Want your e-mail marketing messages to jump out of the inbox?
Then try using rich e-mail. Featuring streaming video and audio,
these minimovies are inspiring customers everywhere to click and
watch.
"Our e-mails are 30-second commercials," explains
Clelland Green, founder of America's Choice Health Plan, based
in Philadelphia. "They're combinations of music and Flash
presentations." Are the glitzy ads more effective? "We
began using streaming e-mail last fall and had a 23 percent read
rate; that's 6 to 8 times greater than a direct-mail
campaign," says Green, 38. "Ten to 20 percent of those
customers are [active customers], and our sales grew 78 percent
from December to January."
| | MAIL STOP? | |
| If you're
primarily a B2C company with customers who have e-mail accounts at
AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo!, you should know about a potential
roadblock: These free Internet providers make it difficult for your
customers to access rich e-mail. Many ISPs ask users to open a
separate browser or cut and paste a new URL to access these media
messages. Though most e-mail marketing companies don't charge
for unopened messages, conversion rates will be lower if you
can't get the message out to everyone on your
list. |
If you decide to launch a rich e-mail campaign, your best bet is
to outsource the process to an e-mail marketing service (you can
find dozens online). According to a 2000 study by Forrester
Research, outsourcing produces higher conversion rates and is a
better long-term investment than keeping your e-mail marketing
operations in-house.
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Including setup fees and delivery costs, outsourcing your first
rich e-mail campaign can run you $20,000 to $40,000, depending on
the volume and creative content. TMX Interactive, in Philadelphia,
charged Green $25,000 to design and send two rich e-mail messages
to 2,350 addresses.
While the industry average for standard e-mail advertising
campaigns is 200,000 messages sent twice per month, rich e-mail
messages like Green's are generally aimed at a more specific
audience-so you'll likely send fewer of them. "We
aren't spammers," says Green. "We sell B2B, and we
only target multistate corporations."
According to Hans Peter Brondmo, who wrote The Eng@ged Customer: The New Rules of Internet
Direct Marketing (HarperBusiness), creating a permission-based,
targeted list is more effective than buying a random list, even if
you're selling B2C. "So if you e-mail 10,000 people
who've already expressed interest in your company, you're
going to get a better response than if you e-mail 1 million
[random] people."
To create a permission-based house list, first post a form on
your Web site asking users to either opt in (check a box
authorizing you to send them e-mail) or opt out (uncheck a box to
not receive e-mail). Opt-out lists generally result in higher
sign-up rates, because many users simply ignore the pre-checked box
on the form. Opt-in lists are more effective, however, because
those customers have chosen to receive e-mail from you.
Brondmo suggests putting specific demographic questions on your
form, plus a privacy statement that promises users you won't
disclose their information. You may also want to expand your house
list by doing co-promotions with other companies that have
customers with interest in your product or service.
If you need an outside list, Brondmo recommends using
Netcreations, Yahoo! Delivers or YesMail. These companies sell only
permission-based lists, which often include details about
everything from users' stock portfolios and yearly income to
their geographic location and hobbies-information necessary for
creating effective rich e-mails.
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