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Posts Tagged ‘e-mail marketing’

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Email Marketing: What to Expect in 2011

23
December
2010

There are numerous predictions about what to expect in email marketing during 2011 with three of the most important ones relating to social media sharing, mobile friendly messaging and location/local marketing.


Ryan Moss
Lead Strategist

With 2010 quickly coming to a close, everyone is busy recapping the year and making predictions for 2011. Every expert has their own opinion of what to expect in the upcoming year and it would take hours upon hours to read through all of their ideas (trust me I know because I did it). After reading through numerous posts and articles relating to email marketing in 2011 I have been able to narrow down the list of expected trends and new popular concepts into the following top three:

  • Social Media Sharing: This concept was extremely popular in 2010 and is expected to continue during 2011. By allowing your readers to quickly and easily share specific stories/posts or promotions you are able to increase your reach to new levels.
  • Mobile Friendly Messages: As smartphones (androids, iPhones, blackberry, etc.) continue to grow in popularity it is vital to have marketing emails that are mobile friendly as many people will read these emails on their phones.
  • Location/Local Marketing: The evolution of check-ins through Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. combined with local-offer coupons like Groupon provides extremely valuable data for marketers. Leveraging this data could help your company reach consumers on a more personal level, thus allowing your email to stand out in a crowded inbox.

The trends mentioned above are just a few of the most popular predictions and recommendations for 2011. The truth is that email marketing will continue to evolve from a best practices, popular trends and ESP tools/functionality stand point. Therefore, it is important to have someone who is responsible for staying up to date with the latest developments and news to help ensure that your email marketing campaigns remain top-notch and continue to be an effective method of communication.

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What Is A Good Email Open & Click Rate?

6
July
2009

New study reveals average email open and click through rates, but marketers should still base analysis on internal results.

Ryan Moss
Media Coordinator

Everyone who uses email marketing asks two very important questions. What is a good open rate? What is a good click-through rate? To answer these questions many email marketing experts, myself included, recommend comparing your results internally. You should look at your own analytics and use those numbers as your points to evaluate your campaign. The rationale behind this is that there are so many variables out there that effect email campaigns that comparing your campaign to Company X’s campaign wouldn’t be very beneficial. These variables include the quantity and quality of your list, the day and time you sent the email, the subject, your company’s reputation, etc.

With that being said, it is certainly acceptable to compare your results to your industry’s average, but be careful not to make that your main focus. One place to look for these numbers is the recent ‘Email Marketing Metrics Report" that MailerMailer released. As seen in the charts below for both open rates and click through rates, small and medium sized lists (below 1,000 people) performed the best.

If you are going to use industry averages, use them only as a general comparison point and instead focus more attention on your own internal results.

104808 What Is A Good Email Open & Click Rate?
104791 What Is A Good Email Open & Click Rate?

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New Studies Offer Tips for E-mail Marketing

19
January
2009

Two companies recently released studies on e-mail marketing that recommend using short subject lines and sending messages early in the work week.

Ryan Moss
Media Coordinator

eMarketer predicts that the amount of money spent on e-mail marketing will continue to increase during the next five years. About $472 million was spent on e-mail in 2008 and eMarketer expects that amount to reach around $630 million by 2013. As e-mail marketing continues to become more popular, companies have allocated more money to analyze the tactic and determine some best practices.

Two companies, Smith-Harmon and Epsilon, both recently conducted studies on e-mail marketing and came away with some fascinating results.

As seen in the chart below from Smith-Harmon’s study, Monday and Tuesday were the most popular days to send retail e-mail during 2008. As expected Saturday and Sunday were the two least popular days.

Epsilon’s study examined the relationship between the length of the subject line and the response rate. The study showed that shorter subject lines typically perform better with regards to open and click rates, although the correlation isn’t as strong as predicted. Other factors to consider are the order of words in the subject line, word choice and brand/audience awareness.

When sending out an e-mail campaign it is extremely important to pay attention to the minor details. As mentioned above this includes the length of the subject line and what words you use. Also, consider that if there is a high volume of e-mails on certain days, then other days might be better suited for your e-mail campaign.

100771 New Studies Offer Tips for E mail Marketing

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Video Can Now Be Incorporated Into E-mail

16
December
2008

In 2009 Goodmail Systems will launch its certified video system which allows users to include video clips in their e-mail messages.

Ryan Moss
Media Coordinator

Right now, if you want to include a video clip in an e-mail you have to send a link to the website where the video is hosted, but thanks to Goodmail Systems that is about to change. Goodmail, a startup based in Mountain View, California, has created an easy to use way to insert and play videos within e-mail messages This new system, called "Certified Video" will be launched in 2009 and should be very popular among media companies, movie studios and television networks.

According to Goodmail CEO Peter Horan, the video starts playing as soon as the e-mail is opened. However, there is no audio until the recipient turns it on. This is done to avoid being overly intrusive. Additionally, there is no limit on the length of the video clip in the e-mail.

Several companies have already signed up to use Goodmail and its certified video system in 2009. The list includes Live Nation (a concert promoter), an unnamed major cable news network and an unnamed leading newspaper. If the "Certified Video" system achieves the results that are expected, Goodmail’s list of clients will likely continue to grow, at least until one of its competitors can develop a similar system.

 

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E-mail Open Rates Best Practices

30
October
2008

E-mail open rates should be compared internally, not to industry standards.

Ryan Moss
Media Coordinator

E-mail marketing has become extremely popular, but many marketers still do not understand how to measure the success of open rates. The issues that arise include: what is a good open rate? What is the industry standard? Fortunately, these questions are relatively easy to answer.

Most e-mail marketing experts, myself included, agree that companies should not compare their own open rates to industry open rates, and that there is no set "good open rate." Instead, it is recommended that companies compare their results internally. The first e-mail blast should be used as the benchmark and from there, companies can compare subsequent e-mail blast open rates. One of the goals of e-mail marketing programs is to have continuous improvement with regard to open rates.

There are a couple of reasons why it is not good to compare your own results to the industry standard. One of the main issues is that there is no set way to calculate open rates and therefore, different e-mail service providers (ESPs) calculate open rates differently. If the "industry standard" open rate is calculated one way and your open rate is calculated another way, it is not an accurate comparison. Additionally, how the names on your list were acquired affects open rates. People use many different techniques to grow their contact lists (co-reg, viral marketing, website sign-up, etc.). Because of this, some lists have a more active following than others and thus will likely have a higher open rate.

Remember with e-mail open rates compare numbers internally and not to industry standards. Strive to improve the open rate with each e-mail blast sent out to achieve maximum success.

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