The Rebel's Guide to Email Marketing

DJ Waldow is an email marketing consultant, writer, blogger, speaker, and (now) author. He is the founder and CEO of Waldow Social, a company that helps clients take email marketing to the next level. DJ has spent nearly 7 years in the email, social, and community-building world, advising clients on how to optimize their email marketing campaigns and--on occasion--break some of the “best practice” rules. DJ can be found on most social networks under the handle “djwaldow” or by searching “DJ Waldow.” Jason Falls is an author, speaker, and CEO, the latter of Social Media Explorer, a digital marketing agency and information products company. From client strategies to industry research reports to conference-style events, Falls spearheads efforts to bridge the gap between professional communicators and business owners and the strategic use of digital marketing and technology. An award-winning social media strategist and widely read industry pundit, Falls has been noted as a top influencer in the social technology and marketing space by Forbes, Entrepreneur, Advertising Age, and others. He is the coauthor of two books, this one and No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing (Que 2011).

Introduction: Email Marketing Is (Not) Dead   1
Email Is Dead?    3
94%   3
2.9 Billion   5
Email versus Email Marketing   7
The ROI of Email Marketing   8
What to Expect from This Book   9
Endnotes   11
Part I: THE SECRET TO EMAIL MARKETING: LIST GROWTH
Chapter 1: Why List Growth Matters   13
List Churn and List Fatigue   14
30%   15
A Few Words about Effective Tactics   17
Endnotes   19
Chapter 2: How to Grow Your List   21
Making the Opt-In Process Obvious and Easy   23
Asking Website Visitors to Subscribe   26
Using Humor and Creativity to Increase Opt-Ins   29
Using Technology: QR Codes and Smartphone Apps to Grow Your List   31
Use Social Media   34
Providing Incentive (WIIFM--What’s In It For Me?)    37
Growing Your Email List Offline   40
Endnotes   43
Chapter 3: Let’s Get Technical   45
To Pre-check or Not to Pre-check   46
Explain the Email List Sign-Up Process   48
Send a Welcome Email   50
Remember, Make a Good First Impression   54
Endnotes   55
Part II: THE ANATOMY OF AN EMAIL
Chapter 4: Examining an Email’s Body Parts   57
The Subject Line and From Address   58
The Preheader   59
The Header   60
Table of Contents   60
Main Call to Action   61
Secondary Calls to Action   62
Sharing Your Email   63
The Footer   64
Chapter 5: The First Impression   67
From Name and Subject Line   68
Preheader   72
Header   75
You Don’t Need a Second Chance Do You?    78
Endnote   79
Chapter 6: The Meat and Potatoes   81
Table of Contents   82
Zappos’s Digest TOC Email   82
MarketingProfs’s Approach to Email Table of Contents   83
Main Calls to Action   86
Secondary and Tertiary Calls to Action   90
Buttons vs. Links vs. Images   91
Endnote   96
Chapter 7: The Finishing Touches   97
Social Sharing and Social Connecting   98
Footer   100
Providing Unsubscribe Options   102
Endnote   106
Part III: BREAKING THE RULES
Chapter 8: Are Best Practices Really “Best”?    107
Best Practices Are Practices That Are Best for You   108
Test and Test Often   109
What to Expect   110
Endnotes   111
Chapter 9: My Word! You Must Read This Now!    113
Email Subject Line Words to Avoid   114
King Arthur Flour: Achieving Higher Sales Using All Caps and FREE   118
Tumbleweed: More Opens and Click-Throughs Using All Caps and Free   121
The Proper Length of a Subject Line   123
Measuring Success   125
Evidence in Favor of Long Subject Lines   126
The Most Incredible Chapter Ever   129
Endnotes   130
Chapter 10: The Perfect-Looking Email   133
It’s Okay to Send Mostly Text Emails   134
Some Subscribers Prefer Simple Text Emails   137
Writing Letters Versus Pamphlets   139
Text Emails Have a Clean Look   140
Text Works for B2C Marketers, Too!    141
One Big Image Can Work   143
King Arthur Flour’s Image-Heavy Emails   146
Making Mostly Image Emails More Readable   147
What If the Unsubscribe Link Is at the Top of the Email?    152
The Most Headache-inducing, Eye-searing Graphic Possible   157
Groupon’s Creative Unsubscribe Solution   158
Test the Rules; Don’t Just Break Them Outright   159
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Subscriber   160
Ugly Emails That Consistently Perform Well   160
A Split Test of Ugly Versus Pretty   164
Making Assumptions and Challenging Them   167
Endnotes   168
Chapter 11: The Best Ways to Grow Your List   171
Spiders, Scorpions, Snakes...and Popups   172
Installing a Lightbox to Increase Opt-Ins   174
Using Lightboxes on Blogs   175
Adding Lightboxes on a B2C Site   177
Park City Mountain Resort Tests a Popup on Its Winter 2010 Website   179
Choosing an Opt-In: Single or Double   180
Making the Case for Double Opt-In   182
Making the Case for Single Opt-In   183
Village Voice Media Moves from Double to Single Opt-In: Sees Significant List Growth   185
Sending Emails Without Permission   186
Sending an “Opt-Out” Email   189
Using an eAppend   191
Buying an Email List   193
Coming Full Circle   198
Endnotes   199
Part IV: BATMAN (EMAIL MARKETING) AND ROBIN (SOCIAL MEDIA)
Chapter 12: How Email and Social Media Go Together   203
Batman and Robin   204
Email: The Digital Glue of Social Media   205
Social Connecting vs. Social Sharing vs. Social Promoting   208
Social Connecting   208
Social Sharing   210
Social Promoting   212
Endnotes   213
Chapter 13: The Power of Pairs   215
Social Connecting   216
Using Email Marketing to Grow Your Social Following   216
Using Email Marketing to Grow Facebook Likes and Revenue   218
Social Sharing   222
Show Me the Money: How One Online Retailer Netted $250,000 Using SWYN   227
Social Promoting   229
Using Social Media to Grow Your Email List and Make Money   231
A Truly Integrated Email Marketing and Social Media Campaign   233
Two Is Better Than One   235
Endnotes   235
Part V: THE FUTURE OF EMAIL MARKETING
Chapter 14: What’s Next?    237
The Current State of Email Marketing   238
Email Marketing Predictions   239
Chapter 15: Go Forth and Conquer   247
What You Know   248
What Now?    249
Four Steps to Email Marketing Success   250
1. Grow Your List   250
2. Plan Your Content   250
3. Determine Success Metrics   251
4. Send, Test, Analyze, Adjust, Repeat   251
And Now, It’s Your Turn   252
Endnotes   252
Appendix A: Your Prize   253
Index   255