Aug
02
By Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
You're probably sick to death of us talking about complaints and how they impact your email reputation. At the risk of pushing you over the edge, though, consider the matter from the perspective of the complainers. In a recent Return Path survey, nearly 79% of consumers admitted that they have hit the "spam" or "junk" email button to get rid of email they don't want. And nearly 37% do it as a way to unsubscribe from things they had asked to receive ....
Categories: Response
Jul
19
By Stephanie Miller
VP Strategic Services
Twenty percent of marketers said they can measure ROI, but cannot act on it, according to an April survey of senior-level marketers by the Association of National Advertisers. The survey found that 32% of marketers are satisfied with their ability to measure and act on ROI to improve business results, up from 19% in 2005.
Measuring and acting to improve ROI is a common challenge for email marketers, as well. I've got some data, but not enough. Or, I get reports from my ESP, but I don't know what to do with them. Or, I know the profile of my subscribers, but I can't segment based on demographics.
Steal one or more of these ideas to help turn whatever data you have today into real ROI.
Use email to educate prospects. Many marketers have both prospects and customers on their house list, sending the same promotions to both and rarely inspiring either segment to action ....
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Jul
10
By Stephanie Miller
VP Strategic Services
Readers spend an average of 51 seconds with email newsletters, typically skimming the contents. Only 19% of newsletters are read fully. (Nielsen Norman, 2006)
That's good news and bad news for B2B email marketers, who are most likely to produce content newsletters rather than tips or pure promotions.
Good news is that 51 seconds is a long time in the email world, as promotional emails get about 15 seconds (Marketing Sherpa, 2005). The average person reads about 200 words a minute, which means, I'm loosely figuring, you'd get about 100-150 words after headlines and images to communicate and engage - or about 5-7 headlines if the reader is skimming ....
Categories: Response
Jun
22
By Stephanie Miller
VP Strategic Services
We all earn a permission grant from our subscribers, and then watch the response rates falter after a few email messages. Why do consumers and business professionals sign up for email they don't want to read? Well, they do want to hear from you, but when you don't manage to keep them engaged, you lose out to other things in their inbox. To break through inbox clutter, you have meet a high standard.
Want your email program to work harder? Apply this crazy idea to your program: Make the email itself the point. Our research shows that the primary driver of opens and response is prior value with the email program itself. It matters less that your brand is recognized, or even that the reader is a loyal customer. The key is providing value in the email message.
To wit. Sending a promotion about merchandise makes the email about the offer. What if the email was the point? Instead, send three tips for summer travel, staying elegant in the heat, or preparing tasty, nutritious meals without turning on the oven. Feature your merchandise "in real life." ....
Tell me moreCategories: Response
May
24
By Stephanie Miller
VP Strategic Services
Even a little bit of content can dramatically improve your email campaign results. Why? Because wrapping your promotional messages with some insights, tips, information or how-to counsel makes your email more relevant. Relevancy drives open rates and response. In fact, consumers tell us (Holiday Survey 2005) that what drives response is prior positive experience with the email itself. So even if they love your brand and buy your products, the email itself has to have value if you want a response.
Creating content can sound scary at first, but you don't need a tome to see the results. A few sentences can do the trick, if done well. Want IT folks to try your demo? Offer testimonials or five ways to make their organizations more productive. Want to sell garden tools? Send some seasonal tips along. The options are endless.
Think these simple things won't work? Think again ....
Categories: Response
May
02
By Ed Taussig, Director of Software Development
and
Eunhee Lee, Senior Database Developer
The issue of subject line length is something that gets debated endlessly around the marketing water cooler. Most people know that anything longer than 55 characters (and, just a reminder, the spaces do count!) will get cut off. And many have heard the maxim that 35 is really a better number to aim for. But, does anyone know how the length of the subject line actually affects response?
Well, yes, in fact. We did an analysis on all acquisition campaigns sent through our Postmaster Direct Network over the last two years. We found that response rate (as measured by clicks) goes down dramatically when the subject line is longer than 50 characters. How dramatic is this difference? Click-through rates for subject lines with 49 or fewer characters were 75 percent higher than for those with 50 or more. ....
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
17
By Tami Monahan Forman
Director of Strategic Services
Spammers have negatively influenced email in lots of ways, with one of the most visible being the need for image suppression. There is no question that the average consumer prefers pretty, graphically-enhanced email over the boring, plain text versions. But there is also no question that the average consumer prefers that pictures with "adult" themes don't accidentally pop up while at the office or in front of impressionable kids. The ISPs have combated this problem by suppressing graphics -- essentially treating all images as potentially problematic. (Thank you, Mr. Spam.)
Despite how widespread this practice has become, few marketers really think about how image suppression affects their email program. They should. Why? Three reasons:
1. Image suppression messes up your tracking: Open rates are calculated when an invisible graphic pings your servers. No graphic, no ping, no open. Data from DoubleClick and others suggests that an overall decline in open rates is due to the rise in image suppression. Knowing this ....
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
11
By Stephanie Miller
VP Strategic Services
Integration of email with other marketing channels is gaining traction this year, primarily because it works! Audiences - both B2B and B2C - are fragmenting, meaning that both acquisition and retention programs must reach across channels to create interactive customer experiences.
In a survey of CMOs we conducted with MarketingProfs.com, we found that just 35% of marketers were using email in combination with other channels. But if they were using a multi-channel approach, they did so 60% of the time. Respondents reported that email in combination with printed direct mail, trade events, search and telemarketing improved response rates for each medium, in addition to boosting results overall.
Jupiter Research found similar success, reporting in 2005 that marketers using testing, multi-channel marketing and other sophisticated tactics are almost twice as likely to attain conversion rates of more than 3%, compared with marketers that do not.
Get started by considering the end business goal, then work backward toward offer and message to isolate the most effective channel mix. If your goal is improve registrations ....
Categories: Response
Mar
07
By Tami Monahan Forman
Director of Strategic Service
Many marketers feel overwhelmed trying to write great copy for email. And, in fact, there are a lot of elements that go into a responsive email message. But if you have to focus your efforts in just one place, there's no question: it has to be the call to action.
In fact, this is by far the biggest missed opportunity we see when evaluating email creative. If the call to action isn't clear, compelling and prominent, you probably aren't going to be happy with the results of your campaign. Email readers don't have time to figure out what you want them to do. You need to tell them using strong action verbs.
The first step, of course, is knowing what you want them to do ....
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Mar
02
What: A truly welcoming welcome message
Who: Sherman's Travel
Why we love it: Welcome messages are routinely underutilized and even ignored by many email marketers and publishers. Sherman's Travel has one that employs nearly every best practice for this type of message. First, they include
Tell me moreCategories: Response
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