1341: 3 Keys to Maximizing Your Email Channel in B2B w/ Melissa Sargeant

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:08.669 Welcome back to be to be growth. I'm looking lyles with sweet fish media. 2 00:00:08.669 --> 00:00:12.789 I'm joined today by Melissa Sargeant. She is the CMO over at Litmus. 3 00:00:13.029 --> 00:00:15.669 Melissa, welcome to the show. How are you today? Doing? 4 00:00:15.830 --> 00:00:19.469 Fantastic. Thank you so much for having me Logan. Absolutely, Melissa. 5 00:00:19.949 --> 00:00:24.980 Before we get into email and it's effects on customer experience, not just marketing, 6 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:29.019 and some things that you guys have seen by analyzing a lot of email 7 00:00:29.660 --> 00:00:32.460 and some good how to's for folks out there today, we have to ask 8 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:35.700 a very important question that we ask all our team members here at sweetfish. 9 00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:39.530 Melissa, are you team coke or team Pepsi? Team Coke. Oh, 10 00:00:39.689 --> 00:00:43.090 I love that. I love that. I am all in on team coke. 11 00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:48.289 Ryan, our director of talent, opson and people, is consistently battling 12 00:00:48.289 --> 00:00:52.320 James with the Pepsi side of it. James Goes Cherry Cokes zero and I 13 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:56.119 am not about that. I am all about the regular, the regular coke. 14 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:59.600 So I love that peek into your world a little bit. Melissa, 15 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:02.960 tell us a little bit as we dive into this topic, about email. 16 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:07.109 I mentioned it at the start when you and I were talking offline before you 17 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.590 mentioned this thing that I thought was really interesting is that you know, email 18 00:01:10.709 --> 00:01:15.269 is not just about marketing, it is about the entire customer experience. Why 19 00:01:15.310 --> 00:01:21.260 do you think that's an important place to start the conversation around anything email today? 20 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:26.500 So you know, emails really much more than just a one way communication. 21 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:32.620 Companies are using it today as pider part of their entire customer experienced journey. 22 00:01:33.170 --> 00:01:34.890 Because, when you think about it, your subscribers, whether they're your 23 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:41.849 customers or your partners or your perspective customers, have invited you into their inbox 24 00:01:42.170 --> 00:01:47.400 and they're wanting you to give them relevant information. So it's much more than 25 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:51.439 just a single touch point, which I think people tend to think of email 26 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:55.000 is we have a message we need to get out, let's send it to 27 00:01:55.599 --> 00:01:59.959 this list of folks and get that message out, whether it's really much part 28 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.310 of a larger journey that you have with your subscribers. I love that, 29 00:02:04.430 --> 00:02:07.909 Molissa. What are some of the things that you see? Are Characteristics of 30 00:02:07.189 --> 00:02:13.150 organizations that are taking that approach where they've shifted their mindset from email is a 31 00:02:13.270 --> 00:02:17.819 one way communication tool and seeing it more as not only more broadly across the 32 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:23.860 customer experience spectrum, but an engagement factor. What are the some of the 33 00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:28.020 things that they're doing differently with that in mind? A few things that they're 34 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:31.009 doing differently. As one, they're making sure that that experience is really, 35 00:02:31.090 --> 00:02:36.930 really exceptional. So for them that means being able to get emails out the 36 00:02:37.009 --> 00:02:38.689 door quickly. A lot of times when you come to a company they think 37 00:02:38.729 --> 00:02:43.050 sort of we need to get these emails out and the email team comes back 38 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:45.479 to them and says, you know, that's going to take us two weeks. 39 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:49.000 Well, that's not a really responsive way to be able to engage with 40 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:53.680 your subscribe drivers. So they're doing a lot of things around automating workflows, 41 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:59.349 streamlining the approvals so that you can build and test. But most importantly out 42 00:02:59.389 --> 00:03:04.310 of all of this is when that email is sent, you want to make 43 00:03:04.389 --> 00:03:07.750 sure that it's received and that they can view it, and however they're viewing 44 00:03:07.789 --> 00:03:13.139 it on whatever device they're on, if they're using dark mode, because you 45 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:16.539 want it's a key part of that brand experiences how they actually received that, 46 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:21.860 that message, and so you want to make sure that, regardless if it's 47 00:03:21.860 --> 00:03:25.659 a transactional email, if it's part of a larger nurture sequence, you must, 48 00:03:25.699 --> 00:03:30.169 must, must, test every single email every time and be able to 49 00:03:30.289 --> 00:03:39.009 have understand the preferences of your audience across ninety different clients, devices operating systems, 50 00:03:39.449 --> 00:03:45.159 that it's really their preferences that you're delivering that message to you. With 51 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:49.400 what you guys do, Melissa, I imagine that there's a lot of testing 52 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:53.439 that you do internally that you see your customers are doing. Let's dig into 53 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:57.590 that a little bit. What are some of the surprising areas where you or 54 00:03:57.710 --> 00:04:01.069 some of your customers have been doing some testing and and realized, Oh wow, 55 00:04:01.270 --> 00:04:06.590 I even realize that this aspect was affecting the customer experience when they open 56 00:04:06.990 --> 00:04:12.139 or read the email? You mentioned dark mode and and that kind of rings 57 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:15.699 true with me because I'm been one of those that is we talked team coke, 58 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:17.980 team Pepsi. I'm team dark mode all the way. My wife is 59 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:20.459 very much not. She's like why is that, and I pick up her 60 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:26.209 phone I'm like everything so bright. What are some maybe the surprising things? 61 00:04:26.250 --> 00:04:30.089 Let's dig into maybe dark mode that maybe some marketers are email teams haven't been 62 00:04:30.209 --> 00:04:34.250 thinking about that. You guys have an uncovered in testing where they maybe need 63 00:04:34.410 --> 00:04:38.959 to to make some changes that they haven't thought about yet, for sure. 64 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:44.560 So dark mode is definitely taking over the MBOX and making sure that your emails 65 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.600 look great in that environment is more important than ever and it's a huge challenge 66 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:55.149 for marketers today because you really have to respect your viewers preferences when it comes 67 00:04:55.189 --> 00:05:00.709 to dark mode. But just because the email clients that they're reading their emails 68 00:05:00.990 --> 00:05:05.230 on our have the the Ui and the changes for the dark mode Scheam doesn't 69 00:05:05.310 --> 00:05:10.660 mean the way they handle your emails when they arrive there are going to render 70 00:05:11.019 --> 00:05:16.220 correctly. I mean, email rendering is incredibly complex. So it might look 71 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:20.060 good and one area when you're testing in one part, but by the time 72 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:25.889 it could be completely broken by the time it gets to that person's inbox. 73 00:05:26.290 --> 00:05:29.290 So we have a few tips that, you know, we share with folks 74 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:32.610 in terms of dark mode. You want to make sure you optimize both like 75 00:05:32.730 --> 00:05:36.839 your logos and your images when it comes to dark mode, and we have 76 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:42.319 some tips and tricks that people can go to. You are blog with specific 77 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:46.439 things, lines of code that they can actually leverage for that. You want 78 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:49.949 to make sure that you enable dark mode and your email client user agents to 79 00:05:50.310 --> 00:05:55.790 ensure that it's fully enabled. And then, you know, as I'll probably 80 00:05:55.829 --> 00:06:00.149 say a bunch of times, you know abt always be testing every time, 81 00:06:00.430 --> 00:06:04.339 every email, every client, every device, every mode, no exceptions of 82 00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:08.300 that. Those are some good tips and I, like some of the resources, 83 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:11.100 will have to link to some of those good ones in the show notes 84 00:06:11.139 --> 00:06:14.180 about those lines of code. You know, as you think about it, 85 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:18.250 the thing that's coming to mind for me, Molessa, is there's increasing complexity 86 00:06:18.689 --> 00:06:24.449 different devices, different email clients, lightmode, dark mode. There's just so 87 00:06:24.490 --> 00:06:30.370 many variables and trying to optimize everything within your emails for all of those can 88 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:33.560 be exhausting and very tough to do well. So do you find that you 89 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:39.639 guys are advising your clients to go simpler and simpler, therefore reducing a lot 90 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:43.319 of those variables and making it easier to you know, you might not be 91 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:46.439 batting a thousand, but at least you can have a pretty good percentage that 92 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:49.990 you know, sixty percent plus we're going to display emails really, really well. 93 00:06:50.509 --> 00:06:54.509 You know at least this percentage of the time. Is that a common 94 00:06:54.589 --> 00:07:00.829 recommendation you guys are making or no? It really depends on the customers audience. 95 00:07:00.149 --> 00:07:04.740 So if, if your audience is a very beatas see, if they 96 00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:09.980 have a BDC emotion where they're selling direct to consumer and you're selling shoes, 97 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:14.180 you know you're going to have to have images of those shoes on that email. 98 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:15.850 But for some of you know, other clients and more bet to be 99 00:07:15.970 --> 00:07:21.810 interactions, a plain text email will be sufficient and in some case as actually 100 00:07:23.050 --> 00:07:27.410 preferred and how they receive it. The challenges the regardless of where you are 101 00:07:27.529 --> 00:07:30.040 and that spectrum, or if you're even doing other things with gifts and and, 102 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:34.879 you know, more fancy stuff that are's visually engaging, you still have 103 00:07:35.079 --> 00:07:40.920 all the same problems are and challenges are there for you that you have to 104 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:44.470 address. So one is, regardless if it's a plain text email, and 105 00:07:44.589 --> 00:07:47.709 that seems really simple, you still have to test it to make sure it's 106 00:07:47.750 --> 00:07:53.709 going to be received properly, because client updates happen like every two days. 107 00:07:54.069 --> 00:07:58.699 So keeping up with that stuff and itself is, you know, somebody's, 108 00:07:58.779 --> 00:08:03.100 you know, full time job. So you really can't take anything for granted. 109 00:08:03.139 --> 00:08:07.860 And regardless if it's plain text or something that's a bit more sophisticated in 110 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:13.769 html, you're still going to there's still a lot of challenges organizations have with 111 00:08:15.050 --> 00:08:18.009 the amount of time it takes to create emails. We see companies that are 112 00:08:18.089 --> 00:08:26.930 upwards of six hours or more just to spend on getting approvals for their emails, 113 00:08:26.050 --> 00:08:30.920 and the reason is that marketers can use up to twelve different tools to 114 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:33.399 create a single email. So they're bouncing in and out of tools and you 115 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:37.559 think you're building those emails, you're designing them, and then, depending on 116 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:41.509 your organization and how many stakeholders you might have, a bunch of folks that 117 00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:46.629 you've got to send it out to you to get approval on the the content 118 00:08:46.909 --> 00:08:50.950 and the imagery. So you might generate a pdf and start sending a bunch 119 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:54.269 of emails and then you get to the whole testing side of it across all 120 00:08:54.350 --> 00:09:00.700 of these ninety different variables and combinations. So that's why it takes them so 121 00:09:01.179 --> 00:09:03.059 long. So what we advise them to do is what you said, is 122 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:09.500 simplifying that and that centralizing it and reducing that number so that you're working, 123 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:13.370 you're both building and testing in the same place, that you can have people 124 00:09:13.409 --> 00:09:18.610 come and comment on your proofs and one place and get your post send insights 125 00:09:18.730 --> 00:09:22.129 and one place again, so that you're reducing that time that you're bouncing in 126 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:26.919 and out of all those different tools. That is crazy, Melissa, six 127 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:31.799 hours just to get an approval on an email, yet not even thinking about 128 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.639 the work that goes into crafting that, designing where it fits in different sequences, 129 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:39.070 all of that sort of stuff. So it sounds like one of your 130 00:09:39.149 --> 00:09:45.389 tips for getting emails out the door quickly is to consolidate your tools so that 131 00:09:45.509 --> 00:09:48.909 you don't have as many and there aren't as many, you know, technical 132 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:52.620 steps and tools to switch between during that approval process. What are some of 133 00:09:52.659 --> 00:09:56.580 the other things that some of you, were most successful clients are doing to 134 00:09:56.779 --> 00:10:05.340 streamline that process from ideation creation to approval? Yeah, it's really centralizing the 135 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:09.450 workflows so that there's one central so that you want to be if you can 136 00:10:09.490 --> 00:10:13.889 build and test in parallel. We see customers that will shave off three hours 137 00:10:13.970 --> 00:10:18.169 per email in terms of that whole process, as well as having the testing 138 00:10:18.210 --> 00:10:24.240 all in one place. Some of the other areas we see people doing things 139 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:28.600 to really improve their emails. That just the one they're sending that day, 140 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:31.399 but the one that they're sending the next day. Is We will say to 141 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:35.230 clients all the time it doesn't end with send. By the time you hit 142 00:10:35.309 --> 00:10:41.190 that send on that email, you want to be able to understand what happened 143 00:10:41.309 --> 00:10:45.710 with it afterwards. And this goes like way beyond the basics of just opens 144 00:10:45.789 --> 00:10:50.220 and clicks throughs. You know that's not particularly meaningful when you're trying to inform 145 00:10:50.259 --> 00:10:54.139 the entire marketing mix, but what did that person do with that email? 146 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:58.659 How long did they spend reading it on? What device did they view it 147 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:01.860 on? Where were they located? What did they do with it afterwards? 148 00:11:03.179 --> 00:11:07.490 Those are really powerful insights that you can take and apply back into your other 149 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:11.649 areas of your marketing mix. And you know, whether it's your social your 150 00:11:11.690 --> 00:11:16.169 paid media, if a certain piece of content or call to action is working 151 00:11:16.210 --> 00:11:20.039 well on email, why wouldn't that also work as well in your and your 152 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.759 PPC C programs? It will, and so that you can get even more 153 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:28.039 roi from your email program and view at less is just this thing that we 154 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:33.590 used to communicate people with and more of this key part of your entire marketing. 155 00:11:33.669 --> 00:11:37.190 Next that if you put email first, you could help optimize all of 156 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:39.429 your other channels. I love that you went there, Melissa, because I 157 00:11:39.629 --> 00:11:43.110 was actually going to prompt you there, because we've been talking about so many 158 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:48.100 challenges with different email clients and light moode versus dark mode and getting emails out 159 00:11:48.100 --> 00:11:52.620 the door and too many pieces of tech. I'm glad that we kind of 160 00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:54.860 made the the turn there and you pointed out something that I don't think a 161 00:11:54.899 --> 00:11:58.220 lot of teams are doing. But this could be low hanging fruit for them 162 00:11:58.299 --> 00:12:01.850 to get more juice for the squeeze out of their email channel. And it 163 00:12:01.889 --> 00:12:05.889 kind of circles back to what you talked about at the beginning, seeing email 164 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:11.450 as an engagement channel, a two way channel, and when you look at 165 00:12:11.730 --> 00:12:16.000 what's performing well, what content held people's attention, what prompted action? Hey, 166 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:20.440 that copy could be used on this landing page, that creative could help 167 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:24.799 in this PPC campaign. This really resonated the way that we laid this out 168 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:31.149 and looking for those wins and applying them to different channels. I really like 169 00:12:31.350 --> 00:12:35.870 that advice, Melissa. If there are marketing teams listening to this and, 170 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:39.429 let's say, you know, they've kind of resonated with everything that you said. 171 00:12:39.509 --> 00:12:41.350 is taken us a while to get email at the door. We're having 172 00:12:41.429 --> 00:12:46.980 some challenges with optimizing for ferent channels. Is there one or two pieces of 173 00:12:48.019 --> 00:12:50.460 advice that you guys are regularly giving customers that, hey, if you if 174 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:54.700 you do nothing else, start with these one or two pieces of low hanging 175 00:12:54.740 --> 00:13:00.210 fruit to get more out of your email channel? Yeah, you definitely want 176 00:13:00.210 --> 00:13:03.409 to make sure that, you know, there's a few things that we tell 177 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:07.529 them. We want to make sure that every email has the appropriate tone and 178 00:13:07.649 --> 00:13:09.809 content. Now more than ever, that's really really important. I think we've 179 00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:15.600 done there's been a lot of talk about authenticity and empathy and that viewing these 180 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:20.360 communications more is human to human and making sure you strike that right tone every 181 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:24.440 single time. You want to make sure that that email is perfect every time 182 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.750 it goes out the door. We've all received the oops we made a mistake 183 00:13:28.990 --> 00:13:33.470 email, but you know, now more than ever, it's really important from 184 00:13:33.509 --> 00:13:39.149 a brand experience and customer experience perspective to make sure every single email is perfect 185 00:13:39.629 --> 00:13:43.860 because you know, we see customers. They see something like five thousand ads 186 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:48.179 per day email. We've definitely seen an up to uptick in the number of 187 00:13:48.700 --> 00:13:52.700 emails that are going out the door, so that means more things are hitting 188 00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:56.649 their inbox. How do you break through all of that noise. You want 189 00:13:56.649 --> 00:14:01.210 to make sure everything's really on point renders perfectly so that experience. So your 190 00:14:01.490 --> 00:14:05.210 email is the email that ends up getting read and you want to be able 191 00:14:05.330 --> 00:14:09.200 to, you know, do this quickly. If you don't have the agility 192 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:15.879 to engage with that audience and use it as a true engagement tool with your 193 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:20.159 audience, that's really going to hold you back for maximizing the value get from 194 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:22.759 your total email program again, I think people tend to think of it as 195 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.230 sort of we have a message that we need to get out and so it's 196 00:14:26.230 --> 00:14:31.470 an and inside out view, which is you should really view it as an 197 00:14:31.590 --> 00:14:35.029 outside in view to drive that engagement with your subscribers. All of them. 198 00:14:35.269 --> 00:14:39.500 I wrote down from what you just said, Melissa, really three tis of 199 00:14:39.659 --> 00:14:43.860 emails. We've got tone typos, looking at just how well you can make 200 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:48.580 sure that you eliminate errors, and then time getting it getting out the door 201 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:52.649 quickly, but also taking the time to look at those engagement metrics, now 202 00:14:52.809 --> 00:14:58.129 just opens and Click throughs, but digging a little bit deeper and seeing what 203 00:14:58.250 --> 00:15:01.090 those insights can give to you as a marketing team. This has been a 204 00:15:01.210 --> 00:15:05.809 great conversation. Melissa. Will have to link to some follow up resources in 205 00:15:05.929 --> 00:15:09.000 the show notes that you mentioned. Aside from that, what would be the 206 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:13.279 best way for anyone listening to this to either stay connected with you or the 207 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:16.759 team over at lit miss after listening to today's episode? For me, you 208 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:20.629 can reach me on Linkedin and twitter. My handle is MH sergeant, SA, 209 00:15:20.669 --> 00:15:24.750 rge a and t, and then let miss, of course, let 210 00:15:24.830 --> 00:15:28.710 Misscom. A lot of people go to our blog. There's lots of great 211 00:15:28.710 --> 00:15:33.389 insights in and how to. It's really architected for email and marketing practitioners. 212 00:15:33.470 --> 00:15:35.940 So those things that you can actually we do that. We give you lines 213 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:39.860 of code that you could use. So if, if that's your if that's 214 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:41.259 your area of expert piece, you know, feel free to go there and 215 00:15:41.299 --> 00:15:46.899 leverage the resources. Awesome, Melissa. Thank you again for joining the show 216 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:50.009 today and thanks for being on team coke. For All those Pepsi drinkers out 217 00:15:50.009 --> 00:15:54.409 there. Actually I drink the occasional pepsi, but if I'm if I'm giving 218 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:56.370 the choice, it's always coke. Thank you so much for being on the 219 00:15:56.409 --> 00:16:00.289 show again today, Melissa. I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Logan, 220 00:16:00.330 --> 00:16:04.879 and have a great day. Are you on Lincoln, that's a stupid 221 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:07.919 question. Of course you're on linked it. Here's so we fish. We've 222 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:12.480 gone all in on the platform. Multiple people from our team are creating content 223 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:17.240 there. Sometimes it's a funny gift for me, other times it's a micro 224 00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:21.389 video or a slide deck, and sometimes it's just a regular old status update 225 00:16:21.509 --> 00:16:26.669 that shares their unique point of view on BB marketing leadership or their job function. 226 00:16:26.190 --> 00:16:30.429 We're posting this content through their personal profile, not our company page, 227 00:16:30.629 --> 00:16:34.620 and it would warm my heart and soul if you connected with each of our 228 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:38.779 evangelists. will be adding more down the road, but for now you should 229 00:16:38.820 --> 00:16:44.259 connect with bill read, our COO, Kelsey Montgomery, our creative director, 230 00:16:44.259 --> 00:16:48.730 Dan Sanchez, our director of audience growth, Logan Lyles, are Director of 231 00:16:48.769 --> 00:16:52.370 partnerships, and me, James Carberry. We are having a whole lot of 232 00:16:52.450 --> 00:16:55.889 fun on Linkedin pretty much every single day and we'd love for you to be 233 00:16:55.929 --> 00:16:56.330 a part of it.