What Do Women Want? Email and Chocolate

By Margaret Farmakis
Director, Strategic Services

According to a recent study by BlogHer and Compass Partners, 36.2 million women are participating in a blog every week: 15.1 million are publishing and 21.2 million are reading and commenting. Perhaps even more interesting, the women that took part in the study said they would give up alcohol (55%), their PDAs (50%) and reading newspapers or magazines (43%) in order to keep writing and reading blogs. Their dedication had limits, however: 80% of the women surveyed refused to give up chocolate.

So, other than the fact that the confections industry can breathe a sigh of relief, what does this mean for email? Marketers, take note: Women online have purchasing power. The study found that the women who are engaged with blogging are educated (57% graduated from college) and well paid (46% earn $75K or more). These women could very well be your most active, responsive and engaged subscriber segments. How can you serve them better? Consider these three ideas ...

Categories: Response

Marketing to Mom

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

Categories: Response

Email Marketing Secrets

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. ...

Categories: Response

Rocky Mountain High

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.

Categories: Response

Focus on Subscriber Experience: Learning a Lesson from Evite

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. ...

Categories: Response

Pulling the Trigger on Trigger-Based Campaigns

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 ...

Categories: Response

Counting the Loose Change

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

Marketers Who Welcome an Unsubscribe

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."

Categories: Response

Get Fresh, New Email Ideas: Expert Seminars

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 ...

Categories: Acquisition | Email Deliverability | Response

Lessons from the Umbrella Salesman

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