Let’s Talk About Email: Rachel Chinapen

Today we talk about email with Rachel Chinapen, Director of Marketing at data management platform RingLead. Rachel is a pleasure to interview: an avid fan of email marketing, she shares her insight on producing creative, high-performing campaigns. Plus, she tells us what her biggest email pet peeves are and what are the brand emails she always opens.

The best email you received today:

It was from Starbucks. Subject line: “Summer’s here–so are we.”

I’ve found all of their marketing during the pandemic to be incredibly thoughtful and to the point. They strike the delicate balance of promoting their stores and loyalty program, while also educating their customers on how they’re prioritizing the health and safety of employees and the community. 

The last email you sent:

A recap email to a new partner I’m working with. It was one of those emails that I felt I was rambling, but there was so much ground to cover! 

The most intriguing subject line you’ve ever seen:

I received a marketing email recently with the subject line: “Oops, we goofed” and I had to open it. I work closely with our marketing automation system at RingLead, so I’m no stranger to the many way things can go wrong. I wanted to see – what happened? how did they handle it?

Turns out, I didn’t receive the initial email they were apologizing for – but the “apology” email was worth the read and did get me to click through.

Your biggest email pet peeve:

Using “Re: xyz” and other misleading subject lines to boost open rates. 

The word or phrase you most use in your emails:

“Data” – I don’t think I send an email without that word in it! 

If you could email any famous person, who would it be – and why?

Brené Brown. I’ve been fascinated by her work since watching her TED Talk – The Power of Vulnerability. 

The newsletter you look forward to the most:

I really enjoy Wistia’s monthly content roundup. They’re doing some fantastic things with content right now, and I enjoy the simplicity of their layouts and copy. They allow the content to shine and make you want to continue exploring their site. 

How often do you check your email?

All day long, almost everyday. Saturday I can usually pull myself away. 

An email you wish you’d never sent:

When I first got started in email marketing, I sent quite a few cringe-worthy, generic emails. The more educated I became on all the ways you can hyper-personalize emails using segments and dynamic content, the more I cringe looking back on those earlier emails! 

An email you’d be happy to get:

Truthfully, any email that offers relevant content that I can learn from or be inspired by. That, and any email with an e-gift card included :). 

To inbox zero or to not inbox zero?

Not. I like to leave emails that I may be interested in marked “unread” so that I can revisit them later. 

No. 1 reason why you unsubscribe:

Marketing/sales emails attempting to sell me services RingLead offers. It demonstrates a complete lack of research and is a clear indicator of the outdated batch and blast technique. 

Biggest no-no in an email campaign:

Fake personalization. You can usually tell pretty quickly whether or not an email comes from a marketing team or an individual sales rep who did a little bit of research beforehand. 

The best way to grow your email list:

Creating and sending relevant content.

Think about the only reason you ever subscribe to a brand’s email – they’re creating something worth seeing, something you don’t want to miss. Even if you don’t read it right away, you want it in your inbox to revisit later.

To do this, of course, you need to have a deep understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICPs) – the more you understand who you should be targeting with your email campaigns, the more effectively you can create content that resonates and converts. 

One thing that should change about email:

As much as we know about the role data plays in marketing (and everything else), I’m still finding many brands using dirty data or stale lists to drive campaigns. All too often my inbox is flooded with emails selling me something I own, or something I would never be in the market for.

Other times I’m receiving duplicate emails or emails addressed to a colleague in another department. These are all simple issues that could be fixed by taking the time to clean, standardize, and enhance your list before sending. 

A brand email you always open:

Wistia, Adobe, Drift… I enjoy all of the creativity around content creation these brands are displaying right now. 

What do you most love about email?

There’s no limit to what you can do with email and how creative and personal you can get.

We’re seeing a lot of hyper-personalization out of B2C marketers, and I think we’ll start seeing more of that out of the B2B community. Brands are starting to realize the true power of fueling their segments with clean, complete, and accurate data.

The more we know about the people we’re emailing, the more value we’re empowered to create. 

Is your data in good shape?

As Rachel was saying, making sure your data is accurate and well-segmented is vital to your business. Whether you send transactional or marketing emails (or both), you need valid email addresses to communicate with your customers.

RingLead is a comprehensive data management platform that has been serving large enterprises, Fortune 500 companies, and small businesses for over a decade. It consolidates all core data operations in a single, cloud-based platform. RingLead makes it easier for you to use systems such as Salesforce, Marketo, Pardot, and Eloqua by providing services such as:

• lead generation
• routing,
• deduplication,
• segmentation,
• data protection, discovery, and enrichment.

What’s more, you can use RingLead and ZeroBounce together and rest assured your email data stays fresh and your business and marketing communication is effective.

Try it today