Tailoring your content according to what you know about subscribers can boost response. Here’s what you need to know…

What’s the difference between dynamic content and personalisation?

The difference lies in how the email is built. Personalisation inserts data that is held in your database directly into the content of your email. Dynamic content, on the other hand, is where blocks of tailored content hosted by you or your ESP are inserted according to specific rules set by you.

Give me some examples

For a personalised campaign, you might include details such as your subscriber’s name, address, date of birth – any data that you hold, in the format in which it’s stored – so long as it’s relevant or adds value to your message.

Using dynamic content, meanwhile, you might opt to send different content elements to different subscriber groups that meet certain criteria such as:

• interests: a DIY store might send one content element to customers who browsed garden  furniture, and something different to those that browsed soft furnishings
• geography an international campaign might send content in different languages to users in different countries
• gender you might send one image to males, and a different image to females
• customer type for instance, sending high-value offers to big spenders and lower-value deals to lower-spending customers

Personalisation? Don’t people see through that “Dear <First Name>” stuff nowadays?

It’s true that simply personalising a message with a user’s name doesn’t have the impact it once did. Any message that just tops a completely generic message with a user name is likely to disappoint, and consumers are wary of supposedly personalised messages that turn out to be spam.

However, with a little lateral thinking, there are lots of easy ways to use personalisation to improve campaign performance such as:

• add credibility to welcome messages by including the source of the registration you’re confirming or
• include the Account Manager’s name or signature in B2B campaigns.

Better still, many platforms also enable you to set up dynamic personalisation – enabling you to build rules around personalisation. This gives you some of the advantages of dynamic content without the complexity, such as a rule like: “if ‘first name’ blank, use ‘customer’”.

Isn’t creating dynamic content very complicated?

If you haven’t created dynamic campaigns before, your first campaign can seem complicated, but the effort is well worth it: dynamic campaigns can save you significant amounts of time and resource in the long run.

Once you have your rules set up, you can often save them for future use, making ongoing dynamic campaigns only slightly more time consuming to set up and test.

To get you started, follow these steps:

• Create a test list with internal contacts or seed addresses with data that mirrors the data you hold for your subscribers. Then have a play with your platform.
• Start off simply with live data. Use just one dynamic content segment and a couple of rules, then you can build on your campaign’s complexity from there.
• Consider outsourcing the set-up and deployment of dynamic campaigns, so freeing you up to spend more time on generating content and strategies for future campaigns.

Checklist for developing campaigns with tailored content

Personalisation and dynamic content can provide a significant uplift to your campaign performance when done well; get it wrong, however, and you can harm your brand and reputation. Here’s what you need to get right:

• Check the quality of your data – are all fields complete and accurate?
• Make sure you’ve thought through the logic properly, and specify default values where appropriate.
• Test your campaigns thoroughly. With some ESPs you can test before deployment using live data; otherwise, create some dummy data and generate a test mailing to that list before your final deployment.
• Check your hosted version: whether personalisation or dynamic content carry through to your hosted version will depend on your platform.
• Find out what reporting is available for dynamic/personalised campaigns. Even if your platform cannot report on the performance of different content segments, you should still be able to run reports offline, though this will incur additional time and resource.
• Don’t personalise for the sake of it: only include information that is relevant and valuable to subscribers
• Always test the performance of your personalised campaigns against less targeted campaigns: sometimes broad offerings will generate unexpected sales, after all the fact a customer is male does not preclude them from buying a dress for a friend, relation or even for themselves.

I’m always on the look out for examples of good practice in email marketing. So when I visited my local Makro cash & carry store to top up the office coffee and biscuit supplies, I was pleased to find an in store campaign to grow email subscribers.

In this post I’m looking at what Makro did and using this example sharing ideas how you can make an effective campaign to grow your email list using offline touch points.

Makro is a wholesaler to businesses and you must show your customer card to gain entrance. There was a stack of email registration forms at the entrance desk. Even better, the assistant checking my customer card explicitly explained the option to subscribe and asked if I would be interested. This was either a very diligent employee or Makro had the foresight to provide a staff incentive to encourage bringing the email subscribe offer to the shoppers attention.

Invoice rear side showing subscribe form.

Even better at the end of my shop when I’d loaded up my goodies and paid, the rear of my invoice carried a subscribe call to action too as show in the image above.

Many businesses miss the opportunity to ask for a subscription on their standard print materials. In many cases there is empty space going unused, for example the rear of receipts. Draw up a list of all the printed materials in your business and look how a subscribe call to action could be incorporated. You may be surprised at the number of free blank spaces you have. Here is a list of common print materials to get you going; leaflets, compliment slips, invoices, till receipts, business cards, flyers, discount vouchers, coupons, point of sale displays, packaging, food menus, event tickets, posters, feedback forms, brochures, print newsletters and magazines, instruction booklets, guarantee cards.

Once you’ve identified the spaces where you can put your call to subscribe, you need to think about these three questions that every potential subscriber will have:

1. What benefit is being offered to me?
2. Should I risk sharing my email address?
3. What do I need to do next?

These questions need to be answered, in that order and as simply and quickly as possible.

So how did the Makro subscribe form answer these questions? Let’s have a look at the actual form I picked up.

The front side of the instore subscribe form.

The rear side of the instore subscribe form.

• Front side has the benefit stated ‘Exclusive offers’
• Rear side includes two more benefits, ‘Tailored offers’ and ‘News & Information’
• It states ‘We promise not to bombard you – we typically send one email every week’
• The action to take is given, to register online or complete paper form and return to store.

The three key questions are covered and in the right order on the left side of the form rear. The promise not to bombard and the ‘tailored offers’ helps to reduce  reader anxiety that they will receive lots of emails. It makes them more comfortable to share their email address.

How about trying to improve this form?

• The front side copy puts the headline as Click!, rather than the benefit of Exclusive offers. Attention would be better grabbed with the benefit coming first.
• To further reduce the anxiety of sharing an email address, the bombard statement could be made stronger “We promise to look after your email address, we won’t share it or bombard you – typically we send weekly”. The small print does say the email address won’t be shared, but the small print won’t be read.
• The text top right repeats the benefit but not consistently, missing the key exclusive offers. This text looks awkward, redundant and may even confuse.
• The card is laid out in a way that does not control the eye path, so not all people will read the text in the same order. This means we are not certain of getting our message across in the order we want.
• The instruction to return the card to the store would be better placed at the bottom by the signature and date. The point at which the information is needed.
• The box for the email address is too small. A typical email address is 25 characters and space should be allowed for up to 50.  The small space will cause squashed writing and impair data entry. This could wipe out 15% of the captured email addresses as not usable.

To address these challenges the card layout needs to be changed to improve flow, control the reading order and give more space for the email address.

Next time you see a paper based data collection form, take a good look and think about the questions you are asking yourself, how it answers them and the flow of the form.

It’s easy to see a form from the customers view when you aren’t intimately related to the offer and purpose. Viewing your own form through the eyes of a customer is much harder. So for your own form find a few colleagues, friends or customers. Given them your form for 30 seconds, then take it away and ask them what they saw.

Do leave a comment if you’ve seen a good instore email subscribe campaign recently.

It will come as no surprise to the majority of those reading this that I fervently believe in the mutli-channel approach and the importance of tying in a retail marketing campaign through e-mail, the check-out, catalogues…basically at every step on the customer lifecycle.

The trouble is, many bricks and mortar retailers are still resisting the shift online and are struggling to keep up with their e-commerce counterparts – similarly, some retailers have dedicated so much energy to their online offering that they are neglecting the high street stores which built up their brand presence in the first place.

One of my Account Managers, Judd Marcello, recently wrote a very interesting blog on the opportunities to integrate online and offline. His ideas make for interesting reading, so with full credit to him, I would like to share them with you.

Forrester Research recently published their forecast on e-commerce growth in 2014…and, if they are right, it is telling. In Western Europe (inclusive of the UK), Forrester expects the e-Commerce Annual Growth Rate in 2014 to reach 11% (€114.5b). In the US, a +10% AGR is expected over the same period ($250b).
What’s more, their other predications for the next four years provide even more evidence that the web will drive sales:

- By 2014, 8% of total retail sales will be from e-commerce (up from 6% in 2009)
- 154 million. That is the number of people in the US who bought at least one product online in 2009 (that is 67% of the online population, up +4% from 2008)
- An estimated 53% of total retail sales (U.S.) will be online or “web-influenced” offline sales (+9% from 2009)
It is that last stat that particularly demands attention. “web-influenced” that is: online research, rate and reviews, product comparison sites, social media, forums, etc.

One of the biggest influencers on the web, especially where driving consumers in-store is concerned, is e-mail. Further research by Forrester states that, “e-mail marketing is nearly as effective at driving action offline as it is online. 44% of surveyed e-mail users in 2008 were inspired to make an online purchase as a result of a promotional e-mail versus 41% who said the same for offline purchases”.

The question for marketers is how do you capitalise on this? How do you turn this influence into concrete sales? Let’s be honest, there is no sure fire way to guarantee that, but there are things which, as digital marketers, we can do to make the online customer a little more likely to convert to an in-store shopper as well.

What we need to focus on are the “moments for engagements” – that is, the messages which resonate with consumers because they are triggered by events or actions which are related to the e-mail recipient. Two of these moments which are successful at getting consumers away from their computers and into their homes are: new store openings and in-store events/promotions.

New store openings
You already have your subscriber’s attention, so let them know about this big event. Send out a specific e-mail announcing the opening and the events, sales or promotions that will be occurring at the grand opening celebration.

By providing subscribers with an in-store certificate to receive a discount when they spend over a specific amount, you further incentivise them to connect with you on a new level.
Be sure to target users in the same postcode as the store opening to increase the relevance factor. There is no sense inviting a customer to an event if they can’t get there easily or at all!

In-store events/promotions:
There are many different in-store events and services that can be communicated through your mailings: exclusive, after-hour, friends and family sales, e-mail subscriber only rewards such as a session with a personal shopper, product demonstrations, food tastings, workshops, celebrity book signings…and these are just a few.

While buying online provides the luxury of convenience, the in-store environment provides the opportunity to provide a unique (branded) shopper experience. Are you launching a new designer clothing line? Why not invite your most loyal customers in for a special runway launch party where they get to see the new fashions before they are hung up on the racks for sale.

Everybody loves a deal, so give them one that rewards them for being a faithful subscriber and in-store shopper.

- Include in-store only coupons in your e-mails. Incorporate “offer valid” parameters to drive traffic on specific dates/timeframes
- Announce an exclusive product or collectable to your subscribers. Give them first access to them when they redeem a certificate once they come to visit you
- Offer discounts on product that are exclusive to your e-mail subscribers only. Reward them for their attention!

The in-store environment is your opportunity to connect with your consumers in an engaging fashion. Be it an event, a service or a chance for them to touch and feel the products or get that all-important face-to-face contact with the floor staff, you customers should walk away thinking, “I can’t wait for the next one!”

The smart retailer understands that when it comes to online and offline tactics, one hand washes the other. The smart consumer understands that the internet is a powerful provider of knowledge and, as a result, an even more powerful influencer when deciding what products to buy at which retailer.

The smartest retailer is the one that builds a multichannel strategy and uses the web to influence consumers to buy products from them…and what is one of the most effective influencers on the web? E-mail.

Hopefully, utilising these tips on moments for engagement, and how to effectively use e-mail to influence store visits, will have your customers lining up around the block (with exclusive e-mail subscriber only, in-store coupons gripped tightly in hand).

Its common sense, don’t make it hard for customers to do what you want them to do. Yet that’s what I see happening all too often with online forms. They are not always as helpful and friendly as they could be. After all, nobody likes filling in forms, nobody starts their day hoping for opportunities to fill in forms.

They are a necessary evil that people tolerate, if they are motivated enough. Make the form and conversion process too hard and they will abandon part way.

Take a recent experience I had. I wished to make a donation to a charity via their website. I entered all my details for a credit card payment and was greeted with this error when I tried to complete payment:

Sorry, but for your donation to be processed, you must correct the following:
-BH189NB is not a valid postcode – no space or space in wrong position

Reasonable you might think? However, if the website is smart enough to suggest I need a space; it could have just put it in for me. When postcodes are typed they are entered with a selection of upper case, lower case, with extra spaces before, in the middle or after the postcode. Given this can be expected, the form should be clever and work out what’s meant.

It’s not an issue confined to small mom & pop online businesses, my postcode experience was a major charity with payment facility provided by a major company. The footer proudly said ‘Powered by BT’.

I’ve experienced pedantic form processes many times and in most cases the form could have been made easier. These are my tips to help get your forms converted, whether it’s a lead enquiry, whitepaper download, subscription, user preferences, event registation or checkout.

• Keep forms short, don’t ask for data you don’t absolutely need. If asking for sensitive data, such as date of birth, explain why it’s in the customers’ interest to provide it.
• Pre-fill forms. If you know who is visiting fill in the form with the data you have already. This gives a significant boost to the number of people who will convert.
• Re-fill forms. Should it be necessary for someone to back step in your process, don’t make the customer re-fill or select options they have already completed once.
• Allow for information in mixed upper and lower case.
• Automatically remove extra spaces.
• Don’t rely on separation characters such as space or hyphen being entered perfectly. This could be a space in the postcode, or hyphens in customer ID or account number.
• Verify all information as far as possible.
• Provide clear and specific details of errors when necessary. Don’t just give a vague error message, when you could say, how many digits too many, or too few or which characters were typed which aren’t allowed.
• Use drop-down and tick boxes to make data entry quick and easy.
• When asking for details such as user or account IDs, remind the customer where they can find this information, such as where on an address label, invoice or bill statement it might appear.
• Don’t ask for registration unless that is your conversion objective. Within shopping carts making registration optional after the purchase increases conversion.
• Ensure your forms are tested with a variety of different data values. Including valid and invalid data.

Remember, forms are a tolerated evil. I’ve never come across a form that I actually enjoyed filling in, but if you have, I’d be delighted to know about it. Please leave details in a comment.

As a headline it would surely grab the attention. From Tuesday 6^th April 2010 the Information Commissioner is now able to issue Monetary penalty notices up to £500,000 where companies persistently contravene the Data Protection Act.

Statements such as “I am trying to raise awareness not revenue” from Chris Graham, the Information Commissioner, suggest the probability of such a sanction for poorly maintaining an email programme is unlikely. This is backed up further by the guidance notes issued by the ICO.

However the change in the ICO’s power of sanction does provide a reminder to revisit the DPA principles and overlay them to your own data at a minimum. In fact it is a great opportunity to spring clean your programme, develop better targeting and improve the effectiveness of your activity.

The recent DMA National Client Email Survey reports that

• Only 30% have a newsletter based on purchase habits
• Only 43% have a contact strategy for the maximum amount of contact
• 55% don’t know if they segment , don’t segment or have only 2-3 segment.
• 77% are unable to track the value of an email

Even allowing for the fact that 62% of statistics are made up (source www.6sm.co.uk) this is more thought provoking given that respondents to this survey are likely to be more aware of email best practice.

Feedback from the recent DMA/IAB Ready Steady email workshop is that whilst the “Do – Review – Refine” approach is acknowledged,  operational constraints often stop this from happening. People are too busy doing, to do it!

So how can the ICO’s new powers help you ?

 a)      Why to do ?  The ICO’s new powers provide the opportunity / alarm call to review if and how well you comply with the Data Protection Act – Which manager would not want an update highlighting the risks and proposed mitigating actions?    

 b)      How to do ? The DPA provides eight principles of good information handling e.g. personal information must be

• 3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive
• 4. Accurate and where necessary kept up to date   
• 5. Not kept for longer than is necessary.

It does not provide definitions of what “relevant” or “kept longer than necessary” means but it does provide the questions your company should define and can highlight where you can be more effective.

For example

• Relevant -  Does your sign up form collect information that you are not sure how you are going to use ?
• Excessive -  Can you tell / control how often you email individuals ?
• Up to date -  Can you confirm / prove opt in initially and how do you define it ongoing ?
• How long is it kept for – Do you set a date for a different approach for non openers / purge them after x months, keep mailing them in the hope that they will open one day?         

Whilst the ICO’s new power of sanction headlines are moving data protection up the board agenda it provides a great opportunity to review and improve your email activity.

 Many years ago, I read a short story by legendary Sci-Fi author Arthur C. Clarke called “The 9 Billion Names of God.” The story revolved around an order of Tibetan monks, who had determined that there were 9 Billion possible variations on how to write the name of God and, that once this task had been completed, mankind’s reason for existence would be fulfilled.

Not surprisingly, the monks were finding that this task was taking a long time to achieve by hand. Leveraging the newly available technology of the time, they commissioned an IBM mainframe ( this was 1953 ), and 3 months later the job was done.

It was after the admittedly sceptical IBM engineers had decommissioned the computer, and were heading back down the mountain trail to the nearest airport, that they suddenly notice that “overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”

I was thinking of this story while I was visually inspecting a new client’s email list prior to broadcast, and starting to wonder precisely how many ways there are that people can mis-spell Hotmail ! So I ran the file through our suite of email address hygiene applications,  and the answer would seem to be close to 100 – and those are just the ones where I had at least 90% confidence that Hotmail is the domain that they were actually intended to represent.

There was “htomail.com”. And “hotamil.com”. And “homtail.com”. And “hotmali.co.uk”. And “ohtmail.com”. And . . . – the list is ( nearly ) endless. And that’s before we even start to consider the likes of “btinterent.com”, “ayhoo.co.uk”, “ntlwolrd.com”, “tisclai.co.uk”, and “gogolemail.com” ( all real examples, by the way ! ).

Sometimes these errors are made on purpose, by people who are responding to a call to action ( “give us your email address and you can download our 2 for 1 voucher” ). Consumers are increasingly savvy, and want the reward without exposing themselves to a blizzard of e-marketing activity. This could point to issues with engagement – another topic in its own right. However, these errors are more often the result of genuine errors where people either can’t type or can’t spell ( or both – as an aside, this has been recognised by the developers of www.fatfingers.com which finds mis-spelled entries on eBay such as “nitendo wee” where bid activity is – not surprisingly – much lower, so the chance of a successful bid is correspondingly higher . . . ! ).

Anyway, back to “hootmail” – oops ! While it’s ( almost ) funny, this also represents a serious problem for e-marketers. Bounce activity is one of the core metrics that feeds into the calculation of a sender’s reputation data. While the vast majority of these addresses will be filtered out after the first time that they have been broadcast to, you’ve still got to generate the bounce notifications first ! e-Marketers have traditionally dealt with this by using a separate IP address for the welcome email / first broadcast, but the increasing use of domain-based reputation means that this isn’t a perfect solution either.

Because of this, it’s starting to place a premium on making sure that the address is being captured correctly in the first place. That means using a technique such as double-entry, so that if our fat-fingered friends get it wrong the first time, it will be flagged up when they enter the address correctly ( hopefully ) the second time. Alternatively, to use a validated opt-in process that generates a confirmation email and only activates the account once the confirmation email has delivered successfully.

However, even then you are not completely out of the woods, because some of the incorrect spellings are actually valid domains, a fact that major ISPs such as Hotmail have recognised, and which they are now monitoring as a new form of spam trap. What makes this particularly difficult is the fact that these records won’t usually generate a bounce notification, so you could end up perpetuating the problem by sending to them many times over – and ending up with a mail block every time. So the only effective way of dealing with these addresses once they are on your database is to monitor your response behaviour, and screen out all non-responders on a regular basis ( which is actually part of the best practice that you should be applying anyway ! ).

However, a better way of dealing with this problem is to pre-empt it by pre-screening your data prior to broadcast. As a business, we have developed an email address hygiene routine that applies fuzzy-matching logic to test supplied domain names against known valid domain names, and to then filter out all matches where there is statistical confidence about the likelihood of the supplied domain being an incorrectly spelt version of the valid domain. The match rates aren’t massive – on average, about half of one percent – but that’s still 50 records in a list of 100,000 addresses, which based on our experience is definitely more than enough to trigger a block against you if they are not removed.

So the key learning here is that the bar for good email data hygiene is being set increasingly higher. Standard bounce management processes are certainly no longer enough – validation of email addresses at point of capture, pre-screening to remove known errors, and recency analysis of open and click behaviour are all now playing a crucial role in the delivery of successful email broadcasts. Implement them now, and the stars will continue to shine on your e-marketing program !

When the lead goes cold – what to do with inactive e-mail segments

The festive season is here again and the ‘inbox’ is bursting with invitations and enticing offers from a wide variety of email marketers.  As the number of shopping days diminish and the pace of life, for the consumer, intensifies the easy option for retailers would be to increase email frequency in the hope of achieving the highest return on investment.  However, the intelligent e-marketer knows that by segmenting ‘inactive’ consumers it is possible to highlight where new opportunities lie.

Before considering tactics for inactive segments it is important to define exactly what is meant by ‘inactive’. We live in a multi-channel world where consumers are able to connect with you by many different mediums, so while e-mail, for example, may not be particularly effective they may happily interact with you on any number of others. It is essential to take a holistic view – activity from customers or prospects on other channels should have a direct bearing on your email tactics.

When does inactivity become ‘inactive’?  How dead is dead?

The first question to consider is: how long does a recipient have to be inactive before you officially classify them as ‘inactive’? One company’s ‘inactive’ can be another’s ‘active’. The key criteria for your decision should be an understanding of where a customer is in the buying cycle. If it typically takes your customers 30 days to make a purchase then your definition of inactive will be substantially different from a company that’s buying cycle is 60 days. It may also be appropriate to consider how many different spells of inactivity are required before you officially categorise someone.

On a more technical level, be sure that everyone in your team knows what inactive means to your organisation. Not opened? Not clicked? Not purchased? Most important, though, be sure to double check that the e-mails are actually being delivered in the first place! With careful planning and understanding, it is always possible to predict and prevent inactives in the first place.

Change e-mail content for the inactive segment

Re-engaging inactive customers presents a very convenient opportunity to try new content tactics such as adding interactive elements or experimenting with a new format. The first thing you should do, however, is test new subject lines – any other changes will be irrelevant if recipients don’t open the mail in the first place.

If something new manages to rekindle the interest of a certain percentage of inactive customers, it may be worth testing it against the rest of your e-mail list. Of course, if these changes have no impact, there’s no down side as you haven’t exposed your most faithful and profitable customers to the changes.

Invite inactive customers to update their profile

If an inactive customer hasn’t evaluated her profile in a while, it could well be the reason your e-mails have gone unnoticed. Send an e-mail that encourages inactive customers to review their profile information. Let them know that updating profiles will help you deliver more relevant e-mail. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to re-engage inactive customers with your brand.

Experiment with e-mail test streams and zero frequency

Another option is to suppress the inactive customer list and re-introduce it when a new e-mail communication stream with a compelling offer goes live. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and inactive customers may well be apt to open or click on e-mail when they realise they haven’t heard from you in a while. One test that we conducted recently showed that eight to nine per cent of inactive customers opened or clicked on an e-mail after they were reintroduced into the communication stream.

Survey customers about current e-mail content

It may sound simple but the most effective ideas often are. An e-mail survey to inactive customers can help determine the root of the problem. Did the e-mails they were receiving not meet the customer’s expectations? Was the content not relevant to their interests? Were they receiving emails too often or too infrequently? The answers you receive may allow you to engage inactive customers with an alternative programme, or at least understand what improvements or changes need to be made to current e-mail programmes.

Any of these re-activation programmes can be implemented as a trigger simply by targeting segments that have been inactive for a year, six months, or three months – the earlier the better. As said earlier though, never forget that we live in a multichannel world. If you find that none of these tactics is working, look to contact the individual on another channel – there’s no point in fretting or wasting time if you can quickly determine whether an address is incorrect and really ‘dead’ or simply inactive and a prime opportunity for re-engagement.

Welcome to the November 2009 issue of Infobox. As autumn has well and truly arrived, kick back, warm your hands in the glow of your PC, sip from a mug of hot chocolate and read about the latest news and views from the world of email marketing. This month, Infobox features articles on whether or not the Royal Mail postal strikes will have a positive effect on the email sector; taking a consumer’s eye view at email marketing messages; advice on when to use the word ‘free’ in subject lines; and a review of a recent email marketing campaign that’s impressed us. For DMA members’ eyes only, this month’s special report looks at the effectiveness of using navigation bars in email templates.

Don’t forget that we’d also like to see you in the real world at the first of our four Email Customer Lifecycle seminars. On November 10, we will be addressing tactics for growing your lists with active and engaged subscribers. Tickets are going fast for this free morning seminar in central London. To guarantee your seat today, please make your booking here.

Also, now is your chance to take part in fast.MAP/DMA’s 2009 Marketing GAP study. This vital piece of research measures the gulf between what consumers think of marketing messages and what marketers think they think. Sounds confusing? Well it’s not, and if you take part then you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win £250 for your favourite charity. To start this short survey, please click here.

Our articles this month include:

Postal strike – good or bad news for email marketing? Simon Bowker

Research from my inbox…James Bunting

Free email marketing deliverability advice – when to use ‘FREE’ Chris Combemale

Campaigns we like – Firebox denise cox

In many cases, businesses earn more in the 10 weeks prior to Christmas than the other 42 weeks of the year combined!

Although the busy period may start in late November, customers are already starting to think about what to buy well in advance. Email is a great way to remind them about products and services that are perfect to put under the Christmas tree. But first, in order to sow the seeds for these emails, you need to have a good list!

As an early Christmas gift to all our email marketers, the DMA has partnered with Pure360 to offer a FREE List Growth Email Marketing event to get you started and make your campaigns successful for the holiday season. With an increase in site visits and click through rates throughout December, list growth and capturing good quality data is vital.

Find out how to grow your opt-in list size from the founder of the Email Experience Council Jeanniey Mullen; gain insight into a case study on how Europe’s largest ticket exchange Seatwave built their database; and make sure all your permissions are legal with email legal expert Stephen Groom at our next free event.

Availability is limited and seats are going fast, so make sure you book today!

Part one in a four-part series

This series of events is designed for marketers looking for information about how to take their email programmes to the next level – from ordinary to extraordinary. Explore the different stages in the customer lifecycle and learn how to improve your ROI.

Part one: List growth, 10 November 2009
Growing the file with active and engaged subscribers.

Part two: Conversion, 3 March 2010
Earning the open and click, and driving channel revenue.

Part three: Engagement and retention, 7 June 2010
Providing subscribers with relevant and useful content so that they anticipate and interact with the marketer’s email messages, regardless of whether or not they are in-market to make a purchase.

Part four: Winback, 27 September 2010
Bringing unresponsive subscribers back into the fold and removing those that have no intention of reengaging with the programme.

Who Should Attend?
Email marketers who are looking to build on the knowledge they already use and implement daily.

•    Marketing managers and directors
•    Business development managers and directors
•    Campaign and account managers and directors

Date: Tuesday 10 November 2009
Time: 8.00am – 11.00am
Venue: Central London
Cost: Free

PROGRAMME
8.00    Registration and coffee
8.30    Welcome and introduction
Richard Gibson, Channel Relationship Manager, UK, Return Path
8.40    Keynote address: The World According To Email Marketing
Jeanniey Mullen, Global EVP and CMO at Zinio and VIV Magazine, Founder and Executive Chairman at Email Experience Council
9.20    Case study
Marc Munier, Commercial Director, Pure360
9.50    Get your legal permissions right at the start
Stephen Groom, Head of Marketing and Privacy Law, Osborne Clarke
10.20    Q&A
10.50    Closing comments
11.00    Close of seminar

HOW TO BOOK

Online:    Follow this link to book online.
Email:    catherine.gibbon@dma.org.uk
Phone:    Catherine Gibbon on 020 7291 3355