Statistics Reinforce E-mails Role
6 Nov 2002
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 This issue we change format a little to keep things looking fresh. We hope you like it and welcome any feedback you might have.
I have been researching a good deal of stats lately to get a bigger picture of the future direction of e-mail marketing. It comes as little surprise that the future is clear. E-mail marketing is set to become the standard. More companies are dedicating larger proportions of marketing budgets and more resources to e-mail each year. The low cost, high speed, high response rate and high flexibility of e-mail marketing make it a marketers dream medium. Of course it comes with a warning – use it wisely or lose it.
To help you cope with the rigours of e-mail marketing and e-nurturing strategies, our team have been hard at work on creating the next generation of the GetSmartSuite application. The new release features increased reporting, filtering, HTML editing in a more WISIWIG style, multiple edition compilation and scheduling.
For those using the current version there will be free upgrades as part of the service. You will be contacted shortly.
Happy reading.
Paul Hodgson
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Tracking Your e-Mail Success
What metrics should you measure and why?
One of the key advantages of e-mail marketing is the ability to measure the success of your campaigns. Tracking open rates, click-throughs and deliverables quickly gives you live feedback from your messages that no other medium can deliver. It is this degree of measurability that professional marketers find irresistible.
What are the professionals measuring?
The graph above shows the most commonly tracked data along with data that marketers would like to be tracking. Most are tracking click-throughs without difficulty, with pass along rates being highly desirable, as the success of viral marketing campaigns requires accurate measurement for analysis.
So what should you be tracking and what do these reports mean to your overall marketing strategy?
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How much e-mail is too much - the frequency question
Determining how much and how often you send your e- bulletins can be an art form. Use this guide to get the best mix for optimum performance
by: Paul Hodgson
Marketers and CRM managers are switching on to the growing preference for less frequent mail outs and at last publishers are paying more attention to quality over quantity. This is due largely to the increase in the volumes of commercial e-mails each person has to deal with on a daily basis. And as more companies turn to e-mail as their primary communication medium, a focus on getting the right mix of frequency and quality has become vital for survival.
Most subscribers are preferring less frequent deliveries from their e-publishers. The above graph shows how respondants to a recent e-mail marketing survey suggested that marketers could improve their messages. This recent Quris survey noted that 42% of respondants agreed that less frequent messages would improve the relationship. What is the optimum? Weekly and monthly deliveries are most preferred by Internet users according to Forrester Research, with a marked decline in the requests for daily delivery – down to 9% from 12% last year.
So how do you determine the frequency of your organisation's communication? Start by classifying the type of information you are sending and determine how often is best for the subscriber. Keep their preferences in mind at all times. You are in their mail box as a guest, so be considerate - the welcome mat can be withdrawn in an instant.
Time sensitive, event triggered mail
Up to date stock market summaries, breaking news or political commentaries may require a daily update, but if your news bulletins are less time restricted, a weekly or monthly update may be more appropriate. Event triggered mail such as daily breaking news updates should be very up to the minute.
As a rule, the more frequent your communication, the shorter the message should be. If your messages are weekly, or more frequent, keep them as brief as possible and offer a link to more detailed information.
Periodicals
Regular customer retention/education bulletins are best kept to weekly or monthly, depending on the volume of information. Again, keeping it short is the key. If your newsletter is monthly and very long, consider increasing the frequency and reducing the content. Use your click-through reports to determine the popularity of articles. This may help you in reducing the volume and increasing the quality and relevance of the bulletins.
Promotions and Offers
Here you need to strike a fine balance between being so infrequent that the subscriber doesn’t remember signing up, or so frequent you become a nuisance. Promotions tied to newsletter content or event related promotions can afford to be more regular. Discount offers usually have a seasonal appeal and may be sequenced in waves according to the season – end of year, mid year sales, winter specials, etc. Give the subscriber the option to change frequency at their leisure.
It is vital to remember that it isn’t size or frequency that determines the success of your communication - it is relevance. Recent Forrester research notes that almost 59% of the most frequent complaints about opt-in mail were that nothing of value was being sent.
Getting it right is vital, as more companies are discovering. The last few years have seen a dramatic growth in the type of customer retention focused e-mails. Internet users (more than 58% of them) are finding out about new products and services via opt-in e-mail compared with traditional media magazines at 3% (Double Click 2001). So all efforts need to be employed to maintain the relationship. And the surest way to spoil that is through poor communication. Make it good and your potential will grow beyond belief.
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Getting Personal Produces Dramatic Results
How increased personalisation is impacting on open rates
We all appreciate messages that mean something to us. Therefore we are more likely to click on the message if it contains information that we can identify with. To me it shows that the sender values me enough to know about me and send information of direct interest. ( its all about me )
Does it really work?
A recent analysis of 9 million opt-in e-mails showed that click-through rates increased in direct proportion to the level of personalisation.
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Leading Real Estate Agent attributes sales directly to e-newsletter
Ray White Surfers Paradise hails e-newsletter strategy a resounding success
by: Paul Hodgson
What makes a great Real Estate agency? In short - sales and great service. Andrew Bell, CEO of Ray White Surfers, has hailed their e-newsletter strategy as a great boost to both.
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