When considering your email marketing plans for 2012, it is important to recognise the key drivers of your success in 2011. Recognise what you did well, but also what you did wrong.  Comparing last year’s revenue per email against your expanding channels in the marketing list could be useful in seeing which channel had the highest ROI.

So what are the most recent trends as we approach a new year for email marketing?

When considering subscribers and the lifecycle marketing approach, the most critical time for interaction is throughout dispatch of the first few emails. Generic ‘welcome’ emails that are stuck into an email rotary system will not be enough in today’s game. Email marketing experts need to devise plans that will get the subscriber to do exactly what they want them to. With behavioural and lifestyle targeted emails, it is a good idea to send content to subscribers that is varied, i.e. include social media, testimonials and reviews. This might mean that you expand your message to cover more than one email, which is fine – just don’t overload them with irrelevant email marketing material; provided most of your consumers will find them useful, it’s safe to click send.

Building relations with consumers by humanizing email content through these means can create a more human and personalised tone. With social media remaining a front runner, including user-generated content, customers, employees and testimonials will promote a lighter/friendlier tone.

More important than ever, if your email marketing content isn’t adaptable for email, make 2012 the year you render correctly. Email on a mobile device, or “mobile email” is essentially just a web based inbox accessed via a different platform. These platforms need to be tested so that email marketers can design and ensure the best experience for all consumers across a number of different platforms.

Many believe that 2012 will see the coming together of both social media and the taming of data to create smarter and more diverse campaigns. With social media now a major influence for success in email, consider the effectiveness of collaboration with other channels in comparison.

Whilst integrating social media with email marketing could and undoubtedly will, prove successful for many email marketing specialists, other channels may still be better matched to specific content. If the audience require social media credentials, maybe incorporating an ‘opt in’ option would be a good idea. Don’t intimidate your consumers by over indulging in social icons – this may even act as a deterrent to certain target groups.

To glean the greatest effectiveness, consider that for you, less could be more. There is no obligation to attempt every piece of email marketing advice available. Take on board what works for your organisation; sometimes making small changes will enable you to pinpoint a consumer trend or behaviour previously missed.

An Australian survey recently released by Experian has found that 59 per cent of consumers have stopped engaging with four or more brands as a result of poorly targeted communications. The report, titled ‘The future of multichannel marketing: marketer and consumer perspectives,’ displays the broken relations between marketers and consumers and highlights what marketers could do to minimise these poorly targeted communications.

8 per cent of Australian consumers have stopped engaging with 20 or more brands and 27 per cent have created a new email address because they receive too many of these poorly targeted emails to their old address and see this as the only way of being rid of it.

Fortunately, many email marketing specialists are taking heed of this – shown by the majority, 89 per cent of marketers who are now using a strategy to segment customers in some way.  69 per cent of those in the email marketing industry are becoming more selective about the channels used to engage with their customers. Over half of Australian email marketing specialists saw the levels of irrelevant marketing material as a challenge in getting their own email campaigns noticed.

Whilst many marketers clearly recognise the disparity between targeted and non targeted email marketing, with the volume of non targeted email, a proportion are still not applying their knowledge in the right way.

It might be helpful to recognise that 70 per cent of consumers see giveaways or incentives as one of their favourite ways of engaging with a brand, followed by receiving direct mail from a brand – 60 per cent.

Email marketing communication was listed as the favoured communication channel by 46 per cent of consumers with 42 per cent favouring on and offline advertising. Interestingly, 91 per cent of marketers and 85 per cent of consumers believe that a company’s website is the most important source of information about a brand or product. Email marketing could be the crucial link in getting consumers on to that website.

With email marketing still the front runner as consumers’ favourite communication method, 52 per cent of marketers plan to increase their email marketing investment over the next 12 months. This is compared to 47 per cent of marketers who plan to increase online ad spend and 36 per cent planning to increase spend on print advertising.

Matt Glasner, General Manager of Experian Marketing Services comments: “Marketers are working hard to ensure their messages are heard.  However, our research highlights that there is still a huge opportunity for marketers to further understand how and when consumers want to engage across all channels, including social media.

“Information overload is a challenge for the industry. As we move deeper into an era of multichannel marketing, marketers need to be more selective in their communications and deliver them in a way that is personally relevant to the audiences they are targeting.

“The big opportunity over the coming year is to apply the clever consumer segmentation that is already being used, to create tailored social media campaigns which talk to the needs of their customers.  This is an important conversation for marketers to get right over the next 12 months which, in turn, will generate greater cut through and start to establish the channel as a truly valued and trusted information source.”

As a business grows it is always a good idea to compete to win back your former customers. Email marketing can prove effective as a tool to reintegrate consumers. This will be much easier, less time consuming and less expensive than having to find new customers – use past consumer knowledge to work this in your favour.

Here are 5 top tips to lure back your existing customers using effective email marketing strategies:

Understand the customer you are trying to win back

Revise the consumer, previous email marketing habits and have a firm grasp of their behaviour and see the pattern of purchasing before they stopped buying altogether. If you file all your customer purchases in a CRM system it may be a good idea to investigate when they last ordered anything then you can segment your lists according to the time that lapsed since their last purchase. You could start by assigning groups so it may be; those who have not purchased within the last year? Those who have purchased one item? Those who have not purchased in the last 12 plus months?

Let’s get personal

Work everything to your advantage take pride in knowing they did once respond to your email marketing campaign. Explain to them that you have missed them and would like to gain back a valuable customer – similarly this can be reflected by the subject line you send. An example could be ‘[First name], we would love you to come back’ or ‘Where have you been [First name]’ .You need to use something personal to encourage them to open the email.

Encourage with a truly unique offer

Through segmentation you should have a unique offer set to win back your customers. Offering nice discounts on great complementary products with regards to items they have already purchased may just be the push they need. Helping them to remember the experience they have had with your organisation/company will hopefully entice them to interact with you through email marketing again.

Be interested in their opinion

It is important that you don’t forget about your customer’s feelings and opinions. You could include a link on your email marketing that takes them to an online survey where they can relay their comments, opinions and whether they are satisfied with your company’s services. This is a tool which will generate feedback that will help you in the long term. It may be that you find that a product your customer was in fact looking for in the past may be something which you consider to bring into your market.

Be frank
Sometimes it’s best just to find out whether or not it’s time to cut the line. Unresponsive subscribers who remain lifeless despite multiple highly targeted win-back campaigns might not be worth the time, effort, and money to resuscitate. A simple, last-ditch email could say something like, “We noticed we haven’t heard from you in a long time. We don’t like spam either, so let us know if you’d like to keep receiving our emails.” Then give them the option to stay subscribed (in which case, you might want to throw in an offer to thank them for that simple action), or to unsubscribe.

Businesses can get so focused on getting “new” customers that they forget about keeping the good ones around and getting them to be more active. So start those win-back email campaigns now; you may be surprised at what a little reminder can do.

As Christmas draws closer, many online marketers will be looking to ramp up their marketing activity in a bid to entice the hoards of shoppers. There are several things you can do that will ensure your Christmas email marketing hits the right note:

Ensure your email campaigns are set up in good time so that you can test subject lines and send ‘follow up’ campaigns to the unopened population. Subject lines are used to trigger greater response amongst recipients which in turn, maximises open rates and conversions. You might consider stopping sending lifecycle campaigns at this time of year so that focus remains on the festive offers.

It might also be useful to be aware of the differences between email service providers (ESPs) when setting up your email marketing campaign. You want a provider who will be available to you as and when you need them, as otherwise they could potentially slow you down instead of speeding you up. Do they provide real-time reporting to evaluate messages and optimise them to suit your needs? You need to place top priority on deliverability to ensure that you are able to send your email marketing messages to the consumer at the time you want.

Consider whether the benefits will outweigh the negatives if you intend to increase the frequency of your mailings during the festive season. If you intend to send considerably more email marketing material, you might consider letting your customers know that they will be receiving a higher volume of relevant offers and provide them with the option to opt out of this, or just reduce the amount that they will receive.

Recognise that although driving revenue needs to remain core to your email marketing strategy, this should never come at the expense of sustaining customer relationships. Particularly during the Christmas season, don’t get carried away by carpet bombing your consumer list as your list will die before the next festive season comes around, i.e. will become non-respondent because you haven’t maintained your standards of sending targeted, relevant email marketing content.

The most important thing you can do in the run up to a busy season is to plan.  Investing time and money prior to the busy times of year is essential if you want to send personalised email marketing that will give you results with strong open rates. Did you learn from what you used as subject lines during the planning of the project? Did you make a note of what worked well, and what didn’t in the run up to Christmas last year? Make sure it’s something you pay attention to next year.

Email marketing is an exceptionally competitive platform, but to get the most out of it, it is important to test the most effective ways of engaging with consumers. Email is also one of the easiest means of carrying out market research as it gives measurable results quickly and cost effectively.

Consumer behaviour is continually changing so by testing offers, fresh campaigns, competitive pricing and bold headlines will keep you in the game, not only increasing the traffic to your site but providing a boost in sales.

If you need guidance there are services available with split testing tools, which are capable of setting up different formats for your emails so that you can send different versions out at any one time.

Consider the following when testing new strategies:

1.)    Number of links in the email – click through conversion rates?

The amount of links in one email will have a direct effect on what the reader chooses to click through – You need to devise tests; see how the click through rates would differ from an email that consists of 2 links and another that may have 4. Too many and it may confuse the key message, not enough may mean you miss out on opportunities that would benefit you in the long run. The primary goal here is to direct people to where you want them.

2.)    Subject line V higher open rates?

To make an impact you need a subject line which will ensure that your open rates are impressive. Testing is key as the subject line is your main approach to influence your consumers. Such testing could be re-wording the same offer so that it is more direct or more comprehensive, using punctuation etc

3.)    How does the link appear?

Is it that customers are more likely to click on something which is hyperlinked?

Or something which is written via a personal URL? Test and discover which works better for your target demographic.

4.)    Do we need to include a signature?

Email marketing has always been focused on consumer relationships so do we add a signature or not? If you have never included a signature give it a go; if you have, try and remove it or maybe use a different signature altogether. Most think that including a signature implies formality but it can add a personal touch if a marketing message appears to come from an individual, which may indeed trigger a greater response.

5.)    Committed to using images?

Images can make your emails look better visually by allowing them to stand out in people’s inboxes but can also affect the display of your overall email with particular email providers. Testing an identical email with and without images will allow you to compare which has the higher click through rates as a percentage.

Objective one: Introductory emails

Firstly, it is important to welcome your most recent subscribers – making a conscious effort to do so will build a relationship based on trust and will maintain your reputation. However, it is not necessary to inundate your recipients with an excess of unwanted emails; a simple and constructive email explaining to them the benefits of your products and services, will encourage them to engage with you.

Objective two: Tracking interaction

When managing consumer loyalty, it is crucial to spend some time tracking how prospective consumers could potentially be using the site. How do they interact with email newsletters? What specific content are they engaging in? And how many times do they visit the site? By doing this you will become capable of identifying leads which are considered to be worthwhile by tracking what users are clicking on.

Objective three: Do not rush your prospects

If individuals are not buying straight away it doesn’t mean that they are not interested – engage them with informative emails or advertise free resources if possible and you might find that they purchase from you at a later date. Likewise, sharing consistent and valuable content over a period of time with or without purchase will make them feel more confident in buying products or using services in the future.

What techniques can you implement to ensure consumers are happy?

Focus on tailoring your messages- this is a key factor when it comes to lead generation. It is essential to know who you are targeting when sending out promotional material; an email sent to a buyer will contain different aspects from those sent to an influencer. Everyone views things differently so researching what works best for both will encourage you to expand on how you target consumers (segmentation).

Stay connected – Just because you were successful in one new consumer purchase don’t get complacent. Following up on the previous purchase will help you to stay connected and advance on what you have already achieved. Qualifying leads until they are generating actual sales is considered to be good practice, targeting your recipients and earning their trust are strategies which need to be tailored and explored to gain maximum effect.

Direct marketing performance requires the most up to date tools and platforms to remain competitive whilst seeing continual growth in new leads – this has become easier as lead generation tactics have diversified. However, ‘sale-ready’ leads – which are high in quality, is a difficult and time consuming task; email marketing can play a major role in generating and nurturing these qualified leads.

The email marketer’s aim is to send campaigns to the right people, at the right time, which means that they need to keep abreast of the latest techniques to ensure their content is always meaningful and engaging.

Objective number one:

When delivering emails it is essential to find the balance between not overloading your recipient with mail, and providing them with useful and insightful information that will influence them into taking action.

Objective number two:

Establish your viewer’s intentions – this can be based upon the first point of contact they have with you, which can be easily tracked online. This initial contact may be through subscribes via an independent blog or company website, which means that they have shown direct interest in the business. Keeping this in mind, a prospective will not purchase if they have not heard of you and although turning over profit is the goal, making sure your prospects are kept in the loop is the first challenge.

Objective number three:

Use your own initiative. This is primary when it comes to driving traffic to your site; thus resulting in potential purchases. You need to ensure your subject line is engaging enough to entice prospects to actually open and read your emails. Also, promoting more than one concept in any one email is rarely a good idea as response rates will fall – this is because the gist of the marketing message is not clear and the recipient has to waste too much time understanding what is being advertised.

Figure out a motive and abide by it – use one core message because clear communication is more likely to build trust. Lastly, having a clear view on the purpose and what you are trying to gain from the sending of the initial email will help you become much more organised and creative in the long run.

Email marketing issues and how to avoid them

Email marketing is one of the most powerful channels of communication but, like anything, it needs to be kept up to date. Trust and engagement are more crucial than ever in today’s email marketing material.

If an email comes from an unrecognised sender, it will automatically be questioned. In particular, using excessive figures, capitals or any irrelevant characters in the main body of your email address and name will rouse suspicion in ESP spam filters, meaning that you are unlikely to even reach the inbox.

The same applies to recipients – suspicion is roused by any content that doesn’t look genuine and your email campaign is unlikely to get so much as an open, particularly if they haven’t subscribed to it in the first place.

A classic error of the amateur email marketer is to include all recipients’ email addresses in the carbon copy ‘CC’ send line – do this and all of your recipients will be able to view one another’s’ email addresses – a breach of information privacy. Sending email marketing on a small scale from a personal account such as Outlook can boost conversion rates as it is more personable, but ensure you make use of the Blind Carbon Copy ‘BCC’ option.

Once you’ve contacted your email list with a genuine email address, you should consider whether you want them to be able to reply to this address or not. Your interested recipients deserve to be able to contact you and not receive an ‘error in deliverability’ message in response. If you don’t want to receive replies to your sender address, include a feedback or response email address within the body of the email. Initiating a ‘reply-to address’ will impress your client; making things easier or clearer for them is worth the minimal adjustments in the long term. Using the reply function will aid clients with an easy to use process of interacting with your business/ company in a way that best suits them.

Another improvement that you could make to your email marketing creative is your use of the preview bar – the panel displayed before you actually open the email. Put a large image there and all the recipient will be able to see is a white box with a cross in the corner, and possibly the messages:

 ‘Email unable to be displayed’ – ‘View it in an alternative browser’

This space could be much better utilised by placing your call to action in text format at the top of the email – the ease at which recipients can then view your message may be the encouragement needed to up your numbers in ‘opened’ emails.

Finally, as always you will come across clients who want to unsubscribe. Understandably you ideally want to reduce the number of unsubscribes to as few as possible, but it is possible to do so genuinely, by improving content and volume of emails. In no way should there be relentless reminders, confirmations or even further messages, this will just add to the client’s dissatisfaction with the service you provide. It should be clear to your company that improving your content will dissuade users from leaving your email lists.

A clear unsubscribe link with preferably one landing page should be all is required to end a consumers’ email relationship with you.

The success of social media has pushed email marketing to become much more personalised to keep up with marketing trends.

Consumers are less willing to trust content that they perceive to be unreliable; email marketing messages that fail to hit the right note with targeting tend to see a decline in response rates. Bulk broadcast email messages are being shunned as marketers face fines for non-activity in email. Mailbox providers are recognising that marketers’ reputations are reflected in how well they engage larger audiences, increasing the need for sending triggered messages post activity, file segmentation and customising content.

Email marketing for success

When consumers take the time to access, click on and especially convert your email, you know you’re building successful relationships. To stay competitive, take these steps to maintain your loyal customers and build your base.

• Personalise the welcome message so that is it in keeping with the source.
• Encourage feedback – once you are aware of your market, it will aid you in cross channel integration, content and strategies to improve your outreach when contacting new prospects.
• Request to send a higher frequency of email marketing material. Smaller lists of well engaged consumers are proven to have greater activity than larger, less responsive lists.  This also shows prospective that you care enough to send them as much communication as they choose.

Welcoming your email marketing

Crucially, ensure your messages are interactive, informative and straight to the point to maintain your subscribers.

Unfortunately, however much we focus on our customer’s needs; emails can occasionally get blocked and you should have a procedure in place to minimise the issue:

• Monitor your reputation closely. Look to adjust frequency, content and segmentation regularly.
• Diagnose the problem – inbox deliverability failure could happen as a result of a) a bad data source, b) high complaints, c) high volume, d) list management
• Build on your data lists. Is it your program? Or a system wide issue? Ask a member of your IT team to check and see if something hadn’t been processed properly?

The key thing is to slow down. Try to minimise volumes sent to the ISPs and domains affected. Look to re-introduce volumes slowly once the problem is rectified to ensure you keep yourself off the block list.

WRM-Media

Email data can be made to work much harder for businesses, but it is the businesses that need to improve the way they utilise their lists, according to Roger Llewellyn, CEO at Kognitio.

As the recession has caused many businesses to cut their marketing budget, email marketing has been a cost effective alternative to direct mail and other forms of advertising. However, it could work much more effectively, as an estimated £2.5 billion is being wasted every year because of businesses that fail to target their customers.

Email marketing according to the consumer

TNS Omnibus recently carried out a survey which found that 52% of Brits cannot tell the difference between spam and valid marketing emails. As a result, they tend to end up ignoring both.

Businesses therefore, could be damaging their own credentials by sending out untargeted, irrelevant emails. Firstly, the lack of targeting convince potential customers that they are not valued and just one badly targeted email could have recipients fall out of favour with you permanently.  It could also prevent consumers from providing personal details, drastically reducing your access to reusable data and limiting your future targeting opportunities.

Email marketing regulations and best practice

Email marketing trade regulators have tightened their belts when it comes to stringency on email marketing companies. The ICO produced new rules this year which has resulted in enforcement notices being served on SAS Fire & Security Systems Ltd and Direct Response Security Systems Limited, after they cold called customers without their permission.

Targeted email marketing lists

It is possible to target consumers based on both personal details such as age, gender and location, but behavioural targeting can be crucial in targeting email campaigns to consumers who have displayed previous behaviour suggesting they would be interested in a certain type of email i.e. they may have previously opened an email from a home improvement business – this would then suggest that they would be interested in receiving email marketing material of a similar genre.

64% of consumers have been reported as saying that they would read email marketing material if they felt the content was relevant and targeted towards them. In this case, retailers would generate much higher sales if they did put in this groundwork in the first place. What works as a positive for the business, also benefits the consumer as they no longer have to deal with lots of spam in their inbox.

Consumer data can be gathered easily and effectively, producing much more successful email marketing campaigns.  Ensure that the success of your email marketing is not diluted due to laziness.