‘Email Marketing’ Articles

I just got off the phone with a client who was very concerned about her open rates. We occasionally come across this from a new mailer and it can be hard to explain to them why they shouldn’t worry about it. The reason we provide an open rate statistic is, for the most part, because people expect it. Having been in the email marketing industry for almost 20 years, we know that open rates aren’t really an accurate way to measure the success or failure of a campaign.

At one time, open rates were an accurate and useful way to record campaign data, but starting in 2004, Microsoft began blocking images by default in their email programs. In the proceeding months and years, other email clients followed suit. Today, nearly every email client provides their users with the option to block images and most do it by default. This dramatically changes the usefulness of open rate statistics. They no longer provide accurate information about the individuals who open email. Certain situations, such as if an email happens to have no pictures, and therefor provides no incentive for your users to click the “load images” button, makes open rates appear even worse. This isn’t to say that you should include images solely for the purpose of getting your open rates up. What you should do is accept that open rates just aren’t as important or as useful as they once were.

Open rates, while no longer effective at projecting how many people have actually read your email, can sometimes be used effectively as a meter stick to compare results. Looking at the open rates of two different campaigns sent to the same list and noting how they differ can be a helpful exercise. Each list you send to will have a baseline open rate based on several factors. Those factors will include: the email habits of your recipients, what email client they are using, and how interested they are in your general message. Once you have figured out this baseline open rate, you can use it to judge the overall effectiveness of future mailings. If one promotion or newsletter performs above or below the baseline, you know you’ve either done a superior job with that content, or missed the mark.

If you want a more accurate statistic to monitor, you may want to keep a close eye on the clickthrough statistics. A clickthrough is recorded anytime someone clicks on a link in your email. This number has nothing to do with unreliable image loading and can’t be distorted by the email client. It’s simply a one to one representation of how many people have clicked the links in your email. Many of our clients are trying to drive traffic to their website, this number is actually the most crucial number for them. If you have a call to action on your email that involves clicking a link, the clickthrough statistics will give you actual numbers on how many people answered that call to action. Clicking on a link or acting on the mailing is the true test of it’s effectiveness and should be of much greater concern then open rates.

The biggest hurdle in email marketing is getting your hands on a good database. We frequently have issues with our customers who want to buy, or have already bought, an email list or database that turns out to be garbage. Buying a list is very dangerous territory. There’s a very good chance that you’ll waste your money or get yourself in a lot of trouble. We’ve been advocating organically built lists for many years. The worth of a good list is not to be underestimated, it’s a priceless commodity.

There are people out there who pay top dollar for good data. If you have built a list on your own, you have something that is more valuable than you know. An organically built list is a direct line to a consumer group with very specific interests. If you’ve collected the list through your business, the interest that they share in common is your product. People in the marketing industry dream about that kind of information.

Admail.net has the tools that allow you to build your list into an extremely valuable asset. The most important tool in doing that is our List Member Profile. The more information you can gather about your customers the better. When you create an account, you should take some time to browse the list member profile. Proper setup of your list member profile is crucial in many other aspects of the system. Make sure you include fields for all of the user information you are able to capture. With more information on each list member, you are able to produce directed marketing for specific groups within your list.

Don’t undervalue your own list. Protect it by keeping it up-to-date and maintained, and don’t be fooled by unsavory list brokers trying to sell you questionable data. There is no such thing as a quick buck in email marketing. It takes dedication, strategy, and integrity. Once you have the respect and trust of your client list, make sure that you understand the value and cherish it.

Social media has become an integral part of online marketing strategy. It’s a fantastic way to connect with your customers through the circles that they travel rather than through traditional advertising forums.

Social media marketing is a perfect companion to email marketing. They can each promote one another to increase the effectiveness of all of your marketing strategies.

Email is an effective way to promote your social media endeavors. You can provide links to your social media locations in mailings that you send out. This will inform your list that you are active in the social media community and drive traffic to these sites. The same principle works in reverse, you can use social media to collect email addresses for your mailing list. Social Media provides you with many opportunities to get to know and interact with your possible clients and industry peers.

The most important goal of any email marketing or social media campaign is to connect with your audience. Before you start either, you should sit down with your company heads and decide on a strategy. Discover who your clients are, what the want, and craft a social media story. If you attempt to spread yourself too thin, you won’t connect with anyone. Find out what your niche is and then promote it!

As the holiday season quickly approaches, it’s time to start thinking about your marketing strategy.

E-mail is still the work-horse of holiday marketing. E-mail marketing has many advantages over the alternatives. It’s cheaper, faster, and provides feedback almost instantly. Direct mail and other forms of marketing can’t do that.

Other forms of marketing, such as text messaging, are beginning to come to fruition, but they don’t have the reliability, accessibility and time-tested rates of success of e-mail. E-mail marketing has the highest ROI and the holidays are the best time to use e-mail to cash in.

Consumers are looking to buy during the holiday season. If there is any time that your offer will be welcome and have a high chance of being acted on, it’s during this short period of time. One great thing about starting a campaign during the holiday season is that it can get you off to a very good start with your email list.

If you provide an exciting offer during the holiday months, you can start a very positive relationship with your list members that can last all year.

One way to make the most out of your holiday marketing is to start early and do some A/B testing. By that I mean segmenting your list and sending out two or more different campaigns to different segments to see which gets the better response. This will give you insight into what your customers are looking for and will help you narrow down your most effective material. Starting early gives you the chance to fine tune your campaigns before the big push closer to the holidays.

This is also a great time of year to kick off a social media campaign through e-mail. Many companies have been providing offers solely to their Facebook or Twitter page members. Holiday exclusives for your social media customers and fans will help you build your connection with your customer base. The most common way this is implemented is by offering a coupon or online price only to those who have agreed to follow you on Twitter or are “Fans” of your friend page on Facebook.

The holiday season is crunch time for retailers all over the country, don’t let your competition beat you to the punch, cash in on the holiday buying frenzy with an effective and easy e-mail campaign from Admail.net.

How often should you send to your mailing list? There are two major schools of thought when it comes to determining the correct frequency of mailing.

The first philosophy, and the one which creates the most problems, is to mail very often. The marketers who adopt this strategy typically believe that it’s best to stay at the forefront of their customer’s minds. There are several problems with this type of mailing strategy. Foremost of those problems are over-saturating your list and sending out bad content. Your list members can only handle so many mailings before they begin to find them an annoyance, this, compounded by the unfortunate reality that good content takes time and thought to produce, will create high complaint and unsubscribe rates.

The contrasting theory of frequency is to send very infrequently. This is typically advocated by wary marketers because of the extreme negativity surrounding “spam” sending practices. By sending rarely, marketers have plenty of time to create great content and they don’t run the risk of burning out their lists. On the other hand, research has shown that if you don’t send often enough, your list can go cold. You may miss out on sales that you could have generated if your frequency was slightly higher.

So, as is true in most things, moderation is rewarded. Just how often you need to send is up to you, but for the sake of your marketing efforts, avoid either extreme. A no-brainer way to answer the question of how often to send is to let your list members decide for themselves. You can achieve this by asking them how often they’d like to receive mail when they sign up. Once you have that information, you’ll know how often to send. I do suggest you provide a way for them to change their preference later.

So, here are the take-aways: don’t send too often, but don’t disappear from your customers lives either. Content is king. If you provide your customers with content that they truly want (offers, information, entertainment) you will have more leeway when it comes to frequency. Great content breeds good will and forgiveness from your list members. Last but not least, ask your customers what they want as far as mailing frequency is concerned! It’s easy for you and great for them.

Good luck!