No man is an iland

September 04, 2008

Collecting data in the sign-up form is a challenge (see Part 1).

Which means many marketers now focus on other opportunities to gather the kind of subscriber information that lets them send more relevant emails.

Here a few examples...

Tactical tracking

Most specialist email marketing software and services allow you to track who is clicking on what links in your emails. And many now integrate with website analytics so you can continue this tracking through the subsequent website visit.

The information gleaned from email and website tracking is the meat behind many advanced tactics such as segmentation and trigger messages.

However, the use of click data for planning future emails tends to be a secondary benefit. After all, those links are primarily there to facilitate a desired response (like a sale).

Consider, then, making innovative use of email links specifically to gain more information about subscribers.

For example, many marketing emails contain navigational menus or headers in addition to the main email message. These menus/headers allow recipients to click through to different parts of the website, even if the main call to action in the email isn't relevant.

You can design these navigational elements so they reveal more about the clicker.

For example, eROI describe how one t-shirt retailer's email presented a series of gender/size combinations as navigational links.

Not only does this let the recipient click through to relevant products (those that match their size and gender), but the resultant click gives the sender important information: this particular email address is likely a male, size L.

The two-stage sign-up process

A common tactic is to require just an email address and perhaps first name on the sign-up form, but the page displayed after the "submit" button is clicked (the sign-up confirmation page) gives people the opportunity to provide yet more information about themselves.

Since the sign-up is already complete, this does not dampen subscription rates. And since the information is entirely voluntary, people are much less likely to bother putting in false data.

The advice on data collection in sign-up forms regarding trust, value and subscriber benefits applies equally here.

Preference center updates

Subscriber preference centers are online web pages where a subscriber can go and update their information: change email address, manage their list subscriptions, change content preferences, modify sending frequencies etc.

These are often the pages that appear in the two-stage sign-up process outlined above.

Preference centers reflect modern thinking about returning control to subscribers and are widely considered a good thing, at least in part because of the information they give you on (surprise!) subscriber preferences.

Those email programs that use such preference centers tend to link to them unobtrusively in the footers of their emails.

But most subscribers will never bother to visit the link...unless you give them good reason.

Consider, for example...

• making the link more prominent
• sending entire emails reminding people of the value of using their preference center (see "Demonstrate the Connection" in Part 1), or
• give them a special incentive to pay it a visit

Selective opt-outs

Subscribers often want to selectively opt-out from an email list. Which means they want to stop some kinds of email, but keep on receiving others.

A common example is when online media sites send article summaries and standalone ads out to their subscribers. The latter might want to stop the ads, but keep the summaries.

Selective opt-outs let people stay on your list but unsubscribe from "these kinds of emails."

A sports retailer sending out tennis and golf promotions to their main list could put two unsubscribe links in each email.

One takes the recipient off the list.

The other puts a stop to "tennis-related messages" (appears only in tennis-related emails) or "golf-related messages" (appears only in the golf promotions).

This keeps people on the list and lets them self-select the content they want.

Surveys

Another option is simply to ask, a data collection tactic Stefan Pollard highlighted in a recent article on building better segments.

Like preference centers, it can take some effort to get people to respond to surveys. Jeanne Jennings has some tips, but you can use the link tracking tactic explained above here, too.

Instead of hoping people clickthrough to a formal survey page, ask a single question and get people to indicate their opinion by clicking on the most relevant answer in a list.

Each answer is a link taking you to a "thank you for your feedback" page. Track the links to match answers to email addresses.

Nick Usborne includes a one question survey in each issue of his plain text Excess Voice newsletter.

Survey participation is part of a broader and better email experience for subscribers. And the answers can make good content for future issues. But I bet Nick's also using the results to plan future newsletter content, too.

Cross-referencing

The obvious one saved for last...don't forget that email marketing does not take place in isolation. An email address may be associated with an existing customer or website visitor account which already contains data you might use to send more relevant, valuable emails.

So, your turn...any other ideas for getting accurate subscriber information?

Tags: subscriber preference centers, email marketing, email tracking, list building, selective opt-outs, surveys, database management

September 03, 2008

One of the longstanding debates in email marketing is how much information you ask for when someone signs up to your email list.

You obviously want an email address, but what other data should you require?

You might, for example, want a first name, so you can personalize the email. Or a zipcode, so you can send targeted announcements about in-store events. Or you might get people to select specific topic categories they're interested in, so you can send them content that reflects these interests.

The problem is there are conflicting objectives in play.

The more information you have about a subscriber, the better you can target and personalize your emails. Which is a good thing for both sender and subscriber.

But...as you ask for more information before accepting a subscription request, so you get fewer people completing the process. You also get more people entering fake data, a topic that has stimulated much debate in the blog world of late.

So, do you focus on list growth and clean data and ask for no more than an email address? Or do you focus on targeting and insist on getting more data, knowing this means a smaller list and some bad data, too?

The answer is neither.

Because of this very conflict, marketers have developed tactics and strategies to improve sign-up rates and ensure you have the kind of subscriber information that lets you send more relevant email.

Today's post looks at what you can do before you get the sign-up. Tomorrow's Part 2 looks at what you can do after the sign-up...

If you insist on would-be subscribers handing over personal data before you accept the sign-up, you have quite a challenge on your hands. But not an insurmountable one.

The golden rule is not to ask for any information you don't really need in order to send people better (for them) and more effective (for you) emails.

In a marketing world obsessed with data, it's easy to collect all sorts of information just for the sake of it. Resist the temptation.

Demonstrate value

You can see a sign-up as a transaction. I lend you my email address and in return you send me emails I want.

The more information you want from me, the more you're asking me to "pay" for those emails. And the more value I expect in return. Equally, the more value you offer, the more likely I am to "pay" in data.

It's another reason to be explicit about the benefits of being on your email list. Don't expect people to sign-up to "our email list" just out of curiosity: we've all been burned too much for that to happen. Tell people what they will get and how they can benefit.

(Not to mention that setting the right expectations is part and parcel of good email list management.)

Demonstrate trust

There's also a correlation between a willingness to submit (accurate) data and the degree of trust in the company behind the emails.

Unfortunately, the base level of trust when it comes to giving marketers an email address is, um, not high...to say the least. So establishing that trust before the sign-up is difficult, even if you have a nice, "trustworthy" brand.

Privacy and email certification program seals, memberships of relevant business or standards organizations, explicit privacy policies, reassuring privacy statements etc. can all play a potential role here.

But while such visual clues may have value, you establish trust with today's empowered subscriber by showing, not telling.

It's not enough to say you're trustworthy, you have to live it. Your actions as an email marketer will give you an email reputation which might reach prospective subscribers, too.

Which means respecting permission, accepting accountability and all the other things listed in the New Email Marketing series. This, in turn, will also affect how existing subscribers respond to your emails and future sign-up opportunities.

Demonstrate the connection

The easiest way to encourage submission of accurate data is to make it clear how the submitter benefits from doing so.

I'm not giving you my zipcode and date of birth to sign-up for your email newsletter. But I might if I know this means you'll tell me about special offers in stores close to my home and send me a special birthday coupon: two examples cited by Janine Popick.

Sometimes, the connection between the required data and the value of the emails is clear without explanation (e.g. everyone understands why you need to submit a valid email address to get future messages). If it's not clear, make it so.

Get the data post sign-up

None of these techniques are a foolproof panacea to the sign-up abandonment and false data problem. So many marketers prefer to get the sign-up and then use various tactics to draw information from subscribers further down the road.

We'll explore some examples tomorrow...

Tags: email marketing, list building, database management

September 02, 2008

There's a huge disconnect between what marketers do and what experts say they should do.

[There's also a huge disconnect between what experts do and what experts say you should do, but that's another story.]

Now there are understandable reasons for ignoring best practices, the most common being a lack of knowledge or a lack of executive/financial support for improvements.

But the cynic in me suspects there are two other reasons which are less understandable. If they apply to you, consider a rethink. Because you're just holding your program back.

The 100-year old uncle excuse

"My uncle smoked 40-a-day and lived to be a hundred. Clearly smoking isn't bad for you."

You're not following best practices, yet your email marketing program is successful. So why change?

This attitude often accompanies a belief that experts are pursuing their own agenda (vendors) or living in a fantasy world (academics) or stirring the pot for their own promotional purposes (bloggers).

While healthy skepticism is good and proper, the "I'm doing fine as I am" approach is flawed...

1. The benefits you are measuring may be hiding costs you're not measuring: image and brand problems that only show up further down the road, suppressing future sales and slowing list growth. These are the hidden costs of lazy email marketing practices.

2. You may just be lucky or be doing something particularly well that is -- for the moment -- compensating for the odd bad practice or three. But your luck could run out soon.

There are, for example, those who refuse to believe that continuing to email inactive subscribers can have any negative impact. A sent email is another brand impression, right? Which is a good thing, no?

Unlike publicity, however, any impression is not a good impression...thanks to the report spam button.

For those who need hard evidence, Michelle Eichner describes here how mailing to old, inactive subscribers did do clear, serious damage to an email program.

3. All the trends, especially in the deliverability world, point to receivers of email (ISPs) and recipients of email (your subscribers) getting choosier and choosier in terms of what they will accept in inboxes.

4. Best practices aren't just about protecting you from disaster, they're also about improving results. Get the basics right and move on from there to start getting more from your email investment.

It's too difficult, expensive or time consuming

Yes, some of the more advanced techniques and tactics rely on access to tools or expertise that, frankly, the majority of us don't have or can't find the required investment for.

But there are so many ignored best practices that involve minor tweaks requiring a few minutes of your time. No exaggeration...just a few minutes to make small changes that can make big improvements to your success.

Examples:

• Adding alt-tags to your images
• Adding a pre-header to your template
• Replacing the ESP's template welcome message with one of your own.
• Putting your email through a design and spam testing tool (at a cost as low as $5 per email)
• Ensuring your from and/or subject line includes a brand, business or personal name your recipients will recognize
• Reviewing and tweaking the chain of communication a subscriber sees when they sign-up for your list, like these guys did.

Any other quick fixes you can recommend?

[Hat tip to Loren McDonald for sparking this riff with his article on email industry disagreements.]

Tags: email marketing best practice, email deliverability

If you're looking for some solid reading/listening to get up-to-speed quickly on the basics of a solid email marketing program, try these nuggets...

1. Email marketing for bloggers
A six-part series which covers the basics of list building, testing, tracking and copywriting.

2. Broken Graphics and the 40/40/20 Rule
Short, but poignant, reminder that email marketing can still learn from the basic understanding of direct response marketing that was developed years before anyone started using the @ symbol.

3. InformIT OnBizTech
Browse down the page for about 40 minutes across three podcasts, reviewing many of the key principles that go into a successful email marketing strategy and program.

4. Sweating the details
A collection of advice aimed at retailers on developing winning email marketing campaigns.

More on the basics

August 28, 2008

Just a quick note that all the articles and posts I've encountered with advice on email marketing and social networks etc. are now collected in one spot here.

The collection will, of course, get updated as and when new insights cross my desktop.

For those (like me) with a natural reluctance to jump in headfirst to all these social tools, can I recommend this t-shirt.

Part 14 of an ongoing series...

[We're looking at the strategies and tactics that distinguish a smart email marketer from a bulk email marketer. See the New Email Marketing index page to access the rest of the series.]

It's hard to spend more than five minutes on a media website without discovering new concepts and tools for people and businesses to communicate with each other.

Facebook, MySpace, feeds, microblogging, IM, Twitter, Plurk, Plaxo, Ning...

Quick! Get a Facebook strategy in place if you want to avoid embarrassment at the big interweb party.

What's the new email marketer to do?

Flee? Rejoice? Both? Neither?

Despite want pundits might say and we might want, there are no simple answers to how email marketing should embrace (or not) social networks and other Web 2.0 developments.

But there are concepts and approaches that help us find the answers for our own unique situations...

1. All that glitters is not gold

Journalists focus on what's new, not necessarily what works. And a lot of "media" today is written by people with an agenda: vendors interested in spreading a story that fits nicely with the products and services they sell.

Don't jump into a new tool just because it makes you look good to your peers and a media who likes to talk about new things that might work, rather than old things that do work.

The new email marketers asks, "Will the tool help me reach and convert customers and prospects more effectively and efficiently than in the past?"

That's what counts. (Testing is allowed.)

2. You are not married to email

The new email marketer does not market using email. The new email marketer drives sales, opinion, web visits, downloads, registrations, ad views, ad sales, donations, or whatever else defines success for the organization. For which they happen to use email.

If there is a more effective way to use your marketing resources, then use it. As far as Web 2.0 goes, take Anna Billstrom's simple and sensible, yet often overlooked, advice:

"Find out where your customers are online and what social media they are using."

A message echoed in recent research by ESP ExactTarget on how to reach the right consumer.

3. Keep your head firmly out of the sand

A great advantage of email is its ubiquity. Everyone has an email address. It is the world's social network. Email is immortal.

But...

The fact that Facebook sends out alerts by email doesn't necessarily help my retail email strategy. A gripe I raised a year ago.

Yes, email survives. More email is sent. But that's not the critical point. What is critical is that the email audience and email user habits evolve, especially under the accelerating influence of Web 2.0 technologies.

So the new email marketer is flexible: revising strategies in the light of changes in audience composition and behavior. Seeking synergies. Looking for opportunities.

4. One thing has not changed

All these new tools and technologies, like email itself, are conduits for content. Not an end in themselves.

It is not enough to email. It is not enough to twitter. It is not enough to blog. It is not enough to have a Facebook page.

What you say, what you send, what you communicate still has to have value. In that sense nothing has changed since the day they printed the first newspaper.

Here's the new/old marketing mantra:

"Produce material people will be glad they saw or read."

Greg Cangialosi's agrees in his take on Marketing 2.0, where he says:

"...this isn't a game for being just the sizzle, you have to be the steak at the same time, almost all of the time."

5. Know your limitations

It's hard to be everywhere all the time. The growing fragmentation of communication channels causes us to spread our resources ever thinner. At the cost of the quality and value we need to communicate to make each channel work.

My feed reader is littered with the carcasses of bright new email marketing blogs that started well, slowed and died as soon as the novelty value wore off.

Only invest in channels used by your audience where you know you can provide that quality and value that earns you the necessary attention and response.

6. Web 2.0 is bottom-up

Anna Billstrom again in a comment on her own post:

"If more of our messaging could be transactional, more one-to-one conversation with the customer base (as a corporate or business entity) that's a good thing."

The growth of Web 2.0 both reflects and encourages the return to relationships that started this whole series off.

Web 2.0 is notification that we need to work against what Seth Godin calls the first law of mass media:

"Organizations will work tirelessly to de-personalize every communication medium they encounter."

Web 2.0 is a reminder that there is an empowered human at the other end of the message.

7. Same content? Unique content?

Each tool or channel has its own nuances. And the customers using your web feeds are likely different to those preferring email. Or Twitter. Or those reading your Facebook page.

This is where the real adventure starts. Can you, for instance, repurpose content from one tool or channel for the other? Both Chad White and Linda Bustos, for example, recently explored how customer reviews and email can complement each other.

Numerous other articles address promising ways to get email to benefit from and contribute to Web 2.0 tools and concepts.

But the top tactics will only emerge later, when you know exactly how people interact with your marketing messages. We know about multichannel shoppers. Do we now have ever-more multichannel communicators?

Email marketers are conscious of the dangers of email overload. Will there be issues of message duplication and overload if people "follow" you via email, Twitter, web feed and Facebook? Do the concepts of email fatigue transfer to a wider mix of communication tools and channels?

Web 2.0 is not a threat to the new email marketer. But it is a reminder that email marketing and email marketers need to evolve with email. To remain flexible and focused on producing value to those on the other end of the marketing message. Wherever they may be.

(Your thoughts and opinions are very welcome: this is largely unexplored territory, where theory still has the upper hand over experience.)

Tags: social media, social networks, facebook, myspace, twitter, blogging, email marketing, email strategy

August 27, 2008

We've all had emails that worked particularly well, drawing an unusually high response. Pity, then, we can't use that same email again and again.

Except we can...sort of. Here five ideas: let me know what you think.

Tactic 1: Wait and send again later

Your list is growing and new subscribers have never seen your previous emails. Which is a challenge and an opportunity (isn't everything?).

A challenge, because it means you have to prove yourself to each newcomer before they become loyal subscribers eager for the next email.

An opportunity, because you can treat them differently.

Consider sending newcomers a unique stream of emails just for them, and adding them later to your standard list database. You can reuse winning emails from the past as part of this welcome stream.

Tactic 2: Refer back in the next email

With a little care and intelligence, you can find ways to highlight the last email in your current one without compromising the main message, particularly in headers and footers or at appropriate points in the text/copy.

Example: My August 11th newsletter included a link that proved unusually popular with readers...to a blog post listing HTML email design resources.

So I followed up in the next newsletter with a companion post for plain text email design, with this teaser:

"Last issue's popular list of top HTML email design resources gets a sibling. See this post for a list of online articles, tools and templates to help with the design of your plain text emails."

The reason this works is because the mention is inoffensive to anyone who saw the previous issue. And it's new for the many people who are reading the current issue but missed the last one.

"Many" people? Yes: check your statistics.

The average open rate over the last four issues of the newsletter is 35%. But the percentage of the list who "opened" at least one of those issues is around 60%.

The implication is that there's an ebb and flow: people don't catch every email, they miss out on some.

The result of the subtle second mention?

21% more newsletter clicks to the HTML email design article. (Some of whom will also be people who did see the last issue but for whatever reason didn't click the link first time around: no time, browsed past it, etc.)

Tactic 3: Resend the email to non-responders

There's a school of thought that says you can take exactly the same email and send it again to those people who didn't see it the first time, as indicated by a lack of a registered open.

I've seen case studies citing strong incremental revenues as a result of this technique. But there are problems which are often overlooked in all the excitement of new sales.

These problems arise because a lack of an open does not imply the recipient missed the first email. Thanks to image blocking and the way opens are measured, many will have seen it...but chosen not to read or respond.

So at least some recipients will see the email twice, which will raise eyebrows. And some of those didn't "open" the first because they didn't want it or weren't interested.

Getting a second copy could drive them to hit that "report spam" button. This double send problem is one of the hidden costs of lazy email marketing.

A subtler alternative is to use a modified version of the email to resend to "non-responders". One that avoids some of the problems with sending duplicate emails.

Fresh subject line, different creative, acknowledgment of the previous send: "Final chance to take advantage of..." etc. It's a better approach, but needs careful application. Anybody able to cite their own experiences?

Yet another alternative is to redefine "non-responders." For example, what about sending a follow-up campaign to those who click but don't buy / download / register?

Tactic 4: Learn and apply

This is the obvious, but forgotten one.

The task flow "send - track - measure" is missing two further components: "analyze" and "apply". Emails that pull an unusually high response offer clues to effective tactics and topics for the future. So you repeat the model, not the email.

Normally it's hard to pinpoint one element that is clearly responsible for an email's success (unless you do rigorous tests). But draw out the most likely candidates and experiment with them in future emails. Is it your offer? The link positions? The color of the "more info" button? The subject line approach?

Don't forget to look for explanations outside of the actual email itself, too. Maybe it wasn't something you did after all.

Tactic 5: Adapt to other channels

We too often think of email as its own isolated marketing channel with no relevance to other sales and promotional efforts.

But winning emails can find use outside of email. Eh?

An offer thats works in email can be considered for a direct mail piece or store promotion. A subject line that works might prove effective as a headline for your PPC search ads. A winning button color might have value on the website, etc.

And it works in reverse, too. Winning PPC headlines used as subject lines. Successful website offers sent out via email etc.

Of course, be aware that different channels reach different audiences with different responses.

And there's a whole other debate about whether such things as offers should be coordinated across channels anyway. The alleged synergy of the multichannel approach (a topic for another day!)

Any other suggestions on reusing successful emails?

Tags: email resends, email marketing, open rates

August 26, 2008

Those with a B2B email list can tiptoe quietly past all the challenges associated with sending email to the big consumer webmail sites, particularly Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo.

Or can they?

I just checked the distribution of domains on my own B2B list. The big three account for almost 25% of the database:

Gmail: 11.9%
WLH: 4.6%
Yahoo: 7.9%

These free email address services have long shed their rough and ready image and now offer users powerful tools and advanced features.

Combined with their portability (the email address isn't zapped when you move jobs), it's no surprise to find business folk using them to get commercial email from informational websites and vendors.

So have you checked your list recently for webmail addresses?

[Update: Al Iverson offers an eyebrow-raising reminder that Yahoo alone is the machine behind thousands of innocent-looking domains that don't have the letters y-a-h-o-o in them. So your webmail percentage may be much higher than you think.]

The marketing challenges are mostly about deliverability and rendering. These resource guides may help:

Windows Live Hotmail
Yahoo! Mail
Gmail

Tags: webmail, email deliverability, windows live hotmail, yahoo mail, gmail

August 25, 2008

Return Path's purchase of competitor Habeas means the merger of two of the largest deliverability services in the world. Is this good for email marketers?

General opinion in the industry seems to be yes, not least due to the positive impression people have of Return Path as a company (an impression I share).

But any concentration in a marketplace raises questions. Matt Blumberg, Return Path's CEO and Chairman, was kind enough to take time out to answer them for me.

Q. The sender side of the email world seems happy with the move. Have you had any reaction from the receiver side of the industry to the purchase?

Blumberg: The reactions have been very positive. Our largest receiver partners (both Return Path's and Habeas's) are excited that we can bring more senders through our rigorous process and "to the table" with them.

Q. With the Habeas SafeList and your own Sender Score Certified whitelist set to remain separate, can we expect a package discount for those companies who choose to use both?

Blumberg: We haven't finalized go-forward pricing strategies yet, and the two companies have historically priced services very differently, and in different bundles with other services we each offer like the monitoring tool and consulting. That said, of course our objective is going to be to gain as much client adoption of all our tools and services as possible.

Q. Is there a danger that the credibility of the SafeList might be compromised if it's seen as a poor sibling to Sender Score Certified?

Blumberg: I'm not sure anyone sees it that way. The two lists have different distribution to receivers and different qualification criteria to gain accreditation.

Q. Goodmail Systems is perhaps the closest to you in terms of email certification. CEO Peter Horan implied possible future agreements between Goodmail and Gmail / Microsoft / international ISPs. Is there room for both Sender Score Certified and Goodmail to run concurrently at the same ISPs?

Definitely. We are both going to be running at Yahoo! shortly. ISPs want credible, high quality mailers to have multiple paths to the inbox.

Q. Although you've commented that Return Path can't be described as a monopoly, it does now occupy a very strong position in the deliverability world. Some people might be a little unnerved at that much "infrastructural influence" being in the hands of a single private entity. Any comments on that?

Most ISPs do offer their own whitelists. Goodmail (massively venture backed) and ISIPP (small, scrappy, well-connected) are still in the marketplace. I'd guess that ISPs are unlikely to accept 20 whitelists, but I'd also guess they don't just want to accept one.

In addition, the major factors in inbox placement are not whitelists (either those run by the ISPs or third parties) but rather the reputation systems that are run by both ISPs and third parties like Ironport, Secure Computing, Barracuda, Commtouch, Cloudmark and others.

Thanks Matt!

More on email certification | Tags: return path, habeas, matt blumberg, email deliverability

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