5 cases-in-point show why you need other metrics to review email marketing effectiveness
There have been a couple of heated debates I've been part of in the email community just recently, one about open rates and another about subject line length. In this post I'm reflecting on the open rate debate. I've added an update to the original post showing more proof that open rate fixation can be misleading.
It may surprise you that the community is very split on the value of the open rate metric, seemingly, a cornerstone metric since the dawn of email marketing. It's a metric cited in every email marketing book and on every mail marketing course... So why is its value in doubt? Ken Magill reported on some of the open rate debate.
Let me summarise some of the reasons…
3 Gems from Mark Brownlow
In the first of the 3 Gems video series from Plan to Engage, I interviewed Mark Brownlow, author of Email-Marketing-Reports.com. Both Mark and I had recently presented in Stockholm at Apsis’ customer conference and I was very impressed by all the valuable content he shared within his session on “Email Marketing Trends for 2012”.
So in this interview I asked Mark to share 3 Gems from this session. In a nutshell they are:
Design your mobile emails to be easily clickable.
Understand why you are integrating email with social – don’t do it just because you think you should.
Optimise your current triggered email programme before adding new triggers to your programme.
For more valuable insights from email marketing experts, join us at the virtual International Email Marketing Summit on November 15th – held at Your Desk.
I hope that's useful, here is the …
New survey shows that clicks are only one part of the story
Email marketing enjoys a solid reputation as a direct response channel. Which is one reason email marketing metrics tend to focus on just that: the direct response questions:
"Did they open? Did they click?"
We congratulate ourselves when we go "beyond the click" and measure conversions, revenues and profits. And we're understandably excited about new metrics like read and print rates.
All these numbers have important roles to play. But their availability seduces us into forgetting they do not capture all the important responses to email.
The UK DMA, fast.MAP and Alchemy Worx just released the 2012 Email Tracking Study, which looks at the self-reported inbox and social habits of just over 1,000 UK consumers.
New update: Infographic released:
"In this post I share some survey data and explore the implications of email marketing “beyond the open”...showing how consumers really…
Find out how a recovery email campaign can boost your sales by up to 8%
SaleCycle have produced an Infographic to summarise the findings about shopping abandonment, from their September 2012 survey. 200 well-known brands were surveyed in the US and UK, including Retailers and Fashion brands such as Sony, Ralph Lauren, the Body Shop and The Office.
The aim of the survey was to discover how to send out an engaging, optimized email to shoppers abandoning the on-line sites at the point of purchase or engagement (ie. shopping cart, booking or application form). It centered around the following three questions:
Timing: How long to wait to email your warm customers?
Tone: Should we be direct or use a customer service tone?
Content/Message: What should we say in our email to convert our customers to buy?
Over 74% of shoppers abandon their shopping cart, booking or application form, so how do we get them…
Presenting content based on sensory preferences in your email campaigns
We all have our preferred way of communicating: some people prefer to talk, some prefer to write, others prefer to touch or being hands-on. I remember when I was training to be a Primary Teacher, we learn't how young children learned by touch – hence all the tactile based exercises you did in your first few years at school.
Furthermore, I used to observe the children’s reactions when sitting down to read them a story, they would all clamber in close hoping to be able to touch the fabric on my dress or skirt. On the days that I wore silky soft fabric, I noted that I always received a lot more ‘you look beautiful today Miss’ comments from my lovely little six year olds. So, taking a note or two from the four main learning styles, which are used by presenters,…
Getting campaign timing right to boost your email open and clickthrough rates
GetResponse analysed over 21 million email messages sent by US companies in the 1st quarter of 2012, and the results clearly demonstrated the optimum times for open and click-through rates for email campaigns. The infographic below provides clear evidence of when to schedule your email campaigns to improve engagement:
One of the most important conclusions is that sending newsletters during readers’ top engagement times of 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. can increase their average open rates and CTR by 6%
Be careful! You also need to consider time zone differences, subscribers daily routines and other best practices for email marketing.
Highlights of the research:
Emails have the best results within the 1st hour after delivery. This…
This infographic from Return Path is a reminder of how the popularity of smartphones and tablets means we have to carefully test our Emails on these devices and think about the changing context of use for email. Apple devices are particularly important accounting for 85% of all email mobile opens.
If you look at the trends it seems mobile could exceed both mobile email client access could exceed both desktop and webmail access to email.
The infographic is based on one billion emails sent by 500 corporate Return Path clients comparing 2012 to 2011.…
Assessing an ESP should be based on more than functionality
There is a bewildering range of email marketing solutions platforms to choose from. While it's common to select a solution based on its features, it's also important to consider the level of local support for the system you will have in your country. Since most email services are cloud-based and you can access them from anywhere, deciding on whether you have adequate support in your country is an important issue in selecting a system.
In this post, Andrew Mann of UK-based ESP Smart Messages shares his thoughts on why it's important to have local support from an email supplier.
Four reasons why local vendor support is best
1. Time zone
Personal contact remains a fundamental part of business even in the digital world. If you need help, it’s better to have a supplier in your own…
Trigger emails are great, but they have their issues
My sister calls me Eeyore, as I'm ever-ready to puncture her bubbly balloon of optimism with a pithy "I lost my tail".
One of email marketing's brightest balloons is the trigger email.
We can describe trigger emails as the emails you send out in response to a customer action (e.g. an order confirmation mail) or a specific piece of event-related customer data (e.g. a birthday email with a coupon inside).
They've lovely beasts.
Because they're customised to a tightly-defined action or piece of data, trigger emails tend to be more timely, relevant and valuable than your traditional promotional email.
The results speak for themselves.
For example, for every £1 VIE at home spends on refill reminder emails, it gets £190 back in sales (£243 for cart abandonment emails).
So trigger emails, which vary from the lowly welcome series to emails activated by very specific website browsing behaviours, are a…
9 Questions to ask when choosing a behavioural email provider
The benefits of using behavioural email marketing to engage with existing contacts are well established. If you've decided to take the plunge, it’s important you find the right service for your business. Knowing what to ask a potential provider will help identify whether the service they provide is the one you need. However, before you start talking to any third-party about what they do, first ensure you are 100% clear on what it is you want.
Behavioural email? Remarketing ? Operational & transactional triggers?
There is often confusion between true behavioural email and other simpler forms of triggered email. A detailed description can be found in a white paper from 2 years ago that I think still holds weight; but in simple terms an operational or transaction email responds to an action with a general communication; remarketing targets users based on actions…
