BeRelevant!

links for 2009-11-05

2009-11-05T22:00:42+01:00

Email software popularity: 5 lessons for your list

Mark Brownlow explains why there is value to knowing exactly where your emails are viewed

(tags: analysis metrics design email_clients)

links for 2009-11-04

2009-11-04T22:00:45+01:00

Gen Y Holds Tight to E-Mail and Texting - eMarketer

More than one-quarter of college students told the Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’ IDM Lab that e-mail was the activity they were least likely to give up for a week—far ahead of the 9% who said they couldn’t live without social networks.

(tags: study)
MarketingSherpa: New Chart: Do Email Tactics That Take More Work Get a Bigger Payoff?

(tags: study)
I need IP addresses for reputation

Reputation is tied to sending IP address, but it’s also affected by volume of emails received from that IP address, and the consistency of volume. If a customer is only sending a few hundred emails a week to any given receiver ISP or they’re only mailing monthly then they won’t be able to maintain much of a positive reputation, simply because they’re too small to keep track of or because they mail so infrequently that each time they mail the receiving ISP will have forgotten about their previous mailings. In those cases the sender will be treated much the same as a new sender from a given IP address (neutral, at best, maybe poorly). For those cases a customer is likely to get better delivery rates if their mail is sent through an IP address pool that sends enough email overall to be noticed and tracked by receiving ISPs.

(tags: deliverability reputation)
Optimise your email campaign with A/B split testing

The key to A/B split testing in email is patience. Wait as long as you can to analyse results and you're more likely to get a true picture of what will happen when you roll out your eventual email campaign.

(tags: testing)

links for 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T22:00:50+01:00

How to Use Transactional Messages to Boost Revenue & Build Relationships

Kristen Gregory explains how you can take your transactional emails to the next level.

(tags: transactional_emails)
E-mail Not Dead Yet: Study

Sixty two percent of respondents to a recent survey commission by marketing software firm smartFOCUS reportedly said e-mail was their preferred channel for receiving marketing messages.
Direct mail—another marketing medium that’s supposedly gasping for air—came in at No. 2, with 23% of respondents saying it was their preferred channel for receiving marketing messages.

Just 13% said they preferred receiving marketing messages via social media, according to smartFOCUS.

(tags: study)

links for 2009-11-02

2009-11-02T22:00:50+01:00

Digital Marketing Factbook: A Glimpse Inside

The Digital Marketing Factbook includes chapters on email, search, and social media—with 144 pages of findings, including 110 charts and graphs from 60+ sources. Check it out!

(tags: study)

links for 2009-10-30

2009-10-30T22:00:56+01:00

Future of deliverability: 4. The role of certification

(tags: deliverability certification)
Seth's Blog: Opt in and opt out

Seth Godin believe email should be opt-in - so do I. I'd even go further and say that email should be opt-in by law everywhere in the world. Even in the US. IMHO, making it a legal requirement would help preserve the channel as an effective communications channel.

(tags: legislation opt-in)

links for 2009-10-29

2009-10-29T22:00:43+01:00

Email Marketing Tips for the 2009 Holiday Season

Alex Williams provides answers to the following questions: How can email marketers learn from the 2008 holiday season to help improve the success of their campaigns this season? When should email marketers begin their holiday efforts? How should email marketers ramp up their holiday campaigns from their normal sending schedule? When someone's inbox has four pages of emails, what does that person look for that can help an email marketer stand out during the holidays?

(tags: holidays)
How to Empower Your E-mail Subscribers - ClickZ

Here's how to make a strong case for a preference center -- in terms that management understands.

(tags: preference_centers)
50 All-Time Great Retail Subject Lines

Here are some really great and proven-to-work subject lines that you can test out for your email marketing campaigns.

(tags: subject_lines)
Responsys to acquire Smith-Harmon

E-mail marketing firm Responsys has agreed to acquire digital marketing consultancy Smith-Harmon in a part-cash, part-stock deal. Financial terms of the agreement, which is expected to close next month, were not disclosed. For the near future, Smith-Harmon will continue to operate as an independent brand, known as “Smith-Harmon, a Responsys company.”

(tags: industry)
Guide customers through the sale with meaningful content - DMNews

Content can be a particularly pivotal tool for cross-channel retailers or retailers with products/services that have a longer purchase cycle. In these scenarios, it will be the variety of content and not just the relevance that will help to guide your customers through the sale and hopefully, retain their loyalty for future purchases. Here are some tips for connecting with your customer through every phase of the buying cycle:

(tags: lead_nurturing activation)
Dear E-Mail Marketers: E-Mail Is Dead, Huh?

Kevin Hillstrom says it is time for e-mail marketers to finally prove that e-mail marketing generates long-term profit. "E-Mail marketers, once you have the data to defend your channel, defend it!!! It's not going to be good enough to say that e-mail is a relationship builder, or is the glue that holds marketing together, or is the tactic that feeds social media activities. Prove the value of your channel, demonstrating the value via long-term sales and profit. Show what happens to a business if e-mail marketing doesn't exist."

(tags: industry)
Animated Gif = 26% increase in click-through rate » Style Campaign » Anna Yeaman’s guide to successful and stylish email marketing

This animated email from Dressed Up!, generated a 26% increase in click-throughs than the non-animated version in A/B tests.

(tags: cases testing)
The New Rule for Deliverability: Engagement

How ISPs manage incoming e-mail is definitely facing a shift. That shift is placing greater importance on reputation. Senders are being held more accountable for delivering engaging content to subscribers.

(tags: deliverability engagement)
European E-mail Marketing Consumer Report

ContactLab presents the results of the latest research on the use of e-mail among Internet users. The study, in its European edition, describes and compares e-mail and newsletters habits and behaviour in Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, highlighting similarities and differences between the different markets.

(tags: study europe)
Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Outlook 2007

Here are a few key elements to consider while designing email messages in Outlook 2007 to ensure it looks sharp.

(tags: design outlook_2007)
Top Five Tips for Dealing with Blacklists

There are more than 200 blacklists out there in the world, and probably fewer than a dozen of them are actively used as spam filters at any large ISP or webmail provider. If you plug your IP address into a web form and go a reply that said "OH NOES! YOU'RE ON A BLACKLIST!" that does NOT mean you have a deliverability issue.

(tags: deliverability blacklists)
How To Create a Plan, Build and Optimize Your Tests

No matter what your email marketing goals, a solid testing strategy can help you accomplish them, and keep your email program moving forward. Need some testing ideas? Check out eROI's new Email Testing Guide for 32 different tests you can do right now to improve every single metric of your email program.

(tags: testing)
How Engagement Metrics Influence Deliverability

The major email providers are already using, or plan to use, a broad set of engagement metrics to determine inbox placement, not just clicks and opens as has been widely reported, to determine the level of user engagement for different senders. Here's a list...

(tags: deliverability engagement)
Transactional Template

If you're looking for the right way to do transactional messaging, this Williams-Sonoma Order Confirmation message is a bastion of best practices:

(tags: cases transactional_emails)
Future of deliverability: 3. The role of domain reputation

the reputation of the sender is a very important criterion determining whether that email should go to the inbox.

(tags: deliverability reputation)
Future of deliverability: 2. The role of authentication

The good news is you probably don't have to understand it. But your email marketing service or IT technicians should know how it works because your emails and/or email system need to support the authentication process. Here's why...

(tags: deliverability authentication dkim spf senderid)

links for 2009-10-28

2009-10-28T22:00:51+01:00

New MarketingSherpa Research: Email Marketing Benchmarks for 2010

MarketingSherpa surveyed 1,493 email marketers to find out how they’re managing traditional email tactics while adapting to new opportunities like social media.

(tags: study)