Table of Contents
Introduction: Email Marketing Is (Not) Dead
Email Is Dead?
94%
2.9 Billion
Email versus Email Marketing
The ROI of Email Marketing
What to Expect from This Book
Endnotes
I The Secret to Email Marketing: List Growth
1 Why List Growth Matters
List Churn and List Fatigue
30%
A Few Words about Effective Tactics
Endnotes
2 How to Grow Your List
Making the Opt-In Process Obvious and Easy
Asking Website Visitors to Subscribe
Using Humor and Creativity to Increase Opt-Ins
Using Technology: QR Codes and Smartphone Apps to Grow Your List
Use Social Media
Providing Incentive (WIIFM—What’s In It For Me?)
Growing Your Email List Offline
Endnotes
3 Let’s Get Technical
To Pre-check or Not to Pre-check
Explain the Email List Sign-Up Process
Send a Welcome Email
Remember, Make a Good First Impression
Endnotes
II The Anatomy of an Email
4 Examining an Email’s Body Parts
The Subject Line and From Address
The Preheader
The Header
Table of Contents
Main Call to Action
Secondary Calls to Action
Sharing Your Email
The Footer
5 The First Impression
From Name and Subject Line
Preheader
Header
You Don’t Need a Second Chance Do You?
Endnote
6 The Meat and Potatoes
Table of Contents
Zappos’s Digest TOC Email
MarketingProfs’s Approach to Email Table of Contents
Main Calls to Action
Secondary and Tertiary Calls to Action
Buttons vs. Links vs. Images
Endnote
7 The Finishing Touches
Social Sharing and Social Connecting
Footer
Providing Unsubscribe Options
Endnote
III Breaking the Rules
8 Are Best Practices Really “Best”?
Best Practices Are Practices That Are Best for You
Test and Test Often
What to Expect
Endnotes
9 My Word! You Must Read This Now!
Email Subject Line Words to Avoid
King Arthur Flour: Achieving Higher Sales Using All Caps and FREE
Tumbleweed: More Opens and Click-Throughs Using All Caps and Free
The Proper Length of a Subject Line
Measuring Success
Evidence in Favor of Long Subject Lines
The Most Incredible Chapter Ever
Endnotes
10 The Perfect-Looking Email
It’s Okay to Send Mostly Text Emails
Some Subscribers Prefer Simple Text Emails
Writing Letters Versus Pamphlets
Text Emails Have a Clean Look
Text Works for B2C Marketers, Too!
One Big Image Can Work
King Arthur Flour’s Image-Heavy Emails
Making Mostly Image Emails More Readable
What If the Unsubscribe Link Is at the Top of the Email?
The Most Headache-inducing, Eye-searing Graphic Possible
Groupon’s Creative Unsubscribe Solution
Test the Rules; Don’t Just Break Them Outright
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Subscriber
Ugly Emails That Consistently Perform Well
A Split Test of Ugly Versus Pretty
Making Assumptions and Challenging Them
Endnotes
11 The Best Ways to Grow Your List
Spiders, Scorpions, Snakes...and Popups
Installing a Lightbox to Increase Opt-Ins
Using Lightboxes on Blogs
Adding Lightboxes on a B2C Site
Park City Mountain Resort Tests a Popup on Its Winter 2010 Website
Choosing an Opt-In: Single or Double
Making the Case for Double Opt-In
Making the Case for Single Opt-In
Village Voice Media Moves from Double to Single Opt-In: Sees Significant List Growth
Sending Emails Without Permission
Sending an “Opt-Out” Email
Using an eAppend
Buying an Email List
Coming Full Circle
Endnotes
IV Batman (Email Marketing) and Robin (Social Media)
12 How Email and Social Media Go Together
Batman and Robin
Email: The Digital Glue of Social Media
Social Connecting vs. Social Sharing vs. Social Promoting
Social Connecting
Social Sharing
Social Promoting
Endnotes
13 The Power of Pairs
Social Connecting
Using Email Marketing to Grow Your Social Following
Using Email Marketing to Grow Facebook Likes and Revenue
Social Sharing
Show Me the Money: How One Online Retailer Netted $250,000 Using SWYN
Social Promoting
Using Social Media to Grow Your Email List and Make Money
A Truly Integrated Email Marketing and Social Media Campaign
Two Is Better Than One
Endnotes
V The Future of Email Marketing
14 What’s Next?
The Current State of Email Marketing
Email Marketing Predictions
15 Go Forth and Conquer
What You Know
What Now?
Four Steps to Email Marketing Success
1. Grow Your List
2. Plan Your Content
3. Determine Success Metrics
4. Send, Test, Analyze, Adjust, Repeat
And Now, It’s Your Turn
Endnotes
A Your Prize
Index
