The wintry weather has given us all plenty of un-expected “down-time”, whether waiting in hope on snowy station platforms or huddled around an open fire with our families. Rather than succumb to the clutches of Cabin Fever I have been thinking about the “big wins” that treating customers differently delivers email marketers. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for treating people differently to reflect their unique registration, transaction and click-stream profiles.

Acquisition tools – if you’re renting data, ask the list owner what variables they hold and then deliver different versions of the same message. For BtoB that should be different subject lines, opening paragraphs and calls to action based on “job function” or “industry sector”. For consumers you may know their lifestyle and affluence from geo-demographic variables that list owners like Acxiom hold…have different propositions for less affluent and older prospects or use a different creative for young professionals. Let you imagination run free!

Conversion - as digital marketers we sit on the most valuable real-time prospect data so let’s use it. Who clicked on an email link but did not complete a successful outcome? Who looked at deep product pages on your site but did not buy? These re-marketing campaigns should deliver 4-16 better conversion rates than one-size-fits-all messages so start building them.

Retention – send different message programmes to your newer customers, or have a different tone of voice for purchasers of specific products. Build “personas” to help with your tone of voice, imagery and calls to action.

Re-activation – how do you know when you’ve lost a customer? Probably when they’ve not bought for a specific time period. So develop a “win back” programme with the first message triggered by a “date of last purchase is more than 60 days”. And be relevant…”we’ve noticed that you have not bought from us for a little while….” is a good start.

These are certainly not new or radical ideas, but it is surprising how few campaigns in my in-box are trying to follow these rules. Now that the dust has settled at the end of a demanding 2009, and whilst UK PLC is slumbering in icy grasp of winter, we should be using this precious time to develop relevant, engaging segmentation and personalisation strategies. Happy New Year!

Chris Combemale and David Hughes, Co-founders The Email Academy

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The Daily Telegraph runs a Business Club feature every Tuesday, in a which a company presents a problem that they are currently grappling with, and a panel of experts then provides their recommendations on what steps should be taken to resolve the problem in question. The week before last’s edition was a particularly interesting one for our industry – Via-Vox ( the company behind the Powwownow conference calling solution ) has a significant issue with email deliverability. The full story can be found at :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/technology/6589059/Business-Club-Conference-call-company-Via-Vox-losing-customers-due-to-junk-email-filters.html

This is obviously a major problem for Via-Vox. It is not just a question of their marketing emails ending up in the junk folder. Even their transactional emails – vital in terms of carrying login and pin number details for an upcoming conference call – are regularly failing to deliver.

The real eye-opener for me was the responses from the “expert” panel. Some of the points that they raised ( or failed to raise ) that particularly stuck in my mind included :

• One of the panel made the statement that email deliverability is a subject that “most companies are only just waking up to.” That left me gob-smacked – I’ve been involved in email marketing for the past 10 years, and I can’t recall a time when delivery rates were not a key success metric for e-marketers.
• Not one of them touched on the subject of sender reputation. Given that a good set of sender reputation metrics now plays a role in three out of every four decisions that are taken on whether to process or reject inbound emails, all of the other recommendations that were put forward ( authentication, spam filter testing, embedded images ) – while important – are secondary. Sender reputation trumps them all in terms of importance for email deliverability.
• While all 3 members of the panel referenced the importance of email authentication, not one of them mentioned Domain Keys Identified Mail ( DKIM ) – something of an oversight given that particular importance of this form of authentication when broadcasting to BT/Yahoo! addresses.
• There was also quite a lot of focus on “spam trigger words”. In my mind, this is an increasingly irrelevant subject. Key spam filters such as Spam Assassin and Barracuda operate weighted scoring systems that will not reject an email simply because it identifies a text string as having spam-like attributes. In any case, the knowledge bases that contain these words are continually updated, so there isn’t really such a thing as a definitive list. And the chance of a transactional email containing enough spam trigger words to cause the email to be blocked is remote to say the least . . . !

I spoke to the Technical Director at Via-Vox after the article had been published, and he was in agreement, saying “we’ve already implemented most of this – they haven’t really told us anything we didn’t already know. It was a good article from a PR point of view !”

What this really flags up for me is the completely “moving goalposts” nature of the technological issues that affect the email marketing industry. Intelligence that was 100% correct 12 months ago is quickly out of date, and it is a major challenge for e-marketers to stay abreast of the key factors that ensure that their campaigns will be successful. While there is no shortage of white papers and best practice documents that are available for them to refer to, they are quickly out of date.

The DMA’s Email Marketing Council recognises this. The existing deliverability white paper ( published in 2007 ) is currently being revised by the EMC’s Legal, Data & Best Practice hub. It will be a considerably different document to its predecessor in terms of the issues that it focuses on, as will be seen when it is published in January 2010, and the intention is for it to provide its readers with common-sense, practical, and ( most importantly ) up to date guidance on how to deal effectively with the latest email deliverability obstacles.

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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.

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With another Royal Mail strike looming just as the busy shopping season gears up, it’s understandable for retailers to be in a bit of a panic. Having signed off months ago on glossy Christmas catalogues, marketing managers will be left wondering when customers will actually see the results of their hard work (and high printing costs). Will they remain in postal sorting limbo, will they ever be delivered and when? Online retailers will be worried as well: consumers are going to be less inclined to shop online if they can’t have a guaranteed shipping or delivery date for their items.

As if this year wasn’t hard enough on businesses trying to keep a positive balance sheet and stay upbeat amidst the dire financial and economic predictions, now this. So what’s a retailer to do? Where can a retail marketer turn during a quarter so crucial to the company’s bottom line? The answer is email. Now, more than ever. Here are three ideas for surviving, and thriving, the Christmas crunch:

• Build an integrated marketing strategy. Use email to celebrate your printed marketing materials – celebrate what you’ve printed now; there’s no point waiting for them to be delivered to post boxes. Create an online version of your Christmas catalogues and circulars and invite your subscribers to check out what’s on offer this Christmas season. Encourage a sense of exclusivity by offering only your email subscribers a special incentive to start shopping from the online catalogue with a discount or voucher.
• Keep the lines of communication open. Email is a great way to instantly alert your customers and prospects that you’re proactively addressing their concerns about shipping and delivery delays. Email subscribers are primed to engage with your brand. They’ve purchased from you in the past or have requested to receive your email updates. Let them know you’re aware of the effects the strike may have on their brand experience, and if you are taking alternative steps to improve that, let them know. Have you expanded store shopping hours? Are you offering free in-store pickups? Do you have an order tracking functionality that updates their order status in real time? Are you offering in-time-for-Christmas delivery guarantees? Let your email subscribers know about it.
• Drive store traffic. If the crowds on the High Street are any indication, shoppers are already out in droves. Use email to promote your store events, sales and promotions. Offer vouchers that email subscribers can use in store and be sure to include a ready-to-print voucher in the email. All the subscriber needs to do is print off the email, rather than write down or remember a special promotion code or click to a landing page to get a print-ready format. Use the data you collected during the sign-up process to make your store promotions even more relevant. If you have subscribers’ post codes, feature their local store’s postal address and hours of business in the email. Consider hosting a special after-hours makeover session or festive cocktail party for your loyalty credit card customers or frequent buyers, and send these coveted invitations by email.
• Spread the word. Email is a fantastic channel for viral marketing efforts and the Christmas season is a great time of year to send an interactive game or quiz that subscribers can pass along and share with friends and family, thereby expanding your brand footprint with each forwarded message. Have a social media presence? Use your email messages to feature links to your pages and invite subscribers to become fans or followers. Encourage social media activity with exclusive prize draws or games only accessible through your network pages.

Now, more than ever, email is the channel to turn to for ROI, branding and relationship building. There’s never been a better time to press “send”.

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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

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Popular opinion states that an unopened email means your subscriber is disengaged and uninterested in making a purchase – we disagree. Unopened email communications have a tangible impact on brand awareness and can lead to purchase activity across all channels.

How? That’s the subject of an article in published the latest edition of Email-Worx our weekly newsletter, on the phenomenon known as the Nudge Effect.  At Alchemy Worx we have spent the last 12 months or so looking at what we as email marketers can learn from behavioural economic theory in general and more specifically how behavioural architectural techniques – the Nudge Effect can be utilized to drive sales both on and offline.  

What is the Nudge Effect?

Essentially it’s a way of influencing people’s behaviour without telling them specifically what to do. You may be frustrated with unopened emails and low click-through rates, but be reassured that even if your subscribers don’t open your email, its presence in their inbox leads to a tangible impact on brand awareness and sales via online and other channels.

The complete article which includes a short video clip is definitely worth a read and covers the following:

• Why the Nudge Effect works for email marketers
• How to make an unopened email sell
• How to optimise your emails for the Nudge effect
• How to tell if your unopened emails are impacting sales or conversions in other channels

» Find out how to create emails that sell – whether they are opened or not.

Additional research

For an amusing and thought provoking insight into how the Nudge Effect works in daily life, watch this video from the entertainer and master of suggestion, Derren Brown.

You can also learn more about the Nudge Effect from the book that explored it in detail – Nudge: Improving Decisions About, Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein. Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

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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!

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Here’s the fourth and final installment of the Legal & Best Practice Hub on Metrics and their meaning. What we’re hoping is to gain your feedback and comments.

This week we’re looking at External Monitoring and Strategic metrics:

External Monitoring

1. Authentication

Definition: A process that verifies an email sender’s identity.

2. Deliverability

Definition: Volumes of e-mails sent less the number of bounces received.

Things to take into consideration: Deliveribility is a big issue, it is also important to deal with the emails that aren’t deliver so you keep your list clean.  It is important to note that this is a measure of which emails were accepted by the ISPs and NOT a measure of emails that reached the inbox.

3. Hard Bounce

Definition: Where the recipient does not see the e-mail due to invalid e-mail addresses, domain failure, ISP blocked etc.

Things to take into consideration: A high hard bounce rate often indicates poor data quality.  Ensure that you remove all of the email addresses that hard bounced immediately and look at your data collection processes to ensure only good data is collected in the future.

4. Soft Bounce

Definition: Emails that suffer from  a temporary delivery problem such as inbox full, server down, etc..

Things to take into consideration: A high soft bounce rate can often indicate problems with e-mail delivery where the ISP is not letting an email through becuase of temporary technical problems, becuase you have received  high level of complaint rates or becuase you are sending messages to them too quickly.

5. Soft Bounce Rate

Definition: The number of soft bounces divided by the number of e-mails delivered (as a %).

6. Frequency

Definition: How often you are emailing each person in your database i.e. some recipients may have a frequency of once a week, whereas others are one every month.

Strategic

7. Lifetime Value of Purchases

Definition: The same as above but based on the first action within a short period of time from when the email was sent.

8. Lifetime Value of Visitors

Definition: Not every visitor purchases on their first visit. They may visit other sites, research the product or service then come back directly to the site. The offer may not be relevant at that time, so they might visit the site and interact at a later date. By being able to apply a wider lifetime visitor value, a more accurate value of the visitors can be ascertained. It is advisable to deduct the people who unsubscribe from this analysis.

9. Purchase Rate (average value)

Definition: This looks at the average value of the first purchase (compared to company average first order value).

Things to take into consideration: This is needed if the offer is driven by a reduced/loss leader offer to ensure that the campaign is not attracting people with a lower value. It should be used with monitoring of lifetime value to ensure the right target audience is being attracted.

10. Reach

Definition: Data users can calculate the reach of their e-mail marketing campaigns over time by calculating the number of unique openers or clickers over the period in question, e.g. 75% of the list opened at least one mailing in the last quarter.

Things to take into consideration: This metric gives a good indication of how your emails are performing across your database as a whole.

So that’s part 4. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Jonathan Burston

CACI & Legal and Best Practice Hub

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