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Email analytics help you to understand how successful your email marketing campaign has been. 

It goes beyond the basic email tracking of reporting the number of times your email has been opened, bounced or clicked through. It helps you ascertain your customer's individual behavior including browsing and purchase habits. Armed with such information you can create specific, targeted, and personal campaigns. In short, relevant to your customer.

Here are some basic ways email analytics can help you track your emails:

• Add Social Sharing Links: By adding links to social networks in your email you can use email analytics to track who is sharing your email. By ascertaining the number of “likes”, “followings” or “shares”, you get to know the success rate of your email.

• Adding Video Links: This is not much different from adding social links to your emails. Here you can use email analytics to determine which video links work and which do not with your email.

• Adding 'Calls To Action': Keep varying the calls to action in your emails. Use email analytics to track which calls to action works best with your target audience.

• Adding Relevant Content: Content matters - always! Be interesting and creative with your content to produce maximum impact in your reader's minds. Email analytics help you find out what type of content works best with your audience.

• Adding Successful Subject Lines: Your subject line should grab attention. It is the first thing your readers see. By tracking which emails has the most success rate you can decide if your subject line needs tweaking to make it more inviting or aggressive.

By identifying each users behavior, it becomes easy and profitable for you to tweak your email campaigns to suit their needs. With effective email analytics in place, you can quickly customize your email content to create highly relevant emails.

http://www.listguy.com/email-analytics/

http://www.stratigent.com/community/websight-newsletters/email-analytics

http://www.benchmarkemail.com/blogs/detail/5-metrics-to-track-with-your-email-analytics

 

What could be more appropriate in finishing up our series on industries benefiting from email marketing than a spotlight on government? With the upcoming presidential electing approaching rapidly, political interest and publicity is on the rise. Organizations involved in government on multiple levels can all use this heightened interest to their advantage through professional email marketing. In fact, many of them already are. 

It's so easy to see why managed email marketing might be appealing to governmental entities. For one, an email marketing agency can specially tailor an organization's marketing campaign to approach the issues in an effective, personalized manner. For example, say a government-sponsored public housing sector was looking for support in expanding a certain kind of housing into another district. Residents of the affected district would have to be approached from a  more sensitive angle than those in surrounding regions unaffected by this expansion. Under the supervision of an experienced email marketing consultant, candidates can depend on customized messages regarding these types of sensitive political subjects. 

Complementing the personal approach taken through email marketing, government also has the advantage of cost-efficiency when integrating this strategy. In an environment where government funding is increasingly limited, this components especially appealing. In addition to the more obvious reasons why an organization in a governmental entity might find managed email marketing useful, the strategy has already proven to be effective for governments in other less immediately obvious ways. 

According to several studies comparing the efficacy of email marketing among multiple industries, government ranks higher than the majority of measured industries in several components of email marketing. One particular study, conducted in December of 2010, revealed open rate of 25.66 percent for email marketing campaigns of governmental entities. This rate is higher than ecommerce at 14.98 percent, recruitment and staffing at 15.21 percent, sports at 19.54 percent, and even business and finance at 15.47 percent. This high open rate indicates subscribers are both interested in the issues and concerned about what the local, state and federal government agencies have to say about these issues. 

The click-through rate for the government is also comparably stronger at 5.37 percent for all emails received. This statistic might seem low from a general standpoint, but it ranks nearly 2 points higher than the average click-through rate of 3.7 percent. Since click-through rates indicate how compelling the message is to the reader, this puts government at a significant advantage in terms of general public interest regarding government issues. Government also has considerably lower rates for abuse complaints and unsubscribers at 0.04 percent and 0.20 percent, respectively. 

Ensuring the public's awareness and involvement in government issues is an important component of building stronger communities and a stronger country. With managed email marketing, this goal is made easier than ever for organizations in government, while also offering a convenient outlet for the public to receive word and speak their peace as well. 

       

The advancement of technology and Internet marketing has been highly beneficial for the photo and video industry for perhaps fairly obvious reasons. With email and social media marketing, professionals in this industry are able to share their work quicker than ever with greater detail. Having a strong email marketing campaign, in an industry where aesthetic quality has the heaviest influence on whether or not a consumer chooses that particular business, is key to enticing the buyer to take advantage of current promotions, discounts and new techniques or services offered by the company. Although there are a number of reasons that might account for the photo and video industry's email marketing success, consider the following top three contributing factors.

1. More Subscribers Open Their Emails

It may seem like a no-brainer, but the success of many professional email marketing campaigns in the photo and video industry is in part due to the high open rate this industry has overall. Studies indicate a 28.93 percent open rate for all emails sent by companies in the photo and video industry, which proves strong interest among the general public. Even ostensibly more popular industries, such as retail and education, rank considerably lower with just 17.8 percent and 16.64 percent, respectively. Greater interest means greater profit for any business, and for the photo and video industry this certainly holds true.

2. More Subscribers Click the Links in Their Emails

Any experienced email marketing consultant will tell you the click-through rate of an email marketing campaign is one of the most important factors for measuring its success. For the photo and video industry in particular, studies reveal a click-through rate of 5.7 percent. For those who aren't well versed in proper measurement of click-through rates, this figure is exactly 2 percentage points above the average of 3.7 percent. The population used to determine an average click-through rate included several other notable industries, including real estate, insurance and legal industries.

3. Fewer Subscribers Complain or Unsubscribe

An irresponsible or inexperienced use of email can lead to abuse by overwhelming the consumer with excess emails in a manner technically classified as spamming. When email is abused in this way, it often results in customer complaints and a surplus of customers unsubscribing to the company. Although this abuse of strategy, should rightfully only affect the company at fault, it can often have a negative effect on the customer's perception of the entire industry. With the photo and video industry, abuse complaint rates and unsubscribe rates remain significantly low, with a measured 0.07 percent of the former and 0.26 percent for the latter.

Although the nature of the photo and video industry likely helps contribute to its email marketing success, a well-trained and experienced consultant can often have the biggest impact on compelling subscribers to open emails and further encourage them to click the link embedded in the email. In addition to these highly important components, managed email marketing also decreases the likelihood of abuse, which can frequently have a detrimental effect on the campaign overall. Since statistics indicate email marketing favors the photo and video industry's, companies who are currently taking advantage of professional email marketing opportunities can continue to expect positive returns in the future.

                                                                                                      

The construction industry has had a rough few years with a sharp decline of demand resulting from the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Although this crisis posed a substantial setback for the industry, the slow recovery of the economy has led to greater business opportunities and promise for the industry as a whole. The gradual improvement of the economy can take most of the credit for this increased success; however, credit should also partially be attributed to widespread integration of email marketing throughout the construction industry. Compared with other industries- including entertainment, health and fitness, and public relations—the construction industry has generated substantially greater interest and success with their own email marketing campaigns.

A Firm Foundation

Recent studies have reported a 28.7 percent open rate for emails sent by businesses in the construction industry, with an equally impressive click-through rate of 8.01 percent. Put in perspective: the business and finance industry follows far behind with a 15.57 percent open rate and a dismal 2.77 percent click-through rate. The music industry lies even further from this point with a 13.95 percent open rate and a 2.43 percent click-through rate. Based on this information, it's clear the construction industry is benefiting much more from managed email marketing than many other industries.

Understanding What Works

Despite the relatively high open and click-through rates of the construction industry and the general success of email marketing among construction companies, surveys have shown many businesses in this field aren't even aware of how well they are doing in terms of email marketing efficiency. When a group of construction companies were asked what their open rates were for their email campaigns, 51 percent responded they didn't know. An even greater 76 percent reported not to know the company's click-through rates either. This lack of communication and data analysis within the company could be caused by a failure to hire an experienced email marketing consultant to analyze data and manage the campaign in an effective manner. With proper management, the construction industry could potentially generate even more success through the strategy of email marketing.

Building Better ROI

Although the construction industry may need better management to ensure maximum email marketing efficiency, collected data indicates the strategy already comes with a great deal of profit potential for this industry in particular. For construction companies working independently or still struggling to get back on their feet, the prospect of email marketing can be especially appealing due to its high return on investment (ROI). Statistics indicate professional email marketing for the year 2012 is projected to generate an ROI of $39.40 for every dollar spent toward the service. This substantial return is unmatched by any other traditional media or Internet marketing strategy available, which is why it's a preferred choice for various industries.

What sets the construction industry apart from other successful industries is the widespread lack of understanding and appreciation of the tremendous benefits they're receiving from email marketing. This industry may be enjoying a unique success now, but as trends develop and more industries become proficient in managed email marketing tactics and understand the implications of increased ROI that result, the construction industry may get company.

Focusing on email marketing may initially seem obsolete when considering how many different forms of media available to businesses as a means of communicating with consumers in the modern digital age. From social media to mobile applications, the consumer base can be accessed with a wide array of media strategies. So, why choose email marketing? One of the best (and most obvious) reasons to stick with the strategy of hiring an email marketing agency is because it has shown incredible success across a wide range of different industries. As a testament to this fact, consider what the travel industry in particular is gaining from this fruitful marketing strategy.

Reaching Out

It may seem elementary, but just being able to get your foot in the door with your consumer base can be a feat in and of itself. To determine the efficiency of email effectiveness, data is collected and analyzed regularly to ensure all emails have been properly sent without error. Measurement of this data is known as the company's "bounce rate," or "non-bounce rate" if the rate of successful delivery is exceptionally high. A 2011 study shows the travel industry has a non-bounce rate of 98.1 percent, with an open rate of 70.7 percent—the latter of which indicates how many email recipients actually open the email. Since the average open rate across several industries is approximately 20.3 percent, this indicates a significant advantage for the travel industry in particular.

Gaining Attention

The real statistic an experienced email marketing consultant would specifically look for is the company's click-through rate in the email marketing campaign. A click-through rate indicates how often a consumer feels compelled to click the link provided in the email they received. Essentially, this rate indicates the appeal of the product or promotion the company is highlighting in the email. Studies have shown the travel industry has a measured click-through rate of 6.4 percent, which is higher than many other leading industries, including the retail apparel industry at 3.5 percent and the consumer services industry at 4.1 percent.

Generating Profit

Let's face it: the bottom line of any professional email marketing campaign is to make money, which is why this is the most important factor in determining the success of email marketing. According to Ken Magill of the Magill Report, the return on investment (ROI) for email marketing in 2011 was $40.56 for every dollar invested. This exceptionally high figure is predicted to drop slightly for the year 2012, with an estimated ROI of $39.40 for every dollar invested. Overall, email marketing is predicted to generate $67.8 billion in sales for the year 2012, indicating businesses involved in the travel industry can expect big gains for the year 2012 by implementing email marketing into their campaigns.

With excellent consumer response to current email marketing strategies implemented by the travel industry, companies who have yet to adapt to these trends or would like to capitalize on the success of the strategy can benefit greatly by utilizing the services of an experienced and well-trained email marketing agency. Integrating managed email marketing not only ensures maximum appeal and outreach to the consumer, but also ensures a substantial profit considering the projected promise of the industry.

Gosh, it has been a while since my last post... but things have been a little busy at Delivra. And, there's one thing in particular making us smile.

For the past couple of months, we've been focusing on our own email marketing program. As a best practice, we believe it's very important to do a data clean-up every year, as well as evaluate all email content being sent. What was a relevant email schedule last year (or even last month) may not be so relevant anymore, and this is exactly what we found.

To ensure our data was clean, we did a re-engagement email campaign to our subscribers. This consisted of a few emails over the course of three weeks which asked email subscribers to update their preferences.




Once we had the data in place, we were ready to start drafting content and send schedules. One of our goals for this process was to do a better job incorporating highly relevant and personalized content in our emails.

Delivra's email marketing software has a feature called Conditional Content. What this feature allows us to do is create one email and swap out pieces of content or images based on data unique to the recipient.

For our own emails, we decided to use this feature to swap out Account Owner information. Many of our retail clients use this feature to swap out product information based on things like region, buying behavior, age, interests, occupation...the sky is the limit! Here's an example of what our email looked like:



Overall, the email "felt" good but ultimately, it's up to the data to let us know how we performed.  Some of the basic metrics we look at:

• Open Rate
• Click-through Rate
• Engagement Score
• Unsubscribes

We look at these metrics compared to data collected from previous mailings, we call these baseline metrics. Having these metrics are super important when you change any aspect of your strategy.

Finally, we can't forget the ultimate intent of the email. Our goal for this particular email was to raise awareness about new software features and gauge interest among our client base. In order to collect this data, we created a unique form-submit landing page that funneled info into Salesforce, our CRM. As the clients filled out the form, they were immediately put in the appropriate campaign and their Account Owner was notified.

Such a simple user experience, and yet, it allowed us to gather feature interest and another layer of data to determine the success of the mailing.

So, what were the results of our efforts?

• 14% increase in Open Rate
• Doubled our Click-through Rate
• 5% Conversion Rate for people interested in new features.

All of this goes to show that with a little effort and a lot of thought, you can take an existing list and re-invent results.

I read a study by Marketing Sherpa. It said that 4 out of 10 recipients reported emails as spam only because it wasn't relevant. Sherpa also reports that emails which use segments get 50% more clicks. 

Below are a few segmentation ideas to help get you that needed lift. 

1. Geographic: Send invitations to local events or use geographic limitations on service delivery to choose your audience. 

2. Role: For example, a salesperson has different interests than a marketing manager. Segment with targeted content. Industry verticals also may demand a different approach. 

3. Interest: Review the content your recipients have viewed. Re-market based on this information. 

4. Behavior: You can use audience behavior as a filter for your communications. Of course, you need to have analytics set up on your site and you should integrate other purchase behavior into your email marketing system as well. 

5. Brand Advocates: Your brand advocate segment could contain - frequent buyers, social media fans, or customers who have recommended you. 

Segmentation can grow to be a beast, but even the slightest segmentation can increase your email success rates. Start small and expand as you encounter success. 

Need help? Delivra's professional services team is ready to assist. 

I attended the eMarketing Association Conference last week in Providence, RI and was excited to see such a strong turnout. Not only was it great to see some familiar faces, but I was able to catch the impressive keynote Clara Shih, Author of The Facebook Era and CEO and Founder of Hearsay Social. 

The subject matter was divided into three tracks: social marketing, search marketing and email marketing. The format was two days of intensive workships headed by panels of industry experts. 

No surprise that I was on the email panels. But, I was surprised the questions from attendees were mostly for basic issues that never seem to go away. How do I build an email list? How do I improve click-through rates on email? How often should I send marketing emails? 

The takeaway for me was that behavioral marketing is the single best way to lift results. That means tracking engagement activity and using those metrics to intelligently send relevant messaging. What's so exciting about this is it's doable with a little help from your email partner. 
 

According to About.com 294 billion email messages are sent per day! This means 2.8 million emails are sent every second and some 90 trillion emails are sent per year! No wonder we all ask the age-old question,“When can I send my email to gain more attention?”

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer that can apply to everyone using email to market their business, product or trade. Figuring out the best time of day and the day of the week which works best takes time and research. 

Here are some ways to help you gather and use your data to help determine when might be the peek time for your email to reach the inbox of your readers.

1. Segment your data by geographic regions – in some cases your email will be going to several parts of the country, if not world. Be sure to set up your mailings to reflect those time changes to avoid sending emails at 4 in the morning!
2. Look at past data and mailings – Check to see if your email service provider offers the ability to see open rates and when those actions occurred, review this data to determine when those clicks peek. This gives you a glimpse into when your readers set aside time to look at your emails.
3. A/B split tests – Sending your email to just a sample of people with the subject line and content the same but only changing the time can tell you a lot about when your readers are opening your email. Maybe your readers open more in the morning than in the afternoon or Monday vs. Tuesday.

Although not a quick fix, these are just a few suggestions on how you can pinpoint when your readers are more likely to give you their attention.

Amy Dolk | Account Manager

Email preference centers, also called subscription centers, were once an optional feature of an email marketing program. Now, they have become almost mandatory. Best practices, however, still lag.

"For many of the customers we're working with right now, it seems like preference centers are an afterthought," said George DiGuido, VP-marketing at digital agency Zeta Interactive.

These are missed opportunities, since research demonstrates that preference centers can boost the success rate of an email marketing program. For instance, an Email Experience Council white paper released in June 2010, "Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumers Demand Relevance," found that those users who visit an email preference center are more tolerant of more frequent mailings. According to the white paper, when asked "When is the best time for companies to send e-mail?" about two-thirds (65%) of respondents who were interested in a more personalized preference-oriented experience answered, "Whenever the company has something important to say." The online survey, handled by Forrester Research, polled 1,033 adults in the U.S. and U.K.

"The punch line is, [buyers] demand preferences and preference center management, and there is a clear connection to buying behavior when it is delivered," said David Daniels, CEO of the Relevancy Group, an interactive marketing consultancy.

Gerry Widmer, general manager of BlueHornet, a business unit of e-commerce solution provider Digital River, said using preference centers can reduce the rate of opt-outs. "We've seen lots of studies that show the two reasons people opt out is because of frequency and irrelevant content," he said. "Preference centers address both of those concerns."

And yet marketers are still having trouble figuring out what to include in a preference center, how to get email subscribers to visit them, and how often they should be updated.

Bottom Line? Every marketer should make it a priority to build an email preference center. Click here to read the rest of the BtoB article by Karen Bannan that features our new Director of Marketing, Megan Glover!

Long ago, before the days of email marketing and Internet-based communication strategies, businesses had to be pretty bold in reaching out to customers. You might send an attractive, well-designed piece via postal mail. Perhaps there was a telephone number printed on your collateral, but chances are good that you will still have to follow-up and follow-up and follow-up again to generate real business.

Email marketing certainly makes it easier to send lots of high-quality, unique marketing pieces to thousands of customers. You can do this at the click of a button at incredibly competitive rates. But I'm shocked how many email marketers seem to forget that at it's heart, email marketing is still email! If you want your customers to engage with you, why not simply ask them to reply?

Virtually any email service provider can customize the "From" field of outgoing messages. When an email is received, customers can hit the "reply" button in their client with thoughts or questions. That's not just an "open" or a "clickthrough", but an actual, intentional reply! These kinds of interactions are gold. Why not encourage your customers to start a conversation over email?

If your email marketing templates include disclaimers like "Do not reply to this email" or "This message is sent from an unmonitored address", get rid of those statements right away. Sure, you might find yourself receiving more than handful of customer inquiries, but that's a great problem to have.

Next, change your boilerplate text to request feedback. "Like what you see? Want to learn more? Just REPLY to this message and we'll get back to you right away."

When you start to think of email marketing as a conversation, you realize that not all campaigns need to be slick, multi-column newsletters with tons of content. Instead they might be a couple of sentences just to try to trigger a response. After all, that's the point of email marketing. We send messages so that customers might be interested in getting back to us to make a purchase. Use those email messages to actually request feedback!

Guest Blogger | Robby Slaughter

Robby Slaughter is a Principal with Slaughter Development, an Indianapolis - based business process and workflow consulting company. His new book, Failure: The Secret to Success is available now at www.failurethebook.com.

Many years ago, when I worked at a local retail store, they had a motto: "Think Like a Customer."  Today, at Delivra, I get reminded of that motto every time I have a client ask me, "What type of content will get me the most open/click throughs?" My standard response is: "Think Like a Recipient." We help our customers to "think like a recipient" by utilizing our Profile Form. This enables a marketer to ASK their recipients what content they want to receive.

The benefits are numerous:

1. Higher open rates.
2. Higher click through rates.
3. Higher conversion rates.
4. Send less email because you are no longer blasting to the entire list.
5. Save money by only sending relevant content to the people who requested it.
6. People will stay on your list - a number of people opt out of a list because they're tired of receiving content that does not pertain to them.
7. You don't have to waste time guessing what your recipients want.
8. If someone does not request to opt out of a list, it gives you one last chance to ask them if they want to opt out of all mailings or just the ones they're not interested in.

So the next time you find yourself asking, "I wonder what my recipients want to receive?" Remember to "think like a recipient" and call Delivra to find out how we can help you create a Profile Form to ensure your recipients stay engaged with your messages.

David Turpin | Account Executive

Over time, you may have noticed a decrease in the amount of engaged subscribers you have on your emailing list. Not to worry! You can put together a re-marketing campaign in order to re-engage people with your emails. First, you want to create a re-marketing strategy to make sure that you create a successful, effective re-marketing email campaign sure to bring your customers back to you!

Usually, a re-marketing campaign is put into place in order to remind individuals of an online shopping cart they have abandoned.  Consumers abandon online shopping carts for a number of various reasons:

• High Shipping Costs
• Get Distracted
• Difficult Checkout Process

The goal is to create an email campaign to recapture the attention of the buyer in order to encourage them to complete the checkout process.

1. Evaluate. Use analytics and tracking features in order to determine the amount of abandoned carts you are dealing with and if it makes sense to create an entire email campaign to lessen it.

2. Goals. Once you have an idea of an abandonment rate, establish goals you wish to accomplish with your re-marketing campaign.

3. Details. Figure out what you intend to send and when you plan to send it. Some suggest waiting for several hours, some suggest waiting for maybe an hour, and others recommend waiting at least a day or two before sending a reminder email. As far as content goes, are you wanting to include various offers and coupons?

4. Logistics. I suggest working with an email marketing service provider to set up the logistics of sending an abandoned cart email. These emails have to be set up as a triggered mailing automatically sent based on various click through behavior.

5. Measure & Reevaluate. Using analytics to determine how well a re-marketing campaign is doing. This will help you decide if changes need to be made to the campaign or how successful the campaign is based on how your audience is responding.

Need help creating and implementing a re-marketing strategy to recapture the attention of some diverted subscribers? Contact Delivra today!  An email marketing service provider has the knowledge and resources to assist you in formulating a re-market plan and putting it into action.

Lavon Temple | Marketing

I recently listened to a webinar conducted by Dan Zarrella of Hubspot about “The Science of Email Marketing.” While he presented a variety of interesting statistics, the one that grabbed my attention was also the simplest statistic: 88% of people do not have separate inboxes for their personal and professional emails. As someone who does have separate inboxes for work and play, I find this to be shocking.

Let’s think back to the 1950s household where the wife was at home, while the husband was at work. The man worked from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and work was separated from his home life. This is definitely not the world that we live in today. There is no such thing as the “8 to 5” lifestyle anymore, we do not separate work from our personal life, and women are working just as hard (if not harder) as men to make a name for themselves.

As expected, this means that marketing has to change as well to adapt to people’s needs and expectations. Apparently, 88% of people are receiving both personal and business emails in the same inbox, which means that promotional items are included in this mix. As a marketer, how do you get your email marketing to stand out when your message is shuffled in an inbox with client or family emails?

Honestly, it's simple. Here’s some quick tips on getting your email marketing noticed:

1. Send in the early morning during the weekends.

Dan mentions in the webinar that you should send on Saturday or Sundays between 6 and 7 a.m. Why? People have more time to sit down and read what you have to say. Their inbox isn’t overflowing with work emails, and they are more likely to go to your business on a weekend (retailer). Therefore, sending at this time will result in higher click through rates and less chance of your email to get deleted right away.

2. Have a catchy subject line.

If an email has a clever subject line, I will most likely open it (even if I know it is from a business trying to sell me something). Be descriptive, get to the point, and tell people what they should expect by opening their email that is not “overly promotional.” As a marketer, you should be able to do this in a creative way to grab people’s attention.

3. Make the email simple for the subscriber to navigate.

Guide the subscriber to do what you want them to do. Provide clear and noticeable call-to-actions in the email, while providing them with a reason to visit your site.  Why would I want to go to your site if you’re going to make it hard for me? I’m much more willing to simply check out your site if it’s “one click shopping.”

All in all, it’s getting harder to marketers to get past the subscriber’s “auto delete” list. If you don’t want to get on this list, then make it appealing and easy for subscribers to read your emails.

Guest Blogger | Jenn Lisak

Jenn Lisak, Project Manager at Fusework Studios, is a recent graduate of Butler University, where she majored in Marketing and Business Development. She currently resides in Broad Ripple with her new kitten, Delilah.

Jenn's role at Fusework consists of client management, social media marketing, and creative development of the company. She loves helping clients reach their marketing objectives and she acts as an in-house social media consultant.

In the future, she plans to publish a novel and eventually own her own business.

Recently,  MediaPost Email Insider published an article by Morgan Stewart. In the article, Stewart discusses some ways in which companies currently "juice their numbers", meaning  they are guilty of reporting more robust email statistics than those actually occurring.  One example Stewart  gave as a way companies juice their numbers is by holding on to dead weight.

When dealing with email marketing, it is important to clean your list of those subscribers not active with your campaigns. Some companies choose not to do this because they don't want to shrink their list.

The Morgan Stewart article includes a quote from Nicole Delma, Chief Data Officer for RCRD LBL, she states she would like to see a service that would audit open rates.

A service which holds marketers accountable in this regard may not be so far off.

All things considered, wouldn't it be more beneficial for you to be tracking and reporting information about an engaged audience?  As an email marketer, make sure you take the appropriate steps to maintain your email list so then you can report on the most telling indicators of success...engagement, activity, and results.

To read more about this service and  accountability issue,  please click here to be directed to the MediaPost article.

Lavon Temple | Marketing

I read an interesting article in the Journal of Marketing recently that confirmed what I've known for a long time: word of mouth (WOM) marketing really works. WOM has taken a backseat to digital marketing efforts lately, but there's no reason why a marketer can't do both, and at the same time. 

In my own experience, WOM (also known as referral marketing) drives a greater number of customers and more valuable business than any other marketing source. In fact, referrals account for more of our business than in-bound marketing, and often take only one phone call to close. In the last half of 2010, a time of significant growth for my company, 60% of our new customers came from a referral. 

The Journal of Marketing article highlights a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and Goethe University of Frankfurt, which found that referred customers were both more profitable and loyal than other customers. In the study, referred customers had a higher contribution margin, a higher retention rate and were more valuable in both the short and long term. 

While some experts believe that asking for a referral should take place face-to-face, email marketing is a very effective channel for WOM. 

To find out a few things to keep in mind when adding word of mouth marketing to email campaigns, click here to read the rest of the MediaPost article. 

Implementing an email marketing campaign is not easy.  There are several things to consider when starting an email campaign and then, of course, several more added when you decide to take the necessary steps to improve your email marketing efforts.

With so many things to remember when it comes to email marketing, here are a few reminders to keep top of mind when making the most of using email marketing.

A. Always Get Permission. It is no longer acceptable to buy a list of email addresses and send a "blast email" to numerous amounts of people that didn't sign up to receive your emails.  It's so much more effective to send to a smaller, more targeted list of subscribers that actually want to receive your information and are engaged with your emails. Delivra prides itself on being a permission - based email marketing software provider.

B. Basics, Basics, Basics. People have been telling marketers to get back to email marketing basics for a while, but the truth is some haven't even started to use them yet. It is so important to start using the email best practices that are available.  You want to make sure that you are using them because if done properly - it really does have an impact on your marketing efforts. You may find that your click through rate is increased, readers are more engaged with your emails, or that the amount of people sharing your email has substantially increased.

C. Content is King. Still. People want to read emails and forward emails to others that have content that is intriguing and informative. A new focus has been placed on content marketing and making sure that the information is educating customers.

D. Design. It's so important that you plan the design of your emails.  As marketing that is being presented to your subscribers, you want to make sure that it looks professional and will render well in email providers. Delivra has a Design Team that writes blog posts in order to share information about email design best practices.

Have other ideas that could be used for these letters?  Add them in the comments section.

Lavon Temple | Marketing

On the Delivra blog, we've written several times to the fact that email marketing is not dead and is very much alive. Of course, there still exists the occasional nay-sayer that argues that email marketing is dying out.

A recent article by Steve McGrath of Big Dot Media offers some great examples to explain why email marketing is not dying out; in fact, he states that it's merely changing.

I love the part, in particular, where he says: "Email marketers have to work smarter not harder to combat the distractions of today's modern social media and spam filled world."

It's so true, although there may be "distractions" pulling the attention away from email marketing. There are ways for email marketing to stay relevant and even work along side some of these "distractions."

Steve highlights a number of various ways to improve your email marketing efforts to ensure that they can combat through those distractions. Listed below are a couple of examples. (Click here for the article.)

Segmentation. I agree that segmentation is a great way to personalize an email. In the article, McGrath points out that "an email should contain some kind of personalization, even if it just says 'Dear <name>' at the top".  Although, yes, that's a starting point, I have to point out that segmentation is much more powerful than that and can be used to add a lot of personalization to your marketing if done correctly - using an email marketing service provider like Delivra can help you learn more about how to use segmentation to send targeted emails to subscribers.

Transactional Emails. These are a great way to increase open rates because they are sent via a timely manner. Say for example that someone signs up for your newsletter - send them an email that thanks them and provides them with what they should expect from signing up.

Here are some further thoughts:

Social Media. I don't see this as a distraction for email marketing if these two tools are set up to work harmoniously with one another.  Social media can be a route to encourage people to sign up for your email marketing campaign.  You can easily place a sign up form on some social media platforms that people can fill out quickly to become a subscriber.

Mobile Marketing. Email marketing can work really well with this new marketing channel.  There are several ways, in fact, that mobile marketing can play a role in your email marketing campaign.  For example, partaking in simple best practices can improve how your emails render on a mobile device.

Clickstream tracking. Clickstream tracking is a great way for email marketers to be proactive - especially for online retailers.  For example, a marketer can see, using purchase tracking, that a client has looked at a particular item on their website, but didn't follow through with a purchase.  The email marketer could send an email encouraging them to buy with an offer.

To read the rest of the article and learn more about why email marketing is not dying, click here.

For more information on how to implement some of these tools and make your email able to combat distractions, contact Delivra today!

Lavon Temple | Marketing

The holidays have come to a close, and email marketers are reveling in their swelling lists of new customers.

While no one likes a party pooper, here's a a sobering thought: Each year email marketers lose roughly one-third of their email addresses to list churn, bounces, unsubscribes or spam complaints, according to the Email Experience Council.

With addresses on email lists turning over every three years, growing email lists must be a priority for marketers. Good list maintenance will help reduce churn while giving you a more accurate view of your delivery, open and click-through rates. A clean list also will ensure that you're in compliance with CAN-SPAM laws.

Growing and maintaining lists is not difficult, but it does take effort. To make the process easy, I've developed five New Year's resolutions for growing and maintaining email lists.

To read the 5 resolutions and the rest of this MediaPost article, click here!

Neil Berman | President & CEO