Archive for the category ‘Email Marketing’
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Spam redefined (again)
You’ve probably all heard about Microsoft’s plans to upgrade Hotmail in order to “address inbox clutter”. With important repercussions for online marketers I thought I’d take this opportunity to clear up a few details about why the system has been introduced, how the plans will affect email marketing campaigns and suggest what email marketers can do to avoid the spam trap. But before I start I want to make one thing clear; marketers need not be afraid. ISPs are not the enemy. Read more »
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How to get more from your email this Christmas
Catalogue e-business – July 2010
We’ve seen a shift in catalogue marketing moving towards better targeting and more channels. In the eighties, catalogues mainly used off-the-page advertising for customer aquisition. The nineties saw the advent of co-op databases, such as Abacus and Transactis, which led to an increase in direct mail targeting. With the new millennium the Internet started to generate meaningful sales for cataloguers. In the next decade catalogues will use more effective online targeting tools such as behavioural email.
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Behavioural email – Instant or targeted on behaviour
When is the best time to send a behavioural email?
Behavioural email is a hot topic nowadays; plenty of people want to add it as a key part of an overall conversion strategy. Of late the thing that seems to be generating the most column inches is around the best time to send these emails. So as someone that’s been doing behavioural email for longer than most I thought I’d throw my opinion out there. Read more »
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What can we do about customers abandoning their shopping baskets?
As promised here is the follow up to my December blog about why customers abandon their shopping baskets.
Below I’ve given some tactical ideas on how to target and engage with these distinct segments.
Wish List’ers
They spend hours online. They look at every option and test the varieties. They may never buy from a company but they sure will fill their shopping basket up with things they wish they could buy. Offline they are called window shoppers. They are often the young, energetic and underfunded.
For these guys you need to create a sense of real urgency. Make them realise NOW is the time to buy. Limited stock…end of sale…4 hour offers…All help speed these orders through the checkout. Use emails leading with the most appropriate offer to catch the attention of these wish list shoppers who have not yet decided to buy, but want to. They just need the right excuse. Read more »
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Is your email marketing moving in the right direction?
Looking back, I am surprised about the speed of development and thinking amongst emailers in 2009. It seems to me that all but the most backward of mailers have finally stopped bulk sending, chided as they were by deliverability concerns. The real sea change, however, is the recognition that in email terms less is often more (revenue, that is!). 2009 was also the year triggers became central to most email strategies, mobile handsets began truly to manage email and email platforms became integrated with social media. Read more »
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The Rules of Email Engagement
This article provides a quick and easy solution to increase customer engagement and improve deliverability.
Bulk email is dead. OK, some people might still be doing it, but does that mean it works as well as it could? Just look in your own junk folder. How many emails have you opted into that no longer reach your inbox?
So why is bulk email on the way out? Well, let’s consider what the top three email ISPs have to say. Read more »
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The art of deliverability
Deliverability management is sometimes regarded as the black art of email marketing. This is due to the complexity of the issues and solutions deliverability offers. Deliverability relies on technical good practices, such as ISP friendly delivery management and authentication, and the correct interpretation of the response metrics to determine a recipient’s engagement. Read more »
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7 habits of highly effective email marketers
We all know about the huge revenue generating potential of email marketing; the potential to communicate to customers at hyper speed for a fraction of the cost of a piece of snail mail…BUT we also know that not done effectively it can eat into the time and resources of a marketing team. Email marketing requires specialist knowledge and in today’s fast moving environment it also requires flexible minds to constantly tweak and evolve the plan to react to what the competition and the ISPs do to change the landscape. In my time working with some of the greatest minds in email marketing I’ve identified 7 habits which really set the most effective email marketers apart from the rest. Read more »
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The future of email marketing
It seems to me that there is a lot of confusion around the terms behavioural marketing and targeting, in both what they mean and how you can carry it out effectively. This is not good for the marketer searching for the right supplier.
For those direct marketers out there, targeting messages to achieve greater relevance and, thereby, results, is traditionally achieved through database segmentation or ‘RFM’ data… ie what, when and how much the customer has spent with that company, underpinned perhaps by demographic and lifestyle data. Read more »
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Test, test, test. Testing should be the first line on any email marketing plan.
Test test test and test some more, then when you’ve learnt what makes a positive impact on your email results start testing all over again!
We’ve all heard about the benefits of email testing many times before; so why are so many big brands not testing? Is it a lack of resources? A lack of ideas? Or is it just that optimisation is not viewed as a key strategic goal? It might be worth adding one reason is because email is so cheap people don’t bother as the ROI is normally good whilst on expensive media (e.g. print or paid search) you have to test to optimise, to justify spend.
When writing an email, strategy testing should be central to every initiative. We should celebrate successful tests as they allow us to make change for the better, but we should also celebrate unsuccessful tests as they show us where to re-focus our testing efforts next time. The beauty of testing is it’s a win win situation.
