Email Marketing

Jeanniey Mullen is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Zinio and VIVmag and is also the founder and Chairperson of the Email Experience Council. She is an expert in the email and online marketing world and has more than two decades of experience helping B2B and B2C clients such as IBM, Yahoo!, and American Express harness the power of a digital dialog to drive revenue, improve brand impact, and enhance customer relationships. David L. Daniels is a multichannel marketing consultant who has been the leading analyst voice shaping the email marketing industry. David currently serves as Vice President and principal analyst with Forrester Research. Prior to his role as an industry analyst, David held senior level positions at Apple, Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie, MicroWarehouse, Genesis Direct/ProTeam, and CDA Computer Sales.

• Foreword xvIntroduction xviiChapter 1 Understanding Email Marketing Today 1How We Got Here 2What Email Means to Your Audience 5The Five Types of Email 6Awareness 8Consideration 9Conversion 10Product Usage 10Loyalty 12Understanding the Economic Impact of Email 14Test Your Knowledge 15Chapter 2 The Five Critical Elements of Every Email You Create 17Creating Brand Impact 18Determining How Much Brand Equity Your Emails Carry 19Adding Intelligence to Your Design 22Basic Elements of Intelligent Email 22Using This Insight to Your Advantage 24Driving the Purchase 26Waging the War Against Email ADD 28Beyond the Email Content: What You Need to Know 29Creating Transactional/Service Messages 30Adding Viral Marketing Elements 34Two Ways to Define Success of Your Viral Marketing Efforts 35Best Practices for Creating a Buzz Using Viral Efforts or Word of Mouth 36Test Your Knowledge 37Chapter 3 Getting Ready to Build Your Email Marketing Efforts 39Aligning Your Strategy with Your Tools 40Determining Your Tools: A Ten-Point Strategy 40Evaluating Vendors 44A Checklist to Maximize Your Vendor Selection Process 45Organizational Readiness: Resources Required for Success 49Budgeting for the Future 52Justification: Selling Your Boss on the Return on Investing in Email 53Test Your Knowledge 55Chapter 4 What Happens Once You Send Your Email 57Defining the Analytics Framework 58Start with Your Email Marketing Plan, and Expand It to Include Your Company Growth Plan 59What to Do If Something Goes Wrong 64So, What Do You Do When It Happens to You? 67Revisiting Your Budget 68The Email Marketing Database and Future Multichannel Efforts 70Phase 1: Awareness 71Phase 2: Engagement 71Phase 3: Consideration 71Phase 4: The Buy 72Making the Most of Your Email in a Multichannel Environment 72What This Means When You Are Setting Up Your Initial Email Database 72The Top Five Ways You Can Mess Things Up If You Are Not Really Careful 74Test Your Knowledge 75Chapter 5 Eight Key Drivers of Your Email Campaign 77Key Driver 1: Email Address Acquisition 78Your Website 78Other Channels 82Third-Party Sources 84Welcome to the Campaign! 87Key Driver 2: Creative/Copy 88The From Line 89Subject Lines 89The Spam Check 90The Width of Your Email Template 91The Length of Your Email Template: Work Above the Fold 92Email Creative Best Practices 92Key Driver 3: Making the Data Work 93Key Driver 4: Multichannel Integration 95Key Driver 5: Technology (Delivery, Deployment, and Design) 96Key Driver 6: Reporting/Analytics 98Key Driver 7: Privacy/Governmental Control 100State Registries 101Privacy Policy Best Practices 101Key Driver 8: Reactivation 104Test Your Knowledge 105Chapter 6 Preparing Your Email Marketing Strategy 107Week 1: Preparing Your Resource Arsenal 108Monday: Getting Smart (the Seven Essential Truths About Email Marketing) 109Tuesday: Evaluating Tools and Resources 112Wednesday: Budgeting 116Thursday: Related Marketing Initiatives 119Friday: Getting the Boss to Sign the Check 123Week 2: Building the Blueprint for Success 124Monday: Evaluating Your Current House File and File Size Needs 125Tuesday: Creating the Acquisition Plans 126Wednesday: Focusing on the Opt-in Process and Customer Preference Centers 128Thursday: Reviewing the Opt-out Process 132Friday: Making Sure Your Landing Pages Are a Good Place to Land 133Week 3: Counting Down to “Go Time” 138Monday: Mapping Out a Realistic Strategy 139Tuesday: Defining Your Data Transfer Process 142Wednesday: Making Sure Your Tracking Links Will Work 144Thursday: Checking for the Deliverability Basics 147Friday: Testing for Actionability 151Week 4: Testing Your Way to the First Campaign 152Monday: Choosing the Subject Line Strategy 152Tuesday: Making Sure Your Content Can Be Seen 153Wednesday: Ensuring Personalization Is Accurate 156Thursday: Remembering That Emails Get Forwarded and Saved 158Friday: Going Through the Success Checklist One More Time 159Test Your Knowledge 159Chapter 7 Month 2: Ensuring Success as You Launch Your Campaign 161Week 1: Sending Your First Campaign 162Monday: What to Do Once You Hit Send 162Tuesday: Reading Reports 163Wednesday: Managing Customer Service Replies 166Thursday: Matching Your Response Rates to Your Forecast and Plan 167Friday: Keeping Your Database Clean and Your Reputation Strong 169Week 2: Creating a Plan to Optimize Your Results 171Monday: What Your Reports Are Really Saying 171Tuesday: Analyzing the Effectiveness of Your Creative 173Wednesday: Pulling Together the Comprehensive Report 178Thursday: Optimizing the Opt-in Points on Your Website 180Friday: Creating Your Test 184Week 3: Measuring Email’s Impact on Other Channels 187Monday: Measuring the Role of Email in a Customer’s Purchase 188Tuesday: Determining the Value of Your Email Addresses and Campaigns 193Wednesday: Increasing Email Sending Costs to Improve Top-Line Results 196Thursday: Exploring Web Analytics and Email Integration 198Friday: Finding and Targeting Your Advocates 202Week 4: Promoting Your Email Results Within Your Organization 206Monday: Affecting Email Used in Other Parts of Your Organization 206Tuesday: Sharing Results with Your Online Peers 209Wednesday: Sharing Results with Your Offline Peers 210Thursday: Using Your Email Results for PR Purposes 211Friday: Looking Ahead to Dynamic Content 213Test Your Knowledge 214Chapter 8 Month 3: Adding Bells and Whistles 215Week 1: Using Email as a Feedback Tool 216Monday: Leveraging Email Surveys 216Tuesday: Designing an Email Survey 217Wednesday: Polls in Emails 220Thursday: Email Focus Groups 221Friday: Email-Driven Testimonials 222Week 2: Creating Video- and Audio-Enabled Emails 226Monday: Deciding Whether Using Audio or Video Is Right for Your Emails 227Tuesday: Building the Five Layered Emails 228Wednesday: Making Your Video Email Viral 230Thursday: Making Your Video Email an Integrated Part of a Larger Campaign 232Friday: Allowing Your Reader to Create Their Own Video Email 233Week 3: Creating Mobile Email 234Monday: Why Your Email Needs to be Mobile 235Tuesday: The Mobile Email Creative 236Wednesday: How Many Readers in Your Database Are Reading “on the Run”? 239Thursday: Defining Your Mobile Email Preference Center 240Friday: Making Your Current Email Strategy Work in a Mobile World 241Week 4: Creating Social Email 243Monday: When Email Is Used on Social Networks 244Tuesday: Response Guidelines for Social Email 245Wednesday: Reviewing Results for Social Email 247Thursday: Social Messaging: Thinking Inside the Box 249Friday: Keeping the Use of Social Email in “Check” 251Test Your Knowledge 252Chapter 9 Getting Ready for Year 2 and Beyond 253Iterative Financial Analysis: Analytics Over Time 254A Top-Down View of Annual Performance 254Analyzing Individual Subscriber Segment Performance 255List Health 255Financial Performance/Budget to Plan Performance 255The Necessity of Rebudgeting 256ESP Refresh: Evaluating Your ESP and Technology Partners 257Assessing Future Trends 260Journey On 261Appendix A Vendor Resource List 263Associations, Events, and Publications 264Email Service Providers 264Delivery Service Providers and Reputation and Accreditation Management Services 265Market Research, Agencies, and Consultants 265Technology Vendors 266Web Analytics Vendors 266Appendix B Email Checklists 267Email Design 268Content 268Subject Line 268Preheader/Header 268Preview Pane 268Message Construct 269Recovery Module 269Footer 269Code QA Testing 269Precheck HTML File 269Precheck Text File 270Conduct Rendering Testing 271Glossary 273Index 284