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Email Marketing - top 10 tips

1. Do not use in-house systems and resources which are out of date do not conformto best practice and do not provide adequate statistics such as funnel analysis and segmentation tools. This is now a highly technical area and the solutions should be provided by and ASP either directly onto your own servers and supported by the company or by using a system managed and hosted by the ASP. The decision will depend on your scale of operation. (Greenfield! will advise on the best solution for you)
2. Database creation and management is the core to your success. Start by consolidating all customer and prospect data bases and begin a test and segmentation process to build a ‘trusted’list this may then be used to begin a campaign. Buying in data is only an option if you have a well defined niche market B2B or B2C where the data has been captured by a professional organisation.
3. Get management buy in at the top level. Control of email broadcast is seen as difficult and too easy for branding mistakes to be made. Build bridges with sales teams and brand managers and work with them to implement the same approvalprocedures as used in normal conventional marketing. Or redraft approvals for the new channel.
4. Create a team in the marketing department who are responsible for email marketing and train them correctly to manage the analytical tools and ensure that ROI (return of investment) reports are created for every broadcast. (most ASP’s provide this)
5. Do not over send emails or repeat the same campaign over and over again. If a campaign is not opened the first time it is important look carefully at your SPAM score, subject lines, time of broadcast and segmentation profiles.
6. Test each HTML email on a range of browsers and email clients. Microsoft outlook is the most difficult to please but your ASP will and should give you the latest advice on this. If they don’t change them!
7. Design and write your email professionally, use your agency to create bespoke campaigns and ideas that integrate with your brand goals but aretuned into the media.
8. Email marketing is based on trust, once blocked you are unlikelyto ever make contact via email with that customer again so obey the un-subscribe rules to the letter. Sometimes better to place unsubscribe at the top of the page to prevent reader deleting your message to spam.
9. Economic conditions dictate that we look carefully at how to communicate with our target market as cost effectively as possible. Email is very cost effective but will not build your brand alone. Integration is key
10. Email marketing is fast becoming a very skilled area of marketing investment will be necessary to keep ahead of your competition, remember the email is your calling card and doorway, what’s inside must reflect the quality of your organisation…Check your website for usability and design, check your landing pages and remember the media was never the message!

Online Retail Data - various out takes

• Online retail will account for 40% of all UK retails by 2020 at the current rate (summer 2007) indications as we move into a downturn this may quicken
• 8m households spend an average of 2hours a day shopping online
• Current spend per household online is £980 year (10% of annual shopping spend)
• Most popular products –Holidays, music, films, technology
• Average online savings are 13% on grocery items, 21% on services, 15% on travel and Leisure (data Uswitch)
• E-commerce has been growing for the past five years, and there is no sign of a slowdown just yet -the UK’s online retailers generated £46.6bn in sales last year, up 54% on 2006.
• Onlinesales in the UKalone will reach £78bn a year by 2010.
• UK e-commerce grew 3,500% between April 2000 and December 2006.
• Internet users and penetration in the UK 2005-2011: [Source: eMarketer, October 2007] 

2005: 33.7 million (55.8%)

2006: 35.1 million (57.9%)

2007: 37.2 million (61.2%)

2008: 39.1 million (64.2%)

2009: 42.3 million (69.2%)

2010: 44.2 million (72.1%)

2011: 45.0 million (73.2%)

Email marketing Basics

Increased sales

UK online retail sales are rising, as customers take advantage of the ease and

inconvenience of shopping online. Launching an e-commerce site gives you access to

these shoppers, and should help increase your overall sales volumes.

Increased exposure

People use search engines to find goods and services, whether they eventually make a

purchase online or offline. Having an e-commerce site means that your product is more

likely to appear on people’s Google searches.

Breaking free from geographic restrictions

Even if you just have one shop or other location offline, a moveinto e-commerce will

instantly allow you to sell worldwide.

Reduce customer queries

Another benefit of a website is that customers will be able to find answers to common

questions online, saving the time and costs associated with dealing with these queries

in person/on the phone.

E-commerce is affordable

• Thanks to application service providers (ASP's), small businesses can sell their products online with very little outlay –under £100 a month in some cases.

E-commerce levels the playing field

Small businesses often fear they don't have the resources to compete with the big

boys, and this is true offline, when businesses have to pay for premises etc. Online,

you can compete with the big names at very little extra cost.

Affluent consumers shop online

Online consumers tend to have a higher average income than offline shoppers.

E-commerce allows you to operate around the clock

By selling online, your business is open for custom 24/7 –this means that you can

appeal to those consumers who are normally at work during your opening hours.

Research suggests that 38% of online shopping takes place outside normal shop hours,

peaking between 7pm and 9pm.

E-commerce continues to grow

Online retail is still growing, and shows no signs of stopping, so you still have a chance

to take advantage of this trend.

Niche products/services can thrive online

While your product may have limited appeal in your local area, by selling online you

can find consumers that are looking for what you have to offer.This is the ‘long tail’.

Learn from customer behaviour

Improving your offerings using the data gathered from customers searching for and

using products on your website.