Using Email to Promote Your Webcasts
July 2009
Agenda – Using Email to Promote Your Webcasts• Role of Email in Your Webcast Program
• List Building/Opt-in Forms
• Deliverability
• Design/Content Approaches
• Email Tools/Features
• Measurement/Testing
• Q & A
Role of Email/Samples
Role of Email to Support Webcasts• Drive registrations
• Increase attendance (live Webinars)
• Distribute presentation/archived versions
• Lead nurture content
• On-going Webinar interest
Webinar Emails - Types
• Invitation
• Confirmation
• Reminder
• Follow-Up
• Lead Nurturing
• Webinar “Channel”
Invitation
Confirmation
Reminder
Follow-Up – Thanks for Attending
Nurture Email – Incorporate Webinars
List Building/Opt-in Forms
Drive People to Your Opt-in Page
Registration Form
Web Site
Banner Ads
BlogSponsored Emails
Newsletter
SEO/PPC
Web Site Promotion
Webinar Pages
Promote With Blog Posts
Sponsored Emails
Your Regular Newsletter
Create Webinar/WP Email Channel
Registration Forms
• Don’t ask for too much, too soon
• Think progressive
• Ask for what you need and what you will use
• But plan for lead scoring/nurturing
Deliverability
The Report Spam Button
Deliverability Questions
• Are your emails authenticated?
• Are you maintaining a good sender reputation?
• Do you have good list hygiene practices?
• Are you monitoring blacklists?
• Are you minimizing design, coding and content
issues?
3 Main Types of Authentication• Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
– Compares the sending mail server's IP address to the list of authorized sending IP addresses published by the sender domain's owner
• SenderID– Attempts to verify that the from domain allows email
from a specific IP or IPs
• Domain Key Identified Mail (DKIM)– Uses keys to encrypt / decrypt a part of the header
Authentication By ISP
ISP SPF Sender ID DomainKeys DKIM Action
AOL X N
Bell Canada X X X
Earthlink X X
Gmail X X X X Unk
RoadRunner X
Hotmail X Y
Yahoo X X Y
Comcast X X Unk
Cox Testing n/a
USA.net X X Unk
Sympatico.ca X Unk
Telus.ca X Unk
Reputation - How do ISPs perceive your mailing habits?
• Do you honor the ISPs technical requirements?– The number of messages per
day/hour/minute?
• List hygiene– Complaints
• What do you do with them?
– Bad addresses • How many times do you send to
addresses that don’t exist?
– Spam Traps• “Honeypot” – old addresses
• Avoid content that looks or sounds “spammy”• Don’t over mail! Stick to the frequency you promised
at opt-in• Don’t send email that recipients didn’t explicitly
request• Choose your sender name carefully—use your most
recognized and expected brand• Have an “Update Preferences” link in every email to
make it easy for recipients to update their preferences
• Make your unsubscribe process easy, obvious and trustworthy
• A good rule of thumb is to stay below 0.3% for each ISP
Reducing SPAM Complaints – Deliverability Job #1
Blacklists
• There are HUNDREDS of blacklists
• Three basic types– IP based– Domain based– URL based
• Your ESP should monitor for you
• Monitoring tools– Pivotal Veracity, Return
Path
SpamAssassin Rules – Use as a “Guide”
http://spamassassin.apache.org/tests.html
A Few HTML/Content Don’ts
• Don’t’ forget to create the text version– Not including the text part of the message can
cause some filters to treat your email as spam.
• Don’t have HTML errors:– Most common HTML errors come from not
having a closing </FONT> tag or having open <TD> or <TR> tags in the HTML
• Don’t go overboard with large fonts, exclamation points – anything that looks spammy
Design & Content
From Names – Simple & Recognized
• Who are Brian McDonald and Celia Brown?
• Use simple, most recognized brand name
• Publishers, others should establish Webinar/events brand
- eMarketer FYI- ClickZ Events
Subject Lines – Simple & Clear
• Core title should be 50 characters or less
• Be creative• Feel free to use
a slightly different title
• Think “subject line” when determining Webcast title
• Use date for short notice
• Brand with Webinar/Webcast
Watch Subject Line Length
• Are “Live” or “Invitation to…” critical?
• Core title should be 50 characters or less
• “The 7 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Running”
Simple Personalization
Attend versus “sorry you were unable to attend”
First name
Multiple Calls to Action
text
text
Image button
• Share this
• Send 2 Friend
• Additional resources
Social Sharing
Good layout
• 2-column
• Font colors
• Font size
• At-a-glance
• Takeaways
• Use of bullets
With Images Blocked
Feels Squished• Speakers
are hidden
• Copy is squished together
• Recording reminder is good
• Footer font is too small
• Weak title
• Photo is nice touch, but poorly executed
• “Questions” is good approach
• Takeaways
• About the presenter
• Related white paper
BlackBerry Email & Browser Experience
Browser Version
BlackBerry Browser
Email Version
BlackBerry IS installed email client
Original Email
Cross-Platform Design Tips
Timing/Cadence• Day of Week/Time of Day
– Tues to Thursday generally best– Mornings generally best
• Invites– 2-6 weeks out
• Reminders– 1-2 weeks out– 1-2 days out– Day of
• Follow-up– Within 1-3 days
Email Technology Features
Email Technology Features - Basic• Personalization
• Forward to A Friend
• View Web Version
• Trigger-based emails
• Dedicated IP
• Deliverability/ISP Relations Staff
Email Technology Features – More Advanced
• Survey Integration
• Share to Social Feature
• Rendering/Deliverability Monitoring
• CRM/SFA Integration
• Lead Scoring/Lead Nurturing
Measurement & Improvement
Measuring Success – Process Metrics
• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Delivery/Bounce rate
• Spam complaint rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Share rate
Measuring Success – Output Metrics
• List size/Growth
• Registration rate
• Attendance rate
• Downloads/Views
• Leads generated
• Sales qualified leads
Test, Test, Test - Examples
• Subject line approach
• Layout
• Personalization
• Copy style
• Social sharing
• Form fields - # and type
• Frequency and timing
On Twitter: @Silverpop@SilverpopB2B
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Silverpop Engage B2B Marketing Automation