, Etc.)
• Seed lists will typically be the most accurate way to track deliverability as
the test email accounts have no previous engagement activity, in
comparison to panel data.
• Seed list tracking tools will typically offer weighted and unweighted
options based on the ISP breakdown of your contact list.
• We recommend adding a seed list to at least 5 email campaigns each
month to keep an accurate account of your on-going email deliverability.
Sample Seed List Report
ISP ISP Weight Inbox Spam Missing
Gmail 42% 100% 0% 0%
Yahoo 26% 100% 0% 0%
Hotmail 12% 80% 0% 20%
Comcast 3% 70% 25% 5%
Additional
ISPs
17% 100% 0% 0%
ISP ISP Weight Inbox Spam Missing
Gmail 42% 100% 0% 0%
Yahoo 26% 100% 0% 0%
Hotmail 12% 80% 0% 20%
Comcast 3% 70% 25% 5%
Additional
ISPs
17% 100% 0% 0%
Total Unweighted 87.5% 6.3% 6.3%
Total Weighted 96.7% 3.9% 5.0%

Open Rates By ISP - Exercise
In addition to seed list tracking, we strongly recommend reviewing real subscriber
engagement data in your Email Service Provider (ESP). If you believe a particular ISP is
blocking your marketing emails, then you can use this simple exercise to help uncover that
issue:
1. Create ISP Segments: Split your actively mailed list into separate ISP segments (Gmail,
Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, Etc.). Example Rule: Any Email Address ends in “@gmail.com”
2. Separate Email Sends: Send your normal mailings to each of these separate ISP
segments for 3-5 campaigns to see if you see any consistent and significant differences
in open rates across the separate ISPs. Some ESPs do this automatically within their
platform.
3. Suppress Inactive Contacts: If you notice there is an issue with a particular ISP, then try
pulling back that ISP segment to only include the most active contacts. Example Rule:
Any Email Address that ends in “@hotmail.com” and has opened an email within the last
30 days.
4. Slowly Re-Expand to Less Active Contacts: Once you see deliverability improve, you can
slowly expand that ISP segment back to your normal business rules. If the issue re-
occurs, then you may need to re-think your business rules as you may be sending to too
many inactive contacts.
Important Note: Check with your ESP, most platforms will allow you to look at open rates by
domain without any extra effort needed.
ISP Open Rate
Gmail 15.3%
Yahoo 14.7%
Hotmail 5.4%
Comcast 13.3%
Additional ISPs 14.2%
Sample ISP Segment Split Report

What is Destructive Segmentation?
Destructive Segmentation can affect every aspect of an email program. Companies often overlook
the importance of proper email targeting because they believe a bigger email list or a super
targeted segment will drive more revenue. Here’s some common issues you may want avoid:
• Segments Are Too Small: If you’re looking to develop more detailed segments, start with your
biggest customer segments. If you could split your customer base in 2 to 4 groups, what would
those be? Once you find success in your largest segments, you can test your way to small
more personalized segments.
• Only Targeting Contacts Based On Recent Purchases: While an email contact may have
purchased in the last year or purchases repeatedly every month, if they have not opened an
email in over a year, then they are likely not adding any actual value to your email program
and should likely be removed.
• Removing Active Contacts: If you have active contacts who open every email, but have never
purchased a product, don’t simply remove them. They could be completing purchases through
another channel or they may have not seen an appealing email offer from you yet.
• Forgetting To Test: Make sure your always test new segments. Are these contacts generating
more revenue now that your emails are more personalized?

Segmentation: The 2 Rules of Thumb
There are 2 major rules of thumb that you should follow when creating business rules for your email
segments. All contacts should either be recent sign ups or actively engaged with your emails.
• 1. Recency – We recommend that you allow contacts a chance to open their 1st email campaign
between 1-3 months after their initial sign up date.
• 2. Engagement – If a contact has never opened an email or has not opened a campaign within the
last 6-12 months, we might recommend removing them from your email segmentation
completely.
• Important Note: Every email program is different and the best segmentation rules should be
decided on a case-by-case scenario.
Following these 2 basic rules, can help:
• Increase Open/Click Rates
• Increase Email Deliverability
• Cut Costs By Lowering ESP Sending Allocation

Segment Value - Exercise
Even if you have poor email engagement or email deliverability issues, it
can sometimes be tough to make an internal business case for adjusting
your list size and segmentation practices. Here’s a simple exercise you
can use to help build a case:
1. Create Engagement Segments: Break your active mailing list up into
separate groups, based on contact’s engagement. (1-3 Mo Openers,
3-6 Mo Openers, 6-9 Mo Openers, Etc.)
2. Separate Email Sends: Separate all your email sends by these
engagement groups for a couple of campaigns.
3. Breakout Metrics: Review metrics by each engagement segment
and see if all segments are actually providing significant value.
Sample Engagement Segment Report
Segment Open Rate Click Rate Revenue
0-3 Mo Openers 35.9% 23.5% $90,341
3-6 Mo Openers 15.7% 12.3% $13,972
6-8 Mo Openers 3.5% 0.9% $2,093
8-12 Mo Openers 1.0% 0.4% $201
12-15 Mo Openers 0.4% 0.1% $0
15-18 Mo Openers 0.1% 0.0% $0

Email Engagement
Email Engagement is often overlooked and pushed aside as many companies may be tempted
to send too many emails or mail too many inactive contacts. There are a few elements to keep
in mind when reviewing email engagement:
• Email Cadence: How often are you sending?
• Segmentation: Who are you sending to?
• Last Engagement: How recently have contacts engaged with your emails?

Email Cadence - Exercise
One big misconception in email marketing is the belief that sending more emails will always
produce more revenue. Increasing email cadence may often help a company reach short term
financial goals, but can be detrimental to the long term health of your email list.
We recommend taking these steps to help you determine if you’re sending too many emails or
too little:
1. Review Cadence: Go through your own email inbox to count how many campaigns
you sent each month over the past year. Alternatively, if you’re able to export
campaign sends, you may also be able to get these counts via your ESP.
2. Compare Metrics: Take this email cadence data and overlay your other monthly
email metrics to see what trends may be occurring. If your cadence went up, did
your email engagement and email revenue go up too? Or did those metrics go
down?

Ex. Cadence Graph A
14 15
18
13
14
15
13
18
20 20
20 22
26
28
27
28
22
29
33
30
27
28
31
35
32
$0
$200,000
$400,000
$600,000
$800,000
$1,000,000
$1,200,000
$1,400,000
$1,600,000
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Email Cadence GA Revenue

Ex. Cadence Graph B
14
15
18
13
14
15 13
18
20 20 20
22
26
28
27
28
22
29
33
30
27
28
31
35
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Email Cadence Open Rate Click Rate

Segmentation Shift - Exercise
Segmentation Shifts and business rule shifts can play large part in poor email engagement. As a result,
some companies may see email channel sales level off or decline when incorrectly updating
segmentation rules. Here’s a few steps you can take to look at segmentation trends in your email
program:
1. Record Your Segmentation Rules: Check your ESP to see what basic segmentation rules you’ve had
in place over the last year or two. Have there been any large shifts in business rules over that time
period? Write them down and record when those changes occurred.
2. See Affects On Email Metrics: Take this information and overlay it on top of your other historical
email metrics to see how audience rule shifts have affected your email program.

Ex. Segmentation & Cadence Graph
0
5
10
15
20
25
$0.00
$200,000.00
$400,000.00
$600,000.00
$800,000.00
$1,000,000.00
$1,200,000.00
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Revenue Email Cadence
Email
Cadence
14 15 18 13 14 15 13 18 20 20 20 22
Active Email
Segment
(Signed up in last 4 months
Or purchased in last 12 months)
And Opened In last 4 months
Purchased In Last 12 Months
Or Signed Up in Last 4 Months
Opened In Last 10 Months
Or Received Welcome Email In Last 6 Months

Last Engagement - Exercise
In addition to looking at engagement metrics over time, it is also beneficial to take into
account what percentage of your current contacts are engaged. This can help point to
where you may be see the largest drop off in email engagement and help you determine
the best business rules for your email segmentation. Here’s another quick exercise:
A. Most ESPs will allow you create email segments based off of last open date. Try
creating segments for all contacts in your active email list who have opened in the
last:
– 0-1 Month
– 1-2 Months
– 2-3 Months…and so on.
– Never Opened
B. You can do this same exercises for last click date and last purchase date for further
breakdowns.
Last Open Contacts Percentage
1 Month 773,945 59.4%
2 Month 179,805 13.8%
3 Month 85,212 6.5%
4 Month 44,300 3.4%
5 Month 41,694 3.2%
6 Month 38,828 3.0%
7 Month 26,971 2.1%
8 Month 16,026 1.2%
9 Month 15,505 1.2%
10 Month 15,766 1.2%
Never Opened 64,886 5.0%
Total Active Segment 1,302,938 100.0%

Last Engagement - Exercise
In addition to looking at engagement metrics over time, it is also beneficial to take into
account what percentage of your current contacts are engaged. This can help point to
where you may be see the largest drop off in email engagement and help you determine
the best business rules for your email segmentation. Here’s another quick exercise:
A. Most ESPs will allow you create email segments based off of last open date. Try
creating segments for all contacts in your active email list who have opened in the
last:
– 0-1 Month
– 1-2 Months
– 2-3 Months…and so on.
– Never Opened
B. You can do this same exercises for last click date and last purchase date for further
breakdowns.
Last Open Contacts Percentage
1 Month 773,945 59.4%
2 Month 179,805 13.8%
3 Month 85,212 6.5%
4 Month 44,300 3.4%
5 Month 41,694 3.2%
6 Month 38,828 3.0%
7 Month 26,971 2.1%
8 Month 16,026 1.2%
9 Month 15,505 1.2%
10 Month 15,766 1.2%
Never Opened 64,886 5.0%
Last Click Contacts Percentage
1 Month 312,705 24.0%
2 Month 118,567 9.1%
3 Month 132,900 10.2%
4 Month 87,297 6.7%
5 Month 67,753 5.2%
6 Month 40,391 3.1%
7 Month 28,665 2.2%
8 Month 19,544 1.5%
9 Month 25,016 1.9%
10 Month + 41,694 3.2%
Never Clicked 428,406 32.9%

2. Poor Acquisition &
Tracking

Poor Email Acquisition
Poor Email Acquisition limits marketing reach, stagnates email lists, and leaves a lot of revenue on the
table. Many website visitors don’t convert during their 1st site visit, so it’s important to optimize email
acquisition strategy to capture as many contacts as possible to have the ability to re-market to them.
Here’s some essential methods to improve your acquisition strategy:
• Add basic email sign up forms to all major locations on your website. (Site Navigation Header, Site
Footer, Checkout, Etc.)
• Add overlays that track site visitor interaction to intelligently display email webforms.
• Most importantly, make sure to track all email sign up sources. Without proper tracking, it will be
difficult to identify issues or the success of your acquisition strategy. This is the most commonly
overlooked step.

Basic Sign Up Forms
Add basic email sign up forms to all major locations on your website.
• Place an email sign up link at the top of your website that will display on
every page and clearly ask for visitors emails. You can also highlight a
welcome offer to 1st time customers to increase visitor interest.
Top Navigation – Static Callout On Every Page

Basic Sign Up Forms
• Add sign up forms to other site locations like your website footer to help
maximize visibility.
Website Footer

Basic Sign Up Forms
• Add sign up forms to other site locations like your website footer to help
maximize visibility.
• If you request visitors to create an account, be sure to keep your webform as
simple as possible and only ask for the most necessary information to lower
the barrier to entry.
Simplify Account Creation

Target Visitor Behavior
In addition to basic sign up forms, there is a lot of user-friendly technology today
that can greatly improve email acquisition by targeting visitor’s based on
behavior.
• Target visitors based on a their traffic source, time spent on site, total page
visits, percentage page scrolled, previous webform overlays seen, etc.
Website Entry Form

behavior.
• Target visitors who appear to be trying to leave your site based on scroll
behavior with an exit-intent campaign allowing you to re-target visitors, who
otherwise could bounce and be lost.
Exit-Intent Form

behavior.
• Customize forms to be optimized for desktop and mobile devices.
Desktop & Mobile Optimization

behavior.
• Customize forms to be optimized for desktop and mobile devices.
• Additionally, these types of overlays can be great for AB testing designs and
offers to improve email acquisition over time.
AB Test Offers & Designs

Tracking List Growth
In addition to improving acquisition, it is important to make sure you’re
tracking list growth. Outside of just tracking total opt ins in each month, it’s
important to track your active list growth and sign up source performance
when possible. Here’s an exercise to help start tracking your email list
growth:
1. Track Active List Monthly: Start recording the size of your actively
emailed contact file each month. This can also be retroactively done by
looking in your ESP at email send counts from previous months.
2. Find The Roots Of Losses: You can compare monthly opt-ins and opt-
outs to your active list net growth each month to also calculate
additional losses, which would typically be the amount of inactive
contacts falling off your active list each month.
3. Apply Across Sign-Up Sources: If you currently track different sign up
sources, you can repeat this exercise to determine which acquisition
methods contribute to the most engaged and valuable contacts.
Month Jul 2018 Aug 2018 Sep 2018 Oct 2018 Nov 2018 Dec 2018
Active List Size 489,328 499,114 504,106 524,270 566,211 589,426
Active List Net Growth 20,174 9,787 4,991 20,164 41,942 23,215
Total Opt Ins 25,930 23,920 12,937 22,637 46,827 25,982
Total Opt Outs 2,893 3,023 3,121 1,281 3,251 2,176
Est. Additional Loss 2,863 11,110 4,825 1,192 1,634 591
(Opt Ins - Opt Outs) - (Active List Net Growth) = Est. Additional Loss
Sample List Growth Report
Month Jul 2018 Aug 2018 Sep 2018 Oct 2018 Nov 2018 Dec 2018
Active List Size 489,328 499,114 504,106 524,270 566,211 589,426
Active List Net Growth 20,174 9,787 4,991 20,164 41,942 23,215
Total Opt Ins 25,930 23,920 12,937 22,637 46,827 25,982
Total Opt Outs 2,893 3,023 3,121 1,281 3,251 2,176

1. Losing & Misplacing
Subscribers

Losing & Misplacing Subscribers
Losing & Misplacing Subscribers is one of the most prevalent and easiest-to-make mistakes
that many companies will face on a semi-regular basis. It is often an hidden problem that can
be caused by some these following issue:
• Broken API connections between an ESP and company webforms, CRM platforms, or
other 3rd party tools
• General misunderstandings of a particular ESP platform and improper email segmentation
that may overlook large portions of audiences
• Forgetting to load contacts into ESPs from online giveaways, retail events or other one-off
acquisition projects

Sign Up Source Test - Exercise
Sign Up Source Tracking is simple and straightforward exercise to help uncover any
surface level issues. Here’s step-by-step instructions to track your sign up sources:
1. Review Sign Up Sources: Determine and record all potential ways a visitor could
sign up for marketing emails. (web account registration, pop-up webform, referral
program, retail store, checkout page, mobile app, etc.)
2. Sign Up Test Accounts: Create a test an email account for each the email sign up
sources you have discovered. Manually sign up one of the unique email addresses
at each of the sign up sources.
3. Track & Review: Track each email account to see if the email was added to your
ESP, if a correct welcome email was sent to the email account, and check 30, 60,
or 90 days out to see if those email accounts are still receiving regular marketing
communications from your company.

Sign Up Source Tracking
Test Email Address Sign Up Source
Sign Up
Date/Time
Was Contact
Passed To ESP?
Welcome Email
Received?
Still receiving emails
30 days later?
Notes
Testemail1@gmail.com Desktop Overlay
3/8/2019 @
4:50pm
Yes 3/8/2019 @ 4:53pm Yes
Testemail2@gmail.com Footer Webform
3/8/2019 @
4:59pm
Yes 3/8/2019 @ 4:59pm Yes
Testemail3@gmail.com Mobile App
3/8/2019 @
5:02pm
Yes 3/8/2019 @ 5:08pm No
Sign up source is being blocked by
segmentation rules.
Testemail4@gmail.com Retail Store
3/8/2019 @
5:09pm
Yes 3/8/2019 @ 5:09pm Yes
Testemail5@gmail.com Refer A Friend Program
3/8/2019 @
5:10pm
No No No
3rd party integration was setup
incorrectly.
Testemail6@gmail.com Account Registration
3/8/2019 @
5:33pm
Yes No No
Contact was passed to ESP, but the
welcome email API is broken in the
registration form.
Sample Sign Up Source Tracking Report

Lost Contact Segmentation - Exercise
A Lost Contact Segmentation Test can also be run within most ESPs fairly easily to
determine whether your current segmentation rules are accidently suppressing
marketable contacts. Contacts can easily be lost when managing multiple segments that
may be split by a contact’s purchase history, country location, gender, etc. Here’s a
quick exercise you can use to determine if this is an issue for your email program:
1. Define Basic Business Rules: While your segments may have a large number of rules,
narrow them down to lowest common denominators. Example Logic: All contacts
who have signed up in the last 6 months OR have opened any email in the last 12
months
2. Build Active Mailing List: Create one master segment based on those rules, that
encompass all the contacts you believe should be emailing.
3. Compare Segment Counts: Add up all of your actively used segment counts to see if
those align with the segment you created. If you already have one active segment,
make sure the new counts align with the new basic rule filter, as contacts can still be
lost within a single segment.
Please see the Sample Lost Contact Segment Test Report on the following slide.

Lost Contact Segmentation - Exercise
Email
Segments
US Segment EU Segment CA Segment
Aggregate Of
Active Segments
Master Rules
Test Segment
Missing Contacts
Contact Count 534,233 298,688 67,242 900,163 1,182,920 282,757
Email
Segments
Retail
Customer
Web
Customer
Mobile App
Customer
Aggregate Of
Active Segments
Master Rules
Test Segment
Missing Contacts
Contact Count 309,281 326,621 134,623 770,525 812,591 42,066
Sample Lost Contact Segment Test Report

Key Takeaways
Properly Track Email Deliverability
Start seed listing and use ESP metrics to most accurately track inbox rates and deliverability.
Use Smart Segmentation
Only email valuable contacts. Avoid emailing inactive contacts who contribute little to no email sales.
Watch Email Engagement
Balance how often emails are sent with the value they produce.
Improve Email Acquisition
Make email sign up forms visible and more intelligent. Test and track list growth.
Inspect For Missing Contacts
Test all email sign up sources and ensure email segmentation logic is accurate.

Simple exercises to prevent the most common email marketing pitfalls
Questions? Let’s discuss!

Top 5 Email
Marketing
Mistakes
Simple exercises to prevent the
most common email marketing pitfalls
download link url
Top 5 Email
Marketing Mistakes

Thank You!
Mike Woodall | Sr. Strategist, Email & CRM
mike.woodall@elitesem.com | (423) 551-9393

Working Appendix
Slides For PDF
Download

• In addition to basic sign up forms, there is a lot of user-friendly technology
today that can greatly improve email acquisition by targeting visitor’s based
on behavior.
– Target visitors based on a their traffic source, time spent on site, total
page visits, percentage page scrolled, previous webform overlays seen,
etc.
Website Entry Form

on behavior.
etc.
– Target visitors who appear to be trying to leave your site based on
scroll behavior with an exit-intent campaign allowing you to re-target
visitors, who otherwise could bounce and be lost.
Exit-Intent Form

on behavior.
etc.
– Customize forms to be optimized for desktop and mobile devices.
Desktop & Mobile Optimization

on behavior.
etc.
– Customize forms to be optimized for desktop and mobile devices.
– Additionally, these types of overlays can be great for AB testing
designs and offers to improve email acquisition over time.
AB Test Offers & Designs

TOP 5 EMAIL MARKETING MISTAKES

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Ähnlich wie TOP 5 EMAIL MARKETING MISTAKES

Ähnlich wie TOP 5 EMAIL MARKETING MISTAKES (20)

Mehr von Tinuiti

Mehr von Tinuiti (20)

TOP 5 EMAIL MARKETING MISTAKES