Chart of the Day: Simple vs complex subject lines

Many email marketers keep their subject lines simple and short, but are these causing recipients to fail to read on? "Not only does this study suggest that complex language leads to greater email engagement, but it also once again proves the value of testing and optimisation." ~ Nikki Gilliland @ Econsultancy The Automatic Readability index uses the number of characters to gauge the understandability of a piece of text. And that is what is used to create this rather complicated chart. The chart shows a steady gradient increase in open% and CTO% as the complexity of the subject line increases. The difference may seem diminutive, but remember that this chart is working on a scale of billions of sends. So it can lead to some significant changes. Before you start making drastic changes, remember to A/B test your subject lines to see if this appeals to your…

Chart of the Day: Email benchmarking report 2016.

The DMA’s Email benchmarking report, sponsored by dotmailer, covering email performance data from 2015, has been recently released. They cover emails delivered, open, click through and click-to-open rates. But the dramatic statistic is the click-to-open rate (CTOR), which has declined to 20% in 2015 from the high of 32% in 2013. So, why the extreme decline? Let's look at what a CTOR is first: a CTOR, used to report on the effectiveness of your email content. It is calculated by taking your unique clicks and dividing by your unique opens and multiply by 100 to get the percentage (eg: (232 unique clicks ÷ 1200 unique opens) x 100 = 19%). Now to calculate an accurate CTOR, we need accurate clicks and opens. Unfortunately, open rates aren't always an accurate reflection…

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: How email ROI compares to other channels

The below chart illustrates that email delivers a steady stream of return for your investment. Email is generally underrated in regards to investment compared to Paid Search (PPC) or the other channels. In the chart we can see that 73% of respondents rate email marketing ROI as either 'excellent' or 'good', compared to PPC which comes out at 59%. These are impressive statistics, but imagine the results if email marketing received the same investment as the other channels or even it diversifies into tactical marketing automation. One question I have with this chart, is how accurate the calculation of investment is in email? It can be difficult to calculate, because there are different factors attributing to a email send. But most importantly,…

Chart of the Day: Transaction rates are higher among customers who receive multiple abandon cart emails

One of the first things you learn when you begin email marketing, is that email frequency is vital to your campaign. And abandon cart emails are no exception. Experian Marketing Services (EMS), analysed over half a million abandon cart emails sent by several brands in July 2016. EMS found that those customers who received multiple emails (4.6%) doubled their transaction rate. Compared with those who received the one email (1.9%). Transaction rates are defined as the overall percentage of transactions as related to delivered messages (transactions/received) over the time period. EMS also looked at the brands business rules and found that those subscribers who had a 24 hour suppression rule and who received two or more abandon cart emails within 7 days,…

Chart of the Day:  Black Friday and Cyber Monday Cart Abandonment Rates Jump to 68%

Cart Abandonment is the scourge of e-commerce retailers everywhere, and this year it seems to be on the increase, particularly where there are promotions. New data emerging from the two busiest ecommerce days of 2016 (Black Friday and Cyber Monday) shows extremely high cart abandonment rates across the board. These are particularly high on mobile devices, where 78% of carts are abandoned. E-commerce retailers should be asking themselves, are 4 out of 5 people abandoning their carts because they're having second thoughts about purchasing, or is it because the checkout pages aren't properly optimized for mobile? If a customer has to use fiddly forms that are hard to complete on a Smartphone they are far more likely to abandon their cart. It's not all bad news though. Although the cart abandonment rates are huge, many of these customers can be nudged…

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…

Confessions of an email marketer

Here an email marketer for a major retailer, who shall remain anonymous, confesses his or her biggest worry...

Anonymous: Working at an fast paced online/offline retailer for 3 years now, I’ve been through my fair share of email highs and lows. Preparing for an incredibly busy peak season in November and December I feel as though I’m as ready as I can be in my battle station and have the support of the rest of the business with the calendar.

The last two Christmas periods, I’ve been somewhat forced into committing what feels to me like a major email faux pas. Regardless of whether sales have been good or bad, on two or three occasions throughout the month our managing director (who has no background in email marketing) will ask me to re-send a successful campaign to an audience who did not open after just 24…

Email strategies must recognise users are now constantly moving between devices

Consumers now expect a consistent experience across every device – whether they happen to be using a PC, mobile or tablet. So what can businesses do to improve the customer journey that is gradually blurring between devices? Since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, smartphones have saturated our society with as much as two thirds of UK’s population owning one according to Ofcom[1]. Even before we have stumbled out of bed in the morning, we are likely to have checked our mobile to catch up on the news, read emails, get the weather forecast and browse social media channels. In fact, the average smartphone user carries out over 200 tasks a day on their mobile, compared to just 140 on a desktop or laptop.[2] Even web browsing, traditionally a desktop or laptop task, is now a smartphone-centric pastime…

Dan Grech Interviews Teri Rosenbaum, Uber's Head of Email in the UK & Ireland for the latest edition of 'No BS Email Marketing'

[Editor's note: This interview is a taster for a new, free guide : No BS Email Marketing, 2nd edition. It's a great resource for all marketers interested in email and CRM. You can download it for free today from here].

I’m an email marketing manager for Uber in the UK and Ireland, with a focus on  communicating with our drivers. Prior to this, I spent seven years at a small app startup in Southwest London, where I ended up doing a lot of email. I’ve been at Uber for almost a year - since last September. One of my major achievements here has been winning an award for customer obsession. I guess it’s my…