Adestra

When Microsoft upgraded their flagship email client, Outlook, for the 2007 edition of Microsoft Office, they decided to make a fundamental change that completely rewrote the rules of email design. With the last incarnation in 2003, they used Internet Explorer (IE) as the rendering tool, which meant that provided your template looked fantastic in IE, it would look pretty much exactly the same in your inbox. However, for Outlook 2007 they changed the rules and opted to use Word for rendering purposes instead, which meant everything had to change.

Tricks and ideas that we used to use were out the window – it meant for a whole lot of changes to the way we code for email, but in a constantly evolving industry a change this significant was inevitable. So, with the latest version of Office comes a new version of Outlook – 2010 to be exact – which continues to use Word over IE.
Apart from front end changes, not much has altered in terms of rendering. Below are a list of items that you should look out for when coding for Outlook 2007 and 2010.

• Alt labels: Any alt text is replaced with the url, if the image is clickable, or does not appear if there is no link.
• Animations: Only the first slide of an animated gif will be visible, so make sure your most important content is included on it. Flash still is and has always been a no-go in email.
• Background: Background images are almost always stripped out – ensure you have a solid colour as a backup, in case you’re using white text on a dark image.
• Cascading Style Sheets: A lot of CSS won’t work, but the core elements will inline:
  • background-color
  • color
  • font-family
  • font-size
  • font-weight
  • line-height
  • text-align
  • text-decoration
• Character spacing: Outlook will marginally increase the size of your designated font, meaning that if you have a small amount of text boxed in by a series of images, where there is no extra room, it can lead to a breakage. Ensure that there is sufficient room to allow for this.
• Forms: Although the element will be visible and information can be inputted, the submit button will not work.
• Height: Try to visualise how your email will appear on a Word page. If you have a series of images on top of each other, an unexpected gap will appear where Word tries to insert a page break. Try to keep your content within separated tables or, if possible, shorten your email to reduce the risk.
• Images: Aim to use width=100 height=100 on images, to preserve the original aspect ratio. If style=”width: 50px; height: 50px” is used instead, this will be removed and the original dimensions reinstated. You can get around this by denoting width=50 height=50 instead.
• Padding: I’ve learned to use nested tables for my padding, so always ensure that tables and cells have a fixed width so that your spacing displays correctly.

Obviously some of these commands work differently in other email clients, but it gives an insight into any problems you might encounter with Outlook 2007 or 2010. If you have any questions, please email strategy@adestra.com

Neil Bursnoll, Adestra Production Team Leader

Our 2010 Email Marketing Industry Census found that more than a third of companies (37%) are using email to encourage the sharing of content on social networks, and just under a third of companies (31%) say they are planning to do this. However this just doesn’t have to be a one way relationship; Facebook has a great little tool that allows you to host email signup forms on your fan pages also. Instructions on this can be found below.

Add the Static FBML app to your page

You will need to have access to the Facebook Static FBML app in order to do this; simply type Static FBML into the Facebook search box and choose ‘Static FBML’.

Once you are on the page, on the left hand side of this screen select the link ‘Add to my page’, a pop-up box will ask you which fan page you would like to add this to and select ‘Add to Page’ next to the relevant one.

Adding your Sign Up Form

Now, go to your page and select ‘Edit Page’ from the left hand menu, this will provide you with a number of options; choose the edit link under FBML

You are now presented with a box that you can copy and paste your subscription form HTML code into.

If you currently have a form created by Adestra, contact us here or if you would like to have one setup, you can get in touch with us here. Once you have the code, simply copy and paste into the box and choose Save changes.

Add as a Tab to your Fan Page

Finally, go back to your fan page. If your sign up tab is not already there, choose the “+” symbol next to your tabs and select the form you have just created. People now the option to sign up to your emails direct from Facebook.

Andrew Abram, Client Strategy Consultant

In a recent meeting with a client, they wanted to know what to do in order to improve their open rates, my suggestion was to test. As everyone’s recipient base is different, there is no one rule fits all answer, the only way to find out is to test what works for your recipients.

The client did a number of controlled tests, testing one aspect of the email at a time, allowing them to see exactly what caused the increase/decrease in response. The client split their list into two, sending half of the list their regular email, and the other half the email with the testing element. There were a number of aspects which had a small impact on the campaign results, such as, the layout and design of the email, however the aspect which had the greatest impact on the results was personalising of the subject line with the recipients’ company name.

This test saw a 5% increase in open rates, compared to the non personalised version, as well as an increase in the click through rate too.

By personalizing the subject line the recipient knew that the email was relevant them encouraging them to open and interact.

Please email support@adestra.com for the demonstration videos on how to Split Test, and Personalise your Subject Line. Or if you would like any further information please contact your strategy Consultant strategy@adestra.com

Jenna Lovell, Client Strategy Executive

Clients regularly ask us how they should segment their lists to achieve better response from their email marketing. Segmentation doesn’t have to complex, and a few simple segments could make all the difference.

One of the most commonly used forms of segmentation is RFM (recency, frequency and monetary value). RFM is a good way to define and understand customer value. It can help to define acquisition data, as well as helping you to shape your customer retention programme.

Why segment?

Segmentation is the best way to make your marketing relevant to the recipient. You can tailor your message based on the segments you decide upon their interests and what you want to achieve from that segment. Segmentation also could save you money, as you will only be targeting those who meet your segmentation criteria, rather than a blanket technique. The most important benefit, is that you will be sending material that is of interest to your recipient, therefore they will engage with you and will increase the likelihood of a response.

Using the RFM model in practice

The most powerful factor that determines whether your customer will buy again is how recently (R – weighted 35%) they made their previous purchase. They are engaged with you at the point of purchase and response rates decline as time goes on.

Frequency (F – weighted 50%) is the second most powerful indicator of response. These customers are engaged with you and are most likely to purchase from you and engage from you again. Keep them happy and nuture them as they are the most difficult to get back.

Those who have made large purchases (M – weighted 15%) are more likely to continue to spend at higher levels, but may buy less often.

A simple way to segment your customer base is using a matrix like this.

Now, also think about the Lifetime value of that customer. If you can move those who have just purchased from you, to purchasing from you more frequently their Lifetime Value will increase.

If you would like some advice or consultancy on how to segment your data,  please do contact us by emailing strategy@adestra.com

Reena Mistry
Group Account Director

Getting your email campaigns past spam filters is a key concern for email marketers and at Adestra we take this seriously. Adestra and Econsultancy’s Email Marketing Industry Census 2010 found that 24% of companies now say that deliverability is a problem (compared to only 13% in 2009). More importantly, 83% of companies surveyed didn’t know what percentage of their email budget is lost through non-delivery.

Understanding what impacts your deliverability and what you can do to maintain and improve it is very important. Our Demystifying Deliverability whitepaper explains what deliverability is, and what it means for you.

Download your copy of the whitepaper today

Our 2010 Email Marketing Industry Census, found that 39% of respondents do not know the ROI of their email campaigns. Whilst this has fallen from the 42% reported in the previous year’s research this is still a worrying figure considering that email marketing accounts for an average of 17% of total marketing spend; the second highest digital channel spend.

So, why not use our ROI calculator to work out your return on investment. If you don’t like what you see in the results there are many ways that we can help you stream line your email strategy to ensure that your budget is well spent.

Try our ROI calculator today

After scrolling through my inbox I noticed there were very only a few people utilising the pre-header, also known as teaser copy, or snippet. Not sure what this is? Go into your inbox and look for the first line of text displayed after the subject line, this is the pre-header, often used for the webversion and mobile version links.

This text is also displayed in the Outlook new message pop up alert, as well as next to the subject line in Gmail, and is also viewable on mobile devices when the HTML is not.

This brief snippet of information can be used to encourage open rates, as it is the first thing recipients will see of the email, getting their attention and encouraging to download images and read your email rather than just deleting and moving on. Having your webversion / mobile version links here, are useful, but should they be right at the top? If you are sending out a news publication try including the headline of the top story or a quirky fact, a retail email try repeating your offer, include a call to action, encouraging recipients to click straight through to your website. It is valuable real estate, to build interest and excitement in your emails.

Do an A/B split test and see if it helps increase your open/click through rate, help make your email stand out from the crowd.

Jenna Lovell, Client Strategy Executive

The 2009 Marketing-Gap Tracking study conducted by fast.Map and the DMA has revealed that email is the consumer’s preferred direct marketing channel.

The study showed that consumers are now more than ever more willing to receive emails from trusted brands and products they are interested in. The study also revealed the fact that marketers are largely underestimating this consumer willingness. A panel of 300 marketers thought that 28% of consumers would be happy to receive emails about companies that they know of when actually 51% of the consumer panel expressed interest.

Robert Keitch, chief of Membership and Brand for the DMA commented that “consumers are largely receptive to direct marketing, but only under the right circumstances”.  Marketers now need to ensure that emails are relevant and targeted in order to increase this consumer interest that will then drive revenue from email as a channel.

Regardless of this underestimation among marketers email is still coming out on top as an excellent tool for ROI. The 2010 Email Marketing Census conducted by Adestra and Econsultancy revealed that 75% of companies rank email as a good channel for ROI. This was the second highest among the channels that saw only SEO coming in higher at 78%.

To read the full Marketing-Gap Tracking study click here >>

To read our Email Marketing Census 2010 click here >>

Serena Elston, Client Strategy Executive

We recently presented our case study “How to win back lost customers and get them spending again through intelligent data driven email marketing” at TFM&A.

For those of you who didn’t manage to see us here’s the video

Marketers are using social media to enhance their email marketing campaigns rather than to replace them, according to new research published by Econsultancy and Adestra today.

The fourth annual Email Marketing Industry Census found that more than a third of companies (37%) are using email to encourage the sharing of content on social networks, and just under a third of companies (31%) say they are planning to do this.

A fifth of companies (21%) are using email to promote customer ratings and reviews, while a further 26% have plans to do this. The research also found that 28% of companies are using video content in their emails, as marketers increasingly use email to build customer engagement.

The 2010 research, based on a survey of almost 900 digital marketers carried out in January and February 2010, found that email marketing now accounts for 17% of digital marketing budgets compared to 14% in 2009.

Increased investment can be attributed to the fact that the vast majority of responding companies (75%) rate email as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ for return on investment.

Henry Hyder-Smith, Managing Director at email service provider Adestra, said: “The explosive impact of social media on email marketing and its significance on this year’s census can’t be ignored. We are delighted to see that email is far from dying in the midst of the social media revolution. And instead of cannibalisation, we are witnessing a solid partnership evolving between the two; email and social media working in harmony to fuel one another.”

Despite the fact that many companies are becoming more sophisticated with their email marketing, and integrating this channel with other activities, there remains concern that many marketers are still not following basic best practice, the research has found.

Too many organisations are still not paying sufficient attention to the quality of their lists and the importance of relevant email.
The research, sponsored by Adestra for the fourth year running, found that:

• Only 56% of companies are using opt-in (43%) or confirmed opt-in (13%) data for their acquisition emails, while only 60% are using opt-in (39%) or confirmed opt-in (21%) data for their retention emails.

• The quality of database is deemed to be the biggest barrier to effective email marketing. This is cited as a problem by 61% of marketers, up from 44% in 2009. But only a third (32%) of company respondents say list / data quality is a top-three priority for 2010.

• The proportion of responding companies have problems reaching recipients’ inboxes has increased from 51% last year to 54%. The percentage of companies who say that deliverability is a barrier to success has increased from 13% in 2009 to 24% in 2010.

Linus Gregoriadis, Research Director at Econsultancy, said: “Companies must take care to focus on the relevance of their email in a world where it is becoming increasingly important for brands to demonstrate value, rather than bombarding people with unwanted messages. Sophisticated segmentation and effective list-cleansing are more important than ever. ”
Other key findings include:

• More than half of companies (54%) are now using a hosted email service as the growth of web-based email applications continues. This percentage compares to 47% last year, a third (33%) of respondents in 2008, and only a quarter (27%) in 2007.

• There has been a significant increase (+5%) in the proportion of companies who say that return on investment (ROI) from email is more than 500%.
• But as witnessed in previous years, there are still too few companies who understand their ROI from email. Thirty-nine per cent of companies still don’t know their ROI from email. More encouragingly, looking at those who can quantify their return from email, there has been an increase in companies who say that they get more than 500% ROI from this channel.

• From a range of email marketing practices, companies are most likely to be carrying out basic segmentation (80%) and regular list-cleansing (58%). The practices respondents are most likely to be planning to carry out are advanced segmentation (42%), content personalisation beyond name (37%) and behavioural targeting based on web activity (34%).

• The integration of email marketing with other sales and marketing activities is an on-going challenge, and there isn’t much evidence of significant improvement in this area since the first Email Census in 2007. Only 17% say that their email marketing is “fully integrated”, the same proportion as last year.

Report URL – Email Marketing Census 2010

Journalists, Please contact Hollie Williams for more info