\\ email marketing manual \\

A fresh approach to email campaigns could mean the difference between intray fodder and pay-to-play success.

So how on earth do you make your email campaigns successful? Do you need flashy software pyrotechnics to whizz and bang like a digital fireworks display to get your customer to open it, click through and play?

Well, if the technology was there then that would be wonderful — as long as we were prepared for a few lawsuits from the people who had heart attacks after opening their inboxes.

So back to current capabilities - there is much we can already do to get action from the email.

First and foremost, there is no point doing anything without a goal. So set the goals – exactly what you want to achieve with your emails – and you will instantly have something to measure against.

There is a lot of email marketing that starts off well but over the course of six months turns into drudgery with falling open and click-through rates. To you that means less playing and therefore less revenue.

So rather than allowing your emails to turn into a village newsletter without the gossip, each campaign should be created with a unique target in mind (an example is shown in fig.1).

Fig 1 - basic campaign goals and targets

Campaign Date	Campaign Goal	Database Segmentation	Target Open Rate	Target Click-Through	Conversion to Play
Jan 2007	encourage Poker customers not playing to play	registered customers that have not played in last 3 months	22% (from current of 5%)	8% (from current of 2%)	5%

Measuring your success

Before we look into what is required to give your emails impact, it’s useful to show you the extent of the data you should be seeing in order to measure the success of each campaign.

Whether you are using your own in-house email marketing system or an outsourced solution you will need detailed reporting. Otherwise you’ll never know if you are achieving the goals you set out.

The fundamentals are the following:

Open Rate - who is actually looking at your emails
Click Through rate - the amount of people clicking through to your site
The unsubscribe or opt-out rate - a key indicator - if this rises above 1% then your emails are either getting boring or the frequency of them is too much, for example more than once a week
Top Links - which links are being clicked on (and by who) and therefore which area is grabbing the most interest?
Post-click tracking - are customers performing the actions desired on your site such as buying more credits?

Most in-house systems cannot provide detailed levels of reporting and rely on a web analytics system to show movement around websites (see fig.2).

Such statistics are important in understanding how to continually tweak a certain area of marketing - to help to get players playing more and non-players starting to put their hands in their pockets

Click with the customer

Okay, now down to business. How do we get customers to open the email amid an overcrowded inbox? Well, the only thing we have in reality is the subject line.

A style close to an eye-catching tabloid headline should make a difference and if combined with the customer’s name, surely that would have an even greater effect?

The answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ Adding personalisation to the subject line can increase the open rate by 8% to 10% and more.

Few people wouldn’t respond to this: 'Darren, here’s a $10 token, you cannot miss our latest Texas Hold’em!'

Of course if you have your customers’ details, use them to personalise the body of the email.

The other factor that can change open rates is the preview window. This is the small area at the top of the email that shows the first 10 to 15 lines.

This top area certainly touches on the creative design of the email but make it look exciting with the key calls to action together with a powerful subject line and it will be all too alluring for the customer not to click through and see the whole thing.

Another point is to keep the emails looking attractive.

So many companies include a boring bland design within their emails — how do they expect people to read them month in, month out and not become immune, eventually dismissing them altogether?

The answer is to have crisp, clean graphics that literally punch their way out of the screen. Imagine a girl with big red boxing gloves on, throwing a punch through the screen. 'You’ll be knocked out! Our games have far more punch than the rest!'

Strong, vibrant colours and good graphics can make all the difference. Try not to make the mistake of getting a template and following this format all the time though. Recipients quickly get bored and even if the subject line is alluring they will want to see something that renews their interest in your brand.

Another mistake often made with emails is packing too much in. Although it may look fantastic to, for example, make it look like a magazine with numerous little columns and articles, doing this overplays its function. The job of an email is to get users so interested that they perform an action and that means getting them to play on your site.

Tailormade communication

Until smoothie company innocent came along I’m not sure anyone had really thought about the power of making their written word any different to the rest. Sure, everyone had their own in-house style but Innocent developed its own style of writing. Many articles have been written about the company since, claiming its copy has set the brand apart.

In short, don’t try and write the copy yourself. Get a copywriter — not only will your visuals standout, you’ll see the copy equally leap from the page.

Gone are the days of ‘spray and hope’ marketing where a company sends out a few million emails and hopes someone replies. Customers will only read emails on subjects that actually interest them. Don’t send them information about bingo if they only like poker.

Given the power of certain email marketing tools you can see what customers click through on, get a better understanding of their interests then talk to them only about what gets them excited. If it’s what they really want to hear they will be far more likely to do what you suggest (see fig.3).

When you start to collect data, before beginning your email marketing, it’s worth finding out what people most like when they sign up and tailor any communication to this. But don’t make the mistake of turning data capture areas on your site into a full survey otherwise you’ll end up collecting only a pitiful amount of people who would like to receive your emails.

This whole area is called segmentation. It allows you to easily divide up your customer or prospect base by whatever criteria you want. You can then marry the content and creative of each email specifically for them, thus making them far more susceptible to buying into your services - don’t you think?