EMail Marketing

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E-Mail Marketing
E-Mail Lists, Measuring the Effectiveness of Your
E-Mail Campaign, Spam, Privacy and Legislation

• Angela DAuria Stanton, Ph.D.

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There are only two basic kinds of opt-in lists

• Outside Lists, operated by list brokers like
  YesMail that sell access to email addresses.
  These lists are obtained in many cases from
  consumers that input their interests and sign up
  on websites to receive relevant promotions.
• House Lists, generated internally. It may consist
  of a customer database, or newsletter subscriber
  list (if you have a newsletter on your site).

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And there is another kind of list

• A email harvester is a software program that
  spiders the Internet and "harvests" email
  addresses from sites, discussion groups and
  bulletin boards. Obviously this is not an op-in
  list. When you see ads for 1,000,000 email
  addresses for 19.95, this is the type of list
  they are selling.
• How spammers operate (harvesting software) know
  thy enemy
• Email harvesting is big business and software is
  readily available. Imagine little robot spiders
  traveling around the web devouring thousands of
  emails and always looking for fresh addresses.
  They love newsgroups , web pages, chat logs and
  guest books.

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On-Site List Acquisition

• Create a Newsletter - this will provide you with
  an opt- in method of continuously communicating
  with your customers. You may even be able to sell
  advertising space in your email publication.
• Surveys - By providing a survey on your website
  and agreeing to send the results to the people
  that provide their email address, you can provide
  a good method of building your list. However, if
  you are going to send additional emails to the
  recipient (beyond that of the survey report) you
  will need to get permission.
• Sweepstakes - Contests can be an excellent way to
  build a large email database. However, the
  biggest problem with using contests and similar
  promotions is that there is a disconnect between
  what people sign up for (an opportunity to win
  the Hawaiin Vacation) and your objectives as a
  marketer. Sweepstakes-based promotions have the
  lowest conversion rates in eMarketing.
• Order Form - Usually you request your customers
  email when they place an order at your site. You
  can also request permission to send material from
  your company and/or that of your affiliates that
  would have relevant material for the customer.
• Free "white-paper" gift, or software trial - You
  can offer visitors an opportunity to receive a
  free report or gift by entering their email and
  possibly other information. You can then begin to
  establish a relationship that can lead to
  loyalty.
• Access to a members area - You can get visitor
  data and email addresses by offering access to a
  member area or special area that requires a pass
  code or other authorization. After filling out a
  form they are sent the proper access codes.
• Contact area - this is not particularly good way
  of building a list but you should have an area
  where visitors can contact you to ask questions
  or get more information.

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Offline Customer Databases

• Most companies do a considerable amount of
  offline marketing. In fact, even though the
  Internet accounts for about 15 of all
  advertising impressions, less than 5 of
  marketing expenditures are for Internet
  marketing.
• Ask for email addresses everywhere and ask for
  permission to send email. Here are 13 (lucky)
  potential programs that you can use to build your
  list
• 1. Direct mail order or inquiry forms2. Lead
  cards or swipes at trade shows3. Guest books or
  cards at retail locations4. Business reply
  cards5. Invoices and bills6. Customer service
  bulletins7. Outbound telemarketing8. Customer
  service representatives9. Seminars and
  presentations10. Warranty cards11. Surveys12.
  Receipts13. Newsletters sent via direct mail

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E-Mail List Vendors

• Processes of list vendors
• Service Bureau - The list vendor receives your
  email promotion in a HTML and text file and send
  out your promotion. They do not send you the list
  for you to email directly. These vendors do list
  cleaning and merge purge methods to ensure that
  recipients do not receive multiple emails.
• List Brokers -List brokers generally represent a
  number of companies who rent their lists out for
  one time use. They will provide lists based on a
  number of interests and categories. Usually there
  are hundreds of demographic and psychographics
  selections possible.
• http//www.postmasterdirect.com/marketers.html

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List Broker Research

• All reputable brokers have some things in common
• They can tell you where they got the names on the
  list
• They won't actually hand over the list to you
  (they will send on your behalf)
• They will monitor your message to ensure
  compliance with the requests of the recipient
• The process that brokers use to get names for
  their databases
• List brokers set up partner sites to invite
  members into their opt-in database usually by
  interest groups.
• A list member clicks through to the partner site
  to go to the list broker sign up site.
• Members opt in to the list by choosing the topics
  they would like to hear about.
• They continue the signup process, filling out
  demographic or other information.
• They receive a confirmation message via email to
  authenticate their choice to join the list.
• They reply to the confirmation message, which
  adds their email to the brokers list.

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Newsletter Example
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Other Newsletter Examples

• Johnston Murphy a bad example
• NRF SmartBrief
• Fidelity Investments
• Robert Mondavi Winery
• DM Direct
• Colloquy
• Wind Weather

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eZines

• Another method of reaching your prospects that
  may be cheaper and easier than sending out direct
  email is to advertise on opt in newsletters and
  ezines (an electronic magazine, whether delivered
  via a Web site or an email newsletter). These can
  also be used to test your offer and market
  segment before investing in a full scale email
  program.
• There are currently around 90,000 ezines being
  published every month. So whatever you're
  selling, there's more than likely an ezine that
  will take your ad straight to the audience you
  want to reach.
• Ezine advertising is not only effective, its
  cheap as well. A 5-line ad in an ezine that goes
  to 3000 people will cost you between 5 and 20
  per issue.

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Advantages

• It is often less expensive than using an email
  list broker and sending out a custom program.
• It provides targeting and credibility (depending
  on the newsletter) because you are a part of a
  relevant and requested publication.
• It is fast, you can usually implement a
  newsletter program within days even hours in some
  cases.
• You don't need to design a complete email
  promotion, most newsletters confine their
  advertising to 30 to 100 word modules.
• You can test your sites landing page and offer
  prior to spending a significant amount on a full
  scale email marketing campaign.
• The response rates are generally good for most
  advertisers.
• You do not have to deal with opt out or
  unsubscribe or Spam issues.

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Disadvantages

• You can select the wrong newsletter or ezine for
  your offer.
• You can advertise in an ezine that carries poor
  content or too much advertising
• You are limited as to the graphics and size of
  your promotion.
• Generally you can only use one or two links in
  your ad.
• The timing of distribution is up to the
  newsletter or ezine publisher.

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Measuring E-Mail Response
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Basic Email Campaign Metrics

• These are the basic numbers you want to identify
  for your mailings.
• Number sent. The total number of email you sent.
  This could be different from your total number of
  subscribers if you're segmenting your list for
  testing purposes.
• Number received. The total number of emails that
  were delivered. Calculate this by subtracting the
  number that bounced back from the total number
  sent.
• Bounce Backs. The total number of emails that
  were rejected and not delivered. Email can be
  rejected because the email address is no longer
  valid, because a server filtered it out, or
  possibly because the receiver's mailbox was full
  and over quota (this often happens when you send
  email over the weekend to free email accounts
  such as Hotmail and Yahoo).
• Open Rate. The total number of emails that were
  opened divided by the total number of emails
  delivered. These results are only accurate in
  HTML emails.
• Response Rate. The percent of unique readers who
  clicked on unique links embedded in the email.

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Response Rate

• You can calculate a response rate for a unique
  link in several ways
• The number of people clicking on the link divided
  by the number of emails
• opened.
• delivered.
• sent.
• You can also calculate response rate on a global
  level using the number of individuals who clicked
  on any link. It's less important which way you
  calculate the metric, more important that you
  calculate it the same way every time.

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Factors Affecting the Open Rate

• Does the recipient recognize the sender?
• Does the recipient acknowledge a relationship
  with the sender?
• Is this relationship valuable to the recipient?
• To whom is the email is addressed?
• To which email account is the email sent?
• Does the recipient recognize where the sender got
  the address?
• Is the email personalized in a way the recipient
  understands and accepts?
• Does the subject line matter to the context of
  the relationship?
• Does the subject line tell them something they
  need to know?
• Does the subject line arouse their curiosity?
• Does the subject line speak to an emotions-based
  need?
• Has the mail been sent at the best time?

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Spam, Privacy and E-Mail Legislation
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Spam and Privacy

• Which bothers you more?
• Direct mail pieces flooding your postal mailbox,
  with the result of billions of tons of waste and
  the environmental consequences that go with that.
  
• Telemarketers that call you at dinnertime,
  interrupting what you are doing to sell you
  products you don't want or need.
• E-mail messages in your electronic in-box that
  take a few minutes a day to delete.

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What is Spam?

• Spam represents about 25 of all e-mail and is
  often defined based on an individuals
  perception.
• Typically viewed as flooding the Internet with
  many copies of the same message, in an attempt to
  force the message on people who would not
  otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is
  commercial advertising, often for dubious
  products, get rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal
  services. Spam costs the sender very little to
  send -- most of the costs are paid for by the
  recipient or the carriers rather than by the
  sender.
• Spam, or junk e-mail, is also defined as
  unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) or other
  unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE), including
  advertising, chain letters, virus warnings, etc.
  It usually contains forged return addresses, and
  often your own address will not appear in the
  headers.
• Mail Abuse Prevention System definition
• http//www.mail-abuse.com/support/techfaqs.htmlsp
  am_def

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Spam Examples
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Minimum E-Mail Guidelines

• Don't let the fear of Spamming, inhibit your
  legitimate opt-in email programs
• Always use opt-in list
• Always include your company name and URL in your
  email
• Always provide a way for recipients to opt-out of
  your email list
• Promptly remove any opt-outs from your lists
• Adhere to your privacy policy
• Never send more than one commercial email a day

From the eMarketing Association
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E-Mail Privacy Policy Example
jjill example

• Email Privacy PolicyWe have created this email
  privacy policy to demonstrate our firm commitment
  to your privacy and the protection of your
  information.
• Why did you receive an email from us?
• If you received a mailing from us, (a) your
  email address is either listed with us as someone
  who has expressly shared this address for the
  purpose of receiving information in the future
  ("opt-in"), or (b) you have registered or
  purchased or otherwise have an existing
  relationship with us. We respect your time and
  attention by controlling the frequency of our
  mailings.
• How we protect your privacy
• We use security measures to protect against the
  loss, misuse and alteration of data used by our
  system.
• Sharing and Usage
• We will never share, sell, or rent individual
  personal information with anyone without your
  advance permission or unless ordered by a court
  of law. Information submitted to us is only
  available to employees managing this information
  for purposes of contacting you or sending you
  emails based on your request for information and
  to contracted service providers for purposes of
  providing services relating to our communications
  with you.
• How can you stop receiving email from us?
• Each email sent contains an easy, automated way
  for you to cease receiving email from us, or to
  change your expressed interests. If you wish to
  do this, simply follow the instructions at the
  end of any email. If you have received unwanted,
  unsolicited email sent via this system or
  purporting to be sent via this system, please
  forward a copy of that email with your comments
  to your company.com for review.

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Legal Issues

• So what should you do to ensure that you are in
  compliance with often conflicting regulations?
• Be sure that you are using an "opt-in" list.
• Be sure that people can respond to the reply
  e-mail if they have questionsor comments.
• Include an easy way to opt-out of your list and
  immediately remove anyrequests to opt-out.
• Never use misleading or fraudulent offers,
  enforcement is at an all time high.
• Do not send out multiple messages in the same
  day, spread your campaign out over weeks.
• Be aware of legislation and keep up with the
  current environment to ensurecompliance. Things
  are changing rapidly.
• Spam Laws - http//www.spamlaws.com/index.html