What exactly impacts on the success of an email campaign?

What exactly impacts on the success of an email campaign?

I've often had people coming to me trying to understand why a certain campaign worked or why it was a failure.

I decided to shed some light on what your stats actually mean and why most of them is not worth the paper it's printed on

I want to look at the 4 main elements of any email blast / eshot:
1. From email address
2. Subject line
3. Creative (Images)
5. Layout
6. Body Copy (message you are trying to get across)

I also want to use the following success criteria's:
1. Delivery rate
2. Open rate
4. Click rate

I deliberately left out any website / landing page success criteria's as I want to focus on email.

Ok so lets first look at delivery rate.

Delivery Rate.
A successful delivery is when the email sender's server gets a "message accepted" from the receiving server. However this is often a false statistic as accepted by no means mean delivered.

Between acceptance and delivery a number of  firewalls, anti-virus and anti-spam devices can intercept and quarantine your message.

This is one of the few places that the creative and bad design can have a major impact. Most anti-spam devices uses "spam signatures"and various holistic scanning methods, first it looks at the from address,   subject and the body text. Some will also weigh the content of your email with the amount of coding (HTML) and the ratio of image to text.

So if you have a spam like subject from an invalid email address with  overly complex HTML or big images with very little text... well then there is a high probability your message will not be delivered.

So Pretty much all of our configurable can directly impact on the delivery, however a good compliant design will not, but bad inexperienced design will.

Open Rate.
So lets say your email made it past all the anti-spam an anti-virus gauntlets, now we can look at open rates.

Yet again, open rates is a red herring. Why you may ask? well lets look at how you measure an open rate.

Most images are linked in an email, that means the image is stored on the sending email server and a URL link to the image is embedded into the email. Each image will have a unique URL. The moment you open up the email and the image is downloaded the sending server records an "open".

Where is the red herring?

Some people have their email clients set up to automatically download images. So if they have the preview pane on, it will count as an open.

Others, myself included, have automatically download images turned off, so I get a "please click here to download images" message. I often read the email but hardly ever download the images.

So here is the problem, we have some people flagged as an open that never reads it and others flagged as non-openers that actually reads it.

What makes me open the message and download the images? A good, strong, relevant and informative subject line which ties in with the body copy. It does more to get me to open an email than any other single element.

Ok so does the following elements help with the open rate:

1. From email address? yes, fake, nonsensical email address will get your email deleted.
2. Subject line? Yes beyond a doubt. Its the single most important element in an email as its often the only element a person will see.
3. Creative (Images)?  Not at all, as you need to actually open the email to see the Images.
4. Layout? Only if the layout presents the information clearly and concisely in text. A layout that's reliant on imagery to deliver the message, will not help at all.
5. Body Copy? Plays a big factor, its the second most important element, after subject line, that will get someone to open the message. Rule of thumb, an email can do without  images, but not without text.


Click Rate.
Click rate is probably the only and most reliable measurable you can have in an email campaign.

When someone clicks, it means they're actively engaged and willing to take the next step to find out more.

Everything in an email should be focused on achieving the perfect balance. I have listed them in order of importance.

1. Clear concise messaging.
2. Clear layout with strong intuitive call to actions.
3. Strong, interesting, memorable imagery

The biggest mistake marketeers make is wanting to use new call to action delivery methods or imagery, thereby breaking away from the industry standard approach, In the hope of standing out. Unless your one of the big boys setting the web user interaction standards (facebook, google, twitter etc), stick with what they are doing.


Ok so does the following elements help with the Click rate:

1. From email address? Not really. It might impact on trust and thereby increasing the likelihood that the recipient might click.
2. Subject line? Again, it wont have such a big impact on a click.
3. Creative (Images)?  It will help to capture the recipient's attention and draw them into the body copy.
4. Layout? Absolutely, clear message layout with intuitive and visible call to actions will get you those clicks.
5. Body Copy? Yes! why would the recipient even bother clicking if your body copy did not engage them enough to want to take further action.




In conclusion. 
As you can see, each success criteria is dependant on various elements. The trick is to get the balance just right. Big strong jaw dropping graphics is useless without engaging copy, and the most amazingly engaging copy is useless if the recipient does not know how to take the next step.

Spend as much time as possible getting the copy and subject lines right and let your designer worry about the pretty pictures. Your copy is the most important aspect of it all.

5 things creatives need to keep in mind when dealing with a client

I recently found myself in the unfortunate position to be on the other side of the design table and was shocked at the ineptitude of how I was dealt with as a client.

Then again I must say, myself and my co-workers are not the easiest people to work with. Our drive, passion, creative ability  and attention to detail often catches people off guard.

Ultimately I am responsible for all creative in my company, so know very well the various personality types, tastes and management styles of the various departments and managers.

I thought I'd list a few points to consider when you as a designer or an agency deal with difficult demanding customers / people.


1. The customer is always right.
Misinformed, opinionated, rude, demanding… but never wrong.

Yes, I have done a number of years in retail in my early years so had this drilled in to me.

Look at it this way, do you truly know their business, their challenges and the people they report to, as well as they do?

Have you spent years in their business marketing to their target audience?


2. Know who you are talking to.
A lot of aggravation, confusion and conflict can be avoided if you take the time to find out who the key stake holders are and what they have done in the past.

This way you will not be surprised or caught off guard by an angry reaction when you marginalise procedure, principles and techniques the client has been using for years.


3. Listen and understand.
This is probably one of the biggest points. Listen to them, take their ideas and shape them so that the original idea they gave you is still visible in the final product.

If they point out something very specific, listen to them. There will be a reason why they take the time and effort to make the point

Nothing irritates people more than you trying to bully them into using your idea when they do not like the idea or have told you not to use it.


4. Adapt non critical procedures to suit customer workflows
Everyone company is different, they work different, they have different procedures and workflows.

Do not force all your procedures and workflows onto the customer. The client / contractor relationship works best when there is a certain give and take.

So keep your critical procedures but change your non critical procedures and workflows to suit the client.

for example if a client wants to receive a document for review before a meeting, but your procedure is to present the document at the meeting. Send them the document, its a non critical procedure and by sacrificing it you show your willingness to adapt to the customers needs.


5. Collaboration
This is a difficult one, from time to time you will find clients who give you complete free reign, enjoy these times, they are rare.

Other times clients come to you wanting to collaborate and work with you, they want to share their knowledge and pool resources and ideas. They do not want to be forced to use your ideas because you and only you thought it a good idea.

Key in all of this is to listen and adapt.

Summary
Know who you are dealing with, listen to what they are saying, don't underestimate their knowledge and experience and adapt to their needs.

11 Considerations before branding your business email

As a business we send out hundreds and in some cases thousands of direct one to one business emails every single day.

Every email is an opportunity to reinforce your brand and relay your latest news, press or events to an accepting audience.

Email stationery enhances everyday business emails by adding unobtrusive HTML and Plain Text components.

There are a number of considerations to be made:

1.Your Regulatory Environment

Your first point of call is to contact your legal department, they will have  a clear understanding of the regulatory environment of your business.

Things that might be affected by your regulatory environment:

• Location, length, notification of data storage
• Is the content private, personal or business

2. Regionalised email laws

There is no global email law in place, instead various laws govern various countries and sectors.

Two note worthy laws are the "CAN SPAM" act of North America and the European Union data protection act.

It is important to note that the law of the recipients country takes preference.

More can be found here: http://www.spamlaws.com 

The above mentioned laws specifically relate to the sending of "unsolicited commercial emails" a.k.a spam. 

When branding business emails, there seems to be only the UK companies act (updated 2007), that states all business communication must include company registration, place of registration and registered offices. This is also a requirement of the US CAN SPAM act

3. Standardising corporate brand and identity

I received an email from a friend who works for the Metropolitan Police and was completely left speechless by her signature, a tiny waving cat and lurid coloured name and telephone number.

This seems to be quite a common phenomena when the business is unable to provide an email branding solution.

The answer is to have a system in place (software or hardware) that allows you to manage one central template without having to log into multiple systems, or heaven forbid multiple end user machines.

4. Disclaimers, Confidentiality, Privacy Statements

Contrary to popular belief, disclaimers carry no legal weight. It's merely added to attempt to limit liability and is as of yet has not been proven in a court of law to be successful.

This does not mean you should ignore disclaimers. Its better to have it and not need it, than not have it and suddenly it becomes legally acceptable.

Confidentiality statements in its nature is slightly different and if used correctly can be a successful deterrent to unauthorised distribution of your content.

Confidentiality disclaimer should be the first content the recipient reads. There is no point in having it at the end of an email after the recipient has read the content of the email.

5. Personalised Business cards (contact details)

Now this is one of my pet gripes. I get an email from someone and its signed of with just "JP".  No name, no job title, no website and no telephone details.

Sure I can look at the email address and try to figure out the persons name and website, But why should I?

Their competitor had all their details where I could find them, and guese what? I went with the competitor

So please do add the following to your email branding:

• Name & surname
• Telephone number and / or Mobile
• Website address
• Company address

6. Marketing Messages

Whether its telling the companies story, boasting about your latest press coverage or inviting recipients to your latest event.  

Its important to show the recipients of your business emails that your company is out there and active.


As long as you keep it unobtrusive and relevant, it will be an invaluable and easy scalable solution.

7. Disclaimer Breeding

Pet gripe number two is something I call disclaimer breeding.

As mentioned in point four, disclaimers carry no real legal weight and asking someone to scroll through pages and pages of disclaimers to follow an email chain is just not going to help with their mood. We have all been there, we have all shared the pain.

Ensure your email branding system allows for the attachment of only one disclaimer per email chain. If it cant do it, try another system.

8. Group based stationery

Think about having separate email stationery for different business groups or regions. The marketing department will not necessarily be sending out the same contextual messages as the support department or management.

Ideally you should have a system in place that allows you to take advantage of existing business groups set up. For example Microsoft Active Directory. 

9. Opt-out messages

Now I hear your ask, "Opt-out messages in business emails?", yes however I'm not talking about opting out of communication as in "eblast / newsletter opt-outs" but rather opting out of receiving your branded business emails.

This can be as simple as providing a template that has no images and just the basic of HTML to ensure a consistent brand look and feel.

Put the decision in the hands of the recipients by including a, "To no longer receive images in emails from us please click here",  mechanism and then insuring their wishes are upheld.

phew.. ok almost done...

10. HTML and Plain Text

Ensure that you design both a plain text as well as HTML version of your email stationery.

All email travel the internet as multipart messages, three of those parts are HTML, Plain text and attachments.

By creating both versions, you ensure that if someone only views your email in plain text, they still receive contact details and disclaimers.

11. Embedding images

For me this is probably the most important point when deciding to brand business emails. Ensure your business email images are embedded.

Embedding images makes the images  part of the email source code.

The benefit is that you will not get a big security warning about privacy when opening up business email (see image).  These warnings indicate that one or more images are linked and stored on an external server.

By downloading these images, the sender not only has full visibility of when the email was opened but also of the recipients IP address, System information (operating system, browser, email client) and a whole bunch of other information. Hence the big yellow security warning.

Conclusion

As you can see there are many considerations to take in to account when doing email branding. There is never been a better time. Email is at the height of its power, its been adopted, embraced and integrated into  not only business but into our everyday lives.

For impartiality sake I make no suggestions as to which service or software to use. Just drop "Business email branding" into google and you will get a long list of decent services.

Also see:

• Email Branding & Marketing, 4 Misconceptions 
• 5 things you should know when designing HTML for email

5 points to consider when designing HTML for email

Email marketing is a hot topic, not only does it allow you to easily brand all your business email,  it also provides a quick ROI when used for lead generation.

To effectively deliver a branded eblast, newsletter or business email, you will need to create it using HTML.  HTML allows you to use your company colors, fonts, images and styling in email.

However, most people do not realise that designing HTML for email is very different from designing HTML for webpages.

So I thought I'd list 5 important points to consider.


1. Lack of experience and knowledge
Just because someone did a 2 day dreamweaver course 3 years ago, does not mean they understand the differences between web and email HTML. Get someone in who knows what they are doing, someone with a proven track record in email design.

2. Design for lowest common denominator.
Yes, your all singing all dancing HTML email looks great. Who cares if it does not work on Microsoft Outlook? erm.. well... 43% of people who use email! Know your email clients, test your email on as many different clients as you can.

A big rule of thumb here is to rather dumb down your email design than to alienate your recipients.

3. Know the differences between web and email HTML
There are a multitude of differences and I will address this in another posting, but the biggest difference is that Email has no header tags.

No header tags means that style sheets (CSS) should be placed in the body of the email

4. Rendering of Email 
Did you know that Microsoft Outlook 2007 and later now uses MS Word to render HTML? Most other email clients will use the default webbrowser on your machine.

 When an email is forward, the email client will re-render the email using its own proprietary language (EML, RTF etc.). This will more often than not "break" your carefully crafted code.

5. No Scripting!
Even if you embed it in the body you should never use any form of scripting such as JavaScript. Using JavaScript is a quick way to getting your emails blocked and your domain blacklisted.

Future posts will discuss each of these issues in depth.