Video Transcript
Rokture Ramblings – Episode 14 – Email Marketing
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Rokture Ramblings, where I discuss topics around digital
marketing, marketing technology, and marketing operations for the financial services industry.
My name is Fernando Pena, and I’m the founder of Rokture, where I can help you master the digital
channel. Today’s topic is one that, again, there’s a lot of discussion around. And the reason
being is that this is a sort of granddaddy of marketing when it comes to digital marketing. And
that, of course, is email. So do email campaigns still work is the big question. So today I’m
going to be going over the history of email, email campaign types, mistakes that many make,
best practices, and also what lies ahead.
00:00:38 Speaker 2
So in terms of the history of email, I just mentioned it’s considered really the grandfather
of all outbound marketing from a digital perspective. It’s been around forever, since the
beginning of the Internet. In fact, I think that the first outreach on the Internet was done
via email. So historically, it did have a very high conversion rate and also engagement rate.
And this was because it was something that was new. It was innovative. And it was something that
people were really excited about. So anytime that they got an email, they were going to respond
back. And they were hopefully going to be doing so in a very favorable manner. Eventually, though,
as all good things, that came to an end. And it was overrun by scammers and spammers, which were
basically just blast emailing everyone and not really using any sort of targeting or using
any sort of care in the world in terms of whose inboxes they were clogging. So, of course, when
that happens, we get restrictions. And they’re evolving,
00:01:30 Speaker 2
but they really do include both a technology restriction coming from email providers themselves
that are trying to keep spam out and also a lot of regulatory restrictions. So that’s something
that we’ll touch upon a little later because it is a concern for a lot of marketers. And rightfully
so is because there are oftentimes many hefty fines and also damaged reputations for brands
that have to be concerned with when it comes to making sure that you acknowledge these regulatory
restrictions and that you do the right thing from a marketing perspective. So it is still effective,
very effective, in fact, but it has to be properly managed. And you have to make sure to observe
all the restrictions that are out there so that you don’t find yourself in trouble.
00:02:15 Speaker 2
So campaign types. There’s obviously going to be a number of different types, just as you can
see the different types of shoes that are out there. But I’m going to really try to break it down
into or categorize them into three different categories. So the first one are opt -in audiences.
And these are individuals that have explicitly said, I want you to email me. Examples of this
are newsletters, for example. Or it could be if somebody comes into your website and a page pops
up that says subscribe. Then they enter their information and they explicitly acknowledge
that they want you to send promotional materials to them. So that is the one that is under the
least amount of scrutiny because there there’s a relationship that’s established. And there’s
also a request for this type of information. So therefore, there’s not really concern that
you’re doing something that’s not being requested. There, of course, are some unwritten rules
where you don’t want to abuse that privilege. But for the
00:03:08 Speaker 2
most part, you’ve been given free reign and you can now interact with that individual on an as
needed basis. The next one is piggyback and partnerships. I mentioned newsletters earlier.
So this is another example where sometimes newsletter providers will say, hey, for a fee, we’ll
allow you to speak to our client base. And our client base has said that they’re OK with partners
reaching out to them. And that’s sort of a piggyback type of method or process or relationship
and partnership based. So you have access to this audience for a limited amount of time. You
can send them maybe a handful of emails and that’s it. Basically, when that partnership is dissolved,
then that relationship with that individual client is dissolved or prospect. So these are
sort of the hybrid between opt in and what I’m going to touch upon next, which is cold outreach.
But it’s a way of getting to an audience that you don’t have a direct relationship with and doing
so in a way where they’re allowing you to reach
00:04:01 Speaker 2
out to them. The third one is where a lot of marketers sort of draw the line in the sand and they
say that I’m not going to do this because there’s too many risks. And this is cold outreach. So
these are prospects that you have no relationship with. They’ve not asked for you to contact
them, but you’re going to do so anyway. And so there’s ways to and depending on your region, you
may not be able to do this at all. But in most cases you can. You just need to add a few different
elements that are going to make you compliant and make sure that you don’t abuse the fact that
you are doing cold outreach.
00:04:38 Speaker 2
So abuse is a big part of the common mistakes that I’m going to go over here. The first one, and
this is a big one, because the thing is, is that if you unfortunately run afoul of one of these
laws or restrictions, there could be hefty fines coming your way. And also there’s the damage
to the brand reputation. So be very aware of what your local restrictions are. Here in the United
States, most states do not have extensive amount of restrictions on sending B2B cold outreach
emails. And notice I did make a distinction there because consumer laws are very different.
When you’re sending B2C, that is a different type of campaign. And so there’s going to be a little
bit more scrutiny as to what you can do. Now, the way around that, of course, is to make sure to
observe any sort of mail lists. So if you see that someone is on a do not mail list, then do not even
attempt to put them into a campaign. Most email platforms have that built in. So that will be
something that they automatically remove
00:05:35 Speaker 2
those do not contacts from your list so that when the email goes through, then you don’t run afoul
of these laws and restrictions. The other thing, too, is that there are certain instances where
it requires opting in. And a lot of this is mostly like in the EU and some other regions that are
a little bit more restrictive. There are a few states, a handful of states here in the U .S. that
are enacting some more stringent policies on cold emailing. But for the most part, if it’s B2B
and even for B2C and you provide opt out opportunity, then you’ll be able to make use of this strategy.
Another common mistake is email blasting on an existing infrastructure. So the one problem
with sending out a large number of emails on your existing infrastructure is that it can damage
your reputation of your URL. And what that means is that when you’re sending service based emails
or emails that are more informative in nature, they may end up in the spam box because of sending
promotional emails to people
00:06:33 Speaker 2
that aren’t expecting it. So what I often do is that I create an alternate infrastructure on
a different URL and using a different system altogether so that those two are isolated from
each other. And that should keep you from ruining your main domain’s reputation in the event
that people believe that the message that you’re sending to them is spam. The next part is over
personalization. So this is where AI has, of course, just proliferated throughout the world.
And so that’s created a little too much personalization in some cases. And what I mean by that
is that you are being a little bit creepy in terms of how much information you have at your disposal
and making the email outreach a little too over personalized. The other thing, too, is that
when it comes to personalization, you’re only as good as the data that you’re making use of to
provide that personalization. And what that means is that if somebody has a proper name noted
on their records, but they go by a nickname, they’re automatically
00:07:29 Speaker 2
going to know that you’re just using whatever data is provided to them and will possibly just
rule out whatever it is that you’re saying because they know that it’s coming from an automated
system. So use personalization sparingly. It is great, especially from a contextual perspective.
But just because you add their name, their first name to an email doesn’t mean that it’s personalized.
So if you’re not sure about the data that you’re being given, it’s probably better to not use
it and just send a targeted message that isn’t quote unquote personalized. The next thing is
giving up too easily. And what I mean by this, this is that a lot of marketers will send one, two,
maybe three emails and call it a day. Unfortunately, it does require multiple touch points
to reach somebody via cold email because of the fact that they are ignoring a lot of emails since
they get so many of them. So a safe rule is not safe rule, but a common rule for email marketers
is that unless they tell you not to reach
00:08:24 Speaker 2
out to them, consider that you still want to continue to nurture them. This is a controversial
viewpoint from my perspective. But it’s something that I’ve observed as well is that until
they tell you to stop, continue emailing them because you never know. And with a lot of conversion
cycles and the buying process taking as long as it does in financial services, it might be necessary
to email someone for a year or so before you finally get a positive response. And then also not
measuring the right KPIs. So a lot of email marketers tend to measure things like open rates
and click rates, and those don’t really matter. Ultimately, what you need is a reply and ultimately
a conversion, of course. But a reply is really what you’re trying to get to. A lot of email providers
now and also devices like iPhones, they actually will block the tracking of clicks and opens.
So those metrics are going to be skewed anyway. So you may as well just not even attempt to track
them because ultimately what you
00:09:19 Speaker 2
want are the conversions. Granted, it’s great to see that journey and that progression, but
there’s risk in when you track activity, it adds codes to the email that let that provider know
that this is a commercial email. Because most personal emails, you don’t care to track whether
it’s being opened or not. And so for that reason, a lot of these end up in the spam box. So these
are just some strategies that I can share with you if we work together where I can make sure that
you’ll land in the inbox instead of the spam or the promotional box on Gmail. So
00:09:51 Speaker 2
in terms of best practices, as I mentioned previously, you want to use a dedicated domain and
infrastructure for that specific purpose. So maybe you have an infrastructure for cold email.
Then you have another one for service -based emails. Then you have another one maybe for recurring
types of activities that are taking place like newsletters. This is a best practice, and you’ll
want to use either separate domains or subdomains so that you don’t ruin your main domain. Also
set up your long -term nurturing based on that customer journey and the conversion timings.
So I mentioned this previously as well. In financial services, some of the products take a long
time to convert. And so for that reason, you’ll want to make sure that you have nurturing campaigns
that are built around that timeframe so that you can adapt to that buying journey and make sure
that you’re there for that prospect when they’re ready to make that decision. Segment and target
as much as practically possible. So emails
00:10:40 Speaker 2
cannot be generic. They have to really touch upon a pain point or a unique selling proposition
or value proposition that is going to resonate with that target audience. So target as much
as you can. It’s just as simple now to do a campaign of 10 different segments as it would be to do
one of 20 different segments. But the more that you tailor your message to that audience, the
more likely it is you’ll get positive responses. Use AI, but don’t depend on it. So AI is great
to set the stage. And it reminds me of sort of the color by numbers where you have the shape already
established for you. That’s what AI does. But now you have to go in there and add your own color
to it. And by doing that, that really helps to personalize that message and do so in your own tone
so that it doesn’t look like it’s coming from AI and just being thrown out there to you without
any care in the world. The last thing is experiment, experiment, experiment. So this is something
where you always have to continually
00:11:35 Speaker 2
be testing, observing those tests and seeing what resonates with your audience. Nothing is
really out of bounds. I mean, you can’t make certain claims, of course, because in financial
services, we’re very heavily regulated. But within reason, go ahead and try different tactics
and see different messages, different calls to action and see what works. The other thing,
too, is test your subject line because that’s the first thing that people see and also the text
that appears in the preview. So these are all elements that you’ll want to test. For the sake
of simplicity, don’t try to change more than one thing at one time when you’re running a test
because then you won’t really know what actually resonated with your audience.
00:12:16 Speaker 2
And in terms of the future, so email is going to continue to live. There’s been so many sort of
funerals held for email. And so many have said that it’s dead, it’s over, especially now with
a lot of the restrictions that Gmail and Outlook are placing on spammers. But that’s the key
is don’t get yourself classified as a spammer. As long as you can show that you’re providing
a legitimate message and you employ the tricks of the trade here, you’ll be able to get your message
through and hopefully get a positive response. Now, some of the response rates that you see
published out there are difficult to achieve because this is so volatile and so evolving. But
again, the investments in email are pretty minimal compared to other outreach methods. And
so even if you only get a fraction of a percentage response rate, one positive conversion can
change that ROI completely. So that’s something to really consider. It’s likely we’re going
to be subject to additional regulatory concerns. So that’s just
00:13:13 Speaker 2
always evolving and that will continue to. So just keep your eyes and ears open, especially
in certain geographies that are going to be subject to additional regulations. Large scale
campaigns are likely going to be eliminated. So you can’t just buy a list of a million customers,
for example, blast the same message to all million and expect something to happen. Instead,
they have to be targeted, segmented and also sent out sort of in waves to avoid that potential
scrutiny that you might receive. Ongoing campaigns of one, those are the ones that are going
to thrive. And what I mean by that is that trigger based campaigns, campaigns that look at certain
actions or activities and that will now adjust their sort of messaging and the frequency of
messaging based on what it’s observing. So these campaigns of one will likely be those that
will see successes on an ongoing basis. And cold emailing is going to become more difficult,
but it still will remain effective just because, as I mentioned
00:14:10 Speaker 2
before, you’re able to scale and you’re able to get your message out to a large number of potential
prospects without the investment and the sort of creative challenges that do take up so many
other channels and outreach efforts. So these are all things that I’ve seen in many years of
working of this type of outreach for a number of different organizations. And I’ve been there
since almost the beginning. So if you find that all this information is helpful and valuable
to you and you would like to discuss how I can help your organization try to leverage this channel,
please reach out to me. Here’s my contact information. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can also
go directly to my website at Rockshore .com, R -O -K -T -U -R -E .com. So thank you for your time.
And I look forward to presenting the next topic. Until then. Bye bye. Hello, everyone, and welcome
to Rockshore Ramblings, where I discuss topics around digital marketing, marketing technology
and marketing operations for the financial
00:15:08 Speaker 2
services industry. My name is Fernando Pena, and I’m the founder of Rockshore, where I can help
you master the digital channel. Today’s topic is one that, again, there’s a lot of discussion
around. And the reason being is that this is a sort of granddaddy of marketing when it comes to
digital marketing. And that, of course, is email. So do email campaigns still work is the big
question. So today I’m going to be going over the history of email, email campaign types, mistakes
that many make, best practices, and also what lies ahead.
00:15:40 Speaker 2
So in terms of the history of email, I just mentioned it’s considered really the grandfather
of all outbound marketing from a digital perspective. It’s been around forever since the beginning
of the Internet. In fact, I think that the first outreach on the Internet was done via email.
So historically, it did have a very high conversion rate and also engagement rate. And this
was because it was something that was new. It was innovative. And it was something that people
were really excited about. So anytime they got an email, they were.
