Web 2.0 and You

Web 2.0, User Generated Content, M2.0… it’s all the same and it’s been around for quite a while too, Tim O’Reilly first coined the term in 2005. Despite its longevity and overall buzz, many companies are stuck on the brink of integrating User Generated Content into their marketing plan.

This is completely understandable, because it seems like some new wiki, blog, Twitter or Flickr-thingy finds its way onto the radar each day. When you combine the available options with your overall needs, it’s no wonder Marketers are stuck wondering which step to take. Unfortunately, there is no single answer… everyone’s path is different; because every company targets a different customer need.

Taking that first step will become much easier when you focus on the customer – what would benefit him or her most? Would a brief update from Twitter fit the bill, or maybe a YouTube posting with visual “how to” example. The communication doesn’t have to be outbound, accept comments/ user reviews from your customers or host a contest with photo or video submissions. Here are a few additional ideas and examples from an M2.0 series of posts we ran in May:

M2.0: YouTube
M2.0: Social Networking
M2.0: Twitter
M2.0: Blogs

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Analyze This

We’ve met a number of email marketers who are true devotees to the science of analytics – dissecting the opens, clicks, conversions and even abandoned transactions to learn more about their readers, customers and prospects. They segment recipient lists, version content, alter creative and test everything from timing to offers.

This science is more specific to the individual marketer rather than the program or industry… so, unfortunately, there’s no golden ticket in this month’s newsletter – however, we have a couple suggested items to get you into the right mindset:

• Heat Maps – Are you analyzing your content to see where people are clicking – main logo, primary offer or other things? Experiment with the layout to see how it affects their click behavior, simple changes like adding product category navigation can help boost click rates. If they're clicking on the View email online link, consider revising (creating) a multi-part email.
  
• Simple Subject – Test which subject line elements stimulate more opens, for instance, try words relating to:
• Urgency – Hurry, Ends Soon, Only X days left
• Discount – Dollars or percentage off versus no discount message
• Exclusivity – Just for You, Exclusive, Sneak Peek, Pre-Sale or Be the First

Start experimenting (safely); simply looking at the results strengthens your segmentation, message content etc. It also enhances your bond with your recipients and helps broaden your talents as a marketer.

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True One to One

Segmentation can be as important as any other component of message development. While most segmentation requires some preference data there are others that can be leveraged if you’re just starting out or have limited information/ time:

• The Random A:B Split – Just divide the list, alter something and fire… see which message performs better.


• Tuesday/ Thursday Segment – Take the item above a little further; randomly split a fraction of the list and send on a particular day. Take the better performing message and deploy to the remainder of the list (and remember, it’s just a name, you don’t have to use Tuesday or multiple days…)

These strategies need some additional data, enhance your sign-up process to include preferences – this data forms the foundation for a lot of the personalization that is possible:

• Message Type – Divide based on those who want HTML, text or rich text messages; include a link to the other types, just so the recipient can see the available options.


• Timing – Release by time zone or, if possible, ask your user what time they would like to receive your alerts (morning, afternoon etc.)


• Source code Segmentation – Your recipients didn’t just appear, they signed up through an inquiry, purchase, directly from your website. They could have found you as the result of a search, perhaps a contest entry, partnership or append so leverage that information.

Alternatively, you could bypass the whole personal preferences and just base it on the recipient’s actions – and not just the buyer/ non-buyer segments.

• Operational Segmentation – Target people following the order process or an incomplete transaction; the same applies to your non-responders or inactive list.


• Transactional Segmentation – Your typical opens, clicks or responses can all be leveraged. Watch for multiples, repeated clicks on a certain section/ item can tell you a lot about a person… and help you generate future offers.


• First Responders – By tracking overall counts, you’ll quickly identify the first responders; acknowledge them and put them into their own group to receive advanced notice of your communiqués.

These suggestions don’t contemplate the added potential gained from survey data… so keep dividing your list and make the messages as personalized as possible.

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Continuing the Conversation

Relationships are based on trust, understanding and relevant two-way dialogue. Think of your last big purchase, be it a home or car or flat-screen television, odds are you researched it online, called a couple sources, test drove or looked around.

Regardless of the item, the path had to be somewhat similar – realize need (or want), research, express interest and then purchase. The same holds true with eMarketing, we know that a click is an indicator of interest.

That single click provides a world of insight; you now know what the recipient wants. Enhance their experience by taking them to a customized landing page that furthers your dialogue, consider the following when constructing:

• Divide and Conquer – You either know the "clicker's" preferences or you don't, use what you have and remember at a minimum you have two segments to market further.


• Past Performance – Leverage the information that you have, the number of opens, past clicks, previous purchases etc. (this goes hand-in-hand with the previous point).


• Get Creative – Think about the actual design of the landing page, if you have the capacity serve up dynamic content to create true one to one marketing!


• Never Surrender – This is the critical step, most eMarketers use the landing page strategy for special occasions. This is a decent strategy, but should be incorporated based on product, offer or event and not time of year in your email calendar.

See what you can do to incorporate landing pages into your marketing mix, but remember to make them personalized, informative (not overwhelming) and do it more than once.

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What’s in your Message?

Message Content is probably the most subjective component of an eMarketer’s job – is a message successful because of opens, or clicks, or conversions? Or are these analytics the result of the offer, the images or the timing… seems an eMarketer could go mad trying to balance the aesthetics to achieve those analytics.

So to cut the guesswork out of determining the right mix, you must test. Take a small portion of your list – say ten percent – divide this test segment in half and use this to try alternate subject lines or creative and deploy the top performer to the balance of your list.

The proposed strategy will do more than help you in the short term, it will also help you build your own predictive modeling – you’ll know that “Free Shipping” performs better than “Buy One, Get One” for instance or that a certain hero photo will surpass others. This customer insight (and associated statistics) will give you the ammunition needed to plan your campaigns and come in handy when you’re being pressured by the forces of inventory overflow.

So test often, keep records and you’ll be able to turn out top performing campaigns while gaining insight on your customer/ prospect base.

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30 Minutes of it's Free!

Remember the old pizza promotions? They ultimately failed because it wasn't about the quality of the food or the building of their brand - the promotion ultimately died because the pizza joint lost out. People were ordering because there was the potential for a free meal. I'll spare the cheesy email puns - but as in the pizza analogy, delivery is the deciding factor. You could have the best creative, a fantastic offer but poor deliverability - essentially a waste of your creative time and budget. According to our friends at Return Path, one in five commercial emails won't get delivered due to the sender's reputation.

Sender reputation is based on past performance, how you deal with complaints, address SPAM Traps and your infrastructure. Keep your reputation positive by addressing complaints immediately, honor unsubscribes, manage registration and conduct routine analysis of the process. But there's more...SPAM traps can be avoided by maintaining the health of your list, purge dormant addresses and bounces and gather your data appropriately.

Remember get good data, monitor processes and choose your vendor wisely. Learn more by listening to Return Path's Amanda Bacher on our November SIA call - available as a podcast on the SIA site.

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First Things First

Regardless of how great your message or offer is, you have to get it there. We’ve surveyed leading marketers across different industries and found that one of the greatest challenges is growing your email list; here are a few strategies to help capture the email addresses:

• Gold, Silver, Bronze: Start by telling the subscriber exactly why they should sign-up and what they should expect. Put together the top three reasons a person should subscribe to your messages – post it as part of the online sign-up process.
• First Line: Ask your frontline people why a customer should provide their email address – you’ll be surprised at the different answers you get. To remedy this, expand those top three reasons and provide your staff with a few additional points. Encourage your team to put the reasons in their own words; this will help the collection process become much more natural.
• I Object: Despite how well you ask for the address, you’ll always get objections. Take those common objections and provide your staff with points to counter those objections.
• F2F: The original intent of this action is extinct, but there are ways to make it work – arm your reps with upcoming or special messages. These communiqués can be sent immediately from the rep to the new subscriber providing additional value.
• Knowledge is Power: Share numbers relating to the email collection with your team – they’ll appreciate your inclusion; this detail will also help in the collection process. Increasing your employee’s interest is the most important element of the sign up process.

Got ‘EM!
Once you have the email address, send your Welcome Email as quickly as possible. Timing of this first message is critical, the sooner, the more coordinated and relevant you are in confirming their subscription the better off you will be in overall list health. Use this opportunity to request that the recipient add you to their safe sender or address book, so they continue to receive your emails in the inbox, rather than junk or bulk mail folders.

After the welcome campaign, start collecting data about the recipient. Leverage what you have in your CRM and add to it, ask for preferences, ask what they like to use and collect any missing demographic information. Depending on your success, you can push further (in another email) to ask them to create wish lists.

Collected preference information will form the basis of your personalization – at this point you can include new subscribers into your regular campaigns, monitor and update their status as you learn about them, move them based on click-through and conversion information – but never stop, keep asking for preference information through surveys.

Don’t Go!
Churn is inevitable, but it can work to your advantage. When an unsubscribe request is received attempt to learn from the unsubscriber, ask them why they are leaving (give options) and then give them the opportunity to reduce the frequency of mailings (avoid giving frequency options on the signup page.) Recency matters the most here, approach them quickly and tactfully.

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