There would be no Olympic Games without the vast sums raised from the private sector. That’s why the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) – the British event’s brand guardians – need to protect official sponsors and valuable trademarks to ensure the commercial viability of the Games.

It stands to reason, then, that there is significant protection in place over the use of the Games’ marks – if nothing else to ensure it’s clear to consumers who the key supporters are. And if legal rights are infringed, LOCOG are likely to take swift and harsh action – anything from banning campaigns to seeking financial compensation and initiating costly court proceedings. What’s more, it doesn’t matter where your company is registered as the rules apply internationally.

The Games’ marks are legally protected by a combination of registered trademarks, copyright law, registered community designs, and common law. Special laws have also been passed to give extra protection when the Games are on.

Yet LOCOG are not unreasonable, and Games protection isn’t a money-making racket.

The organisation’s preferred approach is to prevent infringements by offering help and advice, and they’ve published some useful guides to help companies ensure compliance in all marketing communications.

Visit LOCOG’s website for more information on:

Statutory Marketing Rights

Guidelines for Business Use

Frequently Asked Questions

Troublesome words

Regulations governing references to the Olympics are strict, and fierce penalties await those who breach them. All graphic assets associated with the Games are protected and reserved for official sponsors, like the 2012 logo and the five interlocking rings of the Olympic logo as well as the three agitos of the Paralympic emblem.

But certain words and phrases also share protected status. The use without official permission of the following logos, words or mottos in marketing communications may be considered an infringement:

Protected logos:

• Olympics
• Paralympics
• London 2012

Protected words:

• London 2012
• 2012
• LOCOG
• Javelin
• Team GB
• Get Set
• Games Maker
• ‘Olympic’ or ‘Olympics’
• ‘Olympiad’ or ‘Olympiads’
• ‘Olympian’ or ‘Olympians’
• ‘Paralympic’ or ‘Paralympics’
• ‘Paralympiad’ or ‘Paralympiads’
• ‘Paralympian’ or ‘Paralympians’

Protected mottos:

• ‘Citius Altius Fortius’
• ‘Faster Higher Stronger’
• ‘Spirit in Motion’

Guilt by association

That’s not all. Another key aspect of Olympic branding regulations is that marketers cannot make an association with the Games within the context of a promotion unless they are an official sponsor. Defining ‘promotion’ and ‘an association’ are legally problematic, which makes these cases hard to judge. The following are words and phrases that are more likely than others to be considered by LOCOG as ‘making an association’ with the Olympics:

Any two of the words Games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012 and Twenty-Twelve

Combining the words above with London, medals, sponsors, summer, gold, silver, bronze

There are also more borderline cases: words and icons that won’t directly create an association with the Games, but which may contribute to an association in the eyes of LOCOG. These include use of the Olympic colours, Olympic-style torches, images of Olympic venues, depiction of Olympic sports (this is pretty broad – almost any sport imagery could be included) and even ‘words associated with Olympism’ such as ‘endeavour’ and ‘friendship’. Really anything considered to be an attempt to leverage the Olympic brand values and major monikers.

Right side of the rules

To help marketers tread a safe path, LOCOG have produced some examples of copyright-friendly adverts, and those which would infringe regulations:

 Allowed

This ‘track shoes’ advert produced by LOCOG shows an advert for running shoes that does not infringe on their rights governing the use of Games branding. This creative would be considered safe because although it touches on themes related to the Olympics, it does not refer to the Games in any way.

Not allowed

Also created by LOCOG, this advert for a fictitious energy company creates a clear association with the Games even without the use of banned expressions. This use of text and images would be considered an infringement of LOCOG’s rights.

The risk of inadvertently making an association with the Olympics is high, particularly if you make reference to the Games specifically. So the safest bet is to avoid any Olympic messaging in your email campaigns. And if you must, at least seek legal advice before sending any campaigns. Because to even hint at an association with this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games could very easily land you in choppy waters.

Don’t forget to vote for your favourite, and submit any great emails you’ve received (or sent!) for consideration in upcoming instalments.

Best Creative
Winner: Pizza Express – Valentine’s message
Subject Line: Win your Valentine’s Heart

Why we chose it

The clean, clear design is very much on brand, with bold colours and the instantly recognisable logo. And the mailing effectively conveys a seasonal Valentine’s message but the restrained use of Valentine’s imagery and colouring ensures the message appeals to both romantics and regular customers.
It’s also a great example of email best practice, effectively addressing the crucial Who, What and Why questions.

Pizza Express have also taken the time to design the ‘images disabled’ version of their mailing. A clever use of background colours has enabled them to convey their branding and communicate their key messages before images are downloaded.

Why it’s great

WHO: The mailing uses very clear branding, incorporating both Pizza Express’ logo and horizontal stripes.

WHAT: The content of the mailing is conveyed in the colours, images and copy used, instantly communicating what the mailing is all about, without going overboard. The bright, clear and descriptive CTAs lead subscribers in what they should do. The ‘table of contents’ links at the very top of the mailing ensure that the £2.50 offer is communicated to all subscribers – even those with images disabled. And by limiting the content to three segments, Pizza Express have ensured these three topics will get attention without overwhelming subscribers.

WHY: The images are very inviting and make the product look tempting, while the copy works well to sell the benefits of interacting. We did think that the CTAs could have been more effective in addressing the ‘Why’ by conveying the benefits of interacting rather than the actions themselves, but overall, it’s a highly effective email.

Best Copy
Winner: Costa Coffee – Coffee Club message
Subject Line: Your free coffee’s getting cold!

Why we chose it

The subject line was the first thing that made us sit up and take notice of this mailing – and open it, naturally. It cleverly conveys a time-sensitive element while also communicating the message content. The mailing then goes on to use informal, inviting language to guide subscribers through the benefits of their new Coffee Club membership.

Why it’s great

WHO: The branding is conveyed through the bold use of background colour and the inclusion of an image of the Coffee Club membership card that recipients would have recently received.

WHAT: The subject line cleverly appeals to coffee drinkers by suggesting (with a dash of humour) that reading the email is a matter of urgency. Inside the mailing, the receipt image effectively conveys most of the information required, leaving the body copy to welcome subscribers and guide them through the process of their new membership. The secondary CTAs then drive traffic to the website to help continue the customer journey.

WHY: The subject line, receipt copy and body copy, as well as the three tiles below the statement clearly communicate how the points can be used through a combination of succinct copy and enticing imagery.

Best Strategy
Winner: Easy Jet – Email exclusive offer
Subject Line: Email exclusive – Amsterdam holiday deal from £159pp

Why we chose it

We saw some clever uses of data this quarter, making the Strategy category a tough choice, but easyJet’s long term view of email strategy helped this stand out from the crowd. It seems so simple to give email subscribers an exclusive offer but it’s something we rarely see come through our inboxes. Email subscribers are given a reason to subscribe and stay subscribed: True value. They are also encouraged to purchase directly through the mailing, avoiding the potentially competitive search engine environment, which successfully meets our First Law of Email Marketing.

Why it’s great

WHO: The orange colour and distinctive font are instantly recognisable as belonging to easyJet. The ‘holidays’ logo in the top right corner further clarifies which area of easyJet the offer concerns.

WHAT: As well as promoting the Amsterdam deal, easyJet are also educating their customers on the value of being a subscriber by presenting an “Email Exclusive offer”, and showing them a way of purchasing that could best suit them. As part of a long term strategy, this will continue to provide benefits. Meanwhile, by including the fact that it is an “Email Exclusive offer” in the subject line, they help remind all subscribers that it is well worth continuing to receive easyJet emails, even if they are not interested in this particular offer. Finally, the mailing encourages subscribers to share the offer with a friend, which has the potential to grow their subscriber base.

WHY: The time-sensitive and exclusive offer gives subscribers a great reason to interact if they are in the market for a trip to Amsterdam. However, easyJet have also provided enough information in the mailing and the subject line for subscribers to decide for themselves whether they are interested, showing a respect for their time. Whilst this may not have resulted in the highest possible open or click rate, we would guess that the conversion rates would have been higher than usual. This, combined with the email exclusive offer, shows a great strategy that focuses on the long-term effectiveness of the email channel rather than maximising the open and click rates of each message.

Here are 7 ways to use landing pages the smart way…

1. Communicate value
A landing page can be a great way to show your subscribers the value of being on your email list. Giving them extra content and money-saving offers which aren’t available directly on your website adds extra motivation to interact with you through your email programme in the long term. It could be a special-offer coupon, a game, early notification of a sale or valuable article-based content.

2. When space is at a premium
Spreading your message across an email and a landing page gives you extra real estate to play with. Try putting fine details on your landing page to make more room in your email for a wider range of products and services. You’ll be able to appeal to many different subscribers with one email.

3. When you need it right now
It’s usually much quicker and easier to create a landing page than to make additional pages on your website. So it’s great if you need to create a page to link to from your email quickly and flexibly. The speed and agility also means you can create multiple landing pages tailored to different audiences.

4. When basic HTML just isn’t enough
Email is very limited by functionality, so if you want to create more advanced content for your subscribers, a landing page could fit the bill. Use one for anything from a data-capture form to a fun Java-based game.

5. To give your audiences what they really want
By clicking on a particular link, a subscriber is telling you what interests them about your product or service. Use this information to tailor your landing page to your subscriber’s motivators, and deliver relevant content.

6. To track data
The information you collect from clicks to your landing page is essential for keeping your subscriber preference data up to date. You can also use it for future segmentation and targeting.

This is particularly important for emotional links (the in-text links and highly visible calls to action), which typically generate the majority of revenue. Clicks from emotional links usually come from subscribers who need more convincing than those who click on functional links (the less-signposted links found in your templates and headers).

7. If you’re concerned about emails reaching inboxes
If deliverability is an issue for you, encouraging your subscribers to click becomes more important than ever. Email clients look at the interactions that users make to determine whether your messages make it into their inboxes. So encouraging clicks should – as ever – be a priority.

If your emails only ever link to your website, subscribers will learn over time that there’s no real benefit to clicking when they could just navigate straight to your site. A dedicated landing page gives them a more compelling reason to interact.

Making landing pages that matter

An email’s role is to drive site traffic, and a website’s role is to convert visitors. But a well-developed landing page can add to your website’s conversions rather than adding an unnecessary step to the process. The key is to only include landing pages when they’re needed.

You can optimise your email design and copy to encourage clicks by including a short piece of ‘teaser’ copy and a strong call to action. After that, use the essentially limitless space on your landing page to promote yourself or your specific products.

Want more advice on optimising your email marketing? Get in touch

Joining forces against phishing
An important new working group, DMARC.org, has been set up to further combat phishing by improving methods of blocking bad email. Sam Massiello, General Manager at Email Security Specialists Return Path, expresses his confidence that this coalition of companies, including AOL, Google, Microsoft and PayPal, will make email business more secure than ever.

Alchemy Worx view
It is no surprise to see the banks involved in this new standard. The reduction in phishing messages that this new working group aims to achieve should serve to further increase the confidence in email marketing.
Read the article

To remove or not to remove?
Is your organisation too quick to remove inactives from its database? In the second part of the Silverpop interview, Dela Quist tells Loren McDonald of his dismay at being removed from databases as a consumer himself, and how it highlights the importance of ‘the nudge effect’ in cultivating customers over a long period. He is also typically outspoken on the topic of subject lines, once again going against the accepted wisdom and arguing, “the shorter the subject line, the less likely you are to convey meaning.” He concludes with some strong words regarding marketers’ “visceral fear that the public hates getting email”. “Ecommerce thrives on email,” he says. “If we can get that message out, everyone would love what they do.”
Read the article

Is less really more?
In the first part of this interview with the Silverpop blog, Alchemy Worx CEO Dela Quist tells Loren McDonald why he still feels marketers should be sending more emails, not less. “The challenge is not ‘How do I send less?’,” Quist argues. “It’s ‘How do I get my list to tolerate more?’” He also challenges the trend among marketers towards reducing email volume, arguing that email frequency becomes less of a problem, the better the customer’s perception of the brand.
“How they feel about the email program is actually driven by how they feel about the brand,” he says. “Email is the tail, not the dog.”
Read the article

Testing, testing
How can your email campaigns best benefit from A/B split testing? That’s the question addressed by Alchemy Worx Marketing Director Riaz Kanani in this feature for the DMA website. In particular, he focuses on manual testing, which is often presumed to be costly and complex compared to automatic testing, but which can be far more useful if you have a specific need, or want to test something that is unique to your organisation. Kanani explains how different approaches are better suited to different amounts of data and sample sizes, and stresses the importance of being patient, letting your campaign run its course before you jump to conclusions.
Read the article

For many, the role of email is to drive people to a company’s website. Then the site can do what it does best and convert prospects. Getting email recipients to click is the primary goal for many email campaigns.

So it’s not surprising that KPIs (key performance indicators) for email are often centred on click rates, with subject lines, creative, content and call to actions all crafted with maximum clicks in mind.

Why do clicks matter?

Clicks are one of our favourite metrics. For a start, they are much more reliable than open rates, and can be analysed in a variety of ways to provide a significant amount of insight. For example…

• The absolute number of clicks shows the volume of direct traffic to a website, and allows your email to be compared to other traffic-generating activities.
• Total and unique clicks are typically presented as a percentage of delivered and opened messages, and show the relevance of the content to targeted recipients.
• Total clicks as a percentage of unique clicks (click quotient) is also used to measure how many times each user has clicked.
• Clicks can be used to get up-to-date preference data on a subscriber’s interests and needs, which may have changed a lot since they registered to receive emails.
• Clicks are used to qualify leads for follow up – which can be done either through triggered mailings to subscribers who have shown an interest in a particular product or service, or via other channels.

Analyzing your current activity will help you identify – and prioritize – opportunities to improve your email campaigns. And from this, your 2012 strategy is born.

Producing a well-defined plan makes it easier to ensure your regular mailings are deployed on schedule, and allows you to allocate time for implementing exciting new campaigns to meet your strategic objectives.

Give yourself an email health check

The first stage in developing a plan is to audit your current activities, and clearly set down your new objectives. It’s probably crystal clear in your head, but does anyone else understand your vision?

Begin by focusing on your campaign objectives for 2012. Consider primary as well as secondary objectives, and the tactics that will help you achieve them.

The next task is perhaps the toughest. When every sinew in your body is telling you to look forwards and think about the future, what you really need to do is look backward and answer searching questions about past performance. What did you do well last year? What worked and what didn’t? What were your biggest mistakes and regrets? Where were those missed opportunities?

Map out all the campaigns in your subscriber journey last year and for each mailing, make a note of the objectives the message was designed to meet. Consider your activity across all channels. Look at your triggered campaigns, plus service and marketing communications. Analyze your recurring mailings and focus on subject lines, creative, ‘from’ name, timing, and personalization and targeting.

Competitor analysis is also vital. How did you fare against your competitors? How well did your email campaigns stack up? And finally, where do you rank in your field? Are you market leaders, number 2 or bottom of the league? Asking yourself these honest questions will help formulate effective strategies for the coming year. You must resist the temptation to mimic or follow your competitors, however – particularly if you are leaders in your field.

Have an honest conversation – with yourself!

Once you’ve gathered and analyzed this information, it’s time to ask yourself some tough questions. How well did you perform in 2011 against expectations? What went wrong – and why? What went well – and why? This can be a painful process but one that’s also hugely rewarding. This is also the perfect time to set KPIs for the upcoming year.

Analysis of historic activity

You can add significant value to your 2012 plan by analyzing historic campaign performance. This means looking even further back, and your analysis should take in both recurring campaigns as well as your regular and ad-hoc mailings. It is worthwhile looking at each campaign’s overall performance as well as the specific types of content within each mailing. Including analysis of the timing of your mailings, such as day of the week or week of the month, will also help refine any testing required and ensure future campaigns are as effective as possible.

Campaign planning

The performance of each campaign, together with the objectives of your campaigns, will help focus your activities on the areas that present the biggest opportunities. This process will enable you to:

• Rationalize your current campaigns
• Highlight campaigns that would benefit from improvements and
• Identify additional contact opportunities such as reactivation mailings,
  cross-sell, up-sell or a series of on-boarding mailings

You can then create an updated version of your subscriber journey, including any changes you plan to make throughout the year.

Testing can have a significant impact on the resources required to develop campaigns – particularly design, content and frequency-based tests. Be sure to include any upcoming testing in your plan so you can resource accordingly. A separate test plan may also be beneficial as it enables you to build over time on the things you’ve learned.

Content

Ensuring that each of your mailings contains content that is valuable to your subscribers can be one of the most challenging aspects of developing and optimizing campaigns. Yet it’s also one of the most important. Planning the content for your regular mailings will make it easier to generate new content. It may also identify opportunities to increase the frequency of interactions by serializing content and including teasers of upcoming content.

Think about the customer journey for all your subscribers – from new subscribers who have registered on your site, and new customers who opted in during their purchasing process, to regular customers and inactive subscribers. And be sure to include contact from all channels in order to get an accurate picture of what your subscribers will be experiencing. Are you communicating everything your subscribers need to know? Are you missing any opportunities to strengthen your relationship with your subscribers? Or perhaps there is duplication that can be streamlined? Or any content that can be more cost effectively migrated online?

Seasonality and key events within your sector can also provide direction for content planning. It can also be very effective when used in conjunction with analysis of the types of content your subscribers have interacted with in the past.

Your content plan doesn’t need to include the entire 2012 calendar – quarterly plans can be the most effective as they enable you to include more recent analysis, including the findings from any testing.

Finally, don’t forget to include subject lines in your plan. Your subject lines can have a significant impact on your campaign’s effectiveness, and by looking back you can easily identify what worked last year, and what didn’t for individual campaigns. The beauty of email is the ability to see which campaigns worked, and to back this up with hard facts. But don’t forget about ‘non-openers’! Your subject lines may be the only part of your communications that these subscribers see. Your subject line strategy should communicate your brand’s key values – and build a story over time in order to maximize their effectiveness.

As the year draws to a close, we thought we’d have a bit of fun here at Alchemy Worx. And in our world, evaluating email creative counts as fun (sad, we know!). So here are 4 emails that blew us away this year, and the reasons why we love them.

Reckon you’ve spotted a better one? Don’t keep it to yourself. Forward it to us, and remember to tell us why you like it.

Submit your favorites here

Best Newsletter Creative
Winner: notonthehighstreet.com

Why we chose it

The bold yet understated imagery is a great embodiment of the brand, while a creative use of typography and new images each week maintains a fresh feel to this regular mailing. The magazine styling only adds to the email’s sumptuous appeal. It’s also a great example of email best practice, effectively addressing the crucial Who, What and Why questions.

Why it’s great

• Uses clear branding for the company and content. Couples the ‘wedding’ message with the brand logo (both displayed in the top-left corner to where the eye is first drawn) making it easy for subscribers to decide whether they want to interact.
• The first section features two clear CTAs to visit the store and to forward to ‘someone getting married’. These CTAs continue throughout the mailing, reminding recipients what they’re being asked to do. The ‘Buy’ icons act as effective secondary CTAs, drawing the eye to specific products.
• Strong imagery is used to great effect to generate interest and desire across a wide range of wedding-related products. Plus separate sections highlight services not immediately associated with the brand, like gift lists. The creative team goes beyond the formulaic display of social media icons to incentivize interaction, such as ‘weekly updates’.

Best Single-Proposition Creative
Winner: Mulberry

Why we chose it

We wouldn’t normally recommend removing your navbar from the email header. But in this instance, the use of a simple logo gives the email an elegant look and feel, and reinforces the main CTA.

Beautifully stylized typography hints at great care and effort, while the simple colour palette keeps the focus on content and generates strong copy standout. And rather than repeat the same CTA, each one invites you to experience a different aspect of Mulberry’s London Fashion Week.

Personalized language and simple delivery convey the feeling of an exclusive invite, particularly the way messages are contained in intimate speech bubbles. The whole thing feels like you’re overhearing a secret conversation.

Why it’s great

• Placed front and center, the Mulberry logo makes it easy for recipients to quickly identify the sender. The oversized header font also clearly highlights the mailing’s topic.
• The colour and shape of CTAs ensure stand out, while underlined words make it easy for skim readers. The use of HTML for all links and header copy delivers the message even when images are turned off in the email client.
• Fashion mailings typically benefit from the inclusion of photography. Yet it’s the lack of images that makes this mailing stand out, giving recipients just enough reason to click through by teasing the fun aspects of the show and playing on Mulberry’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox/English countryside’ motifs.

Best Festive Concept
Winner: Boden

Why we chose it

The animated GIF is back in 2011, and it’s bigger than ever! This email from online catalogue company Boden shows why. Animated lights are used to eye-catching effect. This clever device also complements the gently humorous headline. A prominent CTA features high up the message to aid navigation, and benefits from great standout against the red. The email is rounded off with the use of further animation around the central CTA, and even the snippet is used to convey the core message – great for reading on a mobile.

Why it’s great

• Both the Boden branding and the Christmas content are clearly identifiable as soon as this mailing is opened.
• Clear CTA directs subscribers to Boden’s specially-themed Christmas Shop.
• The prominent offer uses colour (or lack of it) to enhance standout. The bottom banner makes it easy for subscribers to retrieve their offer, and reinforces the value of being a subscriber to Boden emails while incentivizing click-throughs.

Best Use of Data
Winner: LinkedIn

Why we chose it

The design is beautifully simple, the messaging clear. But it’s the clever use of personal data that swung it for us. Many marketers are guilty of over-analyzing their customer data, or being too clever in the way they use it. Here, LinkedIn get it just right. They prove how a few simple touches can be highly effective in drawing recipients into your messages. Going beyond the formulaic use of first-name data, the email features recent information about your LinkedIn activity, and entices you to find out more about your contacts by updating you on their news. The use of member images is arresting, and effectively conveys the community dimension of the professional networking site.

Why it’s great

• The LinkedIn logo and introductory copy make it easy for recipients to see who the mailing is from. Subscribers will recognize some of the photos of their connections on LinkedIn, reinforcing this connection.
• There are multiple CTAs to view user’s profiles, supported by an explanatory note above the images and a final reminder to update your own profile in the footer.
• The personal dimension, delivered by images of real connections, is a very compelling reason to interact with this mailing.

Chasing the tail that wags the dog
Marketers can access more sophisticated customer data than ever. But if you don’t impose your agenda on it, it’ll lead you on a merry dance, argues David Baker.

Alchemy Worx view
While social media and mobile increase our understanding of consumers, only constructing campaigns to satisfy every nuance of their behaviour is folly.
Read the article

The tranquil inbox
Organisations are scared to send more email because they think the average inbox is already full to bursting. They’re wrong, argues journalist Mark Brownlow.

Alchemy Worx view
As we discovered recently in our joint research with the DMA, the inbox is a more tranquil place than you imagine.
Read the article

Winning words
Why have I been sent this? Who cares? What’s in it for me? Don’t leave your audience guessing with this five-point guide to writing effective sales messages.

Alchemy Worx view
When your head’s in the clouds trying to produce inventive email copy, it’s easy to forget the fundamentals. The AIDCA checklist is a great tool to bring you back down to earth.
Read the article

Conventional marketing wisdom tells us removing inactive subscribers from your mailing list is good practice – but is it? Here, we turn that wisdom on its head. Find out why inactive subscribers are still valuable to your business and explore how you can reactivate them.

Dela’s story

Our CEO’s story provides an example of what can happen when marketers presume email addresses are inactive.

Dela was recently removed from Dell’s mailing list despite spending around $40,000 a year with them online for the past few years.

In Dell’s eyes however, Dela was inactive. He hadn’t opened any of their emails for some time and so their marketing department had purged him from the list.

But the fact a customer hasn’t opened your emails doesn’t mean they’re not engaged with your brand. In Dela’s case, he simply hadn’t needed to open his email to buy any new computer equipment for a while.

Nudging customers towards your brand

Even unread, those emails were still a nudge towards the Dell brand. They were still performing a valuable marketing function whether it was in the form of an engaging subject line with the latest offers, or keeping the brand at the front of Dela’s mind. And in Dela’s case, they were working.

Our research has shown that customers often buy a product or service through another channel within 24 hours of receiving an email. That’s why we provide clients with reports where we overlay the timing of emails sent with the timing of sales from other channels such as in-store, online, through call centers, pay per click and affiliates. Marrying together these data sets is crucial if you want to get a true impression of your recipients’ buying patterns. And it’s even more important when deciding whether to bump them off your subscriber list.

Email marketing can create a powerful stimulus which prompts purchases even if the emails themselves aren’t being read.

Inactive subscribers are still engaged

Inactive subscribers are still valuable to your brand and can generate a significant amount of revenue.

It makes perfect sense to stop emailing someone you know would never buy your products again or who actively dislikes receiving your emails.

But long-term inactivity isn’t a good indicator of whether someone falls into that category. There are 5 reasons why your subscribers may be – or appear to be – inactive:

They want your email, but haven’t needed your product for a while.

You’re receiving false negatives – your email is optimized to be read with image blocking on, so some subscribers could be opening it without you knowing.

The subscriber doesn’t want your email, but doesn’t care enough to unsubscribe.

Email address churn – the subscriber no longer uses or rarely checks that email address.

They don’t see your email because it goes into the junk folder.
By far the largest group is the first one – we call these people the unemotionally subscribed. They will happily ignore your emails until they’re ready to buy, because it’s easier than unsubscribing and having to remember your URL or Google you later.

We’ve gathered plenty of evidence on this group and demonstrated that while they might not read an email, they’re still a very important customer base.

One of our clients generated $120,000 from subscribers who had not opened or clicked on the previous 25 to 40 emails.

Another saw 14% of revenue generated by subscribers who did not open or click a single email.

Common marketing advice would have been to delete those subscribers after a year’s inactivity. But by retaining unemotionally subscribed addresses, the client brought in a significant amount of additional revenue.

When to remove email addresses

We have developed a simple strategy to help you decide if, and when, to remove an email address from your list.

Follow these 4 steps to establish which addresses are truly inactive, and which fall into the unemotionally subscribed group.

Start a reactivation campaign: try to re-engage anyone who hasn’t opened an email for more than 6, or even 12 months.

Separate your lists: anyone who still hasn’t opened an email after the reactivation campaign should be placed on a separate list to your active recipients.

Send the same email to each list and focus on activity: the active list will now show a truer representation of engagement and your results will not be dragged down by the dead email list. After every mailing (or month), move anyone who becomes active again to your active list, and anyone on the active list that now qualifies as inactive by your definition to the inactive list. You can now clearly identify how much revenue is generated by emailing the dead addresses versus how much it is costing you.

Analyze over time before deleting anyone: Within 6 to 12 months you’ll have a much better sense of how long you should continue to email an unresponsive email address before removing it from the list. We have generally found it to be the point at which almost every person who opens an email for the first time in a while goes on to unsubscribe.
Reactivating your inactive subscribers

For tried-and-tested ways of reactivating your subscribers, look out for future issues of Email Worx (you can subscribe on the right!).

And if you want to explore the issue of inactives further, Dela will be taking part in a panel discussion on the subject at the Email Insider Summit in Park City, Utah on December 5.

The festive season provides marketers with a range of opportunities, both for generating revenue and for getting creative juices flowing. But if past years are anything to go by, competition in the inbox will be fierce, so you’ll need to make your messages work even harder if you’re going to get a share of your subscribers’ seasonal spend.

Here are some of our top tips to help you take advantage of the year’s peak retail period:

1. Plan your messaging strategy

Plan the entire customer journey, and develop the story you want to communicate along the way. Map out each interaction from the subscribers’ perspective, and be sure to include service and transactional messages to make the journey complete. Once done, it will be easier to identify additional opportunities for certain groups of subscribers based on their preferences and patterns of activity. Identifying opportunities to send a higher frequency of messages targeted at specific subscribers can have a significant impact on your revenue.

2. Festive look and feel

Although time-honoured design elements like Santas, sleighs-bells and snow come in for much criticism, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with opting for a traditional approach – particularly if it fits with your overall brand identity. Moreover, a tongue-in-cheek or humorous approach can be highly effective when well delivered. It all depends on your chosen festive strategy, and the way in which your individual emails feed into it.

Your strategy should inform all aspects of your campaign, and if you devise one early enough you have the golden opportunity to produce a well-organised series of emails, perhaps ramping up the festive content gradually as you move towards December 25. Just make sure your content is on-brand at all times, and try to avoid lurching from one piece of creative to the next by planning well in advance.

And if you do take the conventional approach, don’t just paint a festive theme on top of an otherwise ordinary email. Embrace it fully, perhaps honing in on one aspect of the holidays like ‘celebration’ or ‘party’, or tie in give-aways and competitions with the season, ensuring prizes complement the theme.

Another classic mistake is to limit creativity by buying into arbitrary rules and guidelines for seasonal content. Color is a good example, and many designers seem to feel that festive campaigns must feature lots of red and green. As the creatives behind Bordeaux wine’s innovative campaign have shown, however, breaking the mould can be highly effective.

3. Develop a seasonal subject line strategy

Subject lines are an excellent way to communicate the story or concept you’ve developed. So don’t leave them to the last minute – develop them in line with your seasonal strategy to make full use of the space. Your subject lines can be used to reinforce brand values, promote USPs or alert customers to cut-off dates for delivery.

4. Frame your discounts

If discounts form part of your seasonal strategy – and if you’ve devised your campaign early enough – ensure your audience is aware of the full price of your items before the discounts kick in. We’re talking here about more than just displaying the old price next to the new in a single email.

Use subject lines wisely. If you intend to introduce generous discounts on big-ticket items, for example, consider sending a series of emails where the full prices are displayed in the subject lines, and repeat them again in the email copy. That way, when you start to promote your sale, recipients will be more likely to appreciate the depth of your discounts, and your emails may have greater impact. Framing discounts is a proven formula, but it’s only possible if you plan your strategy in advance.

5. Frequency, urgency and repetition

Don’t be afraid to increase the frequency of your emails at this time of year. In our experience, peoples’ expectations and tolerance levels change during the festive season. Consumers shop and buy more during this period, so it stands to reason that they want to hear about more offers and opportunities, and will be more receptive to store invites or inspiring ideas. Of course you should continue tracking metrics just as you would normally, and it’s worth being extra fastidious with unsubscribes.

Think about replicating the shopping experience in email format by displaying lots of products, and by keeping copy to a bare minimum. When consumers are crashing up to the festive deadline and they just need to buy things, stacks of copy and very few products in your emails are going to be as off-putting as those annoyingly over-attentive shop assistants on the high street.

Remember also that consumers will be spending most of their weekends in November and December shopping, so your campaigns are likely to have added impact. Use email subject lines to repeat key offers on a regular – perhaps even daily – basis. And look to drive footfall through your retail sites by highlighting exclusive in-store deals and bargains, paying particular attention to emails sent at the latter end of the week and those classic Friday/3pm mailings.

Finally, consider ways to generate a sense of urgency. Time-limited offers are particularly powerful at this time of year, as are daily countdowns. Again, if you’ve planned out your seasonal strategy well in advance, you’re in a position to stagger subject lines and key messages so their intensity increases towards the end of your campaign.

6. Use your data

During this period, subscribers’ preferences and purchasing patterns may be dramatically different from those witnessed throughout the rest of the year. But this doesn’t mean your data is obsolete when devising festive campaigns. You could, for example, analyze data from past holidays. This will help you assess the shopping patterns of your subscribers, allowing you to identify opportunities for time-based segmentation and targeting. You can also look at which content, message layouts and frequencies have worked best in the past to get a head start on any testing you’ve scheduled. Don’t forget to include online and off-line revenue stats to give you the full picture.

7. Take the chance to collect up-to-date preferences

Consumers’ interests change, particularly around this time of year, so developing content that will generate clicks is a great way to collect data for additional segmentation and targeting. Value-added content can be particularly effective, especially when it doesn’t have an overt sales message. Buyers’ guides and gift finders can help you identify what your subscribers are interested in, plus these are useful tools that can generate interest. Meanwhile, a well-developed ‘Wish-list’ campaign can generate interest from new customers and help to expand your subscriber base. If you plan on using inferred preferences, be sure to check that your privacy policy reflects this.

8. Don’t forget about transactional mailings

If this is a peak sales period for you, your subscription process and transactional messages are likely to achieve more reach. It’s worth undertaking an audit of all your processes and triggered mailings – from welcome messages to sales confirmations and post-purchase surveys – to make sure they are all up to date and functioning properly. And if you’re planning to increase your frequency over this period, why not give your subscribers the chance to opt out of your festive mailings separately. That way your subscribers can avoid this content specifically, but remain in touch once the season is over.

Festive treats
Need some more inspiration? Here are some of our favorite festive campaigns:
View animated email

• Inventive use of wintery colours replaces conventional greens and reds
• Perfect marriage of copy and animation plays cleverly on the word ‘flurry’
• Details seal the deal. From the quivering copy to the dog’s tongue, you notice something new each time

View animated email

• Refreshing take on a traditional Christmas email
• Atypical colourway combines effectively with bold, simple messaging
• Snowflakes constructed ingeniously using the letter P from the Prezzo logo

• Clean, engaging and impactful – a wonderful effort by Australian PR firm Clarity
• Proves you don’t need to over-engineer emails to hit the mark
• Basic animated colour change combined with a series of clever, punchy copy lines delivers variety and keeps recipients engaged without going overboard