Marketing Insights

In our series about declining email response rates, so far we’ve looked at:

• Cleaning out inactive contacts
• Online reputation measurement
• Follow-up timing

Today we’re going to talk about purchased list. (Hint: Bad Idea!)

Are you buying email lists from other sources and adding those folks into your database? Don’t. I mean it: stop right now. First of all, the success rate on purchased email lists is approximately .001% according to my in-depth research, not to mention that you’re killing your online reputation. If you’ve purchased lists in the past I encourage you to be ruthless and cull those people from your database. Right now. Go.

Tweet This Post!

In our quest for better email response rates we’ve looked at cleaning out inactive contacts as well as checking on your online reputation score. Today we’ll look at your follow-up times and how that can affect your response rates.

When you get a new lead into your database (through a website form, trade show booth visit, etc.) are you responding quickly? Or is it thirty days until the prospect hears from you? The longer you wait, the more likely they are to forget you – and ignore you. In this wonderful new world of social media I’ve noticed some marketers dropping some of their old-school tactics (such as autoresponders and immediate follow-ups). Don’t let those new leads go stale and become part of your non-responder baggage.

In our next post we’ll answer the question: Would your mother be proud of your marketing lists?

Tweet This Post!

In a series of continuing posts looking at email response rates, today’s topic is about your reputation.

If you’ve noticed that your email response rates are declining, it may be time to check your online reputation and make sure that you haven’t fallen into a pit of undeliverability. I recommend visiting senderscore.org for a check-up. Think of it as the “credit score” of your domain name. While you’re there, you can sign up for an email series that will help you correct any issues you may uncover.

Next up… we’ll look at your follow-up times.

Tweet This Post!

I’ve been hearing a familiar refrain lately from the marketers that I work with: “My email response rates have been dropping.” If you’re singing that same tune, I have a some helpful ideas for you that I’ll be sharing over the next few weeks. Our first one: Do You See Dead People?

If your marketing database is more than one week old, you definitely have contacts that are no longer valid. In 2005 (ages ago!) Marketing Sherpa produced a chart that showed that database health declines by twenty-five percent each year. So if you started last year with 100,000 contacts, only 75,000 of those are still valid. Ouch. As those email addresses die off, they become dead weight in your marketing metrics. If your response rates have been slowly dropping over time, it is most likely a correlation to the natural aging of your database.

How can you address this? Split up your database! Ideally your marketing automation system should be able to help you understand who has been active in the last six months or so, and who hasn’t visited the website or opened an email during that time (inactive). Create two groups and send your next big email blast, such as a newsletter, to each group separately. Chances are that your response rates with the active group are still doing fine.

Now you have to get firm with that inactive group. Try a two touch re-engagement campaign specifically targeting those folks and for those that don’t re-engage, quarantine them in your database and stop sending to them. I know, I know… I can hear you freaking out right now. But trust me, you’re not really losing anything. In my next post on this topic we’ll talk about why these dead people are not just dragging down your response rates, they’re also hurting your deliverability reputation. Stay tuned….

Tweet This Post!

In this short video, Laura Cross shares quick tips to ensure your email does not get ignored. Watch it now!

Click to watch now! (2 min)

Tweet This Post!

No, I’m not talking about the 265 channels you can get on DirecTV, I’m talking about Marketing Channels.  In the last few years we’ve become (overly?) reliant on email because it’s comparatively cheap and fairly measurable.  Sometimes we throw a little direct mail into the mix, especially for those folks we don’t have email addresses for. But have you thought about reaching your prospects and customers via other methods?

In my role at Eloqua I work with a lot of customers every week. Over time, I’ve learned which ones like to communicate via email and which ones prefer a phone call instead. This hit home to me this week when one of my customers had not responded to the last several emails I had sent to her. When I picked up the phone, we ended up having a great chat and now I’ll remember that she prefers that method of communication instead.

Next time you’re kicking off a campaign, consider making it multi-channel. Perhaps some of your past non-responders would do better with an automated phone message this time around? Do you have an opt-in list of SMS contacts? If so, send them a text message with a URL to register for your event or learn about your offer. Don’t forget to add Twitter and Facebook to your next campaign outreach as well.

Your prospects are listening on different channels, so make sure you’re talking to them in the places where they’ll hear you.

[Photo credit: RickMacMerc via Flickr]

We all know that email marketing success is dependent on many factors, but one of the most critical elements is your subject line.  What’s interesting is that many companies still spend little time thinking about and testing the subject line ,as compared to the time they devote on developing the email design and call to action. In the end… the reality is that MORE people will see the subject line than they will your email copy and beautiful images.

Subject line length is often talked about as an important factor to consider. We’ve been hearing for a few years “shorter is better,” that the subject line needs to be 5 to 6 words and/or no more than 30 characters. But is LENGTH really the deciding factor for someone opening an email? Or even more important does subject line length drive response?

Almost every one quickly scans his or her inbox, perhaps through a preview pane, and looks for messages they actually care about.  Then they’ll decide to keep reading based on the two things they see: 

• – their relationship with you (the sender)
• – the first 35-50 characters of the subject line

After this brief glance, they’ll determine if the email is worth opening or not. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple ‘subject line formula’ like  (Value Proposition + (2 * Timeliness)) + Relevancy ?

While there have been studies that clearly state ‘shorter subject lines performed better than longer ones’, there are others that show while shorter subject lines optimize open rates, longer subject lines optimize click throughs.  Studies however fail to take into account relevancy, creativity, humor, timeliness, creating a sense of urgency, piquing curiosity, using action words, ensuring the subject line is relevant to the call-to-action – elements used to create a strong subject line. And it’s strong subject lines that will increase response to your emails.

As you plan your next email campaign be sure to take time in developing your subject line. Consider the following:

1. What is the purpose of the email? Who is the audience? What is the response your are trying to achieve?
2. Does the email answer the recipients question “Is this email worth looking at now… or later… or not at all?”
3. If the recipient opens the email… does the copy meet the expectations set by the subject line?
4. LENGTH – what does the recipient see, how much of it does she actually read?
   – Generally, shorter is better. Many email clients & all mobile devices limit the number of characters that display in the subject line field. So keep the subject line as short as possible but make sure that it still conveys the value of your message.
   – Use longer subject lines when there is a compelling reason – remembering to ‘front load’ the most important information.
5. Finally… Test. Test. Test. Shorter may work better for a single offer promotion, while an informational email offering industry updates may need a longer subject line to convey the value. Keep in mind, only 25 percent of marketers are testing subject lines on a regular basis. Be the marketer who knows which subject lines maximize both opens and conversions.

Email subject line success is based on many factors. Although length should be considered, don’t make it your top priority at the risk of compromising other elements that will drive response. At the end of the day, there is no ‘magic subject line length’.

Tweet This Post!

You’re probably familiar with the little text at the top of email messages directing people to “Click here to view this email as a web page”. Here are common phrases that I’ve seen lately:

• Trouble viewing this message? Click here to see it as a web page.
• If you’re having trouble reading this message, read the online version.
• Are you having difficulty viewing our HTML email? View the online version.
• (Many of them add “Do not reply to this message”, which I find to be rather unfriendly.)

Do you notice a theme with all of the above? They start out with a negative: trouble, difficulty, do not.

This is your first impression, especially on a Blackberry or similar device, why not use this tiny little text to put your best foot forward? Today I received a wonderfully different option in my personal email from KnitPicks: “Can’t see our gorgeous images? Click here.” 

What a great tone! And guess what… it worked!

So here’s your Friday Quick Tip: Why not take a little time today and update your current email headers or create some new ones with an intriguing, welcoming, fun tone? These headers are often your very first impression to recipients, so get creative and use this valuable real estate wisely.

Tweet This Post!

Many of us started our email campaign careers in batch and blast mode. Many are still there. But with the tools on the market available today to track your user’s behavior and the ability to sync those tools with your CRM software, the barriers are coming down. It’s time to leap over the hurdles and change your marketing strategy.

One of our Eloqua customers, Mark McCary, Senior Director of Global Marketing at Platts, uses the term “customer-generated marketing”. (You know, as opposed the marketing-generated marketing that most of us are currently doing.) Marketing Sherpa calls this concept “triggered email”. No matter what name you give it, it’s your goal.

I’m not naive. I know it’s easy for me to spout off about what you should be doing, and blithely overlook the fact that this is a massive change in your strategy. Your email blast numbers will dramatically decrease. However, conversely, your email campaign metrics should dramatically increase. As an added bonus, your campaign will have a longer lifespan since users can be triggering the campaign for as long as you have it running. 

If you’re experiencing resistance, offer to test marketing-generated versus customer-generated campaigns and let the numbers speak for themselves. Here is an excellent takeaway from the recent Marketing Sherpa Email Summit:

John Heidrich and Joe Nettum from Allstate described how their team is moving toward a triggered email strategy…They compared results from a campaign to encourage customers to sign up for an online account service system. One set of messages was sent batch-style to the entire list, and another set was sent to new customers, triggered by policy purchases:

• Open rates for the triggered email messages increased 84% over the batch messages
• Clickthrough rates for the triggered email messages increased 32%

Yeah, those numbers will speak quite eloquently for themselves.

What types of things should trigger an email campaign?

Certainly a purchase qualifies. But website surfing is your next best friend. For example, if you have three main products described on your website, you can measure the number of page visits to each area. Which product has the most page views? That should trigger an email to the prospect about that specific product. (What if they’re all three equal? Send an email with a comparison matrix to help the prospect differentiate your offerings!) You can also trigger off of whitepaper downloads, product trial downloads, abandoned purchases, and much more.

We’ll write about other triggers in a future post, but first….tell us your ideas! Have you seen anything work well? Is there something you want to try?

Tweet This Post!

Photo credit: timsnell | flickr

If you have autoresponders set up on your website forms (and I sincerely hope you do!) you may want to spend a few minutes making sure they’re up to date. Does the call to action still make sense? Is all of the contact information correct? Does the design reflect your latest branding?

You can check on this through your marketing automation system, or by simply filling out your website forms. You might be surprised by what you find!

Tweet This Post!