Publishers Playbook

Done right, email newsletters can generate both reader loyalty and advertising revenue. Done wrong, they can actually hurt your reputation and business.

EMAIL MARKETING
The resources in this Publishers Playbook will get you up to speed on email best practices.

sponsored by

Next

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

CONTENTS
4 Email moves beyond batch and
blast

25 How to manage and reduce

list fatigue

9 The first email engagement

metric: deliverability

28 Coming soon to an inbox near 30 IABs guidelines for email

monetization

you: user generated newsletters

10 Stealing a page from retails

playbook

14 How Brooklyn Based built a

10,000-strong email readership

16 Tips and other resources for

email marketing

20 Your guide to email design 22 How to do your first mailing list

inventory

sponsored sponsoredby by

2 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

SPONSORS MESSAGE
Publishers Press is proud to present the Publishers Playbook to Email Marketing. Email is an inexpensive way for publishing companies to communicate with their advertisers and readers, foster trust in a brand, and grow a publications audience. Whether you use email for marketing campaigns, customer retention, newsletters, notifications, lead generation, or all of the above, email can be an engaging way to communicate your content and brand value to readers. Email is still the most trackable medium that exists for publishers today, and when done well, can be scalable and inexpensive. We partnered with eMedia Vitals to give you the resources to develop the best plan for using email marketing for the growth and future success of your business, because, as one of our in-house email marketing specialists noted: Expect and Hope is not a business model. We appreciate and value your relationship with Publishers Press and look forward to continuing
Michael J. Simon Executive Vice President

our partnership through whatever changes and innovations the industry may bring.

sponsored sponsoredby by

3 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

EMAIL MOVES BEYOND BATCH AND BLAST

BY ROB OREGAN

Publishers who are serious about leveraging email to improve engagement and increase revenues will need to move beyond their traditional batch-and-blast approach. The name of the game now is relevance. Several factors are driving the need to be more relevant. Start with the clutter. Market researcher Radicati estimates that 81% of all email traffic is spam. While most of this traffic is intercepted by spam filters, Radicati says that spam still accounts for 20% of the emails that reach users inboxes. A second factor is the current economic climate, which has caused many publishers and marketers to redouble efforts around customer retention. Email has traditionally been used as a broadcast method for promotions and for driving conversions, says Stephanie Miller, vice president of global market development for Return Path, which provides email deliverability services. But the big driver for growth in our recession is retention. And email can be a powerful retention and loyalty channel its the original dialog channel. A third factor: the fragmentation of the inbox. Miller notes that many users now manage multiple inboxes work, home, social, mobile. That makes the mailbox more omnipresent, which is an opportunity for marketers to engage wherever their prospects and customers may be, she says.

sponsored sponsoredby by

4 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

EMAIL MOVES BEYOND BATCH AND BLAST contd

Such fragmentation, however, requires a shift away from broadcast campaigns to more targeted engagement. At the end of the day, you have to drive consumer value, says Sean ONeal, chief revenue officer for Datran Media, which sells an inventory-management platform for email advertising. The best way to do that is through increased relevance.

The challenge stems not from a lack of information, but a lack of analysis and response based on that data.

Delivering that relevance in email newsletters requires a more sophisticated approach to segmenting subscriber lists, one that is based on both user-defined preferences and actual behavior. The challenge stems not from a lack of information, but a lack of analysis and response based on that data. Most publishers have more data than they probably are using, says Miller. But marketers are now seeing the value of segmentation, of triggering messages based on behavior. Thats driving a more strategic use of email. Miller cites several segmentation options that publishers tend to overlook: Opens and clicks: Sure, everyone tracks open rates and click-throughs. But how many publishers segment their audiences based on this behavior? Subscribers who rarely click through warrant a different message than frequent visitors. The former needs encouragement and enticement; the latter should be rewarded for their loyalty (access to premium content, for example). From a monetization standpoint, publishers should be able to charge advertisers a premium to reach the most active and engaged subscribers, Miller notes.

sponsored sponsoredby by

5 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

EMAIL MOVES BEYOND BATCH AND BLAST contd

Signup date: Keep track of subscribers 30, 60 and 90 days after they sign up for a newsletter and segment based on their activity level at those intervals. Who has clicked on more than one article? How much of a time lag exists between when someone receives an email and when they click through? Saving the email in their inbox and accessing several articles at a later date is an indicator of longer-term engagement, according to Miller. First-issue unsubscribers: For users who opt out after receiving their first newsletter, examine the methods and messaging youre using to invite subscribers and to confirm signups. How well are you setting expectations when users grant permission to receive your emails? Post-click actions: Tie click-throughs to user activity once they get to the site session length, whether they shared the article, additional articles read. You can use that information to further motivate subscribers and also to let advertisers create something interesting for them, says Miller. Multi-channel access: How many of your email subscribers have also joined your Facebook group? Clearly, these are loyal readers find a way to motivate them to do more or reward them for their engagement. If publishers want to continue to use the email channel as a retention and monetization tool, they have to think about it in narrower terms around acquisition, retention and delivering a quality experience, says Miller.

sponsored sponsoredby by

6 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

EMAIL MOVES BEYOND BATCH AND BLAST contd

Getting personal
How those segmentation techniques translate into more relevant content is the big challenge for publishers. Most email systems are good at segmenting lists. But once you get that list, everyone gets the same content, says Sean Ammirati, CEO of mSpoke, a Pittsburgh-based startup that has developed technology that enables publishers to personalize websites and newsletter content. Our paradigm is, after you segment, you should prioritize and filter which content you put in front of that list, so that each user gets a different newsletter. The companys mPower adaptive personalization engine analyzes a publishers content, adding its own metadata to whatever metadata editors have already created. The software then looks at subscriber histories profile information, download activity, etc. to create a baseline list of preferences. The third step is iterative, based on users interactions with the content not just what theyre clicking, but what theyre ignoring as well. This information feeds back into mPower, which adjusts each profile accordingly. For newsletters, mPower will customize the order of content and the subject line based on each users profile information. Ammirati says mSpokes current publishing clients include Forbes, Reed Business Information, InformationWeek and MedPage Today, a publisher of medical news. Using mSpoke to customize its newsletters, MedPage saw the number of active email users double in four months.

sponsored sponsoredby by

7 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

EMAIL MOVES BEYOND BATCH AND BLAST contd

Relevance = revenue?
Targeting technology also provides publishers with an opportunity to embed relevant advertising in their newsletters alongside custom content. To the extent that youre putting out engaging, relevant and unique content in your

If your attitude is that email is cheap, your only alternative is to batch and blast, and youll continue to see lower returns on that.

newsletters, you need to do the same thing with your ads, says Alex Baydin, CEO of PerformLine, a New York-based startup that recently launched PerformMatch, a campaign verification platform that gives advertisers and media buyers more transparency into where their ads are being placed across ad networks and exchanges. In November 2009, the Interactive Advertising Bureau released a new paper titled Email Monetization Strategies. The paper defines the value of newsletters to publishers and advertisers and offers guidelines on advertising and sponsorship models, vendor selection, inventory management and data collection including privacy issues. Theres a significant revenue opportunity through sponsorships, ad units and standalone email campaigns, says Datrans ONeal, who serves as co-chair of the IABs Lead Generation and Email Committee and was one of the primary authors of the report. The email channel is a natural extension for publishers to distribute and monetize their content. Publishers who want to take full advantage of the channel, however, will need to devote the time and the resources toward a more customized approach. If your attitude is that email is cheap, your only alternative is to batch and blast, says Return Paths Miller. And youll continue to see lower returns on that.

sponsored sponsoredby by

8 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

THE FIRST EMAIL ENGAGEMENT METRIC: DELIVERABILITY

BY ROB OREGAN

I recently interviewed Stephanie Miller, vice president of global market development for Return Path, who shared an interesting insight about email newsletters: deliverability should be viewed as an engagement metric. Millers point is that deliverability is the first opportunity for engagement if you dont reach the inbox, you cant earn a response. All other response and engagement metrics derive from the inbox placement rate, she said. In its most recent Delivery Benchmark Report (covering the first half of 2009), Return Path concluded that more than 20% of commercial, permission-based email delivered in the U.S. and Canada did not reach the inboxes of intended subscribers. Of that undelivered email, 3.3% was routed to a junk or bulk email folder and 17.4% was not delivered at all, with no notification to the sender of non-delivery. Thats why its important to track deliverability metrics beyond just the hard bounce rate. Before you can track engagement, you need to take steps to ensure that your emails are actually reaching subscribers inboxes. Even silent unsubscribers those who receive your email but simply ignore it can hurt future delivery rates, as they are one ingredient in what Miller calls the reputation cocktail that ISPs use to identify spammers. A recent post on Return Paths corporate blog looks at the engagement metrics that influence deliverability with ISPs and offers a few ideas on what marketers should be doing to keep their deliverability rates up. Its a good read, relevant to any publisher that sends email newsletters or alerts.

...more than 20% of commercial, permission-based email delivered in the U.S. and Canada did not reach the inboxes of intended subscribers.

sponsored sponsoredby by

9 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

STEALING A PAGE FROM RETAILS PLAYBOOK

BY SEAN BLANDA

Email newsletters are nothing new to the publishing world. But despite the existence of contextual ads and the prospect of custom content, most publications take a one-size-fits-all approach when sending email newsletters. Retail stores, however, have been using behavioral targeting tactics for years to create email campaigns that will most likely result in sales. We asked Chad White, research director at Smith-Harmon and author of the Retail Email Blog, for the retail tools of the trade that publishers can borrow from the Best Buys of the world to deliver highly targeted and successful email campaigns.

DYNAMIC CONTENT
This is the practice of inserting custom advertising or editorial into each individuals newsletter. Retail stores will often monitor what item you browse on their sites and then include it front and center in your next email newsletter. Application: Publishers can use this method to track what stories readers click on their webpage and then offer relevant content in the next newsletter.

sponsored sponsoredby by

10 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

STEALING A PAGE FROM RETAILS PLAYBOOK contd

TRIGGERED MESSAGE
Sometimes the reason people do not purchase something is a gap in education, not the price. If retailers notice an item is viewed but not purchased, they will send additional information to help close that gap.

Sometimes the reason people do not purchase something is a gap in education, not the price.

Crutchfield (an electronics retailer) one day noticed I was looking at Blu-ray players, said White. They sent an email to me the next day all about Blu-ray players. The one I was looking at was the featured item, but they also had the latest Blu-ray player, the cheapest Blu-ray player and the Blu-ray player that had been discounted the most. They gave me lots of different paths. Application: If you notice one readers browsing habits focusing on a single topic area, offer white papers and other ecommerce products to satisfy their curiosity.

PURCHASE HISTORY
A method used by companies like Amazon. Keep track of what your customers have purchased in the past and offer them accessories or other related items. If I buy a Blu-ray player, Im probably going to buy a DVD next, said White. In the publishing world, clearly there are topics that are related to one another. If I were to explicitly say that I was interested in skiing, then maybe Im also interested in snowboarding or snowmobiling and would be interested in those kinds of articles and that kind of publication.

sponsored sponsoredby by

11 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

STEALING A PAGE FROM RETAILS PLAYBOOK contd

Application: If your content is categorized, take a page out of Amazons book and offer article recommendations based on the users past reading history. Keep an eye out for customers showing interest in topic areas where you have a sister publication.

MEASURING CLICKS
Measure clicks in your email newsletter and use that information to customize the next edition. Hot Topic sent out an email with t-shirts and measured everyone that clicked on a World of Warcraft shirt, said White. The company then used that info to send out an email that was dedicated to just those people featuring World of Warcraft. Application: If you have a general newsletter with a wider subject focus, measure headline clicks to see if your publication can offer any niche products.

THE SURVEY
In a dream world, readers would fill out surveys that dictated exactly what kind of content they wished to read. Unfortunately, long questions are the easiest way to scare off anyone with access to a back button. To combat this, some retailers have set up quizzes that collect reader information in a fun online game. For example, Spiegel, the womens clothes retailer, had a style quiz that asked shoppers to pick which celebrities they liked and where they would like to travel.

sponsored sponsoredby by

12 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

STEALING A PAGE FROM RETAILS PLAYBOOK contd

They would use the answers to figure out what kind of person you were and therefore what kind of clothing style would best suit you, said White. Its extremely clever and its done in a way that helps the shopper discover something about themselves. At the same time, it gives Spiegel fantastic information about how to serve that shopper. Application: Construct a survey that is fun, but also gives you a peek into the type of reader you have.

sponsored sponsoredby by

13 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW BROOKLYN BASED BUILT A 10,000-STRONG EMAIL READERSHIP

BY SEAN BLANDA

A few years ago, Nicole Davis used to work as an art and entertainment editor at The Villager, a Manhattan-based weekly. Every day, she says, she would receive information about events in the neighboring up-and-coming borough of Brooklyn. Davis, soon joined by Annaliese Griffin and Chrysanthe Tenentes, began diligently sending out what she jokingly refers to as bleemails (half blog post, half email) to 100 friends containing her picks and lists among happenings in Brooklyn. I wasnt going to capture anyones attention by starting a blog, she said of her decision to go with email. Two years later, Brooklyn Based is 10,000 readers strong and has an open rate of 70 to 80 percent. We asked Davis how she built such a large and captive mailing list so quickly:

Relevant content
The spread of Brooklyn Based was completely word of mouth, and for good reason: The newsletter is highly targeted and highly relevant to what was then an under served community. Well tell you about an artist or designer who could be living two doors down for you, she said. By targeting a geographical community that already existed, the pipelines for sharing content were already established. And because the email pertained to events, readers would show up to recommended events and create a community around the newsletter.
sponsored sponsoredby by

14 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW BROOKLYN BASED BUILT A 10,000-STRONG EMAIL READERSHIP contd

Embrace emails benefits as a medium

Email may be old-school in the face of tweets, blogs and podcasts, but it still has its advantages. No medium has yet surpassed email in its ability to be easily shared. Most online publishers rely on readers to take the time to copy and paste a link into a tweet or email. For Brooklyn Based, readers just have to hit the forward button. Davis also says she believes the medium possesses an intimacy that others do not. With email you can get a much more real response from people, she said. You can have a much more one-on-one dialog... Even as the list grows I still feel the intimate connection with our readers.

Two years later, Brooklyn Based is 10,000 readers strong and has an open rate of 70 to 80 percent.

No digests
For many publishers, email newsletters usually involve some sort of digest. Davis believes part of the growth and success of Brooklyn Based is due to the fact that her newsletter contains material that is written specifically for email in the style of a magazine front-ofbook piece. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Brooklyn Based contains feature stories about local news or events. Wednesdays bring the tip sheet with event recommendations from the newsletters editors. Were a really fun read, not just an email that delivers info. We inform and entertain, said Davis.

sponsored sponsoredby by

15 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

TIPS AND OTHER RESOURCES FOR EMAIL MARKETING

BY ROB OREGAN

These tricks, tools and advice will help you get your email campaigns on track
Its easy to take shots at email as an overused and ineffective marketing tool. The channel has become so overstuffed with marketing blather that consumers cant possibly keep up (as the 3,409 unread messages in my inbox demonstrate). There are no signs of a slowdown, however. Recent research from Forrester predicts that consumers will receive an average of more than 9,000 marketing messages in their inbox annually in 2014, with email marketing spend reaching $2 billion in five years. The growth is understandable, given that email can be an efficient and effective channel for promoting products and services. For publishers, email presents an opportunity to showcase your content, drive readers to your site and bring in additional revenue through sponsorships, advertising and lead generation. But publishers must avoid the many traps of email marketing even if they achieve some early success with their campaigns. This business is an opiate, said Frank Cutitta, general manager of IDG Connect, a provider of lead-generation and other marketing services to technology vendors. You start seeing leads come in, and you say more mail, more money, more mail, more money. And all of a sudden you see a precipitous drop as people say, no mas.

...Forrester predicts that consumers will receive an average of more than 9,000 marketing messages in their inbox annually in 2014...

sponsored sponsoredby by

16 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

TIPS AND OTHER RESOURCES FOR EMAIL MARKETING contd

If you send too much mail, people will unsubscribe, added Cutitta. But if you dont send enough, people will unsubscribe, because they feel its too casual of a relationship. So we look for the sweet spot of how much efficiency we can get out of each mailing, how many responses and how many drop off or dont drop off based on the email we send. Because email marketing is so prevalent, there is a seemingly endless supply of Web resources about the topic. Weve gathered some of them here to help you get up to speed, find a service provider and learn about what works and what doesnt with email campaigns.

Learning the basics

If youre just starting out, consider these guides: Best Practices in E-Mail Marketing Handbook, from MarketingSherpa. Strategies and tools for building a best-in-class email campaign, from growing your database to measuring your results. Cost: $397. A compendium of tips and advice from Email Marketing Journal

Finding a vendor
How to sift through the seemingly endless list of email marketing service providers and software? Start with these two guides: MarketingProfs offers a free vendor selector tool. Premium members ($149.95 a year) receive more detailed product listings and access to filtering tools. Buyers Guide to Email Marketing, from BizSnap Business Services.
sponsored sponsoredby by

17 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

TIPS AND OTHER RESOURCES FOR EMAIL MARKETING contd

Learning from others

There are plenty of case studies positive and negative about email marketing campaigns. MarketingProfs and MarketingSherpa offer two of the more extensive collections: Marketingprofs offers a rich library of case studies MarketingSherpa has a repository of more than 200 case studies related to email marketing

Adding social media to the mix

Theres plenty of buzz about whether social media will kill email or increase its effectiveness as a marketing tool. Here are four perspectives: Will social media kill the email star? Email Marketing + Social Media = Execution. A cautionary tale. What Social Media Can Learn From Email Marketing Combining email with social media

Dont forget mobile

Another new channel that marketers are attacking more aggressively is mobile. Mobile Email Marketing Tips Mobile email: the marketing challenges

sponsored sponsoredby by

18 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

TIPS AND OTHER RESOURCES FOR EMAIL MARKETING contd

Specifically for newspapers

Newspapers seem to be lagging in their approach to email marketing and may be missing a big opportunity. Heres some targeted advice for newspaper publishers: Email Marketing A Secret Weapon For Newspapers SMS & Email Marketing Can Help Newspapers Survive A Billion Dollar Email Opportunity: Where Are All The Newspapers?

What not to do
There are plenty of cautionary tales about email marketing, including more Top 5 or Top 10 lists than you can shake a spam filter at. Spam-inducing keywords to avoid. Hint: dont include swear words, body parts or anything related to porn. How to Escape the Corporate Spam Filter 5 common deliverability mistakes Top 10 mistakes. Key point: Requiring too much information to sign up. Another top 10. Key point: Not giving people what they want. OK, one more top 10. Key point: Ignoring metrics. A list for geeks: top HTML email coding mistakes (example: Using JavaScript Or ActiveX In HTML Email)

sponsored sponsoredby by

19 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

YOUR GUIDE TO EMAIL DESIGN

BY SEAN BLANDA

Designing an email newsletter is a lot like designing a web page in 1996: lots of different browsers and no real standards. Which, as any Web designer can tell you, makes it difficult to produce consistent and visually appealing results. Luckily, when it comes to the Internet, the practice of marketing through email is a well-established industry with many people making their best practices available. Here is a collection of our favorite email design resources that every marketer should use: Best practices for bulletproof e-mail delivery. Smashing Magazines tips for assuring your email arrives in the inbox and not in the spam filter. There are a lot of general tips here, as well as a few design guidelines, such as when to use CSS and which HTML elements are safe. How to code HTML newsletters. A four-step guide to coding an email template from the ground up. HTML, CSS and best practices are all covered here. The principles of beautiful HTML email. Make sure you dont forget any important elements with this overview of the building blocks of an email design such as: the footer, the unsubscribe section and a plain text link are all described in detail. A guide to CSS properties. CSS support for email newsletters is poor at best, but the

sponsored sponsoredby by

20 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

YOUR GUIDE TO EMAIL DESIGN contd

good folks at Campaign Monitor have already tested nearly every CSS element in all of the popular email clients so you dont have to. The 24-point creative checklist. Before you hit send, run your email through this checklist containing such reminders as including a request to forward to a friend and deemphasizing the terms and conditions. If you dont feel like dealing with any of this design stuff, here are some template collections to borrow from: 30+ free templates from Campaign Monitor Over 101 HTML email templates from MailChimp

sponsored sponsoredby by

21 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW TO DO YOUR FIRST MAILING LIST INVENTORY

BY MILIND SHAH

Brands who have built a newsletter business over the years often lose track of the subscriber overlap between individual newsletters. Performing a mailing list inventory shows the overlap between all of your newsletters and can shed light on performance issues that have defied solution. Once you clearly see the overlaps, you can also see opportunities. If there is serious overlap between two newsletters, you have several possible courses of action. If readers show clear preference for one (through open and click-through rates), then you probably have a reason to shut down the poor performer and give subscribers a break. Youll also save some money. Before you shut a newsletter down, go back and look at the articles that performed well over the past six months. If there is a common theme, you should consider adding that category of content to the better-performing newsletter. You could also create a new newsletter topic and send it to that segment of subscribers that showed interest. This should result in a smaller but more valuable newsletter that subscribers actually look forward to. A mailing list inventory cross-references the total number of subscribers for each newsletter and the overlap of subscribers between each. Your companys email management team can provide this information, though it may take some time to assemble depending on the number of newsletters. A matrix of the data would look like this:

sponsored sponsoredby by

22 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW TO DO YOUR FIRST MAILING LIST INVENTORY contd

From the raw numbers a breakdown of per-list overlap percentages can then be tabulated.

sponsored sponsoredby by

23 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW TO DO YOUR FIRST MAILING LIST INVENTORY contd

The data can be surprising. In the example above, notice that some lists are nearly 90% duplicated in another list, while some are niche focused with only single digit overlap. Overlay this data with each lists average newsletter open and click-through rates over the prior year. You can then quickly see whether or not youre over-sending to your lists. You can now formulate real strategy (based on hard data) to improve everything from conversions to branding to editorial overhead. It also might give you insight into shifts in your audiences needs. I specify newsletter here so that ad blasts or surveys do not skew your numbers. This data is a benchmark for future performance after changes have been made to your mailing lists and newsletters. We have made the spreadsheet depicted above available for download here. The link will take you to a Google Docs spreadsheet which you can view online and download into any spreadsheet application. Entering the raw send information into the first matrix will automatically generate the overlap percentages in the second matrix.

sponsored sponsoredby by

24 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW TO MANAGE AND REDUCE LIST FATIGUE

BY MILIND SHAH

The most common cause of list fatigue at media companies is the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. When disparate divisions use the same list for their own needs, it is subscribers who suffer the resulting flood of email. Email that was once eagerly awaited is now lumped in with a glut of email that is mostly unwanted and soon sits unread in subscriber inboxes. Meanwhile, media companies scratch their heads and wonder why readers arent opening or clicking on their emails they way they used to. Consider how the average email list is used and abused. In the beginning, the editors built a newsletter, readers subscribed, advertisers sponsored and all was well. Then other departments realized what a great tool this subscriber list could be. Audience development/circulation knew that email would be a pretty good way to crossmarket subscription offers. Marketing would like to gauge reader attitudes with some surveys. The tradeshow group naturally wanted to recruit new attendees and exhibitors for its upcoming shows. Third-party eblasts are a comparatively quick sell, so the sales team loved them to the tune of four or five each week. Unless your company appoints a C-level email czar to enforce some rules, the result is usually chaos and severe list fatigue. A centralized email group that manages the nuts and bolts of email broadcasts is not enough. This group may stagger the delivery of some emails throughout the day or limit their frequency, but they do not have the power to stop multiple emails from landing in the same inbox on the same day. Coordination at the brand (not corporate) level is

sponsored sponsoredby by

25 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW TO MANAGE AND REDUCE LIST FATIGUE contd

necessary to manage goals and improve conversions, because only someone familiar with the audience will know how much is too much. One way to manage broadcasts and badger subscribers less is to set up shared calendars. It becomes a dashboard for every department to monitor email volume and makes prioritizing sends more ROI-based and less political. A former colleague suggested the idea of using Google Calendar to provide all parties with this at-a-glance view of the email delivery schedule. Heres an example from the eMediaVitals newsletter schedule.

sponsored sponsoredby by

26 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

HOW TO MANAGE AND REDUCE LIST FATIGUE contd

In this example, each department has a separate, color-coded schedule. Sales broadcasts are spread out; no more than two emails go out in any one day; daily newsletters are timed at 10 am but one-off emails have priority, signaling a push back to editorial. A calendar could be set up by list or by newsletter instead of department. For especially fatigued lists, it might take time to see results from the new scheme. Tougher still is not knowing what else is in users inboxes that might be impacting your conversion rates. With someone coordinating email broadcasts, you can start testing to see what strategy presents the best results.

sponsored sponsoredby by

27 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

COMING SOON TO AN INBOX NEAR YOU: USER GENERATED NEWSLETTERS

BY ROB OREGAN

The trend in email newsletters is toward personalization. Tech trade publisher IDG is taking the concept one step further by letting users create their own newsletters. In late 2009, IDG launched TechDispenser, a Web-enabled application that lets users build custom newsletters based on technology topics that interest them. Choosing from 200 topics culled from more than 700 sources, users can choose both the amount and the frequency of the information theyre signing up to receive. They can even write their own subject lines. Tom Pimental, director of product development for IDG Enterprise, likens TechDispenser to an email version of iGoogle for tech information. Its a logical play for IDG, since email is such a healthy part of its business. Pimental estimates that 30% of the traffic on its major brand sites comes from newsletters. The goal is to make it easier for users to receive more relevant information. IDG tapped into its editorial expertise to identify the most valuable sources for TechDispenser content. With so much information out there, content discovery is difficult for users, Pimental said. Were vetting these sources for you.

Pimental estimates that 30% of the traffic on (IDGs) major brand sites comes from newsletters.

sponsored sponsoredby by

28 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

COMING SOON TO AN INBOX NEAR YOU: USER GENERATED NEWSLETTERS contd

Importantly, those sources are not just IDG brands. TechDispenser is not strictly a promotional tool for IDG content. The benefit for IDG lies in the leads lots and lots of potential new leads. The email addresses from new subscribers along with the profile information that the users are providing as they select their topics of interest will be gold for IDGs database marketing arm. Were a media company on the front end, but on the back end were a database company, said Pimental. Thats our most valuable asset. Thats why TechDispenser wont look like an IDG media brand nor will it offer original content. Were purposely trying to make this a valuable tool well beyond IDG, said Pimental. Pimentals team built TechDispenser in about three months using open-source Rails development technology. Because the tool is such a departure from other IDG products, Pimental admits he had to do more than the usual amount of research and modeling to prove its potential payback. The potential of a new database product to drive more newsletter subscriptions ultimately was enough to get a green light from the higher-ups. Pimental already has his sights set on potential product extensions: a mobile app, for example, or brand-specific versions that IDG publishers can offer to their subscribers. You can see a demo of the product here.

sponsored sponsoredby by

29 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

IABS GUIDELINES FOR EMAIL MONETIZATION

BY ROB OREGAN

The Interactive Advertising Bureau recently released a paper titled Email Monetization Strategies, which provides guidelines for, you guessed it, monetizing newsletters and other email inventory. The purpose is to provide a series of best practices that publishers and advertisers can use to get the most out of their email campaigns. I asked Sean ONeal, chief revenue officer at Datran and one of the principal authors of the report (he serves as co-chair of the IABs email and lead gen committee), why theres a need for this report now, considering the maturity of email relative to other online marketing channels. Its a way to provide some consistent definitions to both publishers and advertisers, especially those that may be new to email monetization, he said. The report includes sections on email newsletters, standalone email advertising, inventory management and data collection. It also discusses emerging best practices for embedded video, including issues such as content rights, choosing a player, reporting methods and ad formats. Video is a relatively new opportunity, but its a very powerful opportunity, said ONeal. Were trying to create some traction and bring this to the market. The biggest challenge for publishers, he added, will be working with ISPs to ensure that rich media formats are deliverable to users inboxes. The full report is here. The press release announcing the paper is here.

sponsored sponsoredby by

30 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

ADDITIONAL WEB RESOURCES

Tactics for reviving dead email subscribers
Every marketer (and publisher) has inactive email subscribers. But relatively few understand how to bring at least some of those email zombies back to life.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24305.asp

6 reasons to fire your ESP

If your email service provider is sitting back and hoping that each time you call it isnt because youre going to flee, then its time to send your ESP packing. See if any of these six reasons to kick your ESP to the curb strike a chord with you.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/25047.asp

Email subject lines: how long is too long?

Subject lines are the most critical element to an emails open rate. This blog post is a synopsis of an Epsilon survey and details the average number of characters visible on top email clients (AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail account for nearly 57% of the market).

http://jakprpro.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/e-mail-subject-line-length-short-is-good/

Master the targeted email subject line

When writing a targeted email subject line, the goal is to be as direct as possible to identify your intended audience. This approach will result in fewer clicks but a higher conversion rate.

http://www.mequoda.com/articles/email-marketing/master-the-targeted-email-subject-line/

Optimizing interactive content for e-newsletters

From employing video and audio content to inserting cutting-edge user polls, the interactive nature of email newsletters is growing. Here are a few tips to improve the response rate of your interactive ventures.

http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=711&doc_id=183416
sponsored sponsoredby by

31 / 32

Publishers Playbook: Email Marketing

ABOUT THE SPONSOR

At Publishers Press, we understand our loyal print customers need digital solutions from people they know and trust. Thats why weve launched an email marketing service with resources that go beyond technologyour service comes with a deep understanding of our customers businesses and our commitment to customer service. We evaluated dozens of email service providers to partner with before choosing Bronto Software, one of the biggest names in email marketing technology. Together, our email service allows you to use the power of email to engage your audience and bring in new advertising revenue. You get the worldclass features you need, like sophisticated audience development tools, robust reporting, and segmentation features. Even better, you get support from Publishers Press professionals who understand your business better than any email company could. Since we use Bronto for our own email marketing purposes, we know first hand some of the challenges our clients may face when starting an email program. Our insight enables us respond and provide support to our customers so they can be successful email marketers. To learn more about how our email service can grow your business, contact your Print Specialist to arrange a demonstration presented by our research group, or send an email to info@pubpress.com. The presentation will help you understand how the system works overall, how to use key features, and how to track your results.

sponsored sponsoredby by

32 / 32