May
08
By Bonnie Malone Fry
Director, Strategic Services
With Mother's Day coming this weekend, I've been thinking a lot about "Mommy marketing." Pregnancy, childbirth and new parenthood offer a predictable set of challenges that makes this audience a natural for lifecycle marketing. And, are you surprised to hear us say this, a natural for email.
A colleague of mine recently had a baby and she was struck by how many companies spent a lot of money purchasing her name and then sending her direct mail - including samples! - but didn't build in an email component.
Let's take a look at a few of the big companies, what they did and what they could have done better
Tell me moreCategories: Response
May
01
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
The secret to high return email marketing is that there is no secret. There is only one way to drive higher revenue and deliverability is to create compelling subscriber experiences.
And it's important to remember that email subscriber experiences don't happen in a vacuum. Our subscribers are also our prospects and customers and interact with us in many channels outside of email.
I spoke this week about great email marketing in a presentation titled, "Seven Email Marketing Secrets" at the newly revamped and rather fabulous Interactive Marketing Expo (produced by the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing). One thing that really stands out when you meet with direct marketers is that email and mobile marketing are embraced as important and fascinating channels, but are not the drivers of the direct marketing mix. I spend so much time talking about email marketing with email marketers, that it's refreshing to get out of the echo chamber and talk about email with folks who do direct or interactive marketing and dig in to why email can be such an important part of a multichannel approach.
This is, of course, the strategy that every successful email marketer takes. ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
25
By Anita Absey
SVP, Sales & Marketing
Last month we took our best email experts and hit the road to bring fresh, new marketing ideas to San Francisco and Los Angeles. This month we embark on the next leg of the tour.
Next stop is the Mile High City on May 27. Not only will you learn best practices from our expert team of Return Pathers, but you will get first hand knowledge and advice from other email marketers just like you. On tap for Denver, are email marketers from Memolink, Shop at Home, Sierra Trading Post and LifePics who will share their experiences on how they cope with everyday email challenges to drive revenue for their businesses. Best of all, it's a great opportunity for you to get your specific questions answered one-on-one during our email expert roundtables.
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
14
By Stephanie Colleton
Director, Strategic Services
This past Sunday the New York Times Magazine ran a column by Virginia Heffernan ranting about Evite. Her complaints about the party-planning service were many, but one sentence really jumped out at me:
"And why, for the love of both partying and efficiency, aren't the details of an event -- the time and place -- in the subject line or at least the email itself?"
The reason, according to Heffernan's column, is that Evite wants to drive page views, which translate into ad dollars, by forcing recipients to click through to the party details page. In this case, what's good for the business isn't good for the consumer. ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
09
By Bonnie Malone Fry
Director, Strategic Services
As every marketer continues on the quest for higher response and ROI, triggered campaigns centered around website behaviors (previous purchases, abandoned carts, browse history, etc) are becoming more and more popular due to their high subscriber relevancy and response. However, in the whirlwind to implement such high impact programs, it's easy to lose focus on the subscriber experience. To truly optimize results, and foster your relationship with the subscriber, keep these three tips in mind ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
02
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Our good client Andrew Magpantay, Senior Product Manager at Reunion.com, coined a great expression when he spoke at our client seminar in Los Angeles on Thursday. He said that reconnecting with non-responders on the file is like gathering up the "loose change." Sure, there is some value there, and if you have a lot of it lying around it adds up to real dollars, but the risk is that complaints rates are higher from these subscribers and there is a risk of spam traps from old addresses. To extend his analogy, the trick is to figure out if it's worth the work to overturn the couch for a few dollars.
Categories: Response
Mar
26
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Imagine email marketers who really want their subscribers to unsubscribe. It seems blasphemous, until you realize that it's really just smart product marketing.
At Return Path's Email Expert City Seminar in San Francisco yesterday, two companies with very large files talked about how they use transactional email messages to build a compelling subscriber experience and drive customer behavior. Nicole Bartholomew of eBay sends 18 billion messages a year and Serge Tyurin of Facebook sends about 170 million a day. Both of them have worked hard to make sure that customers are receiving only the types of messages that they really want. "I'd be happy if someone unsubscribes," Nicole says. "It's a way of making sure that we don't bother them! I'm not necessarily proud of that 18 billion as a number -- I want to send messages that are well received and have value."
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Mar
12
By Anita Absey
SVP, Sales & Marketing
So you are sitting at your desk, staring at your email promotion calendar thinking "Is there a single new idea left in the world? What do my subscribers really want? What are the newest rules for getting to the inbox? What are other marketers doing to get out of the rut?"
If this describes you, then you need to come to Return Path's Email Expert Seminars . The smartest minds in email today will be on hand to give you a fresh perspective on email. You'll view the world from the perspectives of subscribers, ISPs and your fellow marketers. You'll also get a fresh perspective on email acquisition and learn some bold new ways to apply those same old best practices.
Our experts are coming to ...
Tell me moreCategories: Acquisition | Deliverability | Response
Feb
26
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
It's a fascinating phenomenon here in New York City. As soon as it starts raining, there magically appears on nearly every street corner a gentleman selling umbrellas. When the sun is out, these men are no where to be seen. They must be lurking somewhere, watching the seismic reports. As soon as the drops hit the sidewalk, you can hear calls of "Uuuhhmmmbrellllaaaa's" and see them hawking their wares.
My reaction is one of respect and gratitude. They are there exactly when we need them, and no more. Your email program could take a lesson from these entrepreneurs. When subscribers are in market, send them more email that speaks to their specific needs. When they are not in market, don't send as much email.
Categories: Response
Feb
19
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
It's a common trap that retailers and many other email marketers find themselves in - slaves to the discount. Once we start to regularly offer discounts or free shipping in email messages, subscribers become hooked, and they torture us by not responding as well to other types of messages. As a result, it becomes harder for email marketers to break out of the trap of sending discounts and free shipping offers when we are judged on revenue at the end of every month. However, as revealed in our fourth annual Holiday Email Survey, discounts do not trump value.
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Feb
12
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
At this morning's kick off to the DMA/eec's first annual Email Evolution Conference, eec founder Jeanniey Mullen showed a number of "man on the street" interviews with "real people" talking about email.
It was amusing and insightful to hear people talk about their inboxes and how they must actively manage them. (Watch the videos online at the eec website if you get a chance). Better, were that the comments completely synched with Return Path's Fourth Annual Holiday Email Survey where subscribers tell us that they mostly just deleted unread emails -- defined as "junk from companies I know but is just not interesting to me."
What really struck me was the video participants' storytelling. They talked about email as a sort of stew - our marketing messages are mixed up in there with notes from grandma, various lovers, a three-year old's parents and even one gentleman's new job announcement.
Categories: Response
Jan
15
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
It's like the old axiom about how people talk about lawyers. People love their own lawyer, but hate lawyers in general. It seems that subscribers may feel the same way about email marketing these days.
Subscribers report a general love of email as a channel and say they find value in many email messages. Yet, respondents in our fourth annual Holiday Email Survey also report that overall, email marketing connections are fatigued, and many are just plain weak.
Categories: Response
Jan
02
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Subject lines could be the single most important factor in open rates and response. Yet they are much neglected. Too bad for the industry, but what a great opportunity for you to boost results and nudge out the competition.
Last week we touched on a few tactical best practices regarding subject line length and content that will grab subscriber attention. Here's a few strategic issues to consider when writing subject lines that are sure to maximize impact in the inbox.
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Dec
27
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
True in email as in life, you only have one chance to make a first impression. It's your subject line. Unless the reader has a preview pane, the subject line is your first and only chance to encourage a subscriber to actually read and respond to your call to action. So what are the magic words that will entice your subscriber to take the next step? In part one of this blog posting, I'll provide you with a few do's and don'ts that will help you find the best combination to elicit a higher response.
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Dec
18
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
No doubt that Old Navy will receive a large amount of consumer data in its "Wish It, Win It" Instant Giveaway which encourages visitors to create an online wish list of up to $500 for a daily chance to win everything in it. Similar results may be in store for FabulousSavings.com which prompts visitors to enter for a chance to win $50,000. In exchange, all you have to do is register. Despite the number of sweepstakes this season - and the predictable traffic boost they create - it's still hard to hear the cash register ring for email marketers trying to use this tactic to build an engaged file of new customers.
No wonder, since our experience suggests sweepstakes-sourced subscribers actually convert less than half as well (40-70% less based on recent client campaigns) than opt-in subscribers. Why? Because entrants are primarily interested in the prize and not necessarily in buying the products or service. That means in order to achieve a positive ROI, you need at least 2x the number of leads, or you need 2x the average order size - just to leave your email file as responsive as it was before you started.
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Dec
13
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
I spent four days this week at the Email Insider Summit in beautiful Park City, Utah. As a program chair for putting together the agenda, I can honestly (and humbly!) say the content was great and the location was sublime. We all left with more contacts, lots of great ideas, case stories to apply to our programs, many intriguing conversations, potentially some great partnerships to explore, and definitely less sleep than we need.
Here are my top five observations and predictions for the industry based on the numerous and insightful conversations I had this week with marketers and industry leaders...
Categories: Response
Dec
06
By Margaret Farmakis
Director, Strategic Services
According to Prince, there's nothing wrong with partying like it's 1999, but when it comes to sending email we don't recommend it. Unfortunately, many marketers are stuck in a time warp, especially when it comes to their welcome messages.
How do we know? We signed up for the email programs of 57 top marketers representing a wide range of vertical markets and compiled the findings into our latest white paper, "A Welcome Message Study: Marketers Are Missing Opportunities to Pave the Road to Relevancy."
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Nov
19
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
A variety of email strategies are planned for capturing higher share of wallet on Black Friday/Cyber Monday - the biggest shopping days of the year. I'll update you all on results we see with our clients, but would love to hear from you on how your strategy fared this year. Here's a quick overview of what we're seeing planned - maybe some of these ideas will help you make some last-minute improvement to your own strategy.
Categories: Response
Nov
01
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
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...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Oct
22
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
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. ...
Categories: Response
Oct
16
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
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 ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Oct
02
(... and an upcoming DMA/EEC event to get some for yourself)
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
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 ...
Categories: Response
Oct
02
By Margaret Farmakis
Director, Strategic Services
Does size really matter? It does, but not in the way you think.
When it comes to your email list, bigger is not necessarily better. You may have hundreds of thousands of subscribers on your file, but if a large portion aren't opening, reading and clicking on your emails, where's the value in that email address for your business?
"Finders-keepers" seems to be a common email marketing mantra for growing an email file. Once subscribers have opted in, the assumption is that they will want to receive email from you forever. As long as they don't opt out, you might as well keep sending, despite what the growing number of inert non-responders on your file may be telling you.
That's why it's refreshing to see what happens when marketing mavericks buck trends, challenge preconceived notions about file size as it relates to data quality and scrub the heck out of their lists. We were delighted to see Ken Magill's article for DIRECT about how CBSSports.com recently completed an across the board re-subscribe effort of their email lists. ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Oct
01
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
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. ...
Categories: Response
Sep
10
By Stephanie Colleton
Director, Strategic Services
For many retailers, the holiday shopping season is a make or break selling period. Our recent webinar, "Boost Holiday Email Response: Give Subscribers What They Want," presented many actionable ideas for using email to boost revenue during this season. Here are three of those ideas that will help you drive strong response rates this quarter.
1. Balance your promotions and offers with useful content by thinking of ways your products can help your subscribers throughout the holiday season. For example ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Aug
21
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
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...
Categories: Response
Aug
20
By Margaret Farmakis
Director, Strategic Services
As many email marketers know, the holiday season starts in August - and in the true holiday spirit, it can get pretty nasty out there with crowded inboxes, aggressive spam filtering, volume caps set by ISPs and subscribers looking for the best sale.
Those visions of sugar plums and high response rates that drive purchases and boost sales are not off base - our 3rd Annual Holiday Survey confirms what you already know: holiday email works. Roughly half of the respondents (49.1%) in our survey took advantage of several email offers during the holiday season.
Just how big of a challenge is it to break through the holiday clutter? ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Aug
01
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
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 ...
Categories: Response
Jul
12
By Stephanie Colleton
Director, Strategic Services
An eMarketer article reports that a survey conducted in May 2007 by the e-tailing group and BetweenMarkets asks online shoppers what they do when a merchant is out-of-stock on the item they want to buy. Almost half reported that they go to a competitor website for the same or similar product. However, 25% will sign-up for an email alert that notifies them when the item becomes available. An additional 31% will check back later. It would be interesting to know how many of those 31% would sign up for email alerts if they were available.
Online shoppers crave convenience. If a consumer has spent time finding what they want, at the right price, from a retailer they trust, only to discover that the product is out-of-stock, it's frustrating to have to start the search all over again. By contrast, it's easy to sign up for an email alert. If the item is exclusive to your brand the shopper may make a mental note to check back later. But what if they forget? Email alerts allow you to remind them!
If you don't have email inventory alerts, you may be missing a great opportunity ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Jun
25
By Margaret Farmakis
Director, Strategic Services
How often should marketers send email to their subscribers?
According to Chad White at the Email Experience Council (eec), that depends to some extent on the industry norm. He compiled frequency data for 92 major retailers over 16 weeks and found that the average number of touches is 1.7 per week.
What's a marketer to do if you fall above or below the industry average? The knee-jerk reaction is to submit to the peer pressure of your industry's frequency statistics and fall in line accordingly. But will that really make a difference when it comes to response? ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Jun
14
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
I spoke at both INBOX and Internet Retailer recently, and at both events heard smart marketers ask, "Why do readers unsubscribe, ignore or complain about my emails? They opted-in!"
The answer is that permission is not forever. Subscribers opt in and then promptly forget about their actions. Many marketers are not clear about what they will be sending, or at what frequency. That disconnect is real -- in fact, it's not unusual to see a high number of complaints and unsubscribes on a Welcome Message.
Nor is permission a panacea. Opt-in doesn't replace relevancy and keeping your promises.
To that end, here are a few key moments in the subscriber experience when permission should NOT be assumed ...
Categories: Response
May
29
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Email is so important to subscribers that the rising volume of spam really doesn't bother them so much. Really.
This according to a May report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project -- simply named, "Spam" -- 37% of email users said spam had increased in their personal email accounts, up from 28% of email users who said that two years ago. And 29% of work email users said spam had increased in their work email accounts, up from 21% two years ago. Yet fewer people say spam is "a big problem" for them.
This is very consistent with consumer research from Return Path -- in fact, consumers are pretty good at managing their inboxes using sophisticated tools and practices. They know what they like - and they are quick to delete or complain about email they don't like. ...
Categories: Response
May
22
By Chad Malchow
VP, New Business Development
Last week the Return Path crew traveled to Chicago for our second in a series of Email Marketing Leadership Forums. These are half-day workshops that include up-to-the-minute industry news on email deliverability and response.
The session was lively with lots of great questions from some of Chicago's top email marketers. Here are just three interesting questions, with answers from the Return Path expert panel.
1. Are my "best buyers" my best audience for effective segmentation?
Not necessarily. ...
Categories: Response
May
14
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
After three intense days at MediaPost's Email Insider Summit with some of the smartest email marketers in the business, it feels pretty good to be working in this space right now!
I was so delighted to hear so many speakers lead with the importance of relevance. We email marketers are the subscriber advocates at our organizations, and it's imperative that we take that role seriously. While I heard a lot of talking the talk at the Summit, I confess I didn't hear a lot of case studies that walked the walk. My personal goal this year is to help all our clients make 2007 the first year that they send more targeted, custom, relevant and high performance email than batch-and-blast email.
Melinda Smith and Carey Dietz of Expedia wound up the Summit on Saturday with a solid presentation on creating relevant subscriber experiences every week when most people take two or three trips each year. ...
Categories: Response
May
10
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Greetings from the Email Insider Summit in Bonita Springs, Florida. Great sun, nice breeze and wonderful networking.
At the opening reception tonight, I heard repeatedly from email marketers that the biggest challenge they wanted insight on this week was how to get past short-term thinking internally. Email channel revenue is the crack cocaine of direct marketing. Send out a bunch of emails and generate sales. Forget that we are churning the file and that 60%+ of subscribers are totally checked out. The predictable revenue hit is a very powerful force. And frankly, it's legit -- who can argue with revenue?
The answer is we can. I'm encouraged to hear ...
Categories: Response
May
10
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
There are so many marketing conferences that it can be tough to find time or budget to attend them all.
This is why I love that MarketingProfs is testing an ingenious idea - a virtual seminar! Check out their business-to-business conference that is completely online and completely free. What's better than that? ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
24
By Margaret Farmakis
Director, Strategic Services
We've known for awhile now that email works. But it's still always nice to get a little data to affirm our passion for this channel.
So we were thrilled to see the release of a consumer survey from our friends at Epsilon. They found that an astonishing 84% of email recipients report clicking through on an email offer. The survey also found that 73% made an online purchase and 86% made an in-store purchase as the result of receiving a relevant email offer. In other words, when subscribers are happy, marketers will see tangible and impactful results. ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Apr
04
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
New research from Forrester reveals a trend we've been seeing for some time: Email recipients are an online retailer's best customers. In fact, Forrester found that people who buy products advertised in emails spend 138% more than those who don't buy through email. Email customers are also more likely to buy impulsively and are willing to pay premiums for convenience products.
These are your dream customers!
But wait ... it's not all wine and roses. The report also reveals just how tough the competition for inbox dominance has become. ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Mar
21
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
About half (48%) of email subscribers make purchases or purchase decisions based on email messages, according to the recently released Jupiter Research survey of US Consumers (survey taken September 2006). Hooray! Email works! That's great news for all of us, and correlates with Return Path and client data I've seen: email subscribers are typically more active and valuable customers.
Sending email is not the same as engaging with subscribers, however. In the Jupiter Research, 45% of respondents said they were most interested in messages that are "personalized and targeted." Be honest - how many of the messages you sent this week were truly personalized and targeted? I was talking with a client this morning who voiced the familiar lament, "Why would someone who opted in to my program complain about my email to the ISP?" Well, the reason is ...
Categories: Response
Feb
26
By Chad Malchow
VP, New Business Development
When running reports on email metrics, marketers know to remove the bounces so that they are reporting only the response rates of the emails that were delivered. This method makes sense - an email that bounces can't possibly generate a response. Including the bounces would make your metrics look much worse than they really are.
So it's surprising to me that email marketers don't also remove the messages that don't make it to the inbox because of deliverability failures. These messages are no more capable of generating a response than your hard bounces, but get included in - and therefore depress - your metrics reports. This means that you are not taking the credit you deserve for the revenue your email is generating.
Let's look at an example to illustrate this point ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Feb
12
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Many marketers worry that consumers utilize the "this is spam" button indiscriminately - even gleefully - without appreciating the severe negative impact that a high complaint rate has on a sender's reputation and deliverability. Our Third Annual Holiday Survey offers some consolation - consumers seem to want to use the unsubscribe button more than they use the spam button.
According to our survey, consumers seem to trust the unsubscribe function, and to consider carefully the impact of a complaint (clicking the "this is spam" button). One third (33%) report that they are most likely to use the unsubscribe button first, and 12% say they use the complaint button "as the last resort" after trying other tactics. ...
Categories: Response
Feb
06
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
A telling trend emerged as we analyzed the results of our Third Annual Holiday Survey this year. While nearly all respondents still said they used email to make holiday shopping decisions, fewer respondents than last year reported using email for comparison shopping, gift ideas or even when visiting a store. We believe this is due to the normalizing of online shopping - email is no longer as necessary to encourage shoppers to go online. Shop.org reported in their 2006 eHoliday Mood Study that only 30% of consumers used email to shop online this year - but that almost half (48%) did more of their shopping online this year than last. The biggest drop in utility was with comparison shopping (down 7%) and gift ideas (down 14%). This suggests that either fewer marketers included such content in their emails this year, or that what was sent was not valuable to subscribers. ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Jan
30
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Although every email marketer covets a large file, most of us don't know enough about the size, quality and engagement levels of our subscriber base. A recently released survey Return Path helped field and analyze through the Email Experience Council (eec) highlights a pretty wide gap in email marketing optimization, indicates a lack of understanding or resources around defining the value of an email address, and establishes a clear need for best practices around email valuation and list growth.
Readers of this blog can get the report for a 30% discount off the $39 purchase price when you use the code rtsc during checkout. (Members of the eec can download the survey free.)
Even without clearly defined guidelines for how much a marketer can pay to acquire a new subscriber (or how to optimize for higher ROI of the file), many marketers in this survey claim that building a large file is important to them. Unfortunately, hope is not a strategy. ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Jan
23
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Return Path has just released our Third Annual Holiday Email Consumer Survey. For the third year in a row, consumers tell us that they love the kind of email that helps them shop, gives them new ideas and comes when it was promised (and not more often).
The good news is that nearly all respondents selected at least one response indicating the importance of email to their online shopping this season. In fact, half (49.1%) claimed they took advantage of several email offers this year. But the bad news, at least for some marketers, is that half report receiving high volumes of "junk" email this year ("email from companies I know but that is just not interesting to me."), and one-third say marketers email them more frequently than promised.
What makes consumers open one email and not another? ...
Categories: Response
Jan
14
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
So, the CEO walks into your office and says, "What's the one email marketing strategy you will use in 2007 that will really move the needle on revenue?" What do you say?
You could distract their attention by pointing out the window, screaming, "Oh my gosh, was that a bird?!" Or you could stammer through something like, "Well, we'll be testing a number of new approaches that might add up to revenue growth, but I'm not sure which tactics will contribute most." Or you could confidently say, "Segmentation. We will be creating experiences that are extremely relevant for a number of high value segments -- many of which are impossible or not cost efficient to reach in other channels -- and in doing so, improve response rates, customer retention and lifetime value."
Your choice.
Put segmentation at the center of your plans this year. It's not a nice-to-have, advanced technique. It's essential. Here's why ...
Categories: Response
Jan
08
By Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
It's January 8th and even if you've already broken every personal resolution you made, here's three resolutions you and your email marketing team can make and easily keep. They'll help you reach more subscribers more effectively, drive higher response and earn new revenue. Not a bad payout! ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Oct
23
By Tami Monahan Forman
Director of Strategic Services
Earlier this month, we discussed how important transactional messages are to the online shopping experience. Turns out that transactional email are just one type of email that your customers are actively seeking from you.
In a recent Return Path survey, we asked shoppers when they wanted to receive email. Large percentages answered that they wanted email when ...
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Oct
23
By Stephanie Miller
VP, Strategic Services
It's pretty easy to understand why targeted email offers perform better - they are more relevant for the subscriber. But where do you start when you've got a big number to reach this holiday season, a big file to understand, and not a lot of extra time? Try segmenting where email can build the most new revenue.
This may not be the "best buyer" category. Your best buyers may be perfectly happy with the current cadence of your program and familiar with your merchandise and styles. More email may have less effect on their purchases. For them, meter the frequency, especially after they have already purchased.
Instead, focus your segmentation on subscribers who have the highest sales potential ...
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Oct
18
By Stephanie Miller
VP, Strategic Services
Back in August, many retailers claimed they wanted to avoid the heavy promotions and discounts that have become a crutch for driving response in many email programs. We applauded this decision, knowing that email doesn't have to cut the margin in order to get a response.
Thus, we were disappointed at retailer reaction when the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported survey results in September that most consumers say (not surprisingly) they would rather have free shipping and other discount offers this holiday season. ...
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Oct
17
By Stephanie Miller
VP, Strategic Services
Not sure it's a good thing, but pretty much everything makes me think of email. Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group gave the keynote at the DMA Monday morning. He was wonderful. He told the story of Virgin's growth by harnessing innovation and challenging assumptions. He said he only enters new markets where he feels the existing players are not optimizing the opportunity. He has tied his business mission to a commitment to preserve the health of the environment. He was candid about the skepticism he has faced as he enters each new business. He told the story of privatizing the railroads in Britain, a project which was years late and more expensive than they had anticipated. Yet, today, Britons fly his airline, take his trains and, of course, still buy his records. The brand power, he says, is strong enough to persevere even when Virgin has to be honest with his customers -- honest about delayed launches, cancelled flights and price increases.
So what does that have to do with email? ...
Categories: Response
Oct
10
By Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
I had a good meeting this morning with one of our long-time multi-channel retailer clients who is in town for Shop.org's Annual Summit. Over the course of our conversation, she relayed two things going on in her world of email marketing at the moment that bear repeating (with her permission, of course). ...
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Oct
05
By Tami Monahan Forman
Director of Strategic Services
We all know that email is critical to the online shopping experience and to customer satisfaction. But would you believe that transactional emails are more important to customers than customer service reps who can answer questions? We were surprised, too, but that was the finding of a recent consumer survey.
73% of respondents in a recent survey we did through Return Path's Authentic Response survey division said that email was "very important" to the experience with an additional 25% rating it as "important." Only 2% said email confirmation were not important. The other elements we asked consumers to rate included customer service, ability to find products, return policy, free shipping. Of those, only free shipping scored as high as email messages to confirm orders in importance to consumers.
Take advantage of the vital role that transactional messages play in your relationship with your customers. ...
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Sep
13
By Tami Monahan Forman
Director of Strategic Services
I have a secret. I love to write subject lines. It's a task that many email marketers dread, but I think it's fun! It must go back to my days on my college newspaper, writing headlines.
And, in my work with Return Path clients, I get to help write a lot of subject lines. So, I thought I'd share with you all the method Strategic Services has developed for writing subject lines. Following these 6 steps will make the task of writing subject lines easier and more effective. ...
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Aug
08
By Tami Monahan Forman
Director of Strategic Services
We recently got a call from a client (who shall remain nameless, for what will soon be obvious reasons) with a question that we found alarming.
The client who called us is the email manager for his company, acting as a kind of internal agency to a number of departments who want to use email marketing. One such department requested that he put together a "one-time" email for a list they had acquired. ....
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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 ....
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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." ....
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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. ....
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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 ....
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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 ....
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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
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Feb
15
By: Tami Forman
Director of Strategic Services
We came across this story in MediaLife (by way of MarketingVox): Advertisers can now have their messages etched onto egg shells.
Aside from the obvious humor to be found in this story, we are most intrigued by the ROI one might expect from this type of campaign. Those of us who work in interactive marketing -- particularly email -- are used to being beaten over the head with the need to prove out our campaigns with real numbers, preferably the kind that have dollar signs attached them. So, how does one measure the impact of egg etchings?
Funny you should ask ....
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Feb
14
By: Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Forget experience, gut feelings and opinions. Turns out that the intuition of marketers was completely unreliable in predicting the best performing creative for online, email and search marketing. Results from this Marketing Experiments Lab are posted online.
What's an email marketer to do? One word: TEST.
All day long our Strategy Group works with marketers to apply best practices to their retention and acquisition emails. We pour over past campaign data and click analysis ...
Categories: Response
Feb
08
By: Tami Forman
Director of Strategic Services
We recently wrote about viral marketing and offered viral content ideas. Maybe you weren't convinced that this tactic is truly important to your email marketing success.
Well, a recent survey by Sharpe Partners should get you thinking otherwise. They found that almost 90% of adult internet users share content with others via email. And the respondents are forwarding frequently...
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Jan
26
By: Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Every marketer knows that email works when it is done right. Yet the data shows that precious few make that happen in their email programs. Consumers want your email, will open your email, and will buy from you via email--if you build a relationship and keep that relationship relevant. Think of it as a courtship--with better odds.
A recent Return Path survey analyzing consumer use of email during the holiday shopping season showed that consumers respond to email when they have an ongoing positive experience with the sender and have received value from their email program...
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Jan
20
Jan
19
Jan
09
What: User-generated email messages
Who: eBay
Why we love it: eBay has found a way to automate truly targeted, one-to-one email communications for its vast membership. When you do a search for a product on eBay you are given the option of saving the search and having any products that match it emailed to you up to once per day. Since the email is automatically generated off your search term, it is completely relevant. These emails elegantly emphasize what makes eBay so great...
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Jan
07
By: Tami Forman
Director of Strategic Services
In honor of cold and flu season it seemed appropriate to talk about viral marketing. In an earlier edition of this newsletter, we told you that the key to making viral marketing work is to have great content and then surround that content with the right mechanics.
So, what makes "great," virus-worthy content? The most important element is that it be relevant to your target audience. Getting people to forward is fine, but what you really want is for them to forward to the...
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Dec
20
By: Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
We heard some shocking news the other day... that more than 60% of marketers decided NOT to email their customers after the holidays.
While I appreciate the break from the deluge of emails we've all received this season, and I would never encourage marketers to send email messages that don't have meaning and value for their subscribers, I have to think this is a huge missed opportunity! The survey was conducted by Accucast of 52 their own retailer clients, and found that many marketers will pass on the chance to use email for promotions or thank you's to customers post-holiday.
The week between Christmas and New Years' -- which also happens to be Hanukkah this year -- could be a good opportunity for you - both B2C and B2B. Consider some of these ideas...
Categories: Response
Dec
15
By: Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services
Looks like the analysts at Jupiter are reading the Sign Me Up! book from Return Path! Excerpt: According to a recent JupiterResearch survey, 16 percent of consumers formed negative opinions because of email newsletters or promotions they received, impacting relevance and creative aspects of e-mail campaigns.
After relevance, clearly written copy drives 40 percent of consumers to click through on email messages. Marketers must adopt best practices such as testing and calls to action...
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Dec
13
Dec
05
By: Stephanie Miller
VP of Strategic Services; Return Path, Inc.
The classic sales funnel shows prospects flowing in the top, cycling through a number of marketing and sales qualification steps, and
emerging as customers out the bottom. While much attention has been
focused on retention -- turning those one-time customers into repeat buyers and possibly even ambassadors for the brand -- marketers are again paying more attention - and assigning more budget - to
acquisition: Enticing prospects into the first stage.
A new study by IDG/Prophet shows that more than half...
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Dec
05
What: Email satisfaction survey
Who: Sierra Trading Post
Why we love it: Catalog and online retailer, Sierra Trading Post was interested in learning more about what its audience of email subscribers liked and didn't like about the emails they were receiving. The started with a simple survey that they included as a button on their regular promotional email. The response rate was...
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