Report from the Email Marketing Forum in Brussels

By Margaret Farmakis
Senior Director, Strategic Services

I had the opportunity to speak at the Email Marketing Forum in Brussels last week where I presented five strategies for improving revenue and response by breaking free from the batch-and-blast model once and for all and giving subscribers what they really want: relevant and targeted email.

In addition to learning how to say "Good morning everyone" in French and Dutch, I really enjoyed meeting some very smart marketers who are struggling with the same challenges as their U.S. counterparts: how to stand out from the inbox clutter, get delivered and get a return on their email investment.

The 90+ marketers in attendance were a fairly even mix of mostly Belgian-based B2B and B2C companies, with some marketers just in the beginning stages of launching an email program and others looking for more advanced strategies and innovative ideas to take back with them. Also in attendance were marketers representing the European offices of some fairly large international companies, including DHL, UPS, BMW, Novartis, Pfizer and D&B, in addition to top Belgian email service providers, such as EmailGarage and Emailvision.

Below is a summary of four of the day's best presentations ...

Categories: Response

Cool Email Idea: Special Election Day Edition

What: Super-Customized Content

Who: McCain/Palin

Why we love it: Since we previously praised the Obama campaign's list-building efforts, it's only fair to give a little "Cool Thing" shout-out to the GOP. Check out this super-relevant, highly-targeted email aimed at getting voters in swing-state Colorado headed to the polls early. The email includes the address of our polling location, driving directions, poll hours and more.

What would make it better: Branding is important ...

Categories: Response

BOO! Email Marketing Statistics That Just Might Scare You

By Margaret Farmakis
Senior Director, Strategic Services

Email marketers, BEWARE! Do not press "send" before you read this, or proceed at your own (and your subscribers') peril. Just in time for Halloween, we have some gruesome and gory email marketing statistics that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and your blood run cold.

While you won't be inclined to do the Monster Mash, you may think twice about sending another promotional email with the same "buy now" messaging. A recent blog posting by Jason Baer shared some seriously scary email stats that were used in a presentation at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer earlier this month. They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky all right. In fact, they're all together "ooky," but not nearly as harmless as the Addams Family.

But fear not brave marketer - even the most devilish of Halloween tricks can be countered with a deliciously yummy and potently sweet treat. So stop repeating "I see dead people" when referring to the inactive portion of your email file, break out the candy corn and read on. ...

Categories: Response

Making the Case for Email Marketing

By Stephanie Miller
Global Markets Catalyst

I'm on a plane, and the gentleman next to me on the plane is the CMO of a large multi-brand retailer. After exchanging introductions and pleasantries, I ask him if he's happy with his email marketing program. The resulting conversation was fascinating, and typical of those we have with our clients while trying to help email program directors make the case to executive management about investment in the channel. I'm hoping that this particular CMO goes back to his team and engages.

That would be just one small step for email marketer-kind.

SAM: How is email marketing working for you?

CMO: Well, it sure generates a lot of revenue for us. I can think of three or four months this year where we doubled up on email messages and that helped us make our month.

SAM: So it's a really important part of the marketing mix then, eh?

CMO: Sure. It's in there.

SAM: And, you have a lot of people working on email to optimize all that revenue, then?

CMO: Oh no. (Laughing) We have one junior guy. He reports into my head of ecommerce. I think his name is Steve. Yeah, that's right, it's Steve. ...

Categories: Response

Cool B2B Email Marketing Idea

By Stephanie Miller
Global Markets Catalyst

At the DMA Annual event this month, I spoke with many B2B marketers about the particular challenges they face in these rough economic times. Basically, the economy is a mess, budgets are squeezing, our clients are all afraid to make investments.

The good news is that email marketing is a great tool for building relationships and adding value to your customer relationships. Instead of just sending more product announcements, send "Recession Buster" ideas to your clients and prospects every week (or, if appropriate, every day for a limited time). Create a simple design and ...

Categories: Response

Report from Shop.org #2: Are You Brave Enough to Abandon Batch & Blast Email Marketing?

By Stephanie Miller
Global Markets Catalyst

One of the key issues for retailers looking to move to a lifecycle-based approach to email marketing is gathering data from the disparate systems that allow us to send triggered messages based on subscriber behavior. Typically this means sending abandoned shopping cart messages or recommendations based on browsing or follow ups after purchase.

In a great panel discussion that I led at Shop.org's Annual event last week (see last blog posting here), Angela Caltagirone of Williams-Sonoma and Anne Ashbey of Harry & David both talked about the need to manage the data across many product SKUs in order to mail a significant number of subscribers each month. When each segment performs at 5x-30x higher than a generic promotional message, the ROI value is clear. But if you can only reach a small number, say 5,000 subscribers with each mailing, the revenue contribution is small. Automating these triggers is key - so that you can get enough scale and reach across your file to make it worthwhile. Even Rob Gallagher of Overstock, with a large file and detailed segmentation, has challenges with data integration.

Several retailers lamented the lack of ability to access website browsing data at all. And all the speakers acknowledge that ...

Categories: Response

Report from Shop.org #1: 7 Ways to Increase Your Email Marketing ROI

By Stephanie Miller
Global Markets Catalyst

There are so many elements to a successful email program, that often when asked for our "secrets to success" we pause in a quick effort to prioritize the various factors. Thus, it was great to lead a panel at Shop.org last month of extraordinary retailers who are doing smart, creative things with email in order to drive higher return.

During our prep, we had long, rambling conversations about what works, what doesn't and what seems to still resist taming. We had various perspectives from these pros, which certainly helped the conversation. Anne Ashbey, Director, eCommerce, Harry & David has a customer experience viewpoint finely tuned to the seasonal gift products she sells. Angela Caltagirone, Director, Email and eMarketing & Customer Acquisition, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. manages multiple brands with limited customer crossover. Rob Gallagher, Email Marketing Manager, Overstock.com has a highly segmented file and still sends more than 140 million messages a month. And Doug Williams, Director of Marketing, Lane Bryant Catalog, Charming Shoppes, Inc. is managing the launch of new online brands and expanding the email channel.

The panel debated a number of causes and effects of various strategies and agreed on seven ways to increase email ROI ...

Categories: Response

An Email Study Compendium

By Anita Absey
SVP, Sales & Marketing

While the title sounds a bit like an existential crisis, Mark Brownlow's "Why do email marketing" is a must-read post for anyone involved with email today. It is stuffed with stats from ...

Categories: Response

Cool Email Idea: Snack-Sized Newsletters

Less is more. It's a cliché that we preach a lot here at Return Path, but marketers have a hard time believing it. It's too easy to fall into the "more is more" trap. Well MarketingProfs has embraced the message with...

Categories: Response

A Lesson from The Onion

By Bonnie Malone Fry
Director, Strategic Services

In a recent article featured on The Onion, Presidential candidate Barack Obama expressed his personal frustrations in receiving an onslaught of emails from the polictical association MoveOn.org. He subscribed to the organization's email program 4 years ago, but continues to receive email after months of deleting it without reading a single message. He finds the content uninteresting and not valuable, and the frequency (3x a week) highly irritating. Of course it's immediately obvious why this is so funny - MoveOn.org has gained a reputation as a very aggressive email marketer.

But, aside from being so funny, The Onion spoof offers a good object lesson for marketers. Because it's all too easy to think, what's the big deal if people delete your email daily without reading it? But this piece hits a nerve because it articulates ...

Categories: Response