Happier Holidays Begin Now

By Margaret Farmakis
Senior Director, Response Consulting

It's that time of year again. If you're an email marketer, you're probably not thinking about hosting a back yard BBQ or staking out a spot on your favorite beach. Your head (and your company's bottom line) is much more focused on what's going to be in Santa's sleigh this year and how you can use email to ensure that your customers will be decking their halls with your products this holiday season.

Most email marketers plan their holiday strategy in the summer, and this year is no different. However, this year does bring with it a greater set of challenges. The current economic climate is stagnant at best. While the financial pundits predict signs of an upturn any day now, that hasn't translated to consumer spending. Purse strings are tight and marketers are going to have to work harder than ever this year to stand out from the rest of the holiday inbox clutter, resonate with their customers and provide relevant messaging that encourages brand loyalty and purchasing activity.

So what can a forward-thinking marketer do? The first step is to ...

Categories: Response

Need More Email Revenue? Check Out These Ideas

By Margaret Farmakis
Senior Director, Response Consulting

I had the chance to speak at the DMA UK's Digital Planning Conference, "Exploding the Digital Myth" last week. The conference agenda was focused on helping marketers integrate the various digital technologies available to them to target consumers with the right offers at the right time and in the right medium. The second-half of this two-day conference will be held this Thursday in London. Click here for registration details.

On the agenda with me were six other speakers, all experts in the digital space with deep experience in producing successful digital marketing campaigns. I was particularly interested by what Mark Brill, CEO of txt4ever and Chair of the DMA's Mobile Council had to say about mobile marketing. He pointed out that mobile is an extremely versatile digital medium with the capacity to strengthen CRM, retention and brand loyalty initiatives by handling customer service issues, while also focusing on customer acquisition through targeted marketing messages, as well as aiding in commerce through the management of e-transactions. It's no surprise that mobile is so successful, especially with statistics like these ...

Categories: Response

Another Successful MAAWG

By J.D. Falk
Director of Product Strategy, Receiver Services

Over the past five years, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) meetings have brought together many of the world's experts in email spam, botnets, cybercrime, and related issues. Last week, 270 participants from more than 19 countries met in Amsterdam, in The Netherlands.

Like nearly all computer security conferences, there's a strict policy that information shared within MAAWG is confidential -- so, unlike most marketing conferences, you won't see anyone twittering or blogging the highlights. (We got permission to post this.) A few participants reported on Facebook that there was a fascinating session about "[REDACTED]" (sic), but no other details have been made available. This difference in style shouldn't be surprising to anyone who has spent time with ...

Categories: Email Deliverability

Delivered May Not Mean To the Inbox

By Stephanie Miller
VP, Global Market Development

It's no surprise that email marketers are often confused about the difference between a bounce rate and an inbox deliverability rate. Most email broadcast systems in the U.S. and Europe report something called "delivered." It's usually a pretty high number - like 98% or 93%. And your ESP would like you to judge them on that number, because it's really high, and it's easy for them to be confident that it will stay high.

The problem is that most vendors define "delivered" as the inverse of your bounce rate - the number of records on your file that either no longer exist (a hard bounce) or are having temporary delivery failure (a soft bounce), perhaps due to an out of office reply or a full mailbox or some glitch in the ISP server.

Most marketers who keep their lists clean and have good permission practices have a bounce rate of 1%-5%. Even if you outsource your bounce handling to your ESP, you are still responsible for how they manage the removal of names - so be sure you understand what they are doing on your behalf. Your bounce rate is a good number to have included in your reports. It tells you something about your list hygiene. But it tells you nothing about what happens to your emails. ...

Categories: Email Deliverability