The Email Wars

Are you an Email Marketer? If I was to look at your business card would it say this? OR are you like the majority of people in companies that have email marketing as a task they are in charge of email as just one of many of their responsibilities?

Why do I ask? Well as I am going to give either of you a gift…

If you can only be good at 3 things, be good at these 3.

I presented on a wide range of ideas at DMA UK, but they all supported the notion that we as email marketers are bombarded by so many “best practices”, case studies (people that eat cheese bought at retail stores, like email in text on Mondays at 1am in a horizontal scroll using 3 colors…) that we are so busy trying to be the BEST at everything that we are missing out on being the best at the 3 things that truly make the difference.

I am going to give them to you. Free. Yep, right here in this blog post for you to take back to your desk and make the world of email marketing a better place. To make your email marketing programs work as they should be. Are you ready? If you just mentally said “yes” then I am expecting you to take these and do something with them. I will be watching.

OK. Deep breath in? Feel it in the diaphragm. Let it out and GO >>>

The three things you need to not just do but be GOOD at are as follows. Now you might think “Oh yeah, those”, but really these are the 3 most important things. All else fails if you don’t have these 3 done right.

1. Delivery and Deliverability

If your emails don’t get there, or you don’t know, you are already losing. The  other work, time, money and plans will not matter. Work with an ESP that can be audited on the fly to check delivery and rendering. Let’s say you are losing 30% of your list…. how much does that 30 decrease your ROI?

If you have make sure that your email delivery works then you are 80% ahead. Now understand that it is NOT all the fault of your ESP. Yes that is right, most of the time the blame falls of the customer and their email practices. Clean lists, closed loop confirmed opt in, sender ID, Domain Keys etc. Get it done. Ask your ESP what needs to occur and how to do it. We are here for you to make everyone rise with the tide.

You can decide how you are going to approach this, we use ReturnPath for all of our clients, but you better have both an understanding and a plan.

2. Welcome Messaging

You have 3 chances to build a relationship in your first 3 emails OR you can face an engagement loss of up to 80% after that. Yes up to 80% of your list will no longer read, respond, click, care etc. Sorry, you blew the first dates. Not even a returned call for your messages left over and over again on the machine.

The Opt in, the WELCOME/THANKS Message and your first campaign. Don’t mess it up. You can set expectations, define value, invite them to tell you more ( I call this listening or progressive profiling) and build trust and respect for your practices and your brand. This is not a “Nice to Have” as many people seem to think if it as, but a “Must Have” in order to make your opt in process and email campaigns work.

Work on getting your house in order and watch the results fly. 

3. Creative

Now some might want to make this SUBJECT LINE only, but I include that as part of the “Creative”. Sorry Dela. Creative is the last one of the three. Many people always start from the third one and move backwards as they feel it is all about the creative. Well yes it is important, but it you do not have the other 3 in place, you might as well be using balloons from your parking lot with notes and set them free to find the people that the notes are intended for. 

Looking at how creative is designed falls into the following:

1. Subject line – is it compelling?

2. From Line – Is is recognizable?

3. Header – Will I know what do do with it at first glance?

4. Layout – How will it render? What will my eye look at immediately? What path will I visually navigate?

5. Calls to action – Do I know what to do?

6. Is it visually appealing? – Do I find it matches the experience I want from the brand and expect when I engage with it on or off line?

I have attached my deck from the DMA UK for you, might not give you everything you need as I try to be a minimalist with presentations and work more on the verbal content that is required from those in attendance. 

No go do these 3 things.