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Branding Laws · Internet Marketing · eMarketing · Internet Advertising · Online Branding |
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EMAIL MARKETING: Special Report At The Coalface
March 2003 . Marketing Magazine 25
EMAIL MARKETING: Special Report
At The Coalface
Late last year a panel of speakers at
a DMA Brainy Breakfast answered
questions sent in in advance by
members of the audience. The questions
were surprisingly simple but were
obviously what real people in real companies
wanted to know about their
email marketing.
We mixed some of the forum’s panel
members with a cross-section of the
email marketing industry to further answer
email marketing questions.
Can I email someone if I have their
contact details for another purpose?
For example, if a food manufacturer
has someone’s address who has opted
in for more information about marmite,
can they email them with information
about peanut butter?
Most say a decisive ‘no’, and here’s why:
Larkin: “Email is not an overly successful
introductory tool. It demands a
high level of familiarity.” Larkin points
out that the rules of traditional direct
mail (which requires no permission at
all) do not – currently – apply to email.
Email marketing and privacy: smart answers to deceptively simple questions.
“Perhaps because it’s easier to do a bad
email than a bad direct mail.”
Wilson: “If you had permission to enter
a house as a plumber, you’d be trespassing
if you came back as an
electrician next day, saying you had
general permission to enter.”
Mayo-Smith ventures a “kind-of yes”,
depending on how close the two subjects
are. “But,” she warns, “this can ‘burn’ a
list. You may get a lot more
unsubscribes.”
So what’s a better
way to introduce peanut
butter to your marmite-
loving readers?
According to Parker,
it comes back to strategy,
and asking questions
about your
brand, your product
and your customers.
“Are the products ‘related’?”
she asks. “If
not, it may be best to
start a fresh list. It’s a big leap to ask
someone who wants potato chip information
whether they also want to hear
about tinned peas.”
Shearman and Pope say it’s important
to segment your database so when someone
unsubscribes from one list, they can
still receive other email from you.
For McGlinchey, it’s not a problem.
“I would! If you have an email dialogue
with the customer, you can ask, ‘Would
you like to receive information on this?’
That’s part of building a relationship
with the customer.”
How do I overcome recipients’ apathy
towards bulk email?
“Don’t send it” is a nice and simple answer,
but the reality is bulk email – or
spam – is in the eye of the beholder.
Spam is email the recipient didn’t ask
for. But the difference between ‘evil’
spam – Nigerian scams etc – and ‘good’
spam – spam from innocent New Zea-
Meet the panel
Roanne Parker, marketing director, Jericho (www.jericho.co.nz)
Lesley Pope, ceo, MessageMedia (www.messagemedia.co.nz)
Chris Price, md, Permission NZ (www.permission.co.nz)
Boyd Wason, strategy director, Tango Communications (www.tangocomms.co.nz)
Sonia Slattery, md, Tango Communications
Andrew Larkin, md, Emerge Agency (www.emerge.co.nz)
Graeme McLennan, md, Cybernamix (www.ecatalog.co.nz)
Anna Curnow, internet strategist, Webenz (www.minervamail.com)
Lisa Harris, marketing automation manager, Orbiz (www.orbiz.biz)
Debbie Mayo-Smith, emarketing consultant and author (www.successis.co.nz)
Douglas Wilson, director, Benland/Wilson & Associates (www.benlandwilson.com)
Steve Shearman, director, Touchpoint (www.touchpoint.co.nz)
John McGlinchey, director, Traffic Directions (email trafficdirections@xtra.co.nz)
Roanne Parker
25 29 sr email 25 2/18/03, 2:29 PM
26 Marketing Magazine . March 2003
Special Report: EMAIL MARKETING
land firms – is unclear.
Stand out from the crowd, say our
panel, by using permission and relevance
to full advantage.
Parker: “Keep your mailings anticipated,
relevant and personal by offering
information that has value to that customer.”
Price: “Try not to make it look like
bulk. Target and personalise it as much
as you can.”
Curnow: “Make sure [recipients] have
control over what kind of email they’re
receiving.”
Harris: “Know your audience and
make sure they recognise who the email
is from. Make sure it’s well written and
has a good subject line which grabs attention.
“Be specific, don’t put too much information
in one email. Don’t bombard
people. Ask them how often they’d like
to receive emails from you.”
Larkin: “[We overcome apathy] in the
same way we do with successful surface
mail – with compelling creative and concise
copy. The old rules apply – but so
do a few new ones. Email is only really
effective if the receiver knows and
trusts you.”
Pope: “As part of the overall marketing
mix, brand look and feel must be
the same as offline to build on the relationship
you’re trying to grow.”
Mayo-Smith: “Build up loyalty by
making it valuable, make it easy for
them to go through and understand,
and know how they use the internet.”
Slattery also warned against getting
into a publishing rut: “Send it when it’s
relevant rather than getting an email
out just for the sake of it.”
In the US, legitimate marketing
emails are being blocked by spam-filtering
software; is this happening here and
how can we stop it?
The consensus seems to be: it’s not
happening much, but it will increase,
and there’s not much we can do about
it except build close relationships with
customers and use multiple communication
channels.
McGlinchey says it’s a passing fad. Customers
will accept there will always be
irrelevant information. “Five percent of
the newspaper is relevant to me. The rest
I ignore and turn the pages. I change the
television channel when it’s not relevant.
“It’s about market immaturity... get
over it!”
How do I get to html recipients who
don’t have web access?
There are three possible scenarios here:
■ Recipients download email then disconnect,
meaning they can’t view
graphics within an email
■ Recipients in corporate settings have
internal email but no internet access
■ Recipients have programs like Lotus
Notes that distort incoming html email.
For customers of MessageMedia,
SmartMail and Touchpoint (and likely
most other products on the market),
it’s simple: the software auto-senses
whether the recipient can receive
html.
It can be even simpler. Curnow says
just ask the user whether they’d prefer
text or html.
Price goes one step further: just send
them a text message. “Marketers get too
hung up on formats whereas people are
looking for words. It’s dialogue, personality
and words – don’t worry about format.
People need more personality
behind their work.”
Parker disagrees: “Do you send a letter
to your customer on plain paper?”
Lesley Pope Andrew Larkin
25 29 sr email 26 2/18/03, 2:29 PM
March 2003 . Marketing Magazine 27
EMAIL MARKETING: Special Report
However she does acknowledge that
text, done well, is more personal. “Your
friends don’t send you html email, so
text-only can foster a more ‘intimate
feel’ in some circumstances.”
Each audience is different; test yours.
While Pope says some clients have 98%
html recipients, Mayo-Smith recently
found 88% of her list (business owners
and managers) disconnected from the
internet after checking email – even
those on high-speed connections.
(More at http://www.successis.co.nz/survey/
results.htm)
McLennan questions whether these
customers should even be targeted by
email. “We’re looking for web surfers
through this channel. If your customer
switches off after accessing mail, how
long are they spending on the web? You
might have to look at telemarketing to
5% of your database.”
How do you limit information overload?
Some emails have so many links
that customers look at none of them.
What’s the optimum number of links?
Does this differ by sector?
Parker: “Links have nothing to do with
information overload. If you’re pregnant
for the first time, you can’t get enough
information. Relevance.”
Price agrees: “If it’s information overload,
you don’t know enough about your
target audience. You need to learn more
about your subscribers.”
Pope says increase relevance by tracking
which links are popular and changing
your content accordingly.
Larkin: “Define the exact intention of
your message. Who is it to, and what
does it really want to achieve? Slavishly
follow that direction.”
Wilson: “Make each email as short as
possible. Use intros to stories with links,
so the reader can quickly select content
they’re interested in.”
Is there an optimum number of links?
Pope and Mayo-Smith don’t think so,
but McGlinchey quotes from an overseas
survey that you should aim for one
to five links, and make your email readable
within 40 seconds.
Shearman: “If you want a response,
have just one thing for the customer to
do.”
Do email newsletters and e-zines
have a lifecycle in the way that print
magazines do?
Although email is a new medium, people
still get bored easily. Wason says don’t
worry, it’s too early in the medium’s life
for the ‘death’ part of the lifecycle. Keep
it relevant and you’ll get it right.
Email makes relevance easier – you
can track recipient behaviour, and a
subscriber can give feedback at the click
of a button.
What are the best software products to
use for email marketing and why?
Instead of peddling their wares, the
main product players (Touchpoint,
MessageMedia, SmartMail, Emerge and
Minervamail) gave some thought-provoking
lists of things to look for.
Shearman: “Use a server-based product
rather than a desktop product. A
server-based product gives tracking,
click reporting, and helps customers
manage permission.”
Pope: “The best software product
comes down to what your needs are –
and your long-term needs. It’s critical
to ensure any software you take on
board grows with you.”
Boyd Wason Sonia Slattery
25 29 sr email 27 2/18/03, 2:30 PM
28 Marketing Magazine . March 2003
Parker: “It’s about making sure the
tool and the team behind it can deliver
what you need. It is rocket science and
you need to leave the expertise to the
experts.”
Larkin: “The software package itself
is arbitrary. It’s like asking what sort of
print press to use? The key success factor
is compelling creative and expert
layout/database skills.”
Curnow: “Look for ease of use and
control for the user... the ability to build
your own database, and reporting – as
long as it’s understandable.”
Price: “Understand what you want to
achieve first and then find the right
source.”
Harris: “Make sure whatever solution
you get integrates with your other relationship
marketing software. Start small
and grow.”
Mayo-Smith: “I use and highly recommend
Gravitymail, sending out emails
with a web-based services. There’s also
Worldmerge which sends personalised
emails from your desktop.”
Wilson: “Look for the ability to load
databases from various standard database
software... to personalise and customise
the email... the ability to
automatically handle mailing list updates
– subscribes, unsubscribes and
bounces... and the ability to send email
in text, html, or both (Mime Multi-
Part).”
How can you make money from email?
Almost everyone pointed out the cost
savings of email marketing compared to
print. But Wason warns if you’re after
cheap marketing, you’re barking up the
wrong tree. “Instead, think of how to use
[email] to help other channels and make
all of your communications effective.”
Not to say that email isn’t cost-effective.
Mayo-Smith gets 95% of her seminar
bookings from email.
A Touchpoint B2B client used
telemarketing and direct mail successfully,
but when they introduced email
into the mix, the prospect could receive
the information pack immediately.
What are the restrictions regarding
passing email addresses to third parties?
(Eg a company passing email
Simon Young is author of “Getting the words
right for your web and email strategy”, a free report
downloadable from www.simonyoung.co.nz
addresses on to its research company.)
Absolutely everyone said don’t do it. If
you need to do research, make the message
come from your address – the identity
and brand your customer has come
to trust. And don’t even think of selling
or renting your customers email addresses.
Not that there’s a law against it. Just
guidelines created by the industry to avoid
strict government measures, the kind
which are keeping US emarketers up at
night. See the DMA’s emarketing code of
practice at www.emarketingcouncil.co.nz
under “Standards and Guidelines”.
Will email marketing replace or complement
traditional DM?
Agreement all around on this one:
both. In some cases email will replace
direct mail, while in others it will just
enhance it.
Is it okay to email someone I’ve never
done business with previously?
It depends. A personal, one-to-one
email is fine. But if you want to send
the same message to multiple recipients,
even a personalised message, you may
get funny looks.
Larkin: “Email is not an effective introduction
tool. It requires an unusual
amount of familiarity to work effectively.”
The best way to build an email database
is for customers to fill in their email
address on a website. Point of sale is another
effective way, as Whitcoulls,
Unichem and others have demonstrated.
Price recommends phoning and asking
for permission. Slattery agrees, adding,
“We’ve found that the error rate of
telemarketing email addresses is usually
around 10%, so try and build in some
form of self-completion as well.”
One thing’s for sure: email marketing
is relationships. It’s all about relating
closely with your customers and finding
partners and products who fit your marketing
strategy.
25 29 sr email 28 2/18/03, 2:30 PM
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