image source: http://technorati.com/business/article/shopping-on-line-yes-we-care/

If you haven’t implemented the abandoned basket campaign yet or you’d like to tweak your current strategy, here are few tips and recent trends for you.

• How many?

When adding abandoned basket campaign, it’s worth considering sending a series of emails instead of only a single message. It’s like with resending your email to non-openers – it always generates additional revenue. The conversion will be lower than for the first message but imagine that you send the first email to 200 people who abandoned their cart and 50 of them place an order, which gives you 25% conversion rate. Few days later, you resend to the remaining 150 – and you get a 15% conversion rate, which means you have additional 10 orders. These are 10 orders more that you wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the second message.

• When?

Strike while the iron’s hot. The sooner the better. However, make sure not to give the impression of stalking your potential customers.  Yet, you don’t want to wait for too long, as during that time they might purchase somewhere else or change their mind.  After looking at many studies, we would say that 3h after abandoning the basket is the optimum time. And the next message can be sent 24h-48h later.

• How?

Try using more transactional language instead of a sales pitch tone. You might want to use copy such as “Don’t forget…”, “Did you have problems at the checkout?”, “Was there a problem?”. If you can, include the product name, and image. This can be easily done by adding dynamic content rules. You will have to consider different scenarios, such as what if there is more than one product in the basket.  You can decide about the maximum size of the products that can be included in the email (for example, six) to make sure it’s not too long. But do remember to plan the layout carefully and check how it will look with e.g. odd number of products. You may want to decide that you will only include one product in the email, which is the safest way but you’d have to decide which product it will be if there is more than one in the basket.

• What?

Here are few elements that should be included in your abandoned basket emails:

-          Link to the basket or checkout

-          Product name

-          Product image

-          Contact to customer service

-          Strong call to action: “Proceed to checkout”, “Check out”, “Finish your order”

-          Discount? Special offer? No! Don’t train your customers to add and leave items in the basket to get a discount. Rather reward good behavior and show them that buying brings them benefits.

Of course, we recommend that once you implement your abandoned basket campaign, you should start testing different ideas and approaches to achieve the best results. There are certain basic rules that can be applied to most of the businesses, but every business is different, every audience is different and that’s why you need to see what works best for you and set up your own benchmarks. Once you do that, you’ll open a treasure chest of email marketing gold.

Examples:

• Company: Net-A-Porter.com
  Subject: Don’t forget…
  Sent: after 24h

• Company: SmileyCookies.com
  Subject: Was there a problem checking out?
  Sent: after 3h

Subject: Complete your order today and get 10% off
Sent: after 48h

• Company: Sehora.com
  Subject: Just a reminder…
  Sent: after 3h

• Company: Birkenstockcentral.com
  Subject: Thank you, Paulina, for stopping by Birkenstock Central! Your items are waiting for you.
  Sent: after 3h

Subject: Paulina, complete your order within 24 hours & receive 5% off!
Sent: after 24h

• Company: Fetchdog.com
  Subject: Did you forget something?
  Sent: after 3h

• Company: Bareescentuals.com
  Subject: Oops! Was there a problem?
  Sent: after 30 minutes

Subject: Shopping bag reminder: SPF 30 Natural Sunscreen
Sent: after 24h

• Company: Neimanmarcus.com
  Subject: DOUBLE Gift Card: Items in your shopping bag
  Sent: after 24h

image source: http://imagespartnerstudios.com/services/services-images-aesthetics/skin-rejuvenation-services/

Basically, what you have to do is decide who gets what and then create one message with parts that will be filled in with unique content according to a set of rules that have been assigned for each segment.

Here’s an example I have recently come across. I’m signed up to Sephora’s newsletter with two dfferent emails. With one of them I have specified my preferences like skin tone, skin type, favourite colours etc. The other one is subscribed without any information about me specified. And here’s what I’ve received some time ago:

First email was sent to the address with updated preferences – since they know I have dry skin, they have put this info next to the image of their product: “For your dry skin”, which makes the offer more compelling and personalized.

Sent: Jan 30, 2012
Subject: Special reward – this weekend only.

The other email signed up without any special preferences, didn’t have this line next to the product, while it was sent the very same day and had the same subject line.

Sent: Jan 30, 2012
Subject: Special reward – this weekend only.

Even if you struggle with lack of time, there’s no need not to do one-to-one communication with your subscribers. Get the right tool and insert into your emails customized graphics, text, offers, feeds, links… you name it!

1. Alt tags

HTML alt tags help bring your message to the readers when the images are disabled or not displayed, by showing short text description. Most email clients and services disable images by default, therefore alt tags are a must in HTML messages, as they will briefly describe your images. Adding alt tags might seem like a lot of work, but it will only add 5 or 10 minutes to the production of your email. So what you have to do is just add an alt attribute to every image (or every important image) in your HTML code. It would look like this:

<img src=”http://example.com/imge.jpg” alt=”Example of an alt tag” />

Sephora with images off

Sephora with images on

TIP 1: keep your alt tags short, as email clients such as Gmail, Yahoo!, Windows Live, iPhone and Apple Mail will reject alt tags that exceed the width of the image. So keep it short and simple!

TIP 2: Add alt tags to elements, which are always included in your emails, such as navigation bar, logo etc.

2. Preheader

Relatively simple to implement but can bring a fair amount of additional opens and clicks. It’s a short snippet of text and it should be placed above your graphics or fancy HTML. In Gmail, Outlook and iPhone it is also displayed in your inbox as a teaser. Therefore it can tremendously affect your open rates. Here are some examples:

Trip Advisor

Mostly what you can find in preheaders is the following text:

“Can’t view images? Click here.”

Sur La Table

But it’s a great place for other things which can increase your results. You can have two or even three lines of your preheader. So what you can do is make it a little bit longer and for example combine some of them by adding a call to action in first line and view with images in the second one.

So here are few ideas for what you could put in your preheader

- Call to action

Bloomingdale’s

- Incentive to open

Banana Republic

- View on a mobile

Neiman Marcus

- Add to address book

Coach

- And if you’re dealing with complaints issues, you might want to try adding your unsubscribe link!

Either way, you can have two or even three lines of your preheader.

3. Consistent format

It’s good to make your emails a little bit different each time, but remember to have some elements that will be consistent, just for the sake of brand recognition. It can be a logo that will always be in the same place or background of all your email in the same color. The choice is up to you and you can experiment from there. Change and have fun with your emails!

4. CTA

Call to action is word or a phrase that urges your subscriber to take an immediate action. Ok, I know. Some emails do not need it. But in most cases, it should be there! Email without CTA is like a door without a knob. Your subscribers are there in front of your shop, but they;re not tempted to get in. Invite them and tell them what to do! Call to actions can have different form and can involve various verbiage that will help your recipients interact with your offer.

It is advised to make CTAs more visible than other parts of your email. So you might want to use some colors, bolded font or increased font size. Just put something that’s simple and will catch your readers’ eye.  When it comes to colors and text used, my advice is – test, test, test. For your emails it might be a red button, but for someone else an orange button might have more clicks. Just test it and check what works best. Missing the link here can kill your email! So don’t forget about it.

Buy.com

Thomson

Asos.com

5. Footer

It’s a bottom part of the email where no one usually looks, so you might say it’s not important. Yet, it says a lot about your company and gives a good overall image. Be classy and elegant there. Just like in every traditional letter, there has to be the beginning and ending. Therefore, do plan it in your email creative. The most common thing you would find there is an unsubscribe link. But beside that, it’s also a great place for:  contact information, link to customer’s account, link to preference center, copyright notification, opt-in reminder (where they signed up), sign-up link (for the ones that received your email as a forward). Here are few examples:

Tiffany&co.

Crate & Barrel

6. Reply-to address

If you use a “no-reply@” as a “From:” email, then you really have to rethink your whole email marketing campaign. Honestly! Email is social. It’s all about communication and interaction. So you can’t miss this opportunity!  And except the fact that you’re missing the contact with your customers, you’re also showing them you only care about them when they buy from you. When they want to ask a question or request anything… you’re not there for them. What’s more, you are losing money and sales. Many campaign I have worked with have been generating a big amount of replies with orders or questions about your offer. These are your leads! And they might convert into $$$. Don’t lose this opportunity and use only “reply-to” addresses.

7. Links and Landing page

Let’s use a door metaphor again… if an email without CTA is like a door without a knob… Then email without the links is like a shop with locked door. You invite your customers to visit the shop, they come but they can’t actually get in. So make sure to link as many elements as you can in your emails. It will generate more clicks. And more clicks = more sales = more $$$. But be careful what you link to. Think about the element in your email and the place it’s leading to. Look at this example over here.

PehapsMe.com

I click on the pink dress …

And what I get is…

It’s an online shop with clothes. We see a primary message about sale. I click on this particular dress I really like and which I probably would like to buy and instead… I land on the page with some other items and I can’t find the pink dress. So what’s the solution here? The HTML of this email should be prepared in way that every image of a particular item is a separate link, instead of having a one image email. Look at the example below:

Net-a-porter.com

Landing page:

Think as if you were the subscriber, where they start (click) and where they land. Make it as easy as possible to buy!

Summing up, no matter if you’re new to email or you’ve already done a few email campaigns – think about this simple check-list I’ve prepared. It doesn’t take much time to add these features to your emails. In fact – they’re easy to implement. But – believe me – they can make a huge difference to your results. So it’s really worth the time and effort.

Good luck with your email campaigns!

source: http://www.emailmarketing.net/blog/email-marketing-for-valentines-day/2011/02/15

Booking.com
Subject: Go somewhere special on Valentine’​s Day
Sent: Jan 13, 2012

The first reference to Valentine’s Day showed in my inbox on January 10, 2012. Not too early when you take into consideration the product – hotel deals.  I really like the subject line. Simple but catchy.

Tiffany & co.
Subject: Heartfelt Valentine’​s Day Gifts under $300
Sent: Jan 30, 2012

I love Tiffany’s emails for their consistency and simplicity. They never have too much going on there. Just the product and very few words. Although, again some call-to action is missing in this particular email, I still think it’s great in its simple, classy way. This email is using idea of adjusting existing product for a special occasion – in this case it’s under $300 items for Valentine’s Day.  It also has this very subtle animated gif in bottom right corner, the “Where I belong” sentence slowly appearing as it was just being written (although not visible in the screen below).

Agent Provocateur
Subject: This Valentine’​s lie back and think of knickers
Sent: Jan 31, 2012

Agent Provocateur has not prepared any special creative or offer for this occasion. Yet, it provides special return policy and gift wrapping. The humorous subject line isn’t exactly consistent with the rest of the content, but it’s intriguing enough and may generate a healthy number of opens.

So, get inspired and ready for the next year’s Valentine’s Day.

It’s never too early to start planning your email campaigns, even one year in advance.

Most of us know the email marketing ABC and yet, from time to time in my inbox I bump into things which get me really stunned.

So, today, on the menu: the review of ideas I will never buy – my personal selection.

source: http://www.homebusinessblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/trap.jpg

Sin no 1: Bad ideas

Can content marketing turn out bad? As Boots campaigns show – yes. It’s all about the choice of subjects – whether segmented or not.

These newsletters definitely match my preferences. But I surely didn’t expect the following topics and titles when I made my choices. I frown in terror and delete, rather than click out of curiosity.

I definitely don’t like the “skin cancer” in my inbox. The question about teeth brings visions of bad breath and rotten gums. But the persistence in providing me with a collection of popular European insects is really remarkable.

Does Boots really want it’s brand to be collocated with images of lice and ticks?

Sin no 2: Personalization gone wrong

Researches show that using custom fields for subscriber’s name in a newsletter can do more harm than good if used in an inappropriate way. The same goes for the default values used if subscriber’s data is missing. “Dear customer” is something I can swallow, but email marketers are even more creative.

I don’t need to be an email marketing specialist to realize that it’s a failed attempt to make a regular batch-and blast email sound more custom-made. Unfortunately the effect is just the opposite. I feel like I’m yet another address on the list.

Sin no 3: Segmentation traps

Advanced segmentation is a great tool that – with an experienced user – can help you create the sense of one-to-one email contact. True. Though, to create a proper segment you need some know-how and some detailed customer information. And if that is missing (not all of use have enough time and good will to manage their preference centers) –  you can still try to be a mind reader.

Since I never ticked any preferences for this store, their pretended knowledge about my tastes seems a desperate shot in the dark. The personalized picks from those three emails are: the autobiography of Rob Lowe, the history of Ford’s empire, a book about a game of baseball and my absolute favorite:

If I successfully followed the tips from this guide I’d be ten now.

Sin no 4: Getting too familiar

Informal, relaxed style has become a standard in email marketing. That’s ok, it helps reduce the distance and sounds friendly. However, there are limits. Some kind of email etiquette still exists.

Would you dare to say the same in a face to face conversation with your customer? I doubt it.

Dissembling your email to look like a message from a friend doesn’t become real pros either.

Especially not from a site that specializes in providing free email marketing tips…

Sin no 5: Aggressive marketing

If you haven’t been an active email marketing player for a while, you better don’t try to be back in the game too aggressively. The attitude “sell or die” won’t take you far.

These are the only two newsletters from Supersavvyme I got over the last 4 months.

The first one was all about the content, the second one all about selling. And to me it just doesn’t sound right if you come with such a direct sale offer after a few months of silence. The choice of a partner for a great come back (plus the “important” tag) are also a bit surprising. So, no, I won’t spare a dime.

Sin no 6: Playing the same tune for too long

Sending the same newsletter to the same customer twice doesn’t make much sense in any circumstances. Neither does an attempt to utilize a bait that didn’t catch over and over again.

The same newsletter with the deadline custom field changing was used at least 9 times – now that’s a thrifty approach.

Reusing newsletters can be a successful strategy to save time and resources. But it’s only the good ideas that are worth it.

Apart from those major blunders, here’s a bunch of some particularly clumsy subject lines.

CUSP: What’s Your Shoe Personality – “shoe personality”, seriously??

Ralph Lauren UK: Children Looks for Summer Holiday – children don’t have looks. They don’t need looks. They need comfy, dirt-resistant gear that’s cheap and easy to wash.

PetFoodDirect: Your Weekends Are For Pets Newsletter –it means that they’re sending me a newsletter which is titled “Your Weekend Are For Pets”, but with no punctuation I got it all mixed up.

(13^th Sep)National Gallery: National Gallery Christmas Cards Available Now

(21^st Sep) Boots: Our Christmas shop is now open… – so the countdown’s officially started.

It’s easy to be trapped and defeated by your own good ideas. You need to be diligent, tactful and modest. And certainly – you need to be your own reviewer and censor. For a start – imagine that you’re at the other end – receiving and reading out the email. And if you’re still not sure – add your own account to the mailing list, ask co-workers for opinions, split test, use feedback available via social media. Don’t waste your resources by sending to inactives too frequently – use segmentation and triggered messages wisely. Follow the engagement metrics – reuse only newsletters with top ratings for opens and clicks. These are simple procedures that can significantly impact your ROI. It’s really worth trying.

Each of those three issues has already been discussed in detail on many specialist corporate (and not only) blogs, including this one.

Today I’d like to focus on the third one: action. Email marketing basics will tell you that nothing inspires action better than a powerful call to action. Let’s analyze a handful of picks from my inbox to see if and how CTAs can improve the engagement metrics.

Source: www.questiontime.me/tag/alex/

Effective subject lines are created according to specific rules: you need to discuss branding, frontloading, trigger words, personalization, legal requirements etc. It’s worth the effort, though, as recipients do not read your subject lines in isolation. Each of your emails has to compete with dozens of others which have the same objectives. To win attention you need to sound unique and sensational. A handy CTA can help you here.

1. “For Your Information” (FYI) type subject lines are something to avoid at all costs. They are dull and likely to be overlooked, or ignored as another “same-old” category. They sound official, and impersonal, which doesn’t really inspire the feeling of being the special addressee of the email. See examples:

They all miss the important “What’s In It For Me” (WIIFM) information. So I shrug and say: so what? To really get your message through you need to do better than that.

2. We tend to ask headlines to do too much, or too little. In the context of generating action we either want them to lead straight to a sale…

…or we try to lure the recipient to open the email, but nothing beyond.

None of the approaches is particularly successful. The first one seems very pushy, but doesn’t raise much interest or inspire the sense of connectedness. The other one is inviting, but doesn’t contain any WIIFM type of information. A good subject line should create the sense of desire, curiosity and immediate advantage. For the reader they often mean something different than immediate sale. See examples:

All these subject lines imply what information can be found inside and how you can benefit from it, but with no pressure to make a purchase. They can lead not only to a sale, but far beyond: they help establish relationship with the customer and build strong and positive brand image.

3. When I said that we want too much of our headlines, I meant it literally. Simplicity and brevity are obligatory criterions. Too long and complex headlines (no matter how inviting) will deter people, plus they don’t shrink gracefully when displayed in some email clients. The examples below have great powerful CTAs, but they’re just too long, thus discouraging.

Being concise is difficult. It requires planning, calculating and putting a lot of constraints on what you want to say. At the same time as a recipient I’d like to see some creativity, play and imagination. That’s why I really value subject lines which can meet all these demands.

Bravo to all the above. They not only have good rhythm and sound great and amusing. They also give you a clue about what to expect which is an important prerequisite of an engaging subject line.

4. Concerning what I’ve just said above I can’t say much good about the next two subject lines.

They are confusing, stylistically difficult to understand, and don’t say much about the message content. A good subject line should raise expectations that the content can meet. The same imperative “see” is used below to create an engaging, personal and meaningful CTA.

5. Positive and active CTAs (“find out more”, “learn”, “visit”, “update”, “enjoy” etc.) work better than negative and passive ones. Thus, beware of negations as their effect can be opposite to what was expected.

There are many tricks that you can try out. Subject lines are quite easy to change, modify and test, so all sorts of experiments are welcome. You lack sources of inspiration?

Check out what calls to action drive the most clicks to your site.

Give up dull declarations and statements.

Appeal to emotions, desires, dreams, encourage your audience to discover what’s inside, make it irresistible.

Let your headline be a promise of an experience that reaches beyond a sale.

Image source: http://stockbee.biz/blog/tag/bootcamp/

So, exactly how many times did I miss the last chance over the last two months? On average once a day…

I even lost “One last chance” once.

I also regularly miss reminders such as “Last day”, “last 2 days”, “Last X days”, “Don’t miss” “Final hours”.

Do I click? Do I buy? Do I feel like I’m missing anything?

The original and very powerful idea behind the whole urgency thing was to let the customer know that if they linger on for a day or two, they will have to pay more. However, if a brand sends that kind of information on regular basis… well, it simply misses the point here. If your limited offers become predictive they no longer inspire emotions and impulse to act now. Thus, they become completely useless.

If you really want your urgency calls to be successful use them moderately. Limit yourself. A conditionality factor shouldn’t be a foundation of a campaign. It can only be your marketing back-up option.

Otherwise you’ll lose your trustworthiness. The quantity limits and deadlines must be real and observed. Once your recipients realize that the limitations are fabricated their interest is gone.

Exactly how motivating are these?

We’ve got tired of Last Chances and Last Days. We’re hoping for more creativity. The subject lines should stand out and be as informative as possible. Below you’ll find some good examples. Please note, they all come from one retailer.

Naturally, it’s not only about the subject line.

Be graphically suggestive – the content and calls to action inside the email need to emphasize the pressure for time. Large print, flashing letters etc. are all welcome. Small prints with bottom localization might not only be overlooked. They might make your prospects think that it was intentional and that you want them to miss the deadline. Just like in this Crocs offer.

Yes, size matters.

Proportions do, too.

This one is ok.

But this one is even better.

If you want your prospects to feel they’re really making a great deal don’t rely solely on time limits. There’s no better combination than limited availability mixed with limited access.

Create the impression that the offer is available only to a narrow circle of people. Inspire the sense of exclusiveness by using phrases such as” “members’ only”, “exclusive”, “club card” – increased rates guaranteed.

What does the offer above tell you? “Exclusive access” and “email members only” – mean that actually all contacts on the mailing list were sent this message. But the red stripe does its job really well.

Today’s question is “do I need the urgency strategy to stand out?” The review of my Inbox shows that it’s often used in an uncontrolled and unreasonable way. However, if you’re genuine, trustworthy and thrifty with your “last chances” you can make them really work for you. After all – we’re all a bit of impulse buyers.

Source: http://www.websharedesign.com/blog/2009/03

The stats don’t lie: open rate: 35% to 50%, clickthrough rate: 25% to 35%*. So let’s review some of the most important factors that will brush off your initial fears and doubts and make the whole process doable.

It doesn’t happen overnight. You need to carefully analyze your goals, resources and methodology: starting from specifying the segmentation criteria, to handling overlapping areas, creating relevant content, managing schedules and delegating tasks to your enthusiastic stuff.

Start with a single segment. Testing your ideas in microenvironment will help manage unexpected challenges and create a framework for large scale segmentation. It will provide opportunities for a controlled trial of various tactics, offer field for necessary adjustments and quicker metrics results.

Specify the criteria for outlining the audience groups. You can do it using various keys: purchase history, location, demographics, email click behavior, customer profitability, etc. Or you can distinguish groups depending on the type and format of content you want to send out. Once you have the conditions for segmentation sorted, you can start work on self-managed preference centers to optimize the allocation of contacts in segments.

Efficient preference centers should be easily accessible, with links in every newsletter. They can’t overburden people with questions. The questions need to sound logical and relevant. If you’re only starting your segmentation adventure, remember that your subscribers might not be accustomed to this method of data collection: to encourage them provide incentives and send update and feedback requests.

It’s good to start segmentation process at the registration stage. Make the signup form and questions identical with the ones in the preference centre form. It makes it easier and more encouraging to manage it later on.

Once you have your segments’ outlines, thoroughly plan the content.

Building templates will allow you to focus more on the creative aspect, and at the same time put some constraints on it (follow “the less, the better” rule) as well as reduce time spent on design and revision. Depending on your time, resources and needs of each segment, you can create one template for all segments and fill it with different content, or have a template for each target group.

Explore internal resources. Get people from all over the company to write for you, or at least provide you with tips and resources. Different departments responsible for various areas of the company’s activity, so it seems quite natural that those department specialists will know best what information is relevant, or needs marketing.

Reuse/repurpose content. The results analysis can help you choose the most effective bits to create new content around it: relaunch best-sellers, create new USPs for your base products, duplicate the most engaging initiatives, and fit various creatives in a repetitive cycle. Engaged recipients are also quite willing to extend their scope of interests so you can try to implement the strictly targeted content with selected information from different areas.

Most typically your segments will overlap, so management of the dispatch schedule will be the hardest bit. Set your priorities, and do not hesitate to use features such as frequency capping, suppression lists, etc. Adjust the emails frequency to the subscribers’ engagement. This will require more advanced segmentation strategies, but will eventually work to your advantage.

Entire list or segment? You don’t have to give up the entire list campaigns, if you believe that your content is worth it. However, from now on you need to plan it as one-to-one type of discourse. The need for crafty use of dynamic content auto-fills, conditional content, personalization tags and merge words was never more pressing.

We’re all familiar with the benefits of database segmentation and targeted marketing. Yet still many ignore it. Perhaps we don’t fully realize the effects of its absence? Addressing large uncategorized lists results in increase of costs, subscriber churn, problems with deliverability, low engagement statistics, and quicker list fatigue. Remember this is happening right now, while you’re still pondering whether segmentation worth it or not.

source:dreamstime.com

1. Use a reputable, advanced email services provider/platform. Their integrated serviced should embrace automated list hygiene procedures: API based lists updates, removal of complainers, and bounced email addresses, spellcheckers, unsubscribe lists, blacklists scans and updates, feedback loop mechanisms, etc.

2. If the above is not enough, get a professional list cleansing service. The best industry standards here are: on-demand and close to real-time scans for live feeds, use of heuristic algorithms and exhaustive reporting. Comprehensive list scans against immediately self-updating blacklists will not only help you eliminate typos and expired addresses but more importantly suppress any spamtraps, third party oversight seeds, etc.

3. Use advanced segmentation. Relevant and personalized newsletters mean higher engagement metrics. This in consequence means more active and engaged subscribers on your lists.

4. Offer only confirmed opt-in procedures (double opt-in). Subscribers who undergo this verification stage are less likely to click “this is spam” or delete emails unopened.

5. Always brand your from and address field. Make sure that what your subscribers can see is familiar and meaningful. Otherwise you’re on straight way to Bin or Spam box.

6. If you feel that your list is going stale run an address verification campaign to activate your inactives, e.g. re-engagement campaigns. If this doesn’t work – delete them with no remorse.

7. Remember that people change and apply this common truth in your newsletters and campaigns: offer preference update requests, and direct links to self-managed preference centers. People change their emails too – make it easy for them to update your records with a new one.

8. Always offer a prominent and easy to click unsubscribe button. Use this legal requirement to work for the benefit of your list quality. A transparent, easy to use procedure will guarantee that those who lost interest will use it, rather that mark your email as spam, or delete it unopened. This way you can substantially minimize your complaints rates.

9. Don’t send out to old inactive lists and long not contacted addresses – many expired ones are turned by ISPs into spamtraps. And sometimes it only takes one to put a halt on your mailings and damage your reputation.

10. If, however, you have invested a lot in creating a database of addresses, and you’re very reluctant to give up any of them you can try a provider of ECOA services (email change of address) to identify, verify, correct and update you database records. Some of them guarantee updates for up to 15% of the bouncing or inactive email addresses in your file. Compare this number to your dormants ratio, and do your math to decide if the fee is proportional and satisfactory.

One thing is certain: you’ve got to spend time, effort, and often money to keep your database clean. Otherwise, it will naturally disintegrate over time. The good news is that you can easily integrate many simple procedures into your daily routine by yourself. The more advanced ones can be outsourced. For sure, it’s better to prevent than cure, so don’t get caught with your deliverability results slump. Work on your list hygiene. After all, it’s much cheaper that the tiresome and time-consuming process of leads generation and new list building.

Source: http://www.astondean.com/FinalReminder

Crocs (1 month after subscription) is very official with their subject line: Renew your Crocs Subscription and Get 20% Off. The offer is clearly conditional – it’s about the subscription verification as the call to action goes. Looks like it’s a part of their list hygiene policy, as I got two identical reminders within a month. I wonder if another one would follow if I failed to complete my renewal. They’re clearly trigger emails, sent to specific segments. The second trigger was set with a condition: send to all who didn’t open the first reminder. The first one must have been based on a condition different than no-open, (perhaps a no-click or no-sale) as I did in fact open some of the Crocs’ emails…

The other re-engagement email came from Gap Outlet (3 months after the signup). They’re not an online shop and the discount is not to be redeemed online. So I would probably need a few follow-ups to get really hooked on it. But nothing followed. The campaign’s main objective is naturally to increase the outlet traffic rather than boost the engagement metrics, however, I can see room for improvement here. My inactivity doesn’t prove that I don’t visit their stores, but only that I’m not interested in the coupons, have a broken printer etc. Thus am I really the right addressee?

Now, let’s briefly confront these two creatives with some re-engagement does and don’ts, and with some award winning re-engagement campaign examples.

1. Your target. Whether it’s the lack of opens or clicks that counts as inactivity you need to have a carefully defined segment, otherwise you may discourage your subscribers. You also need to state your reasons clearly in your email. Crocs’ “It’s been a while” is a bit puzzling to me. A while since what?

2. Headline and call to action. They need to be direct, clear and concise and create a sense of urgency which is what Crocs’ does. Clarity is missing from Gap, as the headline “We’ve missed you” has absolutely no reference to what follows in the main body. The Gap’s coupon lacks any clickable links and calls to action. It tries to trigger responses in the “offline reality”- get customers to the stores. That kind of online to offfline transition is not very common, but it can bring some good results as the 2011 MarketingSherpa award winner proves:

source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/EmailAwards2011/EmailAwards2011Winners.pdf

3. Incentive. It’s good to have it; however, it’s got to be something more special than your standard offers. I received better offers from Gap Outlet in the past so a mere 15% is not a thrill.

4. Re-engagement series. 3 messages, based on the recipient’s performance (didn’t open or didn’t click) are acceptable. One is of no use as it can be easily overlooked. If they don’t bring any effect send a farewell message informing that their account has been cancelled with one final link to re-start it.

5. Activate or eliminate. Inform your inactives that if they take no action they will be removed from your lists (see Railey example above). Provide a clear YES/NO type of choice. Those work as best motivators. However, if you’re afraid of such a conclusive solution use friendly and less aggressive calls to actions. Learn from the best:

source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emaw2009/1-Dell-MostDramatic-SubscriptionReactivationTest.pdf

6. Opportunities. Scan the calendar for opportunities to launch a re-activation campaign. Real-time references work better than standard reminders: (see above: Dell on St. Valentines Day)

The statistics for re-engagement campaigns speak for themselves: “unique open rates have increased 35%, unique clickthrough rates have raised 60%” (Railey Mountain Lake Vacations, quoted after: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/EmailAwards2011/EmailAwards2011Winners.pdf). Re-engagement campaigns are a perfect way to activate the dormants and improve lists quality and metrics. Use the above examples of what you should and shouldn’t, and go on: re-engage.