Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Email Marketing Related Article Feedback Needed

Posted by Neil on 8/13/2008 at 2:58 AM ET 85 Points
I work for the StreamSend Email Marketing service and I am about to start an article on list segmenting and triggers as a way to make emails more relevant. Right now, I am staring at a blank piece of paper ready to write with a lot of ideas but want some feedback first.

I want this to sort of be a basic starting point for those who are either not doing any segmenting and triggers or just getting started. A sort of primer.

So I was going to cover basic stuff like, say, you sell wine and have a field called wine type and it is "red", "white", or "both." Maybe you have another field with the values "dry", "sweet", or "both." Now your email promotions having to do with dry red wine would go to only those likely to be interested.

Or say you are a restaurant (or someone who markets for them) so you send out triggered emails before someone's birthday or anniversary every year. That is almost by definition a relevant email.

Another example, would be that here at StreamSend we have a series of triggered emails that go out when someone signs up for a free trial. The starting date is the date they sign up for the list, which coincides with the date they register for our email list. The emails are more likely to be relevant because, presumably, someone who has just signed up for a free trial of a service is interested -- including some case studies and the like.

I am also considering writing about using customer behavior, e.g., clickthroughs, to segment and the like. Feedback on that aspect would be great.

My other question is are there any other suggestions or feedback on the ideas for the article so far? I am open to any suggestions, feedback, or ideas.

I did consider mentioning stuff like the Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM) model but I figure this article is sort of a primer and that might be an article for another day.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Sachin on 8/13/2008 at 4:02 AM Accepted
    Here is an example of Clickthru Based trigger model which I created last year for enhancing our (paid) event registration and how it enhanced our ROI by 400% with the least amount of (clickthru segmentation driven) effort.

    We did an Event for Banking Technology professionals. Target audience was CIOs in ME region. Through a whitepaper download page, opt-in DB was generated (around 1200+) coupled with email marketing telling abou whitepaper download. As a follow-up trigger mail of the whitepaper download, they got a free survey report for banking technology (enhanced relevancy) and they got a Event Notification 6 months in advance to plan and just block their calendar. We got over 120 people clicking on blocking the calender .ics file and over 250 people downloading the survey in a span of 2 weeks.

    A follow-up campaign to the calender downloaders (120) got a mailer which said, keep the agenda handy! 75% downloaded the agenda. In 2 weeks time they got another early bird offer mail and download updated speakers list. 65 odd people booked on board through this process in 4 weeks time as opposed to 5 per week.

    The ROI jumped to 400% with this focused technique. Also, relevancy and continuous triggered communication led to the same.
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 8/13/2008 at 8:05 AM Accepted
    Keeping in mind that this is a primer, Neil, I think you're on the right track.

    I think it'd be all right to include a mention about segmenting your list by those who click vs. those who don't. You can also do the same with opens vs. non-opens, but the "open" metric is not as reliable as it used to be. You can't assume that someone has not seen your email just because it's not registering an open.

    We still try to segment most of our lists using what we call OCCR: Open, Click, Convert, Retain. For those who have not opened a message, we think about ways to make that happen. For those who open but do not click, we think about ways to make *that* happen, and so on.

    The main problem with doing a lot of segmentation is that, unless you can generate dynamic content, you end up needing a bunch of versions of your message. You can sometimes cobble together a very basic quasi-dynamic message by using actual copy that you put in a field and merging that with your email.

    Regardless, you're right to give people the idea that they should try to keep from sending the exact same email to everyone on their list, especially when even a little segmentation and personalization (and I'm not just talking about slapping someone's name in the subject line...blech) go a long way and can be done so easily.

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/13/2008 at 8:48 AM Accepted
    Make sure that the article's purpose is "How to increase the response rate of your emails" (as opposed to: "How/why to segment your list"). Focus on the benefit and introduce your solution.
  • Posted on 8/13/2008 at 11:37 AM Accepted
    Hello Neil,


    Since I am a data guy, I think the source of the data should be mentioned.

    There are a lot of company's just harvesting email addresses which have no value and can hurt your brand.

    Where is the data coming from? Are they subscribers to a wine site or e-newsletter? I think you will agree actually subscribing to a focused interest carriers more weight than someone saying I like wine, golf, food etc for a chance to win that ipod. Response rates will be higher as well.

    Data

    Garbage in garbage out.

    60% of success and failure is attributed to the list you use.

    Lets us know where we can read your article when it is written.

    Good Luck

    Tom
  • Posted by Neil on 8/14/2008 at 5:56 AM Author
    Thanks to those who answered. Great answers in the forum as always!

    palmesedirect, I plan to post a link to the finished article in our blog.

    Marketing Profs says they publish my article in late August so maybe I could even post it in this forum for feedback on my article. That would be a cool way to get feedback on how to improve the next one.
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