Delivering relevant email is necessary if email marketers want consumers to engage with their emails.  As many marketers embark on improving the sophistication of their email programs to achieve this level of relevance, two key questions must first be answered.

1. What does email relevance mean to consumers?
2. How should marketers use this information to achieve greater relevance in their email programs?

Answers to these questions come in a new research report from e-Dialog titled Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumers Demand Relevance.  The report shows that high frequency and lack of interest is cited as the top reasons for consumers not opening and reading email.  If marketers demonstrate that they know their customer, more than half of U.S. and U.K. consumers report they would open and read these emails.

While every customer is different the vast majority of consumers want marketers to demonstrate they know:

• The types of products or services they like – 64 percent
• The types of offers they like – 61 percent
• Whether they are a new or returning customer – 54 percent
• Their communications preferences – 47 percent
• Their shopping habits (e.g., online searching, in-store visits, catalog purchases, etc) – 36 percent

Consumers want marketers to know their preferences
The data shows that a large segment of consumers across all vertical industries want marketers to exhibit intimate knowledge of their preferences, interests and purchase history.  This segment of consumers, which we can refer to as ‘preference seekers,’ is more likely to subscribe to email and is therefore more tolerant of frequent email messages.  Still, I should point out that the need to deliver relevant messages to this segment is even greater, since their inboxes appear to be more cluttered than non-preference seekers.

An overwhelming 86 percent of surveyed consumers on average want companies to ask about their email preferences at registration, I advise marketers to ensure every page of a Web site has a link back to a central subscriber preference center. In addition, consumers expect certain information be collected at registration. So, be strategic about what information you are gathering at registration, because if consumers don’t offer up the information there, you are unlikely to get it from them elsewhere.  Don’t just collect the preferences of new subscribers; use the email channel itself to improve your ability in capturing product and category preferences from existing subscribers.

A person’s email address is part of their online identity
Ever since consumers started transacting online, they’ve been sharing information about themselves that enable marketers to direct targeted content to them.  Now, with the explosion of applications like online banking and social networking, a person’s email address quickly becomes part of their digital identity.  Marketers need to be aware that when consumers sign up for email, they’re more willing to provide a piece of their personal information in exchange for something special and exclusive.  I caution email marketers that they need to hold up to their end of the promise.  And, this doesn’t mean over mailing.  Frequency-metering, testing, and behaviour analysis will help you to continue to deliver targeted content.

Research shows that most consumers will open and read messages that are personalized to them based on preference data.  Preference seekers are more engaged and interested in receiving tailored messages.  This could be a very profitable segment for your brand, but as a marketer you need to work hard to satisfy subscribers through more robust preference capture and relevance empowering tactics.

Available for download now at www.e-dialog.com/manifesto, the extensive report from e-Dialog examines key findings on what consumers want included in the messages they receive, such as highly tailored product recommendations and task-oriented notices, and even more importantly, how marketers can achieve greater relevance in their email programs. The report also provides a series of specific recommendations from e-Dialog’s email marketing experts. Four additional reports drilling deeper into the topics of mobile and social marketing, as well as into consumers’ views of email relevance in the retail and travel verticals will be released in the coming weeks.

About the Author:
Andrea Orvis: Group Director, Strategic Services @ e-Dialog
Andrea is an accomplished and passionate leader with experience developing innovative results-oriented digital one-to-one strategies for clients.  As a 7 year e-Dialog veteran Andrea has been responsible for some of e-Dialog’s fastest growing strategic accounts.   With over 11 years of client service experience under her belt Andrea has worked with some of the world’s most recognized direct marketers including: British Airways, Dell, CheapTickets.com, Avis/Budget, RCI, and Bose.  Prior to e-Dialog Andrea worked with Arnold Worldwide’s Integrated Marketing Services division on interactive and direct mail programs for clients.

Ken Wong is a faculty member and the Commerce ’77 Teaching Fellow in Marketing at Queen’s School of Business. He was inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends in 2006 in the mentor category. Ken is a passionate speaker and doesn’t mince words. Most of us could only wish for a teacher such as him in our younger days.

According to his bio at The Marketing Hall of Legends, it’s obvious he has a rather impressive teaching resume with stints at Carleton University, Radcliffe College, Cornell and Harvard’s Continuing Education Program, and in executive programs at York University, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University and the University of Alberta. He is the coauthor of Basic Marketing, one of the leading introductory textbooks in Canada.

Ken held the delegates at the CMA national convention in thrall as spoke about the fascination he has for why people don’t do what they should do. Specifically, he was referring to marketing and the surprising statistic that in the economic down turn, as many as 40% of companies plan to cut back or kill marketing budgets.

Ken spent 18 months touring North America talking with decision makers about marketing and how they are dealing with the recession. Ken’s message to these folks was basic, there’s a simple way to deal with the recession, cut back where you can but, keep your pedal to the medal when it comes to delivering value to your customers – nothing is more important.

Ken wonders why some people don’t understand that the number one purpose of an organization is to create a customer. As Ken points out (and as we say over and over) it’s about relationships.

I had the chance to briefly speak with Ken after his presentation and you’d be hard pressed to meet a nicer and more genuine guy. Ken likely had a pretty tight schedule and yet he took the time to speak with me about email and social marketing and some other points of interest.

Takeaway: In hard times, cut back where you can but, keep your pedal to the metal when it comes to delivering value to your customers — nothing is more important.

Last week we attended the MarketingExperiment’s Online ROI Tour when it passed through Toronto.  We came away with a lot of  online marketing wisdom, especially where landing page optimization is concerned. The takeaways below should help you dramatically improve your conversion rates on your landing pages and your online marketing efforts in general. As well, the social media takeaways will help you stay on track and avoid doing social just because everyone else is.

Now, on with the tips from the Online Marketing ROI Tour 2010!

Landing Pages

• Offer multiple options on a landing page but, only one call to action – use radio buttons for this.
• Sales anxiety can be lethal to the conversion process. You can mitigate this anxiety by revising words such as “free” to “risk free”.
• Testing is not an event. It’s a culture and a process.
• Best practices are a guide and cannot substitute for actual testing.
• Understand how people think and what they want when they come to your site.
• Good marketing is much like dating. First you introduce yourself, offer a compliment perhaps and then initiate a conversation.
• To guide someone to a destination, first meet them where they are and lead them via conversation.
• On your landing page, answer these three questions in 5 seconds or less:

Where am I?
What can I do here?
Why should I do it?

• Keep your landing page simple and avoid conflicting calls to action and too many steps. People think sequentially.
• Don’t use questions such as: “Why buy from us?” – They are already asking this question. Tell them why they should buy.
• Use less chunks of text and more bullet form.
• Stay away from broad or vague terminology. Use specific numbers/terms and stats if you have them.
• Try changing actions calls such as “subscribe now” to “activate subscription”. Button text and action calls should emphasize receiving and not taking.
• Is your value proposition good? Do you believe it? If so, low conversions on your landing page may simply be a result of how you are presenting it.
• Don’t try to survive on an adequate value proposition. Yours has to be the best. If you aren’t the best, you don’t deserve to win.
• Before you spend money on paid search make sure you have a great value proposition and a great landing page.
• A value proposition is discovered – it grows out of need.
• If  you are not the best choice in the digital world, you are surviving on pockets of ignorance.
• Ask for credit card info to activate a free trial right on the landing page signup but, be sure you tell them it’s RISK FREE (no charges will be made during trial). Don’t bother asking for address and other info just to activate the trial, you can get that later in the process.
• Don’t interrupt the visitor’s thought flow with multiple invitations to convert via such things as carrousels and flash slides.
• Try using a top (1o or 5 etc) list of reasons to convert.
• It should take 3 clicks or less for someone to do what you want them to do.
• Your landing page should NOT resemble a direct mail piece.
• Ask yourself: if you could ask your visitor to do only one thing, what would that be?
• Your homepage can be up to 80% of your SEO power. Make sure you have keyword rich text on that home page which expresses your value proposition.
• Bulleted text or decision matrixes make it easier for people to scan and decide.
• Be specific with your action calls. “Download our free whitepaper” is too vague.
• Client testimonials are powerful on a landing page.
• Any statements of claim should be verifiable. Don’t claim it if you can’t prove it because people will check — always good to state sources for claims.
• Keep your facts qualitive and not quantitive and keep the language conversational and common.
• The framework for testing is having a repeatable process roadmap.

Bonus time! Here’s some tips we came away with regarding social media from the event:

Social Media

• Social media is NOT cheap. It requires a great deal of human resources.
• Have a goal and a plan to get there.
• Think strategically and don’t get bogged down in the tactical.
• Don’t get so lost in exploring social media that you forget to have a compass with you and be aware that if you do get lost, there are emerging methodologies and technology which can help.
• Use social media monitoring tools such as Socialmention to know who’s tweeting about you and how they feel about your brand.

All in all this is a great document that will help email marketers understand the difference between 24 email marketing solutions.

It’s not a guide that pits ConstantContact against iContact (for example) but, rather a resource to help you understand the feature sets of 24 email marketing solutions providers that range from slightly beyond NewBee all the way up to Ninja.

What’s in it
“Participating vendors were asked 127 questions of which 105 are represented in 15 comparison tables and 6 graphs, divided between 9 different categories that look at the features, functions, and technical areas of interest to end users.  Almost 600 hours went into the making of this Guide; written from the perspective of an experienced hands-on email marketer.”

What we liked
It’s an easy to read, well designed document that has useful information when it comes to assessing your next ESP.

We liked that this document was open to all ESPs to participate in. Not only did they not have to pay a fee to be included but, John did not take into account the revenue of the vendor or the revenue of their clients as do some other reports.

What we really liked
When you buy this guide you get a full 30 minutes of John’s time for a consultation to ask any questions you might have relating to the guide and the process of vendor selection. This alone is well worth the price in our opinion.

What we didn’t like
We thought that some of the charts could have better labels identifying the dataset they belonged to.  We spoke to John about that and we expect this will be addressed in future updates.

Who should buy this
This may not be a document for newbees or for companies who do not have a pre-defined email marketing budget. This report is well suited for any company who is currently spending $500 or more a month on their email marketing and is considering which vendors would most likely meet their needs and help them reach their goals.

Takeaway: It’s a great quick reference of who you should be short listing when it comes time to choosing a new Email Service Provider. Whether you are doing an RFP or a simple vendor evaluation, this guide is a great place to start.

The guide is priced at $1000 US and is available for download here.

Personalization in retail
In April a new study about email marketing in Dutch retail came out. The study was conducted amongst 500 retailers who have their roots in the offline world, for instance with a physical store.  For those retailers their emailings can have a big impact on bottom line sales and customer loyalty. And more so personalized emailings. If the message catches on, it can lead to a store visit and the next buy. So, what is the state of personalized email in retail?

Personalisation statistics
The study showed that only 24% of retailers personalize their email newsletters with the name of the recipient. Even less use the preferences of the subscriber to segment their newsletters: 21%. Its remarkable these numbers are so low.

Personalization in email marketing is confusing?
There is some confusion about the term personalization. What does it actually mean? Have you ever heard two email marketeers talk about personalization? They will probably be talking about two totally different strategies, but they both fit under the personalization umbrella.

And that is understandable, because personalization means a diferent message for each recipient based on personal data. But it doesn’t say how much of the data is used. So it could mean that you are deeply into the data, highly differentiate your messages and take personal profiles into account. This personalisation is also referred to as segmentation. It could also mean that you use “dear [firstname]” in the salutation of the email.

A closer look gives a different view
If we look at the percentages of the retail email research a bit closer we see there is not that much difference in percentages of using name and using preferences (24 vs 21%). A careful conclusion might be that if you use the name for personalization, you are using the personal data in your email marketing and will be very likely to also know personal interests and or profiles. However, that is not true. A part will use both name and personal data, but the use of a personal salutation has given mixed results in the past. Use of segmentation on the other hand is a must-use tactic. So there is partial overlap. Our advice: use profile data first and then test the use of salutation.

Shocking statistics
The numbers are shocking. How could it be that only 21% uses personalisation and segmentation? You could think that a good general newsletter should deliver enough value. But think about that a bit longer,

No difference between potential, current and best customers? Just send that email to the customer that just filed a serious complaint? With offers he is just not interested in? Truth is, a lot of retail email is only about sales promotion an getting people to the store. Personalisation will help you do just that. So get to the next level and keep the interestability up.

What about loyalty in retail
In 2009 the CMO council released research: The relevance drives response and relationships. In comparison to the above retail email percentages, it makes you wonder. The research shows that 94% of the respondents usually percieved the communication of a loyalty program as personalized or based on recent purchases. So it is possible to get more personal. 16% even thought the communication was always personalized.  That should have quite an impact on the customer experience.

Maybe the retail should focus on their loyalty marketing a bit more? What do you think? Leave a comment!

Takeaway: Only 21% of retails segment their email. Maybe they should think of their bottom line results and the consumer… and get personalizing.

Until next time!
Jordie van Rijn
Twitter @jvanrijn

About the author:
Jordie van Rijn is an email marketeer by heart, spending his free time thinking about email marketing. He has more than 7 years of email marketing experience under his belt, working at the dutch loyalty company Dunck www.dunck.nl. The focus on loyalty for current customers and subscribers delivers a different view to marketing. He has advised and realised many customer life-cycle and engagement marketing concepts.

I know it’s been along time since my last post. I have been information hunting across the globe for our GetResponse clients. Firstly attending Chris Brogan’s Expo in San Fran, followed up with Ad-Tech. Then a short hop over the Atlantic for Internet World in London. For anyone contemplating any of these events, Chris’s events are a must.

But I’m back with a report I think will help you understand email marketing for your industry.

Email marketing is growing more popular among businesses of all types and sizes! That’s why we decided to track email marketing performance across 10 industries to discover what kind of results they’re getting from their GetResponse email newsletters and campaigns.

We focused on what we considered to be the most critical result categories: Open, Click-through, Unsubscribe, Bounce, and Complaint Rates, then tracked them in more than 160 million GetResponse messages. Finally, we analyzed and organized all the statistics into one report called “Email Marketing Performance by Industry”. So…wondering how your industry did?

Some of the results may surprise you. For example, you might assume that e-commerce companies should do well in all things Internet, right? Actually, the hands-down winner was Associations which, as you can see below, outperformed everyone!

Ok, now to the final scores. Each industry was ranked against the others, with 100 points being the highest possible score. How big was the winning spread? Associations won with an outstanding 93 points! In second place with 77 points was Travel; and close behind was Art with 72. So, Associations gets an “A” on our study!

If you’re wondering where your industry landed on the scoreboard, click to download the FREE report and read “Email Marketing Performance by Industry”!

Until next time

Mick

Takeaway: Email marketing can work for every industry but, success doesn’t happen by itself. If your messages are relevant and you respect your subscribers, it works.

About the Author

Mick Griffin is the Key Account Manager for GetResponse Email Marketing. With over 7 years of Sales and Marketing experience Mick quickly adapted to Email when joining GetResponse in 2008. Now in charge of Business Development, Mick is the primary point of contact for new and existing customers with GetResponse. He spends the majority of his time interacting with them, understanding their needs and working to see those are met. Mick is experienced in social media and still continues to be involved in that aspect of GetResponse’s business. You’ll find him posting on the GetResponse Blog. You are also likely to run into him at any number of Email marketing conferences throughout the year.

Website: http://www.getresponse.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mickgriffin

As you all know, GetResponse is used by marketers all over the world. We deliver 5B emails every year, and the number’s climbing!  We certainly have the volume, so we’ve been conducting all kinds of studies to learn more about how marketers use GetResponse and what kind of results they’re getting.  Today we’re excited to reveal the results of the 2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey

We asked a survey group of over 200 SMB email marketers from a wide range of industries and countries to share their opinions regarding hot topics like video emails, social media integration, and the “war on inbox clutter”. We hope you find these stats interesting and useful as you continue to improve your email marketing campaigns.

Happily, it appears SMB marketers are becoming increasingly convinced of the benefits of video email, social media, and personalization or targeting. More than 80% of respondents plan to use video emails in 2010 and more 90 % plan to integrate social media into their email campaigns this year. Almost 64% of SMB marketers who use video emails claimed that it delivers significant increases in conversion rates. Compared to last year’s results, these increases represent a 480 % Increase in video email usage and 90 % Increase in social media integration for 2010.

That’s awesome!

In general, the SMB email marketer’s toolkit is looking a lot more sophisticated and media-rich than at any time in recent history. That’s very gratifying to us. It tells us that GetResponse tools are user-friendly and affordable, even at the advanced level.

Here are a few highlights of the survey:

• Video email marketing: Over 50% of respondents stated that video emails can increase CTR. One in three marketers believes that video can enhance brand image and/or increase customer loyalty. Over 20% of marketers believe that video emails can also reduce support and training costs. Only 4.7% of email marketers do not see any benefits from using video emails.
• Social media: A 113.2% increase in use of links to new messages on social media pages; a 109.1% increase in use of sign-up forms on Facebook fan pages; 88.8% will increase share options and 71.6% more will place “follow us” links in email messages.
• Personalization: 53.80% of SMB respondents said they intend to increase targeting and personalization in 2010; 52.40% will try to improve email title and subject line personalization.
• Behavioral targeting: Nearly 75% of marketers claim that behavioral targeting can result in significant or moderate increases in email marketing effectiveness. Only 2.8% did not consider behavioral targeting an effective practice.

Where do your results fit into the email marketing picture for 2010? Are you ahead of the curve? We hope so! Download the whole report from here to find out!

Mick Griffin is the Key Account Manager for GetResponse Email Marketing. With over 7 years of Sales and Marketing experience Mick quickly adapted to Email when joining GetResponse in 2008. Now in charge of Business Development, Mick is the primary point of contact for new and existing customers with GetResponse. He spends the majority of his time interacting with them, understanding their needs and working to see those are met. Mick is experienced in social media and still continues to be involved in that aspect of GetResponse’s business. You’ll find him posting on the GetResponse Blog. You are also likely to run into him at any number of Email marketing conferences throughout the year.

Case Study: ValuePetSupplies increases revenue ten-fold with eMail marketing to customers

At VerticalResponse we asked our customers what type of information they wanted from us. The answer? More case studies! You all want to know how other VerticalResponse customers are using email marketing and what they’re getting out of it. So we’ve started to talk to our customers to find out and we start our case study series with a retailer out of Tennessee, ValuePetSupplies.com.

Background
As part of their family pet business, the Piech family started ValuePetSupplies.com. Their goal is to offer pet-related products for the pet owner’s everyday needs at the most competitive prices possible. ValuePetSupplies.com is 100 percent online–and ships from a family-owned warehouse in Livingston, TN.

Problem
ValuePetSupplies.com uses search engine marketing and social media to generate leads. Even though they were advanced in these areas, as of January 2009 ValuePetSupplies.com wasn’t running any customer retention programs. Zachary Piech, owner of ValuePetSupplies.com, could see this was a problem based on the company’s customer retention rates.

Discovery
Piech shared his problem with a friend of his, and was lucky enough to have chosen a VerticalResponse advocate! His friend sat him down at a computer and supervised while Piech signed up for VerticalResponse and sent his first campaign. After Piech launched the first email marketing campaign, he was convinced this was something he needed to do.
After sending out a few successful campaigns in January and February, Piech was so impressed with his return on investment that he hired a marketing and sales manager to manage his marketing and retention programs.

Solution
ValuePetSupplies.com now sends out an average of 30 email campaigns a month with VerticalResponse to a customer base of over 100,000. “We start our campaigns the first of every month and probably have five or six campaigns going at a time, each targeted to specific types of buyers,” said Nick Carter, Marketing and Sales Manager for ValuePetSupplies.com.
These email marketing campaigns have provided insight to ValuePetSupplies.com on which products work well in emails, and which type of customer will respond to the different offers. They use this information to segment lists and send very targeted messages.

Results
Before ValuePetSupplies.com was sending emails campaigns on a regular basis, current customers created 20% of the monthly revenue. With the help of VerticalResponse, the company has increased this to 30%. “The return on investment numbers are mind-boggling. On our monthly campaign it is not unusual to see 7595% return on investment,” said Carter.

Have you got any great case studies you would like to share? Contact: Jim@TheeMailguide.com

Takeaway: This case study shows that customer retention is just as important as marketing to new customer prospects. Email marketing is a low cost way to stay in contact with your customers on a regular basis, which can improve your retention rates. It’s also important to select an Email Service Provider that provides analytics and tracking on email marketing campaigns, so you can take a similar approach to ValuePetSupplies.com and determine which products are performing well and send out more targeted emails.

About the author:
Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse http://www.verticalresponse.com, a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys, and direct mail services empowering small businesses to create, manage, and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns. Janine is a columnist for Inc.’s Women in Business blog. In her spare time, Janine is VerticalResponse’s Chief Executive Blogger for the VerticalResponse Marketing Blog for Small Businesses http://verticalresponse.blogs.com. Follow her on Twitter @janinepopick http://www.twitter.com/janinepopick.

Forrester has released its Wave report for ESPs in Q4 2009 and of course it’s making for a great deal of buzz and twittering. I’ve included links to each of the ESPs in the report – those in bold are offering downloads of the Forrester report. Forresters reviewed 15 ESPs against 69 criteria and tagged Responsys and ExactTarget as leaders.

Excerpt from the report:

Forrester surveyed 218 clients of the vendors in this wave on how the current economic situation is altering their email programs, very few marketers cited budget cuts. Instead, clients are more demanding of their email service providers because:

· Marketers are increasing the relevance of their programs. Forty-eight percent of marketers surveyed indicated that they are attempting to make their communications more relevant. These increases in relevancy will drive the need for data integration and increased adoption of relevancy-empowering tactics — like dynamic content and testing — as well as strategic and tactical services.

· Email marketing frequency is growing. Marketers increasingly choose email over more expensive channels creating marketing clutter. This inflation in messaging volume and soaring sending sizes drive even more price compression in the market — further encouraging marketers to adopt relevancy empowering tactics.

· Marketers look to ESPs to offset staffing losses. While 20% of marketers surveyed indicated that they lost staff, Forrester finds that they are leveraging production services of the ESPs to offset their downsized marketing organizations.

Acxiom
Alterian
BlueHornet
Experian Marketing Services
ClickSquared
Datran Media
e-Dialog
Emailvision
Epsilon
ExactTarget
Lyris
Responsys
Silverpop
Yesmail
Zeta Interactive

The preference center is a highly intriguing, untapped resource for Email Marketers and could be used in a variety of ways.  It has the potential to establish critical ground rules with both newfound and dormant subscribers.  When subscribers are given mission control to continuously manage their preferences, the amount of information that marketers can glean is truly unlimited.  During last week’s Email Insider Summit, Greg Cangialosi spoke about a “master preference center” which, in essence, puts the subscriber in complete control of different online messaging streams.  Additionally, subscribers would be able to divulge their social media and mobile credentials within the preference center.   By adding social media and mobile to the preference center, users garner an added benefit: they can proactively engage with your subscribers within the “online” marketing channel they prefer.  As Jeannie Mullen points out in her recent Web 3.0 column, subscribers now receive emails through a plethora of online channels. Optimizing the preference center will make for a more satisfying subscriber experience.

Balanced online messaging
When it comes to email, we understand the basics. How often do you, the user, wish to receive emails?  What email format do you prefer? However, to get to the next level of online messaging, we need to move beyond basic queries and product of interest questions.  The key to reaching the next level lies in adhering to your subscribers’ wishes and preserving a “balance of online messaging.”  To achieve the goal of balanced messaging, give subscribers a social media preference as well.  For example, subscribers may prefer to utilize Twitter for customer service inquiries, while other subscribers may choose to receive more “entertaining” messaging via Facebook.  In the future, more formal messaging may be dispatched through email instead, which underscores why the vision of a master preference center is so significant.  For example, envision a preference center design, where subscribers can populate a matrix with radio buttons choose the type of messaging and preferred online channel.  Tweetdeck does something very similar under their notifications tab, where you can choose the level of detail on each type of message being streamed.  We’ve learned that subscribers engage with brands through various different online and mobile channels.  Engaging them through their preferred method will pique their interest and ultimately entice them to orbit your brand successfully.

Mini Surveys in the Preference Center
If we continue to explore the potential of a well-structured preference center, we will discover a way that marketers can induce a higher level of participation, intimacy and engagement.  To do this, marketers can devise a “mini survey” (just one or two questions) that updates regularly with relevant and timely questions.  The survey would be integrated into preference center itself.  By adding a mini survey to poll your subscribers, you’ll increase the attributes for a given record in a database, and thereby allow future messaging that is more detailed relevant to your subscribers’ needs and interests.  We learned last week that FedEx has 144 attributes associated with each subscriber.  FedEx utilizes this wealth of information to tailor their marketing to the needs of individual subscribers, which will increase intimacy and engagement.

When your subscribers develop their profiles via the “mini survey,” they become “active” subscribers.  In doing so, they give you permission to ameliorate their experience with you even more.  By asking leading questions that will result in a more profound relationship, you will allow your subscribers to attain a much greater degree of engagement with your brand. Leading questions can invoke a higher level of brand awareness, and the use of time sensitive questions will enable you to increase the level of engagement with your brand sooner rather than later.  For instance, pose questions such as, “How likely are you to purchase from us this holiday season?” Or, something along the lines of “Do you anticipate making a purchase from us within the next 90 days?”  (Make sure to phrase questions in a sensitive manner so that they will not intimidate or alienate your subscribers!)  Questions like these effectively create a sense of urgency, and may give you greater insight into what types of promotions you can successfully “initiate” with each active subscriber.

Detailed information: a prerequisite for customized, detailed messaging
Now, if a newly active subscriber has been dormant since immediately after answering your leading questions, you should take steps to re-engage that subscriber.  When this situation arises, you have a valid excuse to send a re-engaging or “reminder” email with a single survey question that will lead the subscriber to a preference center landing page, without necessarily prompting a smattering of complaints.  A strategy you might consider is utilizing the preference center as the landing page of choice when formulating re-engagement campaigns. In that case, installing follow up questions there can help you in your mission to engage subscribers.  Using these methods should significantly reduce your spam complaints in the event that the subscriber chooses to end your relationship.

Inevitably, preference centers will get more sophisticated over time, and as Morgan Stewart of ExactTarget quoted Amazon’s chief scientist, who opined, “The future of marketing is based on how we enhance the digital experience of a subscriber and provide more detailed messaging by asking the subscriber for more detailed information.”  You may wonder, “How can I ask my subscribers for more detailed information without seeming intrusive and drawing spam complaints?”  If that is your question, preference centers hold the key to your answer.

Takeaway: Don’t underestimate the value of the preference center, by giving more control to your subscribers, it allows them to navigate your brand confidently.

About the author

Fred Tabsharani is engaged in developing innovative marketing initiatives for Port25 Solutions, Inc. He both assists enterprise email marketers with strategic guidance and works with technology and engineering teams to ensure that its current intelligent software executes. Much of his business experience comes from the communications industry: for nearly 13 years, he was the successful owner of a leading Mail Boxes Etc/UPS Store. In this capacity, he was responsible for all phases of business development and operations, and engaged in an aggressive marketing/brand image program that yielded more than 60% increase in average transaction amount. Tabsharani is also a perpetual student of the email industry. Important milestones along his educational journey include his MBA from John F. Kennedy University in the Bay Area.

Website: http://www.port25.com

@tabsharani

SAN MATEO, Calif., December 01, 2009 – The U.S. online retail sector reported strong sales results on Cyber Monday (Nov. 30) 2009 compared to the same period last year according to Coremetrics. This analysis, delivered as part of Coremetrics’ second annual Cyber Monday Benchmark Report, reveals the following trends and patterns as of 12 a.m. PST:

• Cyber Monday continued the momentum set by Black Friday. Sales were up 24.1 percent compared to Black Friday 2009.
• Consumers spent more per online order ($180.03 versus $170.19 for an increase of 5.8 percent) compared to Black Friday 2009.
• Sales were up 13.7 percent compared to Cyber Monday 2008.
• The average dollar amount consumers spent per online order rose 38.2 percent from Cyber Monday 2008 ($180.03 versus $130.24), led by apparel retailers.
• Consumers bought nearly 10 percent more items per order on Cyber Monday 2009 compared to Black Friday 2009 and nearly 30 percent more compared to Cyber Monday 2008.
• Consumer shopping hit its peak from 9-10 a.m. PST, but maintained stronger momentum throughout the day than on Cyber Monday 2008.

“We are seeing good online buying momentum because people are looking for the very best deals, and are going online for the most convenient way to shop,” said John Squire, chief strategy officer, Coremetrics. “We expect to see one more spike in online spending when the final “free-shipping-is-ending” promotions are announced. Until then, retailers will watch consumer behavior very carefully to gauge what’s working well and what they need to adjust. The end result will be a boon to consumers, as retailers pull out all the stops to entice consumers to make that purchase.”

Retail Categories compared to Cyber Monday 2008 (year/year):

• Apparel retailers and jewelry retailers reported the biggest jumps in the average dollar amount consumers spent per online order, up 26.4 percent and 14.3 percent respectively.
• Sports apparel and gear retailers reported a rise of nearly 55.0 percent in the number of new consumers visiting their sites. But the average dollar amount consumers spent per online order declined slightly by 3.1 percent.
• Department stores also did a good job of attracting new consumers to their sites, reporting a 33 percent increase. However, average order value was down nearly 10 percent.

Source
These findings are based on data from Coremetrics Benchmark™, the industry’s only peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including commerce data, against those of the competition. More than 500 leading U.S. retailers, contribute their analytics data to Benchmark. All data is aggregated and anonymized. Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Bloomingdale’s, Coldwater Creek, L’Occitane en Provence, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Office Depot, PETCO and Williams-Sonoma are just a few of the participating companies.

Coremetrics recently enhanced Benchmark to include near-real-time data and added advanced functionality, such as sales trends by comparison period, conversion rates from Pay per Click (PPC) campaigns, and website traffic by browser type. Over the last year, Coremetrics has nearly doubled the number of companies participating in Benchmark.

Coremetrics Benchmark comes standard with Coremetrics Analytics for no
additional cost.

Attachments
1. Complete Coremetrics Cyber Monday Benchmark Report (pdf)

About Coremetrics
Coremetrics is the leader in marketing optimization. Its products help businesses relentlessly optimize their marketing programs to make the best offer, every time, anywhere, automatically. More than 2,000 online brands globally, transacting more than $20 billion this year, use Coremetrics’ Software as a Service (SaaS) to optimize their online marketing. Coremetrics’ solutions encompass advanced online analytics and integrated marketing optimization applications, including search engine bid management, email targeting, ad impression attribution and cross sell recommendations to acquire customers more cost effectively, increase conversion rates, and increase lifetime customer value. Coremetrics is consistently recognized by industry analysts and thought leaders, and in 2008 was named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Program for Silicon Valley Internet, Media, Entertainment and Communications companies. The company is privately held with funding from Accel Partners, FTV Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and W Capital Partners, and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

To learn more about Coremetrics, visit http://www.coremetrics.com or call
866-493-2673.

VerticalResponse, Inc. Surveys the State of Small Business in America;
Reports on Planned Marketing Spend for 2010

Over two-thirds of 831 respondents report that they plan to increase their use of both email marketing and social media in 2010; 54.2 % surveyed won’t do online banner advertising in 2010

SAN FRANCISCO, November 17, 2009 — VerticalResponse, Inc., a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys and direct mail solutions for small businesses, today releases the results of a survey of 831 small businesses of under 500 employees, which showed that 74.1% of respondents plan to increase their use email marketing and 68.3% will increase their use of social media in 2010.

The survey reveals that small businesses intend to continue their marketing spend in the email marketing channel. Only 3.8% of respondents do not plan to use email marketing in 2010, which indicates that the channel continues to demonstrate value to small businesses.

Conversely, the channels that respondents plan to use least in 2010 are television and radio advertising. The majority, 79.6% are not planning to use TV, and 72.7% of small businesses will not use radio advertising.

The results also highlight that small businesses are wary of channels such as online banner advertising and search engine marketing. Over half—or 54.2 percent—of all respondents stated they won’t do online banner advertising in 2010, versus just 23.8% of respondents won’t do SEM such as Google, Yahoo and Bing next year. This presents a huge potential opportunity for vendor education in this area, to highlight the value that each channel brings—and how the two channels differ.

“We’re encouraged that small businesses continue to allocate portions of their budget to marketing channels such as email and social media, despite the downturn in the economic climate,” said VerticalResponse CEO and founder Janine Popick. “VerticalResponse has long been an advocate for promoting new marketing tools to small businesses through educational webinars and blog posts—but this survey highlights that while small businesses are learning the value of social media, marketers need to help small businesses to see the value of integrating search engine marketing such as Google, Yahoo and Bing into their campaigns.”

Among key findings, VerticalResponse reports*:

Social media and email marketing spend continues to rise in 2010 as small businesses see the value of these low-cost options.
·       Well over two-thirds of respondents report that they plan to increase their use of email marketing and social media in 2010.

·       Email marketing continues to prove its worth to small businesses, as 96.2% plan to use email marketing in 2010.

·       Plans reported for 2010 indicate the email marketing industry will continue to thrive next year, with 38.9% businesses of 1-10 employees and 34.1% of businesses with 11-100 employees planning to increase their email marketing by a lot in 2010.

·       Small businesses are getting more comfortable with social media, when reporting marketing plans for 2010, 35.1% of all respondents say they plan to increase their use of social media by a little and 33.3 % plan to increase it by a lot.

Search engine marketing (SEM) and online banner advertising spend: Plans to spend for the next year showed a marked difference between the two mediums.
·       Over half—or 54.2 percent—of all respondents stated they won’t do online banner advertising in 2010, versus just 23.8% of respondents won’t do SEM such as Google, Yahoo and Bing next year.

·       Almost a quarter of small businesses of 1-10 and 11-100 employees won’t do search engine marketing in 2010. Of the businesses who are using this medium, only 4% of businesses with 1-10 staff and 3.3% of businesses with 11-100 will cut this channel or together or cut it down slightly in 2010.

·       A large portion of businesses do not plan on online banner advertising in 2010—represented by 56.6% of businesses under 11 staff and the 48.2% of businesses with 11-100 employees not planning on banner advertising.

·       Online banner advertising spend did not increase much over 2009—with only 4.5% of smaller business increasing this by a little in 2009, and 11.4% of businesses with 11-100 reporting the same. Just 6.1% of businesses with 11-100 employees reporting they increased their online banner advertising spend by a lot over the past year, and just 2.7% of businesses with less than 11 staff.

The most important tool for small businesses to succeed in 2010: Search engine marketing, email marketing, public relations and social media cited as crucial for success.

·       23.8% of all small businesses reported that search engine marketing was the tool most needed for their business to succeed in 2010.

The survey responses truly represent the heart of the small business community, with over three-quarters of respondents indicating that their company has between 1 and 10 employees—this group was 76.5% or 632 of the total 831 respondents. This category includes a number of sole proprietor businesses indicating that entrepreneurs continue to flourish despite the economic climate. The remainder of the respondents included 19 percent who have between 11-100 employees and just 4.4 percent of respondents with 101-500 employees. VerticalResponse used its own survey tool, launched in April 2008, to deliver multiple choice and free-form answers to a subset of its users, and the small business community.

Methodology
Surveys were taken over a six-week period starting September 22, finishing on October 29. They were entered in anonymously by VerticalResponse customers, and also filled in at the Small Business Development Center “Online Marketing Boot Camps” across California. The questions were focused on hot topics such as proposed healthcare reforms, current and future marketing spend for channels such as social media and email marketing, and attempts to gain funding. The survey included a number of freeform options, which are included in the individual summary reports.

In addition, the results <http://www.verticalresponse.com/education-support/articles-reports/small-business-healthcare-hiring-funding-survey> have been split out into overall respondents; and include a comparison of the differences between small businesses with 1-10 employees, versus those with 11-100 employees. Further vertical breakdowns include the retail segment, which comprises 19 percent of respondents—and non-profits, which make up 11.2 percent of respondents.

*For complete survey results, contact jlarge@verticalresponse.com or call 415.808.2457.

To find out more, please visit: www.verticalresponse.com <http://www.verticalresponse.com> .

About VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse, Inc. is a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys and direct mail services empowering small businesses to easily create, manage and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns. VerticalResponse’s flagship product bundles email, online surveys and postcards to offer customers an integrated Web-based direct marketing solution that’s intuitive and affordable. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For additional information, please visit www.verticalresponse.com <http://www.verticalresponse.com>

What’s in it and how much?
The guide comes in at a whopping 293 pages with almost 200 charts, tables and graphs. At that size I was pleased to see just how easy a read the report actually was. When you consider the value of the data in MarketingSherpa’s 2010 eMail Marketing Benchmark report, it’s a steal at just $447.

Who should read it?
While this report is by no means a beginner’s guide to eMail marketing, for the more experienced, it may well be the best thing to happen to the 10 AM management meeting since donuts and coffee. The report will help you answer questions which might come up and it’s sure handy for presentations. We could call it the eMail marketing bible but, a better description might be to refer to it as the Encyclopaedia Britannica of eMail marketing statistics.

What we like about it

This is the “mac daddy” of guides. We think MarketingSherpa provides great data and research with easy to understand insight. They present complex trends and data with easy to understand analysis on each page and they do it in concise, plain English. We also like that MarketingSherpa offers a 30 day money back guarantee on the publications.

An example of the grahps presented in MarketingSherpa's 2010 eMail Marketing Benchmark Report (taken from the Executive Summary)

Download the Executive Summary Excerpt here!

Major reports of interest:

2009 eMail Marketing Benchmark Survey
1,493 real-life marketers from a range of business and consumer-focused firms responded to the survey in August and September of 2009.

Special Report on Social Sharing
The big buzz now is about the best platform for direct marketing, both now and in the future. Taking a quick glance at the chart I started to feel a bit of dread that the ostrich effect might be taking hold and yet the summary from MarketingSherpa accompanying the data was excellent and will probably go down with many eMail marketers as would a warm cup of cocoa on a cold December eve.

Special Report on Consumer Attitudes
How marketers see spam and how consumers see it are two different things.

Focus on Business to Business eMail Marketing
B2C and B2B eMail marketing are two different things. Are your eMail marketing tactics demonstrating an understanding of the prospect’s needs? According to the findings here, that is critical.

Year Two of Sherpa’s International eMail Study
No major surprises in this report. How much eMail marketing you do outside of your home market depends on how big you are and if you are B2B or B2C. However the numbers seem to suggest a potential opening for companies willing to take the time to attack foreign markets with targeted marketing in the native tongue.

Notes From The Field
17 case studies share real world experiences of eMail marketers such as: “How to Build a Subscriber List Inexpensively Using Blogs and Contests”.

Glossary
The report once again includes a huge glossary of terms related to eMail marketing.

Another example of the grahps presented in MarketingSherpa's 2010 eMail Marketing Benchmark Report (taken from the Executive Summary)

Download the Executive Summary Excerpt here!

Takeaway: MarketingSherpa has certainly provided the interpretation and the insight. That makes this a very effective reference tool for planning your marketing strategy and well worth the price.

A sample from the index

We think one of the best ways to demonstrate some of the value of the report is to provide an example from the index so that you get an idea of what to expect. Here’s the index for the chapter on social media:

Chapter 7: Special Report on Social Sharing — an Emerging Email Tactic …………….. 189

Why Email and Social Media Are Made for Each Other ………………………………………………………….. 189

7.01 Email Marketing Goals That Social Sharing Helps You Accomplish ……………………………. 189

7.02 What Social Sharing Accomplishes, by Organization Size ………………………………………… 190

7.03 What Social Sharing Accomplishes, by Target Market ……………………………………………… 191

7.04 What Social Sharing Accomplishes, by Organization Type ……………………………………….. 192

Marketer Insights on Social Sharing ……………………………………………………………………………………. 193

7.05 B2C Marketers Share Insights on Social Sharing …………………………………………………….. 193

7.06 B2B Marketers Share Insights on Social Sharing …………………………………………………….. 194

Overcoming Obstacles to Social Sharing ……………………………………………………………………………… 196

7.07 Barriers to Adopt Sharing Email Content With Social Media Sites………………………………. 196

7.08 Major Barriers to Adopt Social Sharing, by Organization Size ……………………………………. 197

7.09 Major Barriers to Adopt Social Sharing, by Target Market …………………………………………. 198

7.10 Major Barriers to Adopt Social Sharing, by Organization Type …………………………………… 199

7.11 Email Is More Important Than Social Media, by Target Market ………………………………….. 200

7.12 Number of Marketers Who Agree That Social Media Will Become a Standard Tactic Like

Email, by Target Market ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 201

Notes From the Field: Promotional Email Inspires Interaction and Drives Social Sharing ……………. 202

Integrating Email and Social Media ……………………………………………………………………………………… 204

7.13 Status of Social Sharing Strategies in 2009 …………………………………………………………….. 204

7.14 Integrating Social Media Into the Marketing Mix ………………………………………………………. 205

7.15 How Well Does Social Media Fit With Other Marketing Tactics? ………………………………… 206

Notes From the Field: How Social Sharing Buttons Increase Email Interaction ………………………….. 207

Why Email Needs Social Media ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 210

7.16 Marketers Planning to Use Social Sharing as a List Growth Tactic, 2008 to 2009 ………… 210

7.17 Where Buyers Receive Information About Your Brand, Products and Company…………… 211

7.18 Visitors to Social Media Sites Are More Likely to Spread What They Find …………………… 212

Why Social Media Needs Email ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 213

7.19 Email Is the Most Acceptable Channel for Permission-Based Messaging ……………………. 213

7.20 Acceptability of Messages Sent via Email Vs. Social Networks ………………………………….. 214

7.21 Email is Social, and it‟s Not Going Anywhere ………………………………………………………….. 215

Click below to order your copy of MarketingSherpa’s eMail Marketing 2010 Benchmark Report!

Takeaway: If you have never read it buy it – there is a 100% money back guarantee. This is the book that you need to buy this year and will want to buy every year there after.

In our never ending quest to make you the smartest eMail Marketer on this planet, The eMail Guide has compiled yet another top list of eMail Marketing resources for your marketing tool box.

Got a resource that you’d like to add to the collection? Post a link!

Bronto Blog’s anatomy of an eMail
A simple and to the point outline of how your marketing eMail should be constructed.
http://blog.bronto.com/2009/06/10/the-anatomy-of-an-email/

Guide to CSS support in eMail clients
CSS code doesn’t render the same in all eMail clients. Campaign Monitor has put together an “at a glance” chart in which they test CSS across 23 different email clients.
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/

2009 retail welcome eMail benchmark study
You’ll never get a second chance at that first impression so, your subscription welcome message better be good. Find out if yours is by checking out this report which includes some real examples of the good and the ugly.
http://www.emailexperience.org/store/download/193

eMail creative that works
Silverpop covers the important bases such as best number of links, location of navigation bars and calls to action – plus a slew of other questions you’ve either asked or wish you had.
http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/white-papers/engage/email-creative-best-practices.html

2009 top online retailers study
Silverpop compliments their eMail creative that works white paper with this report on the top online marketers in 2009.
http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/white-papers/engage/retail-email-marketing-study-2009.html

Smith-Harmon eMail guide look book 2009
Your graphic people will be acquainted with what are called “Idea Books”. These jewels  feature examples of creative ideas to “get those juices flowing” and inspire creativity. Each example comes with commentary explaining what got the example listed.
http://www.emailexperience.org/store/download/242

iContact holiday check list for eMail marketing success
A handy little checklist you can keep by your desk which includes tips on avoiding such things as the 3 worst holiday eMail marketing mistakes (and how to avoid them) and a nice sidebar listing the top 10 dates for sending holiday eMails from 2009.

http://www.icontact.com/pdf/HolidayChecklist2009.pdf

42 eMail marketing resources
42, according to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is the answer to life the universe and everything. Apparently it might also hold the answer to your eMail marketing questions as well.
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2008/07/42-html-email-design-resources.html

Blue Hornet’s download centre
Blue Hornet has some pdfs on best practices on their download centre. This includes something which has been getting some twittering lately: Best Practices for HTML Email Rendering. This should take some of the “sting” out of eMail marketing for you.
http://www.bluehornet.com/site/download_center.htm

Google search results for eMail design pdf docs
We love Google and not just because the Chief Email Officer’s Schnauzer is actually named that (no kidding). Fetch Google! Fetch!
http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=0h&oq=&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enCA217CA217&q=email+design+filetype%3apdf

Are you on our list?
Choose the top ten graphic colour which is right for you and share it on your site! Don’t forget to link back to the right list here at The eMail Guide! If you would like a logo in a different colour to suit your site, just drop us a line!

The twitter-verse is all…well…a-twitter about a new study released by smartFOCUS this past week regarding the prefered channels for direct marketing. eMail ranks number one while the least liked method was telemarketing and that doesn’t surprise me at all. Look, eMail is kind of like a puppy wagging its tail at you and waiting to be picked up for a snuggle. Telemarketing is more like your next door neighbour’s Rottweiler greeting you when you arrive home from work by tackling you and licking your face like an empty peanut butter jar. You get the idea, it’s an intrusion while eMail is more passive since you choose if and when you want to open it.

Take a look at the snippet below then read the link to Frank Cuttita’s IDG blog since he has a slightly different POV on things.

Clothing and accessories most popular purchases; telemarketing ranked ‘least preferred’ channel of communication Email is the preferred channel of communication for US consumers, followed by direct mail, social media and finally telemarketing. These are the findings of a new survey conducted by smartFOCUS, a leading international provider of multi-channel marketing software and services.

When asked to rank their preferred methods of receiving marketing messages from vendors, the majority of respondents (62%) said that email was their preferred channel of communication, followed by direct mail (23%), then social media (13%). The least preferred way to be contacted was telemarketing, with 80% putting it at the bottom of their lists.

Read more…

After you read that, be sure to take a look at IDG’s Frank Cuttita’s blog post from earlier in the week since he has a slightly different take on things. He argues that the continuing upswing in the percentage of time on social media sites and the finite time available to all of us to both roam the blogosphere and read eMail will skew away from eMail towards social media channels. Who’s right? You tell me!