Report as Spam

The top 5 reasons why email marketing recipients hit “spam” or “junk” button?  As an email marketer, have you wondered why you are seeing “spam” reports from the ISP’s?  Your subscribers perception of spam has changed, it’s not just “unsolicited commercial email”, but rather their “vote of no confidence” in your ability to deliver relevant emails.  Here are the Top 5 reasons:

1. I didn’t sign up to receive email from the sender
2. The email received was not of interest
3. I receive too much email from the sender
4. I receive too much email from all senders
5. I found the email offensive 

If your email program is subscriber-centric, you will have very little reason to wonder about your report as spam messages from the ISP’s.  There won’t be very many.

Email non-responders

I was recently asked to run an engagement report on behalf of one of our “agency” partners retail customers.  They were looking for the total number of subscribers who have received an email in the past 12 months, who have never opened the email.  They asked for a couple of reasons, one of which was to see how large the list is.  As a result of running the report, the list was approximately 500,000.  Yes, a half a million.  If they send to their whole list just once per month, that is a 6MM wasted emails.  6MM emails equates into a significant cost saving as well.

We suggested that they seperate these subscribers from their “master” list and put them into a re-engagement campaign to see if they could get them to respond.   I will keep you posted as to how successful their re-engagement campaign works.

B2C Email Rendering

How do you know what your email looks like in your recipient’s in-box?  The email might look great in your version of Outlook, which doesn’t guarantee that it looks good in other versions of Outlook, in Hotmail, Yahoo or on an iPhone.  Just how many email clients are we talking about? Fingerprint, generated a report that shows the breakdown between the 10 most popular email clients. For almost 3 million users, the breakdown for the top three email clients looks like this:

B2C

• 29% of recipients opened their email in Yahoo! Mail
• 27% used Outlook, with a nearly even split between Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003 and earlier
• 25% used Hotmail

B2B

• 36% of recipients opened their email in Outlook, with the vast majority using Outlook 2003 and earlier
• 33% used Hotmail
• 14% used Yahoo! Mail

So if you are sending B2C emails you should test how your email renders in Yahoo, Outlook and Hotmail.  This will help to get your emails the way you intended them to look.

Email Is Not all Spam

If you think that all commercial email is spam, then why do consumers continue to give their permission to marketers to communicate with them via-email.  Consumers across all ages and demographics prefer email for:

• Surveys and polls
• Promotion message (permission based)
• Account status updates
• Financial alerts
• Transactional messages and order confirmation

Remember that not all email that ends up in your spam folder is spam.

Email Tactics in Recession

You might be tempted to change your email marketing tactics and act out of desperation.  Here are a few ways to focus your campaigns during a downturn.

Now is not the time to cut your marketing efforts, no matter how gloomy the economic news is or how depressing the holiday-spending forecasts have turned. We all want quick results, so be smart in any changes to “what’s working”.  Remember your email list is one of your best assets, make it work for you.

• Do not be tempted to rent lists - A big No-no. – Need I say more?
• Get more from your house list – I’m not telling you to bombard your list with extra offers, hoping at least one will stick. Instead, look for opportunities like waking up your inactive subscribers. Depending on how you manage it, 25 percent to 85 percent of your list doesn’t open or act on your emails. You’ve already spent time and money on these addresses. So now’s the time to recoup a little of your investment.
• Don’t turn up the frequency
  This statement in a recent Associated Press story, headlined “E-tailers Push E-mail Discounts to Lure Shoppers,” made my hair stand on end: “Online retailers — grappling with a sharp drop in consumer spending from even their most best Web enthusiasts — are becoming pushier with emails that pitch the latest deals.”
• Tailor messages to reflect reality – The same old offers are not going to bring in the results you need this holiday season. Remember that your customers are probably going to see the same kinds of offers and promos from all of your competitors — Free shipping! Big discounts! Zero interest - so how do you stand out in the inbox.  Target your message to fit the recipient, not just a one-size-fits-all approach.

If you take care of your list and nurture the recipients on the list, you will weather the storm and have a good start of 2009 and the recovery.