Opt-in Email Marketing 101

Over 3 Million Dollars Of Experience
After spending well over $3 million US for opt-in email programs on behalf of my clients over the past 8 years as owner of Charlwood eMarketing, I believe that we can confidently provide your business with a successful direct emarketing program. In the 7 years prior to running Charlwood eMarketing (and after earning a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours Business Degree) I've conducted online and offline direct marketing campaigns while working in non-profit, consumer packaged goods and financial services industries. I always look for ways to leverage my offline and online experience by sharing learning and best practises with my clients.

Sincerely,

Chris Charlwood
Founder, Charlwood eMarketing
Tel: (250)448-5006
Email: chris@charlwood.com

10 Step Direct eMarketing Process
Although we specialize in assisting businesses in emarketing to the technology industry, the principals remain the same for opt-in email campaigns across all sectors;

1. Define your business objectives and rationale for your response expectations
2. Calculate your break-even ROI to ensure that you stay profitable in the long run
3. Clearly articulate an ideal target customer, define their habits/characteristics
4. Set up a test program to gain learning and measure everything
5. Develop an offer, not just a list of product or service features & benefits
6. Make all creative benefit-oriented to demonstrate value rather than features
7. Optimize HTML email creative and landing pages for the web
8. Test, test and then test again as part of a regular process
9. Have a customer relationship management plan for remarketing
10. Refine your offer/creative based on test results and continue testing

1. Define your business objectives
The first question to ask yourself is: "What are my objectives?". Are you trying to drive qualified sales leads or build a database for remarketing? Why do you think email marketing will help your business and what are your expectations and rationale for the results that you are aiming for? Is that rationale based on facts or experience and is it based on realistic assumptions?

In general, the cost per acquiring a new customer for an average opt-in or permission-based email list rental can be paid back very quickly if well executed. For example, if you close 1 in every 3 sales leads and your maximum cost per lead is $100 and your profit per sale is $300 or more, then email marketing makes sense. That is not to say that you won't more than make back your marketing investment once you've added a new prospect to your house opt-in email list (you should have one) for remarketing purposes.

2. Calculate your break-even ROI
To ensure that a campaign remains profitable over the long run, you need to do the math to calculate your return on investment (ROI). What you should know is what is the most that you would pay for each action that you are looking for as a result. For example, if you are generating leads for sales follow-up, what is your maximum cost per lead that you would be willing to pay, and still make a profit for each lead? You will need of course to be able to estimate an open, click-through and conversion rate for response based on your past online experience. We can help you put together a realistic scenario for your business. Try our opt-in email ROI calculator to make your own estimate of expected return on investment for your campaign.

3. Clearly articulate an ideal target customer
Who is your ideal customer? What is their typical job title, industry vertical and geographic location? Do they have other characteristics or habits that make them more likely to be interested in your offer? What is their purchase cycle like? How often do they buy, and how much do they spend when they do buy?

4. Set up a test program
What do you want to learn from a test mailing and what will you track? Testing is an ongoing part of any direct response program. Clients who lack a budget for testing multiple lists should still test at least two subject lines, creatives or offers within one single minimum list rentals. This is called an "A/B split" test and is no additional cost for most lists. Subject lines can be the single biggest determinant of response, given that this is what determines email open rates. If you have a budget for multiple lists, testing 2 subjects/offers across each of them will give you even more learning. Remember, however, that you should always keep a control group (e.g. based on a proven subject line, creative or offer) and test against that with others until you can prove that it no longer provides the maximum results. Don't limit your testing to subject lines, creative and offers - landing pages are also a prime lever for converting qualified click-throughs to leads or sales opportunities.

For example, here is an A/B split subject line test of 2 offers:
Subject A: "Start accepting credit cards today"
Subject B: "Free 5 page website with your merchant account"

If you are renting a list of 5,000 emails for a minimum test buy, test subject line A by having it sent to 2,500 emails and subject line B to 2,500 emails. You can then track the results and apply that learning to future tests. Personalizing emails to first and last names has also been proven to increase response. When we set up a lead capture database for a client, we often recommend personalization and prepopulating form fields where possible.

5. Develop an offer
Why should a visitor to your website 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. How is your offer unique to your competitors? Set a date for the offer to expire in order to provoke a sense of urgency to take action. 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. Offer a "Tell A Friend" function to encourage viral marketing. We can help you create a customer relationship management application for capturing leads. Your business could benefit from dynamic landing page with real-time information displayed for your visitors, which will help increase excitement and encourage action.

6. Make all creative benefit-oriented
Are you listing product or service features or are you promoting a customer benefit in their terms in your messaging? Focus on the value of your product or service, and how it improves the lives of your customers. Keep your creative single-minded by focussing on a single benefit - don't clutter your messaging with multiple benefits or additional bells and whistles. Have your creative include an actionable offer with a clear call to action - e.g. "Click here to get a free demonstration". You will also need to ensure it abides by the latest privacy legislation - which we can help you with.

7. Optimize HTML email creative and landing pages
Optimizing your HTML email content to prevent false positive SPAM filtering which can reduce your response rates by up to 50% or more. Did you know that each extra data field of information that you try and collect at your website will reduce your leads by 5%?

Never just send traffic to your home-page. You need to develop an offer-specific landing page or even a micro-site to drive traffic which clearly reflects your offer and drives visitors towards a clear actionable outcome. (e.g. see this client example developed for TANDBERG videoconferencing).

8. Test, test and then test again
The three most important words in opt-in email marketing are "test", "test" and "test". Many times I have had clients say to me that they tried email marketing once, but it didn't work! I then ask them what did they learn from their testing, and silence ensues...

Think about what can you learn from your campaign - are you testing subject lines, creative messaging, offers and landing pages? Test, test and then do some more testing to refine your creative and offer and list selection. With ongoing testing, steadily you will reduce your cost per customer acquisition and improve your ROI - guaranteed.

9. Have a customer relationship management plan
Once you capture leads, when will you remarket to them and how? The key is to capture all leads into an online database, which can easily be viewed, managed and downloaded for remarketing purposes. Remarketing and upselling leads in a database will more than pay for the investment several times over. We can help you develop a micro-site and online database that provides a secure login area for you to view and download leads at any time.

10. Refine your offer/creative
Testing is an ongoing process, and never a one-time program. Apply your new learnings from testing against your control group to improve your subject line, offer and creative as well as landing pages on your website. By steadily changing/testing new ideas, you will move towards a better and better ROI.

Frequently Asked Questions
Do I get to keep the emails?
No, you are renting opt-in emails for a one-time communication and do not get to view or access the emails due to privacy legislation. Please note that we only conduct permission-based email list rentals for reputable business clients, and do not participate in any form of unsolicited or SPAM bulk email marketing practises (see our privacy policy for more information). When renting an opt-in email list, please be aware that due to privacy legislation, your company does not get to see or keep the email names, and you are renting them for a one-time mailing which allows you to drive visitors to your website where information may be collected from prospects.

I got an offer for 100,000 emails for $100 US, why are your lists so expensive?
Any email list that is sent or sold to you directly is considered unsolicited email (SPAM) and is illegal under the latest US and Canadian Privacy Legislation (Jan 1, 2004 Can-SPAM Act and in Canada under the 2004 PIPEDA Law, click here for more). By emailing a SPAM list, you also run a very high risk of having your ISP shut down your website and email account due to abuse from complaints.

Is there a minimum quantity or cost for an opt-in email program?
Yes, there are minimum mailing quantities, set-up and testing costs associated with renting opt-in email lists. Depending on the email list, we will require typically $1,000 to $2,000 US minimum commitment for executing a mailing (this is standard across the vast majority of reputable opt-in email vendors).

Does the email come from me or the list owner?
For an opt-in email list rental, your email message is sent directly from the list owner, and typically includes a header message with information from the publisher reminding subscribers that they opted in. They provide the ability to subscriber or opt-in to their list through their website, manage the email database, and never disclose it to 3rd parties due to privacy legislation.The list owner also includes an unsubscribe link in the email, and requires your mailing address be present in your messaging. There are also email formatting requirements for opt-in email list rentals, which must be adhered to under the latest US and Canadian privacy laws.

What kind of response rate can I expect?
Response rates will vary widely depending 3 things: 1) the strength of your offer, 2) the impact of your creative and 3) the responsiveness of your target audience to the list. We provide free real-time tracking of HTML email opens and click-throughs for all our clients via our online ad tracking solution. We also provide free consultation relating to your optimizing the response of your offer, HTML email messaging and landing pages in order to help maximize response rates and conversions from clicks to leads/sales.

NOTE: These rates are estimates only for business to business opt-in email programs, and will vary greatly based on your subject line, offer, creative, list, pricing as well as the quality and nature of your product or service.

Try our opt-in email ROI calculator to make your own estimates for response.

Do I pay for bounced emails or those that aren't delivered?
No, you only pay for successfully delivered emails, and never pay for bad/bounced emails. We also will help you ensure high delivery and open rates for your email program by running your email messaging through our heuristic SPAM-rating software that will help prevent false-positive SPAM flagging and message filtering.

What Are The Next Steps To Proceed?

Here is what we will need from you in order to proceed with an opt-in email list rental:

1. Determine the list based on the data card provided, the test quantity and offer.
- target selections based on those available on the data card, such as job title, industry etc. (note: typically more than 1 or 2 selections will reduce quantity to below minimums, you can usually estimate counts based on the data card %s in each)
- your desired email quantity (again note minimums - typically 5,000 emails)
- desired mailing date (typical lead time is typically 3 to 7 business days from final order, prepayment and HTML/text email creative is finalized)
- number of test segments (more than 2 is typically $100 to $200 per cell)
2. Set up a unique landing page URL for each list or offer.
3. Send us your properly formatted and Can-SPAM compliant email creative
- text and HTML email must include your mailing address and opt-out function
- your subject line (60 characters max)
- an opt-out suppression file (if available)
- test/seed email list
4. Tests will be sent to you for approval
- typically sent to your test list a day or two prior to your mailing date
- check links and images work properly and forward your approval to us

Contact us for a specific opt-in email list recommendation and quote.

Email Marketing Related Links
WilsonWeb.com
Clickz.com
MarketingProfs.com