3 Factors Affecting E-mail Marketing Response Rates

Many clients I've spoken with have claimed to have been “burned” in the past by trying e-mail marketing. They are dissappointed with the response rate that they receive, based on setting unrealistic expectations and a lack of testing strategy. I often ask them what they tested, and what worked and didn’t work. Silence typically ensures. A famous ad executive once said, “I know we waste half of our ad budget every year, but I just don’t know which half".

The 3 most important words in e-mail marketing in my humble opinion are “test”, “test” and “test”. My most successful clients always have a comprehensive testing program for every mailing that they conduct. And testing can cost as little as $100 flat extra for an A/B split subject line test of a list, so there really is no excuse not to test. Remember – there are 3 variables to every campaign 1) Creative 2) The Offer and 3) The List;

1) The Creative (20% of response)

Always take clarity over beauty. A shiny lure may look pretty to you, but it may not catch fish. I’ve seen many basic, non-designer HTML e-mails pull far better than overly fancy graphic intensive HTML e-mails. In fact, using coding techniques such as DIV tags instead of tables, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead of code heavy font/style formatting, e-mail filtering can be greatly reduced. Be sure that with images disabled your HTML e-mail still communicates its message by inserting "ALT" tag text for each one.  Use dynamic content to personalize e-mails ("Dear John"), and even merge/perge in more information.  Stay away from using memory-intensive Flash animation in your e-mail - leave that to your landing page.  An optimized animated GIF graphic less than 25 kB is acceptable, but again, the role of your e-mail is to drive visits to your landing page, so leave any fancy creative work to pages on your web site.

2) The Offer (40% of response)

To attract the big fish, you need some good bait. Is your offer unique, benefit oriented (not product or feature oriented) with a clear call to action? Is it competitively better than any other out there? Are there client case studies or testimonials to build trust? Why should a visitor to your web site take action and is there any urgency? Give-away something for free, be it a 30 day free trial, a demonstration, custom quote/proposal or even a white paper. Simply stating features or benefits will not provoke a response. Set a date for the offer to expire in order to provoke a sense of urgency to take action - usually within a week of your mailing. Incentives and offer deadlines have been proven repeatedly to improve response rates. Hold a webinar with a high-visibility partner or speaker to generate interest, and show how many people have registered in real-time right on your micro-site. For example, a lesser know videoconferencing client of mine held a seminar series with a well know networking partner (CISCO Systems) and it quadrupled its attendance as a result. Offer a free demonstration or trial/download of your product - this is the #1 offer that I see which converts to quality leads.

Webinars are one of the most effective offers to generate high quality leads.  Making the content unbiased and delivering it in a concise agenda, usually never more than 30 minutes is key.  Guest speakers and brand name company representatives are always helpful in boosting attendance.  Timing for promotion of a webinar is everything.  Remember - typically only 50% of those registered for a webinar will actually attend.  And for those who do attend, not more than 50% often stay to the end. You need to have a different follow-up strategy for each segment of responders, and non-responders.

Webinar Promotion Timeline Best Practise

2-3 weeks prior to the event	1st opt in e-mail list rental to gather new prospects 1st internal e-mail deployment to existing clients
1 week prior to the event	2nd e-mail list rental and internal mailing (back out those already registered!)
2-3 days prior to the event	Mail all those registered with a reminder of date/time of webinar
Day before	Send a reminder e-mail with date/time and agenda
2-3 days after	Follow up with 2 e-mails: 1) E-mail presentation link and product info to registered attendees 2) E-mail a "sorry to have missed you" message to those who registered but didn't attend with product info and dates for next webinar(s)

In a recent survey, b2b marketers were asked, "Which offers are 'very effective' for generating high-quality leads?"  Their top five picks, ranked in order, were:

1. Free trial demo or download – 54% of software marketers and ASPs ranked free demos as highly effective B2B lead generation tactics, compared to 28% of hardware marketers and 24% of those marketing services calling them 'very effective.'

2. Webcast or webinar – 41% of business software marketers and ASPs ranked webcasts as highly effective, compared to 31% of business-to-business hardware marketers and 33% of those marketing business services.

3. White paper -- All business technology marketers rated white papers as highly effective B2B lead generation tactics, with 35% of software marketers, 36% of hardware marketers, and 31% of those marketing services calling them 'very effective.'
   

Source: January 2008 - MarketingSherpa.com, MarketingSherpa's Business Technology Benchmark Guide

HOT TIP: Often publishers offer re-mail discounts on 3rd party lists from 10% to 25% off or even free during non-peak times of the year.

3) The List (40% of response)

Are you dropping your lure in the right place? Finding a targeted list that matches your audience is key. Especially one that reaches specific decision makers in industries/SICs (Standard Industry Codes) with job titles that match past buyers. If nothing else, use job title targeting to get your message in the hands of the right people. I always suggest personalization in 3rd party rentals as well as an A/B subject line test and a 60 day recency select.  The personalization grabs the attention right off the bat, and reminds recipients that they have opted in to a publication who knows who they are.  An A/B split test of subject lines is key to starting your testing strategy to gain learnings.  And targeting recent subscribers always helps response rates.  Ask about 2nd mailing discounts, since most lists will greatly reduce pricing on additional mailings - often up to 50%.  Ask your broker if you can target "hot openers" by resending only to those who opened the e-mail - your response rates will skyrocket! Some lists even allow you to purchase phone and postal information on "responders" - those who clicked or opened the e-mail.

HOT TIP: The top 3 target selects that I recommend (other than geography which is a no-brainer if you have a regional offer), in priority sequence are 1) Job Title 2) Industry or SIC and 3) Company or Employee Size. Additional targeting selects are relatively cheap given their impact on ROI.

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