Carolina Castaneda's presentation from #FLBlogCon. See more at https://twitter.com/SocialCarolina.

1. YOU CALL THAT EMAIL?
A Data-Drive Guide to Email Marketing Strategy

2. @SocialCarolina
Sr. Digital Marketing Director
Marketing Consultant
• 15 years marketing experience for Fortune 100 & Fortune 500 Brands
• Brand Marketer & Blogger
• Mini Schnauzer lover, world traveler, yoga teacher
• Favorite social media platforms: Professional – Facebook, Personal – Instagram
• Favorite email feature: Real-Time Email Marketing (RTEM)

3. Sure, you know what email is –
but what impact is it having on your
blog/business?
Sure, you know what email is –
but what impact is it having on your
blog/business?

4. Are you maximizing your readers’
experience?
Are you maximizing your readers’
experience?

5. FRAMEWORK
• The Landscape
• Tools of the Trade
• Effective Email Marketing
• Cross Promotion
• Key Takeaways
• Questions

6. THE LANDSCAPE

7. CONTENT MARKETING
Attract
• Product
• Blog posts
• Web content
Gather
• Email
• Webinars
• White Papers
Interact
• Social media
• Community
management
• Optimization
Convert
• Clicks
• Purchases
• Affiliate
Marketing

8. ADVANTAGES OF EMAIL
Email is nearly 40 times better than
Facebook & Twitter at acquiring
customers.
- McKinsey & Company
Marketers consistently ranked
email as the single most
effective tactic for
awareness, acquisition,
conversion & retention.
-Gigaom Research
Email marketing yields an
average of 4,300% Return on
Investment.
-Direct Marketing Association
91% of consumers
check email at
least once a day on
their smart phone,
making it the most
used functionality.
-ExactTarget

9. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
• Which emails do they open? Why?
• Which links do they click, blogs do they read, videos do they watch?
• Do they follow you on social media? Are your email subscribers a different
audience?
• Hit the intersection of what you have to offer & your audience

10. TOOLS OF THE TRADE

11. KNOW THE LINGO
• ESP: Email Service Provider
• OR: Open Rate
• CTR: Click-Thru Rate
• CTA: Call to Action
• Hard Bounce: Email returned to sender for permanent reasons. Includes
incorrect domain name, sending to invalid email address
• Soft Bounce: Failed to deliver because of temporary reasons. Includes file being
too big, recipients inbox being full
• Opt-In: Subscribe
• Opt-Out: Unsubscribe

12. TOOLS
• Most Popular Providers:
• ConstantContact
• Emma
• MailChimp
• All 3 Provide:
• Pre-designed templates
• Sign up forms
• Integrations (Google Analytics)
• Delivery automation (send trigger emails)
• List management & segmentation

13. TOOLS
• Costs:
• ConstantContact: 60 day free trial
• Get 10 – 15% off with pre-pay option
• Emma: 14 day free trial
• Most expensive out of the 3, but gives
you unlimited access to all features
• MailChimp: Most amount of services for FREE
• Pay as you go option
• Limited offerings, unless you’re willing to
pay much higher price

14. EFFECTIVE EMAIL MARKETING

15. There are 94 Billion emails sent per day.
80% of them will be classified as “spam”.
There are 94 Billion emails sent per day.
80% of them will be classified as “spam”.

16. OVERCOMING HURDLES
The Game of Getting
• Getting emails delivered to inbox
• Getting emails opened
• Getting emails read by audience
• Getting audience to take action!

17. DELIVERABILITY
Getting emails delivered to inbox
• Sender history, the number of messages you send, is factored into provider’s
algorithm for email deliverability aka how reliable an email is. Be consistent in
your email messaging
• Do you have an email calendar?
• Content is a key influence on how deliverable an email (Text, Headers, URLs,
Attachments). Make sure your value is clearly communicated
• ESP’s provide sent vs delivered metrics, this is how you know you’re in
someone’s inbox. Utilize your ESP’s metrics to the fullest!

18. DELIVERABILITY
Monitoring email metrics will help you
determine sent vs delivered ratio, &
course correct in order to improve
deliverability

19. ALL ABOUT SUBJECT LINES
Getting emails opened
• Subject Lines are the first impression of email, so make it a good one!
• On average 50% of email opens happen on mobile devices

20. ALL ABOUT SUBJECT LINES
Getting emails opened
• 60 characters or less for mobile viewing is ideal.
A/B test different subject lines with a small
sample size first, then use the higher performer for
the rest of your subscribers
• How subject lines will appear on mobile:
http://zurb.com/playground/testsubject
• A/B: https://www.kissmetrics.com/growth-tools/ab-
significance-test/

21. ALL ABOUT SUBJECT LINES
• People’s favorite word is their name – are you using personalization in your
emails? Use the first name shortcut in your ESP, like ##Firstname## to gain
higher Open Rates

22. ALL ABOUT SUBJECT LINES
Types of effective subject lines
• Simple & easy to read
• Speak directly to the benefit your audience will gain by opening your email
• Curiosity, pique the interest of subscribers without giving away too much info
• Offer, who doesn’t like free stuff!

23. ALL ABOUT SUBJECT LINES
• Urgency, but use sparingly & only when there’s a true deadline, limited
quality/availability
• Humanity, people want to interact with a human not a brand!
• News, keep your audience informed. These often work well when paired with
curiosity
• Social proof, success stories highlighting how many people already use the
product/service

24. ALL ABOUT SUBJECT LINES
You’re Missing Out on Points, Carolina! (JetBlue)
👗 Free (Cool!) Clothes Alert 👖“ (Clover)
“Where to Drink Beer Right Now” (Eater Boston)
“What They Eat in Prison” (Thrillist)

25. OPEN SESAME!
Getting emails opened
• Don’t give it all away before they open, they won’t have a reason to read your
email otherwise. Teaser Subject Lines & Content Descriptions garner more
engagement
• Broadcast tailored messages to your target audiences, not everyone is interested in
the same thing. If you segment your database into groups, you give yourself the
ability to send more targeted communication

26. OPEN SESAME!
• Susie writes about vegetarian food, fitness, & travel. She created 3 different
email groups in her email service provider: Food, Fitness, Travel. Susie asks her
subscribers to check what they’re most interested in receiving when they sign
up for email
• Susie publishes a post about going to her first hot yoga class on Monday
• She then blogs about her favorite Butternut Squash soup on Tuesday
• Susie shares traveling tips for vegetarians on Thursday
What would be the most effective way to let her readers know she has new
content, driving traffic to her site?

27. OPEN SESAME!
Susie sends 4 emails in order to test which gets opened the most, & applies learnings
to next email blast. Uses Subject Lines with personalization that are 60 characters or
less
• Food group: Butternut Squash Soup lead
• Fitness group: Hot Yoga lead
• Travel: Tips for Vegetarians lead
• Subscribers not categorized get all 3 pieces of content, in chronological order
She looks at Open Rates 72 Hours after email blasts, & learns:
A) If she should include all her content for the week
B) Which category of her blog gets the most attention overall & produces
more of that content moving forward

28. READ ME
Getting emails read by your audience
• Be Mr./Mrs. Right: Right Content, Right Platform, Right Time. Take advantage of
cultural momentum to increase readability of your emails
• Email content should be easy to follow & leave you wanting more...with no
barrier to entry. Always strive to have one-click landing experience
• Utilize your ESP’s tools such as tracking codes for links & buttons & hot spots to
optimize your emails. Your audience’s behavior will always lead the way

29. READ ME
Monitoring email metrics will help you
determine what is read, & inform
your content strategy for your email &
blog/business

30. CALL TO ACTION
Getting audience to take action
• Make the Call to Action short & sweet
• Tell people what to do: Look Inside, Buy Now, Go, Share, etc.
• Urge them to respond now: Sign up Today, Get Started Now
• Have one Call to Action, don’t dilute it

31. CALL TO ACTION
Getting audience to take action
• Make it stand out: Different colors, buttons,
fonts – make it clear where they should
click!
• Repeat the Call to Action, it may take a
couple of times to sink in
• Make sure they appear even if a subscriber
has their images turned off. May email
clients still have images turned off by
default

32. CROSS PROMOTION

33. CROSS PROMOTION
Getting your message out on multiple
channels. Because our audience gets
information from various sources

34. CROSS PROMOTION
Breakdown of how to cross-promote your email content
• Create a blog post that’s well written, easy to read, has
good visuals
• Plan for social. Whatever you plan to cross-promote, think
ahead. What hashtag could you use?
• Send an email with a great subject line, sticky content,
clear call to action

35. CROSS PROMOTION
Breakdown of how to cross-promote your email content
• Share the news on social media. Utilize the right platforms,
& share content in ways that will driver higher engagement
on each
• Use your social channels to grow your database. Make this
a part of your publishing calendar
• Have your social icons on every email
• Place email signup above the fold on your blog/site

36. CROSS PROMOTION
Breakdown of how to cross-promote your email content
• Make it ridiculously easy to sign up for your emails
• Gain subscribers & social media followers by sharing
content consistently
• Measure all of your efforts & learn what your audience
wants from you
• Apply learnings, continue to evolve with time
• Have fun. It shows!

37. KEY TAKEAWAYS

38. KEY TAKEAWAYS
TOOLS
Research the best
solution for you &
invest if necessary. If
you’re going to do
email, do it right!
GET
Get your emails
delivered. Get them
opened. Get them
read. Get your
audience to engage
CROSS
Use email to grow
your social presence,
& use social to grow
your subscribers.
Create an
ecosystem for your
blog/brand
LANDSCAPE
Be aware of email’s
role in Content
Marketing. Learn
how it’s talked about
& measured in order
to understand the
landscape & the
results
LISTEN
Watch your metrics
closely, see how your
audience is
engaging, & tailor
your email strategy
accordingly

39. QUESTIONS?

40. @SocialCarolina
#ThankYou