EmailStatCenter.com today released its findings from the First Annual State of Email Metrics survey. The survey measured interactive marketing professionals’ current views on the importance of email marketing metrics and the biggest challenges and focus areas for 2008.

Some highlights from the survey:

Frequent Measurement is Integral to Success

• Over 95% of the individuals surveyed said that they did measure the results of their email campaigns. When asked how often they measured results, 57% of respondents indicated that they measure results 24-48 hours after deployment. However, only 18% indicated that they measured results on an annual basis.

Click Through and Deliverability Rank Tops with Professionals 

• Professionals ranked click through rate and deliverability as the most important metrics to track. Metrics surrounding total subscribers and forwards were among the lowest ranked metrics in terms of importance.

Metrics Not Widely Used for Budgeting 

• Only 50% of the email professionals surveyed reported that they use metrics for budgeting and forecasting purposes while 35% of professionals cited that they do not use metrics for budgeting. The remaining 15% were unsure.

Looking at the bigger picture, survey respondents cited list development and time constraints as the biggest challenges they face and email strategy and measurement as areas for near term focus. The survey also addresses the current quality of email metrics, the top sources for email metrics and the need for the standardization of metrics across the industry.

Download the full results of the survey here.

• Word to the Wise » Greylisting: that which Yahoo does not do
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• Takeaways from ‘12 Can’t Miss Email Strategies for Online Retailers’ webinar
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• Video and e-mail work hand in hand to engage
  (tags: cases)

Email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and usability/customer experience are the top priorities for online marketers this holiday season according to a recent survey. The survey was conducted by online solutions provider Brulant at the Shop.org 2007 Annual Summit held in Las Vegas in September.

Sixty-four percent of respondents ranked email marketing as their most important priority, with 46% ranking SEO as second. Usability/customer experience was third with 38%. The initiative with the least importance in advance of the important holiday shopping season was enterprise search/guided navigation solutions.

“During the crucial holiday shopping season, online marketers must focus their efforts on initiatives that will have the biggest impact on sales, and these three areas fit that bill,” said Scott Young, partner with the consumer goods practice at Brulant. “Because most consumers give themselves a spending limit when it comes to holiday shopping, online retailers need to ensure they are successfully attracting and converting customers so that those holiday dollars don’t get spent at a competitor’s site instead.”

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071112/20071112006040.html?.v=1

• Landing Page Testing - The Ultimate Guide To Test Statistics
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• How Email Competitive Intelligence Increases Marketing ROI
  From monitoring 3rd parties to selecting affiliates and evaluating the effectiveness of creative, this session overviews the best practices and new techniques used by email marketers today
  (tags: events)
• Jeanniey Mullen Promises EEC Tattoo...
  ...if she can get 500 people to register for the THE EEC email marketing event of the year by January 15th.
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The folks over at Campaign Monitor decided to run some tests to find out how well forms are supported in all the major email environments.

The short of it is that email clients consider email forms to be a security risk. While some email clients simply warn you of potential danger, others outright disable the forms.  So if you want to send out a form, you should know that most of your recipients will never be able to use it. And for those who can, they’ll think twice about submitting data when they see a warning from their email client.

Campaign Monitor recommends linking to a form on a website in an email rather than embedding it therein. This is the safest, most reliable solution to pairing an email message with a form. More people will see it and be able to use it, and as a result participation will increase.

Source: Campaign Monitor

Though the return on investment garnered from e-mail marketing operations is still healthy, there has been a downward trend in recent years, and it is forecasted to continue through 2007 and 2008.  This is according to the U.S. Direct Marketing Association.

In 2005, e-mail marketing ROI was $57.25 for every dollar spent, while in 2006 this figure dipped to $51.58.  In 2007, this number is expected to be $48.56, with e-mail marketers spending $500 million for $23 billion in sales.

This decline in ROI is expected to continue through 2008, where DMA predicts the figure will be $45.65, with marketers spending $600 million for $27 billion in sales.

Part of the explanation for this downhill procession could be the increased sending of e-mails that do not generate any revenues, such as order confirmations and double opt-ins, though these may have subtle, indirect influences on revenues generated.

Still, this negative trend does not seem to be dampening any efforts to utilize the potential that lies in e-mail marketing, as is exhibited in the increased spending expected next year of $100 million.

Source: Adotas

In and effort to help brands and interactive marketers protect their brands from phishing while aiding in the deliverability of their legitimate email and enhancing user trust, the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (www.aotalliance.org) will be publishing a summary of email service providers and agencies whose solutions include key email authentication protocols.   

Specifically they will be publishing a score card of sorts that will include the support of the following:

• Sender ID/SPF
• DomainKeys
• DomainKeys Identified Email
• TLS

To be included in this report, they need your company name, domain (with link to any page reference to email authentication) and support of the above mentioned solutions available as of December 1, 2007.  In addition, please provide your contact information so they can follow up.

Please send your submissions to staff [at] aotalliance [dot] org.

• Cheat Sheet: How to Get Your Email Address Into More Address Books - Tips & Rules for Top 10 Receivers + BlackBerry Users
• E-mail Delivers
  4 top e-mailers outlined what they see as having the biggest impact on the industry in the last year and going into 2008.
  (tags: industry)
• At Last, The Magilla Marketing List of Top Companies - Sort Of
  The Magilla Marketing List of Top 40 Fastest-Growing (and some not-so-fast-growing) E-mail Marketing Related Companies that Came to Mind Randomly while Swilling Vodka Martinis :)
  (tags: industry)

• Free Email Deliverability Guide For Our Blog Readers!
  AWeber is offering an email deliverability guide to its blog readers.
  (tags: deliverability)

MindComet is teaming up with Marketing Sherpa to provide BtoB marketers a comprehensive analysis of email marketing budgets in 2008. If you're interested in participating check out www.btobbudgetsurvey.com.

Source: MindComet.

• Subject Line Testing Scenarios
  some ideas for subject line tests
  (tags: subject_lines)

When it comes to e-mail marketing, Americans are more sophisticated than almost all their European counterparts. This is significant, according to a new JupiterResearch report, "E-mail Marketing Adoption: Assessing Multinational E-mail Marketing Sophistication," because it may give U.S.-based marketers an edge as they move into international markets.

If you’re thinking of making a move into international waters, there are a few key things you can do to increase your odds of success, said Nate Elliott, senior analyst at JupiterResearch. Here are a few pointers that can help you along:

1. Consider an e-mail service provider.
“Once a marketer hits a certain size, they outgrow their homegrown e-mail applications, and should look into an ESP,” Elliott said. ESPs, according to Elliott, allow senders to include dynamic content with their messaging and perform highly targeted segmentation. Because 50% of all European marketers said they have no plans to change their e-mail technology and another 18% said they plan on building a homegrown application, an ESP could give American marketers a solid leg-up on the competition.

2. Pay extra attention to the mobile market.
The adoption of messaging on mobile devices is “notably higher” in the U.K., and U.S. marketers need to be thinking about how they can bring their e-mail messages to the handheld format. Marketers, according the report, should look into using WAP-formatted e-mail messages and landing pages as well as SMS (short message service, or text messaging) marketing to fill this need. An added bonus: Once this technology takes off in the States, you’ll be ahead of the competition here, too.

3. Give them a landing page of their own and see what they do with it.
European marketers are more likely to employ batch-and-blast tactics; they’re very rarely looking at click behavior, analytics or other outside data. This is a mistake, according to the report, because what people do when they come to a site or a landing page can be indicative of if they will buy or how you can best sell to them.

4. Go local.
When it comes to targeting, Elliott said, non-U.K. European marketers tend to use a single team and strategy, segmenting their lists by country. Unfortunately, they often forget that different countries have different dialects, language preferences and currencies. If you take a little time to think like a local—and give recipients e-mail copy that shows your knowledge—they may be more likely to click through. “European marketers use geographic data more heavily than U.S. peers, but they’re not using it to segment correctly,” Elliott said.

Source: btobonline

I just spent a couple of hours tagging and re-tagging my 292 del.icio.us bookmarks. This means that you can now also search them by keyword. Check it out:

Here's a bunch of new bookmarks that I added today:

• Former AOL postmaster Charles Stiles hired by Goodmail
  (tags: industry)
• A conversation with AOL's Charles Stiles
  DMNews spoke with (previous) AOL postmaster Charles Stiles about the state of spam, the lingering challenges and what this means to legitimate e-mail marketers. Nothing new here, but still an interesting  read...
  (tags: AOL deliverability)
• MailChimp Launches Email Marketing Search Engine
  MailChimp created an enhanced Google Custom Search Engine. The custom search engine brings together the best sources on email delivery and marketing trends from 24 popular blogs and websites.
  (tags: tools)
• Email's place in the Travel & Tourism sector
  Great article by Denise Cox in which she explains how email fits in today's travel industry landscape. Also interesting to those that do not work in this sector.
  (tags: industry)
• Open Rate, Schmopen Rate: Time to Change the Name
  Ken Magill says that as long as we continue to call the percentage of graphics displayed in a given campaign its “open rate,” we’re being dishonest with everyone who doesn’t know what the metric truly means.
  (tags: metrics)
• Best Practices For Bulletproof E-Mail Delivery
  (tags: deliverability)
• Shared or dedicated IP address?
  (tags: deliverability)
• Gmail talks about fighting spam and reputation
  (tags: Gmail deliverability reputation)
• Emails Role and Future Thoughts
  Greg Cangialosi takes a look at some of the various ways that email is used first in a marketing role and then second on a social marketing level.
  (tags: industry)
• In Defense of Email, Part 9,732
  Matt Blumberg's response to Greg Cangialosi's excellent posting in defense of email as a marketing channel called "Email's Role and Future Thoughts".
  (tags: industry)

On February 11-13 the Email Experience Council is organizing the first edition of its annual email marketing event, the Email Evolution Conference, in San Diego, California.

The conference is organized into three tracks:

• Fundamental, which is geared toward the Email Deployment Manager/Coordinator;
• Intermediate, which is intended for Interactive/Direct Marketing Managers and Directors; and
• Advanced, which is for Executive Marketing/Advertising Leads and CMOs.

The three-track format is designed to ensure that all attendees are getting information tailored to their expertise levels. The sessions cover a wide range of email marketing topics, from acquisition and list management to multichannel marketing.

Check out the agenda here.

Don't be surprised if you see my name on the agenda. I will be keynoting on the second day, together with Dylan Boyd and Chad White :-)

Hope to see some of you at the conference!

Both JupiterResearch and Forrester launched a report on email marketing recently:

Forrester: Relationships Write The Next Chapter For Email
Email success among marketers of apparel, home goods, or travel is obvious because it's measured in sales. Financial services and consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers find the value of email more challenging to defend because they are limited by security and data constraints, or because they don't sell direct to the consumer. However, precisely because of these constraints, email practitioners in these industries have developed some great relationship-building best practices that any interactive marketer can leverage. All practitioners should infuse their emails with user-generated content and increase their usage of analytics to deliver ever-more relevant messages.

JupiterResearch: E-mail Marketing Adoption - Assessing Multinational E-mail Marketing Sophistication
US e-mail marketers will face increasing competition from their European peers as they begin to explore international e-mail opportunities. US e-mail marketing vendors seeking European expansion are therefore questioning the many unseen hurdles that lie ahead. Key questions that are answered in this report are:

• How does the sophistication of e-mail marketing differ in the US and in Europe?
• Which regions are relatively less likely to adopt relevance as a tactic, thus stifling mailing performance?
• Which vendor categories and features are likely to flourish in various regions?

According to Scott Palubinsky there are three main aspects of email marketing: list quality, creative rendering, and reporting:

1. The  quality of your list is much more important than the quantity. Growing your list is important, but what is more important is growing your list by adding opt-in subscribers/customers who will positively respond to your campaign. By segmenting and targeting the contacts on your lists, you’ll have a much greater chance of reaching your desired audience and getting a positive and profitable outcome.  Once you have your list developed, be sure to keep it clean by managing bounces and non-responders.
   
   
2. Creative rendering can make or break an  email campaign.  Follow these guidelines for designing for the preview pane and keeping the call to action above the fold.  Test what your emails will look like in multiple ISPs and mail readers.  A tool like our Sender Score  Monitor Program can help with this.  Look and establish where problems with your HTML are occurring and ensure that the creative design of your emails is engaging your subscribers and not getting lost in the shuffle.  Your creative work may look brilliant in one ISP, but could lose its design integrity in other ISPs, thus preventing your message from making an impact on those contacts/subscribers.
   
   
3. Analyzing and adapting to the information gathered from your email reports is the best and most efficient way to improve the success of your email campaigns. The best reporting shows you open, click-through, forward and opt-out rates, as well as bounce reports and deliverability reports by domain.  More advanced reporting can also provide you with conversion data.  Use this reporting data to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and show you what can be improved upon next time. 

Paying attention to these three truths can help to dramatically improve your email marketing program. 

Check yourself now: 

• Do you have a high quality list of subscribers that have specifically opted-in to receive your emails and who respond to the messages you relay in your emails? 
• Do you have a compelling email creative that is designed for the preview pane and that renders well across various ISPs?
• Do you have access to a comprehensive reporting tool that you check on a regular basis and use to improve upon your email strategy?

Source: Blue Sky Factory