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Email Marketing Webinars Recap

24
January
2011

BrightTalk’s online email marketing summit offered attendees a lot of valuable content and information with two of the key takeaways being that email marketing is neither dead nor dying and that the importance of continuous testing can’t be stressed enough.


Ryan Moss
Lead Strategist

Last week I was able to attend several email marketing webinars hosted by BrightTalk as part of their Email Marketing Summit. The topics of these webinars included things such as how to improve deliverability, email trends for 2011 and ways to acquire new leads. There was a lot of valuable information presented in these online sessions and I have highlighted some of my key takeaways below. Perhaps the two most important takeaways are that despite what some people think, email marketing is neither dead nor is it dying as it remains a strong marketing tactic for companies. Additionally, with email marketing it is critical that you continue to TEST and try new and different things to determine what works best for your specific business.

Deliverability:

  • 80-90% of all emails sent in 2010 were classified as SPAM
  • 1 in 5 (20%) of emails never reach the Inbox for a variety of reasons
  • 77% of people say that sender reputation is the deciding factor in whether an email will reach an Inbox
  • Your sender reputation should be continuously monitored to help with deliverability (senderscore.org)
  • Each ISP has their own rules to determine Inbox placement but  they consider things such as message quality, engagement, infrastructure, list hygiene, spam complaints, etc.
  • Proper authentication records (SPF, DKIM) and 3rd party accreditation can make a huge difference in improving deliverability
  • If your IP address has a poor reputation it is better to stay on the IP and repair your reputation as opposed to moving to a new IP address
  • “Smart Inbox”: Email platforms (gmail, Live) are starting to filter emails based on the recipient’s previous engagement (reading, forwarding, deleting) so emails that are frequently deleted without being opened will start automatically ending up in spam or junk folders
  • Social Inbox: All in one inboxes are being created that receive all communications including email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, etc. thus increasing the competition for attention

Email Trends & Best Practices

  • Email is NOT DEAD… a recent study showed that heavy social media users are still heavy email users
  • 58% of people start their day by reading their emails
  • “Spray & Pray” email marketing is out dated and now the right message needs to be sent at the right time to a targeted audience
  • Email & Social Media should be fully integrated to include things such as publishing newsletters on Facebook/Twitter and allowing for recipients to easily share articles on social sites
  • Automation should be used as much as possible which includes things such as auto-responders and welcome messages
  • Very important to get to know your subscribers so you can send targeted and relevant messages

Ways to Acquire New Subscribers

  • Email sign up should be “globally called out” on every single page of your website
  • Ideal to have first page that asks for only necessary fields, explains why a user should sign up and includes your privacy policy
  • After a user signs up you can have a confirmation page and/or follow up email that asks for more detailed optional information
  • Social Media messaging and pages should promote email sign ups
  • Banner Advertisements have been a successful way to grow lists, especially those that offer a coupon in exchange for signing up
  • Transactional emails are a great way to promote your newsletters as buyers often make great subscribers

With email marketing not going anywhere anytime soon it is increasingly important for marketers to update their strategies to stay up to speed with current industry best practices. Outdated email strategies will lead to unsuccessful campaigns and cause a company to miss out on the cost-effective and efficient marketing program that is email.

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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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Retail Consumers Still Prefer Email Over Social Media

26
July
2010

Recent studies show that despite the “social media craze” email marketing is still the most effective promotional channel for retailers.


Ryan Moss
Lead Strategist

Nowadays everyone is talking about social media and every company, big or small, is getting involved. While there are certainly many reasons for a business to utilize social media, a new study shows that retailers might want to think twice about where they are allocating their online marketing budgets.

According to a recent study conducted by CrossView, a cross-channel commerce solutions provider, email marketing is still the most effective promotional channel for retailers. The survey interviewed shoppers in four states and based on their responses, concluded that nearly 40% of shoppers prefer to receive retail promotional messages via email. Direct Mail (23%) was the second most popular channel and text messages were third with 18%. Only 9% of shoppers said they prefer receiving promotional messages on social media sites. Additionally, none of the shoppers said they were likely to go to a store strictly because of receiving a social media promotional message.

Going hand and hand with the CrossView study is one conducted by ExactTarget earlier this summer. The study compared U.S. Internet Users by age group who have opted-in to a brand’s email newsletter, “liked” a brand on  Facebook or followed them on Twitter. Not surprising is that email opt-ins are the most dominant option regardless of age group.

116292 Retail Consumers Still Prefer Email Over Social Media

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Fractured Attention Span Friday: 10 Social Media Stats To Ponder

19
March
2010

Stats that may or may not blow your mind, but understanding the implications is essential. And the questions they pose that all digital marketers need to answer.

Blake Bowyer (@BlakeBowyer)
Media Program Analyst

1 – In 2009, US marketers spent 13% of online marketing time on social media, the second-largest share of any tactic. Then why is it still so clumsy?

2 - 6/10 consumers said their chances of buying from a company increased when they followed it on Facebook. What value are they getting? Savings? Intimacy? Exposure?

3 – The same above applied for Twitter … at a clip of 8/10! Are users following companies on Twitter just to get deals?

4 – The average number of tweets per hour is around 1.3 million. How quickly are yours running through the feeds?

5 – 72% of marketing executives said they were planning a social media strategy in 2010. How many will actually be strategic?

6 – 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States. Are you a multinational? Regardless, you’re speaking globally.

7 – Number one reason execs use social media is “brand-building”, at 82%. Sounds great, but how many are using different definitions?

8 – Foursquare is nearing 16 million check-ins. When are small businesses going to seize this opportunity?

9 – 47% of baby boomers maintain a user profile on at least one social network. You know who isn’t bothered by your parents stalking you on Facebook? Businesses.

10 – 42% of social media users check their email 4 or more times a day, compared to 27% of those who aren’t active on social media. You didn’t declare email dead already, did you?

Reflect on these questions while you daydream this afternoon. Happy Friday!

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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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