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Email Marketing Overview

Tuesday 8th April 200810:00am > 10:30amTeddington, Board Room

© 2008 Acxiom Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

presented by Charles Head from the Online Delivery Team

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Agenda• Interactive Delivery: An introduction• Interactive Delivery: Database• Campaign Management: Getting a good brief• Campaign Management: Creative Installation• Campaign Management: Quality control• Campaign Management: Common mistakes• Deliverability: Overview of the last 24 months• Deliverability: Why is deliverability important?• Deliverability: Volumes, Frequency and Relevancy• Deliverability: Reputation• Deliverability: Spam & phishing• Deliverability: 5 things to do right NOW to improve

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An introduction• Email is a cheap form of direct marketing

- a message can be sent to thousands of recipients for next to nothing.

• It's also the easiest way to target the exact person you need to reach.

• Measuring response rates is simple and recent figures show that they are higher than those for traditional direct mail.

• However, there are disadvantages too. Email contacts go out of date faster than either addresses or telephone numbers, so you need to be particularly active in cleaning your database.

• The increasing amount of spam - unsolicited email - means your marketing emails will need to stand out if they aren't to be deleted before being read. Increasingly sophisticated anti-spam software also means that many marketing emails are deleted before they arrive at their destination.

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List Rental Database

• 4,034,157 as of 2nd April 2008

Soft bounces

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Getting a good brief

– From Address– Subject Line– Salutation– Personalisation– Tracking– HTML & Text– Seeds (Test and broadcast)

– Data selections– Expected statistics

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Creative Installation

• Text editors• Microsoft Frontpage• Macromedia Dreamweaver

• EMaster• Microsoft Excel• Microsoft Access

Creative

Data

Broadcast

EmailVision’s Campaign Commander

Alterian’s Dynamic Messenger

Acxiom Digital’s IMPACT

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CRITICAL Success Factors• Creative

– Design of the e-mail including layout and use of colour, images and copy.

• Relevance– Response rates for e-mails will be higher if they are targeted to the interests of

individual recipients. Up to 50% more opens if relevant.

• Incentive– This is the WIFM factor or 'What’s In It For Me' for the recipient.

• Timing– Timing refers to when the e-mail is received; the time of day, day of the week,

point in the month and even time of year.

• Integration– This is looking at e-mail as part of your integrated marketing communications.

• Copy– Keep it relevant, get straight to the point.

• Attributes– Subject line, from address, date/time of receipt and format (HTML or text).

• Landing page– The destination after the recipient leaves the email.

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A creative example

CreativeRelevanceIncentiveTimingIntegrationCopyAttributesLanding page

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Quality control

• Copy – (including line spacing)

• Images – (size, location, hosting etc)

• Subject line• From address

– (eg: ABC Ltd and emailinform)

• Link destinations• Acxiom Link tracking

– (links will have “XXX.com" at the beginning)

• Your own link tracking (if applicable)• Personalisation/Salutation (if applicable)

“It has been a pleasure working with [Acxiom],

[Interactive Delivery] are the most efficient supplier

by a long way!”

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Common mistakes

• no tracking• invalid symbols ‘’–“”—€…•†™• incorrect selection• incorrect count(s)• image hosting bandwidth

•There is a distinct difference in an •‘email marketing fact’ and an ‘email marketing opinion’!

•Test •Test•Test

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Why is deliverability important?

Keep the Acxiom dolphin out of the tuna net• an ongoing challenge for marketers, especially as ESP’s introduce

new filtering systems and consumers become more inclined to hit the 'spam' button.

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So what is spam?

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Database Domain Breakdown

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What do ESPs do with spam?

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Deliverability: An introduction

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Relevancy

Relevancy is ‘king’ for email marketing

“Consumers are being bombarded with emails making relevance in email marketing campaigns is ‘king’, according to Peter Duffy, sales and marketing director of e dialog.”

Source: mad.co.uk | Author: Melinda Varley | Published: 27 November 2007 15:45

If emails are irrelevant, customers are more likely to label them as spam.

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Relevancy

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Volume

If you send too many emails, you will look like a spammer.

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Frequency

If you send a recipient too many emails, they will think you are a spammer.

26% state: “I unsubscribe by using the this is spam button”

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Authentication and Reputation via Sender ID

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5 things you can do to improve deliverability

• Authenticate with Sender ID• Publish accurate and inclusive SPF Records• Focus on expectations in frequency and relevancy• Encourage users to add you to their safe list• Proactively manage and monitor your reputation• Add unsubscribe headers

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In conclusion

Questions?