I’d like to introduce you to a buddy of mine who is going to be our first guest publisher.  His name is Chris Thompson and he is the COO of Invidia Group, a firm that specializes in online marketing and lead generation. 

<– Sadly, this is not him.  But can read his bio here. 

I recently sent him an email asking about HTML vs. TXT emails and some ideas for a new campaign that I am working on.  I used to do quite a bit of email marketing, but have been out of the loop for a while, so I wanted to know what has changed.  His response was so verbose and thorough that I decided to turn it into an article for the site.  No sense in me hoarding the info and not passing it on to you guys.

 

So here was my question: 

“Hey Chris,  

I am doing some work with a large consulting firm looking to start doing some email marketing. 

Do you have any stats on html vs plain text?  Which should I be using, keywords to avoid, etc.” 

 

And here is his response: 

Most of the industry prefers to use HTML emails over text because of a few things: 

1. Flashier graphics leads us to believe that response rates will be higher
2. We can track open rates because in HTML emails because we can imbed code that will act as a counter and let us know how many were opened. This cannot be done with text emails. 

For HTML design of the email, ideally the email is made up of no more than 1 single screen (definitely everything above the fold) and has the call to action which will encourage them to click, go to the landing page, and ultimately buy.  The landing page is equally important as there should be some continuity between that and the Email.  Definitely make sure all of the “pain points / questions a consumer might have that would lead them not to purchase” are resolved.  Testimonials, pictures of credit cards, and other types of validation have to be on there. 

Continuity between Email and Landing Page should not be a foreign topic especially if you are familiar with PPC.  Google Quality Scores are directly based on the continuity between Adwords and a Landing Page.  The logic is that everything is based on relevance and if Adwords directly matches a Landing Page then the likelihood of a customer clicking it increases.  A high Quality Score means that everything is relevant and flows together. 

 

Statistics on Open Rates and ClickThroughs

 

For email, statistically we look at a couple of equations for measurement: 

• Open Rate = (# of Opens / Delivered Emails)
• Delivered Emails = Sent Emails minus bounces
• Click through Rates = (# of Clicks / # of Opens)
• Conversion Rate = (# of Clicks / Sales)

 Industry speaking open rates are directly reflected upon the list it is being mailed to.  A General Consumer list (anybody with an email address who has bought something online) will have a low open rate since there is really no targeting.  The more targeted the list is, the better the open rate.  A GC list might get less than a 1% open rate while targeted lists are higher.  We like to go with an industry average of 3%.  Sometimes open rates are deceptive because Outlook will often “mark email as read” if the email has been highlighted on for more than a few seconds.  

After we have established an open rate, the click through rate is next.  The CTR is defined as a person who has clicked on the Email and has arrived at the Landing Page.  This is a highly qualified lead as the person has shown interest in the product offer.  The industry average is typically another 3% however I have personally seen CTRs as high as 80% in some cases, so do not be surprised if this is higher. 

Now the customer is on the landing page, it boils down to if they want to purchase or not.  This is the conversion rate (# of Clicks / Sales).  The CR really depends on the offer.  Michael Masterson talks about an “Optimum Selling Strategy” in his book “Ready, Fire, Aim” and inside it discusses the “Optimum Selling Price”.  What is the price that a customer will just see and never have a second thought?  For me anything that is over $100 on a credit card statement I do a double take on and will consciously reevaluate as to whether or not I want it.  This is especially important if it’s a monthly recurring billed product.  If I remember correctly Masterson came to the conclusion that anything sub $50 was fine.  This is also an important point since we are in a recession and everyone is watching what they are spending while times are tough.  

An offer that is a survey, sweepstakes, etc. where all a person has to do is enter an email address will convert at a much higher rate than a physical product for-sale at $39.95.  In fact, typical conversion rates for physical product average around 3% (that’s why I call it the rule of 3 - 3% Open/CTR/Conversion) while surveys, and products with very little barriers to entry will convert much higher often at a rate of 20% - 40%. 

Ok now that we’ve  established typical metrics and how they are determined let’s look at the basics of things to avoid in the body of an email. 

 

Things to avoid:  

 

1. All CAPS
2. Lots of Punctuation (especially multiple exclamation points!!!!!!)
3. Common words. Here’s a good url with a solid list (although the layout is kind of funky): http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/spam-word-list.htm . Words are typically trend specific. If there is a really good trend of 1 particular product (for instance right now it seems to be Gold for Cash offers), very shortly those words will be added to filters.
4. 1 big graphic without corresponding text. If an email is just a picture to be clicked on then it’s going into the junk mail folder.
5. Never do white on white text. Bad move and especially if the text being added is not relevant to the offer. I just saw part of President Obama’s inauguration address as white on white text for a business opportunity offer. It was no wonder the open rate was so low. 

 

Deliverability - Reaching their Inbox and Avoiding Blacklists

 

The big thing we try to focus on is the deliverability of the email.  Essentially how do we get it into the Inbox.  

1. First, before we send the email, we test it with a program like SpamAssassin. We do that because we want to see how it will do against their filters. SpamAssassin is awesome because it will check all of the blacklists to see if your domain is on any of them and rank your email on a scale of 1-10. Anything with a 5 or more and we won’t send or ask the advertiser to provide new creative.
2. Monitor all of the blacklists for our domain. Every network has their favorite. I notice a lot subscribe to http://www.surbl.org/ but that’s not the defacto big list. If our domain appears on any list, then we have to go through the process of having our domain removed. Each process is different with each list.

 

Be careful with mailing to the big networks above all.  You have to really throttle your deliveries on a daily basis or you will be marked as a spammer.  Each network has different thresholds that you have to adhere to (and they don’t tell you what they are), so any kind of daily 5 figure or 6 figure volume might trigger some warnings from them. 

Keep everything honest and only send emails to customers that have opted in to receive them and you won’t have any problems.

 

Guest Author: Chris Thompson

Chris is COO of The Invidia Group, a firm specializing in online marketing and lead generation.

He will be our resident expert on email marketing, CPC, CPA, and affiliates.

Read his bio here.