Pierry Blog

In some ways, I suppose the question asked in the title of this blog post is moot, because one thing is clear—interactive emails are here. So really, the better question to ask is—are interactive emails here to stay? And will they one day become the standard for which all emails are measured?

While not as widely used as static emails, interactive emails are giving email marketers a chance to create an experience for their subscribers that not only has them clicking more, but converting more, making them a trend worth watching.

What Are Interactive Emails?

Interactive emails are emails that have an interactive component such as an image carousel in the hero spot, a gif, interactive navigation bars or tabs, games, a live social feed, or a live poll that instantly shows subscribers the results.

Retailers in particular have taken interactions a step further by adding live inventory numbers and even the option to add something to your cart via the click of an email. Others are adding a more in-depth level of personalization, such as Burberry, who recently gave subscribers the ability to design and personalize their own scarf, all within the email itself.

There are also some brands that are experimenting with giving users the ability to complete an entire checkout process all from their inbox. You can review select items, add them to your cart, and even complete the checkout process without ever leaving the email. It’s a tall order to code something like that, and while it wouldn’t be something we’d recommend for clients today, it’s something that’s likely to be more commonplace in the future as email (and technology) evolves.

In many ways, interactive emails have the potential to completely change the way marketers and consumers think about email, and has the potential to help increase the already-high ROI marketers should demand from their email marketing programs.

How Can You Create an Interactive Email?

The easiest way to build an interactive email is by using a tool like Movable Ink which allows you to add live polls, live social feeds, countdown clocks, videos, as well as information like live inventories, and loyalty point updates. While some of the features require integrations with data systems such as CRMs or e-Commerce platforms, others can be included without much technical knowledge.

Elements like interactive tabs, rollovers, carousels, games, etc. would require more advanced knowledge of email coding, particularly when it comes to CSS and CSS3, as well as lots of testing to confirm both functionality and rendering.

Do Interactive Emails Render on Most Platforms?

You can never guarantee that an email you code will render perfectly on all devices, clients or apps—interactive emails are no exception to this rule.

Clients like Outlook strip interactive CSS properties, while others, like Gmail for the web, Yahoo and AOL will support some elements of interactive emails, but not all.

Currently, the Gmail App for both iOS and Android supports interactive elements, but it’s worth noting that Gmail App can be a fickle friend. At one point, the app was updated to not support interactive CSS elements, but this change has since been rolled back.

Clients including Applemail, the native iPhone mail application, and the native Android mail application are supportive of interactive elements and generally don’t cause issues with rendering and functionality. If only every subscriber could be on one of these…

And so, like with static emails, it’s important to keep major email clients in mind when you’re designing an interactive email. Don’t just consider the functionality for those using an email client that supports the elements you want to include. Think about how the email will look to those viewing your message on a device or client that doesn’t support those elements. This is often referred to as the fallback and it’s essentially just a static snapshot of your interactive email.

Are Interactive Emails Really Worth it?

Because a number of email clients lack the ability to fully support interactive email features, many brands question the value of even creating them. As you have no way of really knowing which email client subscribers are using to view your emails, the best way to consider whether or not it’s worth putting the extra time in to creating this type of message is to start slow and test it.

You can run a traditional A/B email test, comparing how an email with a simple interactive component such as a gif or live poll performs over a static version; however, getting statistically significant results here can be tricky, as you have no way of knowing how many of your subscribers sent the interactive version are actually able to see that element.

Another way to test the impact interactive elements have on engagement is to just send that interactive email to all your subscribers and see if there is an uptick in CTRs and, better yet, Conversions.

So start slow. Don’t spend hours of coding and testing a highly complex interactive email until you know it’s something your audience responds to.

During the early days of the internet and email, SPAM ruled many of our inboxes. The ability for ISPs (such as AOL, Yahoo!, etc.) to filter these communications was nearly non-existent. On top of that, there were very few, if any laws, to help governments regulate and take action against spammers.

Today, nearly every country has a law with the intent of reducing SPAM. And while the sentiment of these regulations is the same, the laws themselves are not all created equal. As more and more businesses expand globally, it’s important to be familiar with the anti-SPAM laws of the country you are sending from and the laws of the countries you are sending to. Failure to do so could lead to damaging fines.

It’s important to note that SPAM is not just unwanted mail. Many countries define SPAM as unsolicited, misleading electronic messages. But if marketers aren’t careful, their innocent messages could come across this way. Here is a sample of some of the anti-SPAM laws in place around the world:

United States – CAN-SPAM

The CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing) Act was passed in 2003 to, as it’s very long name suggests, work to control the sending unwanted emails from marketers and other, more unsavory, characters. Failure to comply with CAN-SPAM laws can result in fines of $16,000 per email sent.

Think about the size of your average email list and what a fine like that would do to your bottom line. Obvious statement—it wouldn’t be good.

The Basics of Staying Compliant with CAN-SPAM

Always…

• Include a physical mailing address on every email you send out. In theory, if someone wished to unsubscribe from your list, they could do so by physically sending you a letter or postcard.
• Provide a clear unsubscribe option. And make sure any unsubscribes are honored within 10 days.
• Use a clear “From”, “To” and “Reply to” language that accurately reflects you and your business. Your domain name and email address should reflect this as well.

Never…

• Sell your email list or transfer emails from one company to another.
• Make it difficult to unsubscribe from messages.
• Lure subscribers in with deceptive subject lines.

Read more on CAN-SPAM.

Canada – CASL

The Main Idea: CASL (Canada Anti-Spam Legislation) became effective on July 1, 2014 and covers all forms of electronic messaging, including email, SMS, and instant messages, when used for commercial or promotional purposes. As of January 15, 2015, the law expanded further, making it illegal for an individual or business to install software on someone’s device without consent.

Businesses violating CASL could receive a fine of up to $10 million.

How to Stay Compliant with CASL

Always…

• Obtain “express” consent before sending commercial or promotion electronic messages. Learn more about the difference between “express” consent vs. implied consent.
• Clearly identify yourself or your organization in each message. You must also include one of the following: mailing address, phone number, email or web address.
• Make it simple and clear to unsubscribe in every message you send.

Never…

• Send electronic messages based on implied consent, which includes sending to a recipient based solely on the fact that they have an existing business relationship.
• Install programs or software on someone else’s device without “express” consent.
• Provide false or misleading information including sender information, subject matter information, URLs and/or metadata.

Read more on CASL.

United Kingdom – PECR

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) gives UK citizens specific privacy rights when it comes to electronic communications, such as emails, as well as marketing calls, SMS, faxes, cookies (and similar technologies), consumer data security and consumer privacy. Failure to comply with PECR could result in fines of up to £500,000.

How to Stay Compliant with PECR

Always…

• Obtain clear consent from consumers regarding the receipt of electronic communications. This could include requiring subscribers to click an opt-in box before they are added to your email marketing list.
• Keep a record of what each subscriber has consented to, as well as how and when they gave that consent.
• Offer a clear opt-out on any message

Never…

• Make it difficult to opt-out.
• Disguise or conceal the identity of the business or organization you are sending from.
• Ignore opt-out requests.

Read More on PECR.

Japan – Act on Regulation of Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail

The Act on Regulation of Transmission of Specific Electronic Mail was passed in 2009 and applies to both individuals sending mass communications, as well as commercial email marketers. It’s important to keep in mind that these regulations also apply to those sending outside of Japan. For example, if an entity sends what is considered a “spam” email by Japanese standards from the U.S., which corresponds with Japanese legislation, Japanese authorities reserve the right to prosecute that spammer from the U.S. in American courts.

Events such as the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami brought an influx of spammers sending messages in the guise of non-profits looking to raise funds for victims. As a reaction to that, Japan has rigorous fines in place for criminal spammers. Violators could receive up to a year in prison and ¥30 million fine.

How to Stay Compliant

Always…

• Have a clear, trackable record of all opt-ins prior to sending, including those you have a pre-existing business relationship with.
• Immediately act on any unsubscribe requests.
• Include the name, title and email address of the person responsible for the actual sending of any marketing communications.

Never…

• Use software to identify email addresses or to falsify information about the sender
• Send messages to those who have opted-out. These subscribers should immediately be removed from
• your marketing lists.

Read More on the Act on Regulation of Transmission of Specific Electronic Mail.

Following the regulations above will not only help your business avoid damaging fines, but can also serve as guidelines for how your email marketing program should be managed—do you really want to send mass emails to consumers who have not opted-in? Or make it impossible for consumers to unsubscribe? No, because your engagement rates would be a disaster, as would your ROI.

Regardless of the regulations in place, for reputable digital marketers, these rules are just plain common sense. And, let’s face it, no email marketer wants to be viewed as a spammer.

Marketers spend so much time focusing on content (as we should!) that sometimes we forget about that last, crucial part of the campaign: making sure the email actually lands in the consumer’s inbox. You can have the most amazing design, the most relevant content, with the clearest call to action, but if the subscriber never sees it, all that hard work goes to waste.

Deliverability can be a huge issue and if not properly handled, could fall low enough to get you on the dreaded blacklist. But did you know that by following just three simple rules you can improve email deliverability issues and ensure your messages make it to inbox?

In fact, taking these basic steps helped Pierry take a client from a deliverability rate of 83.9% to 99% in just four months! Here’s what we did:

Rule 1: Eliminate Bad Email Addresses

As you know, marketers use a lot of tactics to build up their lists. Whether you’re collecting addresses through a form on your website or getting opt-ins at an event, you’re bound to end up with some invalid email addresses. If you have a small list, most of the bad email addresses will naturally be removed when they bounce on the first send, depending on your email platform.

But larger lists will need to be scrubbed. At Pierry Software, we offer email domain validation and hygiene, but there are a number of list-cleaning services available which validate email addresses, telling you which ones should be removed. Products like Salesforce Marketing Cloud have built-in tools that allow you to clean your own list. With “List Detective” email validation rules are run against email addresses imported into the system. If it’s a known bad address or a known spam trap, the address is automatically filtered out.

Having a clean list can greatly reduce the number of addresses that hard bounce, improving your deliverability and reducing the chance your sending domain will be marked for spam, sending all your messages into the great unknown.

By eliminating bad email addresses, deliverability went from 83.9% to an average of 92%. And so, we were on to rule #2.

Rule #2: Set a Sending Cadence

There was a time when internet service providers (ISPs) found their networks constantly overloaded by spammers. In an effort to reduce this, most larger ISPs set a limit for the amount of email that can come through their network from a single IP Address at one time. For email marketers, this can mean deliverability issues.

How do you show you’re a welcome party and not a spammer? By setting a message cadence, or throttling, you can limit the number of emails per hour sent based on domain and ensure it meets the criteria for each ISPs standards.

Sure, the send may take a few days longer to complete, but what’s more important, sending all emails at once or making sure your consumers receive your email?

Establishing the proper cadence during month two of our client’s campaign took deliverability from an average of 92% to 96%. While another step in the right direction, it still wasn’t good enough for this e-marketer! So on to rule #3.

Rule #3: Monitor Your Send Frequency and Send Quantity

Once you’ve cleaned your list and established a cadence, there can still be room for improvement. Sending too infrequently causes the ISPs to bump your IP address back down to the “untrusted” category. Smaller, regular sends from your IP will build a reputation with the ISP so they trust that your sends are legit. For our client, we utilized a few smaller sends in the weeks between newsletter sends and continued to follow the email providers’ rules of send frequency: every three weeks to stay fresh.

With that final piece of the puzzle, we throttled the next send and saw that jump we were looking for—99% and above.

While thinking outside the box and bending or breaking conventional rules can lead to truly innovative marketing campaigns, it should be avoided when it comes to actually deploying materials via email. The rules that email providers put in place are there for a reason—to protect their users from unwanted messaging. If you follow the rules, they let you through to the audience you’re trying to reach. And ultimately, isn’t that where you want to be?

As a journalism major in college, I rejoiced in the fact that I tested out of most math classes and would only have to take one math course to complete my degree. Little did I know that a single statistics class would come back to haunt help me in my career as a digital marketer.

Running a successful email marketing A/B test depends on a few elements straight out of your old stats class. But don’t worry, you don’t need to pull an all-nighter to set up your first A/B test, just follow these simple steps:

1. Develop a Hypothesis:

It doesn’t matter if you’re testing a subject line, a call to action, a button, an offer, or something else, you should have a reason for running your test, i.e. something to prove or disprove. A/B testing is more than just throwing two options to the masses to see which performs “better” and assuming it’s the end all, be all. There needs to be logic behind not only why you are running the test, but what the outcome will be. For example:

• A subject line that teases a “new product” will have more opens than a subject line that simply states what the new product is because people are curious about the new product.
• An email body that has 4 or fewer interaction points (links) will have higher click-throughs than an email body that has 5 or more interaction points because too many options creates no action.
• A subject line that uses the brand name will earn more opens than a subject line that does not use a brand name because brand recognition increases opens.

Each hypothesis includes a rationale at the end. Knowing the reasoning behind the outcome, or in other words the reasoning behind subscriber behavior, is just as, if not more important, than which performed better or worse and can lead you to new hypotheses to test.

2. Choose your test group carefully:

To limit variability and maximize the success of your A/B test, you’ll want to perform your test on a similar group of email subscribers. In statistics, this is known as “blocking,” and it helps increase the precision of your tests.

In email marketing, you’ll want to look closely at the list you are going to use. Hopefully, it goes without saying that you’ll want to only use active subscribers, but did you know that removing highly-engaged subscribers may help your test too? Both represent opposite extremes of your subscriber spectrum and could inaccurately sway your results. Other aspects to consider when it comes to your test group include:

• Email service providers: If one or more of the providers you send to regularly causes problems with deliverability, remove them from your test.
• List segments: Unless your hypothesis is dependent on a particular segment, now isn’t the time to slice and dice your list, meaning you don’t want to target just men or just subscribers in a specific zip code.
• Time of send: If you always send your emails at 3 pm on a Tuesday, you should do so for your test too, unless of course time of send is what you are testing.

In short, you’ll want to eliminate as many variables as possible from your email test. Keep things consistent with what you’ve previously done. Rule of thumb is to make one change at a time so you can really zero in on what is causing a change in subscriber behavior.

3. Analyze the statistical significance of your test:

Just because you performed a test doesn’t mean the results are conclusive. A test shows just one data point and often requires additional testing before you can conclusively rely on the results. We often suggest testing a single hypothesis for at least 3 months before determining a winner.

Once you feel you have enough data to determine what we refer to as statistical significance, you can take advantage of online tools, such as this A/B split test calculator. Just plug in the number of subscribers you sent your control and variable to and the number of conversions for each. The calculator then tells you if the results of your test are statistically significant. You could calculate the statistical significance yourself, but because I don’t trust my mathematical skills—again, journalism major.

Remember, when your test is complete and you’ve analyzed the results, you’ve still just got one data point of evidence. Before relying on that data point, you’ll need to do further testing. Depending on your industry and audience, you may need more than 5 statistically significant tests before you can make any assumptions.

Although that may seem like a lot of work, A/B testing can give you the type of insights that can increase open rates, click rates and more, optimizing your email strategy. Happy testing!

Your open rates are on a consistent decline. Your click-through rates are embarrassing. And your deliverability is not what it used to be. These are the signs of an email program that is greatly in need of some help.

But that’s not the only time you should be evaluating your email program.

In fact, like most things, you don’t want to wait until you have a clear, cut and dried issue with your email program. Maybe your open rates and click-throughs are consistent. Maybe you’ve even hit some above average metrics over the last two months. Whatever your metrics say, it’s important to evaluate your email program at least once a quarter. Here’s how to get started:

Email Sending/Deliverability Best Practices

You created an email message and hit send. It’s on its way to your subscribers. Right? Not necessarily. There are a number of factors that can affect your deliverability rates. Here are some questions to ask yourself when evaluating your sending practices:

• Is your email program in compliance with standards for the countries subscribers are from such as CASL or CAN-SPAM?
• Was your list build from opt-ins (as opposed to being bought or rented)?
• Is there an obvious unsubscribe link?
• Do you send on a regular, consistent schedule?
• Are you using a suitable email platform to manage and maintain subscriber data?

Other sending practices to take note of include:

• Using an email sending address on a sub-domain of the main brand domain
• Sending a welcome email/series to new subscribers in a timely manner
• Using Return Path or a similar service to maximize deliverability and gain insight into sender reputation
• Having a documented testing and QA process in place that is executed for every send
• Ensuring high deliverability by adhering to ISP standards (i.e. sending a limited amount per hour for ISPs such as AOL and Comcast).
• Utilizing seed lists or including company employees on subscriber lists to ensure there are no issues with the actual email send
• Subscribers are segmented and sent emails relevant to them instead of mass sending

Finally, make sure there is a clear email strategy in place with goals to measure by, as well as A/B testing opportunities to purse when developing future email sends.

Email Content Strategy

Every marketing channel should have its own corresponding content strategy—and email is no exception. Each channel also has its own tone and style. For example, the language you use in a press release is very different from a social post, which is also very different from an email.

When writing for email, make sure each send:

• Has a clear content focus
• Tells a story that helps to shape the brand’s personality
• Contains relevant content with important information and main call to action (CTA) at the top
• Contains content that supplements any images
• Has a subject line and body content that complement each other
• Has a subject line that entices the subscriber to open the message
• Contains a pre-header that adds to or expands upon the subject line
• Avoids spam words in subject line and body content
• Includes CTAs that are descriptive and encourage interaction
• Avoids off-brand messages or ads

Most importantly, you want to constantly monitor and test your content, whether that means trying new CTA language or creating new themes around each send.

Email Design Best Practices

How your email looks is equally as important as what it says. Here are some quick things to consider when evaluating the overall look of your sends:

• The design uses colors and images that are consistent with the brand, while also using strong contrast for readability
• Uses websafe fonts and high quality images
• The email is designed for 580px to 700px width
• The email is not excessively long requiring endless scrolling
• Has a consistent header and footer
• A view online or view in browser link is included
• Provides a balance of images and text
• Includes ALT tags for the images
• Email is rendered or tested in variety of email clients and devices
• Uses buttons over text-based links to make the CTA stand out

While the above may seem like a hefty list, they’re important items to consider as you grow and expand your email marketing campaign. Again, we recommend performing this evaluation every quarter. This is the best way to ensure you catch small issues before they grow into something much more difficult to bounce back from.

Not sure where to start when it comes to evaluating your email program? We can help with that. Contact Pierry Software today to learn more about our email scorecard audit, as well as our strategy services.

The buyer journey continues to evolve and consumers are coming to expect a more personalized experience. Buyers no longer want to be marketed to in bulk and with today’s technology, there’s no reason they should be. For years digital marketers have been challenging themselves to get more personalized in their messaging. This often involved collecting and sorting through thousands of data points, creating special segments, manual actions and special queries.

But even this will only get a digital marketer so far.

With Journey Builder, a tool available as part of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, marketers can put each member of their audience on a path that’s based upon each individual user’s interaction on whichever channels you meet them on.

Getting Started with Journey Builder

To get started with Journey Builder, you first need to establish a goal. What do you want this journey to result in? For example, your goal could be to get 60% of those downloading your retail app to make a purchase within the first 45 days.

Once you have a goal established, you can begin building out the various pathways that can be taken based on how the customer interacts with your communications or products. For instance, let’s say that once a user downloads the app, you send them a triggered email thanking them for downloading and inviting them to make their first purchase by providing them a code for 20% of their in-app purchase.

Going Beyond the First Triggered Email

Five days later you are ready to send your second communication. Did the customer make a purchase? If so, you do not want to send them another email reminding them to make a purchase, so perhaps you choose to send them a “Refer-A-Friend” email or a survey on their experience.

Or maybe the customer didn’t even open the initial email you sent. In this case, the next step could be to have them receive a new message with a more urgent subject line, something like “Don’t miss out! 20% off your first in-app purchase.”

For those who did open the email, but didn’t click, perhaps you send an email with more enticing copy or different product images.

Marketing Automation Across Channels

Journey Builder also allows for seamless integration with other Marketing Cloud products so users who opened, clicked, but didn’t purchase could receive a MobilePush notification with an incentive code. The possibilities are endless!

The purpose of Journey Builder is to provide the most relevant offer based on each individual stage in the buyer’s journey. Through the tools user friendly, easy to use interface, you can actually visualize how many people are at each stage of the journey in real time and optimize campaigns as you go.