Symantec (now owner of MessageLabs) has released their latest report showing that spam levels have actually fallen in the UK to 90.3%. Unfortunately for those of us in the United Kingdom, this still makes us the 3rd most spammed country in the world.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany's spam rate reached 84.8% of all email whilst the Netherlands climbed to 82.4%. Globally spam hit a 20 month high in May, increasing by 5.1% on last month.

Spam is something that ISPs have to deal with everyday and Silverpop of course works closely with these ISPs to ensure our clients have excellent deliverability rates. Here are 5 simple steps you can follow to further aid your ability to enter the inbox:

1. Don’t send unexpected email. If subscribers opted in to receive your “Tips & Tricks” newsletter, don’t suddenly start sending them your pure product promotion emails, unless they clearly requested them.

2. Choose your sender/from name carefully. Use your most recognisable and expected brand as part of the name.

3. Don’t over-email. Stick to a frequency that you promised during the opt-in process or that is consistent with what most recipients would expect.

4. Avoid overaggressive language and spammy-looking content such as very large fonts, big red letters—anything that looks unprofessional and could be confused with a true spam email.

5. Make it extremely easy to unsubscribe.

Other resources:
Whitepaper: Email Delivery Rates Above 95%: 16 Must Dos to Make It Happen
Webinar: Deliverability Questions: From A to Z in 30 Minutes

Posted by Riaz Kanani at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The majority of our clients are very focused on how they are engaging with recipients. Whether it is looking at open rates, click rates or effective rates across one mailing or multiple mailings the focus is very much on the activity levels on their emails. These are all very valuable and important metrics. However, even without all the research that has been done on this topic, we all know that up to 80% of people do not engage with your emails and that recipients are becoming increasingly frustrated with irrelevant emails sent to them too often. As a result the question now being asked is:

What is the level of disengagement from your emails?

As email marketing gains greater visibility within companies, pressure is increasingly being placed on email marketers to send out more mails - especially given the provable uplift in revenue generated from each campaign.

Often the timelines get shortened and before you know it you're expected to send out twice as many mailings which leads to less targeted and less thought out campaigns. This will almost certainly work the first time but quickly the engagement and conversion metrics will start to decrease. How many recipients are unsubscribing as frequency increases? What impact does a less targeted campaign have on opt outs and abuse rates?

As pressure mounts make sure you monitor all your metrics closely, and track not only the level of engagement but the disengagement some activities may result in. Customers are increasingly fickle (Brits are more likely than other Europeans to change their minds after researching online according to a MediaScope Europe survey) and with a plethora of companies vying for every piece of business it's important to minimise activities which may lead to the long term decline in your ability to re-engage with your audience (and a significant reduction in the number of people you can engage with!).

Julie Joseph
eMarketing Strategy Consultant

(Image courtesy of AliceNWondrlnd)

Posted by Riaz Kanani at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Silverpop is hosting its 5th Annual Masterclass event next week for B2B and B2C marketers. The event is aimed at helping marketers boost results and prove their value to the bottom line, which is obviously important to us marketers in today's environment!

The day is split into two, with a focus on B2B in the morning followed by a more broader look at Engagement Marketing in the afternoon. You can see the agenda below and also see all the presentations from the event.

Silverpop Masterclass 2009 - B2B Engagement Marketing

9:30am Don't Let Leads Slip Through Your Fingers - Engagement Marketing and Lead Management
Will Schnabel, Silverpop

Engagement marketing has moved to the forefront of the B2B marketing vernacular,
and with it, the robust strategy of integrated lead management has finally come
of age. For the B2B sales and marketing world, it is no longer a luxury, but an
imperative, to be able to nurture and score leads until they are ready for
sales. In this presentation, we will discuss the newest findings in lead
generation and management, including:

- The newest strategies used in developing a modern lead-generation process
- The key components of a robust lead nurturing strategy
- Aligning sales and marketing to maximize the benefits of lead management efforts
- The newest innovations in marketing automation to support integrated lead management

10:45 am Panel Discussion: Crossing the Chasm: Best-in-Class Sales and Marketing Integration
Sally Hewitt, Pitney Bowes Stephanie Robotham,Salesforce.com, Adrian James, Curious Group
Moderated by Joel Harrison, B2B Marketing Magazine

World-class demand generation and lead management now requires a much tighter
and higher level of integration between sales and marketing than ever before. Do
the efforts and costs involved with the alignment between these functions
pay-off in terms of increased efficiencies and improved revenues? Experts on
both sides of the divide discuss the benefits and pitfalls of incorporating a
lead-management integration program into your marketing efforts. Panellists will
discuss:

- How to build the business case to initiative a sales and marketing integration program
- The best places to start in initiating a lead-management program for your organisation
- How you can measure the impact of lead management on sales effectiveness
- Key lessons learned from best-in-class companies that focus on performance through integration

11:30 am Measuring Up in the Downturn
Stuart Small, Industry Leader for B2B & Public Sector, Google
Insights from Google into how to drive leads using information available online to marketers.

Silverpop Masterclass 2009 - Engagement Marketing

2:00pm Six Steps to More Engaged Subscribers,
Loren McDonald, Silverpop

Understand the key to delivering unprecedented ROI and gain insights into
achieving this with engagement email marketing.

3:30pm Measuring Success with Social Marketing,
Tom Nixon, Nixon McInnes

Examining successful real world social marketing techniques and the metrics used
to understand success

4:15 pm Panel: Engagement Email Marketing Problems Solved.
Adrian James, Curious Group, Noorin Virani, Visit London, Alex Powell, STA Travel
Moderated by Riaz Kanani, Silverpop

Success stories and techniques from implementing advanced engagement marketing
techniques such as Shopping Basket Abandonment, "share to social" and Send-Time Optimisation.

Posted by Riaz Kanani at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)