Archive for the ‘eMail marketing’ Category

The benefits of email newsletters

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

I have just spent some time trawling the net looking for some statistics on the benefits of an email newsletter. To my suprise I haven’t found anything to report back on.

“Hang on.” do I hear you say, “There are tons of stats out there.”

Yes indeed there are, but none are specific on the benefits of just a newsletter. No sales, no offers just a business talking about what they have been up to. This might be that some of the largest email senders are retailers. Hardly suprising as there are stats that offer figures like $50+ per dollar spent (sorry for the dollars). Impressive figures.

But what about the humble enewsletter? I have worked with a company who, on launching their site, sent out a newsletter talking about the site launch and the what they had been up to. The response was 2 enquiries from a cold (first email) list of 400. The numbers are low, but then they aren’t in retail.

I will shortly be launching a round of newsletters from my own business and will be looking to report back on the response. I will continue to look round to find the stats but there are the obvious benefits:

1. Keeps the customer up to date with your industry developments, this can be useful as it proves that you are adding value to your services, which they can benefit from.
2. Keeps them informed of what you are doing in the market.
3. Reminds them that you are there. Which in todays market is vital.

The other point is that some businesses don’t suit a sales letter, as the customer base probably wouldn’t accept it. Some work with a fine wine company revealed that their customers expect the personalised phone service that the business has been built on, to switch to a swarm of marketing emails would downgrade the brand.

Let me know if you have any feedback on the newsletters.

Posted in e-business, eBusiness, eMail marketing, marketing, online strategy | No Comments »

What’s the best time to send an email?

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

In a previous post I mentioned that you shouldn’t believe what you read about Tuesday’s being the best day to send a mail. I have been looking at some recent email stats from emaillabs and Tuesday’s is the most popular day to send an email with 25.4% being sent on Tuesdays, yet Wednesday is the most popular day for people opening the emails. This is confirmed by stats from the EmailStatsCenter.com.

But, just to prove my point I then found the following information from emailcenter that says Thursday is the most popular day. Their view is that this is the best day for consumers as they are just starting to think about the weekend.

Adding my own comments to this I would say that the most popular days are probably best avoided and your email could be lost in the sea of emails that arrive in peoples in boxes. Further to this as most people are already doing it is best to avoid early Monday as all people do on a Monday morning is delete the emails they don’t want to deal with. Ultimately, the only way to tell the best time is to either ask your customers or keep trying until you find the best time. You might find that this becomes one way that you choose to segment your customer base.

Posted in communication, eBusiness, eMail marketing | No Comments »

eMail subject line

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

I have seen some interesting result from a recent email marketing campaign that I thought may be of interest. Interesting but in reality not that surprising really.

The email was for a summer sale for a maternity company that I work with. The email subject line was set as “Re: Summer sale 50% off all clothing”. On the face of it this appears to be a fantastic offer, but when reviewed against a previous email it inspired just slightly fewer people to open it (percentage wise).

Two previous emails produced better results using keywords in the title, in the cases in question “Maternity” and “Baby”.

Relevancy is a key theme that plays a role here. We are bombarded with sale headlines from the hundreds of companies in our emails all the time. People are now switching off to a general sale and not surprisingly. Generally when I go to a sale it is all the rubbish that the store couldn’t shift. Chocolate fondue sets was one mentioned by a top retailer recently.

Sadly the company in question doesn’t have accurate data on which users have viewed particular items, we are therefore unable to tailor the emails to individuals. We can however use Google Analytics to show us what the majority of people are looking at but not buying. We can then use that for the basis of the next email, being sure to take out the customers on the email list that have purchased the product recently.

Future emails might therefore read Re: 50% in our summer sale.

I would obviously welcome your thoughts on this.

Posted in Google Analytics, eBusiness, eMail marketing | No Comments »

eMail Marketing

Friday, May 16th, 2008

My recent experience of this with one of our partner companies has shown that as well as customising the offering in the email to segments of your customer base, you also need to be playing with other aspects of the mail to see what works. Don’t expect instant success either building familiarity with customers takes time.

Here are a few examples

  • Alter the subject of the email to find what works best, different calls to action work for different customers. Consider using product names in the subject line as these can be of more interest than another sale.
  • Typically the email offers similar links into a site as might be seen on site menu system, however with limited space this cannot be identical. Therefore make sure the menus maximise the opportunity for that segment, if you are promoting jeans in the email replace the jeans link with another sales opportunity.
  • The best time for sending an email campaign needs to be established over time. Don’t believe what you read on the web that Tuesday’s are the best or Wednesday’s or … if you look hard enough you will find every time is best.

Posted in customer segmentation, eMail marketing, marketing | No Comments »