B2B Discovers Email Marketing: Part 2
| Category: E-mail Marketing | Date: 2002-05-03 |
As I was writing last weeks article — Part 1 of this B2B email marketing "mini-series" — I knew there would be interest because, as I had mentioned, more and more B2B marketers are venturing into this space.
However, I was not prepared for the amount of feedback Ive received since that article was published. Wow! Thank you all for writing in! I did say there were content-hungry B2B marketers out there and, boy, was I right — Im still answering email!
Obviously, there is a very large and growing audience for this particular area of email marketing. And I do plan on giving it plenty of coverage in the future, as it evolves.
In the meantime, I hope Part 2 lives up to your expectations. Because this is still fairly new territory, very few people were inclined to divulge their hard-earned testing secrets and lessons learned. (Can you blame them?) However, I did receive one case study that shared plenty of details. Heres the story...
It comes from NetObjects, a company that offers a dynamic and user-friendly web design and development software solution, Fusion 5.0. Together with online business resource WorkZ, they launched a four-pronged email campaign that yielded some pretty dramatic results.
They created two unique email messages, both offering a free trial of the software. They also created three distinct test groups and promoted to them at different times, using different lists. Heres how it all shook out.
First, they sent Message #1 to Test Group #1. The list was made up of WorkZs general interest opt-in lists. (For the record, WorkZ offers a host of business-oriented category selects. Members who sign on receive targeted content and promotions within their selected areas). Click-through rate (CTR) ended up at 3.2 percent.
One week later, they sent Message #2 to the same segment (Test Group #1). Even with a unique message and a brief time gap, the falloff was dramatic. Final CTR was 1.1 percent.
They then sent Message #1 to a new list, Test Group #2. This time, however, the list was made up of a combination of "general interest" people and a large chunk of people who had requested information within specific categories of interest, namely web site development" and e-commerce. The results? A whopping 20.8 percent CTR.
Finally, they tested a third group (Test Group #3), a new segment of "general interest" people, with Message #2. That campaign ended up at a 3.1 percent CTR — very similar to the very first promotion, so it confirmed the rest of their results.
The folks who clicked through were taken to a splash page that gave visitors the option to buy the software or download/order the free trial. They could also take a tour of the software, if they wanted to. Overall conversion of those who registered for the free trial is still being tabulated; however, it has thus far been calculated that well over 50 percent of those who clicked through did, indeed, sign up. An excellent rate, to be sure.
NetObjects learned a couple of things from this campaign. And even though these lessons may seem old hat to some of the more experienced email marketers out there, I do believe they are worth mentioning — especially for those who have yet to test emails effectiveness.
Probably the most obvious: Targeting is key. The double-digit campaign resulted from promoting to a more selected niche audience. Generally speaking, targeted lists cost more, of course, but can be well worth it to the advertiser.
Also, despite the fact that the creative had changed, it wasnt worth sending the promotion out to the same audience two weeks in a row. The difference in response was significant.
Lastly, its assumed that the promotion-specific destination, or splash page, resulted in an extremely high conversion. Higher than if folks were directed to, say, a generic index page.
Best of all, the new registrants are prime opt-in candidates for future paid email efforts. After all, theyre familiar with both the company and one of the products.
Overall, the campaign was a resounding success.
While were still on the subject, here are a few bite-sized tidbits from other B2B email marketers...
Send your message "from" either a real person in your organization or at least an alias with a title. This has been shown to increase response for several companies. The idea of branding and having the message come from a dot-com is not as important in the B2B arena. Not as important, anyway, as having it come from "John Smith, Chairman" or "Susan Brown, VP of Marketing..."
Personalization can be critical to certain business markets. Thats according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an independent research firm that has been actively marketing via email. And personalization includes not just the recipients name but any other known customer/client info as well.
Brainbench, an employee assessment and certification company, has determined that three to four live links sprinkled throughout the message work best. And they discovered, through rigorous testing, that the links in the introduction and the conclusion of the message are clicked most often.
Okay, thats it for this week. Next week Ill review the hot spots from the Delivering on Email Conference, which kicks off tonight!
(Pssst... Speaking of conferences, I happen to know of another fantastic conference ClickZs got in the works right now, planned for September. It should be grand – B2B email marketing all the way! Stay tuned...)
About the Author
Kim MacPherson is President and founder of Inbox Interactive (formerly known as Selling By Design), a D.C. area-based online direct marketing agency specializing in email promotional copywriting, HTML design, and planning. She is also a consultant and frequent speaker on the topic of email marketing and is the author of the upcoming book "Email Marketing 101" to be published by Dearborn. You can email Kim:
kim@inboxinteractive.com.
http://www.inboxinteractive.com
However, I was not prepared for the amount of feedback Ive received since that article was published. Wow! Thank you all for writing in! I did say there were content-hungry B2B marketers out there and, boy, was I right — Im still answering email!
Obviously, there is a very large and growing audience for this particular area of email marketing. And I do plan on giving it plenty of coverage in the future, as it evolves.
In the meantime, I hope Part 2 lives up to your expectations. Because this is still fairly new territory, very few people were inclined to divulge their hard-earned testing secrets and lessons learned. (Can you blame them?) However, I did receive one case study that shared plenty of details. Heres the story...
It comes from NetObjects, a company that offers a dynamic and user-friendly web design and development software solution, Fusion 5.0. Together with online business resource WorkZ, they launched a four-pronged email campaign that yielded some pretty dramatic results.
They created two unique email messages, both offering a free trial of the software. They also created three distinct test groups and promoted to them at different times, using different lists. Heres how it all shook out.
First, they sent Message #1 to Test Group #1. The list was made up of WorkZs general interest opt-in lists. (For the record, WorkZ offers a host of business-oriented category selects. Members who sign on receive targeted content and promotions within their selected areas). Click-through rate (CTR) ended up at 3.2 percent.
One week later, they sent Message #2 to the same segment (Test Group #1). Even with a unique message and a brief time gap, the falloff was dramatic. Final CTR was 1.1 percent.
They then sent Message #1 to a new list, Test Group #2. This time, however, the list was made up of a combination of "general interest" people and a large chunk of people who had requested information within specific categories of interest, namely web site development" and e-commerce. The results? A whopping 20.8 percent CTR.
Finally, they tested a third group (Test Group #3), a new segment of "general interest" people, with Message #2. That campaign ended up at a 3.1 percent CTR — very similar to the very first promotion, so it confirmed the rest of their results.
The folks who clicked through were taken to a splash page that gave visitors the option to buy the software or download/order the free trial. They could also take a tour of the software, if they wanted to. Overall conversion of those who registered for the free trial is still being tabulated; however, it has thus far been calculated that well over 50 percent of those who clicked through did, indeed, sign up. An excellent rate, to be sure.
NetObjects learned a couple of things from this campaign. And even though these lessons may seem old hat to some of the more experienced email marketers out there, I do believe they are worth mentioning — especially for those who have yet to test emails effectiveness.
Probably the most obvious: Targeting is key. The double-digit campaign resulted from promoting to a more selected niche audience. Generally speaking, targeted lists cost more, of course, but can be well worth it to the advertiser.
Also, despite the fact that the creative had changed, it wasnt worth sending the promotion out to the same audience two weeks in a row. The difference in response was significant.
Lastly, its assumed that the promotion-specific destination, or splash page, resulted in an extremely high conversion. Higher than if folks were directed to, say, a generic index page.
Best of all, the new registrants are prime opt-in candidates for future paid email efforts. After all, theyre familiar with both the company and one of the products.
Overall, the campaign was a resounding success.
While were still on the subject, here are a few bite-sized tidbits from other B2B email marketers...
Send your message "from" either a real person in your organization or at least an alias with a title. This has been shown to increase response for several companies. The idea of branding and having the message come from a dot-com is not as important in the B2B arena. Not as important, anyway, as having it come from "John Smith, Chairman" or "Susan Brown, VP of Marketing..."
Personalization can be critical to certain business markets. Thats according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an independent research firm that has been actively marketing via email. And personalization includes not just the recipients name but any other known customer/client info as well.
Brainbench, an employee assessment and certification company, has determined that three to four live links sprinkled throughout the message work best. And they discovered, through rigorous testing, that the links in the introduction and the conclusion of the message are clicked most often.
Okay, thats it for this week. Next week Ill review the hot spots from the Delivering on Email Conference, which kicks off tonight!
(Pssst... Speaking of conferences, I happen to know of another fantastic conference ClickZs got in the works right now, planned for September. It should be grand – B2B email marketing all the way! Stay tuned...)
About the Author
Kim MacPherson is President and founder of Inbox Interactive (formerly known as Selling By Design), a D.C. area-based online direct marketing agency specializing in email promotional copywriting, HTML design, and planning. She is also a consultant and frequent speaker on the topic of email marketing and is the author of the upcoming book "Email Marketing 101" to be published by Dearborn. You can email Kim:
kim@inboxinteractive.com.
http://www.inboxinteractive.com
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