Email Marketing: Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 2014 and Beyond

When was the last time email
made you feel like this?

The more “normal” reaction.

Four Ways to Make Humans
Love Your Email Marketing!
Digital Summit Denver
Michael Barber, VP Strategy @ COHN
June 2014

#DSD14/@MICHAELJBARBER 4
Hello.

5
5 Disclaimers.
All knowledge, no pitch. I promise.1
3
Let’s have a conversation. Interrupt or raise your hand. Ask questions at
the end. Don’t worry, I’m super friendly.
4
Everything I’m going to tell can be done by any sized brand and/or
agency, large, small, B2B, B2C, whatever.
2 Use the hashtag #DSD14, but please take a good photo #kthanksbye.
5 It’s that time of the day, so LAMAR’S DONUTS!
#DSD14/@MICHAELJBARBER

“Study the past if you want to
define the future.”
–Confucius

7
Email history.
The 70s. The beginnings.

8
Email history.
Gary’s email ROI
$13 million

Email history.
The 90s. Era of spray & pray.

Email history.
The 2000s. Anti-spam and the rise of the DB.
2007

Email history.
The 2000s. Segmentation and targeting.

Email history.
Today…

Email marketing is not dead.

The human’s perspective.
You essentially can’t sign up for anything online without an email
address.
1
2
3
4
Email consumption rates continue to rise, albeit driven by mobile views.
Email, and the data brands have acquired from it, compliments
other channels.
People continue to rely heavily on email at work and to engage with
brands.

Even my 78-year old Grandma
has one.

The marketer’s perspective.

The shopper’s perspective.

The market’s perspective.

Houston, we have a big problem.

94 billion
spam messages per day

78%
of email is spam

$20 billion
cost to the global economy

What would solve immediately
this problem?

Here’s a great idea.

Unfortunately (yes, unfortunately),
that won’t happen. And, because
we all got lazy the ESPs got smart.

Authentication.

Spam folders.

Mark as spam & instant
unsubscribe.

Layer reputation data.

Moving promotional emails out of
the Inbox.

The effects.

So, how do we (marketers) get
better?

We focus on the customer’s point
of view and look to the 4P’s.

And, no, I’m not talking about
product, price, place, and
promotion.

PervasiveP
P Personalized
P Prescriptive
P Participatory
The McKinsey 4P’s.

P Personalized Make it relevant to me.
P Prescriptive I’m in control.
P Participatory I have a voice. Let me use it.
The McKinsey 4P’s.
P Pervasive Let me read email where I am.

Let me read email where I am.
Pervasive.

Pervasive.
We are reading emails on all devices.

Pervasive.
And, all the time.

Pervasive.
Ensure the message is consumable.
Single column “skinny” layouts.1
5 Drop any interactive features. They don’t work well on mobile, for now.
3
Fonts (14+), buttons (44px square), and space that are friendly to our
weak eyes, fat fingers, and small screens.
4
Say it as easily and concisely as possible because I’m probably sitting on
the toilet, eating lunch/dinner (hopefully not both), or “watching” my kids.
2
Appropriate hierarchies. Give your images some love, but remember text
works too.
6 For the love of all things holy, let’s drop “click here”.

Pervasive.
Mobile design options.
Responsive = AWESOME1 2 Mobile-aware = WORKS TOO

Pervasive.
Tools to consider.

Participatory
I have a voice. Let me use & see

Participatory.
Social + email = match made in
digital heaven.

Participatory.
Put social content into emails.

Participatory.
Drive cross-channel opt-ins.

Participatory.
Figure out what people care about;
use that data to craft email content.

Personalized.
Make it relevant to me.

Personalized.
Leverage segmentation to
personalize to me.

Personalized.
Develop/enhance triggers based on
my behavior.
Sign up / welcome1
3 Website engagement / purchase
4 Post experience
2 Birthday and/or anniversary

Personalized.
Adjust campaign delivery, content &
messaging based on me.
Gender based content/creative1
3 Seasonal content/creative
4 Event (i.e. weather) content/creative
2 Location-based content/creative
5 Time of day when I read it

Personalized.
Adjust campaign delivery, content &
messaging based on me.
Cool for the gents
Cool for the ladies

Personalized.
Always give me more reasons to
open your email.

Personalized.
Tools.

Prescriptive
I’m in control.

Prescriptive.
Let me tell you what I want.

Prescriptive.
Let me tell you when I want it.

Prescriptive.
If I want out, give me an easy opt-out.

Prescriptive.
Give me reasons to stay.

Prescriptive.
If I stop listening, reengage and then
stop sending.

So, let’s make email better.

How?
P Personalized Make it relevant to me.
P Prescriptive I’m in control.
P Participatory I have a voice. Let me use it.
P Pervasive Let me read email where I am.

Because imagine if
with this?

Thanks. Questions?!
Want these slides?
Have questions? @michaeljbarber /

Sources.
• Smart Insights -
EvolutionofEmail.jpg
• Symantec -
• LinkedIn -
you-need-to-know-about-your-customers?trk=mp-reader-card
• MailChimp -
• Huffington Post -
• Email Marketing Rules -
• Teach to Fish Digital -
• Mashable -
• Mashable -
• Candicreate -
• Think with Google -
• Smart Insights / Gartner -
hype-cycle.png

Email Marketing: Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 2014 and Beyond

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Email Marketing: Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 2014 and Beyond