1. eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Marketing in a Digital World Email Marketing
What you’ll learn
The basics of strategy
How to structure and design an effective marketing
How to plan and execute a successful marketing campaign
Techniques for measuring and optimising your campaigns

2. Marketing
is a tool for CRM and can deliver one of the highest returns on investment (ROI)
Extremely cost effective due to a low cost per contact
Highly targeted
Customisable on a mass scale
Completely measurable
Furthermore, marketing’s main strength is that it takes advantage of a customer’s most prolific touch-point with the Internet – their inbox. Many of the principles covered in this chapter can be applied to any type of permission marketing – especially SMS communication via mobile phones.
marketing is a tool for building relationships with both existing and potential customers. It should maximise the retention and value of these customers, which should ultimately lead to a greater return on investment. is being used not only to drive retention, but also for acquisition, mobile strategies, and even social media.

3. Email strategy and planning
Promotional s will usually have an immediate goal:
Users make a purchase
Users download some content
Users request further information
The first part of any campaign should involve planning for the goals you need to achieve. marketing can be used as a tool to help you achieve your business and website goals. As with all tactics, marketing should be considered in line with your overall business, marketing and digital strategy.

4. Email strategy and planning
Newsletters are geared at creating and retaining a long-term relationship with the reader

5. KPIs for newsletters Open rate Clickthrough rate
Number of s forwarded
ROI
Number of social shares
Database growth
Conversion rate (activity on your site generated by the )
Delivery or bounce rate

6. Email for mobile More smartphones, 42% of emails viewed on mobile
Smaller screen
Different operating systems
Many devices
Your content must be easy to skim, with clear Calls to Action
Design for touch

7. Rules and regulations
If someone requests to be unsubscribed from your communication, you have to meet their request or face penalties in many jurisdictions

8. Grow a database
A successful campaign needs a genuine opt-in database
Permission must be explicitly given
Abusing this affects your reputation
Legal action can be taken
Track subscriptions to protect against spam complaints and potential legal action
Legal action can be taken against companies that send unsolicited bulk – also known as spam.
Track permissions that are generated for each user – a time stamp is a key part of the data capture and opt-in process and helps to protect you against spam complaints and potential legal action.

9. Grow your database while keeping it targeted
Don’t ask for more information than you need. You can collect:
Name, surname and title
Date permission granted
Source of permission
Gender
Country
Telephone number, preferably mobile
Date of birth
Frequency (how often they’d like to hear from you)

10. Getting people to sign up
An sign-up form on a company website is vital
Encourage people to sign up on your:
Company blog
signatures
Facebook page
Mobi site
At presentations you deliver
Offline marketing channels such as flyers, posters or in-store displays

11. Ask at every interaction
Every interaction can be used to ask permission to send s
Offer something valuable, and ask for signups at the same time with a:
White paper
Gift voucher
Music track
Or something else of value
Add a subscribe box to the checkout process of your retail site.
Use interactions at trade shows to ask for addresses.
Ask for addresses in store.

12. Email design Text emails are the small, plain ones – text only
HTML s are the s with more complex design.
Give your subscribers the choice
s should be created and viewed as HTML for desktop and most mobile devices. Simpler phones require basic text s.
HTML s can contain images, different fonts and hyperlinks.

13. The anatomy of an email Sender information Subject line Preheader
Personalised greeting
Body
Footer
Unsubscribe link

14. Design to delight your database
Online, people tend to read in an F-shape
Design also refers to how it is built, which can impact on whether the is delivered and on how likely users are to interact with it.
Cluttered inboxes and busy subscribers mean an that’s lengthy and difficult to get through probably won’t be read. Help your subscribers by structuring your content into segments, making use of borders or colour blocks to accentuate and divide content. It’s important to balance image and text in your s. Make a point of placing images next to the relevant text.

15. s and images
s that make sense without images render correctly across all platforms
…and are more likely to persuade a reader to load the images as well as click through to the website.
Use alt text for all images
Many clients are set by default not to display images

16. The call to action
In order for your campaign to be effective, your goals and KPIs should be supported by the layout and design
Text links and CTA buttons are effective for generating clickthroughs
A well-crafted and enticingly written CTA gets results for a campaign
Test, test, test…

17. Creating content with value
Readers determine if content is relevant and valuable, addressing problems and needs. Newsletters can offer:
Humour
Research
Information
Promotions
Exclusive content

18. content
Is an important part of content strategy. Some helpful guidelines:
Use or create a brand voice guide
Consistency builds trust and audience relationship
Start with the most important information first
Write scannable copy

19. content
Any links in your copy will lead readers away from your
Many users decide whether or not to open an based on the subject line.
Use a recurring content structure
If your newsletter contains a lot of content, it is advisable to include enticing snippets with a link to the full article displayed elsewhere, such as in your company blog. Sending out too much long content in your newsletter can be daunting for time-starved readers, and they may not make it all the way through your newsletter. However, if your newsletter consists of only one article, it may help to publish it in full.

20. Segmenting your database
Even simple personalisation can see improved results
Customisation covers:
Using the recipient’s name
Sending the correct version
Sophisticated measurement of a recipient’s preferences
Tailoring content

21. When should I send emails
Sending at consistent times builds trust and fulfils expectations
The best days of the week to send s are between Tuesday and Thursday, but this varies by audience
Test it for yourself!

22. What is your email reputation?
A score given to you depending on how well your s are regarded by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and your subscribers

23. Protect your reputation score
Use authentication standards
Keep a tightly maintained, smaller database. Clean as you go
Ensure that broadcast rates are not too high
Respond to complaints and unsubscribe requests
Educate users about white lists

24. Understand email performance
Key measurables:
Number of s delivered
Number of bounces
Number of unique s opened
Unsubscribes
Pass-on rate
Clickthrough rates and conversion

25. A/B split testing
Send one version of your newsletter to a percentage of your database, send a modified version to the rest
Open rates
Optimal number of links
Copy styles and copy length
Video
Balance of text and images
The most common form of testing is to conduct an A/B split test 
Open rates across different subject lines and delivery times.
Optimal number of links in an for clickthrough rates and conversions.
Different copy styles and copy length.
The effect of video on delivery rates, open rates and conversions.
Balance of text and image ratio.

26. You can also test your: Subject lines Send times Best day to send
Layout
Text vs. button links
Database segmentation
Call to Action

27. Why is great
Higher return on investment than other marketing activities
Mass customisation through technology = personalisation
Good relationships can increase the lifetime value of that customer
Highly measurable

28. fatigue
It requires ingenuity, focus and dedication to maintain an database and consistently deliver useful quality s that will be read.

29. Zando achieves a 78% open rate

30. What happened?
5 000 new visits to the Zando website through a viral sharing
Reasons for success:
A well-managed and filtered contact database
Striking design
Effective copy
A strong call to action
An enticing incentive
The entering mechanism where the reader and a friend’s details were requested

31. That’s all folks You can also read about:
User Experience Design , Web Development and Design, Writing for Digital, CRM, SEO, Search Advertising, Online Advertising, Affiliate Marketing , Video Marketing, Social Media Channels, Social Media Strategy, Mobile Marketing, Data Analytics and Conversion Optimisation.