Be Relevant! Email Marketing Blog

links for 2009-08-31

• Webinar: 5 tips for better email marketing targeting and segmentation
  Relevant email marketing messages are opened and responded to. Yet most marketers still apply a one size fits all email marketing messaging approach. In this free web seminar, Michael Leander will give you 5 valuable tips to improve your email marketing targeting and segmentation in this 60 minute long web seminar.
  (tags: events webinar segmentation targeting)

links for 2009-08-27

• Important information for users of spamassassin
  Recently it has been widely published that bl.open-whois.org, a blocklist which was included within the default install of spamassassin has been taken offline and is no more. Users of the open source spamassassin application started to report that emails were being marked as spam wrongly. Upon investigation it appears that the domain open-whois.org had fallen into the hands of cyber squatters, presumably because the previous owner of the domain did not reregister the domain.
  (tags: deliverability spamassassin)

links for 2009-08-26

• Bad Apology E-mails Have Long Tails, Too
  Just about every e-mail marketer has made a bonehead move that necessitated an apology to the mailing list: sending the wrong offer, mailing to the unsubscribe database instead of the active list, linking to the wrong landing page...You name it, somebody somewhere has done it. Most of them follow up with an apology. Sometimes they work, but other times the apology just makes the problem worse.
  (tags: tactics)

links for 2009-08-26

• Bad Apology E-mails Have Long Tails, Too
  Just about every e-mail marketer has made a bonehead move that necessitated an apology to the mailing list: sending the wrong offer, mailing to the unsubscribe database instead of the active list, linking to the wrong landing page...You name it, somebody somewhere has done it. Most of them follow up with an apology. Sometimes they work, but other times the apology just makes the problem worse.
  (tags: tactics)

links for 2009-08-25

• Behavior Is Key in B2B E-Mail Marketing
  Marketers have begun to use e-mail to replace more expensive human touches in the sales cycle. For example, it's pretty straightforward to trigger messages based on Web site behavior (e.g., download) or time (e.g., contract renewal date). While it's hard to trace business buying behavior to a specific e-mail or single touch point, these messages earn higher click-throughs than generic newsletters or product announcements. They can also help qualify leads.
  (tags: triggered_emails b2b)
• Segmentation Strategy: The Welcome E-Mail Serie
  The welcome e-mail has been getting more attention lately as a way to build customer engagement beginning immediately after opt-in. However, it also helps you build your segmentation program because it requires you to market differently to a specific subscriber segment: the newbie.
  (tags: welcome_emails segmentation strategy)
• Email-Signup-and-Welcome-Messages
  If you're looking for inspiration for your welcome emails, this is an amazing resource pulled together by Ed Henrich
  (tags: welcome_emails gallery)
• When Testing Doesn't Work 08/24/2009
  There are probably thousands of articles on the Web about how to test marketing campaigns effectively. You have a hypothesis, you have test variables, you have test segments, and you have some view of statistical probabilities associated with the outcome. That's a perfect world. Let's first assume you actually have the time to build a proper test and the resources to create the many versions -- and you can actually deliver on the test program and keep the program sterile. What do you do when the tests don't tell you what you want to hear?
  (tags: testing)
• Holiday 2009 Planning Checklist: Plan for Success
  Many of you are still in the “back to school” mindset, but it’s time to mark your calendars and start preparing for the holiday season! Part of your strategy for the 2009 season should be to start planning early. Sit down and map out your plans for the entire holiday season today - don’t wait! To help as you are planning, Bronto's Kelly Lorenz pulled together a checklist, or roadmap, of what you should be looking to accomplish this year...
  (tags: holidays)
• Optimization Checklist to Improve Delivery
  Are your emails hitting a Junk Folder even though you're a reputable whitelisted sender? Optimizing email creatives for inbox delivery can be frustrating and time consuming; use this Optimization Checklist as a guide to pinpoint strategies to turn your delivery around.
  (tags: deliverability checklist)
• Feedback loops being replaced by engagement?
  On a recent ESPC call, a major ISP (who owns one of the top 3 email services) reported that they were moving away from using feedback loops as their primary method of determining the “spaminess” of a sender. Before the FBL pundits rejoice, wait till you hear what they’re measuring instead.
  (tags: deliverability fbl)

Using Email for B2B Lead Generation

Email marketing experts love to say email doesn't work for customer acquisition but rocks for customer retention. That can be true when you think about a promotional email going out to a list of people who've never heard of the emailing company asking them to become a customer. As inundated as people are with email and wary as consumers are of email messages from unknown marketers, it's not surprising that few consider email a customer acquisition tool.

But, it can be, if you do it right. Email marketing can be an amazing tool for lead generation, which is the first step in customer acquisition (and leads to customer retention).

The key ingredient is an offer that matters, a useful, relevant, helpful, appreciated something, whether it's a whitepaper, ebook or tip sheet.

After you've determined your offer, the following is our recommended approach when using email for B2B lead generation. This requires a little more sophistication because it segments based on behavior, but the investment is well worth it:

1. Start with a relevant offer that resonates with your target audience (high perceived value)
2. Build a clear, effective landing page, and make sure you optimize it
3. Craft several emails:

• Initial email with the offer
• Follow up email sent to those who do not click through and download your offer
• Thank you email that links back to your site and asks for feedback from those who do click through and download

Keep in mind that this is - you hope - the beginning of a relationship, so you want to earn their trust. This takes us back to the initial offer once again. If you promise more than you deliver, you'll lose their trust before you have earned it. You want them to appreciate the product you have given them, to value it, and to value you for making it available to them, which makes them receptive to hearing from you again!

Then, you can use email to convert them from prospect to customer, one interaction at a time, and finally, for customer retention.

It all starts with the offer. Make sure it's relevant, with a perceived high value.

Source: The ClickMail Marketer

links for 2009-08-21

• More Spam? Say it ain't so!
  As spam volumes grow, so will the need to have the resources to fight inbound as well as outbound spam. The necessity to develop more aggressive filters and take a deeper look at user-level feedback will continue to be a high priority.
  (tags: spam)
• Anti-Spam Legislation Around the World, Part 1
  In the first installment, Bronto focuses on North America.
  (tags: legislation)

links for 2009-08-20

• URL Shorteners and Blacklists
  In general, URL shorteners are great tools that serve a good purpose, but spammers have abused the heck out of them to disguise their (already blacklisted) links. In response, some spam filters make a habit out of “clicking” all URLs in an email, just to follow redirects from URL shorteners, and analyze the landing page they’d take you to.
  (tags: deliverability)

links for 2009-08-18

• Video email: when to use it
  Today we'll highlight some promising approaches and good examples.
  (tags: video)
• Integrating Email and Social for Higher Deliverability & Response
  Stephanie Miller shares a number of tips to help marketers synergize (and energize) their email and social marketing strategies.
  (tags: social_marketing strategy)
• Email Marketing Tip OTW: Reusing Blog Posts for Newsletters
  You can save yourself a lot of time and frustration if you opt not to create completely fresh material for your email newsletters. Instead, you can reuse blog posts or articles from your website for the content of your newsletters, filling them out with high quality, interesting and engaging material without needing to come up with new topics.
  (tags: content-strategy)
• MarketingSherpa: Protect Your List Part 2: Generate High-Quality Names from Co-Reg, Sweeps, and List Rental
  (tags: list_growth list_building list_rental co-registration sweepstakes)
• MarketingSherpa: Call for Speakers: 2nd Annual Email Summit-GERMANY 2010
  MarketingSherpa's second annual Email Marketing Summit will be held in Munich, Germany on March 8-9, 2010. If you’d like to be a speaker, and are German or EU based now is your chance. We’re looking for B2B and B2C email marketers to share Case Studies and best practices from their own recent real-life tests and tactics.
  (tags: events)
• Email Practices of Top Online Retailers - Upcoming Webinar
  How are email marketing practices of the top online retailers changing, for the better or worse? Find out at a free Webinar on Thursday August 20 at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT, when Loren McDonald presents results from Silverpop's latest study comparing the email practices of retailers from Internet Retailer's Top 500 list and 395 additional companies.
  (tags: webinar events)
• Making the most of triggered emails
  Setting up triggered emails is an easy way to ensure your communications are relevant and timely as they're based on your subscriber's recent interactions with your brand, product or service. For instance, there may be simple actions or changes in customer behaviour that you can use as the basis for new triggered activity that complements your existing messaging. But you can also work outside the box for an even greater sense of the personal touch. Here we show you how...
  (tags: triggered_emails)
• Increase Your Holiday E-Mail Frequency
  You need to follow these two tactics to help you increase frequency without burning out your subscribers or crippling your e-mail performance.
  (tags: holidays)
• Shop and Abandon Cart Study Using Internet Retailer 500 List
  Less Than 11 Percent of E-Retailers Responded with Abandoned Cart Email - Average Response Time More Than 3 Days
  (tags: abandoned-cart)
• Hewlett Packard purges the hopelessly profitless
  Hewlett Packard proved that a brand should never give up on inactive customers. A carefully staged win-back email campaign triggered a response from dormant subscribers, and highlighted those persistent non-responders who were clogging up HP's database.
  (tags: reactivation win-back)
• I hate Twitter
  There's a million reasons to hate (or maybe even love) Twitter. But I have only one reason - for the most part, Twitter just doesn't work for marketing. In fact, it's an incredible time and resource suck. I'm amazed people dedicate any time and resources to it at all.
  (tags: social_media twitter)

Message for my Dutch speaking blog readers

At the risk of sounding very exotic to most of my readers, I am going to post this message in Dutch ;-)

Beste nederlandstalige lezers, ik wil jullie via deze weg even laten weten dat ik sinds een tijdje ook een nederlandstalig blog over e-mailmarketing heb genaamd Inbox 2.0. Ben benieuwd wat jullie ervan vinden!

Oh ja, als je zin hebt om mee te bloggen op mijn nederlandstalig blog, laat het me dan even weten!

Video Email Marketing in 2009: Facts, Stats, Limitations, Possibilities

If you missed the webinar, you can have a look at the slides from the presentation below or view the video here:

Video Email Marketing in 2009: Facts, Stats, Limitations, Possibilities

View more presentations from Justin Foster.

Winning back inactive subscribers in 7 steps

Your inactive subscribers don’t necessarily represent dead wood, uselessly clogging up your database. They are past and future customers who were once engaged with your program.

Chances are, it will cost you less to reach out and re-engage with these subscribers than it will to acquire new ones, so don’t leave good money on the table.

In this article, Margaret Farmakis provides these simple steps to win them back:

Step 1: Dive into your data and find out what portion of your database is inactive and how many non-responders you have.

Step 2: Break the inactive segment into smaller sub-segments. You’ll need to create a win-back strategy for each.

Step 3: Test a variety of content and offer strategies. Some subscribers will respond better to discounts, others to information on new products.

Step 4: Make sure you recognize their inactive status with a special headline in the creative and a customized subject line that lets them know you want them back.

Step 5: Track your performance metrics to learn what’s worked and what hasn’t.

Step 6: Next, remove persistent non-responders from your database. If you’re not quite ready to make the cut, consider sending out a final re-permission message. This email should clearly state that the subscriber hasn’t been opening or clicking on your messages. Include a link to reconfirm that they would like to remain on your file. Be clear about how long they have to reconfirm and what will happen if they don’t; you’ll then be    able to take the final step and remove them from your database.

Step 7: Take proactive steps to identify and reach out to your non-responders in the future. Create triggered messages that will engage with your inactive segments on a methodical basis, ideally after a defined period of time. If the subscriber hasn’t opened or clicked in 30 days, send them your win-back offer. If a customer hasn’t made a purchase in three months, send them a special incentive to get them shopping again.

Read the full article here.

links for 2009-08-17

• Holiday email planning in August
  2009 has flown by so far, and sooner than you know it, the holiday season will be here. Get a one-up on your competitors by starting your holiday email campaign planning now. Here are some steps to get you started:
  (tags: holidays)
• Respect Subscribers by Managing Expectations
  Managing expectations means adopting a "no-surprises" policy. This means you make it clear up front how the opt-in process works. State what kind of content they signed up for and how often you'll send it. Put as much control as you can into your subscribers' hands. Then, honor the expectations with the emails that you send. The mismatch – accidental or deliberate – between what a subscriber expects and what you actually send is what drives spam complaints, unsubscribes and disengagement.
  (tags: strategy)
• Email Design Tip of the Week: 5 Stages of Viewing
  Due to the unique landscape of email, subscribers open and engage in five separate stages, judging each one individually before deciding to move on. The design, therefore, is a building view – not a static page view. Considering the following stages when approaching your next email design will not only be helpful in formulating a strategic email-building thought process for your brand, but also in delivering relevant content to your subscribers.
  (tags: design)

links for 2009-08-14

• Relevance: What Is It, Anyway?
  Most agree that a core principle of relevance is "the right message at the right time." With that in mind, here is Loren McDonald's attempt at defining what goes into "the right message" and "the right time."
  (tags: relevancy)
• Failed delivery of permission based email
  There are 3 primary things that cause asked for and wanted email to be blocked.
  (tags: deliverability permission)

Bounce Codes Now Collected in One Location

There are so many bounce codes used by the various ISPs and receivers that it's hard to keep them all straight. Now there is a great resource for most of the known bounce codes to help simplify your tracking and processing.

Thanks primarily to Chris Wheeler of Bronto Software, Jack Sinclair or Return Path and Josh Baer of OtherInbox, the eec’s Deliverability Roundtable has put together a repository of common and available bounce strings senders might see from current ISPs (email receivers).

The forum is setup on Get Satisfaction as a dynamic and interactive site that allows users to request information and update bounce strings as they change. The ISP serving the bounce, the bounce string text and next steps for a sender are written out by bounce code here.

For more information, visit the eec blog.

links for 2009-08-11

• Campaign Monitor attacked by hackers, some accounts compromised
  All the evidence points to this being a highly intense, deliberate and planned attack intended to gain access to Campaign Monitor data and to send spam emails. We are committed to stopping this ever being able to happen again, and again apologize for the major let down.
  (tags: industry)
• Short Or Long Copy In Newsletters: What's The Smart Choice?
  Promotional emails fall into the "drive 'em to the Web site" category because most sales are closed on the Web. But email newsletters can be of more than one kind -- ranging from snippets of copy with links leading back to the Web site right up to full articles in the email itself. So, which should you choose? Here are some guidelines.
  (tags: copywriting newsletters)

links for 2009-08-11

• Campaign Monitor attacked by hackers, some accounts compromised
  All the evidence points to this being a highly intense, deliberate and planned attack intended to gain access to Campaign Monitor data and to send spam emails. We are committed to stopping this ever being able to happen again, and again apologize for the major let down.
  (tags: industry)
• Short Or Long Copy In Newsletters: What's The Smart Choice?
  Promotional emails fall into the "drive 'em to the Web site" category because most sales are closed on the Web. But email newsletters can be of more than one kind -- ranging from snippets of copy with links leading back to the Web site right up to full articles in the email itself. So, which should you choose? Here are some guidelines.
  (tags: copywriting newsletters)

Things to check before you launch your email campaign

I uploaded a new presentation on SlideShare a couple of days ago and thought I’d share it with you here as well:

Things To Check Before You Launch Your Email

View more documents from Tamara Gielen.

links for 2009-08-10

• Tips for Selling Ads in E-mail Newsletters, Part 1
  An e-mail newsletter is a great way to build relationships that drive leads, sales, engagement and/or retention. But what many organizations overlook is that it can also be a tool to generate third-party advertising revenue for your business.
  (tags: advertising)
• Webinar: It's Christmas in August!: 2009 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season
  August 26, 2009 @ 9.15am PDT - Get stats on what worked for retailers last year, drawn from thousands of 2008 holiday emails, and find out what new trends will hit inboxes during the 2009 holiday season.
  (tags: events webinar holidays trends)
• Webinar: Video Email Marketing in 2009 - Facts, Stats, Limitations, Possibilities
  12 August 2009 @ 11am PDT - Join Justin Foster and Lisa Harmon as they examine the evolution of video in email, provide an objective look at the drawbacks and possibilities of the different methods used to achieve video in email, profile emerging technology research, and share case studies, facts, best practices, and answer your questions about video in email.
  (tags: events webinar video)
• Triggered messages in action
  None of these communications are difficult to set up, but the benefits they give in terms of brand affintity and likelihood to recommend are enormous.
  (tags: triggered_emails autoresponders)
• 4 E-mail Appending Best Practices
  The e-mail append process isn't so straightforward and can be a risky endeavor with no guarantee of reward. On the other hand, done responsibly, you can minimize the risks and boost your list size in the process. I'm not going to tell you whether e-mail appends are right for your business. But if you are considering them, here are some things to think about...
  (tags: email_appends list_growth)
• TSC Direct's 90-day touch program
  Keeping in constant, consistent contact with your email recipients is one way to ensure you maintain a list of active, engaged subscribers. TSC Direct, does a great job of this. Recently, they started a 90-day touch program where automated emails are sent at scheduled intervals based on when the subscriber first requested an auto insurance quote online.
  (tags: autoresponders triggered_emails cases)
• Happy Birthday - Setting up a Birthday Email Marketing Campaign
  Birthdays are great opportunity to mix up your messaging to an email subscriber and give a non-sale oriented, warm and fuzzy to build trust and enthusiasm with your brand and email program. That doesn’t mean you don’t get to sell and covert though! Let’s take a look at how to set this up, automate, and also a few content ideas to get you thinking.
  (tags: autoresponders triggered_emails)

links for 2009-08-09

• Target Your Best Customers With RFM Segmentation
  There's a predictive modeling and segmentation technique that can dramatically improve email click-throughs and conversions. It's called RFM, and direct marketers have been using it for years to identify their best customers and send them special, tailored offers. Learn how it works and start applying it to your email campaigns.
  (tags: rfm segmentation)