Chris Baggott's Email Marketing Best Practices

Email for Lead Management & Conversion

I thought it might be helpful to explain one way we use email for lead management. 

First, it’s important to know that all leads that originate from the web submit directly to our CRM (Salesforce.com)

From there it is determined if that lead exists in the system or is brand new.  If it’s a new lead, someone on our calling team calls and begins the relationship.  This is essentially a qualification stage.   A thank you or confirmation email is also sent.  Note in the graphic, the caller and the email ‘from’ are the same.  Our goal is to establish a relationship, so we want to make sure that one person on our side is responsible for this.   The two touches really make a difference.

If the lead already exists in the system, then a couple of things happen differently.  First, an email goes out to the lead ‘From’ the existing relationship owner thanking them for the whitepaper download or whatever, we also trigger an email to that relationship owner telling them that X just registered or what ever action they took that got this process started.

Additionally, since we presumably have more data on the existing relationship we use dynamic content to drive other engagement.  For example, if someone is not opted in to our Case Study email, they might get an offer for that.

The graphic kind of outlines the process, but feel free to ping me with any questions.   As marketers ourselves, we are constantly experimenting with ways to drive more conversions and engagement and I’m happy to share what’s working …. And what’s not :-)

Advertisement:  Go here to learn more about ExactTarget email automation solutions

FTC Doubts 'ADV' Label Will Cut Spam

Good article even if a little obvious to eveyone who is not in government :-)

FTC Doubts 'ADV' Label Will Cut Spam
June 17, 2005
By Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK The Federal Trade Commission said in a report to Congress that requiring all commercial e-mail carry an "ADV" label in the subject line would not reduce spam.

As required under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, the FTC was required to examine a labeling requirement. In a 46-page report, the FTC said such a requirement is unlikely to help consumers or Internet service providers block unwanted commercial e-mail. It cites requirements in several states that have failed to make much of a difference.

The FTC concluded that most spammers would ignore the requirement, making it unlikely to help in filtering out unwanted e-mail. The report said existing spam filters used by ISPs are already more precise than the labeling option.

In an earlier report required by the CAN-SPAM Act, the FTC said a no-spam registry modeled on the do-not-call list would not help either.

Four of the FTC's five commissioners endorsed the labelling report, with John Leibowitz dissenting. He argued that while an "ADV" label might not affect spammers, it would help consumers deal with marketing e-mail from legitimate companies.

The CAN-SPAM Act does require "SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT" subject-line labels for commercial e-mails with adult content. The legislation does require all commercial e-mail to carry notice that it is an advertisement in the body of the message.

Rather than labeling requirements, the FTC has banked on stepped-up enforcement, consumer and business education, and the development of e-mail authentication and reputation systems to make spam less of a problem while protecting legitimate commercial e-mail.

Where is the line between traditional marketing & internet / online marketing?

Last night I was participating in a panel discussion down here in Atlanta.  The overall subject was online marketing.

Right off the bat the moderator asked one of the best questions I’ve ever heard.

“What is the line between traditional marketing and newer internet marketing?”

What struck me suddenly was that there is no line.   I hadn’t thought about it specifically in this way before, but it was illuminating.

There is no line between ‘traditional’ marketing and internet marketing any more.   I can’t think of any marketing program (note: I don’t use the word campaign) that doesn’t include an internet component.

As we marketers come to the realization that that customer is the most important asset, we are fully integrating all of our tools to help us get a central view of that customer as an individual.   

We are no longer shouting at him to Buy, Buy, Buy!.   Instead, our TV or Print is driving that prospect to a landing page.   Like it or not the best customers go to the web first.  From there we educate, build credibility and convert that prospect with a registration mechanism and gain permission to begin an email relationship.  With Email Marketing, we are using our clickstream and customer preference data to nurture our prospect until they become a customer and then leverage email to build on that relationship with the overall goal of high lifetime value…..

Our goal:  A mutually beneficial relationship that lasts a long time.

Great Question that we should all be asking ourselves

Advertisement:  Go here to learn more about ExactTarget email automation solutions.

Stop Phishing by leveraging the ‘From’ side of your relationships

Ok, we are all excited about the latest announcement with Domain Keys from
Yahoo and Cisco. 

Domain Keys are an authentication system that basically is paid for by companies and ESP’s who send legitimate email.  Great idea and we of course are very enthusiastic for the day it finally is in widespread use.

But, what can you do in the meantime to help prevent your customers/clients from becoming victims of Phishing?

How about paying attention to existing relationships?   We know that banks are among the most often Phished.  But don’t banks almost always have a branch?  Are there not real people behind the bank as an institution?   What about Mary, the manager of my local branch?

My point is that if all of my banks emails come from someone I know (my local manager) and if I hit reply, I’m actually replying to my manager…its going to be very hard for me to fall victim to some anonymous email “Claiming” to be my bank. 

This is easy to implement, drives significantly higher engagement than ‘institution to many’ email….and almost impossible for a Phisher to replicate.

(Commercial) Learn more about ExactTarget Integrated Email Solutions Here....

Retail Email & Relevance

E-Mail Marketing : E-Mail 1-to-1

June 2005
By Katherine Field

Wild Birds Unlimited builds relationships by using e-mail

Hobbyists frequently are eager and willing to share personal data with direct marketers, as their passions drive them to seek information about their favorite subjects. Armed with that understanding of its customer base, Carmel, Ind.-based Wild Birds Unlimited has rolled out an on-demand e-mail marketing solution that is designed to build a richer customer relationship.

Specializing in upscale items for backyard bird enthusiasts, Wild Birds Unlimited is not new to e-mail marketing. According to the company’s aptly named communications director, Marty Bird, “We were an early adopter of e-mail marketing, but the software we used was too technical to roll out for use by our store owners.” In 2001, that all changed.

“We were looking for a solution that would enable our store owners to leverage all of our articles, images and marketing collaterals into their own e-mail marketing campaigns,” Bird said. What they found was ExactTarget, an Indianapolis-based provider of on-demand e-mail solutions designed to build customer relationships by leveraging personal data.

“The beauty of data-driven e-mail is that the retailer actually can build a relationship and develop a dialog with its customers based on their attributes: their demographics, behaviors, purchases, etc.,” explained ExactTarget co-founder and chief marketing officer Chris Baggott. “More and more companies are beginning to realize that it is essential to nurture existing relationships and capitalize on them.”

ExactTarget has enabled Wild Birds Unlimited franchisees to take control of their e-mail marketing programs under the franchisor-approved umbrella. The corporate office creates e-mail marketing templates with locked areas for brand control. In other areas, the store owners can customize content for their own unique markets. Also accessible are content libraries that contain franchisor-generated information that can then be integrated into a franchisee’s custom e-mail materials.

Wild Birds Unlimited store owners send monthly e-mail communications to each of the approximately 2,500 customer names per store. Communications are sent more frequently during the busier seasons such as Mother’s Day and Christmas. The open rate is 40%, which “is great. Our store owners are very happy with the rate of return,” Bird said.

However, e-mail frequency will vary from chain to chain, depending on how often the retailer has something relevant to say, ExactTarget’s Baggott said. “Relevance drives a much higher response rate,” he explained.

Relevancy is something many retailers often overlook in their e-mail marketing, Baggott added. “They think of e-mail marketing as mass marketing—and it’s not. With e-mail and database marketing, you actually can drive the right message to the right people at the right time.”

That’s what Wild Birds Unlimited has done so well, said Baggott. By customizing each e-mail message and making it not only specific to the store that the customer shops, but also specific to the recipient, the e-mail marketing efforts become better, more targeted and more relevant. “The idea is to send relevant content based on data, which is different from the way most marketers—especially retail marketers—are trained to think,” said Baggott.

So far, 80 of the 300-plus Wild Birds Unlimited stores are using the ExactTarget solution. The retailer’s goal is to have 100 on board by year’s end. “This year, at our annual meeting in June, we will have a lot of e-mail success stories to be told, and I hope that will result in more of our store owners using e-mail,” Bird said.

(Commercial) Learn more about ExactTarget Integrated Email Solutions Here....

Job Hunting For Email & Automated Marketers

A lot of you have written  in response to my post a couple of weeks ago about Email Marketers making more money. 

Although it looks like we have a candidate for the position with ExactTarget, I wanted to share some work that Anne Holland has done on Marketing Sherpa.  This link will take you to a report Anne did that has additional links to just about every marketing job posting in the world.  If you are looking to upgrade your career, this is the place to search.

Factors to Consider When Comparing On Demand Email Solutions With an In House Solution

Someone sent this to me without the source.  I know it was an article called: Debating In-House E-mail Marketing by David Baker.   Hopefully I'm not breaking any copyrights, but I thought the article was so good that I really wanted to share it....

IF YOU'RE CONSIDERING BRINGING E-MAIL marketing systems in-house, read on. If you're not, read on anyway. This is a hot topic based on the way today's businesses are run. We want to make the complex simple, for ourselves and our customers. So finding the right partners to support our businesses is critical. But sometimes we think that to do the job best, to guarantee the best quality for our customers, we have to do things ourselves. Thus the question, should I bring e-mail marketing in-house? (Translation: should I license a product, integrate it with my infrastructure, set up a mailing server environment and manage all aspects of the system?)

In 2002 Forrester published a report with a big prediction: "Most marketers hope to bring e-mail marketing in-house by 2003." But then it made a distinction. It said for those marketing to business consumers, in-house e-mail marketing might make sense because integration with CRM Systems and Sales Force Automation is critical. But large-scale consumer marketers with complex systems and expanding lists might be more successful with application service providers and agencies. In 2002 no one was talking about deliverability as an issue. Furthermore, there weren't any controls on affiliates, third parties or the use of e-mail.

Fast forward to 2005. Many large scale and small scale organizations are using internal e-mail systems. And they have buyer's remorse when they see the cool gadgets available with Application Service Providers (ASPs). Three years ago businesses were all about reporting and cool features. Today they're about responsibility, simplifying systems for their customers and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Because TCO is one of the biggest issues to consider today, here are a few points to think about:

*       Transactional Repository. Hosted e-mail services offer tremendous financial advantages in terms of archiving and storage capacity. You are typically not charged for hosting hundreds of lines of data for each campaign and in many cases it is archived for you at little to no costs compared to your internal costs to manage and archive this.
*       Image Hosting. Instead of requiring you to host images on your own servers, many outside systems will allow you to host images for your e-mails for small fees or free. Over time, this can be a nice savings in both resource costs and server capacity.
*       List Management. If you do not have a database in-house or are using rudimentary database technologies, many of the e-mail systems offer robust database management and storage services that allow detailed queries, segmentation, advanced reporting and customizable fields.
*       Forms and Web Pages. Many of the newer systems will offer form hosting, surveying, hosting, opt-out and preference pages that can be built on the fly. Developing and managing this internally adds significant cost and resource time to host, create and integrate with your current e-mail systems.
*       Mail Server Capacity. You should consider the network costs of sending an e-mail through your own servers. The costs are often difficult to calculate precisely. But imagine the immeasurable time cost of sending an e-mail to 50,000 names at noon when your servers can only accommodate 7,000 names.
*       Managing Opt Outs. The systems have become so advanced and automated that you can easily create single-click opt outs, custom opt out forms and double opt out methods that can be managed automatically for you.
*       Reporting and Analysis. Unless you're willing to spend twice the normal cost, you will most likely never have in-house reporting systems that are as thorough as those of ASPs.

If you are contemplating licensing server-based software or questioning your current internal system, then spend a bit of your research budget on testing third-party, hosted services. You'll want to understand what you'll be missing or gaining (for example, control versus flexibility). If you bring the system in-house, you will likely have tighter integration and more control, but you will not benefit from the product advancements of a hosted solution and it will be harder to understand your TCO. I believe that if you have an internal system, your capabilities will always be a few years behind the market. Most importantly, you want to keep things as seamless as possible to make the complex simple for you and your customers.

(Commercial) Learn more about ExactTarget Integrated Email Solutions Here....