No man is an iland

November 30, 2006

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Hard to believe that this column by usability guru Jakob Nielsen was written in 1998.

I found it by pure chance, but the advice on how to grab the attention of the *online* reader makes a lot of sense. Particularly in the context of B2B newsletters.

My only argument would be this: language that is always clear and plain and obvious is fine. But a little dash of mystery, suspense and anticipation now and then can help break through the norm and rekindle the spark in the relationship with your readers.

More on online copywriting | Tags: email marketing, copywriting, subject lines

Further to yesterday's post about authenticity and trust, it's no surprise to find consumers are "fighting back."

See, for example, 10 Minute Mail, which is getting a lot of coverage from blogs right now.

It gives you an email address which expires after 10 minutes. Long enough for you to register / buy / sign-up, get the required confirmation email and then never get email from that site again. It's for those worried about getting on spam lists.

It's not the only such service. Try Mailinator or TrashMail.

Then there's BugMeNot.com, which allows users to share website logins. So one account (and potentially one email address) may represent any number of people, all of whom bypassed your nice data collection and opt-in form to get at your content.

Before you pass judgment on these kinds of sites and services, consider why they were deemed necessary in the first place. I see them as a challenge to regain credibility and trust from customers and prospects. There's a storm brewing out there.

Tags: email marketing, 10 minute mail, marketing ethics

November 29, 2006

I *like* email but one of my pet dislikes (other than the description of supermarket gift vouchers as "the perfect gift for the man who has everything") is slanted interpretation of results.

A while back MarketingExperiments.com published the results of a 30-day trial comparing the conversion rates achieved by search marketing, organic traffic and a rented email list. The numbers are here. The email list won easily. Yay!

No fault of the study authors, but one or two people who rent lists for a living have jumped on that finding like camels on an oasis.

But wait...let's just point out that:

1. The article does not compare ROI or mention costs. The rented list may have generated a higher conversion rate, but how did the costs compare to AdWords, for example?

2. Rented lists have a limited lifespan. Even if they did produce the best ROI, you are limited by the number of times you can send the same offer to the same list and by the number of high-performing lists you can find. Paid search keeps bringing you fresh faces.

So let's be pleased that an email rental list has demonstrated the ability to convert well. But let's not start thumbing our noses at the PPC folk just yet.

Tags: email marketing, email list rental, conversion rates, marketing metrics

Another reason to start taking mobile email seriously...

The GSM Association is the global trade association for mobile phone operators. They survey consumer needs, presumably so their members can plan new services appropriately.

In their latest press release, they reveal that 38% of consumers surveyed see mobile email as an indispensable service.

"When asked which mobile data services they prefer, the respondents ranked text messaging (SMS) first, followed by email and MMS..."

The association's Chief Marketing Officer is quoted as saying, "mobile email is clearly emerging as a must-have service for many people."

Note also that mobile email came top as the prefered mobile data service in North America. And beat other "hot" mobile services like "Web browsing" and "Video calling." Make of that what you will.

Tags: email marketing, mobile email

Some online marketers are a sorry bunch. As soon as someone comes up with a way to spread a message online, someone else starts to abuse it.

Viral videos? Perhaps not so viral after all - see YouTube or ConfuseTube?

Blogs and word-of-mouth? Welcome to the world of Flogs.

Email marketing? Dare I mention the S and P words? ("Spam and phishing" for the innocent among us.)

All that achieves is to encourage ever-increasing skepticism and cynicism in those we seek to reach. Are we just teaching consumers to ignore and reject what we say? How long will today's persuasive copy stay persuasive when so many messages teach folk to be disappointed...to mistrust the message. How can we expect long-term relationships to be based on deception?

Yes, I hear the traditionalists: "Hey, it works! Get over it."

But for how long? What are your favorite email newsletters? What do they do that makes them your favorite? Bet you a slice of holiday pie it's because they deliver real honest value...a genuine give and take.

We now enter that time of year where marketing hype scales new heights. Every item is "the ideal holiday gift." I've seen supermarket gift vouchers described as "the gift for the person who has everything."*

As email marketers, we hear a lot about authentication. Perhaps we should worry more about authenticity.

Just a thought.

*I amuse myself imagining Bill Gates opening his present on Christmas Day and exclaiming, "At last, now I can buy that food I've always wanted. Thanks Melinda!"

Tags: email marketing, marketing ethics

Email marketing using "other people's lists" is its own kettle of fish. But Ken Magill brings up another issue to think about concerning that particular technique.

It seems more and more email blacklists are blocking emails* based on the reputation of the URLs within the body of the mail. Ken's article has more info.

Assume, for example, affiliates are using their email lists to promote your URLs. If they get tagged as a spammer, then any emails (from anyone else - including you) might find themselves blocked if they also contain URLs sharing the same domain name used in the "spam" emails.

Another reason -- on top of anti-spam law -- to keep a close tab on your affiliates and their email practices.

I don't know how widespread this blacklist approach is. Or how much of an issue it is if your URLs are never used directly by others, but only behind a tracking URL.

But the basic lesson is clear: don't let others market your brand, site, products or services by email without being sure that they adhere as tightly to best practices as you do.

*technically, it's the ISPs using a blacklist that block email, not the blacklist itself.

Tags: email marketing, affiliate marketing, email blacklists, rbl

November 27, 2006

There is such a thing as too much good advice. But assuming you're not tired of reading about email marketing for the holiday season, then pop along to this article by Spencer Kollas.

Like many of the "holiday tactics" articles, much of the advice is valid all year round. He has, for example, tips on using deliverability services to ensure your emails end up where you want them to.

He also has another ten suggestions on how you can tighten operations to squeeze the maximum out of the gift-giving opportunity. These suggestions are of a more general nature, rather than specific how-tos. But they ought to set a few bells ringing. Yuletide bells, naturally.

More on holiday email tactics | Tags: email marketing, holiday marketing, email deliverability

As we drift toward 2007, Jeanniey Mullen brings up the old problem of how to get more of the budget pie for your email marketing efforts.

She briefly outlines why email deserves more cash (you'll get a more detailed overview in this recent article), before suggesting three ways to get yourself geared up for the coming year.

That means justifying a budget increase by understanding the value of your existing email address list, or finding better ways to use the money you already get for email stuff. (So that next time you'll have a stronger argument when it comes to getting your boss / bank manager / spouse to cough up the desired funds.)

Tags: email marketing, online marketing budgets

November 24, 2006

You might have been ignoring the growth of mobile email, especially if you're marketing to consumers. I admit I'm not thrilled at the prospect of having to factor in handhelds and phones into the whole email design process.

But this article suggests that we're edging ever closer to the day when mobile email goes mainstream in a kind of soccer mom moment where it's not just the professional elite who use their cell phones for downloading mail.

The feature talks about some of the problems mobile email services have in achieving widespread acceptance and is a bit of background for those who want to keep an eye on developments.

Tags: email marketing, mobile email

November 23, 2006

Many of us still tip our heads sideways and then scratch them vigorously when asked about authentication, certification, reputation and their impacts on email deliverability.

Here's another swift overview from Stefan Pollard, pointing out the basic elements that go into establishing a good reputation as an email sender, why this is important and who can help you refine your practices to repair, improve or certify your existing reputation.

If you do want a good reputation (well, obviously you do), you should at least refrain from knocking on the doors of those who haven't invited you, leave the party when the host asks, and stop peering through the windows of abandoned homes.

More on reputation and deliverability | Tags: email marketing, email reputation, email certification, email authentication

November 22, 2006

Today's first post was about subject lines. The second about holiday emails. And this third post is about subject lines in holiday emails. Ah, the beauty of symmetry.

Janine Popick is puzzled by a few seasonal subject lines in her inbox. So she's published a lovely little collection of suggested subjects for holiday emails. As well as generic ones, she offers up a few specifically for wineries, restaurants, salons and spas.

And she suggests some improvements to a few real subject lines from folk who could/should do better.

More on subject lines | Tags: email marketing, subject lines, holiday marketing

A swift search of the blogosphere turns up some more sound advice on planning your email strategy for the holiday season.

Tom O'Leary reminds us to put ourselves in the shoes of the shopper as we consider email frequencies, send times and offer strategies.

He has five tips on how to streamline your email marketing to make the most of loose wallets and those gift-giving moments.

More on holiday emails | Tags: email marketing, holiday marketing

Chad White over at RetailEmail.Blogspot casts a curious eye over retailers' use of personalisation in their email subject lines.

He examines the frequency of the practice, raises a few of the issues and problems involved, highlights a good example and generally gets you thinking about the ins and outs of personalisation per se.

As a professional cynic, I'm not a big fan of personalised emails from people who don't actually know who the heck I am. But that's beside the point. Time for the T word: if in doubt about the usefulness of a tactic...test.

More on subject lines | Tags: email marketing, personalised subject lines, retail marketing

November 21, 2006

...apart from "Do you have *any* idea how much effort goes into the email that you just deleted?"

Melinda Krueger takes a wander around the question of whether (and how) you go about getting subscribers to tell you their preferences and demographics.

She uses the example of a specialty retailer to highlight good practices in this context. Such things as how to design your sign-up process, what questions to ask, what questions to not ask...and similar.

Worth a read through, especially if you assume you can know everything about a person just by tracking what they buy or click on (you can't).

Tags: email marketing, list acquisition, customer surveys

Yesterday the site's feed broke for some people (but not other people). The links in the newsletter didn't work for some people (but not other people). And I'm told a new article at the site displays oddly for some people (but not other people).

Where do you start? It's hard to keep on top of the thousands of ways people can view or use your material.

The solution for us little folk? Do all that you can and then just hope that "some people" is considerable less people than "other people."

Keeping your fingers crossed is a perfectly viable business tactic IMHO.

November 20, 2006

A combination of a new wave of spam (boo, hiss) and the growing downpour of holiday email promotions means ISPs are beginning to groan under the weight of incoming email.

As these ISPs seek to keep things flowing, they may well take actions that mess with your campaigns. To avoid that happening, you might want to stagger your email sends, manage your bounce responses differently and double check your systems.

This ReturnPath post has all the details for those sending a sackful of email this holiday season.

Tags: email marketing, deliverability

Well, nobody's suggesting you shouldn't follow them. (There's a reason they're called best practices.) But it's easy to forget that some recommended email marketing practices are always applicable (like the need for permission). And others are often applicable, but not always.

Or put another way: every list of addresses and every sender is different. So what generally holds for most lists and senders might not hold for your list.

David Baker and Teresa Caro highlight a few email marketing urban myths in this article. The important bit to read is the last paragraph...

"Use best practices, studies, and guidance from the experts as a starting point, but don't consider their advice to be absolute. You need to adjust your e-mail for your target audience and for what you want to achieve. Most importantly, test, test, and test some more."

On a side note, don't go the opposite way, either, and reject best practices outright. While I agree with the general sentiments in the above article, it's misleading to label the "best practices" quoted as myths when they are likely perfectly correct in many cases.

Tags: email marketing

Designing for mobile devices is a growing issue for email marketers. Earlier this month, Google released a mobile version of Gmail, designed to work on "hundreds of different mobile devices." Being Google, it's likely to find a lot of users across the PDA/handheld/cell phone world.

The folks at eROI have a brief blog post with immediate feedback on this new email application, written from an email marketing perspective (how are links handled? Is there a "report spam" button? etc.)

Keep an eye on this area, especially if you're in the B2B field.

Tags: email marketing, gmail for mobile

November 17, 2006

B2C marketers have long learnt to come to grips with the idiosyncracies of the big webmail services offered to consumers by the likes of Google, Hotmail, and Yahoo.

But now B2B folk need to sit up and pay attention to the associated deliverability and email display issues. Because more and more businesses and business people are switching away from traditional corporate email systems and using, for example, Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Office Live instead. At least according to this report.

Worst, you may not even know it's happening, since these email providers let businesses use the back-end technology with their own domain name. So recipient@businessname.com may well be using an interface provided by Gmail.

Summary: if you didn't bother testing how your emails look in these webmail services before, it may be time to start.

Tags: B2B email marketing, gmail, office live, Google Apps for Your Domain

November 16, 2006

A common problem I hear about is colleagues, bosses and bank managers being sceptical of the need to put any time or money into email marketing. If you have that problem (or you need persuading yourself), take a look at "Why do email marketing?".

I put it together as a concise summary of why email marketing is worth some of those marketing dollars, based on statistics from independent sources, case studies, and a brief outline of the benefits.

I'd like to keep this updated as a reference article for those who need something short and sweet to show sceptics. So if you've anything to add, let me know.

Tags: email marketing, online marketing budgets

Having previously asked whether any data was available about email marketing in Europe, I ought to mention the National Email Benchmarking Report produced by the UK's Direct Marketing Association.

It appears quarterly with collated info on various aspects of the business, including mailing volumes, delivery rates, click through rates, bounce rates, opt out rates, segmentation practices and so on.

You can get the executive summaries here. The full report is free to members or a few hundred British pounds for everyone else.

Tags: email marketing in the UK, email marketing metrics, DMA

If you're pondering where to go next with your email marketing, then this feature article has a few ideas for you.

It meanders gracefully through the various problems and opportunities faced by email marketers in a dynamic online world. In doing so, it draws in a lot of ideas and recommendations from marketers and vendors alike.

So you'll find advice on coping with data overload, slimming down your contact frequency, successful examples of triggered email campaigns, and much more.

Definitely worth a look through before planning your next move.

Tags: email marketing, trigger email, case studies

November 15, 2006

Ken Magill reports on Yesmail's recent settlement with the FTC over an alleged violation of the Can-Spam Act.

The violation was a minor one and seemingly an accident. But read the report because it shows you how an apparently seamless automated system can still leave you open to accusations of spam.

The message is that subscribers won't always follow conventional routes when they want to leave your list. You have to be aware of all the channels they might use to communicate with you, keep those channels open and act on the information delivered.

In Yesmail's case, spam filters were preventing some emailed unsubscribe requests from getting through to the company. So the unsubscribe never got processed...

Tags: email marketing, yesmail, anti-spam law, Can-Spam

The recent study on email creative from Silverpop found that "emails with branded subject lines generated significantly higher open rates."

Many folk have latched on to this valuable discovery, and you'll find numerous articles suggesting that you should put your brand name in the subject line.

I'm not going to disagree with that, but invite you to think a little harder about it.

The Silverpop survey (correct me if I'm wrong) was not based on A/B testing. Instead, they looked at emails with branded subject lines and those without branded subject lines, and compared the average open rates. Which is fine.

But too many people forget that the association between branded subject line and higher open rate does not explain WHY the higher open rates are there.

The assumption that leads to the blanket recommendation to put your brand name in there, is that a brand name in the subject line directly causes more people to open the email.

But what if that's not true in all cases? Here's a theory...

If you have a recognisable brand, you likely also have a better-than-average competence or expertise in email marketing. So you're probably better than most at writing subject lines that work and you have a history of sending targeted, relevant email to senders.

So the increased open rate from branded subject lines might actually come from a combination of:

1. Brand recognition
2. Well-written subject line
3. Recipient's experience with previous emails

Now suppose your brand isn't very recognisable. Suppose you aren't a subject line expert. And suppose you don't have a history of better-than-average email campaigns?

Would putting your brand in your subject line still work? Or is it actually the email expertise associated with brands that lifted open rates?

Would your brand name then simply take up subject line space better used for presenting the offer or hinting at the engaging content in your email? Without providing enough of a "recognition" lift to compensate?

I don't know. (The old theory was that putting your brand / organization in the from line took care of the recognition issue.)

All I do know is that we should never assume that what works for some senders would work for others. Not without thinking about the reasoning behind any global recommendation. And certainly not before first testing the theory out with our own email list.

Tags: subject lines, email marketing

Email marketing seems to have undergone a bit of an epiphany, with the realization that there are some fairly simple things you can do to make real improvements in your bottom line results (see also this post from today).

Here's another collection of suggestions, put together by Julian S. Scott and highlighting little design and copywriting tricks you can use to help ensure your message gets viewed and acted on.

Tags: email design, email copywriting, email marketing

Sometimes the simple advice is the best. This article outlines the new challenges facing email marketers through changes in the way software and mobile devices handle incoming email.

It then lists five uncomplicated practical tips on how you can change your email design, copywriting and headers to overcome those challenges.

November 14, 2006

A wry look at business email (as an excuse for not blogging yet another article on email marketing and the holiday season.)

Tipping point
Point during a conversation by email where it becomes clear to both participants that they could have sorted things out days ago with a five-minute phone call.

Out of Office Reply
Device used by business people to avoid having to respond quickly to incoming email.

Thank you interval
Time spent wondering if you need to send a thank-you reply to a thank-you email.

Fistful
Measurement unit for spam. 10 spam emails is one fistful. Ten or more fistfuls is one sh*tload. So a sh*tload of spam is anything more than 100 spam emails.

Reply-all blindness
Disease characterized by an inability to distinguish between the "reply" and "reply all" buttons in an email client. Typical symptoms include acute embarrassment and complete loss of privacy.

Junk folder equation
The decision to review the contents of your junk folder is a function of two factors A and B. Where A is the potential value of finding useful mail inadvertently filtered into the spam folder. And B is the depressing prospect of wading through 500 ads for p*nis enlargers just to find an expired coupon for your local hardware store.

CC/BCC blindness
Disease causing the victim to put every address in their distribution list in the CC field of their email client, thus ensuring everyone gets a copy of both the message and the address list. Victims generally only suffer once from this affliction.

Disclaimer text
Long-winded piece of legalese commonly found at the bottom of corporate emails to indicate that the message "Hey John, how was your date last night?" should not be construed as a binding legal contract or a business solicitation. And unauthorized use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this question is forbidden on pain of something undefined (but possibly unpleasant) happening to you.

Can-Spam Act 2003
1. US law designed to restrict the sending of unsolicited commercial email
2. US law designed to allow the sending of unsolicited commercial email

Download uncertainty threshold
Point in time at which it is clear that the incoming email must include a large attachment, meaning either potential work, holiday snaps or another forlorn attempt to do something amusing with Photoshop.

The email paradox
The simultaneous feeling of despair and optimism when you check your email in the morning. Optimism at what interesting messages might arrive. Despair at the thought of finding work, complaints, several fistfuls (see above) of spam, another email from that client/customer/friend you're trying to avoid...and yet more forlorn attempts to do something amusing with Photoshop.

Non-verbal clue
Situation where recipient is left wondering if the phrase "Die, you b*stard, die!" should be taken at face value or is simply another one of those unfortunate email misunderstandings.

Spam surveys
Statistics collected by anti-spam solution providers to give them an excuse to put out a press release once a quarter to tell us that there's a lot of spam around (in case we hadn't noticed.)

More humor | Tags: email humor

November 13, 2006

All I want for Christmas is a 5% lift in newsletter clicks. The kind of wish you will only get if your subject line stands out from the zillions of competing offers from your industry colleagues (not to mention holiday wishes from grandmother and a few dozen stockmarket spams.)

Stefan Pollard has some ideas on how to approach subject line copywriting during the intensive pre-holiday buying season. He adds the need for distinction to the usual elements of branding, urgency and brevity. And then explains how you might find this distinction through appropriate thought.

Only 42 shopping days left.

Traditionally, e-newsletters are tools for smoothing the way to a future sale. By building awareness, reputation, trust, etc.

Reid Carr has another approach: using e-newsletters to manage the post-sales process. In his article, he outlines how you can exploit regular and personalized post-purchase email communications to encourage word of mouth and customer evangelism, and sell to that customer again when the purchased product comes to the end of its natural life.

The key is understanding how the content of a newsletter needs to change as a customer or prospect moves through the sales cycle. Carr uses the example of a car buyer to illustrate the concept.

It's a bit early in the week to start philosophizing* but David Baker has a valid point that's worth remembering in the light of the vendor-driven craze for ever more complicated email marketing solutions.

In his latest article, he describes one client where all the clever improvements experts can suggest did barely anything for the success of the email program. The point being that not every audience or situation needs a complicated solution.

You can't simply apply a magic advanced email marketing template and assume it works every time.

Equally, I'd add, that's no excuse for not thinking of improvements. Or to summarize in two lines:

1. Simple email marketing still works
2. Advanced email marketing works better, provided it's tailored to the needs and characteristics of the audience and sender in question.

Right, where's my cup of tea?

*I've always been tempted to write about the Zen of Email Marketing. There is no email, there is no sender...there is just the act of emailing (etc. etc.)

November 10, 2006

It's always refreshing to see how much you can learn about email marketing from other areas of business. This article by Denny Hatch, for example, is a fascinating read.

He outlines some core principles and practices from the direct mail world and relates those across to email. In doing so, he highlights various mistakes that email marketers make and encourages us to think differently about landing pages, subject lines, email structure and email design.

A welcome reminder that email marketing may have its own rules, but much of the older marketing wisdom still applies.

David Dabbah makes an appeal for email marketing as an art as well as a science.

The essence of his argument is that a strong focus on formal and technical aspects like deliverability overshadows the importance of image creativity. So he urges marketers to apply more energy to the latter.

Not that he's suggesting you abandon your marketing perspective to do so, since he reiterates the importance of relating images to brand elements and messages, and reminds us of the value of testing different image creative to find what resonates best with your audience.

November 09, 2006

Ottawa-based cardcommunications have put together a few basic email marketing benchmarks based on their Canadian client results.

Most metrics have an inevitable USA-bias, so it's nice to start seeing aggregated results from elsewhere. Some European metrics would be useful - anybody got any?

(Expect a few more of these before the month is out.) Gail Goodman has a sack of suggestions for end-of-year emails.

She splits her tips into three to five ideas each for retailers, B2B marketers and non-profits. Whereby it does no harm to look at all three for inspiration, whatever your email goals.

November 08, 2006

In this interview, David Greiner of Campaign Monitor offers up a delicious selection of design tips for your marketing emails.

He talks about the differences between the email and website design environments, identifies the two commonest design mistakes, suggests eight easy design wins, and highlights three great newsletter layouts he's seen.

There's also a little behind-the-scenes insight on life as an email service provider. My thanks to David for taking time out to speak with me on these key topics.

The great holiday goldrush is almost upon us. If you sit quietly, you can hear the sound of thousands of retail emails winging their way toward unsuspecting consumers with gift offers.

Stefanie Miller suggests skipping the usual techniques of using coupons, discounts and increased email frequency to exploit the holiday-induced loosening of customer purse strings. Instead, she has a range of alternative tactics and strategies. Everything from transactional cross-sells to downloadable gift guides...

More articles with holiday email insight.

November 07, 2006

The always-useful Jeanne Jennings has some thoughts on choosing an email service provider or in-house software solution.

She covers those areas that experience suggests tend to be critical in distinguishing between the options, such as reporting, tracking, bounce management, compliance awareness and customer support.

More articles on choosing an ESP.

A while back there was some worry that consumers would migrate to challenge/response email services. That's where when you send them an email, you get a reply asking you to manually click on a link or enter a code before the email is actually delivered.

Challenge/response was billed as a surefire way to keep your mailbox clear of spam. But the worry was that marketers would be doomed to spending days and weeks responding to these confirmation emails if they wanted email to get through.

Fortunately it seems these concerns are largely unfounded. Melinda Krueger gets some insight from Al Iverson to explain why.

November 06, 2006

Those who like a bit of science with their coffee will enjoy reading this paper in the Journal of Interactive Advertising.

According to research conducted by folk at the Universities of Miami and Georgia, recipients perceived UCE as ..."more intrusive and irritating than postal direct mail."

I know that's what you would expect, but if your colleagues are impressed by people with academic titles (and who isn't?), then you can use the science to back up your arguments about why permission is the key to successful email marketing.

This case study is for those chasing the latest opportunities in the big box of email marketing tools.

Trigger-based campaigns send out messages based on actions taken by a recipient. SmartBargains.com tested various techniques, including a sequence of post-purchase emails and emails triggered when a customer browsed a particular part of the website, but didn't buy.

MarketingSherpa has details of the approaches and rules they used, and how each technique worked out compared to their standard email program.

November 03, 2006

Since this site got its redesign, newsletter sign-ups have quadrupled. So I thought I'd share the changes I made to encourage sign-ups in this mini case study.

There's just one of me and no usability lab or IT team. So no claims to statistical certainty. But perhaps some of the ideas strike you as useful for your own sign-up forms and copy. The evidence certainly suggests the overall effect is pretty good.

Chad White spent some time evaluating the way major retailers use "send to a friend" (STAF) functionality in their emails. You can read the results at the RetailEmailReports website.

The study looks at the good, the bad and the cosmetically challenged of STAF, reviewing the different ways it's implemented (if at all)...right down to such details as the various subject lines used on forwarded messages, privacy issues and similar.

People make typing mistkes (see what I did there?) and they do so when they try to add their address to your list. Austin C. Bliss explains why typos are a bigger problem than you might think. And suggests some ways to minimize them in your sign-up form.

November 01, 2006

I'm still working through a steaming pile of email that built up in my recent absence from home. But there's a lot of media talk (again) about relevancy. That the pot of email marketing gold is buried at the end of the relevancy rainbow.

Fine sentiments that I fully support.

But a lot of people say to themselves, well, hang on one short moment. People are signing up to our emails because they're interested in what we're sending.

So surely our emails must be relevant and targeted by default? Otherwise the recipients wouldn't have signed up, would they?

That seems logical, but is misleading. Often, if you give more thought to why people sign up and who they are, you'll see it's not always true.

Let me just give two simple examples to illustrate the point.

First, a golf retailer that sends out weekly promotions on new gear. So a golfer signs up for that: you can't go wrong on relevancy there, surely?

Now consider this...

1. Men and women play with different golf equipment,

2. Some people like to buy equipment components and put them together. Others like to buy the finished product,

3. Beginners need completely different equipment to advanced players,

4. Shopping budgets are likely to vary enormously depending on whether you play once every two months or every weekend.

5. A golfer in Wisconsin needs different golf apparel to one in Florida.

Suddenly, getting the right promotions in front of the recipient isn't quite so easy: you need to know much more about that golfer to really hit the relevancy target.

Second, I love cooking. (Really.) So let me sign up for your weekly recipe newsletter. That's targeted, right?

1. The first recipe I get is for chocolate cake. Whoops, I'm on a diet. Not good.

2. The second is for a lovely pork casserole. Whoops, I'm vegetarian. Not good.

3. The third is for broccoli pie. Whoops, I only cook for the family, and my kids are not big broccoli fans. Not good.

You see the point? Content that sounds great in theory can turn out to be not so great after all. Which explains why there's so much fuss about relevancy and targeting.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

KPIs are the metrics used to reflect business performance. Applied to email marketing they give you an idea of how you're doing and where you need to retune your efforts.

The obvious question to ask, though, is which KPIs are most useful to email marketers? David Baker has some answers on which KPIs to focus on, depending on the objectives of your email marketing program.

What's important to note is that the suggested key metrics involve thinking a little harder about performance. Beyond simple stats like clickthroughs and open rates.

But these top-level metrics (like "cost per lead generated via email") are the end product of a chain of events (e.g. deliver > open > read > click > register). And elements of that chain are evaluated by looking at simpler low-level metrics.

So to properly understand how you're doing and what to work on, you need to look at the vital end results and the metrics that tell you how you got to those end results.

What do you get when you gather together some email marketers and related vendors and talk shop for a few hours? Answer: a nice little 10-page briefing courtesy of organizers E-consultancy.com.

It's one of those documents that gets the cogs in your brain turning a little faster. Plenty of suggestions about how you might approach email marketing differently, particularly in terms of analysing your results.

Other useful stuff in there includes novel segmentation thoughts, a look at the state of the industry in the UK, and links to various vendor white papers. Nice.

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