The Email Wars

What consumers ask for via email is not necessarily what they get from marketers, according to an email marketing survey from integrated email agency Quris, reports DM News. Though 77 percent of consumers want to receive “unscheduled offers” from marketers, only 8 percent say they get them; also, 75 percent of consumers sign up for scheduled discount alerts and circulars, but only 19 percent find them worth reading; and although 69 percent want email product catalogs, regular updates on products and sales specials, 81 percent say that’s not what they receive.

However, some 66 percent say purchase, shipping and transaction confirmation messages are what permission email does best. Also, 48 percent say permission email is best for providing electronic statements or other account information, and 43 percent say email is best for promoting special discounts and other limited-time offers. Also, 51 percent of respondents are open to receiving relevant marketing messages within those service emails.

Some 77 percent say email is the best medium for transaction confirmations, 60 percent say it is best for customer service inquiries, 52 percent say newsletters should be sent by email, and 50 percent say electronic coupons should be available via email.

So you have opted in, great, but where do you go next? The best companies drive you to a thank you page that is specific to the action you just took. The time to drive someone to a page that says “Thanks” to me means alot. It lets them know that the action was completed, what to do next, you heard them, and the opportunity for an upsell or cross sell.

Do not mock the importance of saying thank you to anyone that opts in to a list you manage. It helps to close the thought process.

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This is a question that come up often. It really depends to me as to what you are getting in relation to the information you provide. This form seemed to me a little much. but this site needs demographic information in order for you to be a trendspotter. So age, Zip etc are something that you must give in order to get. What I do like about it though is that they have some great “WHY TO SUBSCRIBE” teasers on the left hand side of the opt in form. They also do not use a double opt in, but they do use a confirmed opt in by adding an additional box at the bottom that makes you take a second action.

No matter the form, make sure that you are collecting the following:

Date or opt in
IP Address of opt in Stamp
Web page of opt in
And either a double opt in trigger or a confirmed opt in email that let’s them know what they just did and how to get off the list if they want to in the future.

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One of our clients recently updated their website. After going live, they sent out an email inviting the people on the list to take a look and provide them with thoughts and feedback. This is taking the highroad of engaging the customer as part of the overall experience.

Think about saying thanks. There was not a need to give a free drink to those that took a look and provided feedback, but it really illustrates the way to create a delighted customer.

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So this email was flagged as spam but they were smart enough to be using good image ALT tags to tell me exactly what the image was that was suppressed. Something you should do as spam filters change all the time and depending on your email client, might be set at the default setting.

Make sure that you are tagging your images with ALT tags that tell what should be shown. It will help lift your open rates and drive someone to display the images in thier email client.

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From some recent emails I found that the simplier the better during the holiday season. I mean there were soooo many emails flodding my inboxes and did I really know what I needed. Better yet, did they? Not many retailers sent emails that were dynamic data driven over the holidays, that I got. So this one wins my award of keeping it simple. Just let me know it is time to browse and drive me in for the sale.

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I know that I am this user below. I have 3 main email addresses I use (MSN, Gmail and work). all for different uses and reasons. So how often do you check your multiple email addresses and when? I know that some days I do not get to my MSN and Gmail until the evening and at time a few days might go by without checking them. Think about this with your own clients, customers and prospects in regards to how long one of your campaigns might last. If you can segment your reciepents by ISP email, do so as you might see some interesting results.

DoubleClick Email Solutions released the results of its sixth annual Consumer Email Study, which found email has become an integral part of the consumer lifestyle.

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With the 2005 Holidays behind us, we need to look at how the customer thought of email. I know that in my honeypots, I gathered over 600 emails from retailers I subscribe and shop at from November 15th to Dec 31st. Did I buy? Sometimes. Did some retailers send too many? Yes in some cases? Did I unsubscribe from any? Of course not, this is what I love to see.

One thing you might think about is your Customer Lifecyle Value chart of your own lists and take an opportunity in January 2006 to ask these people what they thought. You might be surprised.

According to a recent survey by EmailLabs, almost 70% of B2B e-mail newsletter subscribers have a preview pane in their e-mail program and always or frequently use it, making it crucial that publishers and marketers consider how their mailing looks when previewed.

Surveying almost 500 subscribers to its Intevation Report in September 2005, EmailLabs found that about 50% use the preview pane as intended, reading a few lines to determine whether they want to open the e-mail, while one-third read the entire message in the “preview” pane. About 15% take a middle road and read as much as they can in the preview pane without having to scroll down.

With these stats in mind, it is clear that offering enticing content within the first lines will attract the greatest number of readers.

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I was amazed that as an owner of a Benz, and that I get nice emails from them each month that this would be flagged as junk. Not only was it flagged as junk, but it also came from an email address that was not @mbusa.com. Isn’t that a clue? Send email from your own domain not that of another.

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