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How Southwest Airlines Acquires Email Addresses

Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Neil Berman

I hadn't flown Southwest for a long time. As this was the best choice for scheduling from Indy to Seattle, I boarded the two-leg 6-hour flight. 

As the beverage and snack service came by, I grabbed a bag of peanuts and noticed the call to action, "Find out about our next BIG Sale with click 'n save emails. Text your email to 83793." (See Photo)

Southwest Peanut Bag

Delivra staff routinely get asked how to build an opt-in email list. Our answer, simply put, is to ask for them at every customer touch point. Southwest Airlines is not a client, but they have certainly got the message.

Of course, I texted my email and received the following acknowledgement,

Thanks for signing up for 
SWA Click 'n Save. You'll
never miss another deal in 
your inbox!

Want to try text to subscribe to acquire email addresses for your organization? Contact the email marketing experts at Delivra and we'll show you how. 

Extra thought: Read the book Lead with LUV written by Ken Blanchard and SWA president Colleen Barrett. In it, you will discover more secrets of success. 

Purchasing Email Lists - Do's & Don'ts

Monday, March 26, 2012 by David Turpin

I get asked a lot if Delivra sells email addresses.  The short answer is NO.  We are a permission based email service provider - this means you can only send to opted-in email addresses through our system.  However, since I talk to thousands of people, some have experience with purchasing email addresses.  Allow me to share some of their wisdom:

If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
I've heard prices ranging from pennies to several dollars per email address.  What seems consistent is the cheaper the price, the less effective the emails are.  

Ask, "how are you going to send to the recipients?"
Apparently, there are companies who will sell you the email addresses but won't send to them.  This should be a red flag in my book.  It probably means the company knows the email addresses are bogus.  They don't care though because by the time you figure this out, they have already cashed your check.

If the company is going to send to the recipients, how are they going to get in the inbox?
Just because a company will send to the recipients, doesn't mean your out of the woods.  Yes, typically the emails they are sending to are opted-in.  But they aren't opted-in to receive emails from you.   These are generally recipients who didn't check or uncheck the box that says "Please send me emails from your affiliates".  This opens the floodgates for the recipient to receive emails from ANYONE.  Once they receive your email, they won't know you, and will typically mark your message as spam.  This hurts not only you, but also the sender.  Their IP reputations are usually so shot, the message won't even get into the inbox.

My open rate is WHAT?!
We've all heard the industry average open rate is around 20%-25%.  That's when you are applying email best practices.  Purchasing a list is definitely not email best practice.  So what should the open rate be for these types of engagements?  I've heard numbers ranging from 0%-2%.  And even though they opened it, it doesn't mean the recipient is engaged...more like enraged - which will lead to that person marking your message as spam (see above).  

I understand that companies want to grow their list.  There are lots of good ways to do just that.  I just don't think purchasing a list is one of those ways.  If you'd like to find out how Delivra can help grow your list (the right way), give us a shout, we'll be glad to help!

Here's a picture of some puppies I found on the internet:
Cute Puppies!!

Demographics and IBM's Five-in-Five

Thursday, January 5, 2012 by Brent Dragoo

Target SuccessIBM recently unveiled another of their Five-in-Five series. If you've never heard of it, IBM makes an annual prediction of five trends or innovations that will alter the modern technological landscape within the next five years.

After predicting increased biometric security and actual mind reading powers, the last point in the series caught my eye: We're going to see the end of impersonal email.

Due to the amount of data that can be stored and analyzed quickly, every single mailing can, and will be, personalized not just to a recipient, but personalized towards what the recipient will find most relevant.

An article discussing the Five-in-Five series analyzed an opt-in procedure categorizing recipients' email request based on their driving, shopping, and eating schedules. Emails were specifically targeted to individuals based not only on their personal history, but also targeted based on when they were most likely to ‘need’ those emails, i.e. before leaving the house to go to the mall or deciding where they should meet with friends for lunch.

Delivra’s demographic fields allow our customers the ability to send email tailored personally to the recipient, and to the recipient’s interests. How much do you know about your recipients? How engaged are they? Are you utilizing all of the demographic fields available to better target your email campaigns?

2012 Marketing Trends Survey

Monday, December 19, 2011 by Neil Berman

Neil BermanThis week, the Email Experience Council and Sponsor, StrongMail, released the results of its "2012 Marketing Trends" survey which provides insight into how businesses plan to budget and prioritize marketing dollars in the New Year. Conducted in November 2011, 938 business leaders participated in the global survey. 

The 2012 Marketing Trends Survey highlights: 

  • 92% plan to increase or maintain marketing spend in 2012
  • 60% plan to increase email marketing budget; 54% social media; 37% mobile/search (tied) 
  • 45% cite data integration as primary email marketing challenge in 2012;
  • 43% cite lack of resources/staff as primary email marketing challenge; 
  • 40% cite content management as primary email marketing challenge; 
  • 48% cite increasing subscriber engagement as top 2012 email marketing initiative; 
  • 44% cite improving segmentation/targeting as a top initiative; 
  • 32% cite growing opt-in email lists as a top initiative; 
  • 68% plan to integrate email marketing with social media; 45% with mobile; 17% with search 

2012 is a new year but the survey, for me, merely reinforced what I hear regularly from staff, clients and prospects. 

A Great Example of How Not To Treat Your Customer

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 by Chris Sapp
Thumbs DownRecently Ally posted a blog about an amazing customer service experience she received. She explained how well the situation was handled by the company and how they kept her best interest as a customer in mind. The story I'm about to share is the exact opposite of that.

I have been shopping at a well known nationwide video game retail establishment for years. I have never run into any significant problems until recently. Last year about this time, they implemented power up cards for an annual fee of 15 dollars. These cards consist of a way to earn points by trading in games, buying games, etc... These points can be used to receive discounts when you make purchases as well. I purchased one of the cards.

Towards the end of the year, after my purchase, I started to become inundated with emails on a daily basis from this retailer. At first, I figured it'd just be easy enough to delete them each day and be done with it. A couple weeks later I got tired of dealing with it so I decided to unsubscribe from their mailings. The first thing that should be noted is nowhere in their mailings does it give you the option to unsubscribe. The only option it provides is to change your preferences. Working in e-mail marketing on a daily basis, this immediately threw up a red flag. I clicked on the preferences link but found no option to completely unsubscribe from their mailings. After digging a little deeper into the preferences, I finally found an option to fully unsubscribe. When I selected this option, I received a message stating it will more than likely take up to 2 weeks to fully unsubscribe me. I'm was not happy with this response but at least the mailings would stop.

The time comes when my card expires and I'm asked if I want to renew by the store manager. I decided to go ahead and renew because I think everything is fine until I go to use the renewed card. I'm told by the in store manager my card is not being accepted by their system. They provide me with a customer service number to call and tell me it should be an easy fix and they probably just have some incorrect information in their computers.

I call the customer service line and after waiting almost 45 minutes, I get through to a representative and tell him what is going on. He proceeds to put me on hold for another 15 minutes and then comes back to tell me he realizes what happened. He tells me I chose to unsubscribe from all of their mailings which in turn apparently cancelled my card...a card which I paid for and has absolutely nothing to do with the mailings they send me. I don't agree with the situation but tell him to opt me back in so my card can be reactivated. He says that's not an option and the only way I can activate my card is to purchase a new one. WHAT?! I ask nicely to speak with a manager and he lets me know none are available at this time so I was sent to a voicemail where I left my number...no call back.

After all this has taken place, I decide to go to the retail store and talk to the manager who I've known for many years. He is shocked by what I've been told and is kind of enough to give me a card for free and also took the time to call customer service while I was in the store(they have a direct line with no wait time.) The customer service rep relays the same information to the manager and informs him that even though they have activated a new card for me, I've lost ALL my points I have earned over the years, and they had no way of getting them back. The manager assured me he will be emailing their district manager about my situation, but I have no faith anything positive will come out of it.

I am extremely grateful for the extra steps the store manager took. He went above and beyond his responsibilities to assist me in any way possible. From a corporate standpoint however, never in my life have I felt so insignificant or helpless as a customer. I will never purchase anything from this company again. Had they just handled this situation in a professional manner, I wouldn't be writing this blog and they wouldn't be losing business from a faithful customer who has been purchasing from them for years.

At Delivra we strive to provide the best customer service possible to our clients. We will always take into account the issues you are experiencing and will do our best to go above and beyond to satisfy your needs and provide you with a prompt and satisfactory resolution. And if you're looking for help with issues such as setting the right expectations, monitoring engagement/complaints for burn-out, or providing recipients with an easy and friendly method of controlling their email preferences, just let us know. We're glad to help.

12 Days of Holiday Campaign Prep (Part 3 of 3)

Friday, November 11, 2011 by Rachel Rewerts
Holiday EmailsThe last entry for prepping your Holiday email campaign focuses on content and evaluating results. Choosing your content focus should be easy if you completed the tasks from week one and week two.

Test your subject lines and content. Can't decide on a subject line or where to place that "Buy Now" button? Email AB split testing takes the guess work out of it and shows you the results instead. Do not lean on just open or clickthrough numbers, instead keep the focus on conversion.

Keep your content simple. Just because you have lots of widgets does not mean they all need to be in the email. If you need to, refer back to your goals and ask yourself, does this addition to the content help meet our goals? If not, then take it out. Lastly, don't forget to add your social media share buttons. Your members are friend with other peope like them give them an easy way to share the info.

Use your results to make changes to the next mailing. Email is dynamic. Not happy with your results from your last mailing? Change something. Test. Repeat. While your goals should be pretty set by now, your roadmap should be etched in pencil and fine tumed throughout your campaign.

Benchmark and document for next year.
Get a head start by writing out clear and detailed notes for next year. Document what worked, what didn't and ideas for trying next year. The longer you wait the more you will probably forget.

Best of luck on your holiday campaigns. Need some ideas for you campaign? Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling.

Holiday Email Campaign Ideas
  • Dynamic Sequence- Create a drip campaign for certain interests. Maybe your recipients just want to see gift ideas for mom or a certain interest like running or reading or travel. Use dynamic content to send them one email with all of their choices rather than multiple emails.
  • Themed Emails- 12 days of savings (make sure your members optin for this daily email). Need a special opt in? We can help. Contact us to learn more about profile and subscribe forms.
  • Come back- Don't forget to set up shopping cart abandonment emails with an incentive to come back to complete the shopping process.
  • Early Bird Campaign- Early shopping deals for "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" can stand out in the inbox if done well. Email graphic design has different rules than Web graphic design. Need some help figuring that out? Check out our design gallery for some ideas, thencontact us to learn more.
  • Smart Phone Focus- Creating a special campaign for your smart phone users can increase sales and provide valuable information about where your members are reading your emails. Do some testing to make sure your in store check out process can scan the barcode from a smartphone. Need to know where to start? Check out our mobile design whitepaper.

12 Days of Holiday Campaign Prep (Part 2 of 3)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 by Rachel Rewerts
Holiday EmailsJust in case you missed the previous post, click here to read part one about preparing the plan. Part two focuses on prepping and segmenting your audience.

Get the audience opt in. Create a special category just for your Holiday campaign and start promoting it now on the website, social media and email. You could also use text to subscribe in-store to gain new subscribers. Having some of your larger audience opt in to special Holiday savings will show you how much interest there is and will make your campaign much more targeted.

Give the audience a way to opt out. Make sure your members know they can opt out of the Holiday mailings with out opting out of your future mailings.

Create segments based on past history. If you are struggling with how to segment your audience, consider using past history. Segment based on time since last purchase or last interation with your emails. 

Use this as an opportunity to grow your reach. Make sure your deals can be easily shared with all of your subscribers friends and family. Including a link in the body of your emails will make it easy for your subscribers' friends and family to sign up.

Next week we will focus on content and evaluating results.

Small Budget = Big Impact

Friday, October 21, 2011 by Lavon Temple
Playing FieldEmail marketing isn't just for huge companies with a lot of budget to spend.  It can be a great way to help small to mid-sized companies level the playing field. 

By teaming up with an email marketing company that can provide email software, smaller companies can share information with their audience quickly and efficiently in the same way that a large company can. 

By working with an email marketing service provider, a company can:
  • Provide a central hub for storing their email lists. 
  • Give assistance in setting up the appropriate email opt-in for subscribers. 
  • Receive templates, making the design of emails much easier. 
Being small doesn't put you at a disadvantage when it comes to email marketing. In fact, an email marketing company is a resource you can use to help you become a powerful player in the game. 

Email Marketing Overhaul: "While we're at it..."

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by John Klein
ToolsMy wife and I recently undertook a much-needed and long-awaited kitchen renovation in our home.  Before we started, we asked advice from family members, friends, Google searches, etc.  One interesting (and unfortunately prophetic) piece of advice: The four most expensive words in a renovation are "While we're at it".  

Basically, the thinking goes, that as long as the house is covered in a fine layer of dust, and as long as there are contractors traipsing through it, we might as well get other work done too. The experts, or at least others who have gone through this will tell you of the importance to fight this urge, if you want to stay on budget, on time and hold onto the last vestige of your sanity during a renovation.

It got me thinking about our customers and how they might feel a similar urge to overhaul their Email Marketing program.  What started out as an effort to follow Delivra Best Practices for list hygiene may creep beyond Email Opt-in and over into Mobile Email Sign Up or a review of email design.  

Resist that compulsion to do it all at once!  Yes, all of those things are important but they are most impactful when they are part of a larger, deliberate plan to improve results.  Figure out where you want to take your Email Marketing Program and break it up into manageable tasks.  Our Account Managers are here to help with advice or even a quick sanity check on how to get started.



Using Frequency in Your Email Preference Center

Thursday, September 15, 2011 by Megan Glover
Email MachineI just finished an email purge from my personal inbox. Boy, did it feel great! Although, it seemed like every email I unsubscribed from was a retailer trying to offer me "free shipping if you buy by 3pm today!" Thanks, but no thanks.

The truth is, I really didn't want to unsubscribe from all of the emails. At one point in time I opted into their email marketing with the desire to receive discounts or to receive their current offerings. At times I do find their info valuable and occasionally make purchases... just not every day.

So, as I was doing my purge and navigating all of the different email preference centers, I really appreciated the flexibility some of the marketers gave. For instance, in certain email preference centers, I was able to dial down the frequency of sends from one a day to one a week.

In the preference centers that gave me an all-or-nothing option (i.e. either unsubscribe from all email or continue to receive as-is), I opted to unsubscribe. It's a pity really, but I think there's a valuable takeaway here...give the recipient the option to make your email sends as relevant as possible.  Doing so will demonstrate you care about their email preferences, and it might also increase the dollars he/she spends with you.



Do you have your boyfriend's permission?

Friday, September 9, 2011 by Guest Bloggers
With Canada finalizing their Bill C-28 or FISA as it has been coined, we can expect serious penalties for email marketers not gaining "express or implied consent" and be able to prove it. (More Info) This is so important to see the impact this legislation is going to have, not only on Canada, but eventually in the United States as well. Our Federal Trade Commission's current "CAN-SPAM" laws are outdated and drastically overdue for an update.

In an industry that is led by the ESP's, checks and balances are enforced and adapted frequently to combat the more than 80% spam-only email traffic that is passed daily. It is time for marketers to understand that while the US isn't requiring permission yet, they will be soon, and when that day comes - you need to be ready. 

Are your lists of subscribers all truly response based, opt-in? DO you maintain a clean list by engaging them regularly and offering to remove those who aren't interested anymore? Permission isn't forever and it certainly doesn't come from compiled, opt-out based lists. So be engaging, be relevant, be targeted, and treat them like you were dating. You wouldn't automatically add a boyfriend to a mailing list without his permission or email him the same message several times - so don't do it to your subscribers. 

Stephanie DeWittGuest Blogger | Stephanie DeWitt
Stephanie DeWitt is a Database Marketing Strategist with Embanet Compass, the pre-eminent full-service provider of online learning services to universities and colleges that wish to offer online educational programs. 
 

Getting the Most Out of Your Email Marketing

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 by David Turpin
David TurpinA lot of people think that my job is just to sell our software.  What a lot of people don’t know until they talk to me or one of our other Business Development Managers is that our job is to make sure you get the most out of your email marketing.  That’s not just selling software, but often times it’s applying best practices and leveraging your overall marketing and branding strategy.
 
For example, I was talking with a potential customer a week ago and she wanted to know what we could do to increase her subscribers (she was contemplating purchasing a list of email addresses).  I advised her that she wouldn't be able to send purchased email addresses through our system (or any other “reputable” email service provider).  I took some time to look over her website and noticed a few things:
1.) NO WHERE was a subscribe option on her website
2.) When opting out of her emails, there was no profile form asking what I wanted to opt out of…so I could only opt out of receiving everything
3.) She had multiple brick and mortar stores and had no way of capturing email addresses in store
4.) The only place she was getting subscribers was at point of sale
 
After spending some time consulting with her the things we would do reach her objective of increasing and keeping subscribers, she agreed that we would be a great fit for her company and we are now in the process of implementing the recommendations.  It’s great to get a customer, but it’s even better to EARN a customer.

Are daily deals really a way to attract?

Friday, August 12, 2011 by Guest Bloggers

Daily DealI've become a big fan of daily deal websites like Groupon, Living social, and many others. They offer such a great service to both businesses and consumers. For the business, it becomes a great way to build brand exposure and gain an influx of new business. For the consumer, it's a great way to try out new businesses at a steep discount. While their success has been explosive in certain circles, I've heard many a naysayer out there state that often the businesses lose money on these deals or they find it difficult to get return business. However, I have to disagree given my most recent experience. I received a daily deal for salon services and was thrilled at the discount. While this wasn't a business I frequented, I was willing to try it out in order to get the deal.

The day my appointment came along, I was excited to be able to redeem my reward. What came next was most unexpected, but one of the most clever methods I have seen employed by a business using a daily deal. As I was filling out my new customer information the business owner mention to me she would love to get my repeat business. She went on to tell me that she was offering the very same deal to return customers and I could purchase as many deals as I would like. She also went on to say if I signed up for her regular email program, I would receive regular offers similar to these on an ongoing basis. WOW! Clever way to retain me as a customer.

Now I am sure with this deal, she was able to realize a large influx for her business, but how clever to create her own follow-up offer and gain a subscriber and a new customer out of me. I believe many of these new methods to promote your business are ingenious and if done right, have the potential to provide a steady flow of business in circles you might not have otherwise reached. Try it out, but make sure you do some of these key things that made her offer so successful:

  • Gather Information: Make sure you gather the customers information and ask them to opt-in to your email campaigns.
  • Follow-up Deals: Offer follow-up deals to entice one-time customers to return.  Chances are, they return a time or two and you've won them as a long term customer.
  • Referrals: While the business owner didn't do this, I believe this is another tactic you could use....offer a special discount to customers who refer business to you.

It's great to use new marketing tactics to promote your business and gain new customers, but make sure you are employing some of the more traditional methods along with them and I believe you will have not only an influx of new customers, but you will make the long-term fans of your business.  Need help?  Ask your Delivra team to help you build that strategy!  They work with these types of campaigns everyday.

Carissa Newton | Guest Blogger

About Carissa

Carissa oversees the marketing & new business development efforts at Oak Street Funding, including marketing planning, strategy, lead generation, communications, and public relations.  Carissa has over 17 years experience marketing in a variety of industries including financial services, insurance, technology, and motorsports.  She has been a student of online marketing since its inception and continues to hone her skills by building and implementing successful online strategies for the companies she works with.I've become a big fan of daily deal websites like Groupon, Living social, and many others. They offer such a great service to both businesses and consumers. For the business, it becomes a great way to build brand exposure and gain an influx of new business. For the consumer, it's a great way to try out new businesses at a steep discount. While their success has been explosive in certain circles, I've heard many a naysayer out there state that often the businesses lose money on these deals or they find it difficult to get return business. However, I have to disagree given my most recent experience. I received a daily deal for salon services and was thrilled at the discount. While this wasn't a business I frequented, I was willing to try it out in order to get the deal.

The Dreaded Unsubscribe

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 by Lavon Temple

Lavon TempleYou work hard to get people to sign up for your email messages because you want them to read the important things you have to share.  No one likes to see their subscribers leave them. However, if a subscriber decides to unsubscribe, you will want to make sure you follow email unsubscribe best practices (a couple listed below) to make it a peaceful separation. If not, they could always be hitting the SPAM button. (Ah!)

  1. Unsubscribe Button Location. Make sure the subscriber is able to easily locate the unsubscribe button.  Don’t make them search for it because instead of going on the hunt, they are more likely to look for the easier option: mark as spam.
  2. Easy Process. Don’t make it extremely complicated for someone to unsubscribe past the unsubscribe button.  The easier the process of unsubscribing, the more likely a subscriber will do it.
  3. Offer Options. If subscribers have access to a preference center, they may change options rather than unsubscribe from a mailing altogether.  Give them the opportunity to opt-down instead of opt-out.
  4. Pause Option. Instead of unsubscribing from your mailings, the subscriber may appreciate the option to pause your mailings for a brief period.  Adding this option to a preference center could decrease the number of people unsubscribing from the list.

What other unsubscribe best practices do you think are important?

Lavon Temple | Marketing

Simple Preferences

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by Megan Glover

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!

Paperless Receipts at Old Navy

Friday, July 8, 2011 by Lavon Temple

For the Fourth of July weekend, I traveled up to East Lansing, MI to visit some friends.  They have a couple of great outdoor malls, so I splurged on the trip and went on a shopping spree.  One of the stores we browsed at was Old Navy, I didn't end up purchasing anything, but I observed as my friend checked out.

Nowadays, most stores will ask you if you want to sign up for their email programs. However, Old Navy took that a step further and when it was time for my friend to get their receipt after paying - they asked, "Would you like your receipt printed, emailed and printed, or just emailed to you?"

She opted to receive the printed version, but I was intrigued.  Upon returning home, I started searching on Google to see if this "paperless" concept had been happening for some time and I had just been severely out of the shopping loop. I mean - I had even worked in retail and hadn't heard of this yet.

Seems I started looking into it just in time, here's an article from the IndyStar talking about it.

What do you think of this?  Good idea or a gap in the opt-in process?

Lavon Temple | Marketing

The Gift of Unopened Gifts

Friday, July 1, 2011 by Guest Bloggers

It might seem kind of sad to have birthday presents that never get unwrapped. They pile up year after year in a closet and are totally ignored. That's what it is like to have a subscriber who never actually opens your marketing email.

Clearly, something is amiss. Maybe you have a bad address. Maybe your messages are being silently routed to spam. Maybe that person is too busy and deletes messages without reading them.

Non-openers should be taken off your main list. The main list database is for people who actually read your messages. Instead the non-responsive should be put into a special list of problem prospects. Either something went wrong during the process of getting these names or when they opted-in to your newsletter.

Good email marketing packages let you quickly and easily manage lists. But the most important step comes after you've built a pattern of routinely moving non-openers to their own list. You need to establish time in your schedule to figure out what went wrong. Can you pick up the phone and call the prospect? Can you determine which sales rep or online form produced the name? Can you check with your email service provider to see about deliverability issues?  These names in the "gray area" are perhaps the greatest possible customers. You know they want your stuff but haven't ever had the chance to get it!

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.

The Impact of Relevancy

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 by David Turpin

I recently received a notification from one of my User Groups on LinkedIn that another member wanted to know what should be "an acceptable rate of opt-outs".

Another group member provided the following statistic,  "Studies done in the past have consistently shown a ~30% per year churn rate (unsubscribes, bounces and complaints) which is 2-3% a month."

While this may be an acceptable industry statistic, I asked: why be happy with what is statistically acceptable?

I pointed out that if you are seeing a high opt-out rate, it would be best to look at things like segmentation, relevancy, frequency of emails, content and even subject lines. As we say all the time, you should really TEST to find out what email is going to get you the most engaged recipient. For instance, you can A/B test subject lines to see if that improves open rates. Or, test content blocks within the email to see what message resonates better with the audience. The combination of tests you can do to improve your campaigns are nearly limitless.

At Delivra, we help our customers build relevant email campaigns every day. If you can't keep your list healthy and growing, you are not going to be satisfied with your email marketing efforts.

David Turpin | Account Executive

Think Like A Recipient

Friday, April 29, 2011 by David Turpin

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

Sometimes it just takes a simple thank you...

Friday, April 22, 2011 by Lavon Temple

Feel like you are sending the same emails to your subscribers over and over again?  Sometimes you need to throw in various types of emails to change it up a bit and keep your subscribers engaged with your email marketing efforts.

An example is the thank you email.

Some of you may already be sending a version of the thank you email and don't need to worry about reading further. Some of you may already be thanking your subscriber for opting in when they receive their welcome email. Is this the only time we need to be thanking our subscriber though?

Particularly for online retailers, it may be appropriate to send a thank you email at another time. For example, after the subscriber hits the year mark of receiving your emails send a thank you email saying, "thanks for sticking with us for a year and here's a coupon for your loyalty!"

Your subscribers will probably feel appreciated to know that you view them as an asset and want to thank them - encouraging them to be a faithful subscriber for another year!

Remember, sometimes, a simple thank you can go a long way.

Lavon Temple | Marketing


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