By Loren McDonald, on January 5th, 2010
Design and layout of your email messages is more important than ever, because your emails face more challenges than ever: from overcrowded inboxes to rendering issues caused by viewing email on mobile and other small-screen devices to “reader ADD,” where you get just a few seconds to show your value proposition before viewers move on to the next message.
Have your emails kept up with these challenges and changing times? If you suspect your messages could use an extreme makeover, but you’re not sure what needs to be fixed, let a few email pros weigh in with a friendly but thorough critique.
Continue reading Give Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Emails Yearning for a Makeover
By Loren McDonald, on December 15th, 2009
A wealth of data is hiding within your email program. While many email marketers rely on the standard email reports, slicing this data by various factors, including opt-in source, time, demographics, activity and much more can reveal a number of actionable insights.
You can use these metrics to diagnose problems and uncover improvement opportunities. Following are eight examples:
1. Metrics sliced by ISP domain: This can tell you whether, for example, AOL subscribers open, click or convert more or less often than Yahoo Mail or Hotmail subscribers. Segment your list by domain name and compare performances within each segment on these metrics. This analysis can help uncover deliverability or design and rendering issues at a specific ISP, for example.
2. Overall performance by opt-in source: Do subscribers who opt in on your email subscription page differ from those who found you through an affiliate partner, a co-registration site, paid-search or your purchase process? This analysis can reveal greater or less engagement from certain sources and drive changes to opt-in forms and processes.
3. Response rates by time of day/day of week: This can help you figure out the best time or day to send. Plot a graph comparing response rates to sending day and time and look for a pattern.
4. Response rates by key business demographics: This metric can tell you whether certain demographics are underperforming, leading to a need for better content and segmentation.
5. Engagement among new subscribers: Segment new subscribers from your general message stream, and track opens and clicks on your welcome email and other initial emails. Target those who don’t act on these initial emails with a separate email inquiring about problems or questions.
6. Message activity: Measure how much activity each message generates—the average number of clicks per person clicking (”clicks per clicker”); number of opens per opener; which types of links consistently drive higher click activity; and more.
7. Metrics sliced by time on list: Conventional wisdom says long-time subscribers generate less activity than newer subscribers. Segment your list in varying time increments (two weeks since opt-in, one month, three months, six months, one year, two years plus) and compare segments on metrics such as opens, clicks, conversions, unsubscribes and spam complaints. Use the information to improve the welcome experience and plan re-engagement campaigns.
8. Active vs. inactive subscribers: Analyze subscribers by their activity level, such as no opens or clicks for at least six months. Incorporate this analysis with purchase behavior and other activities to drive re-engagement and list hygiene activities.
These are just a few examples of the types of analysis you can do by using the gold mine of email data you have at your fingertips. Let your imagination run wild and see how many nuggets you can uncover.
What are your favorite and most valuable metrics you’ve discovered from slicing existing data in new ways? Please share them in the comments field.
By Loren McDonald, on December 7th, 2009
One of my favorite parts of MediaPost’s fabulous Email Insider Summits has become the inclusion of a panel of consumers discussing how they use email, social media and other communication and marketing channels.
Today, here in Park City, Utah, Michelle Prieb from Ball State University led a panel of Salt Lake City-area graduate students and students who have recently entered the workforce.
This panel produced many great nuggets, but a tactical one caught my attention: the students’ use of “throwaway” email accounts. All of the five panelists mentioned they had more than one email account, such as addresses with Gmail and Yahoo.
One account is for the “wanted” emails, those from companies and services that they knew going in would provide value. The other is the “throwaway” email address, which they use to complete a one-time purchase or when required to register to use a site.
They perceive that these companies will either send them emails of little to no value or possibly share their addresses with third parties and overload their inboxes with unwanted messages.
As more and more consumers bifurcate their email streams, and services like OtherInbox gain adoption, it will become even more critical that marketers persuade people during the opt-in process to use their “wanted” email address.
Here are some quick thoughts on how to establish trust during the opt-in process and influence consumers not to sign-up with their throwaway addresses:
• Ask only for data that is logical and necessary to the relationship
• Include a screenshot and link to a sample of your emails
• Describe the value proposition and frequency they can expect
• Provide a choice of multiple email streams, such as “Deal of the Week” and “Technology Tips” that allow subscribers to choose whether they want, as in this example, educational or promotional content.
• Provide a brief summary of a subscriber’s data will be used and a link to your full privacy policy.
• Include testimonials from other subscribers or influencers.
By Loren McDonald, on December 1st, 2009
The “from name” (also referred to as the “from line,” “sender name” or “sender line”) has always played an important role in email marketing, but market realities are making the right choice even more critical to subscriber engagement.
Email subscribers have always used the “from name” not just to identify who sent the message, but also to answer these questions: “Do I trust this email? Do I want to invest time on the message?” A quickly recognized “from name” has also long helped subscribers find your email when it lands in their junk folder or spam filter system.
Mobile, Differentiation and Social Sharing
The nature of the inbox itself, and how email is being used, have added three more reasons the decision over which name to use in the “from name” is not to be taken lightly.
Continue reading 3 More Reasons Why I Dislike Using Individual Names as "From Names"
By Loren McDonald, on November 16th, 2009
I have an explanation for why people click the spam button on so-called “legitimate” email: the “Forgot I Signed Up for Email” (FISUE) Syndrome.
This often happens when people sign up for Webinars, free trials or buy something online. They either forgot they signed up or didn’t realize that being added to your regular email program came with their transaction.
You must make a clear case to your subscribers that your email is in their inboxes at their invitation. If not, FISUE Syndrome will claim another victim.
Was That Email Spam? Or Just Spam-Like?
Earlier this year, I received an email from a presentation company that I was sure I had never heard of nor done business with.
I was about to send the company a nasty email but decided to sort my emails on its sender name. Presto!
Turns out I had actually received five previous emails from this company, but several had different “From” names and branding. I also never received a welcome email. (I may have signed up for a company-sponsored Webinar several months earlier and provided my email address during registration.)
In short, I didn’t know who this company was or whether I knowingly opted in for email, and I still don’t.
Mistakes that Cause FISUE Syndrome
This company committed some of the common mistakes that lead to FISUE Syndrome:
- From/Sender Names: Of the six emails I had received, the company used five different “From” names. Bad. Pick a simple, logical “From” name and stick with it.
- Welcome Email: It did not send a confirmation email, let alone a well-crafted welcome email. It could have thanked me for opting in, told me more about the company or service, or linked to a white paper.
- Design: The emails have an amateurish look and feel. This told me the company was not serious about email marketing practices and contributed to my sense that this latest email was unsolicited.
- Frequency: I discovered that I received the six emails in August, September and October 2008, one in April and two in July 2009. No wonder I didn’t remember this company.
How to Minimize FISUE
Follow some basic rules that apply when emailing to a new address:
Investing the extra effort to make your emails unforgettable is your best defense against the FISUE Syndrome.
By Loren McDonald, on October 19th, 2009
Has email outlived its usefulness in a communications world where social networks generate the most buzz? Or, is it still a vital part of this evolving world?
The email industry has been debating those questions since a Wall Street Journal writer suggested that email is on its way out.
I agree with her initial assertion that communication patterns are shifting, especially in personal email use.
For me, Twitter direct messages (one-to-one private messages) have replaced email when I need a quick response or my primary relationship with someone is on Twitter. For other situations, email remains the most efficient means of communicating when I have to say more than will fit into a few 140-character Tweets.
However, I disagree that email’s time is up. On the contrary: Email is the linchpin of a diverse network of communication channels, which users will customize to meet their unique and personal needs.
For example, some users will rely on Twitter direct messages, Facebook postings or text messages when they want instant access to friends and family.
Instead of emailed flight check-in reminders or weather advisories, they’ll opt to receive them in SMS or text messaging. Organizing an event might be more efficient in Facebook than by repeated emailing to a group.
You don’t lose access to your customers if they don’t want emailed payment reminders anymore. You just need to offer the channel that best suits their individual needs and preferences.
The Case for Email Marketing
Too many things have to happen before commercial email will die.
First, recipients have to stop opening, acting on and converting from email.
Next, marketers have to stop sending email. Given that commercial email goes beyond the standard broadcast message to include lifecycle communications triggered by customer behavior, this is not likely to happen.
Finally, companies would have to halt their transition from print to digital communications. That’s not likely, either, because the infrastructure currently supports email, not Twitter or Facebook.
Also, many companies are increasingly seeing how email can support business goals, solve problems and save money all the way through the organization, such as resolving customer issues via email instead of through a more expensive call center, or sending prospectuses or reports in email instead of spending money on paper and postage.
Social Network Limitations
Until something better comes along, no social network can replicate the positives of the email experience and eliminate the negatives.
Many network messages are ephemeral. If you aren’t paying attention when a friend Tweets a message, or if you go days without checking your Facebook page, you’ll miss those messages unless they are sent directly to you, you hunt them down, or you have them emailed to you. (This is another vital use for email in a social networking age.)
Assuming you have decent delivery, your email messages will sit in the inbox until your recipient opens it, deletes it or moves it to a folder for better management.
Many messages aren’t suited to the public exposure of a social network. Email offers privacy, space to develop your message unhindered by a 140-character limit, and easy access.
Finally, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (three of the best-known social networks) can’t match the rich experience of a well-crafted email message: images, navigation, the space to provide inviting copy, and multiple facets such as product info, promotions and articles.
Marketers Cautioned: The Real Enemy Is “Us”
As the cartoon character Pogo once proclaimed, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
While the explosion of mobile applications and social media outlets is clearly creating shifts in email and channel usage, bad marketing practices will likely have the biggest negative impact on our beloved channel.
These are just a few activities that will take a few years off the life expectancy of email marketing:
- Poor permission and opt-in practices. Consumers don’t know or care what the CAN-SPAM Act allows. Getting permission is a must.
- Lack of relevance. The vast majority of emails sent today are one-size-fits-all, lacking any personalization or segmentation based on preferences and demographic or behavioral data. The “blast” has probably had the single biggest negative impact on email marketing’s vitality.
- Overmailing. Marketers have gone crazy with frequency. The mantra at many companies seems to be “Heck, if six times a month works, let’s send 12 times.” This might work in direct mail, but in email, this is a strategy that generally backfires in the long run.
- Lack of differentiation. I subscribe to dozens of emails from retailers, and quite frankly, I see little difference between most of them. Every subject line is almost identical—″Free shipping and 20% off”—and the content and design of the emails do not leverage the actual differentiation among these various brands.
- Lack of personality. The more successful brands have discovered that people are turned off by faceless corporate-speak. People are attracted to communication that is real, transparent, human and full of life.
- Poor design. Messages that don’t render properly across browsers, email clients and platforms (basic cellphone, smartphone, desktop or laptop computers) are simply annoying to recipients.
Email as a marketing channel is not likely to die anytime soon. But its efficacy is clearly at an inflection point.
As a global community, the choice is ours: to change our ways and make the channel as vibrant as ever, or watch it head into a long and painful slide into irrelevance.
By Loren McDonald, on September 25th, 2009
We all know that image blocking by ISPs and email clients can wreak havoc with your HTML emails and affect click-throughs and conversions.
This is particularly a critical issue with image-based call-to-action (CTA) buttons. But all hope is not lost.
In our recent Webinar, “Using Innovations in Email Creative to Drive Increased Engagement,” Aaron Smith and Lisa Harmon of the email creative agency Smith-Harmon outlined a great technique that enables email marketers to use image-based buttons but still convey the CTA if images are blocked.
Here is Smith-Harmon’s “bullet-proof” button approach:
Continue reading The "Bulletproof" Button
By Loren McDonald, on September 19th, 2009
Sharing email messages on social networks can increase your reach by exposing your messages to large audiences beyond your subscribers in ways forwarding to friends can’t match.
That’s one finding revealed in Silverpop’s new study, “Emails Gone Viral: Measuring ‘Share to Social’ Performance,” now available as a free report.
This new study analyzes key aspects of social sharing and uses a new series of benchmark metrics we created to report our findings. Leverage these benchmarks to assess the performance of your own social-sharing program or to forecast what you might expect before launching a campaign.
study report also presents a detailed set of best-practice recommendations and a comprehensive list of additional resources to help you maximize the benefit of your email social-sharing initiatives.
5 Key Study Findings
1. Share-to-Social significantly outperforms FTAF. Even though social sharing is still new to email marketing and consumers in general, it is already outperforming that old standard, forward to a friend. We found that organic social sharing rates (done without an incentive or reward) average 0.5 percent, compared to an estimated 0.1 percent or less when sharing via forward-to-a-friend links. Based on an average overall click-through-rate of approximately 5 percent, this means that 1 out of 10 clicks is on a social sharing link.
Continue reading Silverpop Share-to-Social Study Establishes New Benchmarks
By Loren McDonald, on September 14th, 2009
Email done quite well
Is loved by ISPs
And subscribers too
Okay, so I’m not the Shakespeare of the haiku world yet. If you can do better, your creativity could win you a one-year membership in the Email Experience Council, a $399 value and a great way to connect with your fellow email marketers, download resources and improve your email skills.
To say nothing, of course, of the thrill of seeing your content entry displayed on the EEC site for the world to appreciate and envy (more on that later).
It all started when a group of self-described “email snobs” started talking via Twitter and blog posts/comments about the language we use to talk about email marketing. Some of the conversation was inspired in part by my latest Email Insider column, “Warning: Blasting May Be Harmful to ‘Our’ Health.”
On an email discussion list, someone posted a response to the conversation about language in the form of a haiku, which begat more haikus and eventually drew the EEC into the fray. Now the EEC is sponsoring the (sort of) official 2009 Haiku Slam, with EEC members voting on the winners.
We’re still working out the details, including the page at the EEC site where you can view other entries. In the meantime, you can track various fun and serious discussions on email marketing via the hashtag #emailsnob - or Twitter search. Follow me – @LorenMcDonald – and @Silverpop and other participants, and we’ll pass on the particulars as they become available. Feel free to contribute to the discussion, too.
Once you have crafted your contest entries, send them to aswerdlow at the-dma.org. Post ‘em in the comments section here, too, if you’re especially proud of them.
Here is another of my planned entries that might inspire your own creativity or your competitive spirit:
Blasts are from the past
And relevance they will kill
ROI, think not
Also, in an upcoming blog post I will go into more depth about why I think the language we use to talk about email marketing is so important and where the real threat to email’s future is coming from, so watch this space.
Now, put down that coffee cup and start haiku-ing!
By Loren McDonald, on August 18th, 2009
Saying “relevance” is the key to success in email marketing is a bit like saying something is “American as motherhood and apple pie.” Whether you’ve heard the phrase before or not, you can probably guess the general meaning, but what does it really mean?
Similarly, “relevance” in reference to email marketing success is generally understand and agreed upon. But we don’t really have a single, agreed-on definition for the term, let alone the elements that go into making an email relevant to recipients.
So, on a whim recently, I polled the Twitter community, asking people how they defined email marketing “relevance.” Here’s a sampling of the responses:
Continue reading Relevance: "The Right Message" at "The Right Time?"
|
|
