Karlyn Morissette, Web Producer for Dartmouth College Development, presents this session.
The Commandments of Email Marketing are five rules that if followed you will be ahead of the pack when it comes to email marketing.
1. Thou shall send using an external service provider
a. You will get black listed if you send your own email!
b. Often institutions feel they cannot find the functions they want, but you must demo, demo, demo!
c. Build a “requirements document” while you demo. If they don’t have what you want then move on!
d. Pricing model beware of “use it or lose it” models
e. Support is huge… what will they do for you because you are paying them!
2. Thou shall make your template simple and unobtrusive
a. Stay text based to assure your message is heard.
b. Integrate your look and feel! Let the messages relate to add relevancy!
c. Email template rules:
i. Tables-based layouts
ii. Inline styles only
iii. Limited CSS
iv. Always be testing
v. Check out www.karlynmorissette.com/templates
3. Thou shall make messages as segmented and timely as possible
a. “Smart marketing begins with smart segmentation” – Jeffrey Fox
b. Segment and craft the messages to your segments interest!
c. Test the segments to find what sticks with them… they may not always tell you exactly
d. Obama had a great segmentation using previous donors and geographical events
e. Timing! Is there a time of the day or week that works better with you for email?
f. Its not the time of day that is important, but it is how you integrate what is going on into your email. Obama did this by preplanning emails and delivering them within minutes of major events.
4. Thou shall keep the copy short and calls-to-action obvious
a. Do not tell stories
b. Do not over communicate
c. You have seconds to deliver your message so get it across!
Obama’s email vs. McCaine’s email
5. Thou shall only send messages that offer value to the recipients
a. Make sure your audience knows what is in it for them because human behavior drives all marketing.
When it is time to track the email campaigns success, Karlyn gives us five areas to watch:
1. Delivery
2. Open Rates (unique and Total)
3. Click Through Rates (unique and total)
4. Click-To-Open
5. Unsubscribe Rates
Remember… Click through rate is a much stronger indicator of people reading your message than open rates. You can also supplement google analytics to have two forms of tracking, one from the email provider, and google.
ROI Calculator at www.marketingtoday.com/tools/roi_calculator.htm
Pay attention to how other email marketers set up their emails. A great way to do this is to sign up on their email lists, and then see how you respond to their messages… do they know who you are?
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