WME Consulting

Steinbeck
in the
Schools
San Jose State University Center for Steinbeck Studies

Jack Levitt, José Vizcaino Jr., Miguel Camblor, Jason Vassallo, Brendan McMahon

November 29, 2018

1
Cover Letter

Dear Mr. Taylor:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this proposal to the Steinbeck Center.
We Make Emails Consulting (WME) is a consulting company that specializes on email
marketing campaigns. We are confident that our project will result in an increase in
website traffic and lesson plan downloads for the Steinbeck in the Schools program.
Our companies knowledge and experience with current online marketing tactics will help
increase the success of your email campaigns. WME Consulting will conduct direct
interviews with teachers, test different email formats, and examine the analytics
acquired. By doing so, we will deliver to you effective email formats that can be used for
current campaign efforts and ones in the future.

We would love the opportunity to move forward on the campaign, help enhance
the Steinbeck in Schools program, and continue to develop a lasting relationship with
the Steinbeck Center. We hope that you accept our proposal and allow us to
significantly increase teacher engagement with your program.

Sincerely,

Jack Levitt, Project Director

José Vizcaino Jr., Director of Outreach

Jason Vassallo, Director of Design & Analytics
Miguel Camblor, Director of Informational Analysis
Brendan McMahon, Director of Marketing & Editing

2
Table of Contents

Cover Letter 2

Table of Contents 3

Executive Summary 5

Introduction 6

Problem / Need 8

Project Rationale 10

Deliverables 12

Cost Analysis 13

Delivery Schedule 14

Success Metrics 15

Staffing 16

Final Report and Evaluation 19

Appendices 25
Appendix A: Resumés 26
Appendix B: Information Related to the Beneficiary 31
Appendix C: WME Consulting Logo 32
Appendix D: WME Consulting Letterhead 33
Appendix E: E-Mail Marketing Strategy/Tactics Research 34
Appendix F: Works Cited 35
Appendix G: Deliverable Samples 36
Appendix H: Other Information to Support the Proposal 39
Appendix I: Email Content and Graphic Styles 40
Appendix J: Test Emails 41
Appendix K: Test Email Results 44
Appendix L: Teachers Interview/Market Research Summary 45

3
Executive Summary
Introduction:
Steinbeck in the Schools (SITS) is a program of the Martha Heasley Cox Center at San
José State University dedicated to providing free lesson plans and other resources via
the SITS website to teachers across the country. Steinbeck’s works are great for
students of any age to help develop their literacy and promote social justice.

Problem:
The current state of literacy in the United States is poor compared to previous
generations. Schools nationwide have been searching for ways to improve the English
department’s curriculum and increase literacy. The Steinbeck Center is trying multiple
ways of reaching out to teachers in order to spread awareness of their SITS program.
One of these methods they are currently focused on is a mass email campaign to
18,000 teachers and administrators. Their first email failed to receive any downloads of
lesson plans and saw very little engagement from teachers. The Center needs a better
email strategy before it attempts another mass email campaign.

Solution:
A new email format is required to increase traffic to the SITS website. We will first
interview Bay Area teachers and get a sense of what content an email should have in
order to compel them to visit the site. Using the information we collect, as well as email
marketing techniques, we will develop several test emails and send them out to an
adequate sample group of teachers. We will compare the results through the analytics
collected from a website activity monitoring tool provided by eTrigue, and determine
which emails got the most views, click-throughs, and other analytics. As a result, we will
be able to produce an email format(s) that can be sent out to all 18,000 teachers again
and hopefully see vastly improved results.

Goals:
WME Consulting plans to increase usage by enhancing the email marketing protocol.
Using our knowledge of effective email methods and analytic software, we plan on
increasing the SITS website visits from the email campaigns drastically as well as
overall curriculum awareness. We will also leave the Steinbeck Center with an email
format they can use for future campaigns.

4
Introduction
Literacy Crisis

The United States of America is in a severe literacy crisis, potentially jeopardizing our
children’s future, economy, and the entire society. According to the U.S. Department of
Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the nation are
illiterate while 19% of high school graduates can’t read.1 While our immigrant and
minority population continue to grow within our country, educational achievement
remains low. According to an annual study conducted by the National Commission of
Adult Literacy, 1 in 3 people in the US ​drop out of high school, while 1 in 4 American
families are low-income with uneducated parents who are unable to improve their
economic status.2 Improving our education system by specifically focusing on the
curriculum offered in English departments can have a tremendous positive impact.

Steinbeck Center and Steinbeck in the Schools

The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University
“promotes Steinbeck’s goals of empathy and mutual understanding through public
programming, free curriculum for teachers, and fellowships for emerging writers.” It has
been in existence for over 45 years and has become known as the preeminent
institution for the study of Steinbeck and his works. It is financially supported by the
University, the San Jose State Student Union, and private donations. Its current level of
operation is financially secure for the foreseeable future.

A key theme of the Center’s efforts is a statement made by the author: “Knowing a man
well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.” This is what Steinbeck strove
for in his writings of the dispossessed, the handicapped, the lonely, and those who lived
on the margins of society. Steinbeck’s books are also uniquely approachable and
enjoyable for the young or inexperienced reader, often motivating a desire to read more.
That and his focus on social justice has made a number of those books among those
most used in middle and high school curriculum including The Red Pony, The Pearl, Of
Mice and Men, Cannery Row, and The Grapes of Wrath.
1
​“Illiteracy in America: Troubling Statistics and How Schools Can Help.” C​ oncordia University-Portland​, 22 
Aug. 2018, education.cu-portland.edu/blog/education-news-roundup/illiteracy-in-america/.
2
​“Illiteracy in America: Troubling Statistics and How Schools Can Help.” C​ oncordia University-Portland​, 22 
Aug. 2018, education.cu-portland.edu/blog/education-news-roundup/illiteracy-in-america/.
5
The Center’s Steinbeck in the Schools (SITS) program aims to promote literacy and
social justice through the books of John Steinbeck, a Nobel Prize-winning author. The
Center has created a SITS website that provides free customizable lesson plans,
activities, quizzes, context information and more for middle and high school teachers to
download for free and use in the classroom. Additionally, much of this content identifies
Common Core Standards in Reading met, which have become part of the curriculum
auditing metric in many school districts. All this is intended to make the individual
teacher’s efforts more efficient and effective. The SITS website can be accessed
through the Steinbeck Center’s main site at ​www.sjsu.edu/steinbeck​ then selecting
“Teaching”, or directly via ​www.steinbeck.com​ or ​www.steinbeckintheschools.com​.

The site is built upon a standardized website management system employed by San
Jose State University. Although this system offers many advantages including free site
maintenance and hosting, it also has limitations including a rigid site design and
navigation requirements and a late-to-deploy mobile platform support (iPads and
iPhones). The latter issue is being addressed with the implementation of support for this
feature due by the end of this year.

Steinbeck in the Schools Homepage:

6
Problem / Need

In the early years of the SITS program, visitors to the site experienced rapid growth as
shown by the table below:

How Many Different People Have Viewed the Steinbeck Center Website By Year

Year Ending Unique Visitors Increase in Traffic

6/30/2014 13,789 ---

6/30/2015 62,955 357%

6/30/2016 115,163 83%

6/30/2017 166,496 45%

6/30/2018 168,736 1%
(Information provided by the Steinbeck Center)

Stall of Growth:

To date, growth has relied upon three methods; search engine optimization, word of
mouth, and a one time limited email campaign utilizing a list provided by the National
Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE).

That growth has stalled. The Steinbeck Center has found it difficult to let teachers know
they exist and persuade them to view their lesson plans. The Steinbeck Center has
used several methods to reach out to teachers and are now focusing on an email
campaign. The Center has acquired a list of more than 18,000 middle and high school
teachers’ emails, which are the most likely the group of teachers to be teaching, or
willing to teach Steinbeck’s works.

7
The Steinbeck Center’s First Email Attempt:

On September 24, 2018, the Center reached out to these teachers with an email inviting
them to visit the website and download free lesson plans for books such as ​Of Mice and
Men​. The campaign was unsuccessful and got very little traffic to its website. This in
part was due to many of the emails ending up in the teachers’ spam folders but those
who did receive and opened the email were not captivated enough to visit the website.
The former issue is being addressed by the Center and its email marketing partner. The
latter issue will be the focus of our team’s efforts.

The Steinbeck Center needs to find formats of emails that reach and engage teachers
more effectively. This search requires researching effective email design strategies,
seeking input from working teachers, and testing several strategies on a limited but
sufficient sample of teachers to arrive at effective email content and design.

The First Email Attempt:

8
Project Rationale
There are several steps to our proposed course of action.

Step 1 ​(Gather Information) ​:​ WME Consulting needs to reach out to local teachers
and interview them. Through these teachers, we will get direct opinions on what
contents an email should have in order to catch their attention and result in lesson plan
downloads.

Questions to ask educators via phone campaign:

1) What information should be in the subject line of the email to get educators to
open it? This is critical because WME consulting is soliciting teachers and can
easily be viewed as “spam” without a compelling subject.
2) What information and content should be listed in the email itself? There needs to
be enough information about the lesson plans to intrigue the teachers. At the
same time, we do not want to overwhelm them with too much text resulting in
them not reading it in the first place.
3) How should the email be structured and laid out? This includes what visuals we
should have. Once WME knows what information and content should be in the
email we need to figure out how it should be presented. We need good graphics
to catch their attention and attract professors towards the main elements we want
them to read.
4) Finally, what call to action would get teachers to click on a link to the Steinbeck in
the Schools website itself? WME needs to determine the website link’s content
and aesthetics.

This step carriers the greatest risk associated with it in that WME is relying on teachers
willingness to spending time providing WME input. WME’s plan to seek input from 10 to
20 teachers. Although a focus group technique would be the most efficient and effective
method of collecting this information, WME believe this route would prove difficult to
achieve given scheduling issues and the need to have teachers travel to a common
location, spend at least one hour, and with no economic incentive. Ultimately WME’s
plan to utilize an online interview method with the ability to show content and graphics
on the teachers' computer.

9
Step 2: ​(Design Test Emails)​​ After collecting the teachers' input we will design our
test emails. We plan to review various messages with input from the Steinbeck Center’s
director and finally arrive at three separate emails. We will concentrate on ​Of Mice a
Men,​ a short (approximately 105 page) book, with a compelling social justice theme. It is
one of the most used Steinbeck books by Middle and High School teachers.​ ​Among
other things we expect from the Center’s Director is to assist us in making sure the
emails are appropriate in the presentation to be consistent with the image the Center
wants to maintain.

Step 3: ​(Send Sample Emails)​​ ​ We will send each of the three trial emails to a
sample of 250 teachers in Northern California and monitor response via eTrigue’s
analytics. By restricting our sample to local teachers we can provide the Center with
contact information to best facilitate teacher follow-up discussion either by email, phone,
or in person. This also offers the potential of allowing teachers to use the Center’s staff
or facilities to make the teaching experience of students a more successful one.

Step 4: ​(Implement Necessary Changes)​​ ​If necessary we will make adjustments to

the most successful email(s) and test them again in order to ensure we have found the
best email format.

10
Deliverables
At the conclusion of the project we would provide the Steinbeck
Center:

1. Interview Summary
A written summary of the teacher’s interviews and market research. This will
mainly be qualitative information but if we ask quantitative questions we will
highlight that data.

2. Analysis of Email Formats

This will include:
● Reviews of the initial email formats, with reasons for rejecting some and
accepting others for further testing and implementation.
● A list of all teachers emailed for each email message. We will also have
this list in the eTrigue system so it can be filtered down by location and
grade level.
● The eTrigue activity monitoring metrics for each email tested. This report
will include data figures discussed in the success metrics below. All of this
data will be accessible on eTrigue and can be broken down by date, time
of day, and other variables.

3. Proposed
The refined content and graphic style of the emails selected for email testing. We
will provide the graphic elements used in separate files so they can be adjusted
and rearranged.

4. Recommendations/Next Steps
A written statement of our findings and suggestions for other email strategies to
be followed by giving those findings.

5. Prospect List
A contact list of the teachers who downloaded the lesson plans for potential
follow-up by the Center staff to further explore teacher’s observations about the
email messaging methods and lesson plan helpfulness.

11
Cost Analysis
This project will not cost The Steinbeck Center any money. If we consider our time
spent on the project as a cost we can calculate the theoretical value of our labor. The
work of us, as a consultancy group, will be quantified in hours. The cost per hour of
every member will be $15.

The reasons why the Center will not incur any direct costs is are:
● The Steinbeck Center was donated the Etrigue software
● The purchase of the mail list was done months ago and is considered to be a
sunk cost.

Labor/Consulting Fees:

Labor valued at ​$15.00/hour​​ per person

Project Task # of People Hours Total Cost

Meet with Center’s Staff 3 1 $45

Structure Survey Questions 2 2 $60

Acquire teacher contact list 1 2 $30

Conduct Survey 4 3 $180

Analyze Results 2 2 $60

Construct Emails 5 3 $225

Meet with Center Director to pick emails 2 1 $30

to test

Test Emails 2 1 $30

Analyze test metrics 3 2 $90

Prepare and present findings 5 3 $225

Total Labor Costs/Consulting Fees: $975

12
Delivery Schedule

Delivery Schedule:

Project Task Date People Description

Involved*

10/22 Jason​​, Meet with Center’s staff to develop

Prepare for Brendan, survey questions, acquire teacher contact
teacher survey Jack list, and set up appointments with
teachers to be surveyed.

Conduct survey 10/30 José​​, Using two-person teams we will conduct

Miguel, 15-minute interviews over video/screen
Jason, share calls with 10 to 20 teachers.
Brendan

Analyze results 11/6 Jack​​, ​José, Exam the qualitative and quantitative
and construct Miguel, data from the interviews along with
emails Jason, researching the best email marketing
Brendan strategies. Construct emails from those
findings.

Meet with 11/9 Brendan​​, Review proposed test emails with the
Center staff to Jack Center director and select three to test.
send the emails Work with the staff to select sample
recipients of the emails. Send the emails.

Analyze test 11/19 Miguel​​, Using eTrigue collect the analytics from
metrics Jason, Jack each test email and the original email the
Center sent and compare the results.

Prepare findings 11/27 Jack​​, ​José, Prepare all deliverables, create the
and Miguel, multimedia presentation, and complete
presentation Jason, the final report.
Brendan
* ​Bold​​ names are the team leaders for that task.

13
Success Metrics
The Steinbeck Center is providing WME access to their data through a website called
eTrigue​. This data has a number of analytical tools, but the most important for our
project are the % of emails opened, the % of clicks (on a link that leads to the website),
and how many teachers downloaded the lesson plan.

Below are the results from the first email attempt:

Additional analytics we will use to determine success include pages viewed on the
website for the people who do click through, time spent on the website, and amount of
people who unsubscribed from future emails.

WME Consulting’s success will be measured by comparing the test email campaign to
the original email’s analytics. The study will document the difference in numbers for
each category listed above (“Delivered,” “Opened,” and “Clicked”) and will also compare
the three new emails’ analytics to see which one performed the best.

There is a chance that one of the email tests is better in one area (% opened) but
another one has the most lesson plan downloads. A situation like this will highlight
certain aspects of the emails and give us insight for future improvements.

Lesson plan downloads are out of the scope of our proposal and therefore will not factor
into our success metrics, as we did not design the curriculum.

Considering the current email's poor rate of success, this study will be successful if at
least 10% of teachers open the email and 1% of teachers go through to the website. If
we accomplish this, our project will greatly increase exposure for the SITS program with
upwards of 1,800 emails opened and 180 visits to their website when they apply our
format to their next major email campaign.
14
Staffing
J​​ack Levitt​​ ​is a senior at Santa University majoring in
finance. He has founded and led two startup ventures. One
of the ventures was an online radio service that had, at its
peak, over 80,000 listeners. His second venture was a
social network application that raised $200,000 in capital.
He led a team of 5 programmers, worked with outside
companies including a video marketing company, and
orchestrated a significant marketing event. He will be the
project manager, overseeing all aspects of the project and
ensuring its completion and success.

José Vizcaino Jr.​​ is a former professional baseball player

who has returned to Santa Clara University to earn his
Marketing degree. Being around the San Francisco Giants,
perhaps one of the most prestigious organizations in the
sports world, he was able to develop into a leader and truly
learn how to properly communicate and work together with
fellow colleagues. Not only was he able to build a platform
within the sports world, but he also helped launch a men’s
clothing app where he oversaw the marketing growth, social
media ad campaigns, and customer engagement. For this
project, José will be contacting schools around the Bay Area
to learn more about their curriculum and educational
standards. He will also be using his experience at a start-up
to make adjustments to the current email campaign in order
to increase engagement.

15
Jason Vassallo​​ is a Junior at Santa Clara University
majoring in Finance and minoring in Entrepreneurship. He
has experience working in retail where he gained skills in
marketing, communication and customer service. He also
interned at a Wealth Management firm where he gained
experience in managing finances. He will use his
experience to help with crafting the email, as well as cost
analysis and communication with local teachers.

Miguel Camblor​​ is an exchange student at Santa Clara

University from Spain, Madrid. He will be graduating in
June with a degree in Computer Engineering. He has
experience in the e-commerce field after building a
business about repairing and maintaining smartphones and
computers. Currently, he is working as an SAT teacher, by
tutoring high school students looking to start their
undergraduate program in the USA. As a Spaniard, he will
be a good communicator for the mostly Hispanic schools in
the Bay Area.

16
Brendan McMahon​​ is currently pursuing an
undergraduate degree in Marketing from the Leavey
School of Business, as well as a minor in International
Business. In addition to extensive classroom experience
with marketing principles, tactics, and technology,
Brendan has also had a number of positions and
consulting projects with a real-world implementation of
data analytics and marketing tools. Most recently, he
was a financial analyst for VA Premier, a medical
insurance company. His experience with data analytics
and marketing strategies will help polish and accelerate
our strategy and ensure quality analytical work,
especially on tasks involving eTrigue. With market
analytics and data acting as a significant portion of our
project, Brendan’s experience will be valuable when
ensuring the success of our proposal.

17
Final Report and Evaluation

Summary of findings
WME Consulting, working with The Martha Cox Steinbeck Center from San José State
University (“Client”), constructed an improved email marketing campaign that was
intended to promote the Steinbeck in the Schools (SITS) lesson plans program tp
middle and high school english teachers.

After the client had very little success with the initial email, WME Consulting researched,
prepared, and tested three unique email campaigns in an effort to evaluate the
effectiveness of different email components and variables. These emails were sent to
smaller sample sizes, and would eventually lead to the best possible format that would
ultimately maximize email views and click-through rates. The e-mails varied in
content/tone, format and subject line.

The first test email was primarily focused on keeping the message short and straight
forward, with a minimalist design (​See: Appendix I, Test Email Message 1)​ . The second
email took a slightly more rigid and professional tone and design, clearly listing the
learning materials offered by The Steinbeck Center (​See: Appendix I, Test Email
Message 2​). The content of the third email was focused on activities offered by the SITS
program, and took on a lighter, slightly more informal tone (​See Appendix I, Test Email
Message 3​). Test Email Message 3 was the most brief of the three.

Results
Test Email 1 Test Email 2 Test Email 3 Original email

Number of 282 420 285 17,178

emails sent:

% opened: 5.0% 5.7% 5.3% 4.7%

% clicked link 0.0% 0.7% 0.4% 0.03%

through email:

18
 ​Increase Increase
in email opens in clicks

When looking at the results of the test emails, there were minor improvements
regarding percent emails opened but significant improvements on click throughs on two
of the emails tested. Test Email 2 was the most successful with the highest percentage
of opens, which suggests that the subject line of the email was more attractive than the
others, and the highest percentage of clicks once the user interacted with the email.
12.5% of readers who opened Test Email 2 also clicked on the embedded link, which is
consistent with the average “click-to-open” efficiency of email marketing campaigns in
the educational industry.3 This percentage is also a significant improvement on the 0.7%
“click-to-open” rate that was observed in the original email sent by the Steinbeck Center
to 17,178 destinations.

Knowledgebase.​ ​“​Average Industry Rates for Email as of October 2018.” Constant Contact, Inc. 2018.
3

https://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/articles/KnowledgeBase/5409-average-industry-rates?lang=e
n_US
19
Implications
Whilst WME Consulting is disappointed that our best performing email, Test Email 2,
was unable to reach our goal of a 10.0% open rate and 1.0% click-through rate, we are
pleased that our email did show tremendous improvement compared to the original
email. We feel that, considering the fact that our test emails were sent after targeted
teachers had recently received the first mass email, our email results imply that the
strategy is trending in the right direction.

We are especially excited about our email’s improved click-to-open rate. Test Email 2
saw a click-to-open rate improvement of over 17 times that of the original mass email
(12.5% vs. 0.7% click-to-open rate, respectively). Click-to-open rate is the number of
unique users who clicked links divided by the number of unique users who opened the
email. This indicates that once in the email, our clear, credible and concise design was
able to raise enough interest to generate more click-throughs than that of the original
email campaign. In fact, that 11.8% difference in click-to-open rate would have
accounted for an additional 95 click-throughs and site visits for The Steinbeck Center
(801 opened * .118) with the entire email destination list. We believe that removing
excessive links, taking out distracting images, and emphasizing the center’s credibility
were all major decisions that helped account for this significant improvement; as these
were all focal points stemming from our preliminary email marketing research.

We also believe that by testing numerous different campaign styles, we were able to
hone in on effective email tone, content, design, and subject line. Of the messages
tested, the theme of “SITS provides resources in building curriculum” drew the most
attention. Subject line “Steinbeck Lesson Plans Provided by San Jose State University”
appears to have generated the most interest. It quickly described the product and
associated it with a reputable organization. Since the organization is a state institution, it
is suggested that the product would be free without coming out and saying it, thus
minimized detection by spam filters.

In addition, the bullet point methodology of the second message style presented the
information in a more effective way for the reader to digest, promote interest, and then
act on that interest. We hypothesize that this clear and concise style resonated well with
teachers, our target market, as they are used to presenting and seeing information in a
similar manner. Our findings suggest that the messages should be kept short and
organized in such a way that a quick scan of the content is enough to gather the main
points and generate an interest for further information.

20
Limitations
Throughout the design and implementation of the Steinbeck in the Schools (SITS) email
marketing campaign, WME Consulting came across a number of obstacles and
limitations that likely impeded our efforts. Whilst a few of these limitations were issues
that, in hindsight, could have been overcome with better preparation and more intuitive
foretelling, the majority of our limitations with this project were the result of
uncontrollable and unavoidable variables.

To begin, two of the biggest regrets regarding our actions with the email design and
execution were our small sample size of preliminary teacher interviews, as well as the
missed opportunity to maximize email efficiency through targeting, segmenting, and
destination demographics. By far one of the most insightful steps in email preparation
were our ten interviews with local teachers about lesson planning and english
education. Whilst not all responses were equally intuitive, a significant amount of
information and recommendations stemmed from these interview responses and
influenced the style and focus of the email content. A larger sample size with more
teachers interviewed, and from a more diverse sample, would have almost certainly
added additional insightful information that could have been used to better our emails.

Additionally, another significant limitation is our lack of using targeting or segmenting

tools. Etrigue, the online data metrics and analytics system used by The Steinbeck
Center, has the capability to track school address, position/job title, and limited
demographic information on the email destinations. Unfortunately, we were unable to
fully optimize these tools because of our inexperience with the system- and using these
segmenting tools could have led to a more effective email strategy.

WME Consulting also faced a number of uncontrollable variables and factors that we
feel limited the efficiency of our email campaign. The first, and one if the most significant
limitations, is the inherently low-efficiency nature of email marketing in general. On
average, email marketing campaigns in the education industry generate click-throughs
only 2.6% of attempts, with 11% of opens leading to clicks.4 This means that we started
our campaign with a low ceiling for success, and that our main priority was to improve
previous performance while testing design techniques rather than trying to maximize
exposure.

4
https://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/articles/KnowledgeBase/5409-average-industry-rates?lang=
en_US
21
In addition, the etrigue email monitoring system highlighted a few impediments that we
faced from the beginning of our marketing plan. There were 98 email destinations who
unsubscribed after the first email was sent by The Steinbeck Center, before WME
Consulting took on the project. In addition, there were 1,697 email destinations that
were bounced from the original email and removed from our email list. This essentially
means that the email was not delivered to its destination because of spam filters,
message blocking, or technology issues (i.e. full mailbox, message was too large, etc.).

WME Consulting believes that spam filters and blockers were significant limitations to
our email marketing efforts. There is unfortunately no way to track when and how an
email gets blocked or sent to spam, only if it does not reach its destination address.
While we tried to avoid words that might set off spam filters, we expect that such filters
played a role in limiting the open rate amongst the destinations. Insight into how many
emails were sent to spam would help us better craft emails that could be properly
delivered and maximize brand exposure.

Recommendations
Given the general underperformance of our email marketing strategy, despite
improvements on the original, we were able to highlight a number of changes that WME
Consulting would recommend to better streamline the process and improve efficiency.
Addressing some of our controllable limitations would be the first steps to improving this
strategy and preparation process in the future.

Interviewing a larger and more diverse sample of teachers in preliminary email strategy
research would result in a more accurate and intuitive picture of what teachers are
looking for and what elements of email format and content can be manipulated to
increase value for our recipients. Our interviews revealed many common trends that
helped us tailor our emails to our target readers, and a larger sample would have given
a better understanding of such trends. For example, an overwhelmingly common point
was the ability to “plug-and-play” lesson plans for unique classes from an easily
understandable template. Highlighting this idea helped improve the test emails, and
identifying more commonalities would be a worthwhile step going forward.

Likewise, fully understanding and optimizing our etrigue system in the future would be a
great step towards innovating our strategy. Had we known, we would have
experimented with segmentation and hyper-targeting to find better ways to increase
click-throughs and opens. In addition, testing graphical elements and visual aids could
help us further simplify email design. Graphics are another element that we would have

22
liked to experiment with to find out which visuals appeal to readers and which act as
deterrents, and WME Consulting recommends exploring the visual dimension of emails
in the future.

Finally, we recommend diversifying The SITS marketing strategy to include more than
just email marketing components. While we realize the importance of cost-effective
email campaigns, the inherent inefficiency of email-based marketing is enough to
warrant other platforms of promotion. In addition to a very low ceiling on response rates,
the constant and repetitive nature of email campaigns often pushes away potential
users and slowly decreases the amount of brand exposure as people unsubscribe or
ignore sequential emails. Incorporating proven techniques such as social media
marketing and paid-search advertising will certainly enhance the Client’s brand
exposure and promotional efficiency. Social media marketing gives the marketer a more
personal relationship with its audience, and paid advertising will give the SITS program
the mass exposure necessary for early growth.

Moving forward with future marketing strategies, we recommend using our detailed
process of email testing and research, complete with the aforementioned
recommendations of improvement, as a template to continue to innovate and enhance
the SITS email campaign. In continuing with the email campaigns we advise limiting
messages to at most a once per month occurrence, consistently building on lessons
learned from previous emailing. Finally, WME consulting suggests the Client incorporate
parallel campaigns with different platforms to diversify and enhance the overall
effectiveness of the marketing campaign.

23
Appendices

Appendix A: Resumés 26

Appendix B: Information Related to the Beneficiary 31

Appendix C: WME Consulting Logo 32

Appendix D: WME Consulting Letterhead 33

Appendix E: E-Mail Marketing Strategy/Tactics Research 34

Appendix F: Works Cited 35

Appendix G: Deliverable Samples 36

Appendix H: Other Information to Support the Proposal 39

Appendix I: Email Content and Graphic Styles 40

Appendix J: Test Emails 41

Appendix K: Test Email Results 44

Appendix L: Teachers Interview/Market Research Summary 45

24
Appendix A: Resumés

25
26
27
28
29
Appendix B: Information Related to the Beneficiary

(Provided by the Steinbeck Center)

30
Appendix C: WME Consulting Logo

31
Appendix D: WME Consulting Letterhead

32
Appendix E: E-Mail Marketing Strategy/Tactics Research

Link Placement Strategy

● “We explain the observed effects of link placements on CTR drawing concepts
from psychology and visual heuristics. The empirical analysis confirms that when
it comes to clicking on the links of a newsletter, the click-through follows a
U-pattern… Thus, links placed in the left region of an email newsletter have
higher impact than those placed in the right region with links in the top-left region
having highest impact.”5

Importance of Subject Line

● “Take the time to write a great subject line. Without an engaging subject line,
users won't be compelled to even open your email. In fact, an average of 33% of
email recipients open emails based on the subject line. Keep it short and sweet,
and provide a clear incentive for opening your email.”6

Handling Spam Filters

● “Avoid using words that will set off spam filters. Emails with overly promotional
language that relies heavily on words like "free," "sale," "cash," and so on are
likely to end up in users' spam folders, meaning your target audience won't even
get the chance to read your message in the first place.”7

Importance of Mobile Compatibility

● “‘Three-quarters of consumers say they are ‘highly likely’ to delete an email if
they can’t read it on their smartphone…’ Use at least an 11-point font for body
text and a 22-point font for headlines. Provide a clear call to action at the top of
the campaign. Employ single-column designs and focus only on the essentials.”8

5
Ashish, Kumar. “Effects of link placements in email newsletters on their click-through rate.” Journal of
Marketing Communications. Aug 2018, Vol. 24 Issue 5, p535-548.
6
Team Thomas. “Email Marketing Do's And Don'ts.” ThomasNet News. Thomas Publishing Company,
LLC. 5/16/2018, p1-1.
7
Team Thomas. “Email Marketing Do's And Don'ts.” ThomasNet News. Thomas Publishing Company,
LLC. 5/16/2018, p1-1.
8
Pophal, Lin. “Email Marketing: Updating an Old Standard for Today’s Consumer.” EContent Magazine.
Jul/Aug 2015, Vol. 38 Issue 6, p10-15.
33
Appendix F: Works Cited

Steinbeck in the Schools’ website: 

http://sits.sjsu.edu/ 
 
eTrigue’s website:
https://www.etrigue.com/

“Illiteracy in America: Troubling Statistics and How Schools Can Help.” ​Concordia
University-Portland,​ 22 Aug. 2018,
education.cu-portland.edu/blog/education-news-roundup/illiteracy-in-america/.

Ashish, Kumar. “Effects of link placements in email newsletters on their click-through

rate.” Journal of Marketing Communications. Aug 2018, Vol. 24 Issue 5, p535-548.

Team Thomas. “Email Marketing Do's And Don'ts.” ThomasNet News. Thomas
Publishing Company, LLC. 5/16/2018, p1-1.

Pophal, Lin. Email Marketing: Updating an Old Standard for Today’s Consumer.”
EContent Magazine. Jul/Aug 2015, Vol. 38 Issue 6, p10-15.

34
Appendix G: Deliverable Samples
This is the first email sent out to over 18,000 teachers:

35
Below are the eTrigue analytics from the first email. We will deliver the same data,
charts, and graphs for the emails we test.​​ ​The definitions of each type of
analytical data are under “Other Information to Support the Proposal.”

36
37
Appendix H: Other Information to Support the Proposal

eTrigue is a website startup that helps companies with automated marketing

campaigns. They create, execute, and track demand generating campaigns such as
email marketing. The Steinbeck Center is using eTrigue to run and track their email
campaign. Our group has been given access to view the Steinbeck Center’s eTrigue
data.

Below are the definitions of different types of analytics we will use to

measure success.

Email Engagement Summary

● Delivered: How many emails were delivered
● Opened: How many people opened the email sent
● Clicked: How many people clicked through to the website from the email
● Pages Viewed: How many pages they view on the website
● Avg View Time: How long on average they spend looking at the website

Deliverability
● Hard Bounced: This is how many emails are sent back to the sender because the
recipient is invalid or unknown
● Soft Bounced: This is how many emails are sent back because the sender was
valid, but their email is full

Lost Prospects
● Opted-out: How many people remove themselves from the email list completely
● Unsubscribed: How many people unsubscribed from the survey or campaign

38
Appendix I: Email Content and Graphic Styles

WME in with input from the Center’s director finalized on three email formats to be
tested. WME developed a general email design strategy based on teacher interviews
and research into effective email design resources:

● Keep it short. The message needs to be quickly read, and acted upon. SITS
cannot afford to lose the message recipient’s interest or attention.

● Authentication. Make sure the association with SJSU is always made at least
once: in the header graphic and/or in the copy and/or in the footer graphic and/or
the direct link to site.

● Assume the recipient will be familiar with Steinbeck and with Of Mice and Men.
The focus will be on the resources the SITS program provides.

● Avoid such words as “Free” in the subject line to avoid the message being filtered
as Spam.

● Test several message lengths.

● Design one new simple header graphic that deals with the authentication issue to
provide assurance the message is from a reputable organization.

● Use the existing Center contact information footer graphic showing that the SITS
program is located at SJSU to provide additional confidence in site.

● Short message about the Center and its message to further add to the credibility
of the message source.

● Test for professional tone and more relaxed/conversational tone in content style

● Focus on two message themes:

○ Assistance in building curriculum using SITS teaching resources.
○ Availability of Class Activity projects that engages students and
specifically promotes research, inquiry listening, and speaking skills.

39
Appendix J: Test Emails

Test Email Message 1

Message Strategy:​​ Minimalist approach to content and graphics. Curriculum oriented with a
short message. No classroom header photo. Just enough to get all the relevant information
across for a quick read and hopefully quick reaction: to click and see more.
Content:​​ Customizable lesson plans including quizzes, assignments and activities.
Tone:​​ Helpful/Professional
Format:​​ Brief Text and clickable button – No Photo. Includes authentication header and
footer graphics.
Subject Line:​​ Planning your curriculum is hard. Let us help!

40
Test Email Message 2
Message Strategy:​​ Curriculum oriented with a more detailed and formal message, but still
short…to click and see more.
Content:​​ Customizable lesson plans including quizzes, assignments and activities.
Bullet points more descriptive of resources provided including.
Tone:​​ Professional
Format:​​ Moderate amount of text and clickable button. Include authentication header
and footer graphics.
Subject Line:​​ Steinbeck Lesson Plans Provided by San Jose State University

41
Test Email Message 3
Message Strategy:​​ More conversational approach. Activities oriented.
Content:​​ Promoting engaging and fun activities and focuses on speaking and listening
skills
Tone:​​ Informal - conversational
Format:​​ Brief Text and clickable button. Include authentication header and footer
graphics.
Subject Line:​​ Fun and Engaging Classroom Activities for Teaching Steinbeck

42
Appendix K: Test Email Results

Test Email 1:

Test Email 2:

Test Email 3:

43
Appendix L: Teachers Interview/Market Research Summary

A limited number 10 of successful teachers interviews were completed. This seems to be part
of a broader problem of teacher resistance in participating in new areas due to competing
demands on their time. Having said that, those teachers that did participate provided a good
deal of quality information, including the following points:

Message Content:
● Teachers have a good deal of latitude in developing own curriculum.
● Ready-made resources are most attractive. One teacher used the phrase “plug and
play” to describe one of the attributes of the SITS program that most impressed him.
● Promote ability to customize resource material.
● Authenticated and prestigious source of materials (SJSU) very important.
● Common Core compliance message, although still important, is less influential than
anticipated:
○ Some teachers don’t know what it is.
○ General feeling that most of existing curriculum is compliant.
○ May have greater significance in school districts outside of California.
○ Enrichment activities based on Common Core skills would find interest.
○ Promoting the SITS resources providing tools to assist with all Common Core
missions to enhance not just reading and writing skills but also listening,
speaking, research and inquiry.
● Social Justice theme less influential than anticipated. There are competing products that
are already focused on this theme.
● Student engagement tools are attractive to teachers, especially those that would be see
as a fun exercise.

Market Research
Based on interviews and research into effective email techniques WME concluded that the
following components would be needed to optimize the email campaign:
● Subject Line was critical to getting enough recipient attention to continue with the
message or simply moving it to trash.
● The message had to be very short.
● The message should contain key information as to the benefits of using the Center’s
services.
● The message had to be very short.
● The message should contain key information as to the benefits of using the Center’s
services.

44