10:45 a.m - 12:15 p.m.

E-mail Marketing: Being Persuasive, Not Offensive

Introduction: In spite of all the bad press a few years ago, e-mail remains one of the tried-and-true methods of effectively driving retail web sales. But e-mail marketing has evolved over the years, influenced by consumer outrage over spam and increasing resistance to the ever-expanding stream of legitimate, business-oriented e-mail that also fills up consumer mailboxes. For e-mail campaigns to remain effective, retailers must stay up to date on the latest techniques and tactics to skirt this resistance and influence—rather than upset—potential buyers. Today's e-mail marketing efforts focus on engagement and retention—enticing customers to open their e-mail, act on the contents and bypass the unsubscribe button.

Workshop Content: This workshop session will help retailers:

• Personalize their e-mails beyond the salutation line.
• Segment their customer e-mail lists by their web buying behavior, e-mail open rates and purchases (conversation rates) from previous e-mail marketing efforts.
• Gain a deeper understanding of how frequency of e-mailing affects response.
• Learn how to use transactional e-mail messages to cross-sell and upsell.
• Keep e-mail lists current and grow lists without alienating customers.
• Learn which web site offers work best to induce customers to sign up for e-mail.
• Understand what certified e-mail is and how to make it work for you.
• Implement event-triggered e-mail marketing that is more customer friendly.
• Integrate e-mail with web site analytics to improve message targeting.

About the Instructors: Ryan Hofmann, email marketing manager of Overstock.com, has crafted an e-mail marketing program that not only calls shoppers to immediate actions but solidifies the company's relationship with customers by alerting them to upcoming specials; Mike Hilts, president & general manager of YesMail, directs one of the oldest e-mail marketing agencies and brings to the conference his company's experiences with hundreds of retail customers. Vicki Updike, who oversees web initiatives at cataloger Miles Kimball, has extensive experience in using e-mail to acquire and retain customers.