Kayak OptEmailMkgCon

7/30/2019 Kayak OptEmailMkgCon

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THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO

OPTIMIZING EMAILMARKETING FOR

CONVERSIONS How to Grow Your Email List,

Increase Engagement & Ensure

Delierability

A publication of


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IS THIS BOOK RIGHT FOR ME?

Not quite sure if this ebook is right for you? See the below descriponto determine if your leel matches the content you are about to read.

INTRODUCTORYIntroductory content is for marketers who are new to the subject. This content

typically includes step-by-step instrucons on how to get started with this aspect

of inbound markeng and learn its fundamentals. Aer reading it, you will be

able to execute basic markeng taccs related to the topic.

INTERMEDIATE This ebook!Intermediate content is for marketers who are familiar with the subject

but hae only basic experience in execung strategies and taccs on the topic.

This content typically coers the fundamentals and moes on to reeal more

complex funcons and examples. Aer reading it, you will feel comfortable

leading projects with this aspect of inbound markeng.

ADVANCEDAdanced content is for marketers who are, or want to be, experts on the subject.

In it, we walk you through adanced features of this aspect of inbound markeng and

help you deelop complete mastery of the subject. Aer reading it, you will feel ready

not only to execute strategies and taccs, but also to teach others how to be successful.

Opmizing Email Markeng For Conersions

By HubSpot with Kayak Creae Serices Inc. | kayakonlinemarkeng.com | 2

Get Found: Help prospects find you online

Convert: Nurture your leads and drie conersions

Analyze: Measure and improe your markeng


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CHAPTER 1

How to Grow Your Email List ........................................................................................... 5

CHAPTER 2

How to Integrate Email Into Inbound Markeng ............................................................ 10

CHAPTER 3

Delierability: What is it and How to Get it? ................................................................... 14

CHAPTER 4

Fie (5) Say Ways to Segment Markeng Emails ......................................................... 19

CHAPTER FIVE 5

Conclusion and Addional Resources ............................................................................. 23


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75.8% of marketers said they were using

more email than they were three years ago.

2010

2014

As a markeng channel, email isnt going anywhere. In a recent

DMA study 75.8% of marketers said they are using more email

than they were three years ago. In fact, according to Forrester

Research, inestment in email markeng is forecasted to grow

from $1.3 billion in 2010 to $2 billion in 2014.

The investment

in email to increase.

As inestments in the channel grow, how will email fit in your larger inbound

markeng strategy?

Will it be an isolated tool or part of an integrated experience? The following

pages will walk through the reasons and methods for incorporang email more

closely into your inbound markeng strategy.




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CHAPTER 1

HOW TO

GROW YOUREMAIL LIST


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Email markeng is only as good as the quality of your recipient list. Each

year there is a natural decay that happens in email markeng lists that reduces

the effeceness of email as an influencer. People leae their companies, get

married and change their names life happens. In B2B markeng, on aeragelists only retain 75% of their members aer one year due to turnoer at

companies and other factors. As a result, markeng lists hae a tendency

to expire at a rate of about 25% a year.

If you arent replenishing your list with new, interested prospects each year,

your email markeng will likely boom out. So how do you keep your list full in

the face of ineitable decay? There are two ways marketers tend to grow their

email lists. The bad way and the good way.

Your list expires at~25% / Year



Email markeng is only as good as the

quality of your recipient list.

YEAR 1

50KYEAR 2

37KYEAR 3

28K


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GROwING YOUR EMAIL LIST THE BAD wAY

Many marketers try to increase their reach by buying thirdparty email lists.We adise you against doing that. Buying a thirdparty list, een from

a reputable endor, comes with a number of risks.

You can alienate recipients

If people haent expressly signed up to receie emails from you,

they arent going to be ery happy to get them. This is the anthesis

to inbound markeng, which is based on aracng quality isitors and

leads by proiding alue rather than interrupng them with irreleant

ads or markeng messages.

You could get blacklisted or marked for spam

Well coer this more in the next secon, but one of the biggest

reasons not to buy an email list is that it can negaely affect your

delierability rate.

Bought recipients arent as engaged as opt-in recipients

Emails sent to optin recipients will always hae a higher clickthrough

rate than purchased lists, and the leads generated from those lists will

typically be of higher quality.

It undermines your inbound markeng strategy

Inbound markeng is about aracng leads to your website through

useful, aluable content rather than harassing prospece customers

with ads or direct mail. If you use a purchased list as a separate method

youre undercung the work that has gone into building your companys

reputaon as a helpful inbound marketer.

BE AWARE OF THE LAWS IN PLACE

Research the spam laws which govern your jurisdicon. What you might notconsider spam, may in fact be legally deemed spam. Do some legwork before

you send an email to a list or you could potenally be liable for each illegal email

sent. We have another email markeng guide which addresses these laws for

Canada and the US, which can be downloaded for free on our website

(www.kayakcreave.ca/updated-10-step-email-markeng-guide).


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wHAT IS INBOUND MARKETING?

Its markeng with a magnet, not a sledgehammer markeng based

on content that aracts and nurtures prospects, not spam that interrupts

them. HubSpot prepares you for all three stages of inbound markeng.

GROwING YOUR EMAIL LIST THE GOOD wAY

Inbound markeng is a strategy that focuses on building useful interesng

content to aract subscribers and leads. The basic idea is to proide alue,

make it releant, and the subscribers will come.

Taccally speaking, the best way to start generang leads through inbound

markeng is to launch a blog and start creang good, searchfriendly, content.

Dont hide your subscribe box

If youre creang good inbound content, your blog and website will become

a magnet for potenal subscribers. Make sure that those readers can easily find

your subscribe box. Its worth A/B tesng the placement of the subscriber box

on your site. You can start by placing an email submission field in the top of

your blog and remoe any other distracons.

Consider partnerships

Cohost a webinar or another markeng eent with a company that is

in a related but noncompee space. Make the webinar informae

and encourage parcipants to optin to hear more from each company.

Capitalizing on each companys exisng reach can help you grow your

number of engaged subscribers.



ANALYZE

CONVERT

GET FOUND


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HOw TO REDUCE UNSUBSCRIBES

An important role in increasing your email subscribers is maintaining thenumber of recipients you already hae. Here are a few ps on how to reduce

your unsubscribe rate:

Opmize the unsubscribe process

The top two reasons for U.S. email users to unsubscribe from a business

or nonprofit email subscripon are too many emails 69% followed by

content that is no longer releant 56% Chadwick Marn Bailey.

When someone clicks to unsubscribe from your communicaon,

gie them the opon to sign up for less frequent emails or emails that

are only on a gien topic e.g, only major announcements. You can alsopresent the former subscriber with alternae channels by suggesng

following the companys social media sites on the unsubscribe page.

TOP REASONS FOR UNSUBSCRIBING

Too many emails

Irrelevant content

Conduct a frequency studyEery audience is different. The best way to determine how oen to

send emails to your subscribers is to test out a hypothesis. If possible,

surey your recipients about how oen theyd like to hear from you.

Test that frequency paern against a second one and analyze which

results in more conersions and fewer unsubscribes. According to

Markeng Sherpa, the aerage unsubscribe rate for more than 80%

of the companies they sureyed was less than three percent.

Focus on targeng

According to a MarkengSherpa study, four out of ten subscribers

reported that theye marked emails as spam simply because thecommunicaon was irreleant. On the flip side, MarkengSherpa

also reports that emails that hae been tailored to specific audiences

through segmentaon get 50% more clicks than their counterparts.

Use the data you hae about your audience to segment your emails

based on subscriber behaior and interests.


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CHAPTER 2

HOW TO

INTEGRATEEMAIL INTOINBOUNDMARKETING


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Email is most powerful when it s integrated with the rest of your markeng.

You hae a lot of markeng channels and assets make sure you use them

together for best results!

In this secon we will reiew some of the different ways you can achiee

integraon between email and other markeng assets, such as search,

social media, mobile and analycs.

EMAIL & SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION

Study aer study shows that email strategies that integrate social media into

their sends lead to beer results. 65% of the top 20% of B2B marketers in social

media lead generaon integrate email with social media, compared to theindustry aerage of 51% Aberdeen Research.

Integrang social media into your email strategy is easier than you might think.

Here are some taccs to help you get started:

Add social media sharing buons to your emails

Adding social media sharing and follow buons to your emails will extend

the reach of your email sends beyond the recipients in your database,

expanding the isibility of your content and brand.

Email based on social media insights

Send targeted emails to subscribers who hae menoned you on socialmedia. Using integrated markeng analycs, like HubSpot, you should be

able to see a list of email subscribers and leads who hae menoned your

company on Twier. In addion to responding to those highly engaged

leads on social media, you might also send them a followup email with

targeted informaon.

Email is most poerful hen its integrated

ith the rest of your markeng.


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Gro your email list through social media

Leerage your social media presence to gie followers a reason to

subscribe to your email list. For example, consider placing a calltoacon

on your Facebook page. Make sure you determine clear benefits to email

subscripon so that you can turn your social media followers into

subscribers.

EMAIL & SEARCH INTEGRATION

Emails can help you opmize for search. Many email tools, like HubSpot,

enable you to create and host an HTML ersion of your email for people who

are haing trouble iewing the email in their inbox. Not only is that ersion

good for usability, it also helps you with SEO.

Knowing that an online archie of your email will exist, make sure your

email content follows the same SEO rules as your website does. Use your

best keywords and anchor text when construcng the body of the message.

Ensure all images hae alt tags and include social media sharing buons to

stretch the content further.

Ensure your emails can render as web ersions.

INTEGRATED ANALYTICSTodays markeng goes well beyond the boundaries of your website. As a result,

indiidual analycs for your website, social media, email and other channels just

arent enough anymore. A mulchannel iew enables you to see how prospects

are naigang their experience with you. Markeng analycs data can answer

crosschannel quesons, such as:

How many people clicked through on your email but didnt conert?

Of the people who conerted on your website, how many of them came

from social media? How many opened your last email campaign?

Which results in more leads, PPC or organic search: email or social?

Not only do integrated analycs reports show you the effeceness of

your markeng strategy, but they also help you get more targeted in your

email sends. 37% of B2B marketers say lack of user data is the major obstacle

to effece segment targeng B2B Magazine. By exchanging single channel

analycs for integrated markeng analycs, you can begin to segment your

mailing list and send communicaons based on the leads history of

downloads and pages iewed.




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INTEGRATION wITH MOBILE

According to Return Path, 16% of all emails are opened on

mobile deices. In fact, this number can rise to 50% for some

companies and industries. Creang an strategy that reflects the

changing way recipients open and read emails is going to beincreasingly important in the coming years. So what does it

take to make your email strategy mobile?

Test your email templates to see how they comes across

in different mobile deices.

Gie your callstoacon CTAs wiggle room make

sure buons and links are easy to click for readers

using touch screens.

Offer both plain text and HTML ersions of your email.

Use descripe alt text under your images in case

they dont display

Opmize for mobile the landing pages and forms

your email links to.

The HubSpot markeng soware automacally opmizes your emails and

landing pages for mobile iewing, so if you are a customer, you should be all set.

37% of B2B marketers say, Lack of user data is

the major obstacle to effecve segmentaon.


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CHAPTER 3

DELIvERABILITY:

WHAT IS IT ANDHOW TO GET IT?


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IBM found that 17% of all emails neer see the inside of a recipients inbox.

From defunct emails to spam traps, the reasons behind the lack of delierability

ary. Achieing a high delierability rate relies heaily on three main factors:

1. Keeping your email lists clean

2. Ensuring youe properly warmed up your IP when starng with a new

email serice proider

3. Following best inbound markeng pracces for email

KEEPING YOUR EMAIL LISTS CLEAN

Return Path reports that 83% of the me an email address is

not deliered to an inbox, the senders reputaon, defined by

the Sender Score, is to blame.

what is a sender score?

A free serice of Return Path, the Sender Score algorithm rates the reputaon

of eery outgoing mail serer IP address on a scale from 0100. Gathering data

from more than 60 million mailboxes at big ISPs like BellSouth and Comcast,

Return Path records if people frequently unsubscribe or report spam fromcertain email senders, and then assigns you a Sender Score based on that

monitoring.

Your Sender Score will connue to change depending on your email sending

habits and the responses of your recipients. Its a crucial number to stay on top

of, because mail serers will oen check your Sender Score before deciding

what to do with your emails.

The lower your Sender Score, the harder me youll hae geng into someones

inbox. Scores are calculated on a rolling, 30day aerage and represent the rank

of an IP address against other IP addresses, much like a percenle ranking.

The closer your score is to zero, the worse it is. If you are using a proider,

like HubSpot, to send emails for you, the Sender Score will apply to your

proiders IP address, not your companys. Dont be afraid to ask your email

serice proiders about their Sender Score.


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Een if an email network or ISP doesnt query your Sender Score to

determine whether they will delier your email, the factors used in

determining your Sender Score are similar to those used by email

networks and ISPs to determine your sender reputaon. As such,

the Score is a great, free email sender reputaon tool to ensure you

are aware of and hae the opportunity to fix any delierability problems.

HOw TO TELL IF YOUVE GOT A GOOD LIST

Here is a checklist to ealuate if your email list is good or not. Answer the fie

quesons below and find out where you stand.

Does everybody on this list have a prior relaonship ith your business?

Get rid of the list or at least the people you dont hae a relaonship

with. If they dont hae a prior relaonship with your business, theyre

not going to be expecng your email. Not only is emailing them spammy,but it will also hurt you. Without a prior relaonship, many of the recipi

ents will mark your message as spam. Those spam designaons will then

turn around and hurt the Sender Score of the serers you send from,

which will make it harder for you to get your messages deliered.

If you answered yes. Nice job! On to the next queson...

Do you have an unsubscribe list?

Dont send to this list. Go back to the drawing board, and build a new

list. Eery list should be accompanied by an unsubscribe list. If you hae

a prior email relaonship with the people on your list, you will ineitably

hae people who hae unsubscribed from that list. When you load that

list into a system like HubSpot, you need to load both the master list and

the unsubscribe suppression list. If you dont, youre going to end up

emailing people who hae already unsubscribed. Thats against the law,

and, since people on the unsubscribe list are likely to mark your email

as spam, it will also reduce your ability to send successful emails.



Dont be afraid to ask your email service

provider about their Sender Score.

1

2


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Did you purchase, rent, or lease the list from a third party?

Any sending you do to this list will get flagged for spam and reduceyour future conersion rates. The people on that list dont hae a prior

business relaonship with you. At best, they gae their address to

somebody else and are expecng email from them, not you. At worst,

their address was harested from some sort of directory, and theyre

not expecng any type of email.

will the people on the list be expecng (not be surprised) by your email?

Game oer. Time to do some more inbound markeng to build

yourself a clean and quality list of recent optins. Which leads us

to our final queson...

Have you emailed these contacts ithin the last 12 months?

No? Sorry. Twele months is a long me. Chances are, a big chunk

of your list already forgot about you and will be surprised by your

message (remember queson #4?). That means theyll mark it as

spam, which means your deliery rates will drop.

Yes? Youre good to go. Your list is smelling great. Create some awesome

emails with super useful content, and youll hae yourself some amazing

conersion rates.

wHAT TO KNOw ABOUT SERVER IP ADDRESSES

A serer IP address is a series of numbers that uniquely idenfy the serer thats

sending your emails, e.g. 172.16.254.1 Each me you send an email campaign

out, its associated with your IP address.

The reputaon that you build, posie or negae, through your email

campaigns is also associated with that gien IP address. You can either opt to

hae a dedicated IP address for your email sense or use a shared IP address.

Dedicated IP

A dedicated IP is an address that is completely unique to you. The adantage

of using a dedicated IP is that the reputaon staked on it is completely your

own. The disadantage is that dedicated IPs tend to be ery expensie and if

you arent sending enough emails, the IP wont een register on the Sender

Score scale. Haing an unknown Sender Score isnt a bad thing, but it s a good

thing to hae a high Score registered.

3

4

5

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Shared IP

Most companies that send emails through a proider like HubSpot, ConstantContact, Mail Chimp and they likely use whats called a Shared IP. This is one

IP address that sends for mulple companies. Shared IPs are much more

affordable than dedicated ones, and gie you the scale of sends to actually

register a Sender Score. Howeer, since you are sharing your reputaon

with others, consider talking to your email serice proider about their

highest and lowest Sender Scores on record.

wARMING UP YOUR IP ADDRESS

Spammers are known for moing quickly through IP addresses to hae the best

shot at aoiding filters and other blockers. They will use one IP address, send out

thousands of unwanted emails, and then moe on before their IP address can

get blacklisted. Because of this pracce, a number of companies hae automac

blocks set up to limit or reject large-scale email sends coming from brand new

IP addresses.

When you moe to a new IP address, dont send emails to your whole list all at

once. Instead, warm up your IP by slowly building up your total sends oer

me. You only need to do this once. If you hae been sending emails from your

IP address for awhile, it s already stretched out and ready to go.



2


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CHAPTER 4

Fie (5) say

ways to segmentmarkeng mails


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Releancy is becoming een more central to todays markeng strategy, and

buyers hae come to expect personalizaon in their communicaons. According

to a study by MarkengSherpa, four out of ten subscribers reported that theye

marked emails as spam simply because they were irreleant. On the flip side,MarkengSherpa also reports that emails that hae been tailored to specific

audiences through segmentaon get 50% more clicks than their counterparts.

There are a number of different ways to start segmenng your audience.

For a segmentaon method to work, howeer, it needs to reflect two things:

1. Your core business strategy

2. What you know about your typical buyers purchasing decisions

Here are fie great ways to segment your audience to create more tailored and

effece email communicaons.

GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION

Segmenng by geography works best when the locaon of a buyer plays

a significant role in his or her purchasing decision e.g. with eents and other

initaons. Here is a quick list of instances when you should segment

by geography:

When sending initaons to special eents

When your company or serice has geographic limitaons When your connecon to a town or region is a strength. For example,

with local landscaping companies, cleaning serices, or restaurants.



4 out of 10 subscribers mark email as spam

due to irrelevancy

1


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INDUSTRY/ROLE SEGMENTATION

For B2B companies, a recipients role or diision is an important factor in howhe or she interprets your communicaons. In simpler terms, you would speak

differently to a salesperson than you would to a marketer. They hae different

goals, and different interests in your company. Targeng these interests can

increase your clickthrough rates.

CONTENT INTERESTS

The best segmentaon taccs are based on true data about your audience

rather than assumpons based on their role or geography. To segment based

on interest, take a look at the content that members of your audience haeiewed or the materials they hae downloaded. The easiest way to start doing

this is to pull a list of people who hae downloaded a certain whitepaper or

other markeng offer, and then segment them into more targeted email

or lead nurturing campaigns about that topic.

The HubSpot markeng soware enables you to do this type of segmentaon

by easily creang a list based on recent conersion eent.

BEHAVIOR-BASED SEGMENTATION

In addion to segmenng by interest area, you can also use audience behaioras a filter for your communicaons. This segmentaon also relies on haing the

right closedloop markeng analycs set up on your site to understand your

typical sales cycle.

Think about it: a person who has spent a lot of me on your site and iewed

a lot of different markeng materials has different needs than someone who

is just ising for the first me. If you are using analycs that enable you to

disnguish the browsing behaior of different website isitors, you can start

to leerage this informaon to make your communicaons more releant

to how far along the recipient is in his or her purchasing decision.

2

3

4


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Segmentaon by Brand Advocates

Brand adocates are a key segment that you should get right.Your brand adocate segment should contain:

Frequent buyers

Social media fans

Customers who hae recommended you to others

Noncustomers who hae adocated for you online

Customer loyalty needs to be nurtured. Once you determine

a list of your best and most ocal adocates, tailor your emails

to acknowledge them. Send thankyous, adanced noce on new

serices or products, requests for feedback, rewards, and othercommunicaons to show you recognize and appreciate their support.

You can start small with segmentaon. Take a look at your audience,

and see if there are any standouts or natural differenaons. Een the

slightest segmentaon can increase your email success rates. The list

aboe is just a starng point, and youll likely discoer other ways

to segment based on the indiidual characteriscs of your audience

and your industry.



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CONCLUSION

AND ADDITIONAL

RESOURCES


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Aer haing read this ebook, you now hae a solid foundaon in opmizing

your email markeng efforts for lead conersion and customer acquision.

We started by looking at ways in which you can grow your email list and reduce

unsubscribes. Then we coered processes of integraon between email and therest of your markeng efforts. We also introduced some delierability concepts

and how you can ensure your subscribers receie your communicaon.

Lastly, we coered segmentaon and how you can approach it.

Now you are fully equipped to opmize your email markeng for success.

Go ahead and apply this new knowledge!

No you are fully equipped to opmize

your email markeng for success.

were here to help. Whether it s a consultaon or part of an enre markeng campaign,

Kayak can help you achiee the results you need. visit us at kayakonlinemarkeng.com

to explore the many ways we can help.

Tollfree anywhere in North America: 1-855-228-2525

@kayak360

www.facebook.com/KayakCreae360

hp://www.linkedin.com/company/kayakcreaeonline

markengonline[at]kayakcreae.ca

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Kayak OptEmailMkgCon