Response Posts
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 ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
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 ...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
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