Slides from a presentation by Brenden Rawson from Sign-Up.to at the Brisbane Web Design Meetup - July 2012. The presentation covered subject lines, split testing, open rates and other mediums.
Find out more online at www.signupto.com.au or get in touch at enquires@sign-up.to
Sign-Up.to - Transform your email marketing in 30mins or less
1. Transform your email
marketing in 30mins or less
Brenden Rawson
Sign-Up.to – Email Marketing
www.signupto.com.au
@urbanbrenden
@signupoz
2. Transform your email
marketing in 30mins or less
Subject lines: How to get your emails opened.
Spilt testing: Why, when & how.
Open rates: How does it compare.
Other mediums: Are you missing out?
5. Subject lines:
How to get your emails opened
The most important copy you’ll write as
it will influence clicks as well as opens
6. Subject lines:
How to get your emails opened
1. Avoid using exclamation marks & percentages
2. Be careful with the use of ‘Hot words’ such as ‘free’ or ‘money off’
as they can be sometimes be picked up by email providers as
spam
3. Avoid having lengthy subject lines. You’re more likely to get a
reaction from short snappy ones. Try and keep them no longer
than 60 characters.
7. Subject lines:
How to get your emails opened
Call to action:
Example:
“24 hours left to take advantage of our special offer”
*Remember to be honest. You’ll only do damage if there is no offer or it’s valid for
another week.
8. Subject lines:
How to get your emails opened
Tone:
• Keep it inline with your brand!
• Mention current affairs like the up-coming public holidays,
the weather or something as simple as the day of the week.
9. Subject lines:
How to get your emails opened
Tone:
Example:
“Celebrate Australia Day in style with our new range”
“It may be raining outside but it’s warm and toasty in our store”
“Our 2-4-1 will cure your Mondayitis”
“Humpday – You’re halfway there: book your tickets for the w/end”
“TGIF – You’ve done it. Celebrate with us this afternoon”
10. Subject lines:
How to get your emails opened
Personalisation:
• Go one step further to convince your subscribers to open
your email
Example:
“Hey Brenden – A special offer for our loyal customers”
*Again remembering to be honest.
11. Split testing:
Why, when and how
•Test one hypothesis each time
•Test as often as you can
•Allow enough time to gather results
12. Split testing:
Why, when and how
Subject lines:
• You want to make sure your emails are being opened before
anything else
• The same subject matter, phrased differently
• A good starting point is a standard direct approach,
something creative and something personalised
Example:
13. Split testing:
Why, when and how
Testing:
1. Create test cases
2. Select testing percentage or list
3. Select/decide test (opens or clicks)
4. Set testing period
5. Collect results
6. Send remaining percentage or full list to
winner
20. Split testing:
Why, when and how
Content:
Now you know how to get your emails opened – get subscribers
to take action!
• Test different introduction paragraphs
• Test different ‘Call to Action’ styles or locations
• Compare image links (buttons) to text links
22. Open rates:
How does it compare?
For this example we are going to group
all campaign stats under the heading
‘Open rates’
23. Open rates:
How does it compare?
Opens: When your email is opened
(images loaded and/or links clicked)
Clicks: Total/unique links clicked within a
email campaign
Unsubscribes: When a user unsubscribes
from a link within the email campaign
25. Open rates:
How does it compare?
• Account average open rates
• Industry average open rates
26. Open rates:
How does it compare?
• Annual average open rates
27. Open rates:
How does it compare?
Annual average Account average
28. Open rates:
How does it compare?
Boosting open rates
So now you know what they are and have a yard stick for the
results you should be getting.
How can I do better?
29. Open rates:
How does it compare?
Boosting open rates
• Use the same ‘From name’ & ‘From email address’ every time
• Have a sending routine
• Spam test your emails
• Engage with your subscribers
30. Other mediums:
Are you missing out?
Traditional marketing is not limited to one medium, you
have TV, radio and print.
The same can be said for digital marketing.
Expand your message to SMS & Social media.
31. Other mediums:
Are you missing out?
Facebook
• You can share links, images and content. Perfect for the online
view of your email campaign
• Likable and Sharable
32. Other mediums:
Are you missing out?
Twitter
• Short, attention grabbing headlines with links to the online
view of your email campaign
• Great for sharing and starting a conversation with your followers
33. Other mediums:
Are you missing out?
SMS
• Don’t dismiss the power of SMS
• The platform is available to all mobiles, not just smart phones
• You’re almost guaranteed delivery
• Messages are displayed front and centre on the device
• Your messages are timely and portable
34. Transform your email
marketing in 30mins or less
Brenden Rawson
Sign-Up.to – Email Marketing
www.signupto.com.au
@urbanbrenden
@signupoz
Hinweis der Redaktion
First time I’ve given this presentation so please forgive any mistakes I’m sure to make.
I’ll ask a few questions after each section and then move on
SMS: 660BillionEmail: 277 BillionFacebook: 901 MillionLinkedIn: 161 Million
The permission marketing cycleNo coincidence that these are the exact titles of sections in Sign-Up.to
It all starts with the subject lineIf your email isn’t being opened, nothing else you do matters.
cialis, xanax, valium, vicodin, Viagra, levitra, rolex, watches, university degrees
At Sign-Up.to we’re pretty relaxed and friendly so that’s the tone we maintain – this may not be appropriate if you’re a corporate lawyer.
People can be sometimes be cynical about receiving personalised email as it is often obvious that a campaign has been sent out in bulk.Do some testing and see what works for you.
People can be sometimes be cynical about receiving personalised email as it is often obvious that a campaign has been sent out in bulk.Do some testing and see what works for you.
Keep your tests simple, test one hypothesis each time - test just the subject line, then work on just the intro paragraph and then perhaps just a ‘call to action’ variantTesting can be more time consuming but try and test as often as you can – the more you know about your database habits the more you’ll get out of your email marketing. Your ESP should offer you tools to help with this.It’s tempting to just short tests to get your campaign out quicker. Try to resist this – stretch out your testing period to a few hours or more to get the most in (the bigger the sample data the more accurate the results will be).
*Next for larger versions
This account would have great subject lines and/or a quality list.Their content isn’t that engaging or they lack ‘Call to Actions’ and perhaps this is resulting in people getting bored and unsubscribing.
You can be added to a ‘safe senders’ list & people recognise your emailsWhether you email daily, weekly or monthly – try and send the same time and day (do your homework and test what days and times work for you)Utilise a spam testing service to make sure your emails are being flagged as spam and are actually arriving in those inboxes (ask your provider – SUT has this built-in)This may seem obvious but are you sending them information they’re likely to be interested in? – Include ‘Call to Actions’ to specifically ask them to click for more info-Purposely provide snippets of content to encourage your subs to take action and ‘read more’. You can then measure interest and drive traffic to your website and social media pages
