Email4Thought

TIP: Utilise the spam complaints information to improve your campaigns

As usual Stephanie Miller from Return Path has written an excellent blog. I encourage you to read it: "Let the phone gather dust;brush off the spreadsheet instead". In it she says "We've found that those "pesky" complaints (recorded when a subscriber clicks the "This is Spam" button) are actually a great source of feedback data. Scour them for clues around the type of subscriber (demographics, time on the list, activity, customer status) as well as source and type of message. Then, adjust your program to correct any practices that drive disproportionate complaints. " With every campaign which goes out, you can receive email reports which not only list the recipients that hard bounced or soft bounced, but also those recipients who click the 'this is spam' button. To ensure you receive these reports go to 'Edit my details > Email Address to Notify You of Subscriptions Opt-Outs, Bounces & Complaints' and fill in your email address. You can then use this data as Stephanie recommends and refine and improve your campaigns.

Labels: Tip

Has Legislation Helped?

I was asked an interesting question this week in an interview for an Australian Publication, Marketing Magazine. They asked: "In your opinion, has the tightening of laws and regulations around email marketing been beneficial or detrimental to the industry? Why?" Hmmm...where to begin? I believe it has been totally beneficial - but not for the reasons you may suspect. The actual problem of spam isn't caused by legitimate marketers and as such the real spam issue can't be resolved by tightening legislation. A recent consumer survey was conducted by Q Interactive, which revealed that consumers' definition of spam varies greatly with that of legislation...it seems to have evolved from being 'unsolicited' to 'unwanted' emails. That said however, I believe legislation serves another purpose - which is to force marketers to continually look at their email marketing practices and find ways to improve so that their efforts are not only not unsolicited but are actually wanted. Consumers are becoming less tolerant of irrelevant offers - not just in email marketing but in all areas of direct marketing. As a marketing medium, email is brilliant and allows you to segment and target so that you are able to send relevant emails. Without legislation, marketers could very well still be sending untargeted, irrelevant offers and therefore not be achieving the excellent ROI that email campaigns achieve today. The e-consultancy/Adestra's Email Marketing Census 2008 reveals that email is rated as the second best channel for ROI after SEO. Therefore I believe the introduction of legislation has refined email marketing and helped to make it the successful marketing channel it is today. Originally Posted: dmaemailblog.com

Labels: legislation

Are we conditioning our non-responders?

I attended the list attrition presentation at the EEC Conference in February and as expected, the subject of non responders arose. I guess my concern is similar to Stephanie Miller's in her recent blog about subscribers becoming hooked on discounts, so much so, that they don't respond to regular emails. Albeit a different subject matter - the principle is the same. As marketers, we need to use re-activating campaigns wisely so that we don't condition our subscribers to tuning out from our regular email campaigns unless they are immediately 'rewarded'. Ideally we need to encourage long term re-activation of the subscriber, rather than rewarding those who are in it for the 'goodies' and then sit dormant until another reward is offered. In this recent interview for the DMA UK's newsletter, Stefan Pollard has some suggestions for long term subscriber reactivation and better still, just plain keeping them interested. Originally Posted: Be Relevant

Labels: inactives, non responders

Subscriber Only Rewards

Yesterday I received an email from Waterstones, a major UK bookstore chain. They were offering 10% off all books when bought from waterstones.com....nice. But what's even more exciting was the discount code that you needed to use in order to receive the discount. Hmmm - Did this actually mean that this was a special offer only available to email subscribers!...or was it available to everyone who happened to go to www.waterstones.com? Me, being the sad, email marketing geek that I am, started to get excited and dashed on over to waterstones.com to look for this offer. High and Low I looked - but I was unable to find it on their website... So, kudos to Waterstones. They have realised that they need to offer subscribers incentives for not only subscribing to, but for staying subscribed to their newsletter - so, they offer emails which have value. You can't get this same offer anywhere else - not on a pamphlet, not on the website, not in the store - only by email. So many brands are using email to deliver online and offline offers and specials - which is well and good and email certainly an ideal medium for doing so, however, many are forgetting to reward their subscribers by offering deals and specials which can only be gained by being a subscriber. Waterstones have also carried this onto their Waterstones Card Program. They say when stating the benefits of joining their membership program: "Please note... many of the above benefits are available via email only, so make sure we have your correct email address!" Wow - impressive! They have obviously discovered that email is an excellent way to communicate with their clients as well as realising the value of an email address. PS: It worked for me.... Originally Posted: Be Relevant

Labels: incentives, subscriber rewards