Effective email marketing campaigns (joshcanhelp.com)
0) The Basics
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Deliverability - getting the email to the recipient is just the first part of your job
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Success rate/performance - the number of times your goals were
achieved
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Spam - unwanted or unrequested email of any kind
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Template - the HTML and CSS email code
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List - the group of people you send to; can be segmented or
grouped into categories
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Analytics - the numbers, can be checked
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Open/open rate/unique opens - opened the email in their email box
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Click/click rate/unique clicks - clicked on a link in the email
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Unsubscribe - requested not to receive emails going forward
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Bounce - can be hard or soft, email did not reach the recipient
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Sent - tootle number of emails released, not the number received
1) The Strategy
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Who is this going to? - the audience
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Segmenting - categories within lists used to target your content, design,
and calls-to-action
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Previous sends - learning from past behavior
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Future sends - making sure future emails have a purpose
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What are you sending? - categorize specific sends to improve performance
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Information
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Request
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Urgency
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Promotional
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Content
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What is your goal with this campaign? - overall, what is the desired outcome?
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Lead-up - introduce yourself to your list
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Multiple/single action - build the campaign to support multiple
actions
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Temporary/ongoing - does your campaign have an expiration date?
Is it recurring?
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What is your goal with this email? - the most important thing
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Primary goal - have a single primary goal to improve decision making
later
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Secondary goal(s) - keep these to a minimum; having 10 secondary
goals means less actions per goal
2) The List
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Who are you contacting? - personas
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New contacts (prospective students)
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Existing customers (current students)
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Previous customers (alumni)
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Where did the email addresses come from?
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Purchased - low quality = low performance; don't do it
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Auto-sign-up - opt-in as part of another form
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Manual sign-up - indicated they want to receive information from
you
How are you managing it?
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Unsubscribe option - do you have it?
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Profile changes - is it obvious?
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Clean-out - dump bounces and unresponsive recipients
How healthy is this list?
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Frequency - delicate balance
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Unsubscribes - lower is better but expect a steady stream
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Spam reports - you want this at ZERO
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Opens/clicks - bigger = better but watch the trend rather than the
number
3) The Email
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1) What is in it?
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Content - it truly is king
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Subject line - short, informative, watch marketing words and
CAPS
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Main headline - may be a few headlines but make
them obvious and helpful
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Table of contents - good idea for long emails
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Goal-orientated - don't forget your primary goal!
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Links
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Action links - "sign up" or "apply now" or "buy this"
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Linked images - use images and link them to the
relevant place
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Balance - clear but don't overdo it
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Tracking
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Campaign tracking - outgoing links should be tagged with
campaign information (UTM in Google Analytics)
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Landing page analytics - track incoming visits and
what they do
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2) How is it designed?
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Designed for the goal - primary first
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Matches landing page - design the email to match the page people
reach when they click
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Clear steps forward - the less the better
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Enough information to make a decision - but not so
much that you bore them
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Designed for the list - target, target, target
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Audience - remember these folks?
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Email capabilities - design for the LCD
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Email savvy - if you can't determine this, use LCD
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Designed for the format - email is tricky
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Text-based - concentrate on the content, the rest will follow
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Clear goals and info hierarchy - make it obvious
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Content is broken up - use headlines, bullets,
images, etc.
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Text & images - guess which one is more important?
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Concentrate on text - everyone on every device can see this so
make sure it's up to snuff
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No image-only emails - bad idea
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Images are likely to not be displayed - images are
very often blocked
3) How is it built?
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Universal email HTML/CSS
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Valid code - W3C validator
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Checked for spam content - content, image/text ratio, specific
words
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Recipient-centric features - design it for the people getting it
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Unsubscribe - clear, not hidden, bottom is fine
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View in browser - right near the top, nice and clear
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Contact information - required by law
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Reason they're receiving it - nice little addition for
specific segments/lists
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Change profile - remove from segment but keep on
the list
4) When/how is it sent? - experiment
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White-listed servers - important and pretty standard
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Time and day - "Tuesday - Thursday in the morning" is the rote
answer but might not be true for your list; split
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In smaller batches - 5K at a time, if possible
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Frequency - don't pester them but don't let them completely forget
about you
4) The Post-Game
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(1) What happened? - analytics
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Open % - look at the trend
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Click % - same
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Primary goal completed - look at site analytics as well
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Secondary goal completed - same
(2) What did you learn?
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List - insights into your audience
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Segment again - based on opens, engagement, goals achieved
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Non-respondants - targeted campaign? dump them?
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Strategy - living up to the plan
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Compare to other emails - did it do better or worse? why?
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Compare to other campaigns - may or may not
provide insight
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Email - template performance
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Content - was it effective? why or why not?
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Date/time - are certain times/days working better?
(3) Who needs more attention?
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People who opened
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People who clicked
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People who acted
Bringing it altogether
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Construct a coherent strategy, make changes along the way, track your progress
and success
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Build and maintain a healthy list of engaged recipients
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Write, design, build, and sent your templates based on your audience,
accepted standards, and what you've learned
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Iterate and get better!
Resources at joshcanhelp.com/esi