Email Marketing

The Email Puzzle

Email Marketing /

The Email Puzzle

Are you puzzled why Email marketing is still around?

It’s not going away anytime soon because it’s an industry within itself. Think of what it’s produced:

Email Service Providers (ESP) – in-house , onsite, 3rd party
Experts – in everything from deliverability and sender reputation, to content  placement
College certificates and degrees
E- books and white papers
Webinars
Reference materials
Blogs
Guidelines
Rules and Regulations
SPAMMERS and SPAM watchdogs and a host of other ancillary industries who offer services from  email appendage to whitelisting.

There are email professionals, consultants, statisticians and guest speakers.  There’s online advertisers using banner ads and sponsorships while spending hundreds of dollars for ad placement with Google and Yahoo. There’s post card mailings and magazine ads and those who spend thousands of dollars on radio and TV commercials.

Entire associations exist because of email marketing, such as MAAWG and The Email Experience Council  offering advice and  expertise.

Then there are companies that offer to rent or sell lists.  You can market your new list yourself with OTC software or hire a professional to manage it for you.   AND there’s established company’ working against that practice

The entire industry for the most part speaks in the new language of email, using words and phrases such as segments, Transactional, Asynchronous Bounce and Domain Key.

Web development has its own part too by integrating web visitor stats with email campaigns, generating detailed reports and graphs that hire experts read and interpret.   And don’t forget about the content writers and graphic designers.

And that’s just scratching the surface: There’s  so much more to add..

Facebook Twitter

The Email Puzzle Read More »

You Can Lead a Subscriber to Water (often) but you Can’t Make Him Drink (or in this case open your email)

Email Marketing /

You Can Lead a Subscriber to Water (often) but you Can’t Make Him Drink (or in this case open your email)

As an email marketer, do you walk that fine line of optimal sending frequency? Should you increase the rate of your email campaigns or should you send your email campaigns out less often?  Can you teach an old dog-new tricks, because, just like working with the dog,  the only way you’re going to know if a sending frequency change works in your favor, is by trying it.

When it comes to an increase in mailing frequency, do you believe having more is better and actually merrier; or do you believe that having too much of a good thing is really a bad thing?

dog with kisses

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

On the other hand, will any change in mailing frequency upset the apple cart?  Will you be forgotten, out of sight out of mind, if you mail less? Will your newsletters be missed or will a decrease in mailings get your subscribers attention as absence makes the heart grow fonder, or does it?

Should you increase your mailing frequency, hoping to  engage your subscribers more often? But then again, if everything appears to be working well why change it.  After all, you don’t want to kill the goose that laid the olden egg by upsetting your happy subscribers who seems totally satisfied with the amount of email they receive from you.  In this case it may not be prudent to change your email frequency, not without consulting your subscribers, first.

Is sending large volumes of email really an ends to a mean (more subscriber engagement, higher ROI?)  Frequency Balance(tm) is the key factor here, between how often you want to mail compared to how often your recipients want your email.  And why do you want to mail more often – because you have something to share?

Something urgent, something new, something relevant, something borrowed (list?) something blue?

Or are you increasing your mailing frequency because:

  • You have a sponsorship deadline and you need bigger numbers?
  • Your reports indicate the more email opens, the more money.
  • This is the only list you have to send to and have so much to say.
  • You want to engage your customers more, encourage them to visit your website, follow a link etc.

Sounds logical, increase your mailing frequency, increase your customer engagement.  However some email marketers have noticed, at times, there is an adverse effect on subscriber engagement; when you email too much, it declines.

On the other hand, barring Results not Typical, several email marketers have noted an increase in subscriber engagement when they increase the mailing frequency.

What’s a marketer to do?

Do your own research; compare the numbers between sending frequency and engagements per campaign and see if you notice an engagement decline or an increase.

Make sure you’re using a healthy list and:

  • Be Consistent when you measure your results.
  • Adjust your mailing frequency base on engagement ratios (currently 2 X a week out of 7 day, increase to 3X a week out of 7 days).
  • Segment your list from highly engaged customers who interact with your product to segments comprised of those with less interest.

And test, test, test, the frequency and the type of content you’re planning on sending.

Your content should continually engage your customers:

  • Provide them with an offer that instigates your email recipient to interact with your offer.
  • Let you subscribers provide you with information about their mailing preferences in content and engagement.
  • Occasionally ask your email subscribers for comments and opinions.
  • Don’t forget to set your recipients expectations, what they are going to receive from you, with a Welcome letter.
  • Appropriate targeting and segmentation will grow the value of your email message, which in the long run, drives engagement.
  • Don’t spill the beans all on the first page, have your copy give them a reason to click to read more.

Contact Dundee Email Services to learn more.

Facebook Twitter

You Can Lead a Subscriber to Water (often) but you Can’t Make Him Drink (or in this case open your email) Read More »

Using the right Email Marketing tools with the wrong results?

Email Marketing /

Using the right Email Marketing tools with the wrong results?

When an email marketer wears the hat of a list subscriber his or her perspective change, especially using email marketing tools

Depending on where you sit an email marketer will take on the role of an email recipient some point during the day. Designing, sending and tracking email campaigns require a certain skill set,  fine-tuned with experience. Opening and reading email is somewhat easier. No special skill is required other than logging into your email program.

Here are 10 examples of Subscriber versus Marketeremail marketing man

1. Subscriber Perspective: I hate it when my email address is added to an email list I didn’t sign up for. I may have inadvertently given my permission for these solicitous emails, by checking that little box to agree to “your” terms and conditions; but really, was I supposed to read all that? I hate any email that remotely resembles SPAM.

An Email Marketer may reason: From my website alone, I collected several thousand email addresses for my company email list. When someone opts into my list from my website, they must agree to my online terms and conditions, by putting a check in a box. My terms and conditions state email addresses may be shared, rented or sold. I am not an email broker by trade, but this potential revenue stream is difficult to pass up.

Acceptable Action: even though your privacy policy (welcome letter or small print on the bottom of your screen) indicates that by signing up for your list, the subscriber is giving you permission to ‘sell’ or rent their email address to others, doesn’t mean they really agree. If selling email addresses is part of your marketing plan, make it very clear this is what you’re doing.

2. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving unwanted emails (aka SPAM) especially emails from lists I know I unsubscribed from. If I find one more newsletter in my in-box from your company, there goes any relationship I may have had with you.

An Email Marketer may reason: I started sending email campaigns to email addresses that have been purchased, swapped, borrowed, revived from an old old list, or taken off email headers by adding these people to my list from the visible cc’s. I even add back those addresses that had unsubscribed the way I see it, the more the merrier (Better).

Acceptable Action: Make it a point to mail only to opt-in (permission-based) email addresses, then follow common sense email guidelines such as always use the same “from address” when you mail to a particular list, and so on. Honor unsubscribes. For whatever reason, they left. They might be back, but probably will not if you give them a hard time when they want to leave.

3. Subscriber Perspective: I hate opening ill-fitting HTML email on my mobile device. It’s so annoying when an email requires constant scrolling just to read one sentence, accompanied by huge graphics that take many seconds to load. Worse yet, it’s near to impossible to easily click on one of the links I won’t, because the links are laid out too close together, it’s easier for me to just delete the message and move on to the next one.

An Email Marketer may reason: Our Company doesn’t have a set email-marketing plan, believing that most email is read on desktop and laptop computers. Our email campaigns are normally composed of several paragraphs, typically loaded with carefully selected graphics and include several links to our website.

Suggestion: Optimize your mobile message with a single column template and do not embed text in the images. Include a descriptive alt text for all your graphics (in case they do not want to download them), and limit the number of clickable links in your message, position the ones you include for finger action. Do not send complicated and wordy content. Keep it short: keep it simple. Grab their attention with a well thought out subject line, as mobile devices usually display 64 characters or less.

4. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving an email with syntax in the place of my name. Your email starts with Dear [firstname, lastname] making the appearance of the message unprofessional and somewhat sloppy. What else did you get wrong, should I even bother reading this?

An Email Marketer may reason: I personalized 200,000 email addresses for this upcoming marketing campaign. I tested but didn’t catch the fact that my ESP (email service provider) doesn’t fully support dynamic tags. Consequentially: some recipients received an email from me delivered with Dear [firstname, lastname] instead of Dear Patricia.

Suggestion: Work with your ESP [READER] to set up an applicable default text for those occasions where “Filler text” would appear. With Dundee Internet, you can use most tags in all parts of your message including the body, subject, header, footer and documents such as the welcome letter. If a field is blank, the merge tag will simply be removed and can be replaced by nothing, or conditional content set up for a default text.

5. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving an email that looks like the other 100 emails I receive each morning: they all go in the trash.

An Email Marketer may reason: My last campaign worked like a charm. Today I am rushed to get out this week’s special so I’m reusing the Subject Line from my last mailing. Better yet, I am just going to say BIG SALE in the Subject Line and leave it at that.

Suggestion: Make it a point to add relevance to your email Subject Line, make it interesting and relevant enough to open. Consider using a call to action subject, targeted specifically to the recipient.

6. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving emails with no contact information, especially an email that includes a great offer because I know I’ll have questions.

An Email Marketer may reason: My new newsletter template only contains a link to my order form. I did not want to spend a lot of time on this so I decided to leave off the contact information, besides who scrolls all the way to the bottom of an email anyway?

Action to take: Comply with CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email. Bottom line: include contact information in your email.

7. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving an email that has spelling and grammar errors.

An Email Marketer may reason: using the right tools with the wrong results. The spell checker works as designed, but human error accidentally changed a misspelled word to a misplaced word: in all applicable places my email now reads manger instead of manager. And I didn’t catch the error.

Suggestion: Always use a spell checker. Lyris ListManager, (for the past several years), offers a built-in spell checker for content before you send it out. In addition, engage another person to proofread your content for an error besides spelling. Check for understanding, presentation, and flow before you hit that send key.

8. Subscriber Perspective: I hate spam. I vaguely recall receiving an email from this company several months ago but I really forgot who they are. I think it was spam that I got last time. Not going to open this email: how did I ever get on this list?

An Email Marketer may reason: I don’t mail on a regular schedule, I’m too busy. Besides, I send out great information when I do mail so my subscribers will be looking for my next email. Sometimes I mail twice a month and maybe six months later I send another campaign.

Suggestion: Be consistent, create a mailing schedule and stick to it.

9. Subscriber Perspective: I hate when my inbox gets overwhelmed with nonsense emails; this time if the content is of no interest, I’ll just mark theses emails Junk to keep them out of my inbox. If I had more time I would open each one and unsubscribe, but earmarking them Junk is so much faster.

An Email Marketer may reason: I’m mailing on a schedule but I need an in-between email piece. Our lawn sale ends in a few days and management wants a discount coupon for grass seed emailed: I know more than 50% of our audience are apartment dwellers but they might have friends who can really use this coupon.

Suggestion: These are your subscribes, they signed up for your list with the expectations you set. Make sure you give them what they signed up for. Most likely you have taken time to collect some data intelligence; such as their zip code and other user demographics. Armed with the right data points your email-marketing piece can be written just for them. Here at Dundee Internet, our list can use the power of conditional content; easily create unique, one-to-one emails tailored to the exact needs and interests of your recipients without having to create or send more than one message.

10. Subscriber Perspective: I hate the fact that unsubscribing from your list is difficult. I did scroll down to the bottom of your email and at first, I did not find an unsubscribe link; it’s there, but the font is the same color as the footer background and it’s so tiny I can hardly make it out. At least you don’t have an unsubscribe link that is misleading such as “why am I getting these emails”

An Email Marketer may reason: These are my subscribers who believe our content is valuable, why would anyone want to leave. Besides I need to keep the subscribers number up for ROI purposes.

Acceptable Action: Make the option to unsubscribe simple to do; if your recipient wants to leave, they will take the time to scan your email, find the link and be removed from your mailing list. You decide how they leave the unsubscribe center, annoyed or satisfied.

Of course, there are more examples; mailing too often, not including a call to action, duplicate emails, not testing before sending. I know you can think of several examples. Feel free to share them here.

Facebook Twitter

Using the right Email Marketing tools with the wrong results? Read More »

Email Marketing Essentials for Better Response Rates 2013

Email Marketing /

Email Marketing Essentials for Better Response Rates 2013

Efficacious Email marketing campaigns are in part luck, art and science, and an understanding your subscriber base for better response rates…

…which is the most trash cansignificant part of any marketing campaign. Better response rates happen when your subscribers to react to your email, (other than hitting the trash or delete key). You want them to take an action such as visit a link, buy a product, take a survey, share with social media or forward the email to a friend. To figure out how to make subscribers perform any of those actions often requires a personalized approach from the marketer so here are essential things to keep in mind when composing engaging e-mail marketing campaigns.

Use the news. Make mention to what’s going on in the news that week, or that day in your subject line.  You may have to be creative and definitely tie it into your content and you will find this will pay off in the end with better response rates.

Whet the appetite with content snippets.  Give away partial content where you normally would require a click-through or a fill in the blank to receive the information in the form of a small how-to or other timely information about your product or service.  Lead them to a landing page with additional information.  Free is equated with the internet, free content is expected more times than not.

Keep a consistent look and style; send the right email format for the browser your recipient uses. Dundee Internet powered by Lyris ListManager(TM) offers multipart-alternative. ListManager(TM) will create the correct headers and boundaries automatically so recipients who can see HTML will only see your HTML message; those who cannot see the text.

Offers incentives and rewards.  Subscribers like rewards, offer a coupon or promotion code to redeem on your website.   Change your offers often; they will open your email to see the new offer.

Facebook Twitter

Email Marketing Essentials for Better Response Rates 2013 Read More »

The Key That Unlocks Your Marketing Emails

Email Marketing /

The Key That Unlocks Your Marketing Emails

All sent emails, at the very least, contain two parts, the body of the message and the message header.  In fact, each part is analogous to an actual mail piece, the header being the fully addressed envelope (address of the recipient and sender) along with the subject line and other identifying data.  In other cases, the header is considered “the stamp” of the envelope.  The body, or letter, is the actual message with attachments.

email marketing hands

Key to Email Opens

Depending on the email client used, the header information is usually displayed as:

From: – Sender@mycompany.com
To: – Reciever@hotmail.com
Date: – The date when the message was sent.
Subject: – The subject line

Simple stuff, right?  Well yes and no.  Headers can be mandatory, displaying specific information whereas other information can be optional.   Some headers contain the sending and the receiving time stamps of all actions taken on an email, such as forwarding the message to a friend to transferring the message from one computer to another.  In fact, if the email had several destinations, there may be several RECEIVED headers.  Likewise, a physical mail piece, routed by the post office to different destinations, will receive a stamp at each post office: hence, the analogy of the header instead of the envelope becomes the stamp on an actual envelope.

So you’re sitting at your desk opening todays delivered mail.  There’s an envelope sitting on top of the pile, it’s stamped, the stamp canceled by the local post office with yesterday’s date, your name and address is typed on the front, but there’s no return address.  Do you toss it or open it?   Curiosity gets the best of most of us, so you open it.  It’s junk mail, without so much as a glance, you toss it in the circular bin.  Next, an envelope correctly addressed to you with a return address from the Local Farmers Market.  You received these from this vendor before, discount coupons, coupons that you look for and want.   You put that letter aside; it’s useful, in fact, now that you have coupons today, you may go shopping after you open the rest of your mail, why wait.

Just like the envelope’s return address, sent from a name you know, prompted you to open the letter, the “from” line in your email,

is the prompt or key for recipients to unlock your marketing emails and actually open and read them.

Designing the right key is essential. There’s a few rules to consider deciding who the email should actually be coming from.  There’s several reasons to use different From Addresses, even went sent from the same company.  A company with many product and services may use a specific “Brand” in their “from” address: From Penny Lane Paper Towels, a person: From the Desk Peter your Gift Wrap Expert, or just “From”: Paper Mills Product.

Regardless of the “From” address used the name needs to fit, so the senders identity is clear to the recipient.   It also needs to be:

  1. Obvious and transparent – never a trick or alias
  2. Identifiable, not changing each time you send out a campaign
  3. From your company or service, not sent from an @yahoo or @aol home address
  4. Non-assuming, they may have signed up but don’t remember you
  5. More importantly if it’s your first marketing email to them your “from” address should spark some familiarity; you had sent them a confirmation and hello letter.  Always use the “from” address combined with a persuasive subject line to target higher open rates.

Finally yet essential, realize when your recipients receive email their email client may only display the “From” name, address (or both) from the header.  Therefore the “From” address needs to:

  1. Be consistent so that it is recognized and your message read
  2. Become regarded as a trusted sender
  3. Be significant so the recipient has a reason to open your email
  4. Use a From Name and Address the recipient will recognize
  5. Kept at a reasonable length,  so the entire name or From address is displayed

In summary, the recipient of your email, sees the “From” (and the “Subject” line) before any other part of your message.  As stated in a prior blog, if the subject line is dull and spammy, coming “from” a non-recognizable or trusted source, your message has a high delete probability: unlikely your message will be open and read.   Keep your “From” transparent, build a relationship “from” consistency – because who the email is “From” may have more influence than what you have to say.   Need help: contact Dundee Internet email List Services today.

Facebook Twitter

The Key That Unlocks Your Marketing Emails Read More »

Confirmed opted-in email addresses; more valuable than the “likes” on your FB page

Email Marketing /

Confirmed opted-in email addresses; more valuable than the “likes” on your FB page

Email marketing…successful, but is it successful by the number of Facebook likes you have?

Are you always under pressure to outdo your last campaign, even though your campaigns are working better than expected?

Are you concerned that your numbers are behind the industry standard, (is there an industry standard)?  Do you find yourself struggling to keep up with those perceived industry numbers?

And what about “Management”  – doesn’t it seem they always expect bigger and better results, frowning on inconsistency and unexpected declines?

And to top it off is your manager making the claim that email is passé –everything should be tweeted and Facebooked instead.  Aren’t you tired of hearing “how many likes do we have?” 

As an email marketer, you already know a well-conceived and implemented email marketing campaign has been proven, over and over again, to be the most cost-effective way to:

  1. Produce leads
  2. Acquire new customers
  3. Bring in more revenue

In a perfect world, with a little effort, your subscriber base would grow and all your subscribers would respond to all your campaigns with enthusiasm and interest.

However, we operate in a not so perfect world, there’s no guarantee you’ll maintain your subscribers base numbers or how your subscribers will respond to a mailing.  That fact that list membership shrinks naturally, by attrition, there’s always pressure to continue to grow your list. You want to maintain subscriber numbers, preferably all with good opted-in addresses.

This is important because the constant addition of qualified/permission-based list members is one of the keys to effective list building and ultimately the success of your campaigns.

List building in itself is the easy part. “Permission” based list building, the preferred way, can take time as, as duly noted in some circles as the biggest obstacle for list marketers to overcome.

There are many strategies to collect names:  and wouldn’t it make life simple just to be able to add email addresses to your list, regardless of how you obtained them.  However, possession of an email address does not give you the owner’s unequivocal permission to send email to it.  Ideally, you want to collect opted-in to your list addresses.  An opt-in subscriber wants your email: they told you so by an action of some type, giving you permission to send email to them.  However, even with opted-in email addresses, not all address are created equal, they could be an address that is:

  1. Single opted-in – In theory, the email recipient has, at some point, given permission to receive email from you.  They provided their email address on a form, website, response card and so on.  The list owner does not confirm their email address; hence, it’s a single contact.  In theory, this is okay but in actuality, there’s a lot of room for inaccuracy, misuses, input mistakes, and spelling errors. There is also malicious intent, like signing up your boss for every email list under the sun.
  2. Double opt-in – This is the ideal way to get permission, as your recipient confirms their subscription when they sign up for your list. They do this with a response (an action) of some type.  They are sent an email to confirm, they respond, hence double contact.  (Double opted-in is also known as closed-loop confirmed opted-in or verified opted-in).

Neither method is foolproof: unlike single opted-in, double opt-in subscriptions provide an auditable trail of responsibility, supporting the legitimacy of the address. You have proof they confirmed their address to be on your list, evidence that you may need (to keep you off a blacklist) if a recipient reports your mail as spam, which as we all know does happen.

Then, there is the definition of “permission” where potential subscriber permission may be:

  1. Expressed permission, the best type of consent to get, as it comes directly from the user himself (herself).  An example of an action, checking a box on a website registration form to request your email newsletter.
  2. Implied permission, permission that is not given, it’s inferred from an action or relationship, such as not removing a pre-check on a website form for list membership.

So what do you do with single-opted-in implied permission addresses?  Convert them into confirmed opted-in, at the collection point.

Always look for a way to give your potential recipient an opportunity to opt-in to your list by:

  1. Selecting a visible area on your webpages to your registration page: right on top of the home page.
  2. Placing a link to your list registration page from every web page (you own) that your prospects and customers may go to.
  3. Inviting potential recipients to join your list when they checkout online – and tell them why they should and offer them a discount if they do.
  4. Designing specific list registration landing pages for all those paid Google ads you’re running
  5. Sponsoring another list, find a list offering complementary products to your own.  You sell Salt; find a company who sells Pepper.
  6. Offering webinars, white pages, youtube instructions or other incentives.  Include an offer to sign up to your newsletters for additional information, email-only discounts or monthly specials.
  7. Asking your current subscribers to “refer a friend”: include your registration link to a specific landing page just for referring friend signup.
  8. Using mobile marketing incentives – include a link to your email registration page.
  9. AND include an opt-in link to your mailing list on all your outbound email.

Upfront and Personal, ask them to sign up:

  1. At Trade Shows Conferences and More.  Technology allows show vendors to scan the bar codes embedded on the back of those little entrance badges we wear. Those codes normally include our email address, name, company name, and other tidbits.  Simply use your trade show supplied scanner too, with their permission, of course, to add them to your mailing list.  Automatically email a confirmation when the address is added.
  2. Manually, traditionally a pen and paperwork well too. You will have to add their name to your list, but automatically send them a confirmation email. This will catch most input errors.
  3. On your printed materials:  Publish the link to your subscription page on everything you produce, business cards, yellow page ads (are they still used?), giveaways, flyers, in-store advertisements, customer surveys, ads, and catalog listings.
  4. On your direct mail pieces.  Postcards work well, in fact, if you would like to sign up to our postcard mailing “Quick Tip” you can sign up now and see how we do it.
  5. At every customer contact point. All customer service representatives should be trained to ask customers and prospects if they would like to be added to your mailing list with a brief explanation of why they should join. Again, have a confirmation sent to them as soon as their name is added.
  6. When you speak at a live seminar.  Include a link to your list signup on the last slide, and handout.  Bring up your mailing list in the summary of your presentation and offer an incentive for signing up that day. Don’t forget the confirmation!
  7. At the point of sale. Invite customers to sign up for your list as they check out.  A downloadable discount coupon may be offered after they confirm their subscription.

Continual list subscription acquisition and verification take effort. The constant addition of qualified/permission-based list members is one of the keys to effective list building and ultimately the success of your campaigns.  This is followed by the challenge to maintain a relationship with each subscriber after they are opted-in.  What you do with your list and the type of follow up for your subscribers will determine if your subscribers will continue to be your subscribers.  For example, an easy subscription management process will encourage subscribers to update their information on a regular basis and allow them to change preferences instead of opting out. Because there are several parts to a successful email campaign, mailing schedules, segments, content, length of a message, graphics, subject lines, text or HTML all those parts will come together with the proper foundation: a strong list membership strengthen by confirmed opted-in addresses making them more valuable than the “likes” on your FB pages. For more information, please contact info@dundee.net

Facebook Twitter

Confirmed opted-in email addresses; more valuable than the “likes” on your FB page Read More »

Email Ambiguity – can you really test for that?

Email Marketing /

Email Ambiguity – can you really test for that?

Your computer screen is zipping along with charts, graphs and numbers.   So far so good, everything looks great.    You believe the email campaign is a success, so many website visitors, even more than you had hoped for.  Management is waiting for your report; how many people clicked on the yellow shoes, they ask – Clicked on the yellow shoes? You wonder, was I supposed to track that too?

yellow shoes

Yellow Shoe Marketing

It all comes down to using the right set of parameters and performance indicators, the key performance indicators (KPIs) to collect the data  you need.  It goes without saying, knowing the objective of the campaign (yellow shoe clicks) will allow you to choose the KPIs you believe will be the most useful to determine the success or failure of a campaign.

When you start reviewing which KPIs  to use,  it may seem a bit overwhelming, after all, you’re only trying to measure how well your email campaigns are doing and are they doing as well as you think.   So why should you be concerned with which KPI’s to use?  Because, the key performance indicator of success is your Conversion Rate.

Conversion rates are not standardized, organizations measure conversion rates differently from one another.   For example, a real-estate company’s email campaign might base their success on the number of completed buyer profiles received, a shoe store may measure the number of clicks on their yellow shoe, while similar competing industries will have dissimilar conversion goals; such as opens compared to a success rate based on the number of unsubscribes in a mailing.

KPI’s are important because they:

  • Assist with organizational objectives – what do you want to achieve?
  • Are success indicators – Are your results comparable to your market and competitors?
  • Are uniquely defined by the individual organization – Who, in your company defines the goals for your email marketing efforts?

The common types of Key performance indicators used in email marketing may describe strategic goals in terms of quantifiable parameters, which in turn will allow you to estimate the success of your email campaign.   The common key performance indicators themselves, are not based on standardized formulas –the formulas used can be defined as needed

For example, there are at least two acceptable calculations for email Open rates; one based on delivered emails while the other based on total emails sent.  Both formulas are very acceptable.  What definition are the formulas then based on the actual click on an email, or when an image renders in an email client or when someone clicks on a link within the message?
Some commonly used Key Performance Indicators

In conclusion, there are many ways to measure a successful email campaign.    The KPIs define a set of values to measure against.  Selecting the right KPI’s is contingent on having a good understanding of the email campaign goal and expectations.  However there a degree of ambiguity that comes into play, which may not be of concern if your numbers are going up, ROI is climbing, and your subscribers are happy.

Facebook Twitter

Email Ambiguity – can you really test for that? Read More »

Is a Feedback loop just Email Noise?

Email Marketing /

Is a Feedback loop just Email Noise?

Is a Feedback loop just email noise?

Email has many handlers, which translates into “not all your email will be delivered as intended.”  When an ISP receives many complaints about a particular email going through their email servers (where “many” is a number based on the discretion of the ISP), the ISP may deliver those messages to the recipient’s junk folder or decide not to deliver those messages at all.  (Complaints can be collected on report spam pages, web mail, email clients or other.)

If you’re the originator of the message, that isn’t good news as your marketing efforts are wasted: your intended recipients may never look at their junk folder or worse yet, they never received your email message because it was never delivered.

Consider a typical (major) ISP, such as AOL.  AOL like all ISP’s (for a variety of reasons) wants to protect the in-boxes of their email recipients from SPAM and unwanted junk mail.  Ideally, they want to handle incoming email problems before they get out of hand and quickly resolve those “Report Spam” button issues. One way they do this is by using a communication system known as FBL or “complaint” Feedback Loops.

Feedback loops are:

  • A service that several major ISPs provide on an individual basis, to bulk mailers such as an ESP (Email Service Provider) like Dundee Internet Services.
    • An agreement between a major ISP and an ESP, where the ISP automatically forwards SPAM complaints originating from the ISP’s email box user to the ESP.  (The  sender’s organizations)
    • Used by the ESP to automatically removed the offering email address.
    • Critical for good list hygiene.

Feedback loops can:

  • Identify companies that want a preemptive approach to reduce the amount of spam sent to their users, those companies that are diligent about monitoring their mailings for abusive or otherwise unwanted content.
  • Streamline and automate the spam reporting process with specific identifiable-readable parts of an email:  using various headers used to describe the structure of MIME messages (RFC2045 and RFC1341)

Bottom line, as an ESP or any entity running mail servers with bulk mail distribution, should sign up with the feedback loops programs as it’s a good way to curtail spam and maintain a good IP reputation.  Marketers using an ESP with FeedBack Loops benefit too, their ISP is a responsible sender and as a result, a responsible sender delivers their email.

Which ISP’s offer Feedback Loop agreements, check out this partial list

https://www.mequoda.com/articles/audience-development/10-email-feedback-loop-lists/?floater=99

Facebook Twitter

Is a Feedback loop just Email Noise? Read More »

Email – Now that’s a complex subject.

Email Marketing /

Email – Now that’s a complex subject.

Email is a complex process that relies greatly on, among other things, sender reputation, and valuable content, a degree of marketing talent, the right distribution platform and diligence to comply with ISP requirements such as authenticating your email messages. Email authentication is one-way to help your messages reach your target audience. It validates your email as being actually sent from your domain and IP address. When utilized, email authentication speeds up email identity for receiving ISP’s (i.e. AOL) as it streamlines the entire process automatically.

Email Authentication

Email authentication can be done by:

I. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) An authentication standard developed as an anti-spam measure using email validation by confirming sender IP addresses. Using SPF, the return-path of an email is verified as passed (allowed) or failed (Not allowed possible forgery). Additionally SPF defines if the initiating or source email IP address is authorized to send mail for a particular sender’s domain. With SPF records, the senders domain can be then viewed as a trusted source by the receiving ISP’s. Essentially SPF approves the IP address and domain address of the outbound MTA or message transfer agent. (MTA is in control of receiving incoming email and delivering this email to individual mailboxes (users).) The individual sets up an SPF record, your Email Service Provider should be able to assist you to set this up, if needed. SPF can allow easier detection of: • Email spoofing: A method of altering the header information of an email so that the true sender or originator of that email is concealed. • Spam*- in the cases when an email header (From Address and or/to address) is forged as the recipient’s own email address. • Viruses and Worms-such as joe-jobs, when a virus forges the email sender’s name, consequently, the forged name will receive all the bounces.

II. Sender ID Framework or just Sender ID An authentication protocol based on SPF technology is another type of email validation procedure. Unlike SPF, that confirms the displayed header of an email (i.e. Email From Address), Sender ID authenticates the source of an email message, by verifying the IP address of the sender against the assumed owner of the sending domain. Sender ID can allow easier detection of: • Spoofing: by making it more difficult to forge a senders IP address as it’s designed to authenticate the origin of each e-mail message as being sent from domain which it claims to come from based on the sender’s server IP address. • Phishing: email attempt to capture (for example) logon information, credit card, bank account number and so on, by impersonating a trusted entity to dupe the user into deluding such numbers. (i.e. An email from Ebay, which really is not from Ebay asking you to verify your password.)

III. DK/DKIM aka Domain Keys Identified Mail. An authentication process that allows the sender to digitally sign their emails, in order to validate their domain name and message content. Using a DKIM sender authentication scheme, the recipient of a message can confirm that a message actually originated with the sender’s domain and confirm that the message content has not been changed. This verification is cryptography based solution-using DomainKeys. (An authentication system that stores public key encryption to apply digital signatures to emails in DNS and digitally signs email sent by a domain). DK/DKIM records are generated by your email service provider. DK/DKIM deters: • Email fraud as it is more difficult to spoof a domain. • Substantial amounts of spam and phishing. Email authentication is a small part of a bigger picture. Managing email deliverability can be challenging and time consuming but critical to your success. Always follow Email Best Practices and drop by for the next Blog on Feedback loops.

Facebook Twitter

Email – Now that’s a complex subject. Read More »