Part 1. How ISPs spot spam in the suspect email line-up
As this is my first post on SmartInsights I’d like to start with a hello; I hope you find this first post helpful! I’ve long been a reader of the SmartInsights blogs and I’m delighted to be a new regular SmartInsights contributor. I will be writing about best practice to get better results from your email marketing through optimisation of creative and targeting and deliverability.
Let’s kick off with deliverability. In the line-up of suspect emails, ISPs aim to can the spam and let the innocent go free. To understand the forensics that ISPs use to spot the guilty, you need to understand the habits of the guilty. In this post I look at the tell-tell signs of a spammer and how you can avoid looking like…
Our interview with Claire Rollinson of AlchemyWorx
I've been in touch with Claire Rollinson for a while swapping ideas on Email marketing via the social networks and through IDM Digital courses. Initially Claire worked out as a marketing comms manager at different charities and more recently as head of campaign management at specialist Email marketing agency Alchemy Worx. This gives her great experience of campaigns across a range of sectors and brands.
As always, in our interview series, I encourage the marketers I interview to share tips which prompt the question "Can we try that? Should we be doing this? Should we use this tool?". I hope you find Claire's recommendations useful. As she suggests, getting email marketing right is important because "every single message you send can have an incremental – and if you do…
A case study showing the power of Email remarketing and testing
In part 1, Email Remarketing – why aren’t more people using it? we showed how Email Remarketing is surprisingly rare and discussed why this might be. Thanks for the in-depth comments by the way! I hope they help someone make the business case!
In this follow-up, we have a great case study example from VE Interactive, because it not only shows the uplift from email remarketing, but also what types of offer and messaging can be tested.
3 testing options for Remarketing
The remarketing here was a classic abandoned shopping cart follow-up email, but with 3 alternative follow-ups which were tested with these results:
1. Generic branded follow-up email : +10% conversion rate.
2. Personalised remarketing email with a promotional code for a 5% discount time limited to 72 hours: +100% conversion rate.
3. Personalised remarketing email with a promotional code…
Making the argument for Remarketing with Email
Automated email marketing, Event-triggered email, Behavioural email, Email sequences, Abandoned shopping cart email. Call the technique what you will, I've been a fan of the relevance you can deliver through contextual emails like these for a long time - it's been possible to do this for over 10 years now!
The appeal of delivering the right message at the right time, in the context of an action taken on the site are obvious and compilations of success show this is well-founded. Likewise the recent Redeye report on Email Remarketing -- shows that for different sectors email and engagement and conversion rates are far higher than average email response. This compilation is for retailers:
Why isn't email marketing more commonplace?
But it seems to be tough…
New research suggests 38.5% more email subscribers view emails than suggested by open rates
An interesting new study on Email open rates has just been released by European Open Source/paid Email Provider Agnitas.
It's well-known in Email marketing circles that open rates are measured through the number of subscribers who download tracking pixel images. So, if images are blocked, or the subscriber reads the email on their mobile, then open-rates are under-reported. Some ESPs take this into account within their tracking. The methodology is summarised by this graphic.
In the survey, twelve individual newsletters with a total of 17.5 million sent emails were assessed over the period from November 2010 until February 2011. The methodology involved reviewing the number of clicks which were received across all emails regardless of whether they were recorded as opened and then extrapolating open rates from this.
This graphic shows that 28% of clicks were received from emails…
A collection of resources for creating effective HTML email templates
What are the requirements of an effective HTML Enewsletter template?
What would you say are the essential features a good quality email template that works both for subscribers and the company broadcasting the mail alike? Well there are many factors which may affect this, but from a communications effectiveness point of view, I would say some of the key features of email templates are that they:
The main marketing messages and offers are clearly communicated.
They get their message across whether images are blocked or not.
They render effectively in all the most common email readers.
Don’t look like templates… - they remain engaging because they can change with dynamic content.
Support different marketing activities like new product launches, campaigns and events.
Have blocks for tailoring content That prioritise offers?
Support the full range of relevant standard features, so for a retail enewsletter that's a Table of contents, Search…
Six examples where hype and hubris can trump common sense - to the detriment of your success
Spend too much time on the "cutting edge" of online marketing and you can end up like an exhausted puppy...hurtling excitedly from one new toy to the next before collapsing from the stress of too much choice.
There is much current excitement, for example, about the double whammy of email and social marketing: email as digital's rejuvenated workhorse, social as the hot new talent. Clear and proven models for combining the two need more time to emerge, but there's much promise in the social/email integration premise.
All this excitement, though, can take the edge off our sense of perspective and priority. As we choose a mix of channels to market through, we're easily lead astray by hype and hubris into making the wrong decisions.
Here are six seductive traps for email/social marketers to avoid...
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How to make your emails work better on mobiles
How to make emails work better for users on mobile devices is a big issue for email marketers in 2011. I've recently written the forward for a new whitepaper by Ed Melly of SmartFOCUS on Email design for mobile devices (PDF).
Here is my summary of 5 steps to take to design better for mobile. You can see the full whitepaper at the end of this summary.
Step 1. Review industry mobile statistics
You'll know that mobile usage is growing rapidly. There have been significant year-on-year increases in Apple iPhone adoption, the Android platform is gaining momentum.Furthermore, the tablet market created by the iPad is expected to continue growing rapidly.
In its Internet Trends presentation of June 2010, Morgan Stanley predicted that the population of mobile users will exceed desktop internet users within five years.
Such predictions are…
Research showing how should we create dialogue by combining email and social media marketing with other channels
I've recently been involved with creating the programme for the upcoming eCircle event: ConnectEurope2011. As for last year I will share some highlights from the presentations like the case studies,research and latest thinking on Smart Insights. Last year I shared two case including Halfords Intelligent Lifecycle Marketing which went down well and Halfords are speaking again.
In the meantime, I just wanted to let you know about the event - if you have any questions please ask via my sign-off below or visit our website for more information. At the end of this note I'll share some interesting research about how the overlap in use of consumers of email marketing and social media.
Other questions the speakers will address are:
Is it possible to make people happy through your marketing?
What can you do to get information…
Words to use and words to avoid to write more engaging email subject lines
Selecting the best subject line, headlines and content types for emails is a constant challenge for email marketers as they write copy for their campaigns and newsletters.
Which are the most engaging words on Facebook post headlines?
I recently found a good source of insight for words to consider by the excellent Dan Zarrella who analyses consumer Facebook behaviour. I hope this inspires you when you're next writing or reviewing email copy or trying to devise ideas for emails. Of course it should help with Facebook and blog posts too! These are the words that the research showed were popular for sharing.
Source: 7 Ways to Get Your Blog Posts Shared On Facebook
What can we take from this? Well, we have to remember this is an analysis across a massive range of…
