Digital Design Scotland
brought to you by Ross Knight
v
1
Digital Design Scotland
brought to you by Ross Knight
Whilst we provide a wide range of website related services we specialise
in developing websites that generate sales.
To achieve this we work closely with our clients and help integrate
Content Management and E-commerce systems with offline
administration.
We can assist with website marketing and provide promotional services
such as email marketing, social media and online advertising.
We also use website analytics to determine how a website can be further
developed to increase visitor numbers and improve conversion rates.
2
Email Marketing
• Cost Effective - in comparison to direct mail and its associated costs of
production and delivery you can generally send out hundreds of emails
for every direct mail sent.
• Build Relationships - emails let you keep in contact with your customers
and inform them of your latest news and offers.
• Income Injection - successful email campaigns will increase sales
directly after distribution.
3
Email Marketing
• Impulse Buying - from an email the recipient can click a 'Buy Now'
button and be taken directly to your checkout.
• Target Audience - assuming your collection process allows you to
segment your contact database you will be able to target individuals
with offers that are more likely to interest them.
• Email Marketing remains the foundation of online promotion - whilst
Facebook and Twitter are undoubtedly increasingly relevant in
promoting your business online only a half of all internet users are
involved in online social networks where as 90% of internet users send
and receive email.
4
What To Say
• Newsletters - are an ideal way of keeping your business in the minds of
your customers. Don’t only send emails to promote a new service or
special offer but instead provide a regular email with relevant and
interesting topics.
• Catalogues / Menus - don’t wait until customers visit your website to
browse your catalogue / menu but instead send it to them via email.
This is a worthwhile approach if your customers are more familiar with
direct marketing.
• Special Offers - an obvious use of Email Marketing is to spread the word
about special offers to your contact database.
5
Who To Send Toy
• A high quality contact list will result in a higher open, click through and
conversion rate. It will also have a smaller number of opt outs per send.
• By including an unsubscribe link and following these DO’s and DON’Ts
you should meet with any legal requirements for mass mailing.
Opted in from my site
Purchased a product / service from me within the last 2 years
Handed me their business card at a trade show or other event
They completed an offline form and agreed to be emailed
I haven't emailed the recipient's address for more than 2 years
I got the email addresses from a third party or copied from the internet
6
Content Considerationsy
• Overcome Spam Filters - to avoid spam filters and ensure your email
finds its way into the recipients inbox you must apply some common
sense to your subject and body content. Try not to use spam trigger
keywords or phrases for example "You are the 50th winner!", "You may
now claim your prize at..." Additionally avoid attachments when sending
mass emails as spam filters see the file as a potential virus. Finally avoid
over using CAPS or exclamation marks.
• If you are still unsure as to whether your email will find its way past
Spam Filters many Email Distributors allow you to test your email
against the most common spam filters for a small charge.
7
Content Considerationsy
• The Subject Line - a subject line
should be informative, short and
have the most relevant information
at the start. For example ‘Free Bottle
of Wine when you spend over £40'
is better than 'Spend over £40 on a meal and get a Free Bottle of Wine'.
• See examples to view how the most important portion of your subject
line may be cut off if it is too long. Additionally as some email
notifications show the start of the body the first sentence is also very
important.
8
Content Considerationsy
• Who From - obviously you want to send your email from a recognisable
business address and ideally not an address such as
bob2132@businessname.co.uk as this won't fill the recipient with
confidence that your email is legitimate. Additionally ‘bob2132’ may not
appreciate receiving hundreds of 'Out Of Office' replies. As such you
may want to set up a dedicated address that 'Email Marketing' is sent
from.
9
Content Considerationsy
• Email Length - This is generally
determined by the message you are
trying to convey and the type of
customer it is being sent to.
• This example of a particularly long
email is an extension of what the
customer would expect when visiting
this business for a drink or dinner.... a
nice long chat.
10
Content Considerationsy
• Achieve higher ‘Click Throughs’ - appealing to the nosey nature of
people results in higher click through rates. For hotels pictures of newly
decorated rooms work a treat and for restaurants it is a picture of the
chefs newest creation.
• Special Offers / Competitions - whilst you should mention Special
Offers / Competitions at the top of the email make sure the detail is
nearer the bottom. One of my clients sets a competition at the base of
the email where the answer is somewhere within the body of the email.
This encourages recipients to read the email all the way through.
11
Design Considerationsy
www.oceanjewellery.co.uk
12
Design Considerationsy
www.theedinburghaddress.co.uk
13
Design Considerationsy
www.visitmidlothian.org.uk
14
Design Considerationsy
www.misscoco.co.uk
15
Design Considerationsy
• If possible distribute multi-part emails consisting
of an HTML version and plain text version.
• Even text based emails should be formatted to
be spacious and easy to read.
• Consider the Preview Pane.
• Remember not all recipients
will see images by default.
• Email software is not
sophisticated so be careful not to
include incompatible formatting.
16
How To Sendy
• DIY - If you have a very small contact list and
no need for stats it may be feasible for you to
send your email campaign using your address
book and your regular email software such as
Outlook or Gmail. However be cautious as if you send too many emails
in one day and your ISP or google will likely block your ability to send
mail.
17
How To Sendy
• For almost any size of email campaign I would suggest using a
Specialist Email Distributor. They can send thousands of emails within
an instant and be able to provide you with real time and historical
tracking data. Whilst there are many solutions available I will briefly
discuss 3.
18
How To Sendy
• Constant Contact - www.constantcontact.com
Constant Contact’s pricing structure is a monthly
fee based on the number of recipients you have
stored in your contact list. This means you can
send campaigns an unlimited number of times without incurring any
additional costs. Sending an email to 2,499 recipients would cost $30
per month whether you send out an 10 or 0 emails a month. However if
you increased your contact list to 2,500 recipients you would be
charged $50 per month as you enter a new pricing bracket.
19
How To Sendy
• Campaign Monitor - www.campaignmonitor.com
Campaign Monitor’s pricing structure is based on
how many emails you send. It is $5.00 per
campaign plus $0.01 for each recipient. This
means the cost of sending 2,499 emails is $29.99 and by adding
another recipient the price only goes up to by $0.01 to $30.00. If
however you were to send multiple emails you would be charged
multiple times.
20
How To Sendy
• Mail Chimp - www.mailchimp.com
Mail Chimp has the flexibility of both methods
(i.e. a monthly flat rate based on the number of
email addresses in your contact list or a cost
per email sent) but as such it is slightly more expensive than either
Constant Contact or Campaign Monitor. It does however send up to 500
email addresses free of charge.
21
The Value Of Statsy
• Plan when to send email - Sending emails and
reviewing your stats in an ad hoc manner will
give you a good indication of how successful
your email campaigns are performing but to
enable you get the most out of your emails
you should plan your distribution ahead of
time. You should aim to send all your emails
at a similar time of day, on the same day each
week and even the same time each month
(in relation to pay day). Tip - Send emails on Tuesday mornings.
22
The Value Of Statsy
• Identify Popular Subject / Content - Stats will
let you see how many people have opened an
email and the popularity of individual links.
Using this data you should be able to identify
what your customers will open and what links
they are most likely to click.
23
The Value Of Statsy
• A / B testing - This is a good way of testing 2
variations of the same email. For example take
half of your contact list and send an email to
them, with your other half send a second email
with the same ‘message’ but with a different
appearance, subject line and body. Look at the
stats to see which one works best.
24
The Value Of Statsy
• Compare Open and Click rates - by comparing
your opening and click rates against industry
standards you will be able to benchmark the
success of your email against similar
businesses. A rule of thumb is that if you get a
1/3 opens and a 1/3 of the opens click through
you are doing well but obviously this varies
depending on your sector.
25
The Value Of Statsy
• Use analytics to establish how many visitors
from your email go on to make a purchase - by
setting goals and by using the E-commerce
features within Google analytics you can
extract what purchases have come as a direct
result of sending your email. Over a number of
campaigns you will be able to work out the
average income generated by sending an email
campaign.
26
Q&Ay
Digital Design Scotland
brought to you by Ross Knight
v
27