Subscribers Rule?

I just attended the ExactTarget Reseller Partner Summit and their annual user conference (Connections 08) and was amazed at the energy level across the customer base.  One program, discussed a concept of Subscribers Rule, which focues on subscriber centric digital marketing practices.  They spelled out the philosophy that challanges one-to-one marketers to adhere to.  They include:

1. Serve the individual
2. Honor their unique preferences with regard to communication, content, frequency & channel
3. Deliver them relevant & timely content that actually improves their lives.

This a far cry from the batch and blast practices that other ESP’s advocate.  They have launched a website that discusses Subscribers Rule.  www.subscribersrule.com.  Take a peek, it is worth watching the video. 

Leveraging your CRM data

If you have MSCRM or Salesforce.com then you should be leveraging your investment in those SaaS applications.  Leveraging your data by integrating with your email marketing platform so that you can get the most from that investment.  Here are a few items to consider when looking to integrate your CRM to Email:

• Where is the database of record?  Is it in CRM or is their a duplicate record in the email solution? 
• How many current CRM customers have integrated with the email platform?  For example, 500+ between Salesforce.com and ExactTarget or less than 10 between MSCRM and SilverPop.
• What are your goals for integration?  Make it easier for sales and marketing to launch marketing emails without IT involvement.
• Overall satisfaction of the integrated customer.

There are many third party integrators and consulting firms that can assist with integration of your CRM to email.  One place to look is in the ExactTarget Partner Network, where they have hundreds of reseller and agency partners who have experience across all industries and platforms.

How Agencies Make Money with Email Marketing

I am often asked how do interactive or advertising agencies make money with email.  Here are three ways that the most successful agencies use to increase revenues, make client successful and increase their retention.

• Provide - This is where the agency provides full service for their clients.  This includes, creating the email, uploading and segmenting the lists, testing the offer or subject line, deploying the campaign and providing a sucess measurement to their clients. 
• Share – This is where the agency provides some value services such as creative and testing, but the client wants to maintain control of the lists and possibly hit the send button.
• Sell - In this mode, the agency just acts as a reseller of the email application and bills the client for the account and any messaging.  This is a do it yourself model where the agency is just reselling the program.

The most successful agencies are using a combination of all three and are focusing on their core business, which is creative and strategy.  Regardless of the program, their is a huge need for the services of agencies to fill in the gaps that some ESP’s are not providing.

Email Marketing Automation

The goal of most email marketers is to increase conversions while decreasing the amount of time it takes to deploy those messages that drive sales.  Email automation has enabled marketers to drive incremental sales.  What if you automatically could:

• Send transactional emails with cross sell offers to drive sales?
• Send daily birthday emails without ever hitting the send button?
• Send weekly “remarketing” emails to those shoppers who abandoned an ecommerce shopping cart?
• Deploy “alerts” to your customer base via SMS?

If you have an ecommerce site, you should be taking advantage of email automation to drive sales.

Email Delivery Rates

Have you asked yourself what is behind the meaning of your delivery rates?  Are the “delivered” emails really landing in my recipients inbox or are they delivered to the spam folder?

The reality of the situation is - Your sender reputation with your ISP really affects your delivery rate. Concentrate on it and you can improve your delivery.

• Obtain subscriber permission
• Authenticate your emails
• Perform regular list hygiene
• Minimize spam complaints through relevancy and frequency monitoring
• Monitor your sender reputation
• Remove hard bounces, unsubscribe requests and spam complaints immediately
• Eliminate coding errors
• Checking for and remove questionable content and design approaches (e.g., single large images) that may get your messages blocked or filtered.