August 22, 2018

Email & CRM Seminar Roundup: 16 August 2018

By Caity Dalby, Content Manager, at Figaro Digital

Last Thursday, Figaro Digital were joined by digital marketers interested in email marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) at The Hospital Club, Covent Garden, for an informative afternoon of presentations and networking. With GDPR now well and truly implemented (although with little industry knowledge of the long term affects of this regulatory change and no sanctions having been put in place as of yet), it is now more important than ever to stay ahead of the email marketing game by getting advice from our industry expert speakers’ presentations. Here, we take a look at the latest in personalisation, machine testing and much more from the #FigDigEmail seminar.

Digital Is Important… But How Important?

In his interactive presentation Gareth Boyd, Business Development Manager at Communicator, looked at the death of the High Street through the loss of some of the traditional retail giants, the changing habits and expectations of the modern consumer and how these are being facilitated, and what we as Marketers need to do to stop the slide. He started the session by asking the delegates to respond anonymously, via Sli.do, whether they have a definitive and comprehensive email strategy? In the spirit of anonymous honesty, the delegates revealed that nearly two thirds (57 per cent) of them thought that their email strategy is a work in progress.

Continuing with the interactive theme of the presentation and using the packed room of senior digital marketers as a study sample, Gareth displayed the changing environment consumers find themselves in and how this affects their spending habits by asking, who in the room had cash in their pocket? Unsurprisingly, not many with only ten per cent of the delegates stating that they always try and have a few quid on them. Furthermore, with over half of adults in the UK carrying a debit card by 1994 and the introduction of contactless payment in 2007 revolutionising consumer-brand interactions, it is undeniable that retail and ecommerce (whether B2C or B2B) has changed forever. In this new era of cashless payment and online consumerism, the most valuable and trade-able currency is you – your data. Consumers are happy to give away their data if it results in goods and services being offered to them that they want or are interested in, will make their lives easier or save them time and money. But where does email come into this? Watch Gareth’s presentation to find out how email solves this problem and how combining email automation, personalisation, and dedication, is the trick to making sure you capitalise on the opportunities an increasingly cashless and online society is offering.

View Gareth’s presentation here.

Personalisation: It’s Both An Art And A Science

As marketers, we focus almost exclusively on the science of personalisation – gathering the data, setting up segments and triggers, figuring out the mechanics of automating emails, and creating and testing the email content. However, we aren’t as well versed in the art of personalisation—the ideas and practices that guide our hands as we set up our personalisation plans. In this session Kath Pay, CEO & Founder at Holistic Email Marketing, inspired, guided and revealed some very interesting facts and examples on both the art, and science, of email personalisation. Holistic Email Marketing have recently published a report, produced with Pure360, on email marketing personalisation: you can download a copy of the report here. In June 2018, having surveyed 203 email marketers across multiple sectors, company sizes, and countries, Holistic found that Amazon, eBay, Tesco, Argos, and Sainsbury’s, were all ranked in the top six for both consumer loyalty due to marketing messages received and companies that are the best at sending personalised marketing messages. This correlation is hugely important when outlining an email strategy and identifying areas to focus upon.

One of the primary messages of Kath’s presentation is the need for marketers to to separate the art and science of email marketing personalisation. There are four necessary ingredients needed in order to personalise, these are a strategy and the content of the emails (the art), followed by consumer data and the technology with which to send out the emails (the science). In their holistic approach (pardon the pun), they suggest that it is no use to lead with the technology if there is no strategy in place and with only four per cent of marketers actually producing 1:1 personalised email content it is easy to see why. Their report states that “the majority of email marketers are still just doing basic segmentation. Even though we have the easiest channel to personalise, due to the fact that email uses a unique ID – the email address, we’re still not taking advantage of everything at our disposal.” Watch Kath’s presentation for case studies into how a personalisation strategy can revolutionise your email marketing and to find out exactly how to become a front runner in the art of personalisation.

View Kath’s presentation here.

Introduction To Machine Testing – It’s The Future!

The subject line is the first step towards conversion, it is the only part of your message that your subscribers are guaranteed to see. Increase the number of people who open each email and you increase the flow of people heading down the funnel. Every email marketer knows that subject line testing delivers big returns, but live testing is hard to do, with 32.1 per cent of email marketers only A/B split testing their subject lines monthly. That’s why tools that generate subject lines using AI are all the rage. But no matter who writes your subject lines, whether it’s a copy writing genius, intelligent machine, or 10,000 monkeys typing randomly, you still have to test! And testing – still done manually – has become a huge bottleneck. In his presentation, Dela Quist, CEO at Alchemy Worx and Touchstone, showed the delegates why you should test the subject line of every email that goes out the door and provides additional data and insights on what makes a subject line work, where the biggest gains in testing are to be found, and the best metrics to use for your tests. In short everything you need to transform your test strategy.

One of Dela’s primary examples of machine testing subject lines in action showed that the average open rate of subject lines that weren’t machine tested was 12.1 per cent, compared to an average open rate of machine tested subject lines of 15.1 per cent. This lift of 28 per cent showcases Dela’s message that it doesn’t matter who has written a subject line, if you don’t test it you can never be sure of how successful it will be. As an advocate of putting as much of your energy and time into your mass mailings and sending Batch & Blast email campaigns (an email sent to your whole list is like a TV ad with zero wastage), Dela has a no nonsense attitude when it comes to email marketing. Watch his presentation to feel inspired to rethink the way you send your emails.

View Dela’s presentation here.

Reach Your True (Email) Potential

Email is the top channel for ROI, with 74 per cent of those surveyed in the Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2018 rating email marketing excellent or good in terms of return on investment, yet few of us are leveraging its full potential. But with so many shiny new technologies out there, how do we separate the essential from the distractions? Suzy Carter-Kent, Customer Success Manager at Adestra Ltd., reveals what’s really important when building an email strategy that performs. She shared case studies, tips and advice to help you identify what’s right for your business, turn your plans into reality, and deliver on your email objectives.

With only two per cent of email marketers describing the extent to which their company has a strategy for optimising email marketing for different devices as very advanced and 14 per cent as advanced, it is obvious that despite the long history of email as a marketing channel there is a distinct lack of cohesion between the technologies available and the ability of business to implement these. Some of the major challenges marketers face include: the difficulty of integrating data, a lack of resources/time/skills, not knowing where to focus, a lack of suitable technology, and a lack of company processes and rules. There are numerous ways to deal with these stumbling blocks, Suzy suggests in her presentation that the most effective are starting with the customer, being clear on your goals, and getting buy-in. Watch Suzy’s presentation for real-life examples showcasing how implementing these simple concepts reinvented brands’ email marketing and revolutionised their ROI.

View Suzy’s presentation here.

If you would like to join us at a future event, please check out our events calendar and get registering!

 


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By Caity Dalby, Content Manager, at Figaro Digital