Sign Me Up!: A Marketer's Guide to Email Newsletters That Build Relationships and Boost Sales

By Tami Forman

Sign Me Up! Imagine it: prospects actually asking you to email your marketing information to them. At a time when people are reluctant to give out their email addresses and skeptical of most email, it's harder than ever for legitimate marketers to separate their emails from spam. Not anymore.

This informative book reveals the secrets behind running a permission-based email newsletter program that motivates customers and prospects to sign up for your emails and respond to your messages. It shows you how you can use email to Sell more products and services Boost customer satisfaction and loyalty Attract new customers to your products and services

Sign Me Up! delivers valuable insights and ideas on creating and sustaining an email newsletter program. It's packed with real-world examples from eBay, Amazon.com, CoolSavings, iVillage, BabyCenter, and more.

Use email to your advantage in the new media landscape by learning how toWrite and design great newsletters Build and maintain responsive and targeted lists Increase response to every email you send Test and measure the effectiveness of your email program Make sure your messages reach the inbox

Visit our website: www.returnpath.biz/signmeup

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 11, 2006
• ISBN: 9780595832088

Tami Forman

Matt Blumberg is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Return Path, the original email performance company, which helps top-tier marketers generate superior results from permission-based email marketing programs. Collaborating on this project are his colleagues, email strategists Tami Monahan Forman and Stephanie A. Miller.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

The World Is Waiting for Your Email

Great Email Is within Your Grasp

PARTI Content Strategies

Chapter 1: Creating Email People Want to Read

The Three Rs of Email Marketing: Relevance, Relevance, Relevance

Editorial Quality Matters

Make It a Magazine

Sell Tastefully, but Sell Everywhere

Make It Interactive with Surveys

Newsletters Aren’t the Only Emails You Can Send

Chapter 2: Writing and Managing an Email Newsletter Program

What to Write: The Secrets of Quality Content

How to Develop Content Ideas that Pique Interest

Developing an Original Angle

Making Your Email Viral by Creating Content that People Want to Pass Along

What Should You Not Write?

How Much Should You Write?

Who Should Write Your Newsletter?

Why Should You Publish More than One Newsletter?

How Should You Use the Unsubscribe Flip?

How Often Should You Send Your Newsletters?

Send Out the Welcome Wagon

Getting Your Readers to Take Action

Chapter 3: Designing and Formatting Emails for Maximum Performance

Email: A Medium that Requires Special Design Considerations

The Importance of the From Address

Subject Lines that Get Your Email Opened

Using Headers to Build Interest and Recognition

Don’t Forget about Footers

The Preview Window: Keeping the Good Stuff Above the Fold

Image Blocking: What It Is and Why You Care

The Pros and Cons of HTML Emails

The Pros and Cons of Text Emails

Text or HTML? Deciding Which Is Best for Your Program

Who Should Design Your Newsletter?

PART II List Strategies

Chapter 4: Building a Large—and Responsive—Email List

How to Get Permission

Ways to Build Your List

Leveraging Organic Capture to Build Your List

Using Your Web Site to Build Your List

Designing Subscribe Forms that Encourage Sign-Up

Asking for Emails in the Real World

Using Forward to a Friend (FTAF) in Email

Creating a FTAF Form

Getting Friends to Subscribe

Using Cross-Promotion Opportunities

Asking for Emails in Nonmarketing Emails

Turn Transaction Emails into Selling Opportunities

Create an Affiliate Program that People Want to Join

Using Paid Acquisition to Grow Your List

Renting or Buying a List

Advertising for Your List

Strategic Partnerships that Build Lists

Appending Information to Your Existing Customer Records

Chapter 5: Keeping Your List Clean and Well-Maintained

How to Handle Unsubscribes

Smart Tactics Designed to Reduce Unsubscribe Rates

A Stagnant List Is a Depreciating Asset

How to Keep Your Email List Clean

Dealing Effectively with Human Oversight

Educate the Entire Company about Email Policies and Procedures

The Importance of Creating Backups of Your Lists

Quarantine New Data

Bounce Processing: What It Is and Why It Matters

The Art of Bounce Management

PART III Optimization Strategies

Chapter 6: The Importance of Testing (and Retesting)

Establishing Your Testing Goals

Use Surveys to Obtain User Feedback

Setting Up a Testing Program

Chapter 7: Measuring Success One Number at a Time

The Key Point When Analyzing Metrics

Key Metrics for Tracking Results

More Comprehensive Metrics that Reveal In-Depth Information

Measuring the True Impact of Email on Overall Sales

Chapter 8: Making Sure Your Messages Make It to the Inbox

Filters: The Inbox Watchdogs

Why Your Email Gets Caught by Spam Filters and What to Do about It

The Other Hobgoblins of Deliverability

Tracking Deliverability

Blacklists and Why They’re Bad for Marketers

Whitelists and Why They’re Good for Marketers

Authentication: How ISPs Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys

Authentication Action Steps

Building on Authentication with Reputation

The Keys to Ensuring Maximum Deliverability

Chapter 9: CAN-SPAM and Other Email Legislation

All about CAN-SPAM Compliance

Additional Legislation You Need to Know About

The California Online Privacy Protection Act

Georgia SLAM SPAM Law

Utah and Michigan Child Protection Laws

Going Beyond the Letter of the Law

Part III: Optimization Strategies Summary

Afterword: The Future of Email

How to Stay Current on the Latest Email Trends and Techniques

Glossary

Resource Guide

About Return Path

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

The three of us listed on the cover of this book are only the tip of a very large iceberg. This book simply would not have been possible without the contributions of many smart people. We would like to thank all of you listed here for your generosity and assistance in the development and creation of this book.

First, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the employees of Return Path. Each of you is dedicated to making email work better for consumers and businesses. Eternal thanks and gratitude to: Jack Abbot, Anita Absey, Megha Aggarwal, Robert Barclay, Gabriel Benetti, Russell Bird, Danielle Bohill, Amber Brown, Carly Brantz, Julie Buchanan, Tyler Buhl, Paul Buster, Diz Carter, Henry Chau, Charity Christman, Jessica Clifton, Jeremy Dean, Anthony DeAngelis, John DeFilippis, Dan Deneweth, Jeff Derby, Dan Diekhoff, Marty Donner, Lisa Filipek, Justin Fisk, Andrew Fortna, David Ganulin, Stacy Goldin, Jeremy Goldsmith, Jeff Graves, Lisa Guzman, Matthew Harrison, Adam Herman, Andrew Hsieh, Larry Karipides, David Kirschbaum, John Lane, Mike Lane, Angela LeBedis, Eunhee Lee, Paul Leibrock, Allen Louie, Nathan Lynch, Peter MacDonald, Patty Mah, Dennis Malaspina, Chad Malchow, Jonathan Mark, Jeff Mattes, Robert Mattes, Pavel Maximov, Jeremy McGuire, Matthew McLaughlin, Whitney McNamara, Carol Meehan-Young, Aaron Mills, Timothy Moore, Conal Murray, Alyssa Nahatis, Reena Nawani, Monique Neel, Tom Nguyen, Amy Norton, Chris Ochs, Ryan Osborne, Harry Pallick, Melinda Plemel, Andrea Ponchione, Leslie Price, Alex Rubin, Tom Sather, Andy Sautins, Terry Shields, Tammy Shimp, David Sieh, Jack Sinclair, John Taliercio, Edward Taussig, Jonathan Tice, Ninon Traugott, Doug Turetzky, Adam Weinstein, Brian Westnedge, Jennifer Wilson, Audrey Wong, Matthew Worden, Kate Zawistowski, and David Zipkin.

We would like to give special acknowledgment to our deliverability gurus, George Bilbrey, Tom Bartel, and Leslie Price, for their expertise and patient willingness to share it!

We’d also like to thank all Return Path alumni for the role they’ve played in our company’s development over the past five years. We sincerely apologize to anyone we may have inadvertently neglected: Gaetano Bavaro, Dan Breggin, Tom Burke, Doug Campbell, Rory Carr, Lisa Carrieri, Joe Carvalho, Edwin

Castillo, Neil Cohen, Aaron Couts, Melanie Danchisko, John Darrah, Kevin Delaney, James Dezendorf, Michael Doherty, Tim Dolan, Sarah Farrell, Beth Feresten, Jacob Fink, Karl Florida, Mark Galliher, Steve Gorman, Scott Green, Lisa Habighorst, Suzanne Halbeisen, Kirk Henry, Randolph Hernandez, Alex Kasiansky, Alexis Katzowitz, Brendon Kearney, Austin Kenny, Julia Khavich, Kevin King, Julia Knowlton, Kate Kuckro, Elsa Kuo, Laura LaLuna, Bill Levin, Amy Leymaster, John Mathew, Topher McGibbon, Mary Lynn McGrath, Mike Mearls, Sophie Miller, Rachel Moore, Alison Murdock, Nick Nicholas, Kevin O’Connell, Kevin Noonan, Dave Paulus, Alice Pham, Jon Pierce, Rebecca Premus, Mukta Rane, Kendall Rawls, Amy Reilly, Jennifer Roller, Julien Ruaux, Linda Ryan, Vince Sabio, Hetal Shah, Tim Skennion, Dave Smith, Jim Smith, Stacey Smith, Carrie Spafford, Matt Spielman, Remy Taylor, Walter Thames, Rebecca Thomas, Elizabeth Vasquez, John Ventura, Chris Wade, Brent Wagner, Tom Walsh, Andrew Wilson, Ranee Wilson, and Michael Zhang.

Special thanks to Mike Mayor, formerly of NetCreations, for his work on the first edition of this book. His expertise in email acquisition made the section on list-building more comprehensive.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but we only need one to show our appreciation to Kevin Menzie of Slice of Lime for providing graphics that illustrate key concepts throughout the book. Thanks!

Thanks also go to consultants Andy Sernovitz and Rich Mintzer, who provided assistance in the early stages of this project.

We wouldn’t be in a position to write this book were it not for the ongoing support of our investors and board members, both present and past. These past six years, Fred Wilson, Greg Sands, Brad Feld, Chris Wand, Jonathan Shapiro, Eric Kirby, Robert Knapp, Ben Perez, Phil Summe, Chris Hoerenz, James Marciano, and a host of friends and family angel investors have worked tirelessly on our behalf and written many checks along the way.

In addition, we want to thank the following smart marketers for offering examples, quotes, screen shots, advice, and more:

Jordan Ayan, SubscriberMail

Angela Caltagirone, Williams-Sonoma Inc.

Beth Fisher, American Management Association

Timothy Foy, Lenox

Sean Gaddis, eBay

Gretchen Harding, BabyCenter

Anne Holland, MarketingSherpa

Monica Hoyer, iVillage

Mark Hurst, Good Experience

Chris Kilbourne, Business & Legal Reports

Melissa Lederer, CoolSavings

Mary Liao, DotGlu

Mary K. Marsden, Message Effect, Inc.

Chris Michel, Military.com

Kristin Miller, Kimberly Clark Professional

Eliot Pierce, New York Times Digital

Brian Pozesky, CoolSavings

Meg Reynolds, REI

Kathy Ruggiero, EasyAsk

Pete Sheinbaum, DailyCandy

Doug Williams, Sierra Trading Post

This book would not be nearly as rich without their invaluable contributions.

Last, but certainly not least, we’d like to give a huge, huge thanks to our editor, John Renz, from AdGuy Copywriting & Creative Services, for his invaluable work in turning a lot of good ideas into a cohesive book. John, we thank you for keeping us on schedule, for providing your insights and honesty, and for keeping your sense of humor (and reminding us to keep our own) throughout this project.

Thank you for your support.

***

For each book sold, 10 percent of the purchase price will be donated to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis, a national nonprofit dedicated to curing multiple sclerosis (MS) by determining its causes. Learn more about this organization by visiting www.acceleratedcure.org. This cause is personally important to each of us at Return Path, and we dedicate these contributions to our friend and colleague, Sophie Miller, in gratitude for all she has taught us about hope, strength, faith, and courage.

Preface

We love email. We adopted it for personal use relatively early, and we started working with email as a commercial messaging platform as soon as 1995. Because of our expertise, marketers continually ask us how they can get customers to love their email. We always say that the key to successful email is honoring an unwritten deal with your customers. Give them valuable, timely, and relevant information in exchange for a bit of their time and attention.

For a long time, Americans have operated under a similar type of unwritten arrangement with media companies that we call the Old Media Deal. The Old Media Deal is simple: we say we don’t like advertising, but we are willing to put up with an amazing amount of it in exchange for free or cheap content. We list several examples of this in the first chapter. Essentially, advertising doesn’t bug us if it’s not too intrusive and if there’s something in it for us.

With the advent of the internet and email, we’ve recognized there’s a significantly different New Media Deal in the works. As part of the New Media Deal, we are willing to share a certain amount of personal information, as well as our time and attention, in exchange for better content, more personalized services, or more targeted marketing. Of course, it is still true that the promotions attached to this content shouldn’t be too intrusive and must provide adequate value. Think about how the New Media Deal works.

To get a personalized home page, we tell Yahoo! we like the Yankees and we own MSFT stock. To get most of the newspaper’s content online for free, we tell the New York Times our annual income. To get a free email account, we let Google scan our emails to put ads in them based on the content. To find shows we might like to see, we allow TiVo to monitor our viewing habits. To receive discounts at local stores, we give our zip code and email address to CoolSavings. We give our email addresses to publishers, retailers, and others in exchange for discounts, information, entertainment, and more.

Research backs up this theory. In a study conducted by ChoiceStream, 80 percent of internet users expressed a desire for personalized content. Of those surveyed, 59 percent said they’d provide insight into their preferences in exchange for personalized product and content recommendations, and 46 percent would provide demographic data for the same. Finally, 32 percent said they’d even agree to more comprehensive clickstream and transaction monitoring. These responses were stronger among younger users, but they were healthy among all users. (ChoiceStream, Second Annual Personalization Survey, August 2005.)

Don’t get us wrong. We still think there’s a time and a place for anonymity. It is good that we have privacy advocates who are vigilant about potential and actual abuses of data collection. But all in all, these trends sound like a New Media Deal to us, not to mention a great opportunity for marketers.

And the flip side of this New Media Deal is that we are even less willing to give our time and attention to anything that is irrelevant to us. This can be seen, in part, in a trend that has emerged since we first published this book in 2005. That trend is peer production. Peer production, or user-generated content, is the name for a range of activities that includes Web logs (or blogs), online reviews, Web site tagging, and more. Some of these technologies will inevitably evolve to overlap and complement email. But what’s really significant for marketers to understand is the ever-increasing power that consumers have over how, when, and where they consume media. In fact, this power extends to their own creation of media. The smartest companies have always listened to their customers. Today, every company must listen and respond to the customers’ desires. To do less will leave you at the back of the pack. Fortunately, email is a channel that adapts quite readily to listening and responding to your customers’ needs and wants. Throughout this book, we will show you how to do that with dozens of best practices proven to succeed, real world examples, case studies and lessons we’ve learned along the way.

The key to making this New Media Deal a deal—that is, something in which both sides agree to participate—is what we in email marketing call permission. When your customers and prospects give you permission to send them email in exchange for their personal preferences or other data, you are entering a covenant. This covenant requires that marketers honor the permission and never send email that isn’t expected or reasonable under that permission. We talk more about this throughout the book, particularly in chapter 4.

We are building Return Path to be a business that helps marketers earn the right to ask for permission and enter these deals with their subscribers. In fact, we insist that our clients provide value as their part of the New Media Deal. We refuse to work with businesses that don’t do that. We have made that commitment because we think honoring permission and providing true value through email is the right thing to do. Also, following these principles make for good business. Treating the consumer not just fairly and properly but also as a valued member of your company’s community produces more sales in the short term and enhances your brand for the long term, regardless of the type of business.

These are the principles and guiding themes behind the advice we provide to marketers and publishers in this book. Thank you for reading this book. We look forward to your comments and ideas.

Introduction

The World Is Waiting for Your Email

Used properly, email can be one of the most powerful and influential forms of marketing media available. If you approach email ethically and intelligently, people will gladly give you their names, email addresses, and other valuable demographic information. They will practically roll out a red carpet to their inbox for you and enthusiastically sign up to receive your marketing messages.

Regrettably, far too many marketers send shoddy, poorly conceived, and even crass email messages that do little more than irritate the people who are unfortunate enough to receive them. We’re not talking about spammers here. We are talking about legitimate marketers with major international brands and tremendous resources at their disposal. These emails are a waste of time and effort. They only succeed at creating a negative stereotype for all who market via email.

However, one fact remains consistently indisputable. The most successful and profitable email marketers have built their business (and good reputations) by providing the type of value and interest that can only be