The Complications of Constructing HTML Emails

MarketingFile - The Complications of Constructing HTML Emails
MarketingFile - The Complications of Constructing HTML Emails

Since starting the process of learning HTML and CSS, I have now been exposed to the challenges faced when designing for emails.  With the various amounts of email clients and multiple browsers to view them on, this has allowed for a vast amount of variation in regards to compatibility and support of HTML and CSS.

As a result, this has restricted the way in which designers go about creating their campaigns to ensure each consumer gets the best possible user experience. Your communication should be optimised when viewing it in your recipients chosen email client and/or browser. This means your email will look different depending on where and what the user is viewing it on. Rather than being able to use all the latest features in HTML and CSS, designing for emails is very restrictive.

The Email Standards Project is an organisation that aims to improve the email experience for designers and readers by working with email client developers to eventually ensure that designers will be able to rely on a solid, consistent level of web standards support when building HTML emails.

But until then there are a few dos and don’ts on how to construct a successful email across all platforms – here are a few of the main ones!

Do

✔  Use tables

This is the only universally accepted method that renders emails correctly and will not break across email clients.

✔  Make your CSS inline

Popular email clients strip out CSS in the <head>. An easy way to solve this is to write your CSS in the <head> and then use an inliner such as Zurb’s to convert your CSS inline ready to send. Also ensure that you write out your CSS in full declaring each property – do not use shorthand.

✔  Provide image dimensions

Some clients automatically apply their own which can cause major issues when rendering so make sure to apply a width and a height in your style tag as well as individual attributes for each image.

✔  Keep it 600px max wide

This allows users to scroll down rather than side-to-side and enable the user to view your email the way it was intended

Don’t

✖  Rely on images

Not all email clients display images by default, they require the user to actually enable the download. This is especially important if your main message is on an image as half of your subscribes will never see that message. Therefore, make sure to use the ‘alt’ and ‘title’ attributes so they can still see what it is they are missing.

✖  Use PNG Images

Not all web browsers support them; instead use JPEG’s and GIF’s.

✖  Use only custom fonts

Not all clients support @font-face so make sure to set web safe font’s such as Arial and Times New Roman as fall backs e.g. font-family; ‘bebasregular’, Times New Roman, serif

✖  Use Paddings or Margins

Outlook 2007/10/13 does not support padding on

and tags and Outlook.com does not support margins therefore in Outlook your layout will be destroyed. Instead you can set your widths in each cell not table or apply padding and margins to a class to create space when needed. Do not use ‘float’ to position your content use the ‘align’ attribute.

Although this will help when initially beginning to design emails, there are many other issues you will discover when testing that I haven’t touched on. For example when linking an image to a webpage some email clients will automatically add a blue boarder around it to indicate that it is a link. Obviously this is not aesthetically pleasing and you will soon get used to adding ‘border: 0’ to the style attribute in the image tag whenever a link is wrapped around an image. Part of the process is to uncover the strange add-ons – especially with Outlook – and the hacks to correct them. A handy link to have up while designing is The Ultimate Guide to CSS. This allows you to check if an element you are unsure of is supported across the 10 most popular mobile, web and desktop email clients.

Moreover, the key to a successful campaign is testing it. You can do quick tests of your emails in PutsMail. It is a good idea to create different email accounts across the various email clients. This way you can view your campaign exactly how your recipients will see it.

Finally, you need to send your campaign. This needs to be done by an Email Service Provider (ESP), the delivery engine behind your marketing campaign. You cannot use your own personal email as you risk blacklisting your IP address as ‘spammy’ which would affect your personal regular communications from getting through. Using an ESP such as Touchpoint, is a much more effective way as it not only saves you time but it also provides figures and analysis on how many people engaged with your email, click-though rates and which ones they clicked. For more information about our direct marketing platform, Touchpoint and how it could benefit you, please click here. 

References

https://www.joanmayans.com/docs/mailchimp_html_email_design.pdf

https://www.sitepoint.com/rules-best-practice-email-design-coding-practices/

https://support.sendgrid.com/hc/en-us/articles/200184928-HTML-Rendering-The-Do-s-and-Dont-s-of-Cross-Platform-Email-Design

https://www.lizlockard.com/email-marketing-service-providers-reasons/

Responsive Design – Design Responsively

MarketingFile - Responsive Design - Design Responsively
MarketingFile - Responsive Design - Design Responsively

As a Junior Designer at MarketingFile I am finding new design challenges every day, for our own marketing and for that of our clients.

Before I started here I had pretty much stuck to print design but I was eager to tackle designing for the web and start learning code. In my interview I loved how much MarketingFile wanted to support me in this process and to help me achieve this goal and eventually be able to design websites, landing pages, emails – the whole portfolio. I jumped at the chance to learn and gain experience and within the last month I have learnt more than I could imagine. So, I thought as a junior to this, I’d share my experience and knowledge so far to help anyone else learning the fundamentals of this – enjoy my first blog entry!

Responsive design – Being able to code is one thing but responsively is whole other issue.

What is it?

It was originally coined by Ethan Marcotte and refers to an approach that allows for the best possible user experience when content is being viewed and interacted with on the web. With the growth in technology there are a variety of different portals people can access the Internet through such as their mobiles, tablets, notebooks etc. and they expect to be able to view content on the web just as easily as they can on their desktops.  Having a ‘mobile’ version is just not enough. Your webpage needs to adapt for all screen sizes and resolutions, creating a version for each device is not the solution, not to mention impossible. This is where responsive design comes into play. Before coming across this issue, like many people, when browsing on my phone or tablet I never gave a thought to what was actually happening behind the scenes to make it possible.

There’s no easy fix and requires a whole new way of designing that involves a range of different techniques such as media queries, fluid grids and images. Fortunately for me, I get to pick up from here and start using these methods from the get go. 

Media Queries: These are a set of CSS styles that can be applied to render the contents’ display type, resolution, width, height and orientation in accordance to the device it is being viewed on. These attributes are applied within a @media rule and are filtered out and applied only if the condition is true. For example, the below commands that for any screen between 0px and 420px wide, the background colour will be #000000 (black). 

/* ——————-

       MOBILES

 ——————- */

 @media screen and (max-width:420px) {

                       body {

                                        background-color: #000000;

                              }

Fluid Grids and Images: This is a method used to allow content to flow effortlessly in size without manually applying widths. Instead, it uses percentages in place of pixels to position content proportionately that adapts naturally in relation to the manipulation of its container. Below is a helpful formula I have found:

Target / Context = Result

 e.g. Your target component is 200px wide and it is going to sit inside a 580px container

                        

                          200 / 600 = 0.333333   

       Then x 100 to turn this into a percentage

33.33333333%

This method also applies to images. By working out the percentage of the image in comparison to the percentage of the overall width of the page, its’ scale will always stay in relation to the rest of the content.  

Why is it important? – See the stats!

It is becoming increasingly important to have a responsive web design as more and more users are viewing on portable devices.

Wow! The graph below shows the global number of mobile-only internet users from 2010 to 2015 (in millions) from statista.com

Graph looking at mobile users

What do I think?

Ultimately, by having an unresponsive web page and not considering all users you can effectively be sending your prospect customers to your competitor’s site. Don’t have your users messing about panning and resizing the page, get them focusing on your services and products!

Design responsively.

By Aisling McCagh, Junior Designer, MarketingFile

Would you like assistance in making your website, emails and landing pages responsive? Our design team would love to help

Take a look at some of the creatives we have designed for our clients recently.

References

http://alistapart.com/article/responsive-web-design/ 

https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ui/responsive/fundamentals/use-media-queries?hl=en

http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/beginners-guide-to-responsive-web-design

Don’t be afraid to spend a little

False economy creeps in when printing costs are being discussed. Printers often steer clients away from ‘expensive’ paper stocks, and from extra colours in the print run. You should weigh up your decision in terms of the extra sales that a better quality promotional piece can bring, against the ‘cost’ of having a cheaper brochure ‘down sell’ your business.

For a free quote for your next direct mail campaign contact our team on 0845 345 7755

How should charities react to the new Direct Marketing Guidelines?

MarketingFile - How should charities react to the new Direct Marketing Guidelines?
MarketingFile - How should charities react to the new Direct Marketing Guidelines?

In September the ICO launched an investigation into how Charitable organisations were using and sharing personal data for fundraising activities and they recently published new guidance for Direct Marketing (applicable to any organisation), citing particularly the not-for-profit sector.

Importantly, the ICO have stressed the Direct Marketing guidelines do not change the law, rather clarify it, and it would appear many organisations seem to be falling foul of these guidelines.

Just in case you are not familiar, the guidelines can be downloaded here.

The problem though it seems is not Direct Marketing, rather poor data and inadequate campaign controls coupled with an over reliance on certain contact methods, such as email or cold calling (as referenced directly by the ICO and sad events last year).

In the ICO Blog, Steve Wood, Head of Policy Delivery for the ICO gives background to the new Direct Marketing guidelines

With the prospect of heavy fines, charities need to not only ensure their marketing is carried out in a responsible way, but that the contact data they are using follows the suggested ICO guidelines.

MarketingFile work with thousands of UK companies assisting them with Direct Marketing, including many charities. We are particularly strong in assisting our clients with ensuring their own contact lists remain up to date and follow industry guidelines through our data cleansing services.

At MarketingFile we sometimes find when we cleanse a company’s data that up to 30% of their records are erroneous, often the customers have opted out of certain direct marketing channels since their original records were created. For a commercial organisation this is very bad for business, for a charity the potential fine and bad press can be catastrophic.

Clearly for any charity and not-for-profit organisation, reaching out to new donors and members through Direct Marketing is vital but with an increasingly active ICO this needs to be done in a way that follows their guidelines, not only from a moral standpoint, but also for brand protection.

From an effectiveness angle, relying on certain channels such as email, results in ever poorer returns and whilst Direct Marketing still has a place in fundraising it needs to be through a balanced, multichannel marketing approach coupled with good governance.

In addition, with ever greater regulation on electronic marketing (such as the European GDPR) yet comparatively lower controls for postal and an increasing preference amongst consumers for postal marketing, the case for a balanced multi-channel approach is very strong.

Interested about the GDPR? Find out more here

Analogue B2B direct marketing isn’t dead

MarketingFile - Analogue B2B direct marketing isn't dead
MarketingFile - Analogue B2B direct marketing isn't dead

The other day I thought it would be fun to introduce my 9 year old son to vinyl records. I dug out my USB turntable and hooked it up to the laptop and pulled out my teenage record collection (I am a hoarder). We were both amazed that it worked in the first place and he was fascinated by the whole thing. He really couldn’t believe this black shiny disk could play music. The educational bit didn’t last though and it ended up in a DJ ‘scratching’ session- an old George Benson LP was wrecked!

Grooved sound recordings are a 19th century technology, yet as a medium for capturing a sound it has never really been bettered for the potential quality of the listening experience and is making a bit of a comeback. Vinyl sales are on the rise and these consumers say the emotional physicality, the realism of the sound, the large format design of the covers are reasons amongst others as to why they are going back to vinyl records.

This ramble kind of leads me to my point…

Studies are suggesting the same thing is happening in B2C direct marketing. After years of being swamped by marketing emails, text messages and targeted web advertising, customers are now responding in record levels to high quality postal marketing. Just like with vinyl records there are associated emotional responses from printed collateral simply not possible with the digital alternative… like the smell of the ink or the texture of the paper… and a novelty.

For many SME and even larger companies, particularly for B2B marketing, their multi-channel direct marketing strategy really means cold calls and email prospecting via a low cost email broadcaster, sometimes with a link to the company website- a lazy solution where its strength lays in the ‘numbers game’, even if only a fraction of a percentage of email recipients read and respond it is still a result because it is so cheap and easy to run campaigns.

However, as anyone one working in B2B sales will attest, getting those contact email addresses for the right roles and people in any kind of number for a specific vertical is a pain, good quality data costs money and many companies often resort to doing manual research and the use of hit or miss email generators to get through to potentially valuable contacts. This often means verified contact lists are small- and that is where the ‘numbers game’ begins to work against the email campaign as the small number of emails (even if they get through) may not even be read anymore.

Royal Mail’s “Mail and Email Research Report”, published in May 2014, determined that 70% of consumers surveyed felt they received too much email- presumably the other 30% have effective spam filters? The same study suggested that 51% of emails are deleted within 2 seconds of receipt- that is by people on top of their inbox clearly! Joking aside though, I don’t think anyone would say they don’t receive enough email marketing! The same Royal Mail survey suggested 57% of people felt “more valued” when sent personalised mail, compared to only 17% for email.

“56% of consumers say (postal) mail grabs their attention, up from 47% in 2007”

Of course this study was based on B2C marketing but with B2B emails dominating email global traffic and the simple fact we are talking about human behaviour which transcends the work or home setting, one can assume that these statistics are still relevant and trends since 2014 would only increase the gap between the two marketing methods.

Email done in the right way and targeting the right people can of course work but it isn’t the panacea to B2B marketing and an over reliance has created email exhaustion. Brilliant products and amazing prices aren’t getting through to prospective customers as a result.

What the surveys indicate is that good quality, personalised marketing collateral and old fashioned signed letters delivered by post are still part of a true multi-channel B2B direct marketing strategy. Postal, combined with digital methods in a single, structured campaign can create a powerful way to enhance brand and promote products and services to those all-important contacts and convert into sales.

Source, all rights reserved: http://www.dma.org.uk

A guide to email marketing

MarketingFile - Get your subject lines in order
MarketingFile - Get your subject lines in order

Email is often one of the most important aspects of the direct marketing mix for both business and consumer marketing. In a study just published in March 2016, 64% of companies rate email marketing as the most effective marketing channel. With this in mind, this guide addresses the vital, basic factors to consider when doing email marketing.

Have a read and let us know your experiences with email marketing.

Subject Lines

When a potential customer receives your email in their ‘in-box’ you have only a few seconds to make an impact.

In those few seconds the recipient makes a simple decision:

  • Open the email then
  • Open it later
  • Delete it immediately

That’s why it’s extremely important to be explicit and as appealing as to the subject matter of your email as you can.

Being cryptic or mysterious may cause suspicion causing your email to be deleted immediately – we’ve all received junk mail that we’ve trashed immediately because of the subject line. Don’t let it happen to you.

It’s also worth remembering that the space most in-box’s allow for subject lines is limited, so make your subject line is succinct and get as much of your ‘hook’ into the first 30 characters as possible.

Subject Line Tips

1. Always include your company name in the “from address”, don’t disguise your identity.

2. Make sure the subject line reflects the content of the message.

3. If sending out a newsletter, include this in the subject line e.g. Your December Newsletter.

4. If possible test different subject lines for your message. The slightest change of wording can make all the difference to the open rate.

HTML tips

Your email creative may look like a web page, but that doesn’t mean it will work like one. Bear in mind these tips and techniques to give your HTML email more chance of making it through firewalls and spam filters, so it arrives still looking as it was intended to look.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts when it comes to building your email HTML.

Do's:

Make sure your branding and contact details are displayed within the first 3 inches (300 pixels) of the message – this is called above the fold
Use images sparingly – keep to a 60/40 ratio for text and images
Use a dedicated HTML editor
Specify any references to images as absolute URLS
Link to forms
Specify height and width for image tags especially small ones
Use table or cell background
Use inline CSS

Dont's:

JavaScript, Flash, Java, Active X or other plug-ins
Frames
Image mapping
External style sheets
Complicated layouts
Background images
Images for text content
Forms embedded in your document (link to them instead)

Plain text

Some recipient servers still refuse to accept HTML emails. Most email broadcasters will enable you to include a text version of your HTML.

Then your recipient will only get the version applicable to them so you don’t need to worry about repetition.

Using a text editor such as Notepad (not Word this is not a straight text editor) you can easily create a plain text file. While there is no fancy formatting included, with creative use of characters such as asterisks, hyphens and underlining you can still apply emphasis to your message.

Attachments

Some email broadcasters will not allow you to send attachments as it isn’t sensible to send a PDF or similar attachments along with every email – therefore we recommend you set up a link to your file on a server.

Including a video in your email may be tempting, but think about what will happen if multiple recipients try to view it at once.

Copy & Content Tips

1. People have short attention spans when it comes to email – Write your email so that it can be scanned quickly for the essential message and make sure you deliver your message within the first 3 inches of the message (the preview pane).

2. Give your email a strong headline.

3. Every email should be a call to action – you want your communication to continue beyond just reading the email. You need to make it clear what you expect the customer to do next.

4. Personalising your email can be effective – e.g. addressing the mail to Dear xxxx and using words like “you” and “your” as well as “I” and “we”.

5. Proof read your email.

Design & Format

Keep it simple. Don’t overuse graphics – there is a great deal of evidence to support better responses to text-based emails. Up to 40% of emails are not read because of the simple fact that the consumer has to download the images before they can see the email. There is nothing worse than receiving an email full of red x’s.

Design & Format Tips

1. Use two or three fonts at the most.

2. Use fonts that exist on the web. Common fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, and Verdana exist on most people’s computers. Choosing a font you have on your computer but is not in general use, will be substituted for something else by the recipient’s computer and the impact of your campaign could be lost.

3. Use bullets where appropriate.

4. Research other companies’ creative, especially in your field.

5. Design for your target consumer.

Links & Tracking

Last but by no means least, when creating your message think about how you intend to measure the response.

One of the best ways to look at email marketing is as part of a bigger marketing plan, a way to warm the contact up for further contact or maybe even a call.

A good example of this is to use traceable/tracking links; any good email broadcaster will have this facility.

Traceable/tracking links

An e-mail campaign was sent on behalf of a holiday company, within the message they had traceable links on various destinations such as:- Barbados, Miami, and Florida.

Once they received their campaign report from the broadcaster they could see that:

  • 32 people clicked on Barbados
  • 21 people clicked on Miami
  • 12 people clicked on Bermuda

As they purchased email, address and telephone details, they are now in a position to send a covering letter and the relevant brochure to each of the clicks.

This could then be followed up with a telephone call at a later date.

There are many things that can be done with the information that is presented in a “Campaign report”, so it’s always a good idea to seek advice from your data provider or email broadcaster on how to best use the results.

Conclusion

There are many things that can be done with the information that is presented in a “Campaign report”, so it’s always a good idea to seek advice from your data provider or email broadcaster on how to best use the results. There are many things that can be done with the information that is presented in a “Campaign report”, so it’s always a good idea to seek advice from your data provider or email broadcaster on how to best use the results.

Now, do you feel confident with your email marketing?

Sourcing, using, cleaning and enhancing lists

MarketingFile - List selections
MarketingFile - List selections

Because of the increasing demand for smaller lists for niche markets and localised campaigns, and because rapid delivery is becoming more important, lists are now also being sold online, sometimes with no minimum order, as is the case with MarketingFile.

About lists

There are thousands of lists on the market. Traditionally, lists have been obtained either direct from the list owner, from a list manager or from a list broker (see below for an explanation of each). You should allow a few days to a few weeks to obtain the data from these traditional sources and you will probably be obliged to purchase a minimum value of data – £500 to £1,000 is not unusual.

Because of the increasing demand for smaller lists for niche markets and localised campaigns, and because rapid delivery is becoming more important, lists are now also being sold online.

Elsewhere on the Internet, you can obtain details on specific lists (in the form of a data-sheet) on list owners’, managers’ and brokers’ web-sites. In some cases you can obtain rough counts, but very few web-sites allow you to actually purchase and download the data.

What is the difference between a list broker, a list owner and a list manager?

List owner

The person or organisation with proprietary rights in the list. This could be a publisher, a mail-order company or almost any type of business that has built a large database of contacts.

List manager

A person or organisation appointed by a list owner to market or sell its lists and to be the recipient for all enquiries and orders. The list manager receives a fee from the list owner.

List broker

A person or organisation that works on behalf of the purchaser of the list. They are responsible for recommending suitable lists and negotiating on their client’s behalf with the list owners and/or list managers. The broker’s income is normally derived from a brokerage commission based on the base rental value of the list(s) supplied.

Where do lists come from and how are they compiled?

There are several different types of lists available. They are created in a variety of ways and come from a number of different sources.

Business lists:

Compiled/researched lists – originate as publicly available information (e.g. Companies House data) and are further researched by the list owner.

Publisher lists – contain readers of magazines / books / publications. They may be subscribers (who pay for the magazine) or controlled circulation (who fill in the registration card and qualify for a free copy).

Mail order buyers/enquirers – These are buyers of products by mail order or from a newspaper advertisement. Generally these do not offer many selections, but you do know that these people are used to responding to offers.

Exhibition attendees – people who have filled in registration cards at exhibitions. The card tends to hold a varying amount of information about the individual but interest level in the subject area is known to be high.

Consumer lists:

Compiled lists – names of individuals taken from publicly available sources. Examples are professional registers or shareholder files.

Geo-demographic lists – are based on Electoral Roll data overlaid with census data, credit data and household classifications. Some information may be imputed by statistical means. These lists can supply large quantities of data in small geographic areas.

Lifestyle lists – are built from questionnaire information. Consumers give details of their homes, family composition, finances and interests. Typically the surveys collect up to 2,500 separate pieces of information about an individual. These are therefore the most highly selective lists.

Affinity/transaction & response based lists – are compiled as a result of a purchase, subscription, response or enquiry by a consumer, indicating an active interest in that product / service area.

How much does a list cost and are there any hidden charges?

The actual price of each list varies but the pricing principles tend to stay the same for traditional list owners, managers and brokers. There is usually a base rental per 1000 records (usually expressed as £x/000) – this can range from £50/000 – £500/000, plus any of the following;

  • Selection £x/000 per selection made – e.g. £10 for each of age, income, etc
  • Email address and other additional data items cost £x/000
  • Delivery / Format charge – depending on whether you want an email, cd, etc
  • Additional costs of Mailsort, keycoding and flagging (for a glossary of these terms please see the Royal Mail web-site at www.royalmail.co.uk).

Another example of list pricing is the way in which MarketingFile structure it. With no minimum order and an online, instant download data tool, MarketingFile can cost per record.

What sort of response should I expect?

Many factors will affect your response rate, including the list used, the offer, the creative work, the copy, the timing of the mailing and so on.

The Direct Mail Information Service (DMIS) publishes figures on response rates to different campaigns on its web-site. However many of these campaigns will have been done by large marketing departments using top advertising agencies and copywriters.

Rather than spending your entire budget on a large campaign that delivers a poor response, it is best to test your campaign first on a smaller quantity.

What is a reasonable level of gone-aways?

Some level of undeliverable addresses or gone-aways is inevitable. People and companies move or die and even the most up-to-date list will contain some inaccuracies. Your list supplier should make you aware of their policy for the reimbursement of goneaways.

After you have used the list

You must return any gone-aways to the list-owner. This enables the list to be updated and may entitle you to a refund if gone-aways have exceeded the warranty level. Ensure that any further use of the list is allowable under the terms of the licence.

Buying a list

Consider the following when buying a list;

What is the source of the data? Is it liable?
Is the list appropriate given your product / service and target market?
What is the frequency of updating? When was it last updated?
How selective is the list? Does it allow you to accurately target your best prospects?
What is the cost of the list? Are there any hidden or additional costs over and above the base price?
Does it contain email address, telephone / fax numbers if required?
Have addresses, telephone and fax numbers been checked against the most recent Preference Service lists?
Does the list owner require that the list is only handled by a registered fulfilment house or can you do this yourself?
Is there a minimum quantity or value?
How long will it take to be delivered?
What is the policy relating to gone-aways?
Does the allowed usage of the data fit your requirement (i.e. single-use, multiple-use)?

Cleaning your lists and databases

It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not contact people who have indicated that they do not wish to hear from you. In the UK, your list must therefore be cleaned against the various opt-out files;

  • The Telephone Preference Service (TPS & CTPS) is a list containing numbers of individuals – i.e. consumers, sole traders and (except in Scotland) partnerships, and businesses who must not be called unsolicited.
  • The Fax Preference Service (FPS) list contains the numbers of companies that must not be faxed. Individuals (as defined for TPS) must never be faxed unsolicited.
  • The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) list contains the details of consumers that should not be mailed. This is an industry guideline rather than a legal requirement. The file is updated every 3 months.
  • Additional costs of Mailsort, keycoding and flagging (for a glossary of these terms please see the Royal Mail web-site at www.royalmail.co.uk).

In addition it is good practice and commercial sense to clean your lists against the lists of people who have either moved or died. It is very distressing for the bereaved to receive mail or calls for a deceased relative. Consumer lists should therefore be cleaned against one of the commercially available lists of people who have died.

Finally, the deliverability of a mailing depends on the accuracy of the addresses. Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) is the definitive database of every deliverable address in the UK. It can be used to correct partial or inaccurate addresses in your list or database.

Enhancing your lists and databases

Would you like to know more about the people or companies on your customer database?

Using sophisticated matching techniques, all sorts of information can be appended to the names and addresses in your file, from simply adding a contact telephone number or email address to building a complete profile of your customer;

  • Key business metrics such as turnover, number of employees, years in business and type of company activity can be appended to business lists.
  • Socio and geo-demographic information such as income, home and car ownership, life-stage, family size and other lifestyle characteristics can be appended to consumer list.

Direct marketing legislation

There are a number of laws and self-regulatory guidelines covering various aspects of direct marketing that you should be aware of;

  • The Direct Marketing Association publishes Best Practice Guidelines for all UK direct marketers.
  • Certain types of promotion should always be checked with the DMA before implementation (e.g. tobacco, gifts, premiums and awards, network marketing, cosmetics, slimming products). Advertising to minors is not allowed.
  • The Data Protection Act requires companies and other organisations holding personal data to register the type of data held and its intended use.
  • The Telecommunications Regulations enshrine the right of consumers and some organisations not to receive direct marketing calls or faxes.
  • The Advertising Standards Authority. Is your marketing material “legal, decent, honest and truthful”?
  • Some industries, e.g. Financial Services, are also regulated by their own bodies.

14 Top Tips: Before sending your direct mail

MarketingFile - Return to Sender
MarketingFile - Return to Sender

Let’s be honest – being successful with a direct mail campaign is not as easy as it looks, but don’t be disheartened; once you know how, direct mail is an essential tool and should play a vital part in your marketing plan.

That’s why MarketingFile have put together these top tips to follow when preparing your ‘DM’.

Remember – if you’re not happy with any of your answers to the following, then do not send your direct mail; tweak, modify and amend until you are!

1. Pretend you’re the recipient

At first glance, does your direct mail look interesting? Does the headline/title grab you and make you want to read on to find out more?

2. What’s the point of it?

What do you want your customer to do now? What is the aim of your direct mail? Try to keep to this point and don’t confuse your audience by including too much information on other things. If you go off on a tangent then so will your reader – don’t lose their attention, keep them focused on what it is you want them to do.

3. Hard hitting, interesting and desirable

Present your offer in a way that’s going to make your reader sit up and pay attention, make them want what you’re offering.

4. Nice package!

Make sure your direct mail package ‘flows’. Do all the elements appear to fit together as though intended? Or does it look like ‘odds and sods’ just thrown together?

5. Read me! Read me!

Does your DM scream read me NOW? Because if it doesn’t, the chances are, it probably won’t be read later either!

6. What’s the first thing you see?

The letter is the most important part of your DM as two thirds of your audience will make a decision based on it – so make sure any other inserts you may have in the envelope come after your letter.

7. Needs, wants and desires. Does your letter acknowledge your audience’s needs?

Your customers will only take an interest in your letter if you recognize their needs and offer them a solution – if there’s nothing in it for them, there won’t be a sale.

8. Why should they?

Your DM must clearly convey why your customers should do business with you. You’ve brought to their attention that they need what you’re offering, now ensure they don’t go elsewhere for it.

9. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Try to avoid filling your direct mail with ‘pretty pictures’ just because you like them – if they have no significance to the copy then they probably shouldn’t be there. Only include images and graphics that improve or support the copy.

10. Just a note

Include a brief outline of your ‘story’ in your reply device. Does your fax-back form, sign-up sheet, or voucher state everything your reader needs to know and clarify what they need to do next?

11. It’s a onetime only offer

Have you given your readers a reason to reply now? It’s best to coax your audience into action now, rather than give them time to go away and forget about it.

12. Reply now!

Have you made it painfully easy for your readers to reply? Be sure to offer every possible option: Phone, fax, email or postal etc. This should increase the number of responses you receive.

13. Would you?

Take a step back and look at your direct mail, or indeed, ask a colleague to take a look at it for a fresh opinion – if you received this through the post would you respond? Whether it’s a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, consider the reasons for your answer and act accordingly.

14. Go back and re-read the previous 13 tips

Once you have addressed all of the above, go back and check again. You never know maybe you missed something!

Improving your response rate

MarketingFile - When should your email go out?
MarketingFile - When should your email go out?

The list

The quality of the list is the single most important factor affecting response rate. See our other sheet, Hints & Tips – List Selection & Targeting on ensuring you’re using the best possible list. Also consider that people who are not inundated with offers are more likely to respond so you may increase response by using lists that are less frequently used, or by targeting so as to avoid the inundated.

The offer

If the product or service you are promoting is lacking the basic features expected or your price is too noncompetitive, your response will inevitably be poor. Assuming these fundamentals are OK, you may consider the following to help to boost response;

  • Offer a free sample or trial to enable your prospects to experience your product or service.
  • Offer an incentive. Be careful with the economics here. Ideally link the incentive to purchase rather than simple response. The gift itself should be relevant to your target audience, or failing that, of universal relevance.
  • Offer a discount or special price. Again be careful with the economics. A 20% discount may increase response to cover its cost but a 30% discount fails to pull the extra response needed. Experiment with different ways of describing the discount – “buy one get one free” usually works better than, “2 for the price of 1”, “half price”, “50% off”.
  • Always set a limited time to respond if providing an incentive, discount etc. This encourages the recipient to actually respond rather than putting it aside until later – and stick to it!

The Mail-piece

Try not sacrifice clarity and response generation in favour of cutting edge creative genius. Relevant photographs increase response more than drawings or diagrams. Keep your mail piece to the point, you need to explain the benefits of your product or service but not ramble on, include testimonials and try to answer the reader’s questions.

Use a strong headline (repeat this on the envelope if possible) and make use of headings, sub-headings, indents and bullet points as most people will scan the piece before they read it properly. Use plain English and short sentences. Don’t crowd the page – leave plenty of white space. This all makes your mail-piece easier to read and increases response. Consider using an easy to read font such as a serif font. Research suggests this is more likely to be read and remembered.

Personalisation of the mail-piece can improve response dramatically. However personalisation is not simply scattering the prospect’s name throughout the mail-piece. It is tailoring the text of the offer to the recipient and demonstrating the benefits to them personally. Thus a short piece promoting events local to the recipient will generate a better response than a huge tome covering all events nationally.

If you are mailing to a named individual, make sure you get the name right, but do not be afraid to mail without a name (or without a salutation if it cannot be derived). “Dear Reader” is acceptable – or better, replace the salutation completely with a bold heading. Some business mailers claim to improve response by not mailing to a name at all, preferring to mail to a job title, which can be exactly the person you seek to reach e.g. The Network Security Manager.

Timing

Obvious really – make sure you time your mailing to drop at a time when your prospect is most likely to buy. For business mailings try to avoid times when your prospect is likely to be away or manically busy (e.g. industry trade fairs). There is some evidence that business mailings arriving mid-week are more responsive than those arriving on a Monday or Friday. This is particularly true for email campaigns.

Many believe that consumer mailings are more likely to be read thoroughly at weekends. Many mailers avoid the holiday period altogether but a growing number have realised that not everyone is away at the same time and that those that are at home are more likely to read a mailing when there is less on the doormat

Follow-up

Very important. To increase your response rate consider contacting each prospect more than once – and at least quarterly. Increasing the frequency normally increases the response rate and many direct marketers now prefer to contact prospects monthly. Consider following up your mailing with a telephone call. Particularly in business to business, a follow-up telephone call 3-4 days after the mailing has landed can significantly increase your response. A call-mail-call pattern can produce even greater results.

The response mechanism

The simple rule is to make it as easy as possible to respond. Different people will prefer to respond in different ways so make sure you offer all the options (mail, fax, telephone, email, web-site). Do as much of the work as possible for the prospect. If you provide a reply card, fill in the prospect’s details – this can increase response by up to 15%. Always repeat the main points of the offer on the reply-card – people may just keep the reply-card and wonder later what it was about. Repeating the offer may just get it sent back to you.

Consider paying the costs of response. Use reply-paid postage (you only pay for the replies that are actually mailed). Use a free-call or local-rate telephone number. If your prospect must pay the full call charge, use a non-geographic number to avoid the “not local – too distant” argument. Always tell your prospects how much (or how little) the call will cost – many people confuse 0945 (local rate) with 0898 (premium rate) and will assume the worst.

Test, Measure, Improve

If you are considering a large volume mailing, do a test-run initially to a smaller number to ensure the response is acceptable. You may even try two or more different lists, letters or offers to see which works best (make sure you can tell from the responses which campaign they came from).

Beware of mailing to very small volumes as you may get a very low or zero response and conclude (wrongly) that the campaign does not work when the same campaign sent to 1000 or more would deliver more statistically significant (and acceptable) results.

Direct marketing is part science, part art. You will not get everything right first time. You will need to refine your campaign over time to maximise your response. The crucial thing is to measure the response from each campaign and learn from the experience, thereby improving your response rate over time.

List selections

MarketingFile - List selections
MarketingFile - List selections

Who should you be targeting?

In simple terms you should target the people who are likely to be the most profitable to you.

Existing customers

Analyse your sales figures by customer and identify the most profitable. Note that these are not necessarily your largest customers if you give volume discounts, nor the customers who order most often once all the order processing and support costs are accounted for.

Often you will find 80% of profits come from just 20% of your customers, known as the 80:20 rule, meaning if you find another 20% of high spending customer, you can increase profits by 80%!

Profile your most profitable customers

Look for similarities amongst your most profitable customers to build one or more profiles. For business customers look at business activity, geographic location, business size, HQ or branch, job-title and any other factors relating to your specific product or service. For consumers consider their age, sex, marital status, where they live, number of children, occupation and income, home and car ownership. If you don’t have this data available you can be creative, see below.

You may find that there is more than one definable group of “best” customers – possibly buying different products or services from you or buying in a different way.

New company or new product launch?

You may not have relevant sales data to analyse, but hopefully you have some inkling as to the target market for your new product or service. If not then some research is required. Alternatively you can test the response to your best guess with a small volume campaign before committing to a major investment.

Choosing which database to use

MarketingFile.com gives you access to a huge range of databases (over 50 at time of writing). Establishing which one to use is key to the success of your campaign. Consider also that your best prospects may be found in more than one of the databases. In this case you may choose to test the responsiveness and return on investment of each in turn.

Choosing a business database

If you need to target companies within a particular industry only, consider a “Business Sector List”.

If you need to target a particular job-title across a wide range of industries, consider a “Job Function List”. If you cannot find either of the above, or if you want to target a large number of businesses in a local area, consider a “General Business List”.

Choosing a consumer database

To target a particular type of person identify the category that most closely matches the characteristics or behaviour you want to target. If you cannot find what you are looking for, or if you want to target large numbers of consumers within a local area, consider a “lifestyle” database.

Making your targeting selections

Select your targets from the chosen database according to the target profile(s) you defined by including them as selection criteria.

Include the targets you want - exclude those you don’t want

Your targeting should also account for the people you don’t want to reach, this is sometimes more difficult to define but will reduce waste and save you money.

Look down the list of selection criteria and whenever you catch yourself saying things like “age doesn’t seem to matter” or “we don’t have any data on company size” pause a moment to consider if you shouldn’t be including or excluding at least some names based on this criteria, e.g.

  • When using an international database – exclude the countries you don’t / can’t service
  • When using a general business database – you may wish to exclude public sector organisations or not-for-profits
  • Large businesses and small businesses have different buying scenarios – you are unlikely to appeal to both with the same offering
  • When mailing consumers – you may wish to exclude the very old

Geographic selections

Think about the area(s) you wish to target. Is it a territory that is defined by postcodes or counties? Is it defined by the distance your customer is prepared to travel to your premises? Is it a number of scattered postcode sectors?

If you don’t have detailed knowledge of your target area you are best to limit your geo-selections to include only a single type of selection, e.g. postcode, town or county.

If using distance from a point, bear in mind that this is “as the crow flies” and may include areas you do not immediately consider to be “close” to you, e.g. Kent is only a few miles from Essex geographically but is rendered distant in travel terms by the Thames estuary.

Be creative - think laterally

Some of the most successful campaigns result from slightly lateral thinking at the targeting stage. For example;

  • Selecting people who have credit cards is an obvious choice if that is your preferred payment method, but it is also a good indication that they take credit and may be swayed by an attractive credit deal
  • If your product is a people carrier, consider targeting families with large numbers of children (rather than the usual conquest make/model combinations)

Such targeting is often blindingly obvious with hindsight – but then so are most good ideas.

What if your count is too big?

You can always reduce your count by taking only records 1 to 1000 but far better to select the 1st 1000 by company size (or whatever is relevant), or even to focus your targeting on a smaller defines target group. If you want to target segments individually, select a number of postcodes at a time. This way you can be sure there are no duplicates in later purchases, even if the list is updated.

What if your count is too small?

When selecting a particular data field it may only be partially populated, resulting in smaller counts as the “unknowns” are not taken into account. You may consider excluding other selections to include the “unknowns”, however this only applied if the data field is not critical to the campaign.

Job titles

If we have the job title you want then great, but don’t dismiss the companies where we “only” have a default contact. These are usually smaller businesses where the default contact is the boss and is actually the person you need to reach for most purchasing decisions.

Telephone numbers

Not all our records have telephone numbers on. In fact we are deleting numbers every day as more people opt out of receiving telemarketing calls by joining the Telephone Preference Service. So if you want to ensure all your prospect records have telephone numbers, make sure you select “has tel no” as a selection criteria and then buy the “tel no” field at output.

Single-use or multiple-use?

MarketingFile.com enables you to purchase data for either single-use or multiple-use. The actual license-to-use varies slightly depending on the list-owner who supplies the data (please read the license terms carefully).

Why buy for multiple-use?

To increase your response rate we would recommend you consider contacting each prospect more than once – and at least quarterly. Increasing the frequency normally increases the response rate and many experienced direct marketers prefer to contact prospects monthly.

It makes sense to contact your prospects frequently for the same reasons that companies run a long series of advertisements in magazines or on television. Prospects often require multiple exposures to an advertisement before they buy. Making multiple contacts increases your prospects’ awareness of your company and also increases the likelihood that your message is received at a time that your products or services are needed by them.

The Sales Letter

MarketingFile - The Sales Letter
MarketingFile - The Sales Letter

The writing process

Put as much effort into the letter as you did into the brochure. Research shows the letter is usually the 1st thing people read. Get it right and people will read and keep your information. Get it wrong and they won’t.

Know your customers

If you don’t know about your market, their needs and anxieties you will not know “which buttons to press” and your response will be minimal.

Reread and re-edit

Never send your 1st draft. Put it to one side for a while, reopen it and reread it. Think of a couple of customers you know well and try to imagine their reaction to your letter. Your 3rd draft will be a great improvement over the 1st.

Write as you speak

Use a conversational tone and keep sentences short. Avoid long, uncommon or unnecessary words. Correct spelling is important but colloquial grammar can actually aid readability – you don’t get bonus marks for correct use of the subjunctive Use the “active” – not the “passive”.

Make it easy on the eye

Don’t crowd your text onto the paper. Break your letter up by using short paragraphs. Use bulleted or numbered lists to emphasize key points.

Beware of humour

Be very careful of trying to be funny. Something you find killingly funny may at best leave your reader cold, at worst be deemed offensive.

The writing style

The AlDA principles have been used successfully for years. First grab your reader’s Attention. Then stimulate their Interest in your product. Convert this interest into Desire. And finally convince them to take Action.

The writing style

The AlDA principles have been used successfully for years. First grab your reader’s Attention. Then stimulate their Interest in your product. Convert this interest into Desire. And finally convince them to take Action.

Sell the benefits not the features

You may be proud of the technology, sophistication, flexibility etc. behind your product or service but remember that your reader just wants to know what is in it for them.

Include a guarantee

If you can, offer a guarantee with your product. If you can’t guarantee the product, offer a guarantee of your service, delivery or price. A guarantee adds credibility to your offer.

Include testimonials

Let other satisfied customers sing your praises. Quote from letters of satisfaction but remember to get the writer’s permission first.

Make them respond

Don’t forget to ask for the order. Always finish your letter with a crystal clear call to action.

Set a deadline

People will put things off if there is no urgency to act. Increase the sense of urgency by setting a deadline to receive some further benefit

Always include a PS

Many people will read a PS before they read anything else. Your PS should restate your offer and repeat the call to action.

Make it easy

Different people may want to respond in different ways so make it as easy as possible for them. Always include all your contact details. Consider options to reduce the cost to the customer, pre-paid envelope, free post address, Freephone and local rate numbers.

A letter must be signed

Ideally you should hand sign the letters. Including high quality scan of your signature is OK, particularly if it’s inky blue. Never have your letters PP’d by someone else.