Why Email Marketing Still Trumps Social

SOURCE: Anchor Computer Blog

Despite the claims that pop up from time to time, email marketing is far from dead, and many consumers would rather engage with brands through this channel than through their social networks.

93% of people have a daily opt-in email relationship with at least one consumer brand; 15% on Facebook; 4% on Twitter.

“Social’s great, but not everybody goes to Twitter everyday, and maybe I have Twitter and Facebook, but not LinkedIn…but all of these people have email, and they check that every day.”, stated Michael McDonald of WebProNews. (click here to read full article.)

Have you had more success with social media or email marketing? Comment here.

Want to take your email marketing to the next Level but have limited resources? We can help!

Click here to request information on Anchor's Email Marketing Services

Critical Factors in Building a Marketing Database

Source: Anchor Computer Blog

5 Part Blog Series: Summary

The decision to build a marketing database is critical for any organization today. The volume of information that is available on both consumer and business records affords marketers a tremendous opportunity to streamline and better target their promotional efforts resulting in an increased ROI for the company.

The trick for marketers is collecting the right information and making it available to the appropriate decision maker in a timely and responsive manner that will allow your company to react to, and take advantage of, changes in the customer environment.

Here’s a quick recap of the major points of this post.

Clearly define your objectives! By defining how you will use the database, what types of reporting and analysis you wish to support, you will find it much easier to achieve your objective in the end.

Simplify the database as much as possible. Some databases are very simple and some are very complex due to the programs they need to support. Just don’t make yours any more complicated than it needs to be!

Building the database represents your best opportunity to standardize your data. But don’t kid yourself; there are hard decisions that will have to be made on every level of standardization.

When creating the budget for your database, utilize the quotes you received from the vendors in your RFP. It’s ok to amalgamate expenses from multiple quotes as each individual quote may not be comprehensive. If you haven’t reached the RFP stage yet, talk to vendors and peers who have built a database and work from their experience.

While ease of use is a laudable goal, it is not the primary objective of the database. Return on Investment, measured in quantifiable improvements in the marketing program is!

The successful implementation of the marketing database is the first step to taking advantage of the changing marketing environment.

Read Complete Blog Series: Critical Factors in Building a Marketing Database

Part 1 – Begin at the End! Define Your Objectives

Part 2 – KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Part 3 – Standardize/Normalize Your Data

Part 4 – Create An Accurate Budget

Part 5 – Set Measurable Objectives

Summary

How Email Marketing Will Evolve In 2011

SOURCE: Media Post's Email Insider

Email marketing is constantly evolving, with social media, mobile and ISPs driving most of the change right now. Here are five predictions of how things will change in 2011:

1. The plain text part of your multipart email will become more important thanks to Facebook Messages, which displays the plain text part by default. There's a link to display the HTML part which it does very well -- but that link is easily overlooked, which means that it will likely see little use. Keep an eye on the percentage of your list that's @facebook.com addresses. Once it's more than a couple of percentage points, it's probably time to give some extra attention to the design and copywriting of your plain text part.

2. Email design will start to be more heavily influenced by iPhones, Android-powered smartphones and iPads. The distinction between emails and mobile emails is disappearing. That will have several effects on email design: (1) Email widths need to narrow. We recommend a width of around 600 pixels. (2) Font sizes need to increase so they're more legible on small screens. And (3) the space between links and the size of buttons need to increase to allow fat fingers to hit links accurately. That will also mean navigation bars with fewer links in them.

3. Share-with-your-network (SWYN) links will be used by a majority of marketers. SWYN links allow subscribers to share email content with their friends and family members on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, increasing the reach of your messages. As of August, 26% of top online retailers used SWYN in their promotional emails, up from 12% in July 2009. By the end of 2011, the adoption of SWYN links should break the 50% mark.

4. Reactivation campaigns will become more important, thanks to ISPs giving weight to engagement metrics when determining whether to deliver to the inbox or junk folder or to block email. Most marketers still have no plan whatsoever in place to address inactives -- the subscribers on their list who haven't opened or clicked on email in a long time. In some cases, inactives make up 50% or more of a marketer's list, representing a significant threat to deliverability and a big distraction from focusing on active subscribers. Marketers must start by defining what "inactive" is for them, then progress to segmentation tactics to message inactives differently, and culminate with reactivation campaigns that give subscribers a chance to reaffirm their interest or be dropped from the list.

5. The email marketing industry will continue to be divided on permission. The tension between the old school opt-out email marketing industry aligned with direct mail and the new-school permission email marketing industry aligned with mobile and social will continue to grow. But from my perspective, all signs point to the new school winning out. From Gmail's Priority Inbox and Facebook Messages to ISPs' ongoing battle against unwanted email, it's becoming increasingly critical to be anticipated and wanted in consumers' inboxes-particularly if you want to be in the part of the inbox that consumers have designated for important, must-read emails. Staying out of the junk folder is yesterday's battle.

Chad White is the Research Director at Smith-Harmon, a Responsys Company and digital marketing services agency. Visit his blog at http://www.retailemailblog.com/

Step by Step Guide to Quality Email Appending

Source: Anchor Computer Blog

Email Append is a data enhancement service that accurately matches and appends email addresses to your customers' records, allowing you to communicate with them electronically. Appending emails is often the best solution to effectively communicate with your existing customers, expand communications to your less active customers, build customer relationships, and increase the monetary value of your existing database.

Here is a step-by-step guide to better understand the email append process and some helpful tips on what to look for when choosing an email processing company.

The Process is Completed in 4 Easy Steps:

1. Submit your file.

Provide your customer file with names and postal addresses. Define whether you would like to match at an individual or household level, or both with individual preferred.

What to watch for:

Use service providers that will ensure your data will remain secure and private. You should always add decoys to your file.

2. Match email addresses…

Your file is matched to an opt-in email database. Industry standard match rates are approximately 15% - 25% for consumer records and 20% - 40% for business (results may vary).

What to watch for:

Email appenders who promise above average match rates. The rule “quality over quantity” applies with email appending.

3. Welcome emails are sent on your behalf.

Branded welcome emails are sent on your behalf, inviting your customers to receive email from you as well as allowing them an opportunity to opt-out.

What to watch for:

A gross-matched file which may include undeliverables.

4. Accurate and Deliverable e-mails are returned to you.

Deliverable, permission-approved email addresses are added to your customer file. Any opt-outs from your ‘Welcome Message’ will be included, flagged and returned to you.

What to watch for:

Email addresses change and deliverability may be inconsistent. Negotiate to pay for deliverable addresses within 14 days from the point at which they were deployed.

How Often Should You Append:

For optimal results - we recommend submitting quarterly or monthly (according to size and/or frequency of mailing).

Don’t forget to update your POSTAL MAILING file:

If you are currently mailing to your customer file, it is recommended you process a NCOALINKTM 48 Months update with a non-exclusive licensee of the United States Postal Service®.

Email Append: Increase The Value Of Your Database

Source: Anchor Computer Blog

Email Append is a data enhancement service that accurately matches and appends deliverable email addresses to your customers' records. Get up to date, permission-based email addresses using sophisticated technology to match and append Residential or Business email addresses to your customer file based on their name and address.

Do You Want To...

• Drive customers to your web-site, boosting online sales?

• Build relationships with your customers?

• Communicate online effectively in a timely manner?

• Receive instant feedback on a new or test offer?

• Add valuable data to your marketing efforts again and again
for a marginal cost?

• Improve conversion rates with multi-channel marketing?

• Retain customers by sending relevant and interactive
email communications?

Did You Know...

Anchor Computer has one of the largest email depositories of opt-in emails in the country. We will take your database and append 15-25% match rates.

Email Append is often the best solution to effectively communicate with your existing customers, expand communications to your less active customers, build customer relationships, and increase the monetary value of your existing database. It's quick, it's simple and it will increase your sales and strengthen customer relationships.

Give us a call at 631-306-9364 or click here for more information!

Business to Business (B2B) Email Appending

Source: Anchor Computer Blog

"Anchor's Business Email Append Service added emails to more than 30% of our database and saved us thousands in direct mail costs.” - VP of Marketing

How B2B Email Append Works:

B2B email append is your cost effective, quick and easy solution to begin driving new business. You provide your file “Full Name, Company Name, and Postal Address” on your database, then we provide you with an email address for that record. The result is current, accurate email addresses appended to your file. You only pay for records that are deliverable.

In order to achieve the highest match rates possible for our clients, Anchor applies a two-step append process:

1. Data matching using our Business Email Database
2. Email creation based on domain & email pattern rules
3. Broadcast of Welcome Email

Our average match rates for business-to-business projects range from 20-40%.
What are the benefits:

• Increase response rates!
• Drive customers to your website, boosting online traffic.
• Communicate better, faster and more effectively with your customers and
prospects.
• Retain customers by sending relevant and targeted communications.
• Acquire current, accurate emails addresses.
• You only pay for records that are 100% deliverable.

We can assist you in the planning and execution of your eMarketing program.

Click here for for more information.

Email Marketing: Knowledge, Best Practices & Tips: An Email Marketer's Perspective On Promoting Twitter

Email Marketing: Knowledge, Best Practices & Tips: An Email Marketer's Perspective On Promoting Twitter

The Case for Segmentation and Targeting: How IHG Generated a Single View of its Customer

According to Forrester Research's 2009 ROI of Relevance report, highly segmented email marketing programs generate 2 - 5X the performance of non-segmented programs.

View >>

Guidelines For Proper Use of HTML In Email

By Don Monell on January 22, 2010

There is nothing worse than creating a well constructed HTML document that renders perfectly in your web browser only to find it mangled when sent to your Gmail account.

What To Do?

1. Use tables for layout. You're welcome to try "div" tags for positioning and layout, but our research shows that tables are more consistently supported. But do very simple layouts, avoiding lots of nested tables.

2. Use inline styles liberally in tables. In fact, you'll find you can get the best mileage out of inline styles in "td" tags. That way you are setting up little style regions within each table. Think of these inline styles as miniature style sheets. This allows non-technical users to swap content in and out of pre-formatted cells in a modular fashion.

3. Avoid background colors in table cells that contain other tables.

Proper Handling Of Images

1. Define background images using background. Instead of the inline background-image call. Gmail, among others, will ignore any URL attribute in an inline style. Keep in mind, though that if the background image is ignored, the default color is going to be white. That means your white text on black backgrounds will disappear. Stick with text colors that are visible against a white background.

2. Don't use images for important content like calls to action, headlines and links to your web site. Outlook, Gmail and others turn images off until allowed by the user. If your entire email is graphical, all your recipients are going to see is a lot of broken images.

3. Provide alt text for all images.

4. Declare BOTH height AND width parameters for images. Outlook Web Access especially needs this for your table layout to display properly.

Specific Elements That Can Not Be Used:

1. External or embedded style sheets (those contained within the "style" tag above the "body" tag). This is the most important thing to avoid. Many email services cut everything above the body tag and disable external style sheets.

2. JavaScript. There's no better way to have your email marked as spam. Not all email clients can handle the scripts, and most web-based systems disable scripts as a general rule to prevent malicious code from being executed on a system.

3. Table width greater than 600px. Considering most email is viewed in a preview pane table width of 600px or less is the industry standard

4. Embedded video. This will work with special coding in Apple Mail, but the most popular web-based email clients - Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail are choosing to disable HTML video from playing. So play it safe and link to a web based player.

This should get you headed in the right direction to better looking, better converting email. If I can assist you further please call me at 631-306-9361 or email me at dmonell@anchorcomputer.com

Signs Your Email Program Is Behind The Curve

by Chad White, Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Email marketing's high return on investment often breeds complacency -- and is often pointed to as both a blessing and curse. After all, why invest more in analytics, segmentation, and testing when the profits are already rolling in quite nicely?

 

Meanwhile, some companies realize that there's much more to be had from their email programs. They recognize the effect that a strong email program can have on other channels and on their brand reputation. They make smart investments in new capabilities and are constantly optimizing their processes, messaging and email designs. They're way ahead of the curve, leaving complacent competitors in the dust.

Here are a few signs that despite "good" results, your email program is getting lapped:

1. You rarely, if ever, A/B test anything. Why sweat the details? Different subject lines, calls-to-action, messaging, layout and send times can sometimes boost the performance of an email by double digits, while uncovering tactics that you can operationalize and build upon further. To me, a culture of testing is the surest sign that your email results are market-leading.

2. You don't review performance metrics. Money keeps coming in, so why bother with analyzing open, click, unsubscribe and complaint rates? If you're flying blind, you have little hope of making improvements to your program.

3. You don't segment. All of our subscribers are interested in everything we offer. Unless you only sell one or two products, this is surely not true. Mining past purchases and click behavior in your emails and on your Web site, plus asking subscribers for their preferences, will reveal lots of opportunities to send the right offers to the right subscribers. One-size-fits-all programs are losing their effectiveness as email volume rises and consumers gravitate toward email programs that respect their time. People know that they can just Google discount codes when they want them. They don't need to sign up for your emails to get broadcast discount codes and other non-targeted, non-individualized content.

4. Transactional messages are the only triggered emails that you send. We don't have to send other triggered messages to be successful. Lifecycle messaging such as welcome, birthday, anniversary, browse, and shopping cart abandonment emails deliver revenue per email that's multifold what's generated by broadcast emails. Plus, trigger email programs tend to return the money you invest in them within a matter of months and don't require much upkeep thereafter. 

5. You haven't updated your sign-up form, opt-in confirmation page or any other such pages since launching them. They work pretty well for us, so we're focused on other things. These pages are not fire-and-forget. Logos change, brand messaging changes, email program benefits change. These elements should be reviewed annually, at a minimum.

6. You don't make it easy for customers to sign up for your emails. Our Web site department is hard to work with and won't give us space for a sign-up link on our homepage or anywhere else. If customers can't easily opt in, your list growth will be perpetually stunted. Weak organic growth may also drive you to try to acquire subscribers through riskier means, jeopardizing your sender reputation.      

7. You're totally preoccupied with the day-to-day of getting emails out the door. We've hired strategic consultants before, but we never have time to implement any big changes. If you're mired in the trenches of email production and not devoting a substantial chunk of your hours to strategic initiatives, your program is basically static, making it easy for your competitors to pass you by. Look for ways to streamline production processes through better coordination with other departments, faster production tools, more flexible email templates and other means, so you can spend time building the future, not just your next email.

It's my hope that 2010 is the year that CMOs and CEOs wake up to the massive investment gap in their email program. In the not-too-distant future, they may find that gap has grown so large that they're unable to close it.

Chad White is the Research Director at Smith-Harmon, a Responsys Company and digital marketing services agency. Visit his blog at http://www.retailemailblog.com/

Direct Mail Starting To Show Signs of Life

Jan 15, 2010 12:28 PM, By Herb Torgersen

Great post from Herb, direct mail is not dead, far from it. It is finding its strength again in both traditional and new verticals, supporting the multi-channel marketing world we live in.

If the first two weeks of 2010 are any indication of what is to come, direct mail might just find its way off life support.

In the past few weeks my mailbox has been overflowing with direct mail—an increase in credit card offerings, mortgage re-financing offers, home improvement offers that actually have my name on them, and of course, some catalogs.

However, the majority of the direct mail we've received has been from national retailers and restaurant chains. These are two categories that picked up their direct mail presence in 2009 and it appears that the trend is continuing into 2010.

They are using direct mail to drive store traffic. Plus, they're employing a multitude of direct marketing tactics to capture consumer information to further CRM initiatives, both through direct mail and online. Companies like Target, Publix Supermarkets, McDonald's and Chik-fil-A are putting a high level of importance on being able to continually communicate with prospects and customers to drive in-store traffic. Frequent communication is essential in this tough economic environment. Lifetime customer value has become an important part of their marketing strategies.

These retailers/restaurant chains have been amassing a considerable amount of consumer data that will continue to drive their marketing strategies. For example, consider how Chik-fil-A continues to grow in today's tough economy.

Their advertising campaigns are creative, witty and cutting edge. Their direct mail initiatives are specifically designed to drive store traffic. They have chosen to stay with their core competency…serving delicious and healthy chicken products in spotless restaurants with exemplarily customer service. And through these tough economic times they have not resorted to price reduction promotions to drive traffic. Applying consumer psychology, they count on their product and customer service reputations for increased customer visits. And it works—here in the greater Atlanta area, Chick-fil-A at dinner time is quite considerably more busy than competing fast food restaurant chains. Each individual store is actively involved in their community and that sense of community participation is widely accepted by their customer base.

If we go back about 10 years or so, direct mail was predominately the domain of "traditional direct marketing companies" like catalogers, publishers, financial services firms, insurance companies and continuity clubs. Now with the new decade upon us the landscape has changed.

There is a whole new spectrum of companies applying direct mail, and direct marketing initiatives. As we all seek continued growth it is time we step outside our comfort zone and embrace the opportunities available. It may require research and learning the marketing strategies of a new industry but the effort will be well worth it. Direct mail is showing signs of life once again.

Herb Torgersen is president DirectInnovations Inc., Suwanee, GA(htorgersen@directInnovations.biz).

Are Email Appends An Achilles Heel For Deliverability And Strategy?

I follow Ryan's posts and this one I thought was worth sharing. The benefit of email append can certainly be improved by following Ryan's suggestions. Enjoy the read!
by Ryan Deutsch, Thursday, March 19, 2009, 11:15 AM

Last Thursday, I joined a friend for a pick-up basketball game, played (poorly) for 30 minutes, made a move on the baseline and ripped my Achilles tendon in half!  Four days later, I was in surgery, and I am now in a cast for the next ten weeks....arghhhhh!   What does this have to do with email marketing? Not a thing -- other than giving me some extra time to read up on all the latest email articles and putting me in the mood for a good fight -- I mean, debate! 

On Tuesday, I came across a blog post denouncing the use of opt-out email appends.  For those of you not familiar with the practice, it is essentially a quick way for marketers with large postal files to add emails addresses to their database.  For example, Acme Company sends their postal file to a database company, said database company matches Acme's postal records to the records in their database, and when a "match" is found with an email address they add that record (with  the new email address) to an "append" file.  The database company then does a quick "welcome" email to the entire append file with an opt-out only link and then ships the resulting file back to Acme company.  The issue with this process is that Acme Company now has a file that is NOT opt-in and could cause serious delivery problems for their business.

While opt-out email append is not without risk, if managed correctly it can be an excellent way for marketers to grow their email lists.  In these tough economic times, companies are looking for ways to accelerate the use of the email channel, essentially reallocating marketing budget from less "accountable" channels to email.  As experts in the space, I think it is our job to help them do so responsibly.  

We often look at things as black and white with regards to email best practices and deliverability. I understand and agree that from a delivery standpoint, email append can be a bad idea, especially if the senders simply add the append to their current list.   However, I think from time to time we should try and look at things from the marketer's standpoint.  If we know that they are going to go down this path, why not try to help them do it effectively?

Here are some thoughts on opt-out appends that folks should consider before deciding to throw in the towel altogether:

1. Only append active customer files.  Do not append inactive or "stale" customer files.  These result in poor match rates and are riskier than active customer files.  Furthermore, it is critical that these customers pass the PBR (Prior Business Relationship) test.  As a general rule, be sure that the customer has purchased and/or interacted with your organization in the last 12 months.   If you append bad data you will, as the article I read Tuesday suggests, destroy your deliverability.

2. Build an append-specific communication strategy.  You should not treat your appended email recipients the same way you treat subscribers that have been on your file for months and years.  First, make sure you isolate your append mailings from your core programs.  While I believe opt-out appends can deliver value to a marketer, we must accept that this file IS riskier than the house file.  As a result, keeping it separate limits any negative impact the program will have on your existing email campaigns.  Second, develop a series of communications that repurpose email content for the appended addresses, and be sure to place opt-out front and center and continually remind recipients how they ended up on the email list.  Be transparent; your customers will appreciate it.

3. Build rules to migrate append addresses to your house file over time.  As time goes by, proactively migrate appended addresses into your house file.  Migration should be based on specific recipient activity (clicks, purchases, etc.) Companies can build these rules to apply to their unique business models. 

Of course, as with any other poorly executed email program, opt-out appends can negatively affect your email strategy.  But if executed correctly, they can add tremendous value quickly. In these tough economic times, what marketer can afford to ignore ways to reallocate budget to more effective direct channels?