Customers now demand personalisation and relevance at every stage of the buying process.

It seems as though every report we read has been written by someone with a different name for the business era that we’re in right now. We’re sticking with Forrester’s 2011 term, the Age of the Customer. However, terms such as the Digital Age, the Social Media Age, the Age of Recommendation, the SMART Age, all seem to be interchangeable. Whatever we choose to call it though, each name relates to the explosion of technology in society, how it is affecting businesses, and how businesses are being forced to adapt to the new demands of this high-tech era. They refer to the effects that technology, social media, and efficient information exchange are having on product development and marketing. In particular, they refer to a period in which businesses are transitioning to become more agile and customer-obsessed than ever before. We’ve…

Chart of the Day: What is the best day to send your emails

In the chart below we look at B2B customers engagement with marketing emails they have been sent. It shows a spike on Mondays with 4.70% higher open rate than the industry average and then it slowly drops through the week. However, click-to-opens increases from Thursday through till Saturday.   These results are surprising as this is for the B2B sector and generally the working day is from Monday - Friday. In the past, we have been told by blogs, papers and trends not to send on Mondays or weekends. But working hours are changing, due to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and mobile working. Our clients are being offered a more flexible working day, so this changes all previous trends or assumptions and will most definitely…

Chart of the Day: New consumer research shows why it's important to get into the primary inbox

Here's some useful insight for email marketers who are looking to understand changes in the inbox behaviour of consumers. It's a new report from the DMA showing how busy consumers manage their busy inboxes. The research looks at a range of issues including 'ghost' accounts; unsubscribes and in-depth focus on the behaviours of younger consumers, including 'Millennials and what motivates consumers to share their email address.

How many email addresses do consumers have?

This is the specific question we'll look at here. The answer is... more than you might think, although as a marketer you may have more than most.The chart shows two is most common which will typically be because people have a work and an inbox email. The proportion…

If you haven’t started your holiday planning yet, it’s time to push the panic button.

Email marketers often don’t get pulled into the planning process until the end and then it’s often an afterthought or emergency: “Yeah, just send another email”. When email is an afterthought instead of the engine, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Don’t sit on the sidelines and wait for the coach to send you in. Develop your own plan, including copy and contact strategies. It should fit into the overall brand strategy, but it needs to be your design because you have your own revenue and goals to meet.

Develop your Black Friday strategy now

Although many consumers have already started shopping, Black Friday is still the official kick-off for the season. Locking down your strategy now gives you time to test it and have it in place. You’ll be ready to start building your base of subscribers from the fresh…

Applying the RACE Framework to eCcommerce

The eCommerce sector is soon to be hit with one of the greatest opportunities of the year. Sales, brand awareness and loyal customers are all opportunities to address within this festive period. Last year, eCommerce Black Friday sales hit an estimated £4.3 bn in the UK. The growing popularity of Black Friday amongst shoppers opens opportunities for eCommerce businesses that do not usually use discounted offerings (to maintain customer perceived brand equity and quality) to get involved with the heightened retail buzz. Within this article, the RACE framework is introduced and applied within the context of Black Friday and the e-commerce sector. Breaking down your Black Friday marketing strategy will give your e-commerce marketing initiatives a concrete structure to thoroughly approach, identify, and meet your outlined Black Friday objectives.

The RACE Framework, Black Friday, and eCommerce

The RACE framework takes into account all aspects of the customer journey,…

If your open and click rates are dropping, you'll need to re-think your strategy

You had the best intentions; you worked diligently to get those conversions and build your email marketing list; you vowed to run a quality campaign and build relationships with your prospects, turning them into happy customers. Somehow it all went wrong. Your analytics are telling you that only a small percentage of your emails are opened, that you have been marked as spam by many of those subscribers you worked so hard to get.

Crossing the Line

Somewhere along the way, you crossed the line and became a harassment rather than a value. And you didn’t even recognize that you had done it. Is it fatal? No. But as you recover from this, you will need to understand how it happened so you never make the same mistake again.

How to Recognize You Have Become a Spammer

Be honest with yourself.…

Tips to help you learn how to effectively utilise trigger emails and reduce shopping cart abandonment

When it comes to successful email marketing, it is evident that carefully worded calls to action must be married with incentive for the customer to convert. Consumers must be enticed to click through from the email message, enter the retail e-commerce website and make a transaction.. They must be provided with the assurance that their patronage is valued and that their satisfaction is of the company’s utmost importance. The internet is rich with “email marketing best practices” resources; articles, blog posts, software and how-to lists enlightening those interested in utilizing trigger emails as an effective marketing tool with vast amounts of information on the topic. Despite the wealth in available material, email marketers continue to commit trigger email faux-pas that extend beyond the realm of misspells and misplaced graphics. These errors dramatically…

Find out why email should be a big focus for you post-Brexit and get some tips on campaigns to implement

I was in the South of France when the referendum result happened. The enormity of it hit me quite hard while surrounded by such kind and engaging people, all trying to be sympathetic about the decision. Since that day, focus (at least in business terms) has turned to the impact it will have on companies. As an organisation that works with both Global and UK based companies, we have seen many different reactions to the vote, but the overriding emotion seems to be caution. Some companies are already in recession planning mode (just in case), others are holding off on non-essential projects and most are not comfortable making any big and expensive decisions right now. One thing we are seeing and hearing consistently is…

Dan Grech interviews David Wood about his email marketing strategy

I’ve been here for about five years and had been doing email for about three years beforehand. I started off working in B2B, at an IT distributor, which was very different to what I do now. And back then I was much more hands-on; creating the emails, structuring, planning, copywriting, all of that stuff.

I wanted to get more immediate results, so I moved into the retail space. The opportunity came up for Email Marketing Manager at Direct Wines, which covered off working with Laithwaite’s, Sunday Times, Averys, and others, so it was ideal really. Within my current role, I directly manage one, but indirectly manage a team of about eight. That includes writers, creatives, HTML, so it kind of covers quite a range.

…

The best time to send depends on the content as well as the audience

As a product and/or service provider, one way of reaching your customers is through email. It is one of the least expensive methods of connecting with your clients. You create a well-crafted message and simply send them to your recipients. Then, you sit tight and wait for your recipients to respond back.

Sounds easy right?

Well, it’s not that simple. People get bombarded by a lot of emails every single day and most of them get overlooked. Your email message can be one of them.

Think about this; you’re not the only business sending emails to your clients. You might be competing with thousands of other businesses for a single person’s attention. Plus, you might be competing with your recipient’s family and friends for attention.

Then, how will you place…