DIGITAL MARKETING - A Practical Approach
Alan Charlesworth
Chapter 8 – Email Marketing
Direct marketing email campaigns can be broken into seven distinct elements.
Chronologically, they are:
1. Determine objectives of the campaign
2. Develop a mailing list
3. Develop the content
4. Develop the landing page
5. Test content and technology
6. Send
7. Measure the results
Develop a mailing list
If you are going to send emails, you need email addresses to send them to. However, to
simply send an email to any email address you can find is both poor marketing and
potentially illegal. Essentially, therefore, the digital marketer should be looking for the email
address of (1) potential customers who are in the target market for whatever is being
promoted, and (2) people in that segment that have given permission to receive promotional
emails. These mailing lists – as they are called – can be built in two ways: internally or
externally to the organization. Let’s look at these two methods in more detail.
Internal
Lists that are developed in-house will always carry the most integrity – and so produce the
best results. Often an integral element of other marketing initiatives such as CRM or
retailing, email addresses can be gathered both off- and online. Offline, practices used for
decades to collect postal addresses can be applied to email addresses. These can range from
free giveaways to competitions to win a free meal if you leave your email address at a
restaurant. Online, technology can be used to save any email address that is gathered as part
of the organization’s online operations – a customer order or an online quotation form, for
example.
No matter what methods of collecting email addresses are used, for reasons of good practice
and legal requirement, it is important for the online marketer to get permission from
recipients to send them emails. There are two ways to get this permission:
1. Opt-out is where the receiver must take an action to opt out of receiving email messages.
For example, the default setting for a message that says do you wish to receive email
messages is for there to be a tick in the yes box. The visitor must, therefore, remove the tick if
they do not wish to get emails.
2. Opt-in is where the receiver chooses to receive email by taking an action. With a single
opt-in they could, for example, tick a box on an off- or online form. This is open to abuse,
however. Whether for a joke or more malicious purposes, someone might tick to receive
email and enter the email address of someone else. Naturally, the receiver is not aware of
, what has happened and assumes any email from this source is spam. Double opt-in,
however, requires confirmation by the recipient. After the initial opt-in is made, an email is
sent to them giving details of the opt-in agreement. Only when the recipient replies to this
email does the opt-in become active.
Note that double opt-in reduces take-up rates but produces databases with the most
integrity.
External
This option entails the buying-in of a list of email addresses from a third-party supplier –
and can be effective if care is taken. There are legitimate brokers who, as a business model,
collect email addresses from people who have given their permission – opted in – to receive
emails from organizations with whom they have had no prior communication.
These lists are then segmented and sold – or to be more accurate, rented – to companies who
wish to target specific groups of customers. The manufacturer of a new safety device for cars
that are towing something might, for example, buy in a list of known caravan owners. For
smaller organizations, there is an added advantage that some of the brokers, particularly
those who value their legitimacy, will also handle the sending of emails on behalf of their
clients. Obviously, the purchase cost per email address will depend on how specific the list is,
and therein lays the main problem – that of the validity of the list of email addresses. Some –
less scrupulous – companies will simple gather email addresses from anywhere they can
(often by harvesting them from websites) and sell them on for a few dollars per thousand. As
these address owners have not given permission to receive emails, any sent to them are
spam. Such lists are to be avoided by legitimate companies who value their reputation.
Unless you are conducting a one-off, never-to-be-repeated email campaign, it is important to
treat the mailing list as a living thing that requires constant attention. Not only will new
names be added, but addresses will need to be purged – whether by request (opt-out) or
because the address has bounced a previous email. Simply conducting a periodic review just
prior to a new campaign is not sufficient if the campaign is to be successful.
Develop the content
The development of the email itself – what the recipient will get in their inbox – has two
distinct elements:
(1) the technical aspect, and
(2) the textual content. Let’s now look at these in more detail.
Technical
The problem with email is that it is not guaranteed to look the same when it is received as
when it was sent. This is because different email clients read and present the message in a
different way depending on both the default settings of each service provider and how each
recipient has set up their own system. The problem is further compounded by the fact that
users now use a variety of devices to access their email. A fabulously creative email message
designed to be viewed on a 17-inch PC screen is not going to be effective on a smart phone
screen – if it downloads at all. As with all things marketing, the answer lays in giving the
Alan Charlesworth
Chapter 8 – Email Marketing
Direct marketing email campaigns can be broken into seven distinct elements.
Chronologically, they are:
1. Determine objectives of the campaign
2. Develop a mailing list
3. Develop the content
4. Develop the landing page
5. Test content and technology
6. Send
7. Measure the results
Develop a mailing list
If you are going to send emails, you need email addresses to send them to. However, to
simply send an email to any email address you can find is both poor marketing and
potentially illegal. Essentially, therefore, the digital marketer should be looking for the email
address of (1) potential customers who are in the target market for whatever is being
promoted, and (2) people in that segment that have given permission to receive promotional
emails. These mailing lists – as they are called – can be built in two ways: internally or
externally to the organization. Let’s look at these two methods in more detail.
Internal
Lists that are developed in-house will always carry the most integrity – and so produce the
best results. Often an integral element of other marketing initiatives such as CRM or
retailing, email addresses can be gathered both off- and online. Offline, practices used for
decades to collect postal addresses can be applied to email addresses. These can range from
free giveaways to competitions to win a free meal if you leave your email address at a
restaurant. Online, technology can be used to save any email address that is gathered as part
of the organization’s online operations – a customer order or an online quotation form, for
example.
No matter what methods of collecting email addresses are used, for reasons of good practice
and legal requirement, it is important for the online marketer to get permission from
recipients to send them emails. There are two ways to get this permission:
1. Opt-out is where the receiver must take an action to opt out of receiving email messages.
For example, the default setting for a message that says do you wish to receive email
messages is for there to be a tick in the yes box. The visitor must, therefore, remove the tick if
they do not wish to get emails.
2. Opt-in is where the receiver chooses to receive email by taking an action. With a single
opt-in they could, for example, tick a box on an off- or online form. This is open to abuse,
however. Whether for a joke or more malicious purposes, someone might tick to receive
email and enter the email address of someone else. Naturally, the receiver is not aware of
, what has happened and assumes any email from this source is spam. Double opt-in,
however, requires confirmation by the recipient. After the initial opt-in is made, an email is
sent to them giving details of the opt-in agreement. Only when the recipient replies to this
email does the opt-in become active.
Note that double opt-in reduces take-up rates but produces databases with the most
integrity.
External
This option entails the buying-in of a list of email addresses from a third-party supplier –
and can be effective if care is taken. There are legitimate brokers who, as a business model,
collect email addresses from people who have given their permission – opted in – to receive
emails from organizations with whom they have had no prior communication.
These lists are then segmented and sold – or to be more accurate, rented – to companies who
wish to target specific groups of customers. The manufacturer of a new safety device for cars
that are towing something might, for example, buy in a list of known caravan owners. For
smaller organizations, there is an added advantage that some of the brokers, particularly
those who value their legitimacy, will also handle the sending of emails on behalf of their
clients. Obviously, the purchase cost per email address will depend on how specific the list is,
and therein lays the main problem – that of the validity of the list of email addresses. Some –
less scrupulous – companies will simple gather email addresses from anywhere they can
(often by harvesting them from websites) and sell them on for a few dollars per thousand. As
these address owners have not given permission to receive emails, any sent to them are
spam. Such lists are to be avoided by legitimate companies who value their reputation.
Unless you are conducting a one-off, never-to-be-repeated email campaign, it is important to
treat the mailing list as a living thing that requires constant attention. Not only will new
names be added, but addresses will need to be purged – whether by request (opt-out) or
because the address has bounced a previous email. Simply conducting a periodic review just
prior to a new campaign is not sufficient if the campaign is to be successful.
Develop the content
The development of the email itself – what the recipient will get in their inbox – has two
distinct elements:
(1) the technical aspect, and
(2) the textual content. Let’s now look at these in more detail.
Technical
The problem with email is that it is not guaranteed to look the same when it is received as
when it was sent. This is because different email clients read and present the message in a
different way depending on both the default settings of each service provider and how each
recipient has set up their own system. The problem is further compounded by the fact that
users now use a variety of devices to access their email. A fabulously creative email message
designed to be viewed on a 17-inch PC screen is not going to be effective on a smart phone
screen – if it downloads at all. As with all things marketing, the answer lays in giving the
