I recently opened a promotional email from my favorite business publication (I subscribe to the offline version). This email was promoting one of the publication's sister brands. Since I've been subscribing for years, I don't recall specifically that I agreed to receive promotional emails from this company, but I presume I did.

Okay, so far. But this major brand failed on some of the most basic email administrative tactics. Let me show you how:

Below is the unsubscribe and contact information located at the bottom of the email (I've removed the company name):

If you would prefer not to receive further commercial messages about "Sister Publication,"
please click here and confirm your request.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This message is being sent to you by Parent Business Publication.

If you would prefer not to receive further messages from Big Business Publication, please click on the following Internet link and confirm your request.

I clicked the "click here" link to unsubscribe, but the page didn't load despite several attempts. Either it was a bad link, they were having server issues, or some other technical issue had arisen.

Then, I clicked the second hyperlinked "global" unsubscribe link. This link worked but took me to an "email privacy preferences" form. The form pre-populated my account number but asked for my email address and first and last name. It included two pre-checked boxes: one asking if I wanted to renew my subscription and another asking if I wanted to receive promotional emails from the parent company.

I replied to the email telling the company that its unsubscribe page did not load. I got an automated response: "… emails are normally answered within one business day."

Here's how this household name failed four email administrative basics:

• The unsubscribe link didn't work. It happens, but testing the unsubscribe link and process frequently can uncover and prevent it most of the time. It is working now, but took several days before the unsubscribe process was operating.
• No phone number or email address was provided in the email to let me send questions or comments or to request a manual unsubscribe.
• The reply-to address worked and had a reasonably well-written auto-response message, but after one week and counting, still no response. I assume that this company has not staffed appropriately for email-related issues. My guess is my email went to a general Web site or customer-support department, rather than a specific email address that someone on the marketing or production team was monitoring and could have answered quickly.
• The two links—one to unsubscribe from the parent company list and one from the sister publication—were well intended, but the copy and format was poorly executed, and neither process actually worked. The second unsubscribe/preferences page did not appear to enable either process. This company did not comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

The mistakes this company has made are simply unacceptable and, frankly, easily avoided.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I saw this recent stat from global market intelligence firm IDC and two things stood out. First, I’m frankly shocked at how low online is as a percentage of total ad spend in this research. I’d love to see this stat repeated according to number of impressions, because my “impression” is that online is much more prevalent than this in terms of mindshare. Best guess is that it is the price disparity between online and offline media driving the percentage, not the underlying share of voice.

The second thing that stood out was the country line-up. First of all, the Europeans are making the switch to online much faster than I would have thought. Good for them! And as for Japan, while on the surface it makes sense that they would adopt electronic so quickly, knowing what I do about their buying habits and how big a role “the personal touch” plays in commerce in that region, I find it unusual that Japan would rank so high.

Posted by Elaine O'Gorman at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to a recent study by deliverability provider Return Path, commercial emailers who apply best practices get deliverability rates of 88 percent, compared to 56 percent for well-intentioned marketers who commit blunders when trying to get their email delivered at Internet service providers. Factors that caused big hits to deliverability, according to the study, included:

• Hitting a spam trap. Marketers who sent to even one spam trap—a defunct email address that ISPs use to identify spammers—saw their delivery rates plummet to 38 percent on average, versus 58 percent for senders with no spam trap hits.
• Getting on a blacklist. Those whose IP addresses were listed on one of the top 12 blacklists—lists of domains or IP addresses deemed to be sending spam—saw delivery rates fall to an average of 35 percent, versus 58 percent for senders not listed on any of the top blacklists.
• Sending to unknown users. Senders with “unknown-user” or invalid-address return rates of 10 percent or more got delivery rates of 44 percent, compared to 67 percent for those with unknown-user rates below 10 percent.

In the end, adherence to your own best practices forms the foundation for good email deliverability. But email marketers also need experts on the inside who constantly monitor the changes and go to bat for them when necessary. As Silverpop’s director of deliverability and ISP relationships (you can check out my bio) I keep my eye on that moving target and do everything I can to ensure that our clients get maximum deliverability.

Stay tuned for more posts from me on all aspects of email deliverability, including reputation, authentication, list hygiene, spam filters, blacklists, white lists and all the ins-and-outs of deliverability. Until next time, see you in the funny papers.

Posted by Ted Roberts at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greetings! I'm Loren McDonald, vice president of industry relations here at Silverpop. Some of you may have read my articles in the Silverpop newsletters, Email Insider column or various contributions to DM News, iMedia Connections, MarketingProfs and other industry publications.

I now look forward to contributing regular posts to this newly launched Silverpop blog. My posts will be on a variety of email and marketing topics ranging from trends, best practices and metrics to industry observations. I'll be serious sometimes and occasionally even attempt some humor or to raise something controversial. But goals for my writing and presentations are always the same: to educate, to make marketers think or rethink their views and to do it in a practical and entertaining manner.

I hope you enjoy.

Last week, I spoke on a panel at ad:tech Chicago with four other industry experts on email's role in a Web 3.0 world.

"Wait!" you might be thinking. "What is Web 3.0, and what happened to Web 2.0?"

Relax … Web 3.0 isn't here yet, but it's coming on the heels of Web 2.0. Futurists envision it combining Web 1.0's one-way informational reach and Web 2.0's collaborative tools to create the "intelligent Web" to make information gathering and sharing even easier.

Four Rules for Email in a Web 2.0/3.0 World

1. Email users are in control now.


2. Email users have lots of options for gathering information but have less time to deal with them.


3. Email consumers are changing.


4. The inbox is changing.

1. Users will decide if, when and where they'll read your email and on which platform. It won't always be on their PC or sitting at their desk, but, for example, while sitting at a stoplight and viewed on their iPhones, for example.
2. Users have many choices for receiving messages. They'll prefer some via email, others via SMS (text), some via blogs or RSS feeds and others via direct or voice mail. They might sign up for an airline's promotional emails but prefer SMS for flight alerts. So, you need to give them more than a single option.
3. Email consumer demographics are changing, but email is not dying. Yes, teens and college students live on texting, IMing and Facebook walls, but they're going to grow up eventually and join the adult world, where email still rules. When was the last time you rode your skateboard to work?

   Yes, the texting generation (18- to 24-year-olds) will change how businesses interact with consumers, but this age group only comprises 10 percent of the U.S. population, while the 20+ age group will make up 72 percent in 2010. The newspaper generation still rules.

   Email use is shifting. Text messages, IM and social networks such as MySpace and Facebook are clearly replacing consumer-to- consumer emails for many people. But email still rocks for business communications. A Habeas survey found 67 percent of North American adult users prefer it when dealing with business, compared to 34 percent for the Web, the next-highest channel.

4. The inbox is changing. As smartphone sales go through the roof, the inbox and message view are shrinking. Your email will not look the same way on a smartphone as it does on the PC. And your subscribers will often look at the same email on different platforms. It's critical to design messages both to render well on multiple platforms and support each other's business goals.

   The wireless market is small now, about 6 percent to 10 percent of users, but you can probably expect that as much as 25 percent of some email subscriber lists will interact with your email on a mobile device and PC in the next few years.

   Email goes viral in the social network. Email subscribers will be able to post their messages on their social-network pages, which is like forward-to-a-friend on steroids.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)