Email now has its own competitive tracking service, now that Emerging Interest launched its 2.0 version of Competitive Email Tracking Service (CETS). The service seeds thousands of email lists to determine what companies are advertising where – and interestingly, which lists are abusing its addresses. Marketers can look up what their competitives are sending and to whom. The searchable database allows subscribers to review marketing efforts by brand, category or even words used in the creative.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:44 PM  |  Permalink

Can the right vendor optimize your e-mail marketing? Maybe, maybe not. But the wrong one can definitely wreak havoc with results. I regularly get e-mail from readers asking me to recommend broadcast e-mail solutions. Some are unhappy with their current provider; others are new to the channel and looking to enter the arena for the first time.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:41 PM  |  Permalink

I don't care how it happens, who provides it, or even how much it costs. If a third-party e-mail accreditation service can solve the false-positive problem, sign me up.

Notice I didn't say "help mitigate" the false-positive problem. I said "solve." We should be asking if any provider can truly make this claim, and is anything less than a real solution worth subscribing to?

The problem is more nuisance today than the "keeping me up at night" dilemma it was a year ago. Now e-mailers are more educated and have better tools to help them know exactly when, how, and where their e-mail is delivered. More important, every major e-mail service provider (ESP) and mass e-mailer has a person like me on staff to oversee deliverability issues and maintain regular contact with the right people to help resolve issues and set matters straight.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:40 PM  |  Permalink

Loads of you have contacted us in the past week to ask, "How will Microsoft's agreement with IronPort's Bonded Sender program affect my email delivery?"

Here's the answer -- turns out your mail will still get through to Hotmail users if you've taken standard anti-filter measures. It's just that Bonded Sender's mail will get through more easily.

Find out more details, including costs of using the IronPort program, and alternatives you might also consider:
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 3:12 PM  |  Permalink

During my speech on "5 Biggest Challenges for Online Sub Marketers" at our Summit in NYC last week, I told everyone to worry about Google's Gmail.

Why?

Because Google is going to insert paid third-party ads into incoming mail for users. Which makes sense -- it pays the bills for that hefty one gig of mailbox-space Google will offer to lure users from Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.

If you're a marketer or publisher sending mail, this means Google's going to stick ads on the campaigns and newsletters you send. It may distract from your message, and certainly could hurt your click rates because more options spit clicks.

Plus -- this is the scary part -- an ad from your direct competitor could be displayed INSIDE your email to your list.

Google probably won't allow marketers to target email ads by sender or recipient, but they probably will allow ad buyers to target by keyword/key term. And, no, they're not protecting trademark now for search ads, so there's no reason to assume they'll protect it in email.

To sum up: your competitors may be able to put ads inside of all emailed messages Gmail users get that contain your company or brand name.

Our EmailSherpa Editor Janet Roberts called me today with a tiny bit of silver lining to help emailers cope with the Gmail.

Turns out that other email services - including Yahoo and Terra Lycos - are starting to take a competitive stance against Google's incursion by making their mailbox sizes bigger too. This is a complete reversal of the trend of the past two years with boxes becoming so tiny that loads of email bounced.

So, your bounce rates to live active accounts will probably be lower, especially over holiday and vacation times when folks don't clean out boxes as often.

Of course, your message or offer has to be ultra-compelling to make it past fast-delete when they get back to their computers. But, you already knew that.

Useful link -- Janet is working on getting a screenshot of what an incoming message looks like in Gmail for you. She asked me to note that since Gmail is in beta, the format may change considerably when Google actually rolls it out. Anyway, she'll post the link at this URL by 5pm ET today:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/images/gmail.jpg Posted by: DTB at 3:11 PM  |  Permalink

Wondering what kind of response rates companies in your industry are getting with e-mail marketing? CTRs grew by 96% for the media industry in the US last quarter, reports Bigfoot Interactive, reaching exactly 26%.

According to new analysis by Bigfoot Interactive, click-through rates (CTRs) for permission based e-mails maintained or bettered their levels from the fourth quarter of 2003, including CTRs for the media sector, which increased by 96% from last quarter to reach 4.9%.

Overall, most segments did well. Retail, financial services and media campaigns achieved 14%, 3% and 2% gains in delivery rates, respectively, with media campaigns managing a delivery rate of 93.3%, and financial services coming in at 92.4%. In terms of CTRs, the automotive sector boasted the best rate from promotional e-mails, followed by the retail and media sectors.

Financial services e-mail campaigns alerting customers to online services in particular had CTRs increase from 17.6% to 22.1%, a 21% rise quarter-to-quarter. Bigfoot attributed this increase to consumer interest in year-end statement alerts from credit card companies and banks, along with a generally increasing interest by the public in banking online. eMarketer estimates that over 32 million US households will be banking online by the end of 2004.

These findings are good news for e-mail marketers, especially considering continued challenges from spam and associated laws.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:08 PM  |  Permalink

I recently spoke about e-mail marketing case studies in the food marketing industry at a conference in Orlando, FL. The audience was split between those who had no e-mail marketing experience and those with a little to a great deal. Of the three case studies I presented, the most useful and best received covered creating a successful e-newsletter. People without experience didn't know where to start, and those with experience were looking for ways to improve their own e-mail newsletters.

So I anticipate most regular readers will find today's case study useful, no matter which industry you're in.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:13 PM  |  Permalink

For over a year, e-mail deliverability has been top of mind for e-mail marketers. It will remain a concern for some time.

Though the attention devoted to deliverability issues is well founded, certain challenges may have been overstated by ill-informed marketers and the media. As a result of corporate and ISP filters, blacklists, and constant e-mail address flux, permission-based marketers face daunting obstacles in their attempt to deliver solicited, confirmed-consent messages to the inboxes of customers and subscribers with whom they've established relationships.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:06 PM  |  Permalink

"Urgent Assistance Requested." "Need Cash?" "Confidential." "From an admirer." "Our Little Secret." "Information you requested."

E-mail subject lines like those once would have gotten instant attention from the recipient.

But in this spam-plagued era, most of the 100 million people in the United States who use electronic mail would probably trash such a message unread. Any message that even hints of spam, or junk e-mail, gets deleted.

It's no longer enough for an e-mail message to be legitimate. The message also must look legitimate in the split-second that a recipient might spend in making that key decision: Read it or delete it?

Subject lines are becoming a critical factor in getting e-mail messages through - even to people you e-mail with on a regular basis.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:45 PM  |  Permalink

E-mailers love being whitelisted by ISPs. A whitelist is an ISP-sanctioned list of mass e-mailer IP addresses. An ISP allows messages sent from these addresses to pass through their systems (theoretically). A whitelist is a badge of honor to e-mailers, testifying to their legitimacy. It means their e-mail is delivered to recipients. Yet that badge may be plastic, not gold.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:46 PM  |  Permalink

Schick decided to use a viral marketing video spot to get the message out to hairy Canadians that the company has a new, four-bladed razor. An oddly effete animated shock jock(perhaps he's just overly shaved) stands in front of a menu of eight spots, each released serially in hopes of inspiring repeated visits. The press release brags that 16,000 spots have been viewed, which means Schick's marketing department viewed the spots, and perhaps their friends. Don't expect digital personality "Pistol Pete Madigan" to suddenly take off to Subservient Chicken or Ford Sportka proportions. The re-heated lame standup comedy routines packaged as "shock jock" fair aren't worth the download time.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:41 PM  |  Permalink

What's a mother for?
Former First Lady Barbara Bush used Mother's Day weekend to send out an E-mail to 1 million potential donors yesterday to drum up cash for her son's reelection campaign.

"With Mother's Day coming up this weekend, I've been thinking about how proud I am of our children," Mrs. Bush wrote.

"And it's with a mother's pride that I'm writing you today to ask you to support our eldest, George W., and his re-election campaign with a donation of $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50."

Barbara Bush is among several members of the Bush family raising money for the campaign.

Others who are fund-raising include First Lady Laura Bush, former President George H.W. Bush and brother Jeb Bush, the Florida governor.

Posted by: DTB at 8:26 PM  |  Permalink

Last year it used to pass as news whenever one month proved to see more spam than the previous one, but Internet publications are barely covering the fact that people are finding spam less annoying this year. SpammingBureau.com polled 2033 Internet users to find that time spent dealing with spam decreased for two thirds of them in 2004.

Interestingly, almost the same proportion said that they do not distinguish between legitimate marketing emails and the sort of spam that comes with fake headers, randomized subject lines and fraudulent offers. To those questions, all were spam. Recent studies using logs from spam filters have found spam growth to have tapered, although at an extremely high level.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:36 PM  |  Permalink

As part of the new "Impossible is Nothing" Adidas campaign, a television spot was created that pits Muhammad Ali against his daughter Laila. The spot was then placed online for viewership on Yahoo and MSN's homepages for a day each and on ESPN's home page for two days. Those placements, along with other ESPN inside pages for two weeks, generated 5 million views of the spot. Additionally, it boosted brand association by 75 percent and ad recall by 24 percent, according to research firm Dynamic Logic. There was also a 125 percent increase in the usage of the search term "Adidas" on Yahoo the day the ad was placed, with most of that increase coming in the 13 to 17-year-old demo.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:47 PM  |  Permalink

Recent columns have touted e-mail database segmenting for several reasons, chief among them improving CPM and reducing unsubscribes. We've discussed the need for a chief slice-and-dice officer to head up database segmenting and enhancement activities.

Probably the most worthwhile undertaking is developing an e-mail preference center (EPC). An EPC provides the ability to identify people on a granular level: avid Stephen King fans; people who can't wait to get their hands on Usher's next album; and people who want to know everything about keeping their lawns green.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:44 PM  |  Permalink

While many marketers still grapple with the text-versus-HTML e-mail question, others have moved on... to video e-mail.

No, this isn't the usual embedded e-mail link that brings you to a video. Instead, when you click on the subject line, the video begins immediately. With AviMail technology, audio and video are compressed into an e-mail that can play on any browser at any speed.

Take a look at this one, created by HMI for The Inverness Hotel and Conference Center in Denver.

This e-mail was sent as the final piece in a campaign targeted at group meeting planners. List members were qualified meeting professionals who had interacted in the past with Inverness or had expressed interest in holding a meeting in Denver.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:44 PM  |  Permalink

Those of us who consult with businesses focus a great deal of time on improving customer experiences. In the Internet's early days, it was common to find poorly constructed Web sites. Frequent errors included broken images, click paths to black holes, and dysfunctional transactional engines that left customers wondering whether they had completed a purchase.

This was described as poor customer experience. Though the owners of these Web sites paid millions in construction costs, visitors found the sites lacking. Yet many consumers were evangelical in their pursuit of Internet commerce. Many continued to muddle through a landscape of poorly designed user experiences to find brands that "got it," brands that knew how to treat a customer properly.

Many enlightened brands had heavy experience in direct marketing. They knew a little about providing TLC -- tender loving care. They understood the more comfortable their customers felt in the environment, the greater the likelihood of purchase on subsequent visits. Personalization, wizard technology, value-add services, product/service suggestions, online help, and 24-hour access all contributed to reinforcing the message that the merchant wanted to make the experience enjoyable to customers.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:42 PM  |  Permalink

Anti-spam software and hardware maker IronPort won a major victory for its whitelist service with the announcement Wednesday that Microsoft (Quote, Chart) was joining its ranks.

Scott Weiss, CEO of the San Bruno, Calif.-based company, said he's been in constant contact with two other major U.S. email providers -- AOL (Quote, Chart) and Yahoo! (Quote, Chart) -- and expects to make big announcements in the "ensuing weeks" now that the company behind MSN and Hotmail is on board.

"I can't even begin to tell you the number of fire-rings we had to jump through for Microsoft, to go live and in production," Weiss told internetnews.com. "Literally, they have put us through so many paces, I think the other ISPs can now feel comfortable that a big guy has smacked us around enough that we are going to be an obedient provider of this service and be Johnny-on-the-spot if there are any problems or issues," he said.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:41 PM  |  Permalink

The term “viral marketing” refers to a promotion through which a company gives its customers an incentive to pass a marketing message on to other individuals or to encourage others to make a purchase or take a particular action. It’s easy to see why marketers love it. Successful viral marketing lets a company enlist its customers to act as its salespeople and can offer benefits such as reduced marketing costs and implied endorsements from current customers.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:39 PM  |  Permalink

We marketers talk a lot about using e-mail marketing to inform our customers and build community. As with many goals, it can be easier to talk than act. We sometimes get bogged down and don't know where to start. This case study may be able to provide you with some inspiration.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:12 PM  |  Permalink

Mass e-mailer OptInRealBig.com has filed suit against anti-spam service SpamCop and its parent, IronPort Systems. The suit alleges SpamCop interfered with OptInRealBig's contracts and business relationships, defamed the company and damaged its potential future earnings.

OptInRealBig is asking the court for a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction blocking SpamCop from making slanderous or libelous statements about it, and a minimum of $150,000 in damages.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:10 PM  |  Permalink

The US Department of Justice has filed a criminal complaint against four Detroit-area men under the federal Can-Spam Act, in the first case sparked by the legislation.

In a filing on Wednesday in the US District Court of Michigan, federal attorneys contend that Daniel J. Lin, James J. Lin, Mark M. Sadek and Christopher Chung violated the terms of the Can-Spam Act by creating massive email campaigns that marketed fraudulent weight-loss products. The Can-Spam Act takes aim at individuals who create and dispense unsolicited and fraudulent email.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:07 PM  |  Permalink