Re-Engagement Plan Case Study

A while back, I wrote a post about connecting with your subscribers:
http://runspammers.blogspot.com/2011/10/email-list-hygiene.html

Today, I wanted to SHOW you a real life example of one of the many re-engagement plans I have run for the clients at my company.

The Problem:

• We had a total list size of 94,000 opted in subscribers.
• 53% (50,100) of this list was subscribers who:
• had been in the CRM for more than a year
• and had never clicked/forwarded/opened anything
• 62% of these addresses were submitted more than 3 years ago
• This is the list we used.

 The Risk:

• Continuing to send to these addresses could easily result in:
• Hitting of spam traps and /or honeypots
• Sending to "dead" people (every year 0.7% of subscribers DIE)
• Sending to people who have left their emails (20-33% of addresses churn each year)
• High complaints / unsubscribes
• Damages to our sender reputation
• Email blocked/deleted by ESP
• Email filtered to junk by ESP
• Decrease in opens / clicks
• Decrease in ROI

The Plan:

• 4 weeks out we met with the client to plan the dates and content.
• We crafted 3 emails:

Email #1: sent 1 week after our initial client meeting













 Email #2: Sent 2 weeks after our initial client meeting

Email #3: Sent 3 weeks after our initial client meeting

Each message gave the subscriber a clear way to opt in or out and the benefits of continuing to hear from us. Those who clicked on the opt in link were send to a thank you page on the website and those who clicked opt out were removed instantly by our ESP. For those who didn't click on anything, they received all 3 emails.   

One week after the last email was sent, we pulled all the remaining inactive subscribers and reimported them as held/supressed list members.

The Results:

• 220 (0.4%) subscribers clicked to opt back in
• 2,576 (5.1%) subscribers clicked to opt out
• 42,522 (84.9%) didn't click on anything
• 2.1% Average open rates

90 Days After:

We have seen the metrics for this list continue to improve, post re-engagement:

• 13% improvement in received rates
• 48% improvement in open rates
• 58% improvement in click through ratios
• 98% lower soft bounces
• 46% lower hard bounces
• 72% improvement in forwards
• 81% fewer unsubscribes
• 52% less spam complaints

Why renting third-party lists is among the worst tactics

Brought to you by Marketing Sherpa Blog Writer: Adam T. Sutton  

June 17th, 2011 

I heard an offhand comment the other day from an agency marketer who said most of her B2B clients focused their email marketing on rented third-party lists (despite her advice). I thought to myself, “Really? That can’t be very effective.” I looked at some data and found I was right.
Although 46 percent of B2B email marketers use third-party lists:

• Only 11 percent score the tactic at “four” or “five” on a five-point scale of effectiveness, with “five” being the most effective, according to the MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.
• 57 percent score the tactic at “one” or “two”

These numbers almost completely reverse when we look at B2B marketers emailing to a house list. About 95 percent of B2B email marketers send to their own lists.

• 67 percent consider the tactic a “four” or “five” in terms of effectiveness on a five-point scale, with “five” being the most effective.
• 5 percent consider it a “one” or “two”

For me, these stats help underline the point that high-quality email databases are workhorses in marketing departments, and that marketers need to steer away from thinking about email marketing as advertising.
Love and Respect Your Audience
To elaborate on a point that Brad Bortone made in yesterday’s post, I would like to emphasize that effective email marketing is based on relationships. These relationships hinge on expectations, promises, and trust.
This might sound like fluffy marketing-speak, but bear with me. Specifics are coming.
First, people have expectations when they opt into your email program. You need to clearly set these expectations during the opt-in process by describing:

• The content they’ll receive in your program
• How often they’ll receive emails

Once they opt-in, you’ve officially promised to meet these expectations. If you fulfill your promise and only send what they’ve agreed to, that will build trust. Subscribers will trust your emails will have something they want. That trust translates into higher open and clickthrough rates and helps build an effective program.
If you move outside of the expectations, you are assuming subscribers want something else. You’re breaking your promise, harming your relationship, and undermining trust. You’re encouraging them to click “spam,” ignore your emails, or (at best) opt-out — none of which are good.
So you cannot assume people want your emails. You have to clearly set expectations, keep your promise, build trust and establish good relationships to get good results.

Email Marketing is Not Advertising
Strong email relationships can only come from your house list. On a third-party list, their expectation is to not hear from you. They never opted-in. You’re assuming they want something they’ve never asked for, and you’re encouraging them to click “spam.”
Sure, sending to third-party lists can work. But look at the data above. You’re likely better off investing in your database, segmentation, and relevance.
The mindset that “we’re just going to reach people, even if they’d rather be doing something else,” is an advertising mindset. That’s what marketers do on television. I’d rather be watching Pawn Stars, but instead I’m stuck watching ads.
Advertising is great, but it’s not good email marketing. Good emails are anticipated by subscribers and are relevant to their needs. This is why a good house list is so valuable. Bad emails arrive out of nowhere and interrupt people when they’re doing something else. This is why emailing third-party lists is among the least-effective B2B email marketing tactic today.

List Segmentation

List Segmentation: A Necessary Evil.

Gone are the days of "batch & blast" style email marketing. For a mailing to really perform these days, it has to be relevant to the recipient. That means your list must be segmented enough so that the content applies to the needs and wants of the consumer.

Don't fret- you are not alone when you start to sweat thinking about how much extra time it takes to segment lists. It's more work- but smart work- work that will pay off big in the end. There's almost always some type of manual piece of it too. But keep your focus and you will see that list segmentation is most definately a nessissary evil.  


First let's talk about the different types of "Data":

1. Endemic Data- ex: contact info, demographic info, lead record info
2. Transactional Data- ex: info from a transaction or purchase
3. Behavioral Data- ex: online/offline info collected as a result of something a recipient did/did not do, very actionable data, opens, clicks, calls, coupons used.
4. Computed Data- the combination of 2 or more of the types above

What's most important to your list? Relevancy!

• You must deliver/ship on time. You are what you ship.
• Timing and Relevancy is everything - ex. birthday messages
• Help yourself by sticking to your internal content calendar dates 
• One way to build relevancy is through using real time news and events in your email communication + relating it to your brand = “Trend Jacking” (not easy)  
• Using breaking news/trends  
• Big events  
• Weather  
•  Response to competition
• 3 Factors needed to create relevant content:
  o   The content they crave
  o   Proper list segmentation
  o   Real time communications

Relevant Content

"Relevancy" is found at the intersection of the:

List Segment / Email Content / Timing of Send

2 of the top 5 focuses for marketers in 2011 are:

1. Creating time triggered emails
2. Segmenting based on behaviors

But where can you find this content? I am not a writer!
Do an internal inventory audit for quality content and really look at the communication/sales pipeline and the communication within it.

What is your brands competitive advantage?
A lot of companies are hiring on “Brand Journalists” or “Content Directors”- these people find the human stories in your brand and create content that gives insight into company culture, production, and community.


But where do I find the time?
Create a master content calendar in advance, in line with all other initiatives, promotions, events, and objectives:

• Use REAL hard dates
• Production scheduled milestones
• Approval dates
• Ship Dates- DO LESS and ship, not more and miss
• Make sure your content is ultra shareable + craveable

3 types of Content:

1. Re-purposed Content =  the art of combining existing content with a communication purpose, all in a relevant way. Found in:

• Media coverage
• Speakers
• Engagements
• Case studies
• Analysis’
• Reports
• Blogs

  2. User generated Content

• Students words / pictures / thoughts
• Human touch speaks volumes
• Add a customer review link to applications/students/grads emails

          Don’t ever fear negative feedback- when you admit weakness you build trust.
         “Tell me what you can’t do, and I will believe you when you tell me what you can do.” 
                    – CEO Meclabs

          Setup  processes to “see” brand evangelists even through departments
          Allow sales/support the ability to send you permissions for brand evangelists to have a voice.

    3. Original Content = “Focus on being interested instead of being interesting”

• How can we help, be of service, or solve problems without selling my programs?
• Emotions motivate people- Move, touch, inspire.

Compliment existing offers with bonus offers:

• Interview an e-book author
• Write or record a session

Good places to find original content:

• Internal listeners
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Evangelists

Thank these people with newsletter recognition, cup of coffee, or a gift card.

Allow customers to submit stories on the websites/blogs/social

Practice story telling:
Personal Experiences + Customer Community = Brand Truth

Building Quality Lists

    "51% of all marketers say that their list is only slowly growing." -According to a 9/2010 Marketing Sherpa Survey

     Why is exclusivity essential?

      If you spent years painstakingly nurturing a highly targeted, 110% response based opt in list, do you think you would share it with just anyone? Probably not. Quality email marketers know that a good list will grow slowly. It takes time to find the members who really want to hear what you have to say. And those members  should be treated as the highly valuable tribe members they are- with anticipated, exclusively relevant, timely email content.

      Uniqueness

      The more unique and targeted the list members are, the more unique the and targeted your content should be. Maintain your list engagement by shipping that uniqueness that your brand can offer- every time.

      Be Humble.

      Be humble in your voice and deliver only what they signed up for- use stories, videos, reports

      Favor quality over quantity in your communications, but always ship on time.

      People change. 

      Why have a preference center? Because peoples wants/needs change over time.

      Most lists loose 1/3 per year to list churn!

            Make sure your offers are relevant to your brand:

• Special reports
• Whitepapers

      You must think and act differently than the competition- use brand personality, expertise

       Maintain quality list relationships by using:          

• Preference centers
• Opt down or pause mailings
• Easy unsubscribes (47% of users will click spam instead of unsubscribe because its easier/faster)
• Try a unsubscribe confirmation page
• Request reasons on unsubscribe confirmation page
• 2 click unsubscribe as standard

·         Dependable, predictable sends- no “batch and blast”

·         **Set subscriber expectations, tell them:

• What you will send
• When/how you will send
• Spell out benefits
• Link to privacy policy
• Don’t break promises

·

·         **Ask for new subscribers in your:

• Blogs
•  Mobile
• Social
• Transactional email
• Webinars
• Websites
• Customer service
• Tradeshows

·         QR Codes- help build list subscribers- maybe use on t-shirts at conferences

·         Social Media- gain subscribers through:

• Simple updates/mentions
• Sharing buttons from relevant content
• Facebook custom forms on your fan page to sign up for email

·         Transactional emails - add email sign ups to footers

·         How to motivate your subscribers to sign up:

•  1^st notice on breaking news
• Sweepstakes and coupons 
• Premium access to features

Re-Engagement Strategies

• Send them a targeted offer or reason to re-engage with you 
•   If they click yes, send them to their own preference center
• Consider sorting your list segments as: #1=most active; #2=mid active; #3=least active