Response Posts
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
22
What: Using Incentives to Grow (and Maintain!) Your List
Who: Rock Creek Outfitters
Why we love it: Lots of retailers use contests to encourage newsletter sign ups. Rock Creek does it one step better with a simple approach that drives high dividends for subscribers and sales. First, they partner with manufacturers to provide the contest prize. This promotion is viewed as so valuable by manufacturers that Rock Creek has the sponsorship sold out a year in advance! That also ensures that the prize is really valuable to subscribers. Even better, Rock Creek not only allows but actively encourages subscribers to re-subscribe every month for a new entry. What a great list maintenance idea! It doesn't change the economics of the contest, but ...
Tell me moreCategories: 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
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