Email Design Best Practices

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

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v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 22

Agenda
ƒ Step 1: Understand Motivation
ƒ Step 2: Optimize Relevance
ƒ Step 3: Optimize Layout
ƒ Step 4: Ensure Compliance
ƒ Step
p 5: Test
ƒ Email Design Optimization Checklist

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 3

The 3-Second Rule

You have 3 – 5 seconds

to persuade your
recipient to take action.

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 4

Consumers Find Marketing
E il A Burden
Email B rden

Source: Forrester“Winning
g Email Subscribers In A Down Economy”,
y December 2008

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 5

Yet Marketers Are Increasing
E il Volume
Email V l
200%
180%
160%
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
SMB Corporate Enterprise TOTAL
B2B 33% 23% 179% 36%
B2C 24% 13% 69% 25%
Email Growth, H1 2010 vs. H1 2009

S
Source: Eloqua,
El “Marketing
“M k ti g Benchmarks,
B h k TTrends
d &B
Bestt P
Practices,”
ti ”SSummer 2010

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 6

How Can You Cut Through the Clutter
andd Meet
M t Your
Y G
Goals?
l ?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 7

 You Have Mail

Open?
Download pictures?
Read? Scan at extremelyy high
g speed
p
Take action?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 8

St 11: Understand Motivation
Step

• Value Proposition: Is it meaningful?

• From Line: Who is it from?

• Subject Line: Does it communicate

value in first 35 characters?

• Preview: How does it look?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 9

B f
Before You Start Designing

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 10

Value Proposition: What is in it for me?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 11

Subject line: Welcome Sephora Beauty Insider

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 12

From, Subject Line & Preheader

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 13

The From Line

• Recognizable
• Reflects current relationship
• Active/monitored address

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 14

 From Line Strategies
St t
Goal “From” Examples
Build brand recognition • Eloqua
• CMO Council
Build personal relationship or • Alex Shootman, Eloqua
personal brand • Chris Brogan
• Seth Godin
Build subscription recognition • Education @ Eloqua.com
• Harvard Business Review
• THIS WEEK on Ted.com
• Marketing Watchdog Journal

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

Leverage
g Company
p y Brand

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 16

Match Signature
M g to From Line

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

 House of Magnets

Compared
C d tto standard
t d d HTML promos,
“personal” emails generate a

40% - 100% higher

g open
p rate;;
10% - 20% higher CTR

Source: MarketingSherpa

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 18

Text/Personalized
t/ Email

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 19

From and Subject
j Lines W
Work
k Together
g
80% of email recipients open their inbox, read the “from” line and
then the “subject” line, and then delete. Then, they read the
remaining emails in their inbox.
- Digital Impact Study

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

Subject
j Line Guiding
g Principles
p
1. Get to the point. Communicate value to
recipient in first 35 characters.
characters

2. Engage. Provide a sense of urgency and

prompt them to open the e-mail
e mail
immediately.

3
3. Be relevant.
relevant Speak to the needs and
interests of your recipients as individual
people.

4. Build trust. Do not over promise or mislead.

This can destroy trust and damage your
brand.

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

Create Urgency
U

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 22

 Use A
Action Words
Subject line: Download Now: How do you stack up against your online analytics peers?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 23

S bject Lines That Work
Subject

So rce MarketingSherpa
Source:

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 24

Use Preheaders
P d - Content Snippets

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 27

Preview Panes

What do horizontal and vertical

preview panes have in common?

D
Design for
f tthe common d
denominator!
t !
v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™
St 2
Step 2: Optimize Relevance

• Personalization: Is it appropriate?

• Imagery: Does it engage or repel?

• Tone: Does it reduce anxiety?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 29

Personalization: Build the Relationship
P p

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 30

 75%
of companies that ask for more
than email address at sign up

don’tt use it
don
for personalization.
v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 31
Contact preferences
Email Spotlight – Spotlight - Spotlight – Spotlight – Post
Education
Ed cation Home Video Broadcast Prod ction
Production
[email protected] Yes Yes
m

[email protected] Yes Yes

Define newsletter
content

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 35

 Imagery - Engage
Images are visual clues
to engage and inform
recipient.

Not just any old image

will do - images must be
relevant to value prop.

Scanning clusters around

discontinuity – i.e.
ie
bolding or highlighting

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

Tone – Speak Human not Corporate

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 37

Get To the Point

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 38

Good Copywriting Tips
Write for the customer, not for yourself.

Get to the point

point. Use less than 100 words
words.

Place primary call-to-action links above the fold.

Write short sentences: easy to scan, punchier, more active.

Use benefit-oriented subheads.

Use bullets to capture value proposition.

“So-What?”
So What? Use this repeatedly to help you get to the real
message.

Use a P.S. to call attention to urgency of offer.

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

St 3
Step 3: Optimize Layout

• Images Off: Can you still identify value prop?

• Eye Path: Where does your eye go with images on?

• Call-To-Action: Is it clear and accessible?

• Rendering: How does it render across email clients?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 40

The Red X Challenge
g

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 41

 Reality: Images Off
Be sure to also communicate value
outside of images.

Add a text-based link to a Web

version of your design at the top of
your e-mail.

Use ALT Text to describe all

images.

Always add the height and width to

the image to ensure the
placeholder doesn
doesn'tt throw your
design out.

Test yyour design

g with images
g
turned off before you send it.
v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™
Effective
t Designs
g tto Combatt Red X

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 43

Design for Mobile

Source: Exact Target,

Email Marketing for the Third Screen

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

 Blackberry Simulator
Up to 65% of your
audience may be
viewing email on
devices like Blackberry

The viewing width for a

Blackberry is typically
320 pixels wide

Blackberry offers free

simulators to see how
your email will look …
here’ss the link:
here

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

 Images On: What is the Eyepath?
Squint Test: Close your
eyes, open, and
immediately identify
first thing you see
above the fold. Is it the
value prop?

Start to identify where

the eye drifts positively
and negatively to
optimize layout.

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

Feature Call-To-Action

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

Test Your Call To Action

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 48

But be cautious about multiple CTAs

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 49

Rendering Across Email Clients

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

St 4
Step 4: Ensure Compliance

• Privacy Policy: Does the email adhere

t your privacy
to i policy?
li ?

• Brand: Is the email design brand

compliant?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 51

Finish Strongg

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 52

 St 5
Step 5: Test

There are no absolutes.

Th b l t
Testing
g yyields best
optimization results.

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 53

There is no substitute for testing

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 54

 Testing
T sting Answers Questions
Answ rs Qu stions
Is the messaging easy to understand?

Is the call to action more compelling?

What are barriers for prospects to convert to a lead?

Are we asking for too much information?

Do prospects understand the offer and find it valuable?

Which topics resonates the best with this segment?

Which layout drives the highest conversion?

Which images create higher levels of engagement?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

 Getting
G tting Started
Start d
1. Decide WHAT to test.

2. Set up a control group and a test group.

Use 5-10% of your list to set up a control group and a test
group These should be segments of the larger group
group. group.

3. Test each element separately.

When you vary only one feature,
feature you can observe to what
degree (if at all) people respond differently to that variation.

4. Determine which variable showed the best results.

Most email responses will come within 24 - 48 business
hours. Once you determine which variable had the best
results, use that variable for the remaining 90% of your
distribution list.

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

Email Testing Examples
ƒ Day / time to send
ƒ Design
ƒ Layout
ƒ Subject line
ƒ From line
ƒ Call to action
ƒ Email opt-in
ƒ g g Relevance
Messaging
ƒ Tone
ƒ Personalization

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 57

Best Practices for Improving Testing

ƒ Define your goals

ƒ Get support
ƒ Collect the data
ƒ Analyze the data
ƒ Wait for results
ƒ Identify trends

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 58

Sample Email Testing Matrix
Component Measure
Opens Clicks Unique Form Revenue
Visitors Submissions
A B A B A B A B A B

From Line

Subject Line

D S
Day Sentt

Time Sent

y
Layout / Design
g

Offer

Headline

Content / Messaging

Personalization

Email Signature

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™

H Do
How Y Know
D You Kn w It’s
It’ WWorking?
ki g?

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 60

What’s Your Open Rate?

Average Open Rate by Industry, H1 2010 BIC average = 29.6

S
Source: Eloqua,
El “Marketing
“M k ti g Benchmarks,
B h k Trends
T d &B Bestt
Practices,” Summer 2010

v
Data Source: Jan-Jul 2010 Averages Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 61
Best-in-Class Average Click-Through Rate: 7.3

BIC Average: 7.32

Average Click-Through Rate by Industry, H1 2010

S
Source: Eloqua,
El “Marketing
“M k ti g Benchmarks,
B h k Trends
T d &B Bestt
Practices,” Summer 2010

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 62

Email Design Optimization Checklist

v Eloqua Best Practices: The Revenue Lifecycle™ 63