Demand Accurate Deliverability Data!

Here at Return Path we talk a lot about how good deliverability yields great response. The concept is so simple to us that we find it a little hard to believe that some marketers still don’t monitor deliverability. Unfortunately, some marketers think they have all the information they need to accurately measure the success of their program, but the problem lies with the data they are receiving. It’s just not complete. Most marketers are looking at simple bounce reports and making assumptions that their email reached the inbox. Unfortunately, the email that didn’t bounce may be delivered to the junk folder or be blocked completely – a purgatory state that we call “missing.”

To understand this problem, you need a comprehensive email delivery report to truly gauge the impact of your email marketing program. If your reports don’t tell you what percentage of your email was placed in the inbox or junk folder and what percentage went missing in cyberspace, your analysis is flawed.

Wouldn’t you like to know the truth about your email program? Consider this. …

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Incentive Testing for Fun and Profit

MarketingExperiments just published two fascinating case studies on the use of incentives to drive email capture and free trial conversion.

Incentives have a mixed history in the annals of interactive marketing. The truth is, they work. And, as MarketingExperiments shows, when they are optimized they work really well. But they have been abused by some marketers and, if used poorly, can actually degrade performance.

That said, you gotta read this report now. It’s really fascinating.

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Acquire New Customers with Four Fun Mother's Day Marketing Ideas

What are you planning to send your Mom this Mother’s Day? Candy? Flowers?

Excuse me for saying so, but BORING! Now think about how many other people are out there struggling with the same boring ideas. We think this makes Mother’s Day an ideal holiday for a little bit of acquisition magic. People look to email to give them fresh, new ideas. Take advantage of that by putting together an email campaign aimed at acquiring new customers who are looking to be the favorite kid this Mother’s Day.

Be bold: Remember, you are trying to appeal to folks who are tired of sending the same old, same old gifts. …

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Are you getting the right kind of permission from your subscribers?

Not obtaining the right level of consent can pose a serious risk to the success of your campaigns, your reputation and overall subscriber experience. Permission to send email needs to be proactive and voluntary by the subscriber and as an email marketer; you should take every precaution to ensure subscribers will in fact welcome your message into their inbox. The reward is that actively engaged subscribers that value your offers will result in positive subscriber experiences and ultimately, more revenue.

There are essentially five levels of permission you need to consider when designing your email programs. Each has their pros and cons and its usage depends on the type of program you are developing and the subscriber experience you want to provide. When trying to decide which one to implement, it might be helpful to assess the amount of risk that is associated with your opt-in program and take into account the relationship you want to build with your subscriber.

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Postal vs. Email: Odd Couple or Match Made in Heaven?

Some same opposites attract, but email and postal are a match made in heaven. Both are direct media and both want to elicit a response from the intended audience. The only place they differ is in their delivery, but so what? You don’t have to choose one or the other. You can have your cake and eat it too! All you need to do is figure out which one is Venus and which one is Mars for a campaign that creates a lasting impression.

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4 Reasons to Make the Move to Acquisition Email

Many smart marketers are still skittish about acquisition email, instead relying on other methods – especially direct mail – to get new customers. In the spirit of giving this holiday season – and in the spirit of increasing your holiday revenue! – I’d like to give you four really good reasons to consider testing email to meet your customer acquisition goals.

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Questions and Answers from Return Path's List Growth Webinar

Yesterday my colleague Margaret Farmakis and I presented a webinar called “List Growth NOW: Using Online Acquisition Tools to Improve Email Marketing Results.” It was a fun and interesting session. If you missed out on attending, you can still listen in. Download the recording now.

Meanwhile, we got some great questions from the audience. Here’s a few of them, with our answers and some additional resources to help you:

What’s the difference between creative used in retention campaigns and that used in acquisition campaigns? Retention campaigns are aimed at people who already know you and your brand. They’re on your house file because they’re your existing (or past) customers or your prospects. Even if they are a prospect, they signed up for your email and have some understanding of what your products and services are about. Acquisition campaigns are aimed at people who don’t know you very well. …

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Back to School, Back to Spending: Get Your Piece of the Pie

For many marketers the true beginning of the high-traffic, high-revenue season is back to school. In fact, consumers are on track to spend $18.4 billion this year on apparel, electronics, books, supplies and more. Like Christmas, this makes the back-to-school season a great time to implement email and online lead generation as part of your acquisition marketing mix. These tactics offer reach, frequency and branding. They are also great ways to uncover latent needs (I didn’t know I needed that!) and drive higher website traffic (Let me check out this cool stuff!). Here are some ideas for how you can use both email list rental and online lead generation to get those cash registers ringing …

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It's All About the Offer

Practical Ecommerce has a great article on how to improve your email marketing results with co-registration. They cover many of the basics, including payment, finding partners and tracking performance. But they missed one big component that we find is crucial to success for our co-registration clients: The offer.

In our experience with hundreds of clients, throwing up a checkbox and praying for rain rarely gives you the results you are hoping for. Consumers and businesspeople alike are inundated at every turn with offers for email newsletters, so standing out from the crowd is crucial to success.

What makes a great co-reg offer? Generally it’s all about the content. What does your email offer subscribers that other emails don’t? Some ways to think about it …

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Beat the Postal Rate Increase: Add Email to Your Acquisition Mix

Catalogers have a long, successful history using direct mail for new customer acquisition. Specifically by buying postal lists from a variety of sources and sending their catalogs with the hope of sparking a sale. It’s an extremely effective strategy, but also an expensive one. And, it’s about to get more expensive if the postal rate hike takes effect, as many experts believe it will.

Smart catalogers certainly aren’t going to stop using direct mail for acquisition. But, the smartest will certainly be adding email to the mix. Rates for email list rental have held steady over the last few years, making them a bargain by comparison. …

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