Web Data Drives Email Relevance

We’ve been working with a number of clients lately who are using custom message triggers generated from data pulled from their CRM or web analytics systems. By using a unique identifier in the database such as the login email or sometimes a cookie, we were able to build custom messages that were triggered by specific customer actions. In the end, the result has been a huge lift in response rates.

For instance, we used this data to trigger “abandoned shopping cart” messages to great effect. Due to the nature of these emails, they are usually sent to a small number of subscribers each month. However, the results have been amazing – usually in the 15%-40% lift range.

There are a couple of ways to execute an abandoned shopping cart strategy…

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Lead Generation Do's and Don'ts

One of the best ways to grow your email file is to invite prospects when they are in process with another registration. The idea of a “co-reg” checkbox has been around for a while, but a newer opportunity is lead generation — also typically offered on a cost per lead basis. Publishers provide advertisers with full page ad forms that entice prospects to engage with offers of interest. A single offer on the page gives advertisers lots of room to tell their story and makes the process more clear to prospects. Lead generation programs tend to yield much higher quality leads than co-registration because the subscribers are less likely to be confused by a sea of checkboxes.

If you are considering trying lead generation and want to make sure you succeed, consider the following Do’s and Don’ts to help you craft a winning strategy. …

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What Business Professionals Really Want from Email

I was delighted to be asked to lead an email marketing session at the Marketing Profs B2B Forum earlier this month in Chicago (check out the sessions and some summaries here and on Paul Dunay’s blog).

The theme of the conference was right on point for most of us — “Driving Sales: What’s New, What Works and What Sticks.” When it comes to email, the only effective way to drive sales is to create great subscriber experiences. Look at your own inbox. When is the last time you got an email that was timely, easy to digest and relevant? (If you have, please let me know — I love to celebrate marketers who are doing this well!) If you’re like me, it’s rare. To help give some perspective, here are some subscriber view stats we shared in our panel – some are surprising and most are helpful when thinking about ways to engage with subscribers. …

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Is Opt-Out an Acceptable Permission Standard for Customers?

Here at the DMA on Saturday, a number of us email wonks (marketers and vendors) were talking shop and I got some push back on what I believe is the duplicity found in so many permission practices — particularly among ecommerce sites.

Yes, I know that duplicity is strong word. But consider the most retailer email programs are opt-in — until you buy. Then, the permission practice is either a pre-checked box on the check out form — easy to miss and decidedly opt-out — or worse, a buried notice in the fine print. Since these are buyers, they are by nature pretty active with the brand and products, so there isn’t a huge penalty for this practice in ISP complaints or unsubscribes. In many cases, these buyers are sometimes the most active folks on the file.

So what is wrong with that? Nothing, if the marketer is clear about it. But quite a bit from a subscriber perspective!

Before I dive into the problems I see here (and an easy solution), let me be clear about how I define permission levels …

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Great Place for Benchmarks: Conversation

Ever need that one particular number to put in your forecast or executive briefing that proves you are not nuts and your email marketing is actually tracking pretty well? Yep – I can never find it when I need it, either. We all scour all available sources for benchmarks that are meaningful to our business, and yet these benchmarks seem to remain elusive. When we do find numbers, they never seem to accurately tell a story about how email is being used in the real world. I always feel that benchmarks are actually not that helpful – and they can actually be quite distracting. While sometimes they can serve as a guide (and a well timed source can sometimes get you through tomorrow’s presentation!), unless you really understand the source of the data and the way it was collected, you will never be sure if it’s actually relevant to your business.

Better, measure your success against your own progress …

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Email ROI is more than just a (bigger) numbers game

Email is the highest ROI channel by far, just ask any marketer managing a house file. Email marketing returns $57.25 for every dollar spent, more than 150 percent greater than the ROI for other types of online marketing (DMA, 2007).

Who’s a bigger fan of email than me? Yet I risked getting kicked out of the email marketing club during a panel discussion at OMMA East with OgilvyOne’s Jeanniey Mullen, eROI’s Dylan Boyd and Lee Sherman of Avenue A/Razorfish when I suggested that the true ROI of email isn’t captured solely in that big number. In fact, I believe it’s misleading to think about email’s contribution without factoring in the risks of batch and blast, complaints, irrelevancy and acquisition costs. …

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Elongated Sales Cycles Require Stronger Segmentation

The Internet has made sales cycles longer. “Selling now takes more time and resources then ever before. The sales cycle has become 22% longer as buyers are taking longer to consider their decisions. Plus, buying is being managed more professionally.” (Source: Sirius Decisions)

Is this true for you? If you are a B2C marketer, check your ecommerce website path reports. If you are in B2B marketing, ask your sales team if they find it to be generally true. It’s certainly true for my clients and at Return Path.

What a great opportunity for email marketing segmentation strategies! Just by segmenting your prospects from other subscribers, you can boost revenue, improve conversion from email marketing, strengthen buyer satisfaction and build your brand. Sound like a tall order for a segmentation strategy? Consider these ideas…

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Email Is the Center of Our Online Experiences

Some new data released by the Windows Live/Hotmail team in Redmond illustrates what we all know from our personal experience — that our inbox is the center of the online universe. Well, maybe “center” is too egocentric even for someone who works in email marketing. But it’s certainly a primary starting and ending point!

Data from Microsoft indicates that people make social plans, arrange travel and discuss purchases over email. A few examples …

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The DMA Acquires the EEC

As part of a larger announcement on a number of email initiatives, the DMA announced today that it is acquiring the Email Experience Council (EEC). The Email Marketing Council of the DMA (of which I have served as Vice Chair for two years) will merge with the EEC under the banner of the Email Experience Council.

As someone active in leadership roles for both groups, I see the strong synergy between the mission and activities. I’m delighted for all involved – and especially for the industry. Merging the groups will help focus the work of so many talented and dedicated email marketers, and we’ll all enjoy the power and support of the DMA behind us.

I’m not Pollyanna about this at all – we have a lot of work to do to make the combined group a bulwark for the industry. But we will be doing so from a dual foundation that is solid and has really strong leadership at the helm and at the committee level.

Here are my predictions …

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World-Class Education

Increasingly, marketers find themselves incorporating a wide array of marketing techniques into a cohesive, successful plan. Whether it is figuring out how to leverage email and search investments or doing a multi-channel outreach across online and offline advertising platforms, we are all in need of new ideas and methods. That is one of the reasons that Return Path is supporting the regional Online Marketing Summit series…

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