Whether you’re a pure play or multi-channel retailer, an email program should be one of your most important digital marketing channels. So if you haven’t launched your program, or your program is in need of a major revamp, here are 10 tips you should pay close attention to when selecting an email service provider.
1. Prepare a Needs Analysis and Functionality Assessment Document
If you don’t have a program yet, or if your email has been stagnant for awhile, the first thing you need to do is prepare a document that states what your current issues are, what features you need and want in your new and improved email program, what reporting metrics are crucial for your business, what your current database looks like, and what your short term (6 months) and long term (3 years) goals look like. This document should eventually be shared with the vendors you want to work with, so you are all on the same page and there are no surprises down the line. Also, you should know your budget (but you don’t need to list that in the document, or share that info with the vendor on the first couple of calls).
2. Make a List of All the Required Reporting and Analytics Reports You Need to Run Your Business
You need to have reporting on numerous aspects to truly get a complete view of the customer, their buying habits, and their buying paths. This becomes even more important when running an Ecommerce site. So make a list of all the metrics and analytics you need for certain. Reports like Ecommerce revenue from email, revenue per email sent, top customer by open rate and/or revenue, new subscriber reports, and top 5 emails sent by open rate, click through rate (CTR) and by revenue. Assuming you will be getting a demo for each tool, ensure you ask them to view their reporting dashboard. With that said, never select a tool that does not come complete with the reporting you need. If you can’t retrieve the reporting you absolutely want and need, it will be that much harder to improve the program down the line.
3. Save Time by Getting a Tool With an Awesome Automation Program
Since one of the goals of your email program will be to save you time, make sure that the email tool you’re looking into has at least some form of automation. For example, when a visitor subscribes to your email list, they should get a triggered welcome message. Better yet, they should get a welcome series. A welcome series can look like this:
- Day 1: thank them for subscribing
- Day 7: introduce them to some cool features or products
- Day 14: offer them free shipping
Another automation program you can set up is a win-back campaign. When a customer hasn’t ordered in a certain amount of time (depending on your business, that could be 3 months, 6 months, etc), you can send them an email in month 3 of not ordering, month 4, and then month 5. The goal is to entice them further and further until they purchase. Once automation programs like these are set up, they can run on auto pilot for a couple of weeks or months. All that you may need to change are some of the graphics. But I would suggest testing the amount of days in between your sends, subject lines, and the offers you include.
4. Segmentation Programs are a Must to Improve Your Conversions
If you want to really impress your customers and increase conversions, you need to forget mass emailing your whole list all the time, and concentrate on smaller segments. Most email tools today like MailChimp, Constant Contact, Bronto, and Listrak offer these features. The onus will be on you to really understand your customers, and their purchase patters so you can set up the segments you want. Some of the more general segmentation rules you can use to increase conversions from your email marketing channel include: gender, age, location, customer lifetime value, product categories browsed or purchased, previous purchase history, and regular price vs sales customers.
5. Emails Need to be Optimized for Mobile and Tablets
Most email programs today will say they are set up to be responsive for mobile and tablet devices. And many of them do a pretty good job. After viewing your demo on the ESPs responsive mobile emails, you should subscribe to their customers and see if they back up what they say. Be adamant that all your emails must be responsive for desktop, mobile and tablet. This would be a deal breaker if they say they aren’t, or if they say “it’s in our long term roadmap.” Some other questions you should ask:
- Are responsive templates easy/hard to create?
- Can we push out text/SMS messages using the tool?
- Is there any type of geo-fencing and geo-location capability?
6. If You Can’t Test, You Can’t Improve
You won’t have all the answers to improve your email program. At times, you will be surprised to see how low your open rates were on a particular send, and that’s why testing is so important. Testing your email programs will take the guesswork out of what works and doesn’t work. You will want to be sure that whatever tool you move forward with can support all forms of A/B and multivariate testing. Another interesting testing feature you may want to take advantage of are called split runs, smart runs, or live-push testing. This is an awesome way to convert more visitors to the winning email, right at the beginning of the test. Say you have a database size of 50,000 subscribers and you send an email to all of them. You set up your A/B split test, and decide that at the 10k database send mark, the tool selects the winning test, and sends that to the rest of the database. It’s a pretty cool feature that allows you to optimize your campaigns on a dime.
7. Look for an Email Tool That is Easy to Use
Depending on the size of your team or your expertise, you’ll want a tool that is intuitive and easy to use. The demo or dashboard will give you a good indication if you would be comfortable using the tool. Ease of use is often overlooked, but I once used a tool whose import and export had many steps and took more than a few hours to complete. Segmenting was also a hassle. It was a powerful tool, but was very difficult for many people on my team to learn. It was complex and not intuitive to say the least. Make sure you can easily understand and use at least 80% of your tool within the first month. If it’s intuitive, that should not be a problem.
8. Don’t Forget About Scalability. It’s Crucial for Your Growth
The needs assessment document you prepared in step 1 will most likely center on what your current issues and needs are. With the digital landscape changing so quickly (mobile and social media are prime examples) you want to understand where you are today, but even more importantly, you want to recognize where you’ll be tomorrow. You don’t want to be in a situation where you outgrow your tool in 6 months. Implementing a new email tool takes some work (especially if you’re a multi-channel retailer), so be sure the tool can grow with you. Don’t be shy about asking the email vendor about their long term roadmap. If they are unwilling to share it, be a bit skeptical that they are a good long term partner. Better yet, understand what some of the email hot button topics are and ask about them. For example, 2015 will see a huge push on predictive buying patterns and behaviour. Can your email tool support that?
9. Make Sure Their Service Level Agreement (SLA) Works for You
If you work with a vendor who has a great tool, but terrible service and loads of downtime, you may want to jump ship. So get their history. Understand what their SLA looks like for downtime (should be close to 99%, or feel free to bypass that vendor). What does their escalation process look like? How long does it take to close a ticket? Do they have 24/7 support? If not, does their customer service cover your time zone during peak hours? How many email sends to subscribers can they support per hour? When are software updates routinely carried out? You should ensure that updates are not performed when you send vital emails, or find a way to work around their updates.
10. Take a Peak at Their Customer List
All email vendors should have a list of their current customer base on their site. Take a quick look. Make sure there is a good mix of small and large customers, and customers in your industry or segment. Sometimes, it won’t hurt to have a competitor or two in their stable of clients. After checking some of their customers, ask if you can speak to them as a reference (don’t be afraid to ask for a specific reference, rather than having the ESP spoon-feed you one of their customers). If you get the chance to talk to some of their clients, make sure you ask about any issues they have had. But more importantly, how quickly they were resolved. Any technology will have its issues at one point or another, but the real value in a vendor comes in how quickly they can solve it so it has minimal impact on your business.
Selecting an email tool is an important part of any online business or program. Be sure to follow this list to at least ensure the vendor knows what your needs are.
What email tool are you currently using? Are you looking to upgrade in the next 12-18 months?
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