You give us 30 minutes, and we'll give you all of the greatest takeaways from two days of MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2014 sessions.
In this MarketingSherpa webinar, sponsored by ExactTarget, we present the most valuable content from more than 20 sessions presented by marketers with transferable and inspirational insights into what works, and what doesn't, in email marketing today.
Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content, and Courtney Eckerle, Manager of Editorial Content, both of MECLABS, present an in-depth recap of Email Summit 2014 to get ahead of your competition this year.
2. Email Summit 2014: Top takeaways from
this year’s award-winning campaigns
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3. Today’s speakers
Courtney Eckerle
Manager of Editorial Content
MECLABS
@CourtneyEckerle
Daniel Burstein
Director of Editorial Content
MECLABS
@DanielBurstein
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6. Related resources
•
B2B Email Marketing: How a publishing company used marketing automation to increase CTR 1,112% – Email
Awards 2014 Best in Show, Lead Generation
•
Email Marketing: E-commerce site increases online ticket purchases by 66% with relevant content – Email
Awards 2014 Best in Show, E-commerce
•
MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2013 Wrap-up: Top 5 takeaways for email marketers
•
Marketing Automation: Key challenges a global information company overcame to transform from batch and
blast to persona-driven email marketing
•
Email Marketing: Copyblogger's email list grows by 400% using free paywall to access "MyCopyblogger" content
•
Email Marketing: Weekly newsletter sees 400% lift in reactivation of inactive subscribers with personalization
•
Email Marketing: Dell lifts revenue 109% via GIF-centric campaign
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7. 10.5 hours. 158 slides. 30 minutes. What should we do?
• Go fast and get through as much as we can
• Keep things slow and steady
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8. Lesson #1. Testing small can lead to big changes
in conversion and culture
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9. Why One Test Triggered a 180-Degree Turn in How
All Whirlpool Brands Direct Market to Consumers
Thomas Mender
Sr. Manager, Database Marketing
Whirlpool
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14. Testing: Calls-to-action
Experiment ID: Summit Experiment – Calls-to-Action
Location: Whirlpool Testing Library
Campaign Focus: Ice email campaign
Research Notes:
Background: Applying what was learned about minimizing CTAs in email sends at
Email Summit 2013.
Objective: To achieve a higher clickthrough rate.
Primary Research Question: Will having a single CTA be more effective than
multiple CTAs?
Test Design: Single variable A/B split test
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15. Testing: Calls-to-action
• Primary goal of the campaign is to
promote one-time promotional email
($400 off)
• Recipients: Total of 700k of current
customers
•
•
•
•
Hand-raisers
Recent purchasers (≤5 years)
Old purchasers (>5 years)
Current Ice product owners
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Control
20. Current process
Data collection
Test is launched
Building
customer profile
Marketing team
approves creatives
Creating test ideas
– collaborate
Agency builds
creatives
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25. How a Seasonal Retailer Evolved from Promo
Emails to Year-Round Content Marketing
Marcia Oakes
Senior Online Marketing Manager
Calendars.com
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26. The problem
Highly seasonal product
• Compelling promotions in off-season is a challenge
• Deliverability issues from decreased engagement
and inconsistent mail volume
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28. You can’t always get
what you want
… and it takes a significant
time investment to get
what you need.
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29. You can’t always get
what you want
… and it takes a significant
time investment to get
what you need.
Connecting content to consumers
• Develop quality content
• Identify “evergreen” content you may
already have available
• Create a content calendar – make a
plan for the resources and time you
need
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37. The results
• Newsletter produces a positive ROI, despite
low conversion rates
• Good customer feedback
*Other factors contributed
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+71%
Open
Rate*
38. The results
“You nailed it.”
-Beverly
+71%
• Newsletter produces a positive ROI, despite
Open
low conversion rates
Rate
“BRAVO for your wonderful *
• Good customer feedback
“I enjoy reading your
monthly Flip Day
calendar.”
-Kim
Flip Day newsletter!”
-Claire
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39. DEG: Smarter Digital
We craft smart digital strategies for
flagship brands like Lee Jeans, Hyatt,
Purina, GoPro and more
We generate demand through
compelling and sustainable digital
relationships
We are the ONLY 2x ExactTarget Partner
of the Year
Web: www.DEGdigital.com
Twitter: @DEGdigital
40. Are you interested in becoming a
MarketingSherpa case study?
Contact us at: Editor@MarketingSherpa.com
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42. Old Dog, New Tricks
How Dell designed an email with old technology to launch a new product
Dave Sierk
Consumer & Small Business Email Strategist
Dell
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47. The new Dell Convertible Tablet is unlike any other tablet you’ve seen before! Why settle
for the machine you have, when Convertible Ultrabook™ offers so much more? Convert
it, touch it, wake it in a flash. Multitask with blazing fast performance, access files in a
snap, use it all day long...and enjoy peace of mind with built-in security. Wondering
exactly how the Convertible Ultrabook™ works? During the day you can simply use this
computer as your everyday, go-to laptop. Open up the front and start typing away. But
once you’re ready to head out, close up the laptop and rest assured that if you need to
use your Convertible Ultrabook™ at any time, you can open the cover, flip it around and
suddenly you’ll have a working tablet in your hands. The tablet side of the screen hides
the keyboard that you were previously using your Ultrabook™ 2 as a laptop! And in a
flash you can lift up the top part of your tablet, flip it back around to turn your Convertible
Ultrabook™ back into the laptop you were working on your presentation on this morning.
The ability to flip and turn this computer around into a tablet is unlike any other piece of
technology out on the market. Work on your laptop during the day and turn it into a tablet
by night – you will get the best of both worlds with the Convertible Ultrabook™
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51. 109% Increase in revenue
Compared to benchmarked data from last year
Increase against quarterly benchmark for
similar promotional campaigns
Email with animated GIF
Click Rate
42.6%
Conversion
103%
Revenue
109%
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53. Email on the Wild Side
How an equipment company created emails that
changed the culture of its marketing campaigns
Chris Hawver
Team Leader, Americas Marketing
Tennant Company
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54. Email on the Wild Side: I Wanna Ride
New email design
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55. Email on the Wild Side: I Wanna Ride
New landing page design
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56. Experiment: Background
Experiment ID: Tennant Subject Line Test
Record Location: Tennant Testing Library
Research
Background: Tennant, a global cleaning equipment company.
Objective: To increase email open rates and number of demos scheduled.
Primary Research Question: Which subject line will generate the greatest overall
open rate?
Test Design: A/B/C split test
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57. Experiment: Subject line test
Which subject line won?
A. Meet the NEW Tennant B10 and T12
(Traditional)
B. Wanna Ride? Take the NEW T12 and B10 for a
Spin (Non-traditional)
C. Take a Ride on the Wild Side with the new
Tennant T12 and B10 (Hybrid)
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58. Experiment: Results
24% increase in total opens
Subject line C (Hybrid) increased open rate by 24.2%
Open Rate
Relative
Difference
A. Meet the NEW Tennant B10 and T12 (Traditional)
26.6%
-
B. Wanna Ride? Take the NEW T12 and B10 for a Spin (Non-traditional)
24.9%
-6.5%
33%
24.2%
Subject Lines
C. Take a Ride on the Wild Side with the new Tennant T12 and B10 (Hybrid)
!
What You Need to Understand: The subject line focused on a mix of
product relevance and target audience appeal outperformed the
traditional subject line by 24%.
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59. The success of this campaign transformed our
marketing.
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60. Email on the Wild Side: Culture change
How our culture transformed
• New and creative ideas to drive future email efforts
• Focus on customer benefits and advantages
• Offer solutions, not products
• Using email for lead generation
• Integration of email campaigns with other channels
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61. Overall results
• Qualified leads 36% over goal
• New product revenue 110% of goal
• Overall ROMI 10:1 (working to 15:1 in 2014)
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65. How To: Implement automation technology
Craft
Create
automated
drip tracks
for each
persona
forms to
capture
persona
information
Make
templates
with
customizable
content
blocks
Tip: Don’t stop batch and
blast – be smarter about it!
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Build
database
throughout
campaign
using
progressive
profiling
Test
Use A/B
testing to
optimize
66. How the program works
Welcome
Email
Nurture Messaging
Persona Messaging
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Week 5:
Week 6:
5 Ways IHS Can Help
Case Study for you
IHS best content
Schedule Demo
Insider Drip
Insider Nurture
Progressive Profiling
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67. How To: Implement automation technology
Craft
Create
automated
drip tracks
for each
persona
forms to
capture
persona
information
Make
templates
with
customizable
content
blocks
Build
database
throughout
campaign
using
progressive
profiling
Tip: Don’t just add
technology, change the
culture.
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Test
Use A/B
testing to
optimize
68. Tip: Ask for the persona
What is your
current role?
68
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69. Tip: Iceberg form strategy
Forms Learning #1
From this short form,
we get all this!
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Company (structured)
Address
Company phone
Fortune 1000 flag
Industry
Employee count
Annual sales
70. How To: Implement automation technology
Craft
Create
automated
drip tracks
for each
persona
forms to
capture
persona
information
Make
templates
with
customizable
content
blocks
#SherpaWebinar
Build
database
throughout
campaign
using
progressive
profiling
Test
Use A/B
testing to
optimize
72. How To: Implement automation technology
Craft
Create
automated
drip tracks
for each
persona
forms to
capture
persona
information
Make
templates
with
customizable
content
blocks
Tip: You don’t have to
build your targeted
database all at once.
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Build
database
throughout
campaign
using
progressive
profiling
Test
Use A/B
testing to
optimize
74. Progressive Profiling: Initial sign-up
Form shrunk
from 15 required
fields down to 7
Plus, this is another iceberg form:
• Company (structured)
• Address
• Company phone
• Fortune 1000 flag
• Industry
• Employee count
• Annual sales
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77. Progressive Profiling: Contact
Ask for/confirm
address because
they are ready to
buy!
Tip: Auto-fill
information that you
already know.
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78. How To: Implement automation technology
Craft
Create
automated
drip tracks
for each
persona
forms to
capture
persona
information
Make
templates
with
customizable
content
blocks
Build
database
throughout
campaign
using
progressive
profiling
Tip: Get it out the door!
Follow best practices first,
then optimize with data.
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Test
Use A/B
testing to
optimize
79. Top takeaways
• It is all about content – and the right target audience – and the right timing.
It’s a three-legged stool.
• The payback on this approach is ultimately less overhead and higher
engagement vs. traditional batch and blast.
• Getting the organization to think in terms of persona-relevant content and
buying-stage-relevant content = higher success = sales.
• Use the technology: Triggered communications, form design and database
enrichment will fuel your success long term.
• Just start and keep it simple. Remember, the fast eat the slow.
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81. Segmentation and Personalization
How an e-commerce site transformed its
email program to increase purchases by 66%
Paul Ramirez
VP, Operations
Eventful
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Ryan Blomberg
Director, Engineering
Eventful
83. Record store recommendations
• Popularity
What everybody is listening to
• Categorization
The artists in the same genre of that one
• Sponsorship
The artists people paid us to promote
• Staff picks
What the record store employees are listening to
• Fans like you
Fans of this artist also love this artist and this artist and this artist
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100. What if you don’t
have this technology?
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101. 1
Craft forms with purpose
2
Connect the dots
3
Predict from known data
4
Be something bigger
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102. The first takeaway
• No more standard forms.
• What are the right fields? Right number of fields?
• Every opportunity to engage is a chance to learn
more about your customers and serve them
better.
• Figure out why your audience might want to hear
from you. Connect to that motivation.
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110. 12% increase in site visits
Increase in site visits after the addition of non-performer event alerts
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111. Lesson #7. Link your campaign to relevant pop
culture
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112. Above the Noise
How an IT company leveraged a
multichannel campaign to “wake the dead”
Christine Nurnberger
Vice President, Marketing
SunGard Availability Services
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117. Campaign overview
Sales Call Follow-up
C-Level
AR & PR
Cloud
Availability
Mail 1
IT Disaster
Recovery
Mail 2
Social
Media
PR Agency
Follow-up
Email List
Winners
Asset Email
Retargeting list
Retargeting
Inactive Users
“Enter to Win”
Landing Page
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Placed in
CRM
120. Campaign overview
Sales Call Follow-up
C-Level
AR & PR
Cloud
Availability
Mail 1
IT Disaster
Recovery
Mail 2
Social
Media
Email List
Winners
Asset Email
Retargeting list
Retargeting “Enter to Win”
Inactive Users Landing Page
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Placed in
CRM
PR Agency
Follow-up
124. Landing page with registration page
Linked to how migrating
to the cloud as a business
option aligns with
surviving the zombie
apocalypse
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128. Campaign Winners 2: Survival kit
Brochure
Backpack
Silly string
“World War Z”
movie tickets
Survival guide
Flashlight/compass
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129. Results
• "IT Availability Cloud" email campaign achieved 1.2% higher click-toopen (CTO) rates among the director level, and above average rates in
global, large and medium enterprises.
• The "Disaster Recovery/Managed Recovery Program" campaign
created a 3% increase in CTO rates among president or owner titles.
• The retargeting email reactivated 2% of contacts who had not
interacted with SunGard within the previous six months.
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130. How do we best tell
that story?
Learn about the customer
Connect with your audience
Test the waters
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131. How to choose the
right channels
1. Can it communicate the right message?
2. Can it reach the right audience?
3. Can it communicate in a way that will
resonate with our audience?
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132. Top takeaways
1. Don't be afraid to step outside the box and try a new creative messaging approach –
it could have huge payoffs in B2B (particularly among the difficult to reach C-suite).
2. Even in today's B2B marketing and digital era, direct mail may not be as dead as
zombies.
3. Leverage social channels to help amplify your message.
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134. Email Design: How to optimize for
all environments in a mobile world
Justine Jordan, Marketing Director, Litmus
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135. Session speaker
Justine Jordan
Marketing Director
Litmus
I’m an email builder, designer, marketer, teacher and all-around
opinionated person. Approaching eight years in email!
@meladorri
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136. • How can you create mobile-friendly emails?
• Best practices, examples and tips
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138. Mobile is big, but how big?
Mobile:
Smartphones (iPhone, Android)
and tablets
24%
Webmail
49%
27%
Desktop
Mobile
Desktop:
Installed email programs
(Outlook, Apple Mail)
Webmail:
Email accessed through a Web
browser (Gmail, Hotmail,
Yahoo)
Source: Litmus Email Analytics; 306 million worldwide opens
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146. One chance to make an impression
Read anyway
Don't know
View on computer
Unsubscribe
Delete it
How does a poorly designed email affect
your perception of the brand?
6.30%
3.80%
Slightly
Negative
51%
13.50%
+68%
30.20%
+15%
80.30%
If you get a mobile email that doesn’t look good, what do you do?
75%
negative
BlueHornet Study: Consumer Views of Email Marketing, 2012 and 2013
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Strongly
Negative
24%
Neutral
25%
147. From Name
Subject Line
Preheader
The Subscriber
Experience
Open
Tap
The mobile experience is different
than the desktop experience
Page
Conversion
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153. Bigger is better
•
•
•
•
•
Body copy: 16px+
Headlines: 22px+
Buttons: 44px by 44px
Space: 10px+
Tappable touch targets
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154. Less is more
• Analyze each section of your
email and messaging
• Prioritize goals and actions
• Look at historical performance
for clues on what to cut
• Aim for 2 to 4 sentences at 16px
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155. Responsive design/media queries
• More than a “line of code”
• Set of conditional statement that enables specific styles
• If the screen size is x, then display y
• If the screen size is x, then increase headline size to y
• If screen size is x, then show image at 100%
• Detects screen size, not device type
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156. First responsive email = highest traffic ever!
Mobile traffic exceeded previous week
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