Bronto Blog

Lessons Learned from Bronto’s Marketing Team
Paid Search
Part 1 in a Series

Just as many of you are in the process of finalizing your marketing plan for 2008, so is Bronto. An important element to our planning is reviewing the metrics from the current year, and analyzing what marketing elements have been successful, as well as those that haven’t. It’s a good exercise. It helps you determine where to put your money, and what channels to grow in the following year. One channel that appeared to be in a need of optimization was our paid search campaign. Our goal was simple, reduce spend and increase qualified conversions. Here are some of our metrics and how we achieved them:

• Increased paid search conversion from 2% to 15% - We learned quickly that the key to increasing our paid search conversions was engaging the prospective customer throughout the conversion path, while gaining valuable insight about our respondent. Haven’t heard of conversion pathing? Check out: http://blog.nomorelandingpages.com. In addition, we created complimentary touches that followed up with the prospect, often times before they were even engaged in the sales process, producing a better qualification rate.
• Reduced paid search lead cost by 62%. By analyzing our paid search metrics, we were able to determine which keywords had a high cost, but a low qualification rate. By removing these keywords and focusing on the keywords that were relevant to our business offerings, we reduced our spend while maintaining the same (if not more) amount of leads that qualified at a higher rate.

So, you’re probably asking, “What does this have to do with email marketing?” More than you think. Creating a fluid campaign strategy positively impacts your bottom line. Take a look at all of your marketing channels and determine if there are places to integrate your email marketing and keep your audience engaged.

Sally Lowery
Online Marketing Manager at Bronto

As Brontos, we think about email marketing every single day (even on the weekends and evenings). However, we also are consumers just like everyone else in the world. Most of us here at Bronto sign up for various newsletters and promotional emails for both personal and professional reasons. Yesterday, Adam (Product Manager), Kimberly (Account Manager) and I rifled through a few of our favorites. What was interesting is that not one single email had all of the elements that we loved; however, each mentioned below had something worthy of the “Best of” tag. Enjoy, learn, and comment with your thoughts.

“Holidized” Logo (history)

The Target logo is easily recognizable. Adding a bit of holly for the holidays never hurts.

Shipping Deadlines

Seems like it’s all about shipping this year (when is it not?). What we like about this “above the fold” portion from a recent Orvis email is that it states the “in time for Christmas” in a clear, friendly message in the header as well as in the first line of the copy. Way to go Orvis!

Gift Guides

Target again wins the “Best of” for providing simple, clean gift suggestions. Too often online retailers err on the side of showing every single item they sell in one email. KISS and Zero-Calorie Emails are the way to go!

Simple Emails That Entice

adidas provides a nice, simple list with quite a bit of variety (something for everyone?). Our favorite part about this email is how it renders - a great image to text balance. Even with images off, the entire list is clear and readable!

More “Best of…” in 2008, stay tuned.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

Update: Read the Blooms Today Case Study

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If you’re an advanced marketer, you’re not only looking forward to the holiday season, better known as the “feast,” you’re already planning on how to generate sales for the “famine” season of Q1 2008.If your business is seasonal, you have to work harder for off-season sales. Bronto customer Blooms Today was featured recently in Marketing Profs, for their ability to increase off-season sales.Every business has “famine,” it’s typically a time that a company recognizes as off-peak, which they use to regroup and prepare for their “feast.” However, for those businesses looking to grow by leaps and bounds, a “famine” is an opportune chance to work for unplanned sales.

For Blooms Today, they started by focusing on non-traditional holidays. They feast on traditional holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, but by offering specials on Teacher’s Day and Grandparent’s Day, they can encourage sales outside of their anticipated sales cycles. Think about how you can emphasize the need for your product or service outside of the normal pattern of sales. This goes hand in hand with promoting your strengths. I may not be interested in buying a bathing suit in February, but if you combine strong messaging; promoting its high quality fabric and how the style and color is “in” for summer 2008, along with a super saver deal for purchasing early, you’ll be looking at some hot sales in January for a very summery item.

Another tactic that made Blooms Today so successful, is changing the way they asked customers to register for their email list. Instead of asking simply to be added to the list, ask if they would like to sign up for special discounts, coupons, or sales. Make them feel that this is an invitation to exclusive deals, and you are bound to increase your email list. Once you have increased your list, makes sure you email regularly and also resend to those who did not open your email.

To confirm that these tactics work, Blooms Today:

• Increased their click through rates 35-40% on average
• Increased their email list 40% in just over a year
• Using remailing, have increased their open rates 30%
• And above all have substantially increased their ROI

Think about how you too can plan for a dreary January while feasting on hot sales.

Caroline Smith
Marketing Program Manager at Bronto

We will be debuting a new screening of BrontoFire in early 2008, as we’ll be working to improve the technical aspects to match the caliber of our fierce debate. Look forward to many new topics pivoting around email marketing best practices. In the mean time we’ve provided our old school BrontoFire format:

Early Monday morning, with coffee flowing in our veins, DJ and I tackled the good, the bad and the truly ugly of online retail From Names. Here is a sampling from our heated discussion:

From:                                Date:
 HSN Holidays                         Oct. 17th
 HSN Weekly                           Oct. 25th
HSN                                  Nov. 26th
HSN Specials                         Dec. 7th 
 HSN Home Solutions                   Dec. 8th

DJ: First, I would not immediately recognize HSN in my inbox - I know the brand as Home Shopping Network. I also think they are watering down the power of their From Name with all these variations.

Kimberly: Actually I do recognize the brand - anyone who has shopped online or on TV refers to the company as HSN. However, I completely agree that they are depleting the strength of HSN by constantly changing their From Name. Keep it simple and strong by using only HSN.

From:                                      Date:
 BananaRepublic.com                         Sept. 4th & Dec. 2nd
 Apparel Feedback                           Sept. 21st

DJ: Who is Apparel Feedback? I was hesitant to open the message - it caught my attention in an unappealing way. In the end the email marketer in me had to open the message and uncovered that it was a Banana Republic email.

Kimberly: Why are they messing around with their From Name? Do they not believe in their own brand name? They quickly returned to using BananaRepublic.com I wonder how this affected their metrics?

From:                                 Date:
 Newport-News.com                      Dec. 7th, 8th, 9th

DJ: It works for me if this is their name brand, however when I go to their home page I see….

Kimberly: I know they would not print this From Name on the cover of their catalog. Thus they should keep it consistent across all channels.

From:                                    Date:
 Big Lots Stores Inc.                     Nov. 26th & Dec. 3rd

DJ: Why not keep it Big Lots; this is what their stores are called, not Big Lots Stores Incorporated.

Kimberly: Why are they so formal? This is not an internal corporate communication, the message highlights their weekly specials.

From:                                      Date:
 adidas Online Store                        Nov. 20th, Dec. 4th & Dec. 9th

DJ: They have such a recognizable name like Coca-Cola, Ford, or Apple….why differentiate the brand with ‘Online Store’? I only care about adidas.

Kimberly: I wonder if because they internally separate this channel they don’t even think twice to do it outside their corporate headquarters. I bet their consumers only look for the name adidas.

From:                                                 Date:
 eHarmony - You could Find Your Soul Mate Today.       Dec. 7th
 eHarmony - Sign Up & Start Dating today               Dec. 10th

DJ: These From Names are just terrible, as they are actually sentences. They mirror SPAM From Names like ‘AnexcitingofferfromOnlineStudentFinancialAid’.

Kimberly: The funny thing is eHarmony is currently sending me SPAM. I have never subscribed nor even visited their site. I am a happily married mother who is by no means looking to start dating today. They are lazy as well, by not keeping the formatting consistent with capital and lower case letters. What a true mess.

Continue to stay tuned for the next live version of BrontoFire.

DJ Waldow and Kimberly Snyder
Account Managers at Bronto

As a Bronto Account Manager, I spend much of my day speaking with clients - coaching them on ways to become better marketers.

So, it just comes with the territory that I tend to brag on behalf of our clients when good email marketing results in measurable success. Specifically:

• Monthly Client Success Webcast Series
• Occasional client plugs in the blog
• Customer Email Showcase: Trek and Chiasso

Within the marketing community at large, opportunities to win awards for email marketing best practices pop up on occasion. Two such possibilities currently exist. I’d encourage you to submit your best stuff…TODAY.

Email Experience Council - Deadline is 17 Dec 07: EXTENDED - (More details)

…recognizes an individual or company that has created a campaign that demonstrates the full power of email marketing.

Marketing Sherpa - Deadline is 11 Jan 07 - (More details, including nomination form)

This year’s categories include best newsletter…promotional blast…single welcome letter…postcard-style campaign…plus, most dramatic test your learned from.

Submit away (and email us when you get published!).

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto